I Greet Thee!

Well, hello there! I'm Andy your host for this evening... well, for this afternoon maybe, or morning, or whatever time of day you are reading this. I'm a shopkeeper at Cafe Press. If you regularly cruise the the forums at CP you've probably seen some of my posts. I typically take part in the CP boards hoping to glean some useful tidbits of information to improve the sales at my own shop shop. It's not always easy though, and that's the basis for me creating this blog.

I figured that as much as I cruise the forums at CP (and I still plan to do so just as often as before) I find that I am reading the same information over and over again. I may spend an hour or so going through those forums and find nothing other than tips I've heard dozens of times before, people complaining about how they aren't getting any sales (or not enough) immediately followed by people cheering about how many sales they ARE getting, questions about froogle, google and yahoo, and various other things that don't really contribute to my overall improvement of MY store because I've heard it all many times before.

Now don't get me wrong, it may sound like I'm down on the forums at CP. But nothing could be farther from the truth. There are a lot of really good pieces of information in the forums at CP but you will have to search for them, but that can take a long time... emphasis on LONG. In fact it may take weeks to come across one really useful bit of insight that will propel your store forward even if you visit the forums regularly. It all depends on how long you've been learning.

Another thing you may notice about the forums is that you'll get many people who post who really know what they are talking about and a good deal who don't. You may get advice like "make sure you submit your site to google" followed up with "submitting to google is a waste of time" so for someone really needing an answer it's hard to know what to believe. With this blog you will have the foreknowledge that I am NOT AN EXPERT in SEO I am NOT AN EXPERT on Cafe Press and I am NOT AN EXPERT on marketing, press releases, blogging, the affiliate program, brain surgery or any other aspect of CP (okay I threw brain surgery into that equation). So why listen to me or read my blog? Because you will know ahead of time, that I'm just a regular store keeper like you. I will post what I do know and what I believe and you will have an idea of how much weight to put on those posts because eventually you will know who I am and how much I know and how much to trust that what I say I have either fiddled with or found through reliable and or multiple sources or gotten through a way that has proven it's worth in some way to me. I also hope that this blog will compel me to learn more about my shop and what can make it more successful. I hope to get comments from shopkeepers that will help us all learn together.

So is this blog my attempt at a CP Utopia? In a way, yes. I want to learn more about how to be successful and I think this may just help me do that. Hopefully it will help you too. I plan to post regularly (though that may not mean daily) so check back often if you want to delve into shop success together, comment on my posts, contribute, send me email (info@zapgraphix.com) give me suggestions on what to cover and maybe we can all improve our knowledge and success together.

I love the forums at CP, I'm just hoping to consolidate that knowledge and keep it from being redundant while at the same time bringing new things to light. It may seem almost counterproductive to share secrets on a blog. And there may end up being a couple things I keep to myself, I don't know yet, I'm not a saint afterall. But! I truly believe that knowledge is power and sharing knowledge may make others powerful in return and may make competing CP shops better and that may seem like a bad idea from my stand point. But the web is large. CP alone has over 2.5 million shopkeepers, so if I help 100 or even 1000 other shopkeepers be more successful, even in my niche, I still feel like I'm going to be okay and not have to worry about losing more business than I'll be gaining through this blog.

So that's my introductory spiel. I hope to see you visit often and share your pearls of wisdom as I will try and share mine. Hopefully together, we can all find more success for our cherished shops!

Til next time!
Andy