A REALISTIC Way To Use Print On Demand
You may have seen print on demand (POD) testimonials everywhere in 2023:
"How I Make Six Figures With Print On Demand"
"How I make 30k In Passive Income With POD"
"Quit Your Job With POD"
"Sides Hustle With POD That Make Me an extra 100k A Year"
You get the idea. I was intrigued by it to.
In a year where so many of us have had deep financial challenges, I wanted any way to start making passive income, well, any income, but passive income to help multiply my streams of income. The reality for me is that I am most likely not going to become a millionaire through print on demand.
I have my online store that holds all of my art, original paintings and art prints, wood burned art, and jewelry, but I also wanted to incorporate apparel with some of my designs. There are a few obstacles I faced with wanting to do this.
1. I live in an apartment and I don't know where I would be able to store an influx on inventory for shirts, sweatshirts, etc.
2. Since this is new territory for me, I have no idea what will sell and what wont. What if I order 100 black t-shirts and none of them sell, but all of my tan ones do?
3. I simply don't have the money to invest in inventory right off the bat.
It can be a big risk to take for something that might not thrive, and if you're like me who don't have the funds to invest, it can create an even bigger financial strain.
This is where Printify came in for me. I wanted to do test the waters with print on demand, see what my audience would be interested in, see what sells and what doesn't, without having to commit to investing so much money just to start.
With that, here are some things that I do that isn't a norm with the POD business:
1. I order and sample every clothing item before I add it to my website. I've had to do this multiple times sometimes - but I cannot in good conscious sell something that I have never seen or worn myself. I stand by this and will continue to do this because frankly, there is an array of quality on these sites and some are significantly better than others.
2. I also have my own samples so I can take my own photos of them and not rely on digitized mock images. I include real authentic photos.
See how I've done this with my 'with the trees' crewneck sweatshirt.
3. I try to blend it all into my online store that does hold handmade, original items. It is important for my store to still look like one cohesive website.
This is still an investment in itself but I know it's a small fraction of what it would cost me to gather articles of clothing in all sizes and different colors to start testing the waters. It has helped me gauge the interest in my customer base.
It also allows me to freely put my art design on a t-shirt or create a design for a t-shirt to see if I even like it. I don't have to publish it or print it but it gives me way more space to play around.
And if one day my merch pops off and is a huge hit, I'd like to start printing them myself. But for now, as a 30 year old artist with a small business who is just trying to share her art and get by, this works more than fine.
So, I know I didn't teach you how to become a millionaire selling print on demand.
However, I want to share that there is a way to use POD sites like Printify that still feels authentic and slowish-made that still aligns with your brand.
I won't lie though, it is a fresh of breath air when I get an order and I see that it's a POD item because that means I have to do NOTHING and still feel confident that they are going to get a quality item up to my standards.