This is where I pimp CafePress and PayPal big time. Just so you know.

I really think that nothing has contributed to the promotion of Joss Whedon’s universe more than CafePress. By taking all of the gruntwork and up-front money away from creating products, CafePress made it pretty damn easy to make our own Firefly and Serenity stuff. You create an account, make your designs (they provide specifications on size and resolution), upload ‘em, choose what products to offer, set your prices (they give you the base price for each item, you decide how much higher to price it to determine your profit), and start telling people about it. They handle the manufacture, sales transaction, packaging, shipping, and (if necessary) returns, and you get whatever profit comes from the markup amount you chose. They also promote their own stores, offer searchable directories so people can find you, change out the product line every now and then to keep things interesting, and run regular coupon sales to pump up business.

T-shirts, caps, stickers, license plate holders, bumper stickers, dog shirts, baby clothing, hoodies, buttons, prints, framed prints, aprons, calendars, just about anything you can think of is here and you slap your design on it. And there are seasonal offerings such as holiday ornaments and chocolate boxes.

There are some restrictions. You can’t use trademarked graphics, sports or business logos, or identifiable likenesses of celebrities, and that does slow down the average fan shopowner who really wants to offer a portrait of River about to kill you with her brain. But you can make your own designs and incorporate quotes from the ‘verse, and many, many people do. Including, of course, me, with my shop Big Red Button.

You have two options when opening a CafePress shop. You can opt for a free shop but you’re limited to one design per shop and you can’t change the look of the page. However, you can open as many as you like. Many browncoats prefer to do this, adding links to all of their shops in the customizable header of each one to cross-promote themselves.
Advantages: No money needed at all, easy to get started, no website experience necessary
Disadvantages: You’ll look just like every other CafePress store, linking all your stores can get awkward, harder to promote

Or you can buy a Premium Shop and customize it to your heart’s content. It runs $6.95 a month but you can change the look to match your own website (if you have one) or use one of their provided templates. You can offer as many different items as you like and even put them in categories for easy browsing. I set mine up to be paid automatically out any profits I make each month so for the most part I never get billed.
Advantages: Fully customizable, unlimited products, one URL to promote
Disadvantages: You gotta pay for it

You can also use CafePress to make designs just for you or your friends. Make your shop, keep it listed as “private,” and order at cost.

There are shopkeeper forums and lots of how-to guides available to help you get started and CafePress items are good quality for the price. Interested? Click here to get started!

There are other sites with different products and their own pros and cons – Zazzle.com has a different price structure, more T-shirt colors, different print sizes, and fewer items all together but a rep for high quality; SpreadShirt.net is good for international business but a bit trickier for a US seller to set up, etc — but I’ve been happy with CafePress.

Or you could decide to create your own merchandise and sell it yourself, and good for you. The easy way is to set up a PayPal Merchant Account and use PayPal’s services to turn your basic website into a commercial site almost immediately. There are no setup or monthly fees — PayPal takes a small percentage of your sales instead — and you’ll be able to accept instant, secure payments from anyone with a credit card or checking account, and an email address. Sell via auctions, websites, marketplaces or email. And you get the cash almost as fast as the buyer sends it, no waiting for checks to clear. PayPal purchases are secure and they have fraud and chargeback protection. You can also accept payments from around the world, in different currencies. PayPal provides easy to use systems to meet your needs, from a linked “Buy!” button to a full shopping cart program. (Some services available only in Premium accounts)

If you make your own site, be sure to post information on buyer privacy, refunds, exchanges, and your contact information. Good customer service is the best form of advertising.

And once you’re up and running, tell me about it.