Make Money From Home With Print On Demand. (Printify)
Updated: Oct 11, 2023
Make Money From Home With Print On Demand. (Printify)
Whether you intend it to be a side hustle or a main hustle selling your designs online using a Print-on-demand service has proven to be a profitable income stream. The E-commerce industry is projected to have 8.1 trillion dollars of sales by 2026. Tell me you don't want to be on the receiving side of that. I know I do...well I'm already in it but if I wasn't I would lol.
I'm not going to pretend like this is an overnight success money move. It will require work in the beginning to get it set up and ongoing marketing. But it's less money to start, no inventory to manage or ship, and more time you have to market your designs and run your business. Once you set it up correctly and the sales start rolling in... it'll all be worth it.
What is Print On Demand (POD)?
Print On Demand (POD) A fulfillment process that dropship products to customers after a sale goes through. They will handle inventory, packaging, and shipping for you.
Who uses or could use Print On Demand?
Influencers often use shirts, hoodies & other accessories as "Merch" to sell to their followers. Businesses use them to scale product lines and increase brand awareness with promotional brand items. Social/Youth groups could use them to sell apparel and other items to raise funds for their organization.
Pros & Cons of A Print On Demand Business
Pros | Cons |
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Now after reading that the question should be "How do I start my Print On Demand business?" Glad you asked! You can set up your online store using a print-on-demand service like Printify.
Printify has over 800 products in its catalog to choose from and allows you to either upload your own designs or design right there on the site. After you customize your products you can connect to your online store (like Etsy, Wix, or Shopify) or create a pop-up store to start selling and earning today! They will handle printing and shipping for you. So all you have to do is customize your designs and set up your shop. Keep reading to learn how to set up your online business with these 7 easy steps.
Pick A Niche & Make A Plan
Register Your Business
Create A Printify Account
Pick Your Product(s) & Customize it
Create Or Connect Your Store
Publish
Promote & Sell
1. Pick A Niche & Make A Plan
Yall know anything I recommend you do starts with making a plan and researching. It doesn't matter if you're starting from scratch and just looking to make a couple of dollars or if you're already an established business and just want to add another income stream-you need a plan. Questions to ask yourself while planning:
What are you going to sell?
Why are you selling them?
Who are you selling it for?
Where are you going to sell?
How much are you going to sell them for?
Research best-selling and trending items. Find out what is currently in demand but not easily available.
2. Register your business
If you are just connecting your Printfy shop to you're already established business you can skip this part because it should already be done. If you're starting from scratch or starting a new business then you'll need to properly register it before you officially open shop.
Pick & Register Your Business Name
Register your business as a Sole proprietorship, LLC, etc.).
Register for your Tax Numbers (EIN, State Tax)
Register with your local country for your Business License
You are responsible for learning the local laws for your area.
3. Create a Printify Account
Go to Printify.com and select "Start For Free". From here you will be asked to sign up using either your email address or sign up with google. Select whichever you'd like.
After you enter your email Printify will ask you 8 questions. The first two are:
1. What describes you best?
I'm a social media influencer
I have my own e-commerce store
I represent a non-profit organization
I represent a company
Other
2. What is your main objective?
Start my first online business
Order merchandise for a company or organization
Order products for myself
Grow my current business
Other
Based on your answer to the above two questions- Printify will ask you 5 more questions. Answering these questions helps them customize your account to your needs so read them and answer to the best of your ability.
After you answer the questions you'll be asked "What would you like to do now?"
Choose from:
Order A Sample
Connect your store to Printfy
Design Your Custom Products
Browse products in Printfy's Catalog
If you haven't already or just want to refresh your memory take a minute to familiarize yourself with the 800+ products available. Remember Printify works with other partners to fulfill your order. So before you select a product make sure you take the time to read all of the details and provider information. You want to review materials, shipping prices, sizes and color options, production time, shipping time, etc.
Some providers allow branding to your packages and some don't. If this is important to you be sure to look for something like "Brand Inserts", "Gift Messages"
Shipping is one of the things you cannot control. So you want to make sure you do your due diligence and ask the right questions before picking your shipping provider. Do not just go for the cheapest shipping option! You get what you pay for. Read reviews, check processing times, etc.
4. Pick Your Product(s) & Customize
Designing and finalizing your products in my opinion is the most tedious and critical step in the setup process. You want to make sure you do your research and make sure what you're creating has a market before pouring time into it. Once you select a product it's time to add your design.
If you already have a design ready you can upload it and use that. If you don't already have a design ready you can design one using mockups, AI generator, and graphics/clip art right in Printify. They also partner with Shutterstock to provide you with images that you pay for after your product sells.
If you want more element/design options you can use Canva or hire someone from Fiverr if you want to design for you.
Remember copyright is real! You cannot go to Google and steal images or designs. If you don't have any and don't know how to create any LEARN or PURCHASE designs with copyrights included.
When you're satisfied with your design and colors select "save product" You will then be taken to your product details page. This is where you will create your product's Title and description, choose mockup pictures, price and confirm the other variants you want to offer. Be sure to research keywords customers would search to find your product, highlight product features, and use quality images.
If you have connected a store or created a pop-up store your publishing settings will be visible if not you'll only be allowed to save it as a draft. If your store is connected you can choose to add it to your store or hide from your store until you're ready to publish. It will also give you the option to decide what you're going to do with your variants. You can choose between:
Show all variants as available for purchase (this allows you to accept any order regardless of stock status).
Show in-stock variants as available and out-of-stock variants as "sold out" (best for SEO optimization).
Only show in-stock variants and hide any out-of-stock variants (this means you can only sell in-stock variants).
And finally, decide which product details you would like to sync to your store.
Sync product details
Product Title
Description
Mockups
Colors, sizes, prices, and SKUs
Shipping profile
Once you've created the products you want it's time to open shop.
5. Create or Connect Your Store
Printfy has it set up so that it is easy to connect your Printify shop to an E-Commerce website. If your website host isn't already set up for easy integration you can use API to connect it. And if you don't already have a website and don't want one you can just create a Printify Pop Up Store.
Platforms already available to connect with:
Printify Pop-Up Store (New)
Etsy
Wix
Walmart (US)
Squarespace
EBay
Shopify
Woocommerce
Bigcommerce
PrestaShopPictures
Tiktok US
What platform you decide to use is 100% up to you. If you don't know which one to use....Researchhhhhhh. You can connect your store before or after you start adding products. There is no right or wrong order. If you want to play with designs while you brainstorm shop name ideas go for it. If you already have a name use it! Depending on how you set up your store you will have some additional settings to set up.
I would say Etsy is the easiest and quickest.
6. Publish Your Store
Publishing your store makes it visible for customers to start purchasing. Once you're satisfied with your designs and shop take the leap and PUBLISH. Time to eat!
7. Promote And Sell
Once your store is up and running it's time to start promoting it. The more you promote the more sales you get. How you promote depends on your platform, products/business structure, and target audience. Marketing ideas:
Social Media
Optimize your store
Run a contest or giveaway
Run online ads
Need help creating content for your Print On Demand Store?
Before I go remember:
Printfy handles the shipping but your job is to drive traffic to your website or whichever platform you choose and promote your products.
Make sure you order a sample to make sure you approve of the quality of the product, packaging, quality, and shipping times.
Printify is 100% free to use but you can choose to upgrade to Premium for lower prices and more discounts/options. Learn more about Printify Premium here.
Free Plan | Premium Plan | Enterprise |
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For New Businesses | For Merchant with growing sales | For Merchants with 10k+ orders per day |
FREE | PRICE 29.00 / per month OR $299 / per year | Custom Pricing |
Printify provides mockups you can use to promote your products. If you don't like the ones they provide for free you can choose to sign up for PlaceIt and get access to unlimited downloads.
Even if you don't use Place It mock ups do not get comfortable with the provider's photos. They provide them to everyone so that takes away your originality.
Although you don't have control over your package designs 100% you can still add branding to each order with a little creativity. It could be something as simple as a branded email message with a Thank you, How to use/Care card, or coupon.
Need help with pricing? Check out this blog post from Printify.
Okay, you've got the information. Now what are you going to do about it? Be about it don't read about it. Set up your Print On Demand shop today and start making money. OHHHH and right now Prinitfy is running a contest to win 10k. Get your first sale by 10/15 to enter the contest.
This post does contain affiliate links that I may receive compensation on at no additional cost to you.
