HOT and NOT - A Year in Review

Usually Hot and Not Hot Wednesdays only cover the past week--but I thought I'd talk about what's been hot or not in 2009.


HOT
Moving into our first house.


NOT
Moving into our first house. Putting your life in boxes and moving it is never less than stressful.


HOT
My kids. I am so proud of them every day. Yeah...they are all boy with all that's good and bad about that, and sometimes this home is a tantrum zone, but I love them and wouldn't want to be without them.

HOT
Time Away. This year my husband and I got our first weekend alone we've had since we became parents--a wonderful time in Austin that was utterly refreshing. THAT'S an occasion worth celebrating. Maybe I should re-word the previous "HOT" -- I love my kids and wouldn't want to be withouut them...for long. Having a weekend without them now and then is something I'd like to repeat much more often.

HOT
This blog. I added this blog in June of this year, and it has made it so much easier. In stead of having having to decide which of the three (previously four) shops I run to send people to, I just send people here, to my blog. Having one place to share all my sales, new products, and other happenings makes things so much easier! A big thanks to all the people who have given advice, linked to my blog, and to all my followers who have been such an encouragement to me!


HOT
My Facebook Fan Page. I was a little hesitant to add a facebook page in addition to a blog, but I'm glad I did. It's a great secondary way to let people know what's happening at my site.


HOT
Great New products. This year I had the chance to introduce so many new products with my designs. Here are some of my faves...

At Zazzle: Invitations, Flyers, Photo Cards, Dog Shirts, and Bag Styles






At Printfection: New mugs, bottles, and cozies:







At CafePress: New Aprons and Bags





NOT SO HOT
Prices on some new products. The following products added this year would be hotter if they cost a little less.





I don't expect print on demand products to be Walmart cheap. I realize it costs more to print things individually then it would to print and sell in bulk. But who pays nearly $20 for a binder? I wouldn't have even added those if they hadn't offered a $10 off coupon this Thanksgiving. And while I was excited about the stationary and letterhead (products I've been wanting to add forever) I was disappointed at the price--and even more-so when I discovered the price of shipping (the price goes down when you order over 25 pages...but the extra shipping eats up most of that discount). I'm probably being un-reasonable balking at the price of the Sigg Bottles CafePress added, since these are not much more than plain Sigg bottles would cost. I'm happy that Printfection added similar bottles at a better price (even if they aren't Sigg brand). And though having nicer bibs with new color trim is nice, $10 is more than most people will pay, IMHO. Still, because there's sometimes sales which bring prices on these items lower, I decided to go ahead and add them.

HOT
Zazzle! Overall I've been thrilled with their service this year. The quality of their printing is always stellar, they ship quickly, they've offered great sales and coupons, and this year have added lots of great new products. They also added a volume bonus program (a program rewarding shopkeepers who earn over a certain amount) this year and I reached it 3 times! Love what's happening there. Every time I turn around they are doing something new to improve both the customer and shopkeepers experience!


NOT
Zazzle Taking Down Their Shipping Page. In spite of my general love of Zazzle, shipping has been a big pet peeve for me because different products ship from different places, so in most cases you don't save on shipping when you order things together. Then, earlier this year Zazzle removed the shipping price information page from their website. They now suggest that you start the checkout process if you want to review your total shipping cost--which is a pain! Yeah, the old shipping info was confusing, so I understand their reasons for doing this--but I still wish they hadn't. At least their items are always well packaged and come in a timely manner, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

NOT
CafePress was the first site I started selling through, and in the past has been my biggest seller, but this year has been dismal. In 2008 I was getting 10-20 sales every month even though I wasn't spending as much time promoting the shop. I even got a volume bonus one month (a bonus if you sell over a certain amount). Things were going well and I was really hopeful for them to keep going well. Then, a series of events happened...

1. CafePress changed the volume bonus program to exclude marketplace sales (where most of my sales come from).
2. In October 2008 the economy crashed...and so did my sales. They never really recovered.
3. In April CafePress changed their marketplace search algorithm, and started excluding some products from the marketplace. They also removed all links from the marketplace to individual shops. I didn't see the affects of these changes right away, but I think I'm feeling them now.
4. In June 2009, CafePress changed their pricing system. Prices would stay the same in shops (where shopkeepers could continue to set the prices to their products), but in the marketplace CafePress would set the price and shopkeepers would only receive a 10% mark-up. I saw an immediate drop in commission, even though most of the prices CafePress was charging in the marketplace was more than I had set for the same products in my shop. Customers were paying more and I was earning less. I also think the higher prices on most products contributed to the significant drop in marketplace sales I saw in 2009. But this is just extra spending money for me--for those shopkeepers who rely on CafePress for their income, this was truly devastating.
5. The difference in pricing between the marketplace and my shops made it more difficult to advertise specific products. When I wanted to spot-light certain products (say, point a customer towards all of my mugs at CafePress), I used to just do a search in the marketplace under "Scribbleprints" or "GalesGiggles." But now I couldn't do that because the marketplace items cost more, and some of my designs weren't showing up. And while I could have fixed this by paying for premium shops, something I was considering in 2008, I was no longer earning enough monthly cover the costs, and didn't want to invest more in a company that had made all these recent negative changes.
6. During 2009 CafePress also cut down on it's promotions. There were less coupons to be found to offer to customers, and many of those that were offered were only good in the marketplace (and because the prices were higher there than what I was offering in my shop, these were generally not worth promoting).
7. All this resulted in the most dismal holiday sales I've seen since I first started making sales at CafePress. From October through December, the time period where I usually make the most sales, I sold only two items.

NOT
ArtsNow. In 2009 I finally had to admit that my ArtsNow shop was more trouble than it was worth and close shop. There were just too many things wrong that kept popping up with their products and shipping.


NOT
Sales at Printfection. Nope, still haven't made one. Printfection has quality products, and though they rarely offer coupons or add new products to their selection, they did both this year, which I tried to promote...yet still no sales. I know I could do better here if I re-did my shop design (which requires learning CSS) or put more effort into promoting my printfection shop, but at this point its easier to focus on where I'm already doing well then try to build up a market in this shop I've never had success with.


HOT
Loobylu for starting Hot or Now Wednessdays! Visit her Mr. Linky to see others who are participating.