# How cafepress/zazzle build up their member from zero?



## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

I was wondering how does cafepress/zazzle start up with zero member?

Do they have like 100 designer friends, each submit 10 designs so before they official launch they already have 1000 designs and 100 members active.

Therefore when 1st public user visit this website, they will think it is already established, etc..?

What if I don't have 100 friends with 1000 designs? it can't be the case where 1st public user visit the website and see no designs and no member... and think that he is the only one visit the site!

If I don't have 100 friends, 1000 designs, how do I start?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I was wondering how does cafepress/zazzle start up with zero member?


Just regular old advertising. CafePress has been around for 9 years now. They started out with just 2 guys in a garage with a heat press and an idea.

They just tried several different methods of getting people to their site and telling them about their service which at the time was a "new" thing. It was a pretty easy sell. People could sell t-shirts, mugs and mousepads (they only started with 3 products) from their site without having to pay a cent.

Phone calls, emails, paid advertising, and they slowly grew their business. Somewhere along the line they realized that the community was part of the driving force of their business, so they opened up their forums. Originally, they had support only forums where all the posts were reviewed and moderated before they could appear. Later down road, they opened it up more, and then later still as they grew, they hired someone to be a community liason and work directly with the community.

It would be harder to start with that exact business model today and gain the same marketshare that CafePress/Zazzle has. But people are doing it. PrintFection was a late comer and started from zero, but they are still making a name for themselves by focusing on quality and a larger print size.


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

Back in the day CafePress didn't have a Marketplace so flauting high numbers wasn't possible, people just flocked to CafePress because it was a cool idea - the first one. It built from there.

Zazzle started off with a beta program, invite only I recall. That created some buzz that way and joined up. That was the case wasn't it Rodney?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Zazzle started off with a beta program, invite only I recall. That created some buzz that way and joined up. That was the case wasn't it Rodney?


I left out Zazzle in my post because I'm still not sure how they started up. I just remember one day they were "there"  I've talked to them before, but I didn't go into the history.



> Back in the day CafePress didn't have a Marketplace so flauting high numbers wasn't possible, people just flocked to CafePress because it was a cool idea - the first one. It built from there.


Very true. When people see CafePress today, it's very easy to think that they've always been that "big".

But when you've seen where they came from and what they started with, it's pretty darn remarkable.

Here's a nice flashback: Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Back in 1999: Cafe Press


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## jinhoe (Jul 30, 2008)

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the history lesson. Cafepress seems to change their website every few months, is it one of the ways of making your site stay new and fresh?

How did they cope with scalability issue? I hope I'm not off topic.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> How did they cope with scalability issue?


By hiriring team of top notch in house programmers. They've had their growing pain bumps like most businesses that have grown rapidly, but they seem to stay on top of it.



> Cafepress seems to change their website every few months, is it one of the ways of making your site stay new and fresh?


I think featuring different things on the homepage gives people another reason to return, or makes the site look interesting for those customers who are making a repeat purchase.

I don't know if you need a complete site "redesign" every few months, but it is good to keep your site updated often.


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## tshirt0mania (May 27, 2008)

jinhoe said:


> Do they have like 100 designer friends, each submit 10 designs so before they official launch they already have 1000 designs and 100 members active.


LOL Actually that doesn't sound too bad an idea at all!




jinhoe said:


> If I don't have 100 friends, 1000 designs, how do I start?


All you need is 10 designer friends with 10 designs each. You'd have 100 designs and that's plenty to start off with already! 

I have a few designer friends who are only too happy to pick out a few designs from their archives and be able to make any money off of them


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