Let's talk print-on-demand

Several years ago, I came across a YouTube video. It was a man talking about print-on-demand and how he makes thousands of dollars a month. It piqued my interest, so I watched more of his videos. He made it sound like it was the easiest side hustle ever. He went through everything step by step. He explained everything you need to get started. I felt super prepared after just watching a few of his videos. I just knew this was it, this would be the thing that would make me rich!

So I gave it a shot. I followed his directions to the letter. I found a design, set up an Etsy store, and a Printify store. After posting the first few designs, I decided to try designing myself. I went to Canva, made a couple of designs, and posted them. After several weeks, I decided to buy Etsy ads to try to boost my shop. After a couple of weeks with ads, I finally got my first sale. I remember being so excited. I thought it was all uphill from there. Spoiler alert, it wasn't. I did get a couple more sales, but about 6 months after I started buying ads, I realized that between the shop fees and ads, I was spending more than I was making.

I like to say I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. I feel like I'm decently good at a lot of things, but I can't master any one thing. Some say being even decently good at a lot of things is a blessing, I'm not so sure. With print-on-demand, it's not just about the designs, the company you print with, or the marketing. It's about all of those things equally. It's super important to pick the best designs, choose the right company, and know how to get your products in front of as many eyes as possible. If you're good at designing and marketing, print-on-demand might just be the best side hustle for you. However, if you aren't comfortable with putting yourself out there, you may need to rethink it. At the very least, watch some good YouTube videos on marketing products.

Of course, I'm not saying that print-on-demand doesn't work, I'm also not saying that you can't make money with it. I'm simply saying it didn't work for me. Mostly because I'm not good at marketing or just not interested in marketing. I don't know, either way, it didn't bring me joy. I really strive to find things that bring me joy, things that make me want to work. Certainly not a 9-5. When I stopped doing print-on-demand, I searched high and low. I made so many mistakes and have absolutely learned from those mistakes. The money that I have spent on courses is truly obscene! I'm here to tell you it doesn't matter how much you spend on a course, that course can't create and sell products for you.

When you see people on TikTok selling $500 courses, it's not because the course is so fantastic, it's because that's how they make their money. They aren't paying for a course and using it to create and sell their own product. They are just selling that course and getting a chunk of the money anytime it sells. It's much easier to sell the idea of financial freedom than it is to sell most other digital products. So just be careful when you see all these courses for sale. I'm sure there's some value to them, but certainly not as much as they want you to believe. I fell into that hole, so you don't have to. What side hustle should we talk about next?