Print-on-Demand or POD services can give you another income stream

Make money at home with PODs

I've mentioned different ways people make money online, but here is one that I have only mentioned in passing. Print-on-Demand services, or POD are relatively new to the internet and have been getting better and better.

Why you should use a Print-on-Demand Service

Lets say that you are creative and you write books, paint, draw, take photographs, etc. That's great. You probably have CDs full of your photos and sketch books full of drawings, right? Probably only your closest friends have seen any of your work. Why not share it with the world and make some money so you can by more paint, paper, computer memory, a better digital camera, etc.?

Perhaps the money isn't important to you, but I bet you could use the money to buy better supplies or pay your internet or web hosting bill.

With these systems you upload images or text, make your products, set markups, and then you just get the word out while the sales slowly trickle in. You don't have to worry after that.

The process

1. You should first compare the pods for the features and the type of printing that you're looking for art, text, gifts, etc.


2. Once you have selected your first POD, create an account. If your funds are limited go with a free account.


3. Create a shop or store. Typically the name of the store is the same as your user name (if your username isn't your e-mail address)


4. Configure your store's title, your photo, your profile or shop info, etc.


5. Configure your shop or store's colors and log. Not all PODs allow this, so do what you can.


6. Upload your images. Upload only images or text. Only upload what you plan to use. You can always upload more files later.


7. Create categories and subcategories for your products. No one wants to scroll through hundreds of mixed up products.


8. Create products using your images or text (depending on POD) and add titles, descriptions, and keywords.


9. Set prices and price markups for your products and shops if you haven't already in the shop preferences.


10. Check your payment preferences and address, If this information isn't correct, you might not get paid!


11. Get the word out! Promote your shop, store, or products sold on the POD via your website, blog, by word-of-mouth, etc.


12. Cash your checks, buy more supplies and then go back to step 8.

The benefits of using a Print-on-Demand Service

There are many benefits to working with a POD. Here are a few:

• You don't have to bill any customers


• You don't have to worry about shipping


• You don't have to worry about printing


• You don't have to worry about product returns


• You don't have to worry about Customer Service


• You don't have to worry about the web server or hosting for your shop

The disadvantages of using a POD

• You lack some creative control over your products since you are limited to what they offer.


• You have to play by the POD's rules


• You have to wait between 30 and 45 days to get paid


• You can't host the shop on your own website.


• If the POD shuts down, you'll have to set up everything on another.


• Your POD shop customization will not be as good as you could do on your own web server.


• You'll typically have header or footer links to the POD's home page which are potential sales leaks.

Here are some PODs that I have tested:

Fine art prints and framed art

• Imagekind - See example store/gallery


• RedBubble - See example store/gallery Note: Not as high in Quality as Imagkind.

Image gifts and collectibles

• Cafe Press - See example store - not recommended for wall art


• Printfection - See example store - ´plenty of Shirts


• Zazzle - See example store - Plenty of products to choose from
  

When selecting a POD consider the following:

• Payment options. If you don't live in the United States, it is great if they offer PayPal or you'll be waiting weeks to get your check.


• Store and Gallery design and optimization. Can you add categories, unlimited products, change site design and colors?


• Product offering. Do they offer the products that you want to sell?


• Product base prices and markup options


• Search Engine Optimization - especially if you are not planning to market your products.


• Account fees. Compare base prices to fees. Sometimes a free POD charges a higher base price to cover the costs.


• Product Quality. Check each POD's forum and see what people say about product quality.


• Shipping costs

Conclusion

Above all you should be realistic. Whether you use a POD or not, it takes effort. Don't expect to get rich on a site that you only work on a few hours a week. Expect to get out of it, what you put in. Just like any business it takes time to get recognized. If you like being creative then this might not feel much like work at all. It could be a good opportunity to get a second income since you can do it on the weekend or in the evening after your normal full-time job. Do you use a POD other than one I mentioned here? Please tell me about it by e-mail or in this post's comments. Good luck!

Zilo is another e-store hosted on their servers

Zilo an affiliate shopping site

Zilo is similiar to Amazon.com's Astore. Both of them are hosted on the merchants' servers and both let you make minor changes to the appearance, and both give you a commission on sales.

Adding products

Zilo is different too. Instead of letting you select a category, you have to search for and add products to your store. This obviously makes store creation much more difficult since every product must be individually selected. You can link your Zilo shop to your website and there seem to be a a plugins out there to test.

Once you set up your account and store layout, you can add products. If you don't want to search by a product's name, you can search by category. Once you get a level or two down in a category, you'll see a list of items. You can click on 'express add' to add it to your site.

When you click on 'express add', you get a pop-up that allows you the following options:

• Describe the product


• Tag the product


• Review the product


• Category


• Featured product (check box)


• Favorite Product (check box)


• I have it (check box)


• Add it to my wish list (check box)

There are 'save changes' and 'cancel' buttons to the lower right. If the category is not on the list, you can add it.

Google Adsense

Although Zilo is a store, they offer a very simple implementation of Google Adsense. You don't get to keep all of the Adsense earnings for your store. They keep 40% of the Adsense earnings. Considering how they don't charge you and you don't every have to paste the code, it is a fair deal. It should cover their server costs anyway. Implementing Google adsense on your website is completely optional.

Setup your own customized online store in less than 5 minutes.

Choose products from hundreds of the Internet's top retailers to include in your store and sell at the same rate as the Internet merchant.

Generate commissions through product sales and clicks. Additional income can be made by selecting to place Google ads in your store, and by referring others to join the program.

Amazon.com's Astore is easy to set up

 Amazon.com Astore

Amazon.com has a simple shopping cart option for anyone who wants to start a store selling Amazon products.

Amazon's Astore can be set up by anyone who registers as an Amazon affiliate.  It is easy to do on their website.  You can follow their steps with no extra explanation.

Adding Products

Astore lets you add products by category or individually after doing a key word search.  If you want to have a well defined niche store then having hand selected products will make sure that your customers see what is for your niche.  If you have a site that is about a general theme, it is very likely that you will find an Amazon.com category for the same issue.  Amazon Astore categories have many subcategories, so it would be easy to make a catalog of categories in categories just for your area.  You don't have to follow their category sequence. You can rearrange the order of categories and subcategories according to your needs.

Themes

Amazon's Astore lets you modify several colors and even modify the .css file.  There are only two actual themes to install on the site. You can also change the font size.

Product listings

Products that are added as categories are normally pretty good however I noticed on one catalog how some items were linked correctly.  For example: I saw some women's clothing items show up in the men's clothing category when I viewed a store that I had set up.

Reporting

Amazon's Astore reports one day late. I can see yesterday's report today.  The report is not updated at midnight. It is updated by morning. The reporting options are decent.  You can see reports on sales, type of link, and store code/tracking ID among others. You can set up multiple tracking IDs in the affiliate control panel. Each Astore has to have its own tracking ID.  The tracking IDs can also be used for other kinds of links. It makes sense to give each website that you own and its astore a different ID. When you make a sale, you will know which site sent it.

 How it works

When you are an Amazon affiliate, you earn a commission on any sale is made through your Astore or your Amazon links within 24 hours of a click. This is handled by cookies.  This period is very short and I hope they change it.  I am sure many commissions are lost because the customer decides to wait a day or two to confirm his or her order.  They offer a sliding scale on commissions starting at 4%, but it doesn't apply to all products.  You can read all about the commission rate on their affiliate website when you register.

How to get it on your site

You can have your Astore as:

• A stand alone site (you can link to it from other sites)


• Embed it as a frame (you do remember when people used frames, don't you?)


• Embed it as an iframe (include it inside your site's content for example inside a DIV)

Amazon does not currently offer integration in any CMS or other software.  The easiest way to add it to your CMS is to add it as a link in a menu or sidebar.

Feedback

What have your experiences been using Amazon's Astore?

Adding a Shopping cart to your business website: Introduction

Start selling online by setting up a shopping cart on your website or externally.

Depending on the business model you choose, you might want to consider adding a shopping cart to your website. The process of adding a shopping cart to your website can be very easy or very hard depending on the level of integration that you require and what kinds of products you are going to sell.

First you must determine:

1. Will you host the store externally on a third party website, or internally on your own server or hosted server.

There are several companies that let you create a store on their websites that you can link to. When someone buys a product you earn a commission.

Other stores and shopping carts online will let you store your downloads on their site for a fee. If you don't have your own domain then this could be a good short term option for getting started. It would also be good for people who are not interested in maintaining a server and shopping cart installations.

You could also have your own website and install commercial shopping cart and store software. This would give you the advantage of having technical support in most cases, but costs could get quite high once you include web hosting.

The other option which would be best for the long term with your own products, would be to have your own website and install free shopping cart and store software. This would be best because A. you'd be able to customize the look of the site B. Your only monthly fees would be hosting costs. As you sell more products, your cost/product will be cheaper.

2. Will you be selling your own products, affiliate products, or both?

Some shopping and store systems will be designed as a full store and others have the option of being used in 'catalog' mode. Typically affiliate product sales are completed on the manufacturer's site, so there is no need to actually go beyond having a 'clickable catalog' which sends the customer to the merchant site to complete the purchase. If you are selling your own products, you'll need to have a complete system for shipping, taxes, etc.

3. Will you be selling digital downloads, tangible goods, or a combination of the two?

Not all shopping cart and store software is designed to allow digital products. Most seem to have been designed for tangible, physical goods. Digital stores don't need to have 'items in stock' or shipping information. Recently there has been more interest in digital product stores however they seem to be only beta versions and have very limited cataloging functions. Most online stores that include a digital download option limit you to only one download per product listing or have multiple downloads with all of them available to the purchaser. I hope that we will see more flexible programs in the future.

4. Are you willing to pay for this service or software, or does your lack of budget require a free version?

You can pay between hundreds of dollars and a few dollars to set up your e-store. If you already have web hosting set up then you could use free shopping cart and store software then set it up yourself. If you do it yourself, expect to spend many hours. Try to avoid editing the basic code since you'll lose your changes when you upgrade to the next version. If possible, choose premade templates with your own logo then change the template colors to match or go well with your logo. Experiment with the system for at least a few days to make sure everything works properly before linking it to your main site. Make sample purchases and try different options.

5. Do you require 100% integration into a CMS, Content Management System, or are links or IFRAME pages adequate?

There are modules for integrating certain shopping cart and store programs into a website so that it will share the look and feel and registered users. This makes the whole process simpler. Even if you cannot integrate your shopping cart, you can at least try to use the same page layout and colors across your website.

6. Will you require technical support, or are you willing to do a little coding and forum/tutorial research?

If you need hand-holding support then go with commercial software. You have to spend much more, but in the end you'll have your store set up and ready instead of wasting days or weeks trying to figure out how to install and configure it all.

An alternative is to find someone who is already familiar with setting up stores and shopping cart software and negotiating payment for him or her to do the installation and configuration of a free program for you.

7. Do you require more than one download per product listing (for digital products)?

I have so far tried Wp-ecommerce (for Wordpress), VirtueMart 1.1beta (for Joomla), and Zen Cart. The only one that has allowed me to set downloads linked to attributes was Zen Cart. Wp-ecommerce only allows one download per product listing. I even offered to pay for the modification, but the owner is not interested. VirtueMart 1.1 allows multiple downloads however you can't let the visitor select a file. Instead the buyer has access to all of the downloads listed for that product, so if you were hoping to sell digital photographs at different resolutions and prices, these two applications won't work unless you want each size for each product show up as separate products which looks very bad and will cause you extra work because if you decide to add another version you have to add more products! I bet you could waste many hours doing that.

After several hours of looking reading and guessing I finally tried Zen Cart. Zen Cart is related to OsCommerce so it is possible that OsCommerce also has this feature. Zen Cart is an independent free shopping cart store that you can install on your own server, but it doesn't have Wordpress or Joomla integration. I was able to set up a shopping cart with one product and multiple download options. It worked. I, as a shopper, was able to specify the product download I wanted and the correct price appeared and the download link worked. It also sent my business e-mail address a message to let me know of the 'sale'.

8. Do you require special payment option modules, or is PayPal good enough?

You'll have to check each program to see which methods of payments may be processed.

In this category of CrucialBusiness, Shopping cart and stores, I/we will be adding information from our and my own experience, books and e-books that you can read to learn more, and information about opensource as well as paid shopping cart and store products and services to get started. You could also read the more general category, sales, which most shopping cart and stores articles will be cross-posted. If you have experience with Shopping cart and store creation for online business, please contact us via the contact form on this site and you can be a guest writer/blogger (including an about the author with a link to your own site).

As you read more about this topic, keep in mind your answers to the questions in this post and good luck!