Start Your First Print on Demand Shop for Free

I’ve always found intriguing the slogan: “Make money while you sleep.”

Who doesn’t want to make money while sleeping?

About a year ago, I discovered a couple of YouTube channels all about Print on Demand. The automation process behind a Print on Demand store was fascinating, and I decided to try it.

I bought some designs, built a shop, created a Facebook page to launch ad campaigns, and converted an old Instagram account to fit the new purpose.

But there’s a cheaper way to start a PoD shop, even for those with no experience and no drawing skills.

Choose the POD platform.

To start a Print on Demand business, you need a virtual shop.

There are many websites built to host e-commerce stores selling both physical or digital products.

Shopify is probably the most popular platform used to create an online store, but it offers only a 14-day free trial.

The best websites to start a POD business without spending any money upfront are:

• Merch by Amazon
• Teespring
• Redbubble
• Zazzle
• Teepublic
• Society6

These platforms have some pros in common:

• Free account
• No transaction fees
• No need to buy anything to sell later
• No warehouse
• They print, ship, and handle the payments

Teespring is the platform I used for my first shop. It’s simple to use and allows you to create several listings that you can add later to one or more shops. Teespring also gives you the chance to sell your products on Amazon by simply ticking a box.

I’ve also tried Merch by Amazon, but it allows you to create only ten products initially, and it sells them in the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. market.

Redbubble offers a large variety of products to select, works with an algorithm that promotes trendy goods, and allows you to adjust your income margins.

Niche and products

Print on Demand experts say you must choose a niche for your shop. People who buy coffee themed products won’t be interested in waterparks merchandise.

POD successful sellers also recommend not give too many options to the buyers, or they will end up buying nothing because it’s too hard to decide.

I found these tips great for someone who’s planning to start an e-commerce on Shopify, has his custom domain, and money to invest in ads. This is not the case, though.

You don’t need to buy a custom domain or spend money on platforms like Shopify to start your first Print on Demand shop.

What I recommend you to do is a mix of trending and evergreen design. Trending designs are related to seasons, holidays, national or worldwide events, while the evergreen can be mottos or pictures you can see around the house all year long.

No matter what site you’re using to start your shop, use the search bar for your benefit. Start by typing a word, see what products come up, sort it out by top selling, and learn people’s taste.

Starting with a specific niche will limit your opportunity to make sales. For the same reason, if your chosen platform allows you to put your design on multiple products, you should enable as many of them as possible.

Not only will you benefit from having more products to sell, but the third-party platform will promote your merchandise as it sees your store as an opportunity to have a higher income and reach more buyers.

This tactic is good with websites like Redbubble but be careful when giving too many options to a customer, like ten different colors for the same t-shirt. Too many color choices can confuse customers that end up buying nothing.

Create designs on topics you’re passionate about.

Building a shop about something trending but that you don’t love, like fishing for me, will make the whole process less exciting, and with time, you will be tempted to give it up instead of continually updating it.

Create or find the designs

Once you have decided what type of design you want to apply on to t-shirts, hoodies, and mugs, it’s time to either create or find pictures for your shop.

I’m not great at drawing, so I either use photos or text quotes.

If you can create fabulous illustrations and already have all the tools to make them, go ahead and share your artwork with the world!

Would you like to learn how to draw for free? Skillshare offers a massive variety of courses; some are free to take while some are only for premium members. Subscribe using my referral link and get a 2-month free premium membership to have unlimited access to all the courses.

Learning to draw from scratch might take time, so here are three options to create designs for free:

• Plain text funny quotes
• Creative Commons 0 license images
• Pictures you took with your camera

Every font or image on the web is under a license. It is essential to carefully read the license details and understand which type of content can be used for commercial purposes, including being sold on merchandise.

You can download fonts to use for free on 1001Fonts or Font Meme.

Every time you download a Zip file containing a font, make sure there is a “read me” file saying exactly how you can use the font and an email address to get in touch with the creator for further information.

CC0 images are usually public domain photos or drawings. Images that the owner let everybody use for free within the respect of the law.

Still, it’s up to you to make sure the content you are using can actually be modified and sold for profit.

The last option is to use the photos you took with your camera. No need to be a great photographer, nowadays every smartphone has a good camera, and you can adjust the pictures with a free app.

Be sure not to include people who didn’t agree to be on public shared photos or other elements that might cause you legal trouble.

To create and modify my images, I use two free programs installed on my computer: Inkscape and Gimp.

Inkscape lets you create vector images and save them as PNG (with blank background). I use it to generate text quotes.

Gimp is the program I utilize to resize and convert images.

Both these programs are super easy to use, and I’m just using 1% of their potential.

Before uploading the designs to the platform you have chosen, make sure to check the size requirements. If the picture is too small, it won’t cover the whole printable surface available.

Every file should be at least 300 dpi and PNG format.

Once your designs are ready, all you have to do is upload and adjust them to fit as many products as possible.

Promotion

Platforms like Redbubble promote trending and top-selling products by putting them on the first result page for relevant keywords.

Relying on internal traffic only isn’t wise as it might take a long time for people to notice your products.

How do you promote your Print on Demand goods for free?

There are many social network platforms you can choose from, but from personal experience, I will go with Pinterest.

Pinterest is a free platform where everybody can upload images, called pins, with SEO optimized descriptions and reach as broad an audience of possible customers.

Pins consist of a vertical image or a short video; they have a title, a description (where you can add some #keywords), and a link to the product.

By creating a business profile, you can easily monitor how your pins are doing and how other people’s pins you saved on your board are performing. It is a great and free way to learn what type of pins people like and share more often.

Conclusion

The internet has plenty of possibilities to create a passive income source, and Print on Demand is only one of those.

Creating a POD store for free with no initial investment is possible.

Everybody can start an e-commerce, even without technical experience, and create a side income to scale over time.

It’s not a way to get rich fast. It might take some time to create a profitable business that can replace a well-paid full-time job, but there is no limit to the profit if you create quality designs and promote them so that people can buy your products.

No niche is too saturated as there is always a way to create original designs and add some of your unique personality to the merchandise.