How To Make Money with Print on Demand in 2023

What is Print on Demand?

Print on demand. The business model where you create designs, upload them to websites that have a marketplace, who will print and sell them for you on various products like t-shirts, sweaters, posters, stickers, face masks, and many, many more.

I could write endless stories and procedures about this, about how every single website works, how to create the designs, how to promote them, etc.. but for this article I will keep it broad and simple.

The article is based on my own experience.

I am going to tell you how I’ve been making a minimum of $500 extra per month with Print on Demand (POD). And that number is only going up.

I have been creating designs and uploading them to existing Print on Demand websites since 2017.

Since then I have sold nearly 2500 designs and earned more than $20000 in commission/royalties. The start was slow, very slow. I didn’t earn anything in the first year, but I didn’t give up and kept on creating & uploading designs.

At the time of writing this article, I’m selling for around $750 a month. That’s a nice little extra, wouldn’t you agree?

How does it work?

There are 2 ways to do it:

1. Creating designs & uploading them existing sites, that handle everything for you
2. Creating designs & uploading them a production partner (e.g. Printful, Printify, Awkward Styles...). Link this production partner to various websites like your own webshop or big e-commerce platforms like Etsy, eBay and Amazon. This one requires a bit more work, as you’ll have to do marketing & customer support.

In this post, I’m going to discuss the first method: using existing Print on Demand companies / websites.

The ones I use are:

• Displate
• Redbubble
• TeePublic
• Spreadshirt
• Society6
• Zazzle
• DesignByHumans

Creating a Design

Before we can upload something, we need to have a design.

Many people might be thinking now “oh no! I don’t know how to create a design!” or “But I don’t know how to make art! I am not an artist! I am not a designer!”

DON’T WORRY! You don’t need to be an expert designer to create cool stuff!

You have 2 options:

• Option #1: You work with an existing image that you download.
• Option #2: You work without an image & you completely create the design yourself.

If you’re a designer, please go with option #2. If you’re an amateur like me, go with option #1.

Step 1: Finding images

For this, we need royalty free images. A simple google search shows following sites:

• Unsplash
• Pexels
• Pixabay
• You can also download free vectors from Public Domain Vectors
• Use images & templates from Canva Pro (I actually recommend this)
• Use Kittl - this website can make your designs for you (but not free)

Step 2: Edit the images

Next step: Start editing these images. I mean, you can’t just sell them like this — add a personal touch to them.

Editing can be done with for example following programs:

• Photoshop
• Shutterstock Editor
• Canva / Canva Pro (for around $100/year you can get Canva Pro, and it’s worth it)
• Photopea (free online version of Photoshop)
• BeFunky (my other favorite, also around $100/year)
• Or any other editor that you like.

Note: Every POD website has their own preferred dimensions, you can find them by just Googling or searching on their site.

However, for most of my designs I choose the following dimensions, those work on most products/sites: 2900 x 4060.

Editing option: cool filters

There are various sites or programs which can totally change your photo.

I am for example a fan of cartoonizing a photo, or converting it to a drawing or a water painting. A good tool for this is BeFunky, but this is a paid option. A small investment if you compare it to what you can earn.

Step 3: Uploading the design

After you’ve finished the design, upload it the sites mentioned above.

When uploading, pay close attention to the following:

• Choose a relevant title, add keywords (tags) to the title
• Choose relevant keywords. Think: “what would I type in Google if I’d want to find my design?”

An example:

Title example: Lion Motivational Quote Small Changes Make a Big Difference

Tags: lion, lion king, , black & white lion, lion quote, motivation, motivation quote, motivational quote, mindset, inspiration, inspirational quote, quote, quotes, small changes make a big difference, success quote, mindset quote, entrepreneur quote,…

You get the idea.

If you’re not good at finding tags: this website might help you.

Step 4: Keep repeating

The above design might not sell. Your next 20 designs might not sell.

In this business model, the goal is quantity over quality. Of course, when creating a design you need to make sure it’s decent, but don’t spend countless hours on it. On every design I spend a maximum of 20 minutes.

Mostly I create 1 design, spend more time on it, and then make around 10 variations based on that “template” I made.

The goal is to occupy as much “virtual real estate” as you can.

Upload your design to as many possible websites as you can. I’ll make different articles for each website in the future, describing how every website works.

Step 5: Don’t give up

It will take a while. You can’t expect uploading a design today and selling it tomorrow. It took me more than a year to start selling my designs, and look where I’m at now.

Good things take time, don’t give up — neither will I. I’m earning a bit extra via this, but I can’t live from $750 / month. So keep going, keep hustling, and we will get there, together.

-------------

If you enjoyed this article and if you’re interested in getting your Print on Demand journey started as well, make sure to subscribe so you’ll get notified about my future articles!

-------------

Note: Some of my articles contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you — look at it as way to support my writing & all the countless hours I put into these articles :)

You might notice that not all links are affiliate links; This is because I only promote products and services that I believe in and that I think will be of value to you. Please do your own research before making any purchase decisions.

Did you like this article? I’d really love to have your support by buying me a coffee :) - I also write on Medium.com, you can find me here.