Serious Solutions for Web-to-Print

To reiterate four different ways that you can enter the print business from the previous article:

1. You can build a business with in-house print presses, an expansion that requires serious investment which may or may not be recovered depending on your current client base and/or future prospects. You then become a print house with design services, rather than a design house with print services.
2. You can become a print broker, or liaison between the client and the printer. You take the orders, and the print house designs the print layouts, but you control prepress approvals and you take the final prepress to the printer for completion.
3. You can become a desktop publisher for clients. If you already own the needed software (QuarkXpress, Adobe InDesign, etc.), overhead would be minimal and you would have more control over the prepress operations and the printing options.
4. You can become a desktop publisher for print houses and never touch a print order.

The examples I provided in the previous issue provided little in the way of Web-to-Print opportunities or profitability. You could become a print broker or you could provide some graphic design services, but that’s your limit. However, I also suggested that you take a look at the following Web-to-Print solutions as a prelude to this week’s article: PrintAudit, TharstenSQL, Printable, Saepio, and ZetaPrints. As you’ll see below, these businesses provide examples of what to look for and what to avoid when you begin to shop for serious solutions for a Web-to-Print business expansion. Although the first four examples are marketed toward print houses and/or corporate clients, you can learn from these examples about how to choose a great Web-to-Print system even if you don’t want to purchase printing presses.