| Let's say you find yourself out of work and you are in | | | | Printfection and others have evolved. One may open |
| your forties. Maybe it is due to your firm having | | | | a store on their site, simply by signing up. |
| downsized. Maybe it went out of business. Perhaps | | | | So you've got your own web-store. Now what? Read |
| you were self-employed and the marketplace did not | | | | the tutorials. Learn to design on products. Now they |
| respond. Maybe you started without much capital or | | | | offer a myriad of products other than just tees (even |
| were not a trust-fund baby. | | | | complete lines of men's, women's kids, and infants |
| Was it ill health? | | | | wear), gifts such as framed prints, steins, teddy bears, |
| The reason doesn't matter. Hindsight is 20-20. The | | | | mouse pads, posters, key chains, coffee mugs, caps, |
| question is, "What do I do now"? Maybe youwant to | | | | and the list goes on and on. |
| go back to work for someone else. For many, that is | | | | Though there are many schools of thought, it is best to |
| the right thing. Everyone is different. One person's | | | | create a niche product. If you want to create funny art |
| sense of security is another person's hell. When health | | | | or funny slogan products, be the specialist in that. If you |
| issues brought me down, in my forties, I had some | | | | want to focus on computer-related, software slogans, |
| important decisions to make. I was not only a non-trust | | | | business, or whatever, do what you do best. |
| fund baby, I was running out of savings, something I | | | | Go to and other such portals and learn about affiliate |
| had never really learned to do well at that point in my | | | | programs. Several of the above mentioned sites have |
| life. I had to do something and do something fast. | | | | affiliate programs. Join them and let others sell your |
| A lot of people suggested I find some Internet guru, | | | | designs. If you prefer, you can sell theirs as well, or, if |
| buy the program, and get to work, on my way to | | | | you have no designs, you can sell theirs only. Either |
| becoming the next semi-young billionaire. I looked at | | | | way, you will make money if you work at it, blog, social |
| many of the e-books available, and read blogs and | | | | network, social bookmark, etc. |
| such, and it appeared the only ones really making | | | | So now you are saying, "I've read all the way down to |
| money were the web gurus selling to web guru | | | | here, he's telling me not to find a web guru, and how in |
| wannabes. Hence the rub. What to do. I researched. | | | | the world am I going to make any money without |
| Was there a way to really open a web business | | | | advertising. I must have advertising dollars. Well, maybe |
| without a penny? At the time, the answer was "no", at | | | | you have a few dollars saved up for a few AdWords, |
| least not anything substantial. | | | | and maybe you don't. If you don't, you can still do it |
| I already had created a cartoon site on sweat equity, | | | | free, you simply have to learn article marketing and |
| which was virtually a non-commerce site, except for a | | | | blogging. What you are reading is a perfect example |
| small t-shirt store I had created with a (then) small | | | | of article marketing. It gives the reader valuable |
| POD (Print On Demand) online | | | | content (for free), that, he would pay a guru hundreds |
| T-shirt maker named "Cafepress". I could put my | | | | or even thousands of dollars to read the same thing |
| images on their products for free, display them, | | | | and stay within his/her network (the guru is building a |
| connect them to my website, and it cost nothing. I did | | | | database of names which he/she can sell later and |
| not have to buy a premium store through them which | | | | cares much more about that than you or whether you |
| is $6 or so a month. If I had created slogans, I also | | | | profit. With this said and done, don't procrastinate. You'll |
| could have put them on the tees. Cafepress was no | | | | make mistakes but you'll also have triumphs. That's |
| big deal at the time. That was 1998. Since that time | | | | part of the game of business. Good luck and keep the |
| other print-on-demand firms such as Zazzle, | | | | faith! |