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Every year I make a calendar for our extended family which involves quite a lot of time and work. I will be putting this year's version in this month's competition 'Counting the Days'. For this year I thought I would also try selling calendars on line so I investigated three popular options: cafepress, Lulu and Zazzle.
First of all I was impressed with how easy it is. The three suppliers are quite different in their interfaces but reasonably intuitive. Each has its strong and weak points but overall I am most impressed with Zazzle for its options and tools for customising, adding text as well as pictures.
I have not checked out the quality of printing or materials yet.
So what about sales? Well Zazzle came out well ahead, then cafepress and finally Lulu with zero. But sales is down to my own marketing efforts and shouldn't be expected of the printer/supplier. I left my experiment very late and did very little marketingwise so I was not expecting great results. I have learned enough though to plan well ahead for next year's season which I am looking forward to. No doubt there will be even more suppliers and more choice.
You can see here my three versions of what is basically the same content.
My Cafepress calendars.
My Zazzle Calendar.
My LULU Calendar.
Here are the various offerings of the three suppliers:
CafePress
- 4 calendar types
- Easy set up.
- Good previews.
- Affiliate program
a) Calendar print
- (single page) 11"x17" image size 11x8.5"
- base price $3.99
- I don't like the design of the base calendar - ugly black bar
b) wall calendar
- 12 pages + cover 11x8.5" (11 x 17" when hung)
- wire-o-bound
- Jan - Dec US holidays only
- base price: $14.99
c) vertical wall calendar
- 12 pages + cover 11x17"
- Jan - Dec US holidays only
- wire-o-bound
- base price $16.99
d) oversize wall calendar
- 12 pages + cover 11 x 17" (17 x 22" when hung)
- Jan - Dec US holidays only
- wire-o-bound
- base price $18.99
LULU
- Easy setup
- Poor preview
- No affiliate program
- 2 calendar types
- Choose your start month and finish month
- Choose number of months
- Customise your date highlights
a) Standard calendar
- 8.5" x 11" page size (11 x 17 open)
- wire-o-bound
- base price $11.29 (for 12 month calendar)
b)Premium Calendar
- 13.5 x 19"
- choice of glossy or linen finish paper
- wire-o-bound
- base price $19.95 (for 12 month calendar)
Zazzle
- Very flexible set up with high degree of customisation
- Very good previews
- Affiliate program
- 5 styles and sizes
- 10 styles for dates and holidays
- wire-o-binding (choice of 7 colours)
- choose your own start and stop dates
(any period within 2008-2009)
- Option to allow buyers to personalise
Two page:
- Standard: 11"x17" (each page is 11"x8.5"): $19.95 ea
- Huge: 14.25"x22" (each page is 14.25"x11"): $22.95 ea
- Small: 7"x11" (each page is 7"x5.5"): $17.95 ea
Single page
- Standard: 11"x17": $17.95 ea
- Small: 7"x11": $15.95 ea
- Add $4 for 13-18 month calendars, add $8 for 19-24 month calendars
I would love to hear of anyone else's calendar experiences.
Paul
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