BabyDave at Cafepress | SEO, Advertising, Site Design for Shopkeepers
The BabyDave Organization maintains two shops within the massive print on demand network at Cafepress.com. The Boomerville Shop-a-Rama is a large online "mall" featuring products based on many different topics, aimed primarily at the Baby Boomer demographic. Tee Dance is tightly focused , offering products for dancers, choreographers, dance teachers and students.
Three years of hard work on Cafepress businesses can teach you many lessons about online marketing, search engine optimization, copy writing, graphic design, market research and just getting along on the Net. When added to over twenty years of off line sales and marketing experiences, it becomes possible to offer expertise to other shopkeepers as well, to help them be more effective in the online world and reap greater reward from their Cafepress businesses.
Specialized SEO Services for Cafepress Shopkeepers
BDO offers specialized SEO services to Cafepress Shopkeepers. Because we are shopkeepers too, we know how much work, how much time, a Cafepress shop requires. We're still working on our shops every day. It would be nice and let's face it, more fun, to just create new designs every day and make money, but to be successful with a Cafepress shop, you have to write, as well. Section descriptions, product descriptions, design teasers, and more. Don't forget that pesky, but all important html writing. Title elements for every page, maybe some “h1” tags . Then there's the shop description, and be sure to include the right keywords with the right density — not too much, just enough. The more creative you are on the design side, the more writing you have to do. That text — without it your clever, beautiful designs won't get properly indexed on Google, Yahoo and MSN/Live Search and you will forever be dependent on the Cafepress Marketplace where 5 million similar designs can obscure the unique brilliance of your latest creation.
If you have plenty of time and you're a good writer and you enjoy the work, you don't need an outside SEO service. If your shops and products are not coming up in Google searches the way you think they should, then perhaps you do. BDO offers services to Cafepress shopkeepers who don't have the inclination or the time to properly complete all the text opportunities offered within the typical Cafepress template based shop. Nothing is more important in building shop success than the text within your shop. No matter how good your designs may be, if no one finds them, you won't sell the product. Text is what Google and the other search engines index. It is critical to match your shop's text to the likely search terms that real buyers actually use when they shop online. Your text must be readable and interesting to human beings once they find your shop, but it must also be rich in the keywords and key phrases that those shoppers actually type into that search box. You can do this! — but if you want to concentrate your energy in other ways, consider BDO as your source of snappy, keyword rich text to improve your shop's effectiveness in actual search results.
- SEO focused re-write of your shop's home page, the front door, with a new html TITLE tag, new DESCRIPTION tag and visible descriptive text to introduce your shop and greet shoppers. Includes free marketing consultation to set keywords and key phrases to improve natural search results. $20.00
- SEO focused copy for design teasers, section descriptions and product descriptions. $35.00 per design.
- Add an SEO focused design image, h1 and/or h2 heading elements to your section description for additional visual impact and additional SEO benefits. $15.00 per section.
- Cafepress template modifications to customize your shop's appearance. $35.00 per hour.
Each of these services requires a bit of "back and forth" to insure that our copy aligns with your vision. This consultation is free of additional charge, of course, and will serve to sharpen the marketing focus of your designs, sections and indeed, your entire shop.
Contact: BDO
Advertise and promote your Cafepress Shop with The Shop-a-Rama Family
Share the Cost | Share the Risk | Share the Benefits
Cafepress shopkeepers are always on the hunt for effective, innovative ways to promote and advertise their shops. The Shop-a-Rama Family™ is a network of topically coherent websites, always on the hunt for great designs to promote. Pooling our efforts is a powerful technique for building mutual success.
The Shop-a-Rama Family links directly to individual shops, not the Cafepress Marketplace.
Shopkeepers can guarantee placement of their designs on Family web sites while contributing directly to the advertising pool. Our paid advertising programs are kept at a very low cost to encourage even the smallest shops to participate. For as little as $5.00 or $10.00 per year, you can guarantee placement on a Shop-a-Rama Family web page.
- 101 T-shirt pages: The ad rate for guaranteed placement on these pages is $5.00 per /Year for 1 design. (+ affiliate commission)
- 1001 T-shirt pages: The ad rate for guaranteed placement on these pages is $10.00 per Year for up to 10 designs. (+ affiliate commission)
- Featured Display as Shirt of the Week, $5.00 / Week. (no affiliate commission)
- One Standard Banner Ad (468x60) is available on each page at $35.00 for 3 months (no affiliate commission)
The Shop-a-Rama Family has formed a community of Cafepress shopkeepers who combine forces to promote their shops. When you buy advertising space on Family websites, you contribute to the advertising pool. Pooled funds are spent on advertising Shop-a-Rama Family sites.
- The Shop-a-Rama Family uses Adwords, banner ads on relevant blogs and web sites, and is experimenting with offline print advertising.
- Links from individual design images or product images drive traffic to individual shops directly, bypassing the distractions of the Cafepress Marketplace.
- Each Shop-a-Rama Family site and every image and link are given thorough SEO treatment, focusing on word order and keyword proximity, using multiple keyword phrases, ALT and TITLE tags.
- Each link contributes to individual shop page rank by providing a valuable incoming link from a topically relevant high traffic site.
- All the links on Shop-a-Rama Family sites function like any routine Cafepress Affiliate Program link with a 5% commission going to Commission Junction and 15% commission going to The BabyDave Organization.
- Payment guarantees placement of your designs on the page(s) of your choice and provides a guaranteed link directly to your shop at the design or individual product level.
BDO selects designs from the CP marketplace to fit the theme of each Shop-a-Rama Family site. Designs displayed on Shop-a-Rama Family sites are linked via the current Cafepress affiliate program, managed by Commission Junction. Cafepress Shopkeepers may guarantee participation and placement on the Shop-a-Rama Family site of their choice by purchasing paid advertising. In order to minimize the cost of guaranteed participation, paid advertising links are also routed through the Cafepress Affiliate program. 50% of paid advertising revenue is dedicated to promoting the Shop-a-Rama Family network of mini sites. Shopkeepers: if you are looking for a reasonably priced method of advertising your shop, adding focused incoming links that contribute to your shop's page rank, and see benefit to pooling your advertising dollars with other like minded shopkeepers, perhaps The Shop-a-Rama Family advertising platform is for you.
Contact: BDO
Domain Names, Website Hosting and Site Design
For over four years BDO has used aplus.net to host many of the sites we manage. Aplus.net is a full service hosting company, offering every bell and whistle, mostly included with the hosting fee. If you are considering developing your own domain to help market your Cafepress Shop, aplus.net is worth a look.
If you need site design services, BDO can help. The BDO mind exists in a retro-tinged world of simple, clean, warm and cuddly concepts. We can't do garish or grungy, loud or lascivious. We'd love to work with your ideas rather than impose our own, to insure that the look and feel of your new website reflects your personality and business goals. We don't need to create every graphic for your site. We're happy to upgrade your ideas so that your site loads faster for customers and meets all the current website standards. We do write clear snappy copy for section descriptions and product descriptions that will improve your site's SEO profile. Drop us an email. We're here to help.
Contact: BDO