[Journey] Print on demand brand (e-commerce)

Heya folks! After my recently successful Shopify journey (I made very nice sales and the website was sold (via Instagram) since I needed instant money for some small debts)), now I'm finally ready for something a bit more serious.

Very short presentation of mine since I never did it (you can skip xd)

I'm a 20 years old Italian guy, dropped university (IT science) because here in Italy organization is an unknown word and so, after getting nice grades (28/30, 25/30, 29/30 and much more) my University has NEVER validated them (for long and stupid reasons I won't explain, let me tell you that it's all bureaucracy (Italy is full of this)). Now I work for a company as IT (and marketing) and I feel pretty much okay, living alone with my cat and nothing special at all. I always wanted to start this kind of business I'm going to talk about now, and now I have the money, time (I can work on it in evening/night) and the right motivation (quitting a common offline job, even if I actually enjoy it).

What is print on demand?

Basically, the best technology to sell custom t-shirts, mugs, pillows and everything the provider can offer to you. Why? Because there is no cost up front, that means that you won't pay the provider until someone buys your product(s). Once someone buys the product, the printing agency starts doing all the hard work and then ship the final item to the customer. Just like drop shipping, your earnings are: your custom price minus original product's cost (in that case, the printing service has a cost, also depending on the design complexity, how many sides you print, etc..). I prefer it over drop shipping because you're not working with Chinese suppliers (if you aliexpress as provider) and you can customize the product in order to brand it (branding is my main goal).

My plan, what I did and what I'm going to do.

My plan is to create a clothing brand that targets women and focusses on current's trends (I won't go too much into details for obvs reasons). Many clothing brands use the founder's name as brand's name, so I did that as well.

For the moment I created a Wordpress website (top level domain obv) with a simple and pretty nice theme. I set it up, plugins are ok and it's fast enough. I won't do any SEO, 0, nada. I'll focus completely on Ads, social media and offline marketing (read further). I connected the website with Printify, the print on demand service that I will use. I chose the free plan since you can do pretty much everything with it (the paid plans offer reduced prices for the items, so you may need that ONLY if you scale your business). I also created the first design just for testing, but I still like it.

For the moment I have enough knowledge of photoshop and illustrator in order to create simple designs, maybe I'll hire an artist later on. I use Reddit, Tumblr, DeviantArt, and some more socials to get design ideas, since I know which keywords I have to search for. I created the Instagram page, a minimalistic logo for it and today I'm going to search for some sources to scrape followers. I'll also do some competitor analysis in order to improve my website and marketing techniques.

Now, the fun part. This won't be the only Instagram page for this brand. Recently I "discovered" the child accounts method in order to get some more followers and build authority. That's why I also have a VPS, accounts, IG bot, and proxies. Those pages won't look like spammy accounts that just want to sell things: I'll make quotes pages about my brand, model page that wears my design (I have some friends that will do this for free) and much more. It will be a very long run. I currently have the budget for all these things thank the extra money from the drop shipping journey, my offline job and some CPA accounts that are making nice money every day.

With these child pages, I'll try to redirect as much traffic as I can. I'll also create giveaways in order to maximize the engagement rate. The last thing, I'm going to promote offline by ordering some samples of my design and let them wear to some friends of mine (as always, they'll do that for free).

Let me do a recap of the things I need (that I currently have)

Wordpress CMS
Hosting: Siteground (got this on the BF sale, it was extremely cheap)
Domain: 1 year free with siteground
Theme: Vogue
Printing service: Printify free plan
Instagram pages: self created
Instagram bot: GMT2
Proxies: massproxy
VPS: contabo 16 gb

I don't think that I'm going to update daily even if I'll work on it every day. Maybe some days I make just a few steps and it could be boring or spammy, so I'll update just when there are more relevant things. For every question feel free to reply to this thread, if you need to PM me for some reason, just let me know in the comments first, since I don't really check PMs often. Have a great day!

I will use this color for the replies in order to make them readable

This is a solid plan, my dude.

Wish you all the best and success ahead.

Keep on sharing.

Why Printify? What's your experience with them?

Hassandepp said:

Why Printify? What's your experience with them?

Click to expand...

I did some research about it (tissue quality, pricing, physical printing store providers) and I found that Printify suits my needs. I did a few comparisons with printful, that's what i think:

Tissue quality: I ordered samples from both providers and the quality is variable. I found that in most cases, printify gave me better results.
Cost: definitely printify, much cheaper

UPDATE

Heya! Nothing too special but I would like to write down some new things I made. First of all I created a new design and I can tell the niche since it's quite large.

This design is about the LGBT trend (please don't be offended if I call it "trend", I'm not against any kind of sexual orientation, but we have to admit that it's also a trend, and we also know that trend = money). So, this shirt is about a quote from this trend. I was concerned about the copyright because I know that quotes sometimes have copyright. I used https://cocatalog.loc.gov/ in order to check this thing and I found that there was no copyright, so I used it without worrying too much. I didn't change a single word, but if in the future I find some copyrighted thing, I'll just change some words and I think it'd be good.

It's not just a shirt with some text on it, I also put some other graphical things to make it look a little better and good looking. It's not too fancy because I don't want to distract people from its original meaning. Next thing I have set up how people see the website from mobile and desktop. Obv from the mobile you will just see 1 product per row, in this way I can use a bigger image. Under the image, you see the product's name (not just a common name, but a more original one) and under that, you see the price. The price varies from size to size, I have also specified that on the website. For the moment it looks good, I just have to think about adding a button "buy now" or "check it out" or "view details" in order to see the product details and buy it. By now you have to click on the image in order to do that, the button may take too much space, I'll do some tests later today.

The last thing for today, it's the mockup. This thing is necessary for the home page; if you don't know what I'm talking about, let me show you this image
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if you can't see the image, that's the link: https://ibb.co/1fH04bc
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Basically, with this service, I can upload my design and they will be automatically placed on models (there are many pages). I said that I have some friends willing to dress my clothes, but I can't compete with HQ and professional shoots. This service actually costs a bit, but I have found some way to get these images for free with just the chrome's element inspector. I'll keep you updated about that. My goal is to put some of these models on my homepage, so people can see how the design looks.

For the moment it's all, see ya!

Tenebra23 said:

UPDATE

Heya! Nothing too special but I would like to write down some new things I made. First of all I created a new design and I can tell the niche since it's quite large.

This design is about the LGBT trend (please don't be offended if I call it "trend", I'm not against any kind of sexual orientation, but we have to admit that it's also a trend, and we also know that trend = money). So, this shirt is about a quote from this trend. I was concerned about the copyright because I know that quotes sometimes have copyright. I used https://cocatalog.loc.gov/ in order to check this thing and I found that there was no copyright, so I used it without worrying too much. I didn't change a single word, but if in the future I find some copyrighted thing, I'll just change some words and I think it'd be good.

It's not just a shirt with some text on it, I also put some other graphical things to make it look a little better and good looking. It's not too fancy because I don't want to distract people from its original meaning. Next thing I have set up how people see the website from mobile and desktop. Obv from the mobile you will just see 1 product per row, in this way I can use a bigger image. Under the image, you see the product's name (not just a common name, but a more original one) and under that, you see the price. The price varies from size to size, I have also specified that on the website. For the moment it looks good, I just have to think about adding a button "buy now" or "check it out" or "view details" in order to see the product details and buy it. By now you have to click on the image in order to do that, the button may take too much space, I'll do some tests later today.

The last thing for today, it's the mockup. This thing is necessary for the home page; if you don't know what I'm talking about, let me show you this image
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if you can't see the image, that's the link: https://ibb.co/1fH04bc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Basically, with this service, I can upload my design and they will be automatically placed on models (there are many pages). I said that I have some friends willing to dress my clothes, but I can't compete with HQ and professional shoots. This service actually costs a bit, but I have found some way to get these images for free with just the chrome's element inspector. I'll keep you updated about that. My goal is to put some of these models on my homepage, so people can see how the design looks.

For the moment it's all, see ya!

Click to expand...

Do you not think something in the LGBT niche will not really be an evergreen product. More of a festival or parade style shirt?

zack101 said:

Do you not think something in the LGBT niche will not really be an evergreen product. More of a festival or parade style shirt?

Click to expand...

I thought this as well, nice point. Obv, my brand will not only focus on this but the main theme fluctuates around it. Actually, I know some people that are quite obsessed with this lgbt thing, independently from festivals and time period. They also know other people obsessed with it, and the chain continues. Today I'll start searching for not too large pages focused on this theme. However, most of my designs will be more general (still women focused) and more evergreen tho. This shirt is also quite provoking, that's why I have a good feeling about it.

following your journey.
China & Hong kong have a lot of print on demand company.
I have a good experience with them during 2008 - 2012, before Ebay's rule changed.

Tenebra23 said:

I thought this as well, nice point. Obv, my brand will not only focus on this but the main theme fluctuates around it. Actually, I know some people that are quite obsessed with this lgbt thing, independently from festivals and time period. They also know other people obsessed with it, and the chain continues. Today I'll start searching for not too large pages focused on this theme. However, most of my designs will be more general (still women focused) and more evergreen tho. This shirt is also quite provoking, that's why I have a good feeling about it.

Click to expand...

Well, good luck with it man. Really hope it works out for you.

Seems like a good plan!

Sounds like you're on the right track. It sounds like you have 1 shirt design but will add more in the future. I wouldn't worry about the HQ professional shots - you're selling to the end-user, not some corporate buyer that expects all the glitz and glam from a $x,xxx marketing package. Obviously, take some nice shots but it doesn't have to be "catalog" ready - not in order to sell anyway.

Also, have your friends that are willing to wear your clothes put some on and share it on their social media pages and tag your brand in it. I'm sure you already know this....you can also think of contests, etc to not only get your products out there but start collecting a contact database of people that are directly interested in your product.

@Tenebra23 What shirt brands are you putting your products on? Since you're targeting women, you can get away with a higher average price point but with a better quality shirt.

Good luck with everything.

propipper said:

Sounds like you're on the right track. It sounds like you have 1 shirt design but will add more in the future. I wouldn't worry about the HQ professional shots - you're selling to the end-user, not some corporate buyer that expects all the glitz and glam from a $x,xxx marketing package. Obviously, take some nice shots but it doesn't have to be "catalog" ready - not in order to sell anyway.

Also, have your friends that are willing to wear your clothes put some on and share it on their social media pages and tag your brand in it. I'm sure you already know this....you can also think of contests, etc to not only get your products out there but start collecting a contact database of people that are directly interested in your product.

@Tenebra23 What shirt brands are you putting your products on? Since you're targeting women, you can get away with a higher average price point but with a better quality shirt.

Good luck with everything.

Click to expand...

Thank you!. You are 100% right about the quality, my only problem is that I have limited (5-6) friends who can wear my clothes, and so I need to differentiate the home page time to time. I'll add the premade models just to vary a bit (I'll adjust the quality in order not to have different resolutions tho). Yes, I told them to share pics on social media so that I can increase the chances to make some early sales.

The brands I use are bellacanvas, next level, alstyle, gildan and few more

All the best for your journey! May I know where you get your proxies and IG accounts?

Following. I am again will start my tshirt journey next year. But I am try to focus with marketplace sales. I am suck with IG. Maybe will do again later.

Gud luck and all the best!

fostdecile said:

All the best for your journey! May I know where you get your proxies and IG accounts?

Click to expand...

Thank you! It's been 6+ months with massproxy and I had no problem with them (used for mass botting CPA).

nawza21 said:

Following. I am again will start my tshirt journey next year. But I am try to focus with marketplace sales. I am suck with IG. Maybe will do again later.

Gud luck and all the best!

Click to expand...

Thank you, good luck you too :^)

Tenebra23 said:

I will use this color for the replies in order to make them readable

Click to expand...

Your replies are barely readable in this color when using BHW white version.

Good luck on your journey.

Pretty cool, I'll finish my POD shop soon and send my IG followers (34k) over there, might make a journey idk. I decided to choose printful though as i heard their quality & especially support is better. Also the 3D models and basically everything is free with printful, which is nice. I hope it works out for you with printify though, maybe things have changed by now
If you want we can help each other out once Ive finished setting my shop up (will have time around christmas)

Sounds like you are on the right path. As you said, you only have 5-6 friends who can model for you, you can reach out to loads of "IG" models in your region who would gladly model for you for free.

Good luck on your journey.

UPDATE (made money!)

Didn't have to wait for that much, nice. Basically I printed and ordered 3 t-shirts, gave them to my lgbt feminist friends (lol) and quit many friends of them asked where did they buy it. They linked my website and that's it, 2 sales. Not that much maybe, but it's still some pretty basic offline marketing at the moment.

I'll use the money to invest in some shoutout or something for this business. Today I have others things to do so I may not be able to make any progress. The good is that now I can get feedback about the product's quality. If after some washes the design fades away, I'll instantly change the POD provider

Total sales: $21,6 [NET]

UPDATE

I started using Printful too (has more variety) and some people asked for a specific type of clothes that I could not find in Printify. Anyway, even if the shipping costs are quite high, I slightly increased the retail price in order to earn a nice amount of money. By now I added some more design (Tumblr style because people in my old school are cringe like that) and indeed I made some more sales. Since it's time to move on selling online too, I started a basic Google Trend research for periodical and evergreen niches.

New sales: $28,98 [NET]

Total sales: $50,58 [NET]

Not much money by now, but I almost covered all the expenses for hosting + domain (1 year).

No updates for long time!