There is no shortage of startups when it comes to online businesses with no investments.
With online businesses such as blogging, Affiliate marketing, and Dropshipping growing, there is an ocean of opportunities to make it big.
One of the online businesses if you love designing and are passionate about printing is print-on-demand (POD). Print on Demand may be similar to AliExpress Dropshipping in some aspects, but it has its own pros and cons, too.
In this post, I have explained in detail a step-by-step guide on How to Start A Successful Print-On-Demand Business In 2024 With Little Investment.
What Is Print On Demand?
Print On Demand is the business of selling your own custom designs on different products. It is self-publishing books.
You can use this business model to print custom T-shirts, mugs, and hats and to create other digital content.
If you are creative enough, you can start your own POD business with just a few simple steps, and you will be ready to go.
POD has brought a drastic change in printing compared to traditional printing. While traditional printing requires bulk orders, the POD business saves money by only printing as much as is required.
Advantages of Print On Demand:
- There is no need to keep the stocks with you. All of the things are printed only after the order. The design is kept digitally.
- The copes can be printed individually, and thus, they can be customized easily.
- The quality of the printing is better than that of traditional printing as it is based on newer machines and technologies compared to the old machines.
- Once your design is ready, it can be sold easily from anywhere in the world to anywhere. All you need to do is upload the manuscript.
- You can, later on, make changes and edit easily as it doesn’t involve bulk printing.
Steps To Start A Successful Print-On-Demand Business In 2024
I have given a detailed step-by-step guide on how to start a Print-on-Demand business with little or no investment.
Starting an online business might not cost you much, but it is a must that you give your hard work, time, and dedication to it.
Step 1: Choose a Software
So, the first thing you need for a successful print-on-demand business is to choose suitable software.
Even if you are creative enough, you will need designing software. You must choose software that has both Pixel and vector formats.
I have selected some amazing software for the POD business.
There are some freebies, too, but I wouldn’t recommend going for the free software if you are looking to start with something serious. The free tools may have limited features and less flexibility.
While some software like Canva and Gimp may help you, though they are free, some better software that I have tried is:
Step 2: Choose a Niche
This is the most important step to start your T-shirt business online. Deciding the niche becomes important when you start an online business of your own.
In the Print-on-demand business, the competition is tough, and it is too hard to get better conversions until and unless you have got some attractive stuff to display.
The most profitable niches would only benefit here, and it would become too hard to choose a niche in this kind of business.
I will help you choose a profitable niche. There are two main niches to choose from in a POD business.
The first one is the product niche. The product niche decides what type of product you want to add to your store.
It can be T-shirts, mugs, or anything else that you want to sell in your shop. You can also sell one or all of them in the shop, but I recommend selling only one type of product.
The second type of niche is a subject niche. Choose a subject—birthday, nurses, dogs, clowns, yoga, or anything else. Choose a design and the subject that you want to show.
You can display the same designs on all the products in your shops, such as T-shirts, mugs, hoodies, sweatshirts, or any other product that you choose.
Use the same design in different languages, and people will love those designs in their native language. That’s the best way to increase your sales, but make sure the design you create is unique.
Thus, once you have chosen the niche, I would say that you go with both of them simultaneously. Once you have chosen the niche, let’s take an example of your choosing the birthday.
You can start by choosing another 5-10 sub-topics, such as the month, date, year, or anything.
Then, use that subject or design on any product you desire. Make sure the product is profitable in the niche.
How To Research Keyword Demand?
Before you proceed with the chosen niche, it is important to check once again for a profitable niche or a keyword that might help you. To see if the niche is selling or not, just type in the niche on any of the sites that offer POD products.
There are several POD sites, such as Redbubble, Zazzle, Teepublic, and many others. These sites allow users to filter products based on best sellers, allowing them to see the winning products.
You can also search Pinterest for the relevant keyword and look for the most pinned product. Also, there is an extension in Google Chrome—’ Chrome Amazon DS Quick View еxtеnѕiоn.’ This extension displays the best-selling products on Amazon.com.
If you are still confused about the niche, you can search for your keywords in Google Trends.
Step 3: Create Your Store
This is one of the most necessary steps to start your own Print on Demand business. To sell your products, it is essential to own your store. Even the customers, as well as the dropshippers, will contact you through your store.
Creating a store becomes lucrative as there are a number of stores that create readymade E-commerce stores for you. One of the best platforms for creating an E-commerce store is Shopify.
Shopify is widely used by e-commerce vendors and dropshippers to create e-commerce stores. It also offers a free trial so that you can test your store before launching it.
The reason why I would like to go with Shopify is:
- 14-day free trial
- 100+ professional themes
- Web-based website builder
- 100 payment gateways
- Mobile friendly website
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Email Templates
- SEO optimized stores
- Social Media Integration
- Free analytics and traffic reports and many more…
Some of the other great platforms for creating your E-commerce store are WooCommerce and Magento. However, I would still go with Shopify because of its robust features.
Once you have created the shop, printers or dropshippers can contact you and print or drop ship the products directly to customers using your designs, which would certainly profit you.
Step 4: Apply For Merch By Amazon
After you have some designs ready, apply for Merch by Amazon. I will explain Merch by Amazon in detail here.
MBA (Merch by Amazon) is the grandfather in the POD industry. It is one of the largest platforms to earn money through POD. You don’t even need a promotion to make money. All you need is an attractive design and the beneficial and relevant keywords.
A lot of skillful designers can’t get the proper sales because they remain intact with the traditional designs.
The secret to making more money using it is to describe the design and use the relevant keywords.
How Does Merch Work?
If you are willing to start your own T-shirt business and you are skilled enough, then Merch by Mazon is the best platform to earn quickly.
The Merch By Amazon service works simply as another drop shipper and seller site (POD site) for your designs, but it is far more profitable for your business when it comes to selling the design using an MBA.
Amazon is one of the best E-commerce sites, and it has millions of customers around the world. You just need to upload your design and choose the colors, and Amazon will look at everything else.
You will first need to request an invitation on their landing page.
This is a kind of approval by Amazon that allows you to sell your designs on Amazon. While the approval may take days or even months, you can decide on a niche and sell on other POD platforms, too.
At first, you can sell up to 10 different designs at once. After these 10 designs have been sold, you are upgraded to the next tier and can sell up to 25 designs now.
The next upgrade level is for selling 50 designs. This way, you may be able to sell over 500 different designs at once.
Merch By Amazon Works in Pretty Simple Steps:
- Upload your Design
- Set the Price
- Amazon creates the listing
- People will see the listing and buy it
- Amazon prints and ships it for you.
Step 5: Create Your Designs for MBA
After logging in, choose a product color, and then you can use the software to upload the graphics on your shirt. There are several software programs that you can use to design.
I would recommend Photoshop, as it has all the features and tools to add designs and colors.
You can download the Amazon T-shirt template, which can help you specify the dimensions for your graphics. These templates can be created in high quality; do not stretch these designs, as this will distort them.
To place your design, simply select the desired location. You can preview the design on different shirt colors to get an idea of how it will look.
Choose the type of shirt you want from the dropdown menu, such as a t-shirt, women’s front, or hoodie. Once you have created the design, save it as a PNG file and upload it to the Create with Amazon section.
Merch By Amazon Tips to Get Successful T-Shirt Business
- Research the relevant phrase or keywords by using the MerchResaerch tools to find the suitable keyword. You can look up the results by using the categories.
- Do not copyright. Look for the POD sites and check for copyright infringement.
- Make sure that you have described the products well. Make use of the bullets and use proper descriptions.
- Market your designs and check for the success ratio by publishing your designs on Facebook and Twitter.
Is Print on Demand Similar to AliExpress Dropshipping?
Print on Demand and dropshipping may differ slightly, but they can also be similar in many aspects.
While Print on Demand involves creating your own designs and using them on different products such as T-shirts, mugs, or any product, Dropshipping means choosing among the millions of products from stores such as Aliexpress, and the supplier will deliver it to you.
But, they are somewhat similar too:
- No need to keep the inventory.
- The supplier directly delivers the product to the customer
- Placing the order is automated.
- Low investment business. Both of them don’t need to store up front to store your products.
Demand businesses need the proper graphic skills and the use of keywords, whereas dropshipping needs an optimized store and proper social media marketing skills.
FAQs
📈 How can I market my POD products?
Utilizing social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest can visually showcase your products. Collaborating with influencers can also help expose your brand to a broader audience.
📦 How do I handle shipping and fulfillment?
Most POD platforms offer integrated shipping and fulfillment services, taking the hassle out of managing inventory. Once a customer places an order, the POD platform will handle the rest, from printing to shipping directly to the customer.
🔎 How do I choose the right POD platform?
When choosing a POD platform, consider factors such as product quality, production and shipping times, costs, and how well the platform integrates with your online store. Researching and comparing different platforms will help you find the best fit for your business needs.
🌟 How can I ensure customer satisfaction?
Ensuring customer satisfaction involves offering high-quality products, providing excellent customer service, accepting returns, and actively seeking customer feedback. This approach not only builds trust with your customers but also helps you refine your product offerings over time.
Quick Links:
- How To Start A Successful Dropshipping Website
- How To Use SEO In Dropshipping Businesses: Detailed Guide
- The Definitive To Start Dropshipping With AliExpress
- Start A Tech Support Business
Conclusion: Start A Successful Print-On-Demand Business
There is always the right time to start your business. In the case of POD, I must say this is the best time to start your POD business, even if you don’t own anything.
To kick off your business, all you would need is some design software and a store. If you have a creative mind and the skills to design, you are ready to go. Do not rush; have patience.
Print-on-demand is certainly a booming business nowadays, and no one wants to spend a large sum on traditional printing. It is the most cost-effective business, with no storage and postage costs.
This was my step-by-step guide to starting a print-on-demand business for beginners. If you think I have missed something, kindly let me know in the comments.
Good post.
Keep sharing with us.