I’ve been enjoying working with Zazzle, an online store where you can design and sell merchandise such as T-shirts, coffee mugs and greeting cards. (CafePress is its more famous competitor; each launched in 1999.)

So far, my store is selling Noise to Signal shwag: mugs and greeting cards, mostly. (And by all means, please equip your kitchen cupboard and put my kids through university.) I’ll be aiming to branch out into more – but not, however, into water bottles; CafePress seems to have the franchise on those.

I took CafePress for a spin a year or two ago, but found their content policies too restrictive. I then checked out GoodStorm, a wonderful-looking venture that Andrew Hoppin was involved in; their eventual merger with Zazzle brought me to their doorstep.

Zazzle’s an interesting animal; their user interface is powerful, but I often find the workflow confusing – it can be hard to tell if you’re editing an existing product or creating a new one, and it can take ages for changes or new products to show up in your storefront. Still, their tools are handy, their Flash widgets are undeniably nifty, and they haven’t stopped me from saying anything yet – all pluses for yours truly.

The biggest missing piece for me isn’t technical. I’d like to know a lot more about how these products are made and where they come from. GoodStorm held some real promise about bringing an ethical lens to bear on this field; I don’t know of anyone else who has taken up the torch of socially and environmentally responsible sourcing and manufacturing. (If you do, by all means please mention them in the comments!)

create & buy custom products at Zazzle