What makes Print on Demand unique?
Well, if you wanted to, would you be able to sell products online starting tomorrow? Or even today? How much investment will it require?
I know those are hard questions, but I can tell you that it’s possible.
Print on demand is one the best options to sell products online and it requires little to no investment at all to start!
So what is it exactly and can anyone do it?
Let’s find out!
When it comes to passive income online there are many opportunities in Print On Demand. This is simply because there are so many opportunities in eCommerce and POD is part of the huge eCommerce industry.
What will you learn in this first section?
Table of Contents
What is print on demand and what are the benefits?
Print on demand is a printing technology and a business process where a design is printed on merchandise only after an order has been made and paid for. This means that the merchandise seller doesn’t need to hold a lot of stock and can even print a design on a single item. The print on demand process is offering a unique business opportunity for earning a passive income.
From a passive income standpoint the business process that makes print on demand (POD) such an opportunity is actually called drop shipping. This means that the printing company is handling the order fulfillment and shipping for you and in many cases also the customer support.
Ok, so they do all that. Why is this such an opportunity for you?
Let’s better understand the benefits.
How was it done before print on demand?
Imagine that you wished to sell something online that has your own unique design on it. Let’s say a coffee mug with your “yoga for a beautiful morning” design.
Traditionally, without POD, you would need to buy a stock of coffee mugs – 100? 500? 1000 mugs? Send them to a place that will print your design on them and then send it back to you for storage. Do you have the room for it?
You would need to find customers, to be able to process payments in order to get paid. You’ll then pack individual mugs, prepare a package, send it to the client and track it for them.
If something went wrong and the mug got broken, or the customer simply didn’t like the product you’ll need to do some customer support work and handle returns, refunds etc..
And obviously, you’d need to gamble that the specific design you chose to print on the mugs will sell. Otherwise, not only you will not profit but you’ll lose the initial investment money and get stuck with a stock nobody wants.
So to summarize everything you’ll need to do if you don’t go the print on demand route:
- Invest and pay for stock in advance, hundreds or thousands of dollars $
- Invest and pay for design print in advance
- Keep room for storage or pay for storage warehouse
- Find customers
- Process and ship orders
- Handle customer support
- Hope you’ll be able to sell all the stock and manage to be profitable eventually…
Now, that’s a lot of hustle and risk to take on yourself.
Even more if you are a beginner or doing this only as a side hustle along with your 9-5 job or with raising a family.
So what if I told you ALL of the above hustle and risk can be taken away? Especially when you start and don’t want to handle any of it?
(by the way, in a more advanced section of the course I’ll show you when you might actually want to do some of this to help you increase your revenue and profits)
I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now 
. Print on demand can help you do it.
How does print on demand (POD) work and what are the benefits?
The video below explains how the old way of doing business was changed due to print on demand. It covers what are the benefits and also shows you what types of products you can print on.
Video owner: Kerry Egeler
* Somewhat Passive Income does not endorse nor is endorsed by the video owner.
Tips before you watch:
- When the video explains POD benefits, one of the benefits is relevant only for a specific type of POD business. The benefit about “white label” is relevant only in case you choose to have your own store.
- All the other benefits are relevant for all types of POD business and you should focus on those first.
- It is recommended to use the OVC – One Video Control chrome extension to be able to speed up some of the videos, auto skip ads and save even more time.
- Enjoy 🙂
- Video length: 8:30 minutes out of 13:03
- Start time: 1:35
- End time: 10:05
Check your understanding:
- No need to keep inventory
- No upfront or monthly costs, no risk of losing money
- Test as many designs you want with no risk
- Huge product selection
- Shipping materials and cost of labor is built in
- The POD company deals with issues
- You can capitalize quickly on trending events/topics
- Everything is 100% automated
- The low risk and no hustle helps get in to this business and focus only on what matters. This is great for beginners.
- The fact that everything is 100% automated makes it perfect as a passive income source. 100% automated = passive.
Why does print on demand considered passive income?
You can build your own website and store but then you’ll have to do some work such as getting traffic to your website and handling customer support. However, when you rely on suppliers that have their own marketplace, after you upload your designs to the platform – you have nothing else to do.. You simply wait for the sales to come in.
That is by definition passive income
Great so there are so many benefits that can make it truly a passive income source. But.. is it worth it? Well below I’ll add a video that will show you how much money POD business can generate. But first let’s get a more comprehensive list of products you’ll be able to sell.
What type of print on demand products can you sell?
There are so many options that it’s almost too much… 
the general categories you can find are:
- Clothing and Printed Apparel
- General Accessories
- Tech Accessories
- Stationery
- Wall Art & Decor Prints
- Kid & Baby Products
- Personalized Gifts
- Pet Products
You should remember that not all products are available with all suppliers. So if you have something specific in mind, be sure to choose a supplier that offers it,
Here’s a list of products just to give you an idea of how many options you have:
- Mugs
- T-shirts
- Crew neck sweatshirts
- Long sleeve shirts
- Leggings
- Drawstring bags
- Canvas prints
- Baseball t-shirt
- Hoodies
- Beach towels
- Notebooks
- Cushion covers
- Stickers/wall decals
- PopSocket grip
- Pouches
- Flip Flops
- Socks
- Baseball caps
- Tank tops
- Sun visors
- Bodysuits
- Bathing suits
- Beanies
- Bucket hats
- Skirts
- Dresses
- Pajamas
- Baby onesies
- T-shirts for kids and babies
- Baby beanies
- Bibs
- Hooded baby towels
- Car seat covers
- Swaddle blankets
- Burp cloths
- Kids hoodies
- Scarves
- Tote bags
- Backpacks
- Duffle bags
- Cosmetic bags
- Mirrors
- Neckties
- Yoga mats
- Buttons
- Aprons
- Throw pillows
- Wristbands
- Bracelets
- Necklaces
- Tablecloths
- Table runners
- Placemats
- Napkins
- Blankets
- Cutting boards
- Bath mats
- Shower curtains
- Coasters
- Ornaments
- Bandanas
- Bottle openers
- Laptop cases
- IPad cases and skins
- Laptop sleeves
- IPhone wallets
- Framed prints
- Art board prints
- Metal prints
- Photographic prints
- Posters
- Wall calendars
- Acrylic prints
- Journals
- Greeting cards
- Calendars
- Magnets
- Coasters
- Clocks
- Jigsaw puzzle
- Pet beds
- Pet bandanas
- Pet t-shirts
- Water bowls
- Food bowls
- Pet blankets
- Engraved jewelry
- Face masks
- And more..
Yes, this is a long list…
How much money can you make from a POD business? You’ll be surprised!
I won’t go round and round here.. let’s just watch videos that show some successful POD sellers. They’ll show a range of success from those who treat this as a full time business to those who do it as a side hustle and enjoy the extra cash they manage to earn each month.
Here are the videos:
- Multi Million USD a year POD store (self owned professional store)
- Five sellers of over $100,000 USD t-shirt sales (on a marketplace called Teespring – they do not own the store)
- Over $11,000 of profit from a single photo (yes, a real photo, not a design)
Multi Million USD a year Print On Demand store example
The video below shows a review of a multi million POD store. It’s an independent professional store. It’s an amazing example of how much income potential print on demand offers. In this specific case though, it’s not an example of a passive income source..
Video owner: James Beattie
* Somewhat Passive Income does not endorse nor is endorsed by the video owner.
Tips before you watch:
- The POD store in this review runs a lot of advertising in order to drive customer traffic to its products. This is an advanced tactic and usually not a good fit for passive income. Focus on the designs and print on demand aspect of this review.
- Video length: 8:00 minutes out of 14:56
- Start time: 0:00
- End time: 8:00
Check your understanding:
The reviewed POD store captures trends and memes very well and in general knows how to make their customers feel good. They are also able to provide strong social proof by showing their customers photos with their designs.
Key takeaways:
- Even with simple text based and non professional looking designs, it is possible to earn a high income.
- Not this website focus as we’re looking for passive income opportunities, but it is still a key takeaway – If you want to build a multi million dollar business, print on demand is definitely a legitimate way. Just as any other business it will take time, investment and building or hiring expertise.
Five sellers of $100,000 USD T-shirt sales
The video below will show 5 designs that sold over $100,000 in T-shirt sales, and this time NOT on a self owned professional store, but on a marketplace, where anyone can upload their designs and sell print on demand products.
Here we can really see the potential of having a high and fully passive income stream. This should get you excited!
Video owner: Wholesale Ted
* Somewhat Passive Income does not endorse nor is endorsed by the video owner.
Tips before you watch:
- This video will talk about two marketplaces. A marketplace is a website that you do not own and it’s main focus is to introduce buyers with many designs and products from different sellers.
You join a marketplace as a designer/seller and you are able to upload designs that will be sold, fulfilled, shipped and fully taken care of by the marketplace. For every sale that was made with your design, you get a “cut” of the payment.
- Video length: 16:46 minutes out of 17:06
- Start time: 0:00
- End time: 16:46
Check your understanding:
- They created designs for people who really cared and were passionate about the design’s subject
- They created a “giftable” design
- They used social media well to drive free traffic of engaged people who really wanted to buy their designs because it was related to something they really cared about.
- No you can’t. The fact that a product sold well doesn’t tell the whole story. As we saw, if the designer has a large following on social media and there’s a specific context for that design, it’s not something you can easily recreate.
Key takeaways:
- Using marketplaces such as Teespring, Merch by Amazon etc.. as a platform to sell your designs can also drive a lot of income. And when it’s done through a marketplace it can truly be passive income.
- Creating designs for a passionate audience increases the likelihood of selling many products and profiting well from these designs
- Creating a relevant audience on social platforms can help you get more people to see your designs and buy them.
Over $11,000 USD of profit from a single photo
Do you need to create a design in order to sell print on demand products? or is it possible to sell an actual photo as your design?
Video owner: Alexandra Strambu
* Somewhat Passive Income does not endorse nor is endorsed by the video owner.
Tips before you watch:
- Alexandra will show you a bit of Redbubble dashboards and website interface. You do not need to understand it just yet. You can concentrate on how the design and products look and how much profit a photograph can make.
- Alexandra says she treats print on demand as a side hustle and doesn’t invest time in driving traffic to her designs at all
- Video length: 9:12 minutes out of 10:26
- Start time: 0:00
- End time: 9:12
Check your understanding:
This photo was actually taken by her during her vacation to Hawaii.
She actually added this design to all available products. She rightfully says, you can never know which design and product will appeal to someone. They can all be sold and therefore it is good practice to add your designs to as many products as possible, when you sell on a marketplace.
Key takeaways:
- Photography can also work as a print on demand design. You do not have to create your designs as digital art work, you can also use photography. Whatever may appeal and invoke emotions in people can be sold.
So how much money can you make?
There are a lot of examples of very successful POD sellers, but as you’ve seen in the examples above you can treat this as a full time business and grow it to be something huge and you can treat it like Alexandra Strambu does (3rd video) and slowly gain more sales and volume as a nice passive income without a lot of investment. It is up to you how much to invest and when to stop and put things on autopilot.
OK I hope you’re pumped with motivation after watching these examples and just can’t wait to start your own print on demand journey. But… Can anyone do it? don’t you need any special skills?
Do you need any special skills OR can anyone do it?
What skills would you possibly need?
- Design skills
- Creativity skills
- Building a website skills
- Marketing skills to drive traffic to your products
- Communication skills for customer support
- Organization and logistics skills for order fulfillment
Obviously, if you have any of these skills your journey can be a much quicker one towards print on demand profits. However, does any of these is a must have skill?
In short, let me just say that my first POD sale ever was a simple one word text design. I’m by no means a designer and starting my POD journey was quick and easy. It’s really a matter of taking action because whatever you may need, you can find online.
As it comes to building your own store, marketing, communicating with clients and fulfilling orders, we already covered that it is not required and you can simply choose to work with suppliers that will cover all of these – like the marketplaces you’ve seen in the above videos.
So we are left with design skills and creativity. Let me save you the trouble. Both you do not require.
For creativity, we have a dedicated section that shows you how to research winning print on demand designs which will give you all the inspiration you need.
And for design there are two options.
First, there are design tools that make the whole design process very intuitive and simple so that anybody can create beautiful and unique designs. You’ll learn more about these options in the section about how to create free print on demand designs by yourself.
Second, there are many freelancers who’ll be happy to hear your idea and make a special design for it. You’ll see this also in the section about how to design a print on demand design that sells.
The bottom line is that anyone can start a print on demand passive income stream without the need of any special skill.
How much money do you need in order to start a print on demand business?
In general there are two options for starting a POD business. Opening your own online store or selling your designs via an online marketplace.
Opening your own online store requires some upfront investment and while you can have a lot more profit from your own store, it is much harder to manage and there’s risk of losing that investment if you do not manage to sell enough products.
When you go for selling your designs via an online marketplace, they usually don’t charge you anything at all. So there’s zero risk and zero investment needed.
So how much do you need in order to start? Basically $0.
Where can you sell your print on demand designs?
Should you open your own store or use marketplaces like Redbubble?
Video owner: Greg Gottfried
* Somewhat Passive Income does not endorse nor is endorsed by the video owner.
Tips before you watch:
- This video will compare owning your own store on the most popular platform for creating stores online which is called Shopify vs The biggest print on demand marketplaces.
- Video length: 6:34 minutes out of 10:01
- Start time: 0:27
- End time: 7:01
Check your understanding:
- Marketplaces are free. Owning your own store requires you to spend on a monthly basis just on things related to store maintenance.
- Marketplaces do the marketing for you and they already have lots of traffic of people who already look to buy an interesting and compelling design.
- You can collect email addresses from your customers and then send them emails trying to turn them into returning customers. You can increase your profit potential this way.
Key takeaways:
- If you’re just starting out or if you wish to build a passive income source, Marketplaces are a better way to go.
- Redbubble, Merch by Amazon and Teespring are three big marketplaces which are non exclusive, which means you can upload your designs to all three of them and increase the odds of your designs being found and sold.
How soon can you start?
Start as soon as possible! 
By taking this course you are one step closer to starting, but be aware that going over this course does not mean you have started!
It only means you are building the required knowledge to start. The beauty of POD is that there’s not a lot to learn before you can actually start.
Can’t wait to start?
If you wish to skip this section’s summary, here is the link to the next section- Print on demand designs – how to choose and create a profitable print on demand design.
Summary – Print on Demand Basics
Print on demand is a low risk to no risk, passive income opportunity.
It can save you a lot of the hustle of being an online seller by letting you dive right into the action. Creating designs to test and find what works, and make sure you enjoy what you do. All that, before deciding if you want to take it to the next level (or to move on and develop your next passive income stream).
Print on demand gives you a lot of options to build a brand. You do not need any special skill to start and you’ve seen several successful POD sellers that can actually make a living from POD.
You do not need any money invested in order to start and you can start today.
One important thing to remember though, print on demand is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s easy to start, but takes time to master and as any business, you’ll need to build your experience and decide how much time and effort you are willing to invest in order to grow your print on demand income.
As any passive income stream, you first need to build and set it up which takes time and effort and only then you’ll be able to enjoy its fruits.
Hope this was helpful!
Make sure to save this blog in your favorites and get back to follow up with the Print on Demand course.
Click here to start the next section – “How to create a profitable print on demand design” or check the print on demand free online course syllabus
Thank you!
