Pardon me for being amused.

I don't know who told you "if you build it, they will come"... they won't.

You are going to have to do a lot more than just online marketing if you want people buying from your site.

I also am not sure that using Cafe-Press as your shopping cart is a great idea. I will add that I'm not sure it's a bad idea either, it just seems to me that if you're going to sell this many designs, you should have your own website, even if Cafe-Press is your printer.

That said...

I have been marketing my products for nearly five years in person, at shows, I see hundreds of thousands of people every year show them my products, they taste them, they buy them, we have had six-figure revenues for four years running, but my website only gets a few thousand hits a month, and the vast majority of the sales there, we make to returning customers. I say this not because I am a horrible net marketer, because some of my sales come because I have net marketed, but by far, the majority of them come from people we specifically sent to the website to order.

What you need to remember is that websites don't really sell stuff... People buy it. And unfortunately, your Cafe-Press link doesn't do anything to tell me about you, your products or your designs... And that is why I think it is key that you get off Cafe-Press and onto your own site... I believe you can still receive the orders in Cafe-Press and have them drop-shipped, but, for me, part of what is holding you back is the fact that this isn't your website... it's Cafe-Press' website. It is not expensive to have your own site, and it is not unthinkable to start with a free one, but it should be your own.

Good luck with it, some of your designs are quite catchy.

T



Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!