CafePress.com has been around nearly as long as the internet itself, but I’ve never focused on it as a serious stream of income. If you’re unaware of what CafePress.com is, it’s a company that allows you to upload your custom logo or design and using their store, they will one-off any number of items from coffee mugs to t-shirts to large framed pictures. They tell you how much each item costs and you markup your price to make a profit.

I’ve taken a closer look recently as my sister has been seeing some success on CafePress. She has a graphic design business and just opened a new store using CafePress and offered her paintings and graphic designs for sale. Within a few days she’s already sold half a dozen items, which points to a very active marketplace — far more than I had expected.

The basis of her success is that she’s an extremely talented artist and has some great designs available for sell, with these two as my favorites:

  

I already have a huge Ganesh tapestry hanging on my wall (bought because my living room needed a jolt of color), so these would go really well in my living room. I really wish she’d offer up some of her other paintings, but perhaps they’ll be coming later. I’ve gotten to like CafePress because it offers a marketplace for artists that was never available before where selling prints and framed reproductions don’t require large investments in inventory. They also ship internationally, so I have means to cover up the sparse white walls at my house.

The only downside is that their affiliate scheme blows. If a sale is made from an affiliate link, 20% is taken out of the artist’s cut. Then 15% is paid to the affiliate with the remaining 5% going to Commission Junction to pay for the affiliate program transaction fees. Whatever marketing executive thought that one up needs his head examined.