Recently I decided to try something new: I set up an online store with CafePress.com.  Although I haven’t actually “launched” the store (i.e. put links and icons leading to the store on my blog to let my readers know it’s there), setting up the store was a valuable lessons in starting a new home business with this site.

Basically, CafePress.com allows you to set up an online store for your business, selling merchandise with your logo or images printed on them.  For instance, you can use this site to sell promotional T-shirts and other items, but you can also use it in more of a creative vein.

My store is more of the latter.  I had taken some photos recently that I thought were rather special, so I created some greeting cards using the photos.  About half are of flowers — roses and columbines, from the garden at the barn where I was boarding my horse at the time — and the other half are of my horse.

I’m just trying out CafePress.com right now, so I just have the basic CafePress.com store, which is free.  In order to access some of the better features — i.e. designing the store to look like your website, or using the same merchandise over and over with different images — you have to upgrade to the paid store package, which is under $10 a month (you get a discount for buying an entire year).

If I did the upgraded store, I think I could sell some great merchandise with my store.  For instance, I could design photo wedding invitations such as white roses wedding invitations and tiger lily wedding invitations.  I think I would really enjoy this work — I have discovered that I really enjoy photographing flowers!

I don’t know if I’ll actually do it, though.  It really depends on how well my readers receive my online store — if they aren’t interested, it won’t be worth it to pay for the upgrade!