CafePress Shopkeepers FAQ
You've either found your products listed here or you've found out about NiftyGifter through one of the POD forums. Welcome! We'll try to answer some of your questions.
- What is NiftyGifter?
- But I see my designs here and I haven't signed up for anything? Are you stealing my designs?
- Is this an affiliate site?
- Why don't I just promote my own shop at CafePress?
- OK, I get it. What can I do to help?
- How can I get my store to have a cool header image?
- Who's running this operation anyway?
NiftyGifter is a marketplace for shopkeepers who sell their designs on CafePress. It was envisioned after the CP Marketplace changes that happened in June of 2009. Those changes basically meant that CafePress would market their marketplace and would set the pricing there. As a shopkeeper, we get 10% of the retail. If we wanted the markup we set for our designs, we could keep those in our own shops and would be expected to market our shops either by promoting our "cafepress.com/shopname" site or by creating third-party sites to promote our designs.. NiftyGifter is is one way we have chosen to market our shops. It gives us a third-party site to promote, and includes links back to our shops so that we promote our shop links as well as get a "SHOP" source on our reports - and our own markups.
But I see my designs here and I haven't signed up for anything? Are you stealing my designs?
No we are not. As you can see if you follow a product to the actual product page, every final link ends up on your own store's product page.
This site may end up being an affiliate site or a partial affiliate site. However, the plan is to always have links that take customers to your own shop or to make a "shop" sale.
Why don't I just promote my own shop at CafePress?
You should promote your own CafePress shop. However, keep in mind that every time you link to the "cafepress.com" domain, you are promoting CafePress with search engines. If you promote your store on NiftyGifter, it will help improve the rankings of NiftyGifter so that your products have a better chance of ending up higher in search engine results. The expectation is that hundreds of shopkeepers linking to their NG stores will have a significant effect on our marketing efforts.
OK, I get it. What can I do to help?
Whenever you promote your shop with an ad or link, consider linking to the NG version of your shop. The url will be just like your CafePress store, except you need to add "http://www.niftygifter.com/store/" in front of your storename and section number or product number in the same way it would appear on CafePress. You can join the PODFORYOU forums and add to the conversation about "the marketplace project" to see if you can contribute blog articles or other promotions.
How can I get my store to have a cool header image?
Simply email a .gif, .jpg or .png image with the dimensions no greater than 680x150 to niftygifter@gmail.com. Be sure that the image name is your shop id in lowercase followed by the file extension. Example: The image for the shop "teesed" should be named "teesed.gif", "teesed.jpg" or "teesed.png". The image will be uploaded as-is. If you wish to match the background color, it is #F5F5F5.
Who's running this operation anyway?
The CafePress shopkeeper known as "Teesed" is the person behind this project. You can find me/him on the CafePress message boards or by email at niftygifter@gmail.com.
Nifty Gifter is an online marketplace where anyone can find that perfect something for themselves or that special someone.
Your order will be printed and shipped by our fulfillment provider CafePress, and is covered by a 30-day guarantee.
All designs copyright of their respective artists/shopkeepers. Are you a shopkeeper with a question? Click here.