Starting a Print-on-Demand Business

I want you to imagine for a moment you're driving a brand new Bugatti through the sunny streets of Dubai while passive income continuously flows into your bank account. Many young YouTubers promise that this dream is possible with the print-on-demand side hustle. Look, I won't make claims like this. I've been around a lot longer and from my experience, if you need grand promises just to listen, then you won't succeed anyway. However, I will promise to give you a step-by-step guide to starting print-on-demand. I'm going to show you exactly where to click and what to do to make this business work with zero dollars. You'll even learn how to make products like this and sell them internationally. This is coming from someone who hasn't just started a few little internet businesses and sold a few print-on-demand items. I'm an established millionaire businessman that's been running companies for over 35 years. So I'll be sharing some of the lessons that you can only learn from having years of experience. I know starting a new side hustle seems... is daunting is there's so much to learn. That's why this is the only print on demand for beginners video you need to watch before you take action. Right, so I'm gonna split this into 10 different sections to make sure to cover absolutely everything. Firstly, what is print on demand? Put simply, it's a risk-free way of starting out in business. Let's say you wanted to start a clothing brand, but don't have a factory to make thousands of unique clothing products. nor do you want to end up with a basement full of unsold shirts like a hoarder that's where print on demand swoops in to save the day print on demand allows you to pay for your products only after your customers order them. These products are then printed with your unique designs and delivered directly to your customers. This allows you to run everything with very little money. This isn't just limited to clothing. You can also do mugs, posters, bags, and even cushions. This side hustle is ideal for someone who doesn't want the hassle of starting a full-time business but wants to earn passive income. You can work from your laptop, and as your income scales, the time you put into the business shouldn't need to change significantly. Isn't it wonderful? wild how these days you can potentially rake in millions without even physically touching a single product. This concept would have blown my mind in my day. The data backs this up as currently the global print on demand market is worth nearly $6 billion. And that's expected to rise to 40 billion by 2031. From my time in the business world, I've seen firsthand how crucial it is to operate in the right market. Believe me, I've seen some seriously smart people hit rock bottom, because they were busy building their brand in a market that was on the decline. But here's where print on demand is different. Even if you're just an average Joe in the entrepreneurial world, you could potentially rake in a fortune if you dive into a booming market like this one. To get started, you need five things. One, a winning product. Two, a great design to go on the product. Three, a place to sell the product. Four, a great supplier. And five, of course, paying customers. But don't worry, we're gonna cover all of this today. By the way, if you're new here, then I'm Mark and I make videos sharing my years of wisdom so that you can grow your wealth. So if that interests you, make sure to subscribe to get more videos like this one. So how do I find a winning product? This is the first question most people ask when they're getting into print on demand, and rightly so, because if you get this wrong, then it could make the difference between your store getting hundreds of sales and none whatsoever. From my experience, a winning product has two main components, the product category and the design. Now, you might think all of these product categories are created equal, but... from it. You need to be very strategic about which one you decide to use for your blank canvas. You may be thinking, why not just pick all of them and use the same design across every product? Now, although this may sound like a good idea, it really isn't. At first, your designs will probably aren't gonna be that great. This means you're gonna waste a ton of time and money focusing on different products and not getting any sales. Instead, I want you to pick one product category and give it your entire focus. Once you hit over 10K per month with that product type, then you can repurpose the same designs on other products in a new shop. It's much better to become a master of one product than a jack of all trades. This even applies to color options. Personally, I never offer more than seven different variations as that tends to overwhelm the customer. And you know what? They end up buying... Nothing. So you have a big decision to make. So let me help you eliminate some of the categories. Cards and calendars are a big no from me as they're extremely seasonal. You want a product that's evergreen and sells continuously, no matter what the time of year. Mugs, iPhone cases, oh, and stationary. They don't really sell for very much. So personally, I'll stay away from these. My rule is to have at least 20 to 30% profit margin. I'm not saying these are a definite no, because If you're able to sell them in large enough quantities, then you can make a nice profit. Take this shop for example. They have the number one listing on Etsy when I search for a mug. Now, if I dig into their figures, I can actually see that they're generating around $30,000 a month from this store. If we assume a 15% margin, then they're probably making around 4,500 pound a month in profit, which isn't too bad at all. If they've managed to get a 30% profit margin, then that's even better. If we're evaluating options based purely on potential profit margins, then clothing and wall art are the clear winners in my opinion. It's much easier to inflate the value of products like this. It's the same strategy that designer brands and modern artists have been using for years. I can actually show you some real numbers here. Now, I've sold some wall art before using gelato. Honestly, I really like Gelato because they have production facilities in over 32 countries. On this point, over 90% of orders are produced in the same country the customer lives in, cutting down shipping times even more. As you can see, my price point was $49.99 and my costs were $25.39 for the product and the printing. There was also a $6.98 shipping cost as well. So, If we add those together, that gives us a price of $32.37. Now, if we take those numbers and plug them into the Etsy free calculator, with everything taken into account, I made $12.42 on every sale, which gives me a 25% profit margin on every product. As you can see, it's so easy for your profits to be eaten away. That's why it's so important to pick an item with a high profit margin potential. As I've already spoken about wall art in past videos, I feel like switching it up. So today, let's go with clothing. So what's the best niche to pick? It might seem obvious, but nobody cares about blank clothes. That's where you come in. You need to make them care about what you're selling. You can do this by attaching one of their interests to the item. So I could just make a shirt like this with storm pooper on it to attract Star Wars fans. That's the right kind of idea, but it will also get you into a lot of trouble with the law. This is because of one simple word, trademarks. You should always check the text for use of potential trademark infringements. Even if it isn't from a famous franchise, luckily this is free to do and super simple. It's worth checking the UK and USA trademarks. This is what the American site looks like. Just click on basic, word mark search and then type in the phrase. I'm gonna use boomers are awesome and click submit. Change this setting to live, there you go. Well, for this one, we look like we're in the clear. Okay, so I can't use popular films or TV shows. I'll just do something completely original. I like your thinking, but also no. I'm gonna say something that might shock you. Don't try to be original. School drills into you the importance of not looking at other people's work. But when it comes to business, this is completely wrong. I have a theory that C-grade students often end up hiring the people who get the A's because of this. There's actually a really good book that talks about this and it's called Still Like an Artist. It's based on the saying that good artists copy and great artists steal. Honestly, it works just as well for entrepreneurs. Being too original is the biggest trap I see beginners falling into. They feel like they've got to come up with the next big thing and then just end up trying to sell something nobody wants. Yes, you may have spotted a gap in the market, but most likely that gap's there because no one wants what you're selling. I'd say 99% of people fail at this step. So here's what you should actually do, research. the market. I love using Etsy to do this as all the sales information is public. Let's say for this example, I want to sell t-shirts. Now, since the t-shirt niche is extremely competitive, we need to find some good sub-niches. These are pockets of the market that have low competition, but very high demand. So let's type in women's t-shirts and sort this by top customer reviews. Now look, ah, this is one you'd- you don't wanna be taking inspiration from is it's a clear trademark infringement of DC Comics and Wonder Woman. I mean, if you're gonna risk doing this, at least pick a decent film, but seriously, don't infringe on anyone's trademarks. You might get a ton of sales to begin with, but in the long run, it's just not worth it when you run into all the legal trouble. What we're really looking for is shops with lots of reviews as we can tell from that that they're successful. Now, Let's click on this one as they look like they're doing very well. Now, let's go on their shop homepage and filter reviews by most recent to see what's selling at the moment. I'm not gonna lie to you, even I like the look of a few of these designs myself. This is a perfect little sub-niche. You'll then just have to spend an hour or so going through screenshotting designs that are selling well and take elements from all of them to put in your design. You might think this is a really small market, But this t-shirt here has over 130 reviews. That's important as the normal rule of thumb is the times out by 10 and then you have the number of sales. So this seller has sold in the region of 1,300 of these t-shirts, bringing in revenue of $43,628 when you take shipping into account. Now with a 30% profit margin, that would be around $13,000. in profit from this one design. So simple designs really do sell well. And remember, you can have loads of these as they're pretty easy to make. Just to set the record straight, you can't simply copy these designs. Instead, think of it like making a cocktail. You're pulling different elements from various sources, combining proven ingredients. So it's important to draw inspiration from multiple places. Otherwise you risk getting banned. So if you're gonna steal, steal. from many. For instance, you could pinch the font from one design, borrow the colors from another, and nab a section of a quote from a third source. The aim here is to whip up a whole bunch of unique designs for your chosen sub-niche, because let's face it, we can't always predict what's gonna sell like crazy. So what's the best way to create your designs? This step is one of the biggest roadblocks people face. I know so many people with great design ideas, but they don't know how to to actually make them look good on a computer. To be honest, I used to be one of those people, but it turns out that it's actually super easy, even for an old boy like me. There are four main methods you can use. Firstly, you can use a free tool like Canva. So I've got a list of woodwork-related funny quotes here on ChatGPT. I'm gonna go with this one. Now, I'm gonna take some design elements from other products we found earlier, like the font from this listing, and the design from this other one. It's pretty easy to get these mocked up on Canva and it's also a free tool, which is even better. Then I just have to click here to download the image without a background. Secondly, you could actually buy a template or full design. So if we take this flower t-shirt, for example, and I download the image, then use the Google search by image function, then you're quite often able to actually buy the original source file. Thirdly, and this is one I've actually been using a lot recently, is AI tools to design it for you. Now, I think Midjourney is the best for this kind of thing. Look, it does cost you $10 a month to generate designs and also have the rights to use the images commercially, but it's such a great tool and I think it's worth it. Now, I'm lucky that my son Curtis keeps me up to date with all the new AI tech. If I mentioned Midjourney to the other old boys down the golf club, they wouldn't have a clue what I'm on about. They'd think I'm halfway to my holiday destination. It's super easy to use. You just need to have a free Discord account. Once that's set up, go to Midjourney's website and click on Join Beta. This will connect you to the Midjourney server inside Discord. You might as well join my free Discord group while you're in there because there's about 40,000 people in there that'll help you out with everything. business and making money related and it's completely free click on add server then me and my friends and just give it a name i'm going to call mine mark's designs now go back to the mid journey server click on the mid journey bot and add app there we go and then pick the server you just made so i'm going to click mark's designs first let's get the settings right type forward slash settings and you'll get this menu. Select model 6 and stylization high. Right now type in forward slash imagine. Now if we wanted to make designs like this butterfly t-shirt then we would type something like this. Butterflies in the style of silhouettes in a tornado pattern on a white background. Now you These look pretty cool. I actually think the colorful version looks nicer. This arrow circle button here will run the same prompt again to give me more options, but I'm gonna click V4, which will give me more variations like the fourth version. Once you're happy, then upscale the one you like by pressing the corresponding U button. This just makes the design larger so that you can use it on your product. Then you can just use a background remover to get rid of the white background. I personally use photoroom.com. Finally, you can use professional designers on websites like Upwork and Fiverr. Now, I've done this before with wall art and I've been pretty happy with the results. You just have to make sure that you're very specific with the brief. Here's a look at the brief I gave last time, so you can just copy and tailor it to fit your needs. These are all good methods, so it just depends on your skillset, available time and budget. So now we've got our designs. What's the best print on demand website for beginners? This is the site you'll use to order your products, print them and ship them to your customers. This is an extremely important section as picking the wrong print provider will result in some of your shipments getting lost, poor customer service and all around massive headaches. Most YouTubers recommend the absolute cheapest sites and to be honest, I've got a real issue with this. The reason a lot of them can charge crazy low prices is because they cut at corners in other areas. Wait a minute, I thought you were telling us how we could start with $0. Now you're telling us we gotta pay for websites. Well, the cool thing about most print on demand sites is you only have to pay once you've made a sale. That way you actually don't need any money upfront. I live my life by the saying, buy nice or buy twice. This essentially means if you go with the cheapest option, then you'll actually end up spending more money in the long run, as you'll have to take the hit for the lost items. and that'll start digging into your profits. I tested out the Gelato website for myself recently, and I've got to say, I was super impressed. The experience was seamless with both the product quality and the printing quality being excellent. Just look at how great this poster came out. I only ordered it as a sample, but I've actually ended up keeping it because I like it so much. All right, so let's jump onto Gelato and start uploading our design so you can see how easy the process is. So, I'm just gonna go to the menu on the left-hand side and select product catalog and then select men's clothing. I'm then gonna pick T-shirts. I think we should be fine with the heavyweight unisex crew neck T-shirts. As I can see, that's their bestseller. And to be honest, Gelato has a very high standard of quality anyway. It's nearly $2 cheaper than the other more premium options. And as I said earlier, it's super important to... and protect your profit margins. All right, so here's what I'm thinking. I'm gonna go with direct to garment for this design. Now, don't get me wrong, embroidery is pretty cool and definitely has that premium vibe, but let's be real, it's pricier. So I'd save that for that design that screams,"'Embroider me!"And hey, if you're shelling out the extra bucks for embroidery, make sure it's super obvious when you're promoting the product. After all, if you're paying more, it should seriously ramp up the perceived value of your product. Okay, so I'm going to start with the white option and size large, but I'll also repeat the same process with seven colors in all sizes. Now it's as simple as dragging and dropping the design we made earlier into the center box. There's also an option down here where you can add different designs to the back, neck and sleeves. But now for this one, I'm just going to keep it simple and do the front. If you're interested in using them and you want to get 50% off your first order, then feel free to sign up with the link gelato.com slash mark. They also give me a kickback if you use that link, which I pass on to my video editors. So if you use it, then thanks for supporting the channel. Once you've got all your designs uploaded in their different colors and sizes, it's time to start selling them. But where do I sell my products? I've got a real problem with how most YouTube channels approach this question with one answer. They'll either say, Etsy or Shopify, but it really isn't that simple. I'm not interested in rushing through this video to get a little bit of extra attention. I know if you got to this part in the video, then you want to know the facts before you jump into something. So let's go through both of these options so you can decide which is the best route for you or route for all you American viewers. Firstly, let's talk Etsy. If we look at the figures from February, 2023, we can see that Etsy had 460.6 million visitors. That's by far the most out of every print-on-demand marketplace, and that even includes Shopify. In 2022, 26% of sales were made to order merch. In other words, a lot of print on demand items and 45% of sales involved an international transaction. This means that Etsy gives you access to a global audience of shoppers. A lot of people commented on one of my previous videos mentioning that I'd overlooked the marketing costs, but I didn't. That's the advantage of marketplaces like Etsy. The customers are already there searching for these kinds of things. All you need to do is rank high enough in the search results. But it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Lots of people hype up print-on-demand on Etsy, but more people fail than succeed. That's just the harsh truth. Etsy don't reveal the percentage of shops that actually succeed, but they have revealed that there are 5.4 million active sellers, and the average monthly sales per user was $2,169 in 2022. But of course, these figures are heavily skewed by the more successful and established shops. In my opinion, the reason for people failing on Etsy is that lots of folks just go with their gut, selling whatever they fancy, instead of really studying the market like I've shown you in this video. But if you stick to the system I've taught you, you'll have a serious leg up on the competition. Now for Shopify. Customer data is one of the most valuable things in business. A general rule of thumb is that a customer's email is worth about $1 a month to a business as they can use it for advertising to a previous buyer. As Shopify isn't a shared marketplace and instead is your own website, they allow you to collect this valuable information, whereas Etsy doesn't have an option to do this legally. You see, someone has to agree to be on your email list. So yes, you can just download the emails from your Etsy customers, but you can't really get away with adding them to your email list without facing some issues. Not only is it against Etsy's policies, It's also illegal in many countries. Selling on Shopify also allows you to set yourself apart from the competition. The bad thing about Etsy is that your products are always surrounded by your competitors, so you're somewhat forced to compete on price. It's kind of like this YouTube channel. You've probably got tons of other print-on-demand videos recommended in the sidebar. I know I don't have to worry about you clicking off my video though, because it's the best one. Imagine this, you're scrolling through YouTube, but all you're seeing are my videos. It's either stick with me or don't learn anything at all. It's kind of like having a Shopify store. If a customer wants what you're selling, they can't go off and buy it from anyone else. You've got them right where you want them. So Shopify sounds like the clear winner, right? Well, no. Here's what I suggest. When you're starting out as a beginner, it's best to go with Etsy. The customer's already there, which means you don't have to worry about marketing. All you have to focus on is getting better and better. and better at designing products people want to buy. The competition aspect is actually very good for honing your skills, as the market doesn't lie. If your product designs aren't good enough, then you won't make any sales. This will force you to find unique gaps in the market and level up as an entrepreneur. You can also easily connect it with Gelato by going to Menu and Stores. Don't get me wrong, the end game should be Shopify. However, before you start spending crazy amounts of money on marketing for products you don't even know sell, I recommend you post a thousand listings on Etsy. This will set you back about 20 cents per listing, which will be a total of $200. But the data you gather will be worth far more. Once you've identified your winning products, you can start building a Shopify store and advertising on TikTok. That way you'll know if your products aren't selling on Shopify, then your marketing needs work. If you just. skip the Etsy step, then the issue could also be your product. And then it's hard to tell what needs improving. Think of Etsy a bit like a testing ground where you can cast as many fishing lines as possible into the ocean. And when you start catching some big fish, you know it's time to take the next step. So how do beginners sell on Etsy? Once you've created an account, there are three hacks that you can do to help you get notice on Etsy and make more sales. The first hack is to make a track. This is super important as people want to see what your item looks like in the real world. A mock-ups are an easy way for you to show them without having to order all the different colors and designs and taking photos. Mock-ups also seem to make the product look much more homemade, which instantly makes it seem more valuable to customers. Gelato's built-in mock-up studio actually makes this super simple. Now this one here, there you go, that looks pretty good. So let's go with that. The second hack is to use the best keywords. This is extremely effective as Etsy is a search engine so the more information you can give them about your product the better. Of course you shouldn't Use keywords that don't apply to your product as you only want traffic from people that are interested in buying what you're selling. This is pretty simple to do. So let's go back to the listing we found to inspire our t-shirt design. As we can see, they've used wood shirt men, woodworker shirt, men's funny shirt, funny shirts for men, and father's day gift, and dad's shirt. So I'll just copy and paste these keywords into my tags and title. It's also worth looking around for different listings in case some of them have other unique keywords you can copy. The third hack is to use premium branding. You need to convey quality and trust. Now, trust is the most important thing in business, and you're not gonna get there by looking like a shop at the local market. You need to go for that premium boutique feel. This is a great example of a premium store with a clear identity. You can use the free Shopify name generator to create a name that conveys trust and is relevant to your shop. Then use the name checker website to see if it's available across different platforms. The most crucial platform is Etsy, but you should also check if it's free on other social media platforms and for the name name availability. When creating your logo and banner, don't spend too much time perfecting it. Instead, focus on making it clean and professional. Canva offers numerous templates that can be helpful. The key to a good Etsy banner is to make it reflect the charm of homemade goods, which corporate banners often lack. Lastly, make sure your shop isn't targeting a completely different audience. I mean, you wouldn't expect to walk into an Apple store and see a washing machine, even though they could sell them. They understand the importance of maintaining a coherent brand image. If you wanna make sales quickly, then you're probably thinking, when should I run than paid ads. I understand the appeal of running paid ads as they can instantly give yourselves a boost. However, in my opinion, people start using paid ads well before they're actually ready. This means they either end up with no sales or as soon as they turn paid ads off, their sales completely dry up. I've always built my businesses with an organic first approach. We're living in an age of more free reach than ever before. And I actually think social media companies are gonna start limiting organic reach soon, as they must be losing out on millions of advertising dollars. The first thing you need to put your marketing money into is creating short form content. This is great, as you can post it across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts. It's the first type of content that enables you to reach multiple different platforms, and it's perfect for showing off your products. You'd need to order a few samples, which I'd recommend doing anyway, as you need to double check the quality of the items that you're sending out. Then it's just a case of creating some kind of story around your product. Don't just get fancy shots of someone wearing it or using it, actually make it a part of a story. Remember, people are on social media to be entertained. So if your content isn't entertaining, then it won't reach as many people. The more views you get, the more people will buy. It's as simple as that. The beauty of doing it this way is that you're able to see what videos perform best with your target audience before putting any ad spending to boosting the views. Once you're seeing some organic success, it's time to start supercharging it with some paid ads. This way, you're building your side hustle on solid foundations. I've seen so many people lose their Facebook ad accounts and it's just ruined their businesses. These platforms don't have enough employees to oversee everything, so they rely on tech to police it for them. Don't leave your income in the hands of AI. But that's not the biggest thing. people do wrong. So what's the most common mistake? A lot of people get drawn in by the huge figures many people say they're making with print-on-demand, but it's important to remember anyone can sell at break-even or even a loss. I have a feeling a lot of these print-on-demand gurus and dropshippers actually do this. They just make a loss on their products and then flex their revenue figures on YouTube to young... and impressionable people. Don't make the mistake of focusing on the revenue you're generating. This is a profit game, and it's important to remember that. Your profit margins are everything, and you should be protecting them at all costs. I used to sell a lot of items on eBay. I remember having one competitor in particular who'd always try to undercut me on price. Instead of competing, I'd wait until he sold out. Then I'd continue to sell my products at my normal price. The surprising thing is, most of the time, my competitor only made 5% profit margin. Whenever I saw him at trade shows, he would laugh thinking he'd driven me out of the market. I just smiled to myself as I still had my 30% profit margins and... I was making bank. The same applies with any business. Don't let your ego get in the way. You don't have to be ranked number one to make money. As long as your profit margins are strong, you could be making more money than the top sellers. If you're choosing the Etsy route, this is even more crucial due to the associated fees. Etsy charges 6.5% transaction fee on both the price and the shipping fee when the item sells. as well as a 3% payment processing fee on the total amount charged to the customer. Here's a little secret that not a lot of people know about. You might be hit with a 15% advertising fee if a customer stumbles upon your product through an Etsy ad from outside the platform. Sure, you can opt out, but honestly, it's not a bad deal as long as you're clued in and factor it into your cost. And hey, don't forget about your time. It isn't free, you know. It's a shame. but loads of people seem to forget to value their own time. I mean, if they were to do the math and figure out their hourly earnings, they might be shocked to find out they're making less than minimum wage. Now, at a start, you're probably gonna have to hustle a bit more and earn a little bit less. That's understandable, but just keep a close eye on the profits you're making. Every so often, divide your monthly profit by the hours you've put in. This will give you a pretty good picture of whether your side hustle is on the right track or not. But now it's time for the- the big question, can I really make money with print on demand or is it too saturated? Right, so I need to address a negative comment I received about this on my last print on demand video. Mark, be honest about the content of your vlogs. Tell people how saturated the markets are and stop giving them false illusions. The world of side hustles are over. There's no such thing as a quick buck. First of all, I wanna say thanks for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate when you guys leave comments. I love reading your opinions and love to hear about all your success as well. Although there are a couple of things I disagree with, which we'll get into a bit later, there is one thing I agree with, so I wanna start with that. There has never been a truer word spoken and there's no such thing as a quick buck. I know this more than most. I started as a relatively poor kid with no qualifications and it took me years of blood, sweat and tears to get where I am today. No part of my journey was easy or quick. That's just the reality of life. However, if someone told me how hard it was gonna be, I probably wouldn't have even started. In my opinion, it's much better to focus on the positives than the inevitable late nights and hard work. Maybe I should get that across more in my video, so I'll take that point on board. Now, as for the markets being saturated, what a load of nonsense. It's hard to break into any market. You've either gotta be better, or different in some way yes there's a lot of people doing it however the market is only growing most people that say the markets are too saturated probably haven't put in the hard work brace yourself there's gonna be a little bit of a rough patch sales might take a while to kick in but you've got to stick with it don't do all the hard graft and miss out on the big payoff you'll have to gradually chip away to carve your own spot in the market and yeah this could mean a few months without any sales but but don't let that get you down. Just keep going and trust the journey. If you haven't listed at least a thousand different products, then don't come back saying the market is saturated. The truth is you've probably not put in enough time yet. And the more you work on your skills, the better you'll get. As for side hustles being dead, that's like saying businesses are dead. If you want actual proof that side hustles aren't dead, then you should watch this next video as I share seven real stories about students making thousands per month with unique side hustles. But don't click on it just yet. Make sure to subscribe if you wanna grow your wealth, okay? I'll see you over there.

I've been around a lot longer and from my experience, if you need grand promises just to listen, then you won't succeed anyway. However, I will promise to give you a step-by-step guide to starting print-on-demand. I'm going to show you exactly where to click and what to do to make this business work with zero dollars.

You'll even learn how to make products like this and sell them internationally. This is coming from someone who hasn't just started a few little internet businesses and sold a few print-on-demand items. I'm an established millionaire businessman that's been running companies for over 35 years.

So I'll be sharing some of the lessons that you can only learn from having years of experience. I know starting a new side hustle seems... is daunting is there's so much to learn. That's why this is the only print on demand for beginners video you need to watch before you take action. Right, so I'm gonna split this into 10 different sections to make sure to cover absolutely everything.

Firstly, what is print on demand? Put simply, it's a risk-free way of starting out in business. Let's say you wanted to start a clothing brand, but don't have a factory to make thousands of unique clothing products. nor do you want to end up with a basement full of unsold shirts like a hoarder that's where print on demand swoops in to save the day print on demand allows you to pay for your products only after your customers order them.

These products are then printed with your unique designs and delivered directly to your customers. This allows you to run everything with very little money. This isn't just limited to clothing. You can also do mugs, posters, bags, and even cushions.

This side hustle is ideal for someone who doesn't want the hassle of starting a full-time business but wants to earn passive income. You can work from your laptop, and as your income scales, the time you put into the business shouldn't need to change significantly. Isn't it wonderful? wild how these days you can potentially rake in millions without even physically touching a single product. This concept would have blown my mind in my day.

The data backs this up as currently the global print on demand market is worth nearly $6 billion. And that's expected to rise to 40 billion by 2031. From my time in the business world, I've seen firsthand how crucial it is to operate in the right market. Believe me, I've seen some seriously smart people hit rock bottom, because they were busy building their brand in a market that was on the decline. But here's where print on demand is different.

Even if you're just an average Joe in the entrepreneurial world, you could potentially rake in a fortune if you dive into a booming market like this one. To get started, you need five things. One, a winning product. Two, a great design to go on the product. Three, a place to sell the product.

Four, a great supplier. And five, of course, paying customers. But don't worry, we're gonna cover all of this today. By the way, if you're new here, then I'm Mark and I make videos sharing my years of wisdom so that you can grow your wealth.

So if that interests you, make sure to subscribe to get more videos like this one. So how do I find a winning product? This is the first question most people ask when they're getting into print on demand, and rightly so, because if you get this wrong, then it could make the difference between your store getting hundreds of sales and none whatsoever.

From my experience, a winning product has two main components, the product category and the design. Now, you might think all of these product categories are created equal, but... from it.

You need to be very strategic about which one you decide to use for your blank canvas. You may be thinking, why not just pick all of them and use the same design across every product? Now, although this may sound like a good idea, it really isn't.

At first, your designs will probably aren't gonna be that great. This means you're gonna waste a ton of time and money focusing on different products and not getting any sales. Instead, I want you to pick one product category and give it your entire focus.

Once you hit over 10K per month with that product type, then you can repurpose the same designs on other products in a new shop. It's much better to become a master of one product than a jack of all trades. This even applies to color options. Personally, I never offer more than seven different variations as that tends to overwhelm the customer. And you know what?

They end up buying... Nothing. So you have a big decision to make. So let me help you eliminate some of the categories.

Cards and calendars are a big no from me as they're extremely seasonal. You want a product that's evergreen and sells continuously, no matter what the time of year. Mugs, iPhone cases, oh, and stationary.

They don't really sell for very much. So personally, I'll stay away from these. My rule is to have at least 20 to 30% profit margin.

I'm not saying these are a definite no, because If you're able to sell them in large enough quantities, then you can make a nice profit. Take this shop for example. They have the number one listing on Etsy when I search for a mug.

Now, if I dig into their figures, I can actually see that they're generating around $30,000 a month from this store. If we assume a 15% margin, then they're probably making around 4,500 pound a month in profit, which isn't too bad at all. If they've managed to get a 30% profit margin, then that's even better.

If we're evaluating options based purely on potential profit margins, then clothing and wall art are the clear winners in my opinion. It's much easier to inflate the value of products like this. It's the same strategy that designer brands and modern artists have been using for years. I can actually show you some real numbers here.

Now, I've sold some wall art before using gelato. Honestly, I really like Gelato because they have production facilities in over 32 countries. On this point, over 90% of orders are produced in the same country the customer lives in, cutting down shipping times even more.

As you can see, my price point was $49.99 and my costs were $25.39 for the product and the printing. There was also a $6.98 shipping cost as well. So, If we add those together, that gives us a price of $32.37.

Now, if we take those numbers and plug them into the Etsy free calculator, with everything taken into account, I made $12.42 on every sale, which gives me a 25% profit margin on every product. As you can see, it's so easy for your profits to be eaten away. That's why it's so important to pick an item with a high profit margin potential.

As I've already spoken about wall art in past videos, I feel like switching it up. So today, let's go with clothing. So what's the best niche to pick?

It might seem obvious, but nobody cares about blank clothes. That's where you come in. You need to make them care about what you're selling. You can do this by attaching one of their interests to the item.

So I could just make a shirt like this with storm pooper on it to attract Star Wars fans. That's the right kind of idea, but it will also get you into a lot of trouble with the law. This is because of one simple word, trademarks. You should always check the text for use of potential trademark infringements.

Even if it isn't from a famous franchise, luckily this is free to do and super simple. It's worth checking the UK and USA trademarks. This is what the American site looks like. Just click on basic, word mark search and then type in the phrase.

I'm gonna use boomers are awesome and click submit. Change this setting to live, there you go. Well, for this one, we look like we're in the clear. Okay, so I can't use popular films or TV shows.

I'll just do something completely original. I like your thinking, but also no. I'm gonna say something that might shock you. Don't try to be original.

School drills into you the importance of not looking at other people's work. But when it comes to business, this is completely wrong. I have a theory that C-grade students often end up hiring the people who get the A's because of this. There's actually a really good book that talks about this and it's called Still Like an Artist. It's based on the saying that good artists copy and great artists steal.

Honestly, it works just as well for entrepreneurs. Being too original is the biggest trap I see beginners falling into. They feel like they've got to come up with the next big thing and then just end up trying to sell something nobody wants.

Yes, you may have spotted a gap in the market, but most likely that gap's there because no one wants what you're selling. I'd say 99% of people fail at this step. So here's what you should actually do, research.

the market. I love using Etsy to do this as all the sales information is public. Let's say for this example, I want to sell t-shirts. Now, since the t-shirt niche is extremely competitive, we need to find some good sub-niches.

These are pockets of the market that have low competition, but very high demand. So let's type in women's t-shirts and sort this by top customer reviews. Now look, ah, this is one you'd- you don't wanna be taking inspiration from is it's a clear trademark infringement of DC Comics and Wonder Woman. I mean, if you're gonna risk doing this, at least pick a decent film, but seriously, don't infringe on anyone's trademarks. You might get a ton of sales to begin with, but in the long run, it's just not worth it when you run into all the legal trouble.

What we're really looking for is shops with lots of reviews as we can tell from that that they're successful. Now, Let's click on this one as they look like they're doing very well. Now, let's go on their shop homepage and filter reviews by most recent to see what's selling at the moment.

I'm not gonna lie to you, even I like the look of a few of these designs myself. This is a perfect little sub-niche. You'll then just have to spend an hour or so going through screenshotting designs that are selling well and take elements from all of them to put in your design. You might think this is a really small market, But this t-shirt here has over 130 reviews. That's important as the normal rule of thumb is the times out by 10 and then you have the number of sales.

So this seller has sold in the region of 1,300 of these t-shirts, bringing in revenue of $43,628 when you take shipping into account. Now with a 30% profit margin, that would be around $13,000. in profit from this one design.

So simple designs really do sell well. And remember, you can have loads of these as they're pretty easy to make. Just to set the record straight, you can't simply copy these designs.

Instead, think of it like making a cocktail. You're pulling different elements from various sources, combining proven ingredients. So it's important to draw inspiration from multiple places.

Otherwise you risk getting banned. So if you're gonna steal, steal. from many. For instance, you could pinch the font from one design, borrow the colors from another, and nab a section of a quote from a third source.

The aim here is to whip up a whole bunch of unique designs for your chosen sub-niche, because let's face it, we can't always predict what's gonna sell like crazy. So what's the best way to create your designs? This step is one of the biggest roadblocks people face. I know so many people with great design ideas, but they don't know how to to actually make them look good on a computer.

To be honest, I used to be one of those people, but it turns out that it's actually super easy, even for an old boy like me. There are four main methods you can use. Firstly, you can use a free tool like Canva.

So I've got a list of woodwork-related funny quotes here on ChatGPT. I'm gonna go with this one. Now, I'm gonna take some design elements from other products we found earlier, like the font from this listing, and the design from this other one. It's pretty easy to get these mocked up on Canva and it's also a free tool, which is even better.

Then I just have to click here to download the image without a background. Secondly, you could actually buy a template or full design. So if we take this flower t-shirt, for example, and I download the image, then use the Google search by image function, then you're quite often able to actually buy the original source file. Thirdly, and this is one I've actually been using a lot recently, is AI tools to design it for you.

Now, I think Midjourney is the best for this kind of thing. Look, it does cost you $10 a month to generate designs and also have the rights to use the images commercially, but it's such a great tool and I think it's worth it. Now, I'm lucky that my son Curtis keeps me up to date with all the new AI tech.

If I mentioned Midjourney to the other old boys down the golf club, they wouldn't have a clue what I'm on about. They'd think I'm halfway to my holiday destination. It's super easy to use.

You just need to have a free Discord account. Once that's set up, go to Midjourney's website and click on Join Beta. This will connect you to the Midjourney server inside Discord. You might as well join my free Discord group while you're in there because there's about 40,000 people in there that'll help you out with everything. business and making money related and it's completely free click on add server then me and my friends and just give it a name i'm going to call mine mark's designs now go back to the mid journey server click on the mid journey bot and add app there we go and then pick the server you just made so i'm going to click mark's designs first let's get the settings right type forward slash settings and you'll get this menu.

Select model 6 and stylization high. Right now type in forward slash imagine. Now if we wanted to make designs like this butterfly t-shirt then we would type something like this. Butterflies in the style of silhouettes in a tornado pattern on a white background.

Now you These look pretty cool. I actually think the colorful version looks nicer. This arrow circle button here will run the same prompt again to give me more options, but I'm gonna click V4, which will give me more variations like the fourth version. Once you're happy, then upscale the one you like by pressing the corresponding U button. This just makes the design larger so that you can use it on your product.

Then you can just use a background remover to get rid of the white background. I personally use photoroom.com. Finally, you can use professional designers on websites like Upwork and Fiverr. Now, I've done this before with wall art and I've been pretty happy with the results. You just have to make sure that you're very specific with the brief.

Here's a look at the brief I gave last time, so you can just copy and tailor it to fit your needs. These are all good methods, so it just depends on your skillset, available time and budget. So now we've got our designs. What's the best print on demand website for beginners? This is the site you'll use to order your products, print them and ship them to your customers.

This is an extremely important section as picking the wrong print provider will result in some of your shipments getting lost, poor customer service and all around massive headaches. Most YouTubers recommend the absolute cheapest sites and to be honest, I've got a real issue with this. The reason a lot of them can charge crazy low prices is because they cut at corners in other areas.

Wait a minute, I thought you were telling us how we could start with $0. Now you're telling us we gotta pay for websites. Well, the cool thing about most print on demand sites is you only have to pay once you've made a sale. That way you actually don't need any money upfront. I live my life by the saying, buy nice or buy twice.

This essentially means if you go with the cheapest option, then you'll actually end up spending more money in the long run, as you'll have to take the hit for the lost items. and that'll start digging into your profits. I tested out the Gelato website for myself recently, and I've got to say, I was super impressed.

The experience was seamless with both the product quality and the printing quality being excellent. Just look at how great this poster came out. I only ordered it as a sample, but I've actually ended up keeping it because I like it so much. All right, so let's jump onto Gelato and start uploading our design so you can see how easy the process is. So, I'm just gonna go to the menu on the left-hand side and select product catalog and then select men's clothing.

I'm then gonna pick T-shirts. I think we should be fine with the heavyweight unisex crew neck T-shirts. As I can see, that's their bestseller. And to be honest, Gelato has a very high standard of quality anyway. It's nearly $2 cheaper than the other more premium options.

And as I said earlier, it's super important to... and protect your profit margins. All right, so here's what I'm thinking.

I'm gonna go with direct to garment for this design. Now, don't get me wrong, embroidery is pretty cool and definitely has that premium vibe, but let's be real, it's pricier. So I'd save that for that design that screams,"'Embroider me!"And hey, if you're shelling out the extra bucks for embroidery, make sure it's super obvious when you're promoting the product.

After all, if you're paying more, it should seriously ramp up the perceived value of your product. Okay, so I'm going to start with the white option and size large, but I'll also repeat the same process with seven colors in all sizes. Now it's as simple as dragging and dropping the design we made earlier into the center box. There's also an option down here where you can add different designs to the back, neck and sleeves.

But now for this one, I'm just going to keep it simple and do the front. If you're interested in using them and you want to get 50% off your first order, then feel free to sign up with the link gelato.com slash mark. They also give me a kickback if you use that link, which I pass on to my video editors. So if you use it, then thanks for supporting the channel.

Once you've got all your designs uploaded in their different colors and sizes, it's time to start selling them. But where do I sell my products? I've got a real problem with how most YouTube channels approach this question with one answer.

They'll either say, Etsy or Shopify, but it really isn't that simple. I'm not interested in rushing through this video to get a little bit of extra attention. I know if you got to this part in the video, then you want to know the facts before you jump into something.

So let's go through both of these options so you can decide which is the best route for you or route for all you American viewers. Firstly, let's talk Etsy. If we look at the figures from February, 2023, we can see that Etsy had 460.6 million visitors. That's by far the most out of every print-on-demand marketplace, and that even includes Shopify.

In 2022, 26% of sales were made to order merch. In other words, a lot of print on demand items and 45% of sales involved an international transaction. This means that Etsy gives you access to a global audience of shoppers. A lot of people commented on one of my previous videos mentioning that I'd overlooked the marketing costs, but I didn't.

That's the advantage of marketplaces like Etsy. The customers are already there searching for these kinds of things. All you need to do is rank high enough in the search results. But it isn't all sunshine and rainbows.

Lots of people hype up print-on-demand on Etsy, but more people fail than succeed. That's just the harsh truth. Etsy don't reveal the percentage of shops that actually succeed, but they have revealed that there are 5.4 million active sellers, and the average monthly sales per user was $2,169 in 2022. But of course, these figures are heavily skewed by the more successful and established shops.

In my opinion, the reason for people failing on Etsy is that lots of folks just go with their gut, selling whatever they fancy, instead of really studying the market like I've shown you in this video. But if you stick to the system I've taught you, you'll have a serious leg up on the competition. Now for Shopify. Customer data is one of the most valuable things in business.

A general rule of thumb is that a customer's email is worth about $1 a month to a business as they can use it for advertising to a previous buyer. As Shopify isn't a shared marketplace and instead is your own website, they allow you to collect this valuable information, whereas Etsy doesn't have an option to do this legally. You see, someone has to agree to be on your email list. So yes, you can just download the emails from your Etsy customers, but you can't really get away with adding them to your email list without facing some issues. Not only is it against Etsy's policies, It's also illegal in many countries.

Selling on Shopify also allows you to set yourself apart from the competition. The bad thing about Etsy is that your products are always surrounded by your competitors, so you're somewhat forced to compete on price. It's kind of like this YouTube channel. You've probably got tons of other print-on-demand videos recommended in the sidebar.

I know I don't have to worry about you clicking off my video though, because it's the best one. Imagine this, you're scrolling through YouTube, but all you're seeing are my videos. It's either stick with me or don't learn anything at all.

It's kind of like having a Shopify store. If a customer wants what you're selling, they can't go off and buy it from anyone else. You've got them right where you want them.

So Shopify sounds like the clear winner, right? Well, no. Here's what I suggest.

When you're starting out as a beginner, it's best to go with Etsy. The customer's already there, which means you don't have to worry about marketing. All you have to focus on is getting better and better.

and better at designing products people want to buy. The competition aspect is actually very good for honing your skills, as the market doesn't lie. If your product designs aren't good enough, then you won't make any sales.

This will force you to find unique gaps in the market and level up as an entrepreneur. You can also easily connect it with Gelato by going to Menu and Stores. Don't get me wrong, the end game should be Shopify. However, before you start spending crazy amounts of money on marketing for products you don't even know sell, I recommend you post a thousand listings on Etsy. This will set you back about 20 cents per listing, which will be a total of $200.

But the data you gather will be worth far more. Once you've identified your winning products, you can start building a Shopify store and advertising on TikTok. That way you'll know if your products aren't selling on Shopify, then your marketing needs work.

If you just. skip the Etsy step, then the issue could also be your product. And then it's hard to tell what needs improving.

Think of Etsy a bit like a testing ground where you can cast as many fishing lines as possible into the ocean. And when you start catching some big fish, you know it's time to take the next step. So how do beginners sell on Etsy? Once you've created an account, there are three hacks that you can do to help you get notice on Etsy and make more sales.

The first hack is to make a track. This is super important as people want to see what your item looks like in the real world. A mock-ups are an easy way for you to show them without having to order all the different colors and designs and taking photos. Mock-ups also seem to make the product look much more homemade, which instantly makes it seem more valuable to customers.

Gelato's built-in mock-up studio actually makes this super simple. Now this one here, there you go, that looks pretty good. So let's go with that.

The second hack is to use the best keywords. This is extremely effective as Etsy is a search engine so the more information you can give them about your product the better. Of course you shouldn't Use keywords that don't apply to your product as you only want traffic from people that are interested in buying what you're selling. This is pretty simple to do.

So let's go back to the listing we found to inspire our t-shirt design. As we can see, they've used wood shirt men, woodworker shirt, men's funny shirt, funny shirts for men, and father's day gift, and dad's shirt. So I'll just copy and paste these keywords into my tags and title.

It's also worth looking around for different listings in case some of them have other unique keywords you can copy. The third hack is to use premium branding. You need to convey quality and trust. Now, trust is the most important thing in business, and you're not gonna get there by looking like a shop at the local market. You need to go for that premium boutique feel.

This is a great example of a premium store with a clear identity. You can use the free Shopify name generator to create a name that conveys trust and is relevant to your shop. Then use the name checker website to see if it's available across different platforms.

The most crucial platform is Etsy, but you should also check if it's free on other social media platforms and for the name name availability. When creating your logo and banner, don't spend too much time perfecting it. Instead, focus on making it clean and professional.

Canva offers numerous templates that can be helpful. The key to a good Etsy banner is to make it reflect the charm of homemade goods, which corporate banners often lack. Lastly, make sure your shop isn't targeting a completely different audience.

I mean, you wouldn't expect to walk into an Apple store and see a washing machine, even though they could sell them. They understand the importance of maintaining a coherent brand image. If you wanna make sales quickly, then you're probably thinking, when should I run than paid ads.

I understand the appeal of running paid ads as they can instantly give yourselves a boost. However, in my opinion, people start using paid ads well before they're actually ready. This means they either end up with no sales or as soon as they turn paid ads off, their sales completely dry up. I've always built my businesses with an organic first approach.

We're living in an age of more free reach than ever before. And I actually think social media companies are gonna start limiting organic reach soon, as they must be losing out on millions of advertising dollars. The first thing you need to put your marketing money into is creating short form content. This is great, as you can post it across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts.

It's the first type of content that enables you to reach multiple different platforms, and it's perfect for showing off your products. You'd need to order a few samples, which I'd recommend doing anyway, as you need to double check the quality of the items that you're sending out. Then it's just a case of creating some kind of story around your product.

Don't just get fancy shots of someone wearing it or using it, actually make it a part of a story. Remember, people are on social media to be entertained. So if your content isn't entertaining, then it won't reach as many people.

The more views you get, the more people will buy. It's as simple as that. The beauty of doing it this way is that you're able to see what videos perform best with your target audience before putting any ad spending to boosting the views.

Once you're seeing some organic success, it's time to start supercharging it with some paid ads. This way, you're building your side hustle on solid foundations. I've seen so many people lose their Facebook ad accounts and it's just ruined their businesses. These platforms don't have enough employees to oversee everything, so they rely on tech to police it for them. Don't leave your income in the hands of AI.

But that's not the biggest thing. people do wrong. So what's the most common mistake? A lot of people get drawn in by the huge figures many people say they're making with print-on-demand, but it's important to remember anyone can sell at break-even or even a loss.

I have a feeling a lot of these print-on-demand gurus and dropshippers actually do this. They just make a loss on their products and then flex their revenue figures on YouTube to young... and impressionable people. Don't make the mistake of focusing on the revenue you're generating.

This is a profit game, and it's important to remember that. Your profit margins are everything, and you should be protecting them at all costs. I used to sell a lot of items on eBay.

I remember having one competitor in particular who'd always try to undercut me on price. Instead of competing, I'd wait until he sold out. Then I'd continue to sell my products at my normal price. The surprising thing is, most of the time, my competitor only made 5% profit margin. Whenever I saw him at trade shows, he would laugh thinking he'd driven me out of the market.

I just smiled to myself as I still had my 30% profit margins and... I was making bank. The same applies with any business. Don't let your ego get in the way. You don't have to be ranked number one to make money.

As long as your profit margins are strong, you could be making more money than the top sellers. If you're choosing the Etsy route, this is even more crucial due to the associated fees. Etsy charges 6.5% transaction fee on both the price and the shipping fee when the item sells. as well as a 3% payment processing fee on the total amount charged to the customer.

Here's a little secret that not a lot of people know about. You might be hit with a 15% advertising fee if a customer stumbles upon your product through an Etsy ad from outside the platform. Sure, you can opt out, but honestly, it's not a bad deal as long as you're clued in and factor it into your cost. And hey, don't forget about your time.

It isn't free, you know. It's a shame. but loads of people seem to forget to value their own time. I mean, if they were to do the math and figure out their hourly earnings, they might be shocked to find out they're making less than minimum wage. Now, at a start, you're probably gonna have to hustle a bit more and earn a little bit less.

That's understandable, but just keep a close eye on the profits you're making. Every so often, divide your monthly profit by the hours you've put in. This will give you a pretty good picture of whether your side hustle is on the right track or not.

But now it's time for the- the big question, can I really make money with print on demand or is it too saturated? Right, so I need to address a negative comment I received about this on my last print on demand video. Mark, be honest about the content of your vlogs.

Tell people how saturated the markets are and stop giving them false illusions. The world of side hustles are over. There's no such thing as a quick buck.

First of all, I wanna say thanks for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate when you guys leave comments. I love reading your opinions and love to hear about all your success as well. Although there are a couple of things I disagree with, which we'll get into a bit later, there is one thing I agree with, so I wanna start with that. There has never been a truer word spoken and there's no such thing as a quick buck.

I know this more than most. I started as a relatively poor kid with no qualifications and it took me years of blood, sweat and tears to get where I am today. No part of my journey was easy or quick.

That's just the reality of life. However, if someone told me how hard it was gonna be, I probably wouldn't have even started. In my opinion, it's much better to focus on the positives than the inevitable late nights and hard work. Maybe I should get that across more in my video, so I'll take that point on board. Now, as for the markets being saturated, what a load of nonsense.

It's hard to break into any market. You've either gotta be better, or different in some way yes there's a lot of people doing it however the market is only growing most people that say the markets are too saturated probably haven't put in the hard work brace yourself there's gonna be a little bit of a rough patch sales might take a while to kick in but you've got to stick with it don't do all the hard graft and miss out on the big payoff you'll have to gradually chip away to carve your own spot in the market and yeah this could mean a few months without any sales but but don't let that get you down. Just keep going and trust the journey. If you haven't listed at least a thousand different products, then don't come back saying the market is saturated.

The truth is you've probably not put in enough time yet. And the more you work on your skills, the better you'll get. As for side hustles being dead, that's like saying businesses are dead.

If you want actual proof that side hustles aren't dead, then you should watch this next video as I share seven real stories about students making thousands per month with unique side hustles. But don't click on it just yet. Make sure to subscribe if you wanna grow your wealth, okay?

I'll see you over there.

Transcript for:Starting a Print-on-Demand Business

Transcript for:
Starting a Print-on-Demand Business