We're Gonna Take 'em Out a Whole New Door
Since coming up with my snarky anti-Obama designs a couple months ago, I've been testing them out on CafePress and Ebay to see how much interest they can generate. I've found it to be really difficult to get any exposure on CafePress, which is only one of two hurdles to get over in being successful there (the other being the high cost per item). It's still a great model, but I think I can do better in my case. Ebay has been a good way to test out the product. For a week I ran my three stickers on Ebay to get more exposure. As each order came in, I ordered one off CafePress and sent it directly to the buyer. Unfortunately due to the cost of CafePress, Ebay, and PayPal, they were the most expensive stickers on Ebay and due to their shipping method, they took about 2 weeks to arrive. However, the strength of the product prevailed and they were relatively popular. So popular, in fact, that I've invested in a bulk order from MakeStickers.com. This allows me to keep my costs down and ship in less than half the time.I'm an engineer by nature and by trade so I really love to create a well thought out processes, and I'm pretty proud of the one I concocted for shipping stickers. I took some cues from Joel Spolsky's How to Ship Anything article in that I knew I had to have a plan or doing this every day was going to get really frustrating really fast. I like my system because it scales well; I can ship a single order in about a minute. The most I could possibly conceive getting in one day is around a hundred orders, which isn't even two hours of shipping time. So I'm satisfied.
There were several key things that I put in place for this system. It started by finding 11x4 inch envelopes with windows. This is key for two reasons. First, 11"x4" envelopes can be shipped with a standard 42 cent stamp assuming it weighs less than one ounce. So this saves on shipping (an 8.5"x11" envelope would have been more). 11 inches is wide enough to hold the sticker and a standard sheet of paper folded hot-dog style. The second reason these envelopes were clutch came with some experimenting. I knew that I couldn't write out the shipping address on every single envelope, so I needed a way to print it (and easily, at that). Luckily, PayPal's "Transaction Details" screen is structured in a way that makes this possible. I just highlight the information on the screen, copy it to OpenOffice Calc, and with a little formatting, the address appears in the envelope window after folding the paper hot-dog style. Luckily, most of the formatting remains on every paste, so I just have a template I can paste each order into.The rest of the system wasn't hard to figure out. I ordered return address labels from VistaPrint for dirt-cheap (with the American Flag on them; a nice touch) and a stamp that says "Do Not Bend" from the USPS, which I'm told the Postal Employees will generally follow. Oh and the icing on the cake, Purple Heart stamps. Very appropriate given the subject matter. All in all it takes me about 5 seconds to prepare each envelope ahead of time with postage, return address, and rubber stamp. Then it takes about 30 seconds to prepare and print off a receipt. Then it takes about another 25 seconds to get the receipt into the envelope and seal it. Voila!
So far I've only purchased large amounts of my "Don't Drink the Kool-Aid" and "Change is All You'll Have Left" stickers. I really like the Jimmy Carter one but it just isn't generating enough demand yet. I'll probably try selling them on Ebay again in a few weeks and see if anything has changed. Maybe the market for people buying Anti-Obama bumper stickers doesn't remember Jimmy Carter (like me, for instance). I don't see demand for the others going down at all. It may be that Obama's recent feigned interest in Conservative values is going to persuade the middle-right to his side, but I think it's more likely that they'll see through him and the far, far left will be offended/betrayed. Maybe not offended enough to buy a sticker, but we'll see. At any rate, it certainly looks like more people are putting down the Kool-Aid.If you're looking for stickers, they're easy to find! Check out CafePress.com/JimmyCarter for the Jimmy Carter sticker. As always, I'd love to hear your feedback.
I will never ever get those images of Katrina out of my head. The buck stops where???
Clinton left a surplus, and 8 and later on February 2 2009 what did we have???
What I do have a problem with is electing the most liberal Senator in the country to President while we already have a Democratic Senate and House. I have a problem with electing a person who will raise taxes on the rich because that's "fair" even though the richest 10% of the country pays over 60% of the country's income tax and benefits a lot less from government spending. That he has brainwashed you into thinking that is fair says a lot about his powers of persuasion and unfortunately a lot about what America's attitude has turned into. Oh, and I will never vote for a pro-choice candidate. If Giuliani were the Republican candidate I would have written in someone else.
I do think Obama is in over his head and I think his ideas to tax businesses will eliminate jobs and drive the economy further into the ground. The only positives I can draw from it is that with a Democrat-dominated government, the country will swing a lot further left than most people like and in two years I'm betting the Republicans gain a lot of seats back. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing Obama's approval ratings go down so that we can get a chance at putting a true conservative in the White House in four years. Obama has enormous shoes to fill (his own) and there's no way he can do it.
Then again, if Farrakhan thinks he's the man, who am I to disagree?
-Debbie