Well,
my comic is fairly new, though it seems to be acquiring a small-but-dedicated following; having 1,600 YouTube subscribers to whom I've been able to advertise really didn't hurt at all. So I decided to open up a CafePress store because a few folks mentioned they'd like merchandise.
I've made exactly one sale. To my dad.
Granted, he wanted it for one of the kids in my old neighborhood whose parents are friends with mine, but
still...if I were you, I wouldn't expect to make much money no matter
HOW people bug you for merchandise; apathy and false promises reign supreme, it would appear. And given that CafePress takes the bulk of the money made
anyway--unless you charge and arm and a leg, you make
maybe two smackers out of the $16 or so someone might pay for a T-shirt--it really does start to seem something other than worth it.
Also, unless you make enough to justify having a CafePress premium store--which costs you a few bucks a month--your store may be a smidge anemic. You see, you can only have one of each type of item with a basic store on CafePress; if you want to have, say, a one lady's fitted T-shirt for each character of your comic, you simply
can't with a Basic store. You can have multiple designs, but you can only have one of each style of item. Which really stinks.
And I sure as Hades won't be using CafePress if/when I put out my comic in book form; my comic is full-color and I want any book to be so as well, but CafePress only prints in black-and-white. For color books, I'm looking possibly at
Lulu.com...
In fact, after less than a month, I'm seriously considering shopping around for an alternative to CafePress. I haven't found one yet, but...I'm doing a bit of research into it.
Hope this helps. I realize this review is a smidge negative and it's
DEFINITELY subjective and biased, and maybe someone else has had a more positive experience than I. But perhaps not, as well. Regardless, as I said, I hope it helps.