If you love to design and/or to create slogans and sayings and/or to make and sell products, then check out Zazzle. It’s pretty much similar to CafePress, where you can put designs or slogans on to various products such as T-shirts, mugs, and cards, then set-up an online store to sell them. You can then get a percentage of that sale. And, even if you’re not in to creating your own original designs and sayings, you can still set up your own online stores or just sell specific products, showcasing other people’s products. You will receive 15% of every sale, according to their site.

Although I have had some experience using Cafepress for this type of online business, I must admit that I have very little experience with Zazzle. In fact, I just signed up for an account there, to test it out. I’m not sure yet what the experience will be like, so I’ll report back here when I get the chance. However, I have heard some good feedback from Zazzle users. So, hopefully, it’s a good place to check out.

In any case, one of the things that I like about it is the different types of products that they have featured. For example, you can get Keds shoes, skateboards, photo sculptures, and postage stamps – and even add your own designs to them. I definitely would like to give them a try.

Oh, and yes, they are based in the USA. However, they have localised versions in different countries too, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.

If you have been a Zazzle user – either as a seller, designer, or buyer – do let us know what you think of it. Your feedback is always welcome!

Here’s a sample Zazzle panel that you can create to sell products -

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Zazzle: Create, Sell, and Make Money

I first heard of Oronjo a few months ago. However, I didn’t get the chance to check it out until recently.

So, what is it? Oronjo is a site that offers to help you to make money online by selling articles and other premium content on your blog or site. And, here’s a quick overview of its pros and cons:

The Good Stuff

• It’s free. Yes, there’s no cost to signing up and hosting your premium content for sale at the moment. They did say that they might offer some services for a fee one day. But, for now, it’s all free. The only fee you’ll incur will be those that are charged by Paypal/Google checkout.
• You can sell different types of files. And, you can sell articles for a fee. Files accepted include: PDF, DOC, EXE, MP3, JPG, etc. So yes, you can sell just about anything – from ebooks and audio files to software and photos.
• They offer 2 payments systems: Paypal and Google Checkout. Although you can get paid by buyers using either one of these systems, you can only really receive your payment via Paypal.
• It offers some selling tools – from shop buttons to graphical banners. You can add them to your web pages or blog posts.
• It integrates with WordPress blogs. Yes, there’s an Oronjo WordPress Plugin that you can use to integrate your shop with your blog.
• It offers a way to sell for charity. If money making for a good cause is something you’d like to do, you can easily integrate your choice of charity as a place to send your payments.
• There’s a Feed Available. So, people who want to watch your items via a feedreader can do so.

The Not-So-Nice Bits

• No shop front. I would’ve really preferred if there was a place to highlight all items that are available for sale from a single seller. I didn’t see this.
• No auto preview. People like to have an idea of what they’re buying. So, a preview of a photo or a file would’ve been nice. In any case, you can still offer a preview on your blog or site.
• Only 2 currencies available so far. Trading is only available using US$ and EUR.

As you can see, I don’t see of a lot of negatives of Oronjo so far. But admittedly, these three bits of negatives are of high importance to me. So, personally, I’m not sure if Oronjo will be the best selling solution for me if I decide to go this route of selling premium content. Also, I still have yet to see this system in full action. It will be interesting to see what it’s like from a buyer’s point of view. And, how quickly sellers get their payments.

If you have any experience with Oronjo, I’d love to hear from you.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Oronjo: Premium Content Marketplace

If you’re looking for another place to sell products online, you might want to have a look at Big Cartel. It has a few interesting features – including customisation, stats tracking, and inventory management. There are 3 levels to this service: Gold (Free), Platinum (US$9.99/month), and Diamond (US$19.99/month). The Free version, of course, has a lot of limitations, but it might be a good way to test it out.

Anyway, here’s the comparison of the plans/services:

To see samples, check out their featured stores. Many of their shop owners seem to be record label holders, artists, designers and the like. But, you can sell just about anything.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

BigCartel : Online Store

Today, I learned about Photrade, a new photography marketplace that’s still in beta. The basic idea is that you upload your photos in the service, then you can sell products based on your photos. These products include: photo prints, apparel, and gift items, as well as digital downloads (stock photo). You can set your own price and they’ll take care of delivering the products to the customer. It also seems like they plan to offer an affiliate programme in the future.

In any case, payments may be: 1) collected in the system and used to buy stuff from the site; 2) donated to your chosen charity; and/or b) sent to you via Paypal (with US$15 minimum payment threshold).

Since it’s still in beta, there are a couple of issues: a) You can only try out the service if you get an invitation; and b) There’s still a few kinks in the system. Plus, I’m not sure yet of its track record when it comes to quality of products, payment systems to photographers, etc.

In any case, I still think it’s a service worth watching. And right now, I have 3 invites available to give away. If you’re interested, leave a comment here answering the question: What kind of camera do you own?

If there are more than 3 folks interested, I’ll raffle off the invites.

NOTE: Thanks to Janette Toral for sending me an invite and telling me about Photrade.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Photrade: Make Money Online with Your Photos

I love Flickr. It’s not perfect. In fact, I have a long wish list when it comes to this service – including better protection for photographers and artists. But, in spite of its shortcomings, I’ve been a loyal customer since 2004 – long before it was acquired by Yahoo (and paying for a Pro account every year since ’06).

And, while there are no direct ways to make money online with Flickr, there are ways you can use the site to help you in your business/career. Here are some ideas:

1) Take a photo of a product and put a link to your affiliate link via notes function. To see a sample of this idea in action, click on the photo of books on the right hand side. You will then be taken to the image’s Flickr page. Once you’re there, put your cursor over the books and you’ll see notes with affiliate links to Amazon.

2) Make your picture available as stock photo and put a link to your sales or downloads page. If you use a service like Tradebit, for example, you can mention in your photo description that a higher resolution/non-watermarked version of your photo is available for download.

3) If you sell on eBay, Etsy, or your own shop, you can take a photo of your product and put a link to your store front. Many Flickr crafters tend to use this approach. Flickr then helps to introduce your products to people. One example is artist and designer Elsie Flannagan: when she has a new piece available for sale, she uploads an image like this and mentions that it’s available as a print or original in her Etsy shop. Another example is Mahar Dry Goods, run by Robert Mahar who tend to upload new product photos on Flickr, and his profile reflects the fact that he is the owner of craft gift shop for kids (with a link to shop front).

4) Build your portfolio and market your service/business. Even if you don’t have products to sell, but you have a service to offer, you can use Flickr as one of your online portfolios. This especially useful for artists, photographers, illustrators and designers. Many folks have claimed to have gained new clients based on their Flickr account. One such person is author/illustrator Debbie Ohi. You can see that her profile reflects the nature of her work and that she accepts commissions.

5) When you use a photo on your blog that you uploaded on Flickr, add a link to your blog post or portfolio site. If your blog runs ads, product sales and/or affiliates, then you might get new customers too.

6) Sell them as prints. You can either use a third party service for creating high quality prints, or you can do the printing yourself if you have the equipment and knowledge to do so. Mention that your photos are available as prints in the description and/or your profile.

7) Create products off your photography. Flickr, for example, has a partnership with Qoop, where various products like mugs, keychains and photobooks may be created based on your Flickr photos. You can create them there and resell those products. Another option is making your own image-based products available on Cafepress. Again, you can mention the availability of these products in the description and/or your profile.

Some Bonus Tips:

1. Make sure you upload a good quality image. Otherwise, it will not encourage people to buy your products or use your services.

2. Adding good titles and descriptions are always helpful.

3. Don’t forget to add tags! Tagging helps to get your images to show in relevant searches.

4. Never ever oversell. Flickr users will know if you’re just using the service to peddle your products/services. Don’t plaster “for sale” signs.

5. Join groups and participate in them. Send some of your good images to these groups (within the group rules). Communities help!

6. Add friends and leave comments. Being an active participant is a good thing.

7. Promote your Flickr photos on your blog, your email signature, and anywhere else you can think of.

8. There are 2 versions of Flickr – a Free and Pro version. With the Free one, you have limited number of uploads in a month, plus a few other restrictions. But, it’s still worth using. The Pro version has unlimited uploads and a few other perks – like getting your photos organised in several sets and collections.

So, do you use Flickr at all? And, do you have any other money-generating ideas with the use of Flickr?

Image credit: Shai Coggins

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

7 Ways to Make Money on Flickr (+ Bonus Tips)

There are many ways you can make money by selling downloadable files online. One option available is selling through Tradebit.

The Good Parts:

• It’s almost free to use. It doesn’t charge a monthly fee or listing fees. It just gets a percentage (commission) of your sale price.
• It supports several types of downloadable files – software, photos, music, documents, etc.
• There’s an available support forum and a blog, where the owner seems to be quite responsive to site users’ queries.
• Several available payment systems available – including Paypal and Google Checkout.
• You set your own price to your downloads.
• A few good features – including integration with your affiliate programmes, sales reports, etc.

The Bad Parts:

• It’s a bit difficult to navigate. While testing the service, I got lost so many times. And, it can get really confusing/frustrating.
• There’s limited customisation options.
• Site presentation isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing. Would’ve preferred a better way to present products through the shop front.
• Some features tend to go wonky at times.

Payment is done on a weekly basis, sent to your Paypal account. They also run an affiliate programme, where you make money by promoting other people’s downloadable files for sale.

If you’ve used the service (or still using it), let me know what you think of it. If you know of other similar services, I’d love to hear from you too.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Tradebit : Selling Downloads