I Tried Selling Print-On-Demand on Etsy for Six Months

If you've ever looked into ways to make money from home, I'm sure you've seen something about print-on-demand nestled between taking surveys to make $1.80 an hour and driving for Uber. If you've ever looked into print-on-demand as a source of income, I'm sure you've seen the blog posts and YouTube videos titled something like "Make $20,000 This Month!" and "How We Make $100k A Year Without Lifting A Finger!" As someone who would love to make $20,000 a year (forget about per month!), I was intrigued, so I did what any rational person would do: I launched my own Etsy store jam packed with my print-on-demand designs in October. Well, relaunched I suppose. I've used Etsy since 2018 to unload some vintage pieces I didn't want anymore. I digress! I spent weeks researching and learning the best ways to make sales and drive traffic to my store, how SEO works, what promotion and marketing I would need to do, everything! And this is how it went..

Now before I go any further, I know those of you who are like me want to talk numbers. How much did I make? Let me break it down for you. I made $2792.06 in sales from October to now. Let me say that again. IN SALES! That is not how much I took home. $680.99 of that was taken in fees and taxes from Etsy. An additional $1939.10 was spent getting those products printed. So, after six months, I made a profit of $171.97. So while it felt really cool when that direct deposit would hit and it was a couple hundred bucks, most of what was coming in was going right back out to pay off the credit card I was using to fulfill orders.

So what did I do? I used a website called Printful to create items and link them to my Etsy shop. There are tons of websites out there, this one was just the easiest for me to use. If you would ever venture into making print-on-demand items, definitely take the time to find the one that feels right to you. Printful has a wide variety of items like t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, hoodies, sweatpants, leggings, even home goods like blankets and throw pillows. You can have things printed or embroidered (which I love because I'm a sucker for embroidery). I stuck to sweatshirts and t-shirts for my shop and I spent weeks making designs. I even ordered samples of a few things just to make sure it was a quality I was comfortable with. They were great! So I launched the items, edited the SEO tags 10 million times, turned on Etsy marketing, and waited.

I had my first order within a week which I was totally shocked by! It was a lovely woman who started her Christmas shopping early and bought a sweatshirt for her daughter. After that I slowly but surely started gaining more and more sales (81 overall), but it was soon after I started seeing the boost that I realized it was holiday hype. I knew it wouldn't last in the new year, and *spoiler* I was right. I've made just over $200 in sales so far this year. So will I focus more energy on my shop over the holidays? Probably. I don't put much energy into it these days. It's a great way to make a little extra cash (maybe not $20,000 a month, but enough for a tank of gas or some groceries). I've discovered I like having the ability to ship items myself. I know that sounds crazy, why do it yourself if there's literally a team of people willing to do it? I think of when I receive items I order from little shops and it's a lot more exciting when it comes and has a little tissue paper around it and a little card; it's more personal and you can tell they put their heart into what they do. That's the energy I want to put into anything I do.

My biggest pieces of advice for those of you interested in giving print-on-demand a go; crunch your numbers and give excellent customer service. Mark your items up enough that you will make a profit on everything that is worthwhile. I say a profit that is worthwhile because there are items (especially if you ship internationally!) that you will make one or two bucks on. If you're going to put all the effort into the design, creating the store, customer service, etc. make it worth your while. You might end up with fewer sales with a slightly higher price, but your pockets will thank you. And excellent customer service should be a given when you run your own business. I always send a little thank you message to the customer and let them know how shipping works and an estimated day their items will be sent out. Follow that up with a tracking number when the item is shipped and always be prompt about answering questions and you've got yourself a five star review.

While I might not have been able to set up my retirement fund or a college savings account for children I don't even have yet, you might. I'm not saying it's impossible to rake in those beaucoup bucks, I think it might just be a lot harder than it seems. If you want to create a print-on-demand empire; do your research, have money you can invest into your business up front, find your niche, and work your ass off!