Sponsor's Message

Now for the second instalment of this series...

From time to time I've wondered whether it would be worthwhile using a short run of tee-shirts with a big bold "Aardvark" on them to help promote this site. I recently went so far as to try and find a local supplier that could provide both the shirts and the printing.

Unfortunately most of the companies I approached required that a minimum quantity be purchased (which was more than I could afford), and then I'd have all the hassles of accepting orders, packing up the goods an dispatching them to the purchasers (if there were any).

In the end I decided that such an enterprise was not for me. I'm a publisher and a missile-builder, not a part of the rag trade.

But then, while researching for Friday's "Lighten-Up" section, I came across a brilliant option to the traditional method of dealing with promotional items such as tee-shirts, coffee-mugs, caps, mouse-pads, etc.

I refer to a rather smart service being offered by a US company known as CafePress.com.

By integrating the whole process (printing, sale and fulfillment) into a simple process, and working with no minimum quantities, they make it possible for *anyone* to start offering their own branded promotional products over the Net.

What's more, you can set your own profit margin on each sale and at the end of the month, they just send you a cheque for the amount you've earned. They even set up an online shop for your wares.

Of course the prices are pretty steep -- but I don't think that's really too much of an issue since these are items people buy for the branding not for the actual garment.

Trawl around their site and see just how many different items they will print your branding on -- it's very impressive.

A quick check of usenet shows that their service and the quality of their wares seems to match their claims and there are plenty of happy customers out there.

One thing that particularly interested me was the costs associated with their printing on demand service. For a perfect-bound book of 50+ pages they're charging just US$7 setup plus US0.03 per page. Using this service I could publish my 100 page pulsejet book in hardcopy for a retail price of US$15 and still make $5 per copy (sold and sent) -- far more than I'd get when using a traditional publisher.

Yes, this is another example of how a smart business idea, when coupled with the reach of the Net, results in a very good little business of benefit to everyone.

Telecom Says "Don't Bitch Yet"
I see that Telecom are telling us that we're jumping the gun with our complaints about their DSL pricing.

The company claims that Friday's announced plans were simply "to give the ISPs a month's notice." Oh yeah, we believe you Telecom -- so why didn't you mention this on Friday then?

I note also that Xtra will apparently be announcing "a lot of stuff around content and customer service" at the same time. Will this broadband content be a cunning attempt to lure customers with a 500MB cap into that highly profitable $0.20/MB territory I wonder?

Sorry Telecom, I for one don't believe you. Fess up. You were unprepared for the very negative backlash to Friday's announcement and now you're trying to backpedal like hell.

And I'm told there's no truth to the rumour that Theresa Gatung was seen wearing studded leather wrist-bands this morning.

If any Aardvark readers want to share an opinion on today's column or add something, you're invited to chip in and have your say in The Aardvark Forums or, if you prefer, you can contact me directly.

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