Cafe Press Exposed
Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes
A lot of cats love to use these cafe press shopkeeper like services. Most people are truly unaware of the agreement they are agreeing to. Since they want to put “Bam My Nuts” on T-shirts, cups, license plate and toilet paper rolls they get suckered to signing up. On top of them cutting a check of their original idea to another company they are actually signing away the growth of their brand. Sometimes you just have to read the fineprint as most devils hope you just sign up! Here’s what Cafe Press fine print says…
Licensing Your Content to CafePress.com. In uploading any of your Content to the Web Site, you grant to CafePress.com a royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, nonexclusive, right and license in such Content, in all media existing now or created in the future, to do what it deems reasonable: (i) to permit you to use the Shopkeeper Service to design, produce, market and sell Products and (ii) to promote, market and advertise your Products, your Shop, or the CafePress.com Service generally. Without limitation, this promotion, marketing, or advertising may consist of: (i) display of your Products, (ii) promotional “streams” of audio Content on the Web Site, and (iii)display of pages from book Products on the Web Site. CafePress.com may sublicense the rights that you grant it in this Section to a third party subcontractor only for purposes of producing Products sold through your Shop. This Section4 only gives CafePress.com the right to use your Content for the purposes stated above, and does not give CafePress.com ownership of any of your Content. Within 30 days following termination of your Account, CafePress.com will terminate its use of your Content.
So let’s say you market your brand through CafePress and forget about your account. You have literally given them the right to tap into you blowing up and make money without cutting you a check at all. So let’s say the FUBU cats used CafePress and then blew up! Then CafePress could hurry up and print all kinds of Fubu gear on everything they can find. It’s such a devilish tactic that I was shocked when I saw it. It’s almost like they are relying on you forgetting that you have an account with them so they can make money off of your hustle. Then when you do cancel your account they have 30 more days to push product.
Now don’t get me wrong all of these help the entreprenuer sites have this in their fine print. Amazon has it with their self publishing angle and a lot of cats are all up in that. See we go right back to the understanding of money with this. Since you want to get put on so much you actually give over the rights to your products. The devil always sets up Sucker distribution deals waiting for you to think you need them and their name to vouch for your creation. Since most cats are ignorant to money they sign up and go and tell a friend!
Nothing is free when it comes to money. Cats could have all the money if they just did for self. If you had a book, especially a E-book; you don’t need Amazon at all. All you really need is marketing so you can get more cats to know that you put the book out. A lot of these hustles you have from T-shirts to E-books are in need of marketing nothing more and nothing less. Cat’s have to learn to do a street promoting campaign behind every project. When you sign up with these companies all they are doing is making money off your talent while you lie to yourself and say if I’m associated with Amazon more people will buy my book!
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Hmmm I got quite a few designs with Cafe Press, of which I did make some cash over the years. But after reading part of that licensing a few years back, it made me very hesitant to upload any new stuff.
Very often the easy way is not really the best way.
What a trap they set up! First you bring your ORIGINAL ideas to them and use it to build your brand. Then without any real upfront notice you might walk away from cafepress to really get your brand going. Then at any time they can reprint and make money without paying you (ROYALTY FREE) your brand and even if you cancel the account they still have 30 days.
See we have to notice the difference between distribution and someone CONNING you. Then they say they don’t have any rights to it but shit what right do you need with stuff if you already have the right to duplicate it.
The devils goal is to give corral all the creative ideas into the funnel they created. Then they make money off of you putting it on cups and when it blows up they have the machine to out hustle you in a second. So they can make a quick 100K as they have the website to promote it to millions of other people coming to check out their friends designs. It’s a helluva angle!
wow….well thanks for reading the fine print and putting the rest of us on!
You’re Welcome – I read over all of these stuff because I think about using it too. I am really wondering why most people would even set up a company with that kind of clause in it. Damn you are already making money by people bringing their creativity to your site. GREED!
Thanks for the Info.
They do a similar con with a lot of content farms too. They pay you $3 for the words and generate ad revenue and traffic from your work.
I’m glad I stumbled on your website. My man & I just started a business, and I’ve picked up a lot of good info. from your blogs. I’m glad somebody is keeping post on the watch and looking out for us!
@ZM – Whenever a entrepreneur doesn’t want do become a business they give it to someone else for them to do the business part. As a result they often get dicked because they never think of their small time hustle in business terms. This is the way of the world as they provide everything for you never to own but to use their business and lose percentages of your business until you the 100% maker ends up happy to make 10%.
@FeastyBaby – Welcome – I’m glad you have picked up enough to get going and keep you going. With money and transaction it creates the devil in the details. No one wants to really help you when it comes to money they want to help themselves and you have the idea that will make them millions.
“No one wants to really help you…they want to help themselves” that is the bottom line, at best by helping ourselves we benefit others. At worst, it gets pretty messed up..”Do unto others” make a lot more sense when we accept that we are all selfish.
Thanks for the heads ups, every entrepenuer should approach any of these mediums as way to promote their own brands and, make it a rule to read the fine print and count the cost.
Welcome KwameG – When money is on the line the reason for everything is to make money. So no matter how helpful these other businesses may be it’s still to make money off of you. So the fine print has to be read and also we have to stop believing people are helping us out when in actuality we are making a business deal!
Yeah i hear you, that’s a true story right there. People need to at the very least know what the fine print implies before ratifying what could be a profitable livelihood. I’m tryin’ to stay hands-on with mine until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to delegate, and even then everything will require my signature bfore proceeding. That company always seemed shady to me, anyway. Yo, but let me ask you a question. I’m tryin’ to set up a contract w/a prominent teeshirt manufacturer (best in quality, in my opinion), but they require a few business references that i don’t have because i’m fresh off the blocks, haven’t hit my first hurdle yet. Any suggestions how i may pull that off??
CORRECTION: tryin’ to set-up an account, not a contract.
If you don’t have any references then the best thing you can do is talk to them and tell them you will pay for your product up front. References are only asked for if they intend to extend you credit. So you can get around all of that if you just say you’ll pay them upfront.
When you start out you will have to pay a little bit higher and up front so these companies can do business with you. It’s just the way it always starts. They’ll lower the price as your business gets off the ground.
Cool, i can do that. Thanx a bunch, Freeman…preciate that, bruh!! Luv the new layout and the editorial as always is top-shelf.
And this why Im picky when it come to doing business with 3rd-parties…
Glad I aint never had nothing to go on there for.