Welcome to the Announce & Share Affiliate-Ready Shops forum. The purpose of this forum is for shopkeepers to announce their shops that are opted into the affiliate program for feedback and introduction to potential affiliates. Here are some suggestions for getting the best response from your post:

1. Post the url to your CafePress shop directly, not to your off-site domain. Affiliates are looking for the link to your shop and products where they are able to set a cookie.

2. You *can* post the link to your off-site domain if it is running software that tracks the CafePress.com affiliate ID using a redirect. Specify in your post that your site is affiliate tracking enabled, and make sure your site has a page that clearly shows the affiliate how to link to you.

3. Include in your post the link directly to your affiliate information page if you have one. Also mention the availability of special tools like banners, datafeeds, link generators and other neat things that make it easy for an affiliate to link to your shop.

4. Be specific about what you have for sale in your shop. Include in your post the theme or topic of your shop. Instead of "I have great photos, check my shop out", say "Great photos and art of New York City" or "Photos of cats and dogs, many breeds represented" or "Text based graphic about (fill in the blank)".

5. Please be sure and label sites that contain offensive or "not kid friendly" products and graphics in your posts so people can click accordingly.

6. Be prepared for feedback. Both positive feedback and constructive criticism. Negativity is discouraged, but constructive criticism is wholeheartedly encouraged! Let's help each other make great shops that we all want to link to.

6. Use the title to draw affiliate attention to your thread as you would use SEO to draw people into your website. Using categories you offer in addition to the name of your shop gives the affiliate some meat to entice them to open your thread and read on. There is no need to put that you are seeking affiliates. Afterall thats what this whole forum is for, right? Use that space to give a preview or information to make the affiliate want to open your thread.

7. Please do not create threads specifically for product and/or section announcements. If you have a new product or section which you want to draw affiliate attention to, please add it to the thread you created your shop announcement in. The goal of this forum is to give affiliates a place where they can browse through and pick out some potential shops they would like to affiliate with. If the forum became full of product/section announcement threads, affiliates could quickly become lost in frustration.

8. Do not make a reply to your thread for every single design you add. A weekly update on what is new in your shop should be more than sufficient. Just make sure you hit the reply button on your announcement thread and don't create it as a new thread.

9. The CafePress.com Community Forums run with an automatic pruning feature which eliminates old inactive posts. In order to keep your thread available to affiliates you must reply to it at least once every 40ish days. If your thread enters a locked state because of inactivity, simply PM one of the moderators a request to reopen the thread so you can post. If your thread hits the 60 day purge point and is removed, you may then post a new shop announcement for your shop.

EDIT: Added section to point 7..

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pristinephoto,