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Last Updated on December 10, 2022 by Chris Panteli
Can You Make Money With Print On Demand
Are you interested in starting an online business, but not sure what to start?
Print on Demand (PoD) could be exactly the online business you are looking for!
Starting a Print on Demand business can be started from the comfort of your own home. Plus, the cost to start a Print on Demand business is minimal.
The big question is, can you make money with Print on Demand?
Simply put, yes, you can make money with Print on Demand! I’m here to tell you how and everything else you need to know!
- Can You Make Money With Print On Demand
- What Is Print on Demand?
- Can You Make Money With Print on Demand?
- 4 Steps to Creating a Successful Print on Demand Business
- How Much Money Could You Make From Print on Demand?
- Tips for Making More Money from Print on Demand
- Benefits of Print on Demand
- FAQs
- Can You Make Money With Print On Demand
What Is Print on Demand?
Print on Demand lets you sell a huge variety of products with your epic designs printed on them.
The interesting part is you don’t need to store any inventory!
You partner with a print company and advertise your unique design. Customers place an order, and the print company handles printing and shipping. You can sit back and collect your money!
What products could you sell? Pretty much anything that can have a design printed on it, including:
- T-shirts
- Hoodies
- Mugs
- Phone cases
- Canvas prints
- Wall Art prints
- 3D printed items
Starting your own PoD site allows you the freedom to be your own boss. It’s also a wonderful way to build a passive income!
Here’s how it works step-by-step:
- You create your stunning designs
- Customer places an order via your Print on Demand store
- Orders go directly to your Print on Demand supplier
- Print partner handles the fulfillment of the order
- You keep the profit!
All these processes can be automated which makes the business easy to run! You just need to put the time in at the beginning to get your Print on Demand site established.
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Can You Make Money With Print on Demand?
Yes! You can make money online by selling Print on Demand products.
How much you make depends on the work you are willing to put in. Creating popular designs and promoting them will take time and effort.
Some PoD businesses are extremely profitable, others make a modest income.
Printify is a large Print on Demand platform. You may even choose to partner with them yourself. According to Printify, one seller made $700,000 in his first year!
Although most won’t make anywhere near that amount, there is no reason why you can’t make a decent income as your PoD product grows in popularity. Selling custom products with a good profit margin can lead to a long-term passive income that makes you a profit for years to come!
Remember, if you can create one popular design that sells at a high volume, you will be laughing all the way to the bank!
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✅ Integration with Shopify, Etsy, eBay and more
✅ 10 stores per account
✅ Unlimited product designs
✅ Up to 20% discount on all products
✅ Mockup generator
4 Steps to Creating a Successful Print on Demand Business
There are lots of things you will need to do to build a successful Print on Demand website. Following these 4 steps will provide the solid foundation you need to make money selling Print on Demand products. Get these right and everything will fall into place!
1. Create Original Designs
Creating designs means doing a little research first. If your goal is to make money, you need to sell what’s popular rather than what you want. To start with, concentrate on making designs that will sell and get that money rolling in.
Once you’ve built your business, you could then start selling designs that you’re passionate about.
Research best-selling designs to find a niche that you’re comfortable with and can make your own designs for.
How can you find out which designs are popular?
Amazon Merch provides lots of fantastic data. You can also sell your products on this platform too! To find sales data look for a Print on Demand product with a lot of reviews, or sellers with high BSR (Best Sellers Rank) scores. These are the designs that are selling well, you can now see what niche you may be able to create designs for.
An eCommerce store like Etsy is another way to get valuable PoD data. Search for a combination of your niche keyword and product to see listings for similar items. For example, you might search for the keyword “Marvel” and the product “T-shirt”. You can now see listings for these items. Two bits of important data you can see on Etsy are reviews and orders made. Use this information to tailor your PoD service to meet potential customers’ needs.
Checking out online search trends can be a top source of potential best-selling design ideas. The good news is that you can find a Google Trend for free! Regularly checking what is most searched for is a great way to stay relevant and create products that will sell.
2. Pick A Print on Demand Partner
Now you’ve got your stunning designs, you need a PoD service partner. Three of the best known are Printify, Fine Art America, and Printful. These sites allow you to easily sell your designs using high-quality products.
Get 30 Days FREE Printify Premium Access
I’ve managed to negotiate a sweet deal for my readers! If you use the coupon code LifeUpswing – You get 30 Days Of Printify Premium for FREE.
✅ Integration with Shopify, Etsy, eBay and more
✅ 10 stores per account
✅ Unlimited product designs
✅ Up to 20% discount on all products
✅ Mockup generator
A Print on Demand service partner will handle the hard work for you. Manufacturing, packing, and shipping are all taken care of by the printer.
That leaves you free to concentrate on creating and selling!
The only other thing you will need to take care of is customer service. If there are queries to handle, then usually that’s your responsibility. Some PoD companies may offer to handle customer service as well. If customer service is up to you, then make sure to provide outstanding service every time!
3. Choose Which Platform to Sell On
Ok, you’ve got your epic designs ready, and a Print on Demand partner lined up. Next, it’s time to start selling! But, how?
Your Own Website
Selling via your own website means you keep more of the profits!
You can easily create an online store using platforms like Shopify or WordPress. Building a Shopify store can be easier to start with as every tool you might need for running a successful online store is available. You can even download the Shopify app to run your store from anywhere!
The hardest part will be gaining traffic. At first, you may have to pay for Facebook Ads to promote your website.
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Once your site starts ranking on Google it will be much easier to get traffic to your site. Don’t forget to use Google Analytics to track your website’s progress. Traffic, sales data, and more can be monitored using this free tool. That way you can make changes when something isn’t working.
Use eCommerce Platforms
Instead of building your own website, you can sell on existing e-commerce platforms.
Etsy, eBay, and Amazon are some of the big players in this space.
A great reason to use these platforms is that everything is set up for you. Simply create your free account and start selling!
The downside is that you will need to pay fees to sell on these sites. That means less profit for you.
To make extra money you could join an affiliate program. Putting affiliate links on your site means even if your product doesn’t sell, you might still earn if the customer makes other purchases.
4. Promote Your Designs
Your designs might be incredible. Unique, catchy, and beautifully drawn. However, none of that matters if no one sees them!
Promoting your designs is the most important and hardest step. Ultimately, your best print is the one that sells.
You must build a sales and marketing plan that will propel your business to success. Selling on platforms like Etsy does make things easier as these sites will promote sellers.
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Using social media, Facebook Ads, email marketing, and other methods can all form part of a successful marketing strategy when selling a digital product.
How Much Money Could You Make From Print on Demand?
How much money you can make will depend on two things. Your niche and the effort you put into promoting your designs.
Niches with large amounts of fans are going to be more profitable.
Running a marketing campaign will mean more sales.
How much could you make?
Let’s say you make a profit of $5 per t-shirt. If you sell one a day, then you’ve made $150 a month. That’s $1800 per year just from one sale a day!
A popular niche and good marketing could mean 5-10 sales a day. Now you could be earning over $1500 a month!
Once those sales start rolling in you could earn thousands of dollars. Not only could you earn big, but most of it will be passive income. That means you won’t have to do as much Print on Demand work anymore. If you want to you can simply maintain your sites to keep them up to date.
However, if you want to take your PoD business into the stratosphere keep creating more and more awesome designs!
Tips for Making More Money from Print on Demand
To make more money from Print on Demand try these helpful tips.
Create quality designs
The better the design the more it will sell. If your graphic design skills aren’t top-notch you could use sites like Fiverr to pay a graphic designer to create custom designs for you.
Sell evergreen designs
Evergreen designs are designs that never go out of fashion. Print on Demand designs around holidays are examples of designs that sell every year.
These designs can sell regularly allowing you to build a passive income.
Create multiple sales channels
Selling on one Print on Demand marketplace is limiting. Instead, create your own website, storefronts on all the e-commerce platforms, and more. That way you reach the most customers possible!
Invest in marketing
Paid ads can be expensive. However, if you can afford it, they are worth it. Especially when starting a new Print on Demand business. Buying those ads in the early days will mean the business grows faster!
Advertise using mock-ups
Showcasing your designs on the products themselves is an ideal way to market them.
Advertising on social media relies on good-quality pictures. A picture of your design may not be enough. Showing how your design will look when on the product will generate more interest.
Pricing
Setting prices too low or too high will mean fewer sales.
Check competitors to get an idea of prices for your niche. Remember to make sure to set a price that leaves a profit after fees are deducted.
Benefits of Print on Demand
Print on Demand is a low-cost online business that anyone can start.
No need to buy or store inventory
As the Print on Demand company handles manufacturing and shipping, that means you don’t have to!
You can focus on creating and selling your stunning designs.
Low costs to get started
Starting a Print on Demand business is cheap. If you use free design tools, then it could cost you nothing to get started!
As your business grows you may want to pay for marketing or subscriptions for design tools with more features. The good news is that to get started you don’t have to pay for anything!
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For example, Canva can be used for free to create incredible designs. This is fantastic to start with. When your business grows, you could simply upgrade to Canva Pro to unlock more features.
Scalable
There is no limit to how many designs you can make and sell. You can also sell your designs on as many platforms as you like!
If you want a scalable business, then Print on Demand fits the bill.
Low risk
As you don’t need to buy stock or sign up for expensive design programs, the risk is low.
Ultimately, if your designs don’t sell, you’ve only lost the time you spent on them.
FAQs
What are the best Print on Demand sites?
There are many to choose from but the best known are Printify, Printiful, and Fine Art America.
Can the same design be sold on different platforms?
Most platforms don’t require exclusivity. That means you can create one design and sell it on all platforms!
The exception is when a design is made as part of an officially licensed program. Then it can only be sold on the platform that you’ve agreed to make the design for.
How does copyright work?
Copyright is a hugely complex topic. The good news is that there is a simple answer. If you create an original design, then you own the copyright automatically.
Although you can register your design with the Copyright office, you don’t have to. Not registering doesn’t prevent you from suing anyone that copies your design.
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