Print On Demand sites mega-review

Not all Print On Demand sites are created equal

And now, the thrilling conclusion of my very drawn-out series on Print on Demand sites (or is it?)!

Don’t just use the first Print On Demand site you hear about … shop around!

All of these sites allow you to sell your designs on their items, where they handle inventory, printing, sales, fulfillment, money-taking, and (when needful) returns for you, and they pay you per item sold.

CafePress

CafePress is pretty much the longest-standing print on demand sites.  They have a good variety of item types and a strong Marketplace, which allows people to find your items so you don’t have to have your own website. (prior review)

Pros: established community; Marketplace drives sales to you; product creation tool fairly easy to use; set your own markups for your shop; can have multiple free basic shops; can use your own CSS for paid premium shops; accepts common bitmap file formats (JPG, GIF, PNG).

Cons: paid store necessary to use effectively; sales in Marketplace only have 10% royalty and do not count for volume bonuses; no effective way to integrate a shop with your website.

Zazzle

Zazzle is probably the second-longest-standing print on demand site.  They offer more unique products for designs – from sneakers to speakers. (prior review)

Pros: you are 100% in charge of your royalties; accepts common bitmap file formats (JPG, GIF, PNG); enormously wide variety of item types; tools for integrating your shop into your website, FaceBook, and more; free shops.

Cons: Zazzle branding is quite noticeable; no combined shipping charges; slightly less useful Marketplace for random sales; product creation is tedious.

Spreadshirt

Spreadshirt has also been around for a while, but I’ve never used them, mostly because  they required vector file formats (and the limitations on how many designs one can upload).  They now allow pixel (bitmap) file formats, but it’s clear that this isn’t their main focus. (prior review)

Pros: wide variety of shirts, some other items; other printing options (flex, flocked, even glitter!); you control your commission rates as a flat dollar amount (not a percentage that drops when they have a sale!); can use existing designs in your design (you both get commission money).

Cons: strongly prefers vector file formats; limited number of designs with free account (when you sell more, you get to add more designs).

RedBubble

RedBubble is primarily a site for artists to showcase their work and let folks buy prints of them.  Tshirts and other items are secondary. (prior review)

Pros: great artist community (Groups, Forums, Challenges); focus on prints/posters and iProduct cases; die-cut stickers look nicely custom; understanding that artists want real royalties for real Art; accepts common bitmap file formats (JPG, PNG); free shops; product creation is a snap.

Cons: requires very large image sizes; limited item types; slightly less robust Marketplace; no cases for non-iPhone/iPad users.

Printfection

Printfection is a relative newcomer to the POD scene.  Unlike the other sites listed here, their primary focus is on promotional items (aka “swag”), and their pricing structures reflect this.  For the seller that has a strong direct following/fans/market and wants tight integration with their existing site, this site may be the one to look at. (prior review)

Pros: very high print quality; Prinfection branding is quite limited (and theoretically can be zero); free shops; accepts common bitmap file formats (JPG, GIF, PNG).

Cons:  limited item types (tshirts, mugs, nearly nothing else); effectively non-existent Marketplace.

Summary

When you’re getting ready to sell your designs, evaluate your priorities on these factors:

  • Strength of your brand: Are people buying your work because they know you, or are you relying on mass appeal?  Does it matter if they know you aren’t selling your work directly?
  • Monetary considerations: How much do you need to get from sales of your work?  How much control do you need over the price?  How much can you afford to spend on simply having a shop?
  • Intended market: Are you selling Art, funny quotes, or cause-supporting designs?  Drive-by random sales, directed sales from your website, or both?
  • Formats and output: Is your work full-color photographs, single colors, text, or something else?  Do your designs work best as tshirts, buttons, posters, jewelry, or something else?

Whatever your priorities, you can probably find a good match among these sites.

Have I missed a Print On Demand site?  Let me know in the comments.  Just remember the criteria – it must allow you to sell your designs on their items, where they handle inventory, printing, sales, fulfillment, money-taking, and (when needful) returns for you, and they pay you per item sold.

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Oil pastel mudpie 2

Further experiments

You knew this was coming, right?  That, once I tried out this new media, there would be trees, right?

Smart of you.

I like this one a bit, though it’s still pretty clearly a novice effort.  I’m definitely having struggles with getting the results I want (that’s not pixellation in the background, it’s blending that is clumping), but I’m not how much is using really really cheap materials and how much is my inexperience and all that.  Anyway, TREE!

Oil pastel of a black, leafless tree against a blue background

The second of the mudpies, I went back to What I Know. Oil pastels on thin white paper.

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Pink columbine

Friday for Flowers

Back to photographs for a bit, I think. This week, a delicate pink columbine.

I gotta say that, while they’re beautiful once they bloom, the pods do rather look like alien heads. :)

This was taken in my backyard here in Pennsylvania.

This was taken in my backyard here in Pennsylvania.

This one isn’t up on RedBubble yet, but you can get the large size on (quite a wide variety of) stuff over at Zazzle: http://www.zazzle.com/9thcirclephotography/gifts?gp=105914486525498962

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Why I Use RedBubble

For Artists, With Artists

One of the things that held me up from joining RedBubble was this strange idea that I Am Not An Artist.  Now that I’m pretending to be an artist sometimes, here are some of the reasons I’ve joined RedBubble:

  • Streamlined product creation
    It’s straight up simple.  Upload the image and give it a name, description, and keywords.  Set your royalty and save your work.  This is partly because of the fairly limited product line (prints, posters, cards, shirts/hoodies, stickers, and iProduct cases), but it’s incredibly simple and streamlined.
    Just be aware that the image sizes for prints and posters are quite large and that shirts and stickers require transparent images of a specific size, described clearly in their help info.
  • Set the royalties you think you deserve
    Period.  They suggest 20% (way more than the Marketplace royalties elsewhere!), but you can bump it up to whatever you feel appropriate.  This royalty is used for your products everywhere on the site, unlike the Marketplace on certain other POD sites (*cough*CafePress*cough*).
  • Free shops
    There is no cost to putting your art out there.  Straight up, no cost.
    I know, time isn’t free, but product creation is so simple it won’t take up much time at all to add your art, unlike certain other POD sites (*cough*Zazzle*cough*).
  • Serious Community
    There are hundreds and hundreds of Groups on Red Bubble for showcasing your art, chatting with other artists, entering Challenges (for fun, getting seen, and sometimes RB vouchers).  Not only that, but there are general RedBubble forums for interacting with other Bubblers and getting tips and tricks.
  • Quality items and printing
    As noted above, the product types are limited, but their quality is high.  If your image size isn’t big enough to print well on a specific item size, they simply won’t add that size, keeping the quality high for everyone.
    Additionally, unlike other POD folks, their stickers are custom-shaped, based on the shape of your image.  This requires transparent-background images, but results in a custom look for your art.
    The only downside is that the only phone/tablet cases they offer are for iProducts.

If an artist is looking to get their fine art out there and seen, while getting artist wages, Red Bubble seems like a pretty good choice.

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Oil pastel mudpie 1

Look, I made a mudpie!

It’s not so much a literal mudpie, since this was with oil pastels instead of clay, just figuratively.

A couple months ago, I came across a “basic art kit” box that I’d picked up from a thrift store.  It’s got some watercolors, some charcoals, some oil pastels, and paper, all basically unused.  All terribly cheap, I’m sure, and the packaging and ‘how to’ booklets look rather 70s or 80s.  I played with the charcoals a couple times a few years ago, but that’s about it.

However, after a lovely trip down to New Orleans this last weekend, I have once again found myself wanting to Do Some Art.  This year, as we wandered through art galleries and past street artists, I found myself drawn to the colors in the art we passed.  Back at home, I started eyeing the oil pastels.  I’d never used them before and had no real idea how to use them, other than “sort of like crayons but more squishy”.

Last night, I promised myself that I’d give them a try in the morning, but this morning I wasn’t having any subject matter ideas.  I hit up Facebook for ideas, and then DuckDuckGo for a few “how to oil pastel” pages to get some kind of clue.  Then I gave it a whirl.

It’s pretty clearly a first-try mudpie, which makes me feel awkward about posting it, but I said I would, so here you all go:

It's supposedly a sunrise.  Not sure it quite works like that, but

It’s supposedly a sunrise. Not sure it quite works like that, but …

There’s definitely some lessons learned here about blending and pressure and using heavier paper, so I’m pretty happy with the experience.  Perhaps more soon … I got some other prompts on Facebook, if I can dig up some heavier paper.

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The two-trunked tree (part two)

If at first you have lousy technique …

Many months ago, I posted about one of my first vectorizing projects in “A Tree Made Of Vectors“.  And then forgot about it.

A few weeks ago, I dug it back up again, thinking I’d complete it and post it.  It turned out to be kinda a mess.  See, I usually do part of the vectorizing, merge it all into one giant vector, and then export out giant bitmap images.  This one simply refused to merge.

… just do it all over again.

It really seemed like the easiest thing to just re-do it.  It goes a lot faster these days, generally.  This one did, up to a point, and then things went wonky.  I got it straightened out, and have some ideas on how to do it better next time.

In the meantime …

Here’s the new version:

The redone vectorized tree

The redone vectorized tree

You can see a larger version (and get it on stickers and stuff) at RedBubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/ninthcircle/works/9872551-a-two-trunked-tree

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