[PROVEN METHOD] Passive Income through POD Websites

[Josh Saga]

You say "Better to learn photoshop for making small edits on Original design."
Whos original design? Someone else's or designer you hire. Because I have heard that copyright claim can get your account suspended.

Hello - I'm a designer - you can specify in the brief/contract that you would get a license to distribute as well as all the creative assets included in the making of the design (.PSD,.EPS,etc.)
Most designers are fine with that but they charge an additional fee for all the creative assets. Just be clear on the brief so you won't have problems.
btw- TShirt designs or majority of designs on casual wear are around $30-$150 depending on design - add + $30 or $50 if you want the license to distribute as well as creative assets.

Thanks

 

[jerson]

ive been a doing a few years now with POD and here's my 2 cents: if you really want to earn more, you have to upload more.
to do this, start with non tier POD sites like redbubble and teepublic. my problem was really laziness. i have like a million ideas
on a shirt design (simple text, graphic) but the thing is i do not put more effort.
so if you really want to be successful in this game, upload more. stop watching movies, stop doing things that are outside your lane.
upload more, eat, upload, sleep, upload, repeat.
for merch by amazon, yes its tiered so the best thing you can do is focus on research and lower your pricing.
remember: merch by amazon and redbubble/teepublic is a different ballgame when it comes to POD
do your research and upload more.

 

[podninja]

Oh...Sorry for the delay. I am sick. I will try to answer as many as possible.

Why are you sharing this method then?

If it works so great?

I don't know that only dead methods should be shared here . Jokes apart, This is not my main business. There are many people sharing real working methods here.

any ideas for the keywords when upload designs when you don't have a clear topic like birthday, just a graphic design.

Best Birthday Gifts... Just add adjectives front and back of the main keyword.

Is it good option if I am doing this from india. Found Amazon merch not accepting bank details from india. Don't know about others..but what payment options I have if I am from India..#'%##

Payoneer is the solution. They will provide a US bank account. Those accounts are accepted by Amazon.

P.S: I am replying to 3 quotes in one comment to make it easy for readers.

 

[podninja]

Its not easy to get accepted by Amazon merch. How did you get accepted?

I waited for 6 months in the queue. I also requested from multiple accounts.

Hi. I sell my designs on Etsy and Design Bundles and I'm planning to start selling on Redbubble. I've tried to hire some designers on Fiverr and Freelancer but there are many "designers" who just steel other designs and try to sell you like original work. How you check if the designs original when you buying?

You can't verify. There are few tools that scan copycats but I don't think it's worth it. Get custom work from Designer... If you want to buy existing designs... You have to use the marketplaces.

I started redbubble few weeks ago. I have cca. 30 designs and no sales so far.

cca? If you don't mind... I can review your store and provide you feedback.

How do you get traffic? Pinterest , twitter , reddit ?

There is high % of direct traffic to these POD marketplaces. People come to redbubble and search for products.... Ex: "Best Teacher Gift". Then my design pops up on the website. Apart from that... I use Pinterest, Wanelo. Polyvore was best-converted traffic for me but it was bought and closed as of now.

How to prevent other seller stealing your design?

You have to trademark it. This happened to me and it happens to everyone. I uploaded very few products to Amazon while doing FBM... People copied and killed my sales. Then I uploaded products in bulk to stay under the radar. I was having millions of products on Amazon. Still winning products are always copied. But my sales are not hurt by copycats drastically... I don't deal with 5-star reviews or Product ranking. If I one star to a product... I will delete and reupload the product and then do sponsor ads. Same bulk upload helps on POD sites as well.

 

[podninja]

Hi @podninja

Thanks for the informative post.

As a newbie, may I ask a few questions?

1. What platform should I begin first(Redbubble, Zazzle or Teespring etc..)?

2. What mistakes does newbie make?

3. You said you created many accounts in each platform, why is that?

4. Are there evergreen niches in POD? If so, what are they?

1. Apply for Merch and wait for the invitation. Meanwhile start with RedBubble, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, Cafepress.
2. Lose hope and leaving it in the middle
3. Accounts might get suspend. So I created many accounts.
4. Year designs (Birthday Gifts), Nurse and Teachers also worked for me very well. Sports are also good but it's very sensitive niche.

How do I go about joining Merch by Amazon without a US Bank account?

Payoneer.

Hardest part about merch is you are limited to 10 uploads. Then you just sit back and hope and pray you get sales. Theres nothin you can really do.

Redbubble ive heard of people uploading literally thousands of designs and make a few hundred bucks

Merch is probably better but gotta get past the 10 designs phase. And to earn a decent income im sure u gotta have thousands of designs

Also people are figuring out you can do this which creates more competition

I really believe/think the people that make the most or good money online are just gonna keep it to themselves

Even in like dropshipping. You have the top percentage of people that know the tricks and know the ins and outs of literally everything

You missed the trick. You can always go for ads for quick sales.
Check this as well: https://merch.amazon.com/resource/44PDVU75CHA2M4M

 

[Kheloyar]

Hey @podninja great share man! I have two questions here. 1) Can I request another account from the same pc where I have one account suspended? 2) Can I use the same Payoneer for multiple Teespring accounts? God bless you.

 

[podninja]

Hey @podninja great share man! I have two questions here. 1) Can I request another account from the same pc where I have one account suspended? 2) Can I use the same Payoneer for multiple Teespring accounts? God bless you.

1) Depends on which account.
Amazon Merch-No
Redbubble-No
Teespring-Yes
and rest are not that particular.

2) You can use the same Payoneer to as many accounts possible.

 

[Kheloyar]

1) Depends on which account.
Amazon Merch-No
Redbubble-No
Teespring-Yes
and rest are not that particular.

2) You can use the same Payoneer to as many accounts possible.

Thank you so much buddy!

 

[pbs369]

You have to trademark it. This happened to me and it happens to everyone. I uploaded very few products to Amazon while doing FBM... People copied and killed my sales. Then I uploaded products in bulk to stay under the radar. I was having millions of products on Amazon. Still winning products are always copied. But my sales are not hurt by copycats drastically... I don't deal with 5-star reviews or Product ranking. If I one star to a product... I will delete and reupload the product and then do sponsor ads. Same bulk upload helps on POD sites as well.

Thank you.

 

[Josh Saga]

@podninja
Thanks for the share -
I'm doing this right now on my 4th day - I'm a designer so Adobe CC and Canva is easy for me to use and I have knowledge on SEO and Growth Hacking Social Media as well. Though I'm only on a specific niche on Cats -
I got a few questions if you have the time to answer:

1: When you started this, how many months before you started getting sales?
2: How many designs did you upload per day or week?
3: I plan to create more accounts for specific Niches as well - do you recommend this?

Thank you! <3

 

[Josh Saga]

400 designs to get £800-1200 a month, and 200 designs to get £200 a month?

Looks like we would need a big budget to buy enough designs to make 1K a month.

I have 1K to spend on a project, but it doesn't look like 1K investment in designs would be enough, to even make it to the £200 a month mark if I go buy Fiverr designer prices.

Here's the deal for everyone - in Design you need to simply practice the fundamentals. The fundamentals are so easy and everyone has an innate view of what's structured well or not. Some just have them amplified when they were younger.
Youtube Design fundamentals and copy paste the methods- then go to Canva if you don't have a budget - since Adobe will take more time to create fresh designs, in Canva you can work withTemplates. Just don't sell the exact template lol.

 

[podninja]

Canva you can work with templates.

This works.

 

[anisbk94]

sorry, I do not see any added value anyone know these steps, therefore there is a sustainable competitive advantage, and your design will get lost in the million design uploaded in bulk by crazy 3 third world marketers, copying your design will be you punish if you try to be creative, profit price is very low and to see result maybe is longer than google SEO results

 

[Alanon]

Thank you for share this. It sounds interesting.

 

[alternox]

What about ViralStyle.com, anyone tried their service? Because I don't see this site in the OP's list.

 

[kasumi009]

Thank you. Which of those platforms offers the lowest price to sell?

 

[DocHolly]

If this thread inspires at least one newbie who is looking for methods and takes action. I would think my time spent on this thread is well justified. I know the pain of a newbie...In 2012, I have gone from thread to thread, blog to blog, course to course to find one good method. Earning that $1 will give you a lot of confidence. The morale of the thread is... Making money is very easy if you take action. Why would I hide the traffic part if it really requires? No one is competing with me here...This is not my main income source.

So I'm one who found it extremely useful. My son was laid off the week before this post. I showed it to him & he instantly read it all then got to work. He does the initial design in Canva then finishes it in photoshop.
He had a bit of an issue going to Amazon Merch, so he started at redbubble. His goal is to have 100 designs by the week before Thanksgiving. & another 100 by Dec 1.
One of his designs took off immediately. Which encouraged him to do more.
Thank you for this helpful tutorial. Any tips on Amazon Merch would be appreciated.

 

[CatalinRat]

How many designs do I need to start? Thanks!

 

[podninja]

What about ViralStyle.com, anyone tried their service? Because I don't see this site in the OP's list.

You need to bring traffic. It's more affiliate/influencer friendly.

Thank you. Which of those platforms offers the lowest price to sell?

It's upto you to set whatever commission you wanted. Every platform offers that.

So I'm one who found it extremely useful. My son was laid off the week before this post. I showed it to him & he instantly read it all then got to work. He does the initial design in Canva then finishes it in photoshop.
He had a bit of an issue going to Amazon Merch, so he started at redbubble. His goal is to have 100 designs by the week before Thanksgiving. & another 100 by Dec 1.
One of his designs took off immediately. Which encouraged him to do more.
Thank you for this helpful tutorial. Any tips on Amazon Merch would be appreciated.

Nice to hear. Waiting list is a must for Merch. But once you got the account... Upload your top 10 designs and do Amazon Ads to get you tier up.

How many designs do I need to start? Thanks!

I got sales with 4 designs but the amount is very low.

 

[Opulentos]

Nice share, I remember doing this around the start of lock down but stopped due to lack of time.