Is there a certain sales volume your shop should be producing before you join CJ? It seems form the info. at CJ that there is a fee if you aren't meeting volume requirements. Is this the case?

Guido

www.quotesgiftshop.com

Unless you are planning on selling the products of other Shop Keepers on your external/non CafePress website, you do not need to join CJ. As a shop keeper, all you need to do to have others sell your items as affiliates (those who join CJ) is to opt into the affiliate program and Marketplace, which a shop is by default.

you cannot place cj links on your cp shop - if you are opted in to the affiliate program you already have CJ people potentially linking to you - if you have an external site - it would depend on the volume of hit your get on that site whether or not you should join CJ - because you would need to link from there to CJ links

moving to affiliate help forum.

I would not recommend to anyone that they get involved in any affiliate program unless you already have a website other than cafepress that already has a good amount of traffic.

Without substantial traffic, you will not be able to keep your CJ account open and generating revenue. And to have a CJ account you must generate revenue.

Hugs
Susan

Susan is right... it is important to think about how you plan to market any affiliate products you want to sell, before you take the plunge. Affiliating isn't for everyone, and it isn't 'free money'. It takes work to be a successful marketer. Do you already have a blog? An off-CP website? If so, you can probably do okay as an affiliate.
If not, however, all is not lost. If you seriously want to get into affiliating, you can try something like 4thclick (a CP affiliate tool) which is pretty easy to set up, and blogs and Squidoo are good options too for getting your feet wet even if you've never blogged or made squidoo lenses before. Popshops (another affiliate tool) offers info on how to integrate their "shops" with squidoo. With CJ, you have 6 months I think it is, to produce sales before you are removed from their program. So if you've been hankering to get your feet in the water, one of the programs mentioned above might be for you.

I am replying here since I can't make a new question. I don't know if this is how affiliate sales should look or if this is an error. I have been selling other people's items since the switch to CJ but nothing of mine has sold as an affiliate sale until today. On my CP order report there is a sale logged as "affiliate" and the commission is less as expected. However, when I log on to CJ the same sale shows up there as commissionable. The particular item is not one in any of my affiliate shops.

Is this how it should be logged? Is this an error? If it is an error who do I tell?

mainstay

It can happen; the thing to do is report it to CafePress so they can take a look at it.

how do I report it??

Hi all, forgive the wet behind the ears question...I've only had a shop for a few months now, and the affiliate subject is not my strong point. I've had some moderate sales so far, but no "affiliate" sales according to my sales report. Does anyone have a rough number, or percentage of sales we should call "normal" or "average"? Or is\will it be different for everyone?

Thanks for listening!

It will certainly be different for everyone. Have you posted your shop in the Announce & Share Affiliate-Ready Shops forum? Market your stuff to the affiliates.

Create a page for affiliates on your site. Check the affiliate forums to see what you can do to promote your stuff to affiliates. You have some very cool designs and artwork there!

quote:

Originally posted by Mainstay:
how do I report it??

Sorry I missed this when you posted it Mainstay, email affiliates@cafepress.com with the information. If I'm reading correctly, one of your sales showed up as affiliate where you were the affiliate. CP can reverse this if its not caught by their automated system.

quote:

Originally posted by Bunny Boiler:
Does anyone have a rough number, or percentage of sales we should call "normal" or "average"? Or is\will it be different for everyone?

It is/will be different for everyone. Some have never had a sale from affiliates. Others may get them daily.

On a sidenote to both, please start a new thread when you have a new question.

Mainstay, if you are having problems creating new threads you might try contacting the community team at communityteam@cafepress.com to see if there is something funky going on with your user account.

quote:

Originally posted by Teesed:
It will certainly be different for everyone. Have you posted your shop in the Announce & Share Affiliate-Ready Shops forum? Market your stuff to the affiliates.

Create a page for affiliates on your site. Check the affiliate forums to see what you can do to promote your stuff to affiliates. You have some very cool designs and artwork there!

I had announced the shop, but not in that forum, thanks for pointing that out!

Thanks for the props on the art, it's nice to get some feedback, however scary

I like your "all skate" design, flooded me with totally lost memories of our local skate rink as a kid

One more green Q, do I have an obligation to post other ads in my store in return for being allowing affiliates to link to mine? I don't know why I'm having so much trouble grasping the affiliate game...Thanks Teesed!

And thanks PristinePhoto, I'll try and use the forum more correctly

You have no obligation to affiliates. You actually have no control over them either, unless you opt out of the marketplace. Affiliates often do not even have a CafePress account much less a shop. And mostly they are just as happy if you don't know who they are because they don't want to share their strategy etc.
http://www.tutortanith.com/affiliates1.htm

Thank You Tanith!

Very helpful as usual