For those asking: basically you find a "print on demand" manufacturer who you can submit your designs to. Check out what they charge to create each product. Negotiate and/or ask about price breaks. You want to buy low, sell high. I chose to sell on Etsy because the traffic is already there v.s. a standalone website and trying to get traffic when you first start off. The reason I've been successful is because all my items are
personalized so you can't get it anywhere else.
Example:
Take this t-shirt:
Vintage Year Whiskey Person Funny Birthday T-Shirt
You see how it's personalized? So, the customer would need to message you the year and what they want on the shirt. I just used that shirt on Zazzle as an example but I don't suggest you sell your designs on there. Their commission is stupid low and I think you have to wait 60 days to get paid. Back to the shirt-- say your manufacturer charges $6 for DTG (direct to garment) for a shirt. Put your design on their t-shirt mockup or find a mockup to use (a lot of free t-shirt mockups on the net). List it on Etsy for like $20 or whatever. Charge shipping. Some manufacturers only charge you like $2 to ship your product for you but you can charge say like $5 on Etsy. So, $20 + $5 = $25 for the shirt. T-shirt expense is $6. Profit: $19. Minus Etsy fees (varies per item) can be like $1.50. Repeat. The more listings you have on Etsy the better because the more likely you'll be found in the search engine (on both Etsy and Google). Also, think about niches like wedding t-shirts, sports t-shirts, funny t-shirts, kid's t-shirts etc.
t-shirts – Etsy UK
Also, you don't have to do just t-shirts. You can put your designs on whatever products you want (phone cases, mugs, posters, tote bags etc). Just make sure it's something the customer can personalize or a design that people haven't seen before. I would take the time to look on Etsy in the category you want to sell in and see who are the top sellers and study what they do (their pricing, their designs etc), just so you can get an idea. It's really simple once you get started and keep repeating the process of listing new products.
Print On Demand Manufacturers to Check Out:
scalablepress.com
Direct to Garment T-Shirt Fulfillment. Print on Demand Dropshipping
theprintful.com
For those places I listed above you don't need money to start. The only expense would be Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop (or whatever program you use) and the Etsy listing fees which is like twenty cents to list your item in your store. If you don't have Adobe or know how to use it, you can go on Fiverr and have folks make t-shirts designs for you for $5. Then you just submit that design to your manufacturer. When you choose a manufacturer, you're assigned an Account Representative who's there to help you all the way because it's a win-win situation for both of you. So, any questions that you have make sure you ask them. Again, it's free to start with a Print on Demand company but you just want to find the one that works for you.
All this hard work man it has killed me.
