Product Creation Extravaganza
I thought I would take a break from the insanity of deadlines to write an article on some of the amazing opportunities that exist online for product creation. One really has no excuse to not be producing quality products for sale or just for fun (although sale means money). I’ve uncovered four websites that you will want to spend time on for creating your custom products. You may have heard of one or two of these sites, but I doubt you know about all of them.
Our first stop is over at Café Press (www.cafepress.com). Most of you know about this awesome site (since I’ve talked about it before) so I will not go into a lot of details about it. They are pretty much the hands-down leader when it comes to creating all types of products with your artwork. If you haven’t setup shop there yet, what are you waiting for? Just this week I received a tip on an excellent video tutorial by David Vallieres on creating products on Café Press for the purpose of selling them on eBay. Here’s the link to watch the video. It’s about 20 minutes long. http://www.infoproductlab.com/freevideo/.
The next stop on our product creation tour is Blurb.com (www.blurb.com). Blurb.com’s claim to fame is to provide you with the ability to create your own full-color, hardback books—complete with dust jacket—for a modest fee. This site has only been live a few weeks, but have been causing quite a stir. Their book design process is template driven using custom software they’ve developed solely for producing books with them. I’m working on my own book with them featuring some of my photography, and I have to tell you…it’s really easy to use, not to mention quite fun. Their pricing isn’t bad either for what they offer. A 40-page full color hardback book with jacket will cost you only $29.95…not bad. But the real deal comes with higher page counts. A 160-page book will cost you only $39.95 for color on every page. This is pretty amazing for a one-off book that only takes a week to produce. So if you ever wanted to produce that coffee table book of all your awesome pics, or have been wanting to write that illustrated children’s book, here’s your chance to become a “published author.”
Next up…MyJones.com (www.myjones.com). This website from the Jones Soda Company is devoted to helping you produce custom-labeled bottles of soda, based on the amazing (and sometimes unusual) line of soda flavors from Jones Soda. If you are not familiar with the Jones Soda Company, you should be…they’re probably the most innovative producer of beverages in the world. Their regular labels feature photos and artwork that have been uploaded by people just like you…and the labels are always changing. All you have to do is upload your pics to their site (those showing people have to include model releases), then they pick pictures from what’s been uploaded for their production runs of soda…very cool! One the MyJones site, you can have your own custom labels produced on the soda of your choice. It’s a little pricey at roughly $60 (including shipping) for a case of 12 bottles (the minimum order), but it’s soda with YOUR photos on it!
Now don’t tell anyone, but I’ll let you in on a little secret that I’ve done with Jones Soda. Go to Sheetz, Wawa or other convenience store that sells Jones Soda and pick up your favorite flavors. Study the label…it’s size, how it’s laid out, etc. Now remove it, design your own label (to the same size), print it out on adhesive-backed paper and apply it to the naked bottle. You now have a “custom-labeled” bottle of soda. I did this several times for a special promotion I did a few years ago. It worked great!
Our last stop on our whirlwind product creation tour is one of my new, favorite websites, Zazzle (www.zazzle.com). Zazzle is probably Café Press’ only major competitor and they are offering some great product creation opportunities for you there. They are currently offering the ability to produce custom t-shirts (including dark T’s), mugs, postage (interesting), cards, and posters and prints. The posters feature caught my attention because their prices are pretty amazing. Plus, they can print posters in sizes up to 52 inches by 72 inches…just huge! They have an easy-to-use design interface and the opportunity for you to sell your stuff on their site. It’s definitely a website worth checking out. I know I plan to have them produce some things for me!
So there you have it…four great sites for creating your very own custom products and zero excuse for not doing so! Go have fun!
Tony Laidig
