Card launch plus online card service comparison

As anyone who frequents my sites already knows, I do a lot of cartoons and illustrations just for fun, as opposed to client work. With the current (and somewhat depressing) economic downturn, I'm starting to work harder at exploring different ways of making more money. One of my fantasy novels has been at the same publisher for over 8 months --the editor has already been nudged at least once-- so I've decided to send it elsewhere...sigh. I'm excited about my other writing projects, but meanwhile I need to ramp up short-term income.

And that brings me back to my doodles.

I haven't been as diligent as I would have liked to be in getting some of my cartoons and illustrations onto greeting cards. Main reason: laziness. Choosing, formatting, uploading, promoting and administering my greeting cards and shops takes time, and I've had other projects on the go meanwhile. I've resolved to devote some regular time each week from now on to gradually building up my online card shops. The more cards I have for sale online, the more I should make over time...I hope. :-)



A while back, I test out several online greeting card services: Zazzle, Greeting Card Universe and Cafepress. I submitted some greeting card art to each and ordered cards to check out the quality. All of them were fine. I realize that I could pay a lot more to get custom-made cards and even better quality, but then I'd have to charge considerably more as well.

Anyway, I've settled on Cafepress and Greeting Card Universe. Cafepress is a familiar name to most people, and I've already made sales from casual marketplace browsers. GCU isn't as well known, but the full-size cards are slightly cheaper ($2.79 as opposed to $3.49 at Cafepress) when purchased as single items. If you're buying in bulk or are after notecard size, however, you're probably better off with Cafepress ($1.59/card if you buy ten, $1.29/card for 20, $1.05/card for 20 notecards). GCU's discount doesn't start until you buy 25 or more. None of the quoted prices include shipping.

I still hadn't really focused on GCU up to now, however, because I wasn't crazy about the user interface. HOWEVER, I'm going to force myself to overcome my esthetic snobbishness and start using this service more regularly. For one thing, cards have to go through an approval process. This helps somewhat filtering out the dreck. I still make about the same amount of profit per card (around 50 cents/card for single card orders).

Anyway, the Monstrous Nerd image above is one of my newest addition to both stores. At GCU, the inside text reads "Happy birthday to my favorite nerd" but you can change it to anything you'd like when you're ordering. The witch card is available at Cafepress, and should be available at GCU as soon as it's been approved.

I'll be gradually adding more to my greeting card shops. If you'd like to be kept informed when I add new card designs, please let me know. I promise you won't get more than one e-mail a week, you can unsubscribe anytime, and I won't use the list for any other purpose.

Meanwhile, feel free to browse my two card shops at Cafepress and Greeting Card Universe. I welcome suggestions on how to better organize my Cafepress shop to make it easier to find cards or to make it more attractive to card buyers -- unfortunately I can't change much about the GCU shop.

And feel free to suggest cards you'd like to see! If I think there would be enough demand for that type of card, I'll add it to my shops.

Comments

[Ry-Tron]

The card prints are VERY nice, the one you sent us is in a frame, along with the deviantart print!

Speaking of the monsters, I'm hell bent on eventually creating a little big planet level with them as bosses... eventually.

[Deanna]

Good luck with it! As a photographer, I've been selling at RedBubble, since I can sell very high quality prints and big art there as well. I've been surprised at how well it's been going. Their cards aren't customizable by the purchaser, just pick an image and go. But they have an awesome community too.

I already link to you from my site. I'll try to nudge sometime soon about the card shops.

[Debbie Ridpath Ohi]

RT: Heh, thanks. :-) And thanks for the reminder that I need to pay attention to my deviantArt site, too.

Deanna: Thanks for the tip! I've never heard of RedBubble and am definitely going to check them out. Where can I find you on that site?

[Luisa]

"I haven’t been as diligent as I would have liked to be in getting some of my cartoons and illustrations onto greeting cards. Main reason: laziness."

Oh, yes, you really should work on that flaw of yours. I'm glad you realize how lazy you are. Was wondering how to tell you. Ptthhhhh. (Didn't I read somewhere, that this was National Sarcasm month?)