How I Make $1,500 Monthly With My Print-On-Demand Business

Do you want to learn? How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business?

A print-on-demand business allows you to create and sell custom products like t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases without having to store any inventory.

Today I have a great interview that I want to share with you about this business idea.

Jessica Loop has had a print-on-demand side hustle for a few years now: she designs and sells her own products, and recently launched a course on the subject. I love print-on-demand.

She makes about $500 to $1,500 a month from her print-on-demand side hustle, and has made over 6,000 sales of her print-on-demand products.

In this interview, we ask Jessica some questions about how to start a print-on-demand business from home.

So, if you’re interested in starting a flexible, in-demand side hustle, I ask her questions you might be wondering:

• What is print on demand and how does print on demand work?
• What print-on-demand products can individuals sell?
• How much can a beginner make selling print on demand?
• How much does it cost to set up and run a print on demand business?
• Can someone with no technical skills start a print-on-demand business?

Today’s interview will help you get started on your path to becoming a successful print-on-demand entrepreneur.

Free registration is recommended 17 Popular Print-on-Demand Products to Help You Fund Your Next Vacation and More! For more information, please click here.

How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business

Below is an interview about how to start a print on demand business.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your background and what inspired you to start your own print on demand business. How much do you make per month from print on demand?

Hi! I’m Jessica and I’ve been working full time online since 2017, doing everything from food blogging to providing virtual assistant services.

In 2020, like many people, I found myself with a lot of free time on my hands due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In my free time, I got a bit carried away with how e-commerce was doing and thought it would be a good idea to start one as a side hustle. In 2024, I started planning my e-commerce business for a launch in early 2024. I was super excited!

I wish I could say this was the beginning of my print on demand journey, but unfortunately, I took the hard way and jumped into e-commerce – starting an online gift company with physical inventory.

This wasn’t such a good idea, since I live in a 692 square foot apartment, plus I completely underestimated how long it would take to unpack the items, pack them, print the shipping labels, and take the boxes to the post office. TiredAnd so my fun little e-commerce “side hustle” turned into a nightmare.

One day, perhaps out of sheer desperation, print-on-demand suddenly occurred to me.

A few years ago, I heard about the idea somewhere and created a few print-on-demand products. I’d never seriously considered selling products I’d designed myself, but suddenly the idea seemed appealing. It seemed like it would solve all my problems, since I wouldn’t have to carry inventory, pack, wrap, or ship anything.

I launched my first print-on-demand product on Etsy in May 2024 and it quickly became a bestselling product. I was hooked and haven’t looked back since.

My profits average between $500 and $1,500 per month. I’m pretty busy with my “day job” income source, so print-on-demand has always been a side hustle for me. It’s a super fun creative outlet and a great way to make some extra money each month.

2. What is print-on-demand and how does print-on-demand work?

The very nature of print-on-demand means that products are produced “on demand”, meaning they are not produced until an order is placed. For example, a design is not printed onto a blank mug until a customer places an order.

Print-on-demand has evolved into a term that describes a business model that allows everyday people to partner with a print-on-demand production partner and sell a variety of products without having to hold physical inventory or perform fulfillment.

If you’re selling on Etsy like me, here’s the process:

• Create a digital design file (it’s easier than you think – some of my best sellers are text-only designs!) and upload it to your production partner’s site. For this example, let’s say you’ve designed a t-shirt.
• Selling T-Shirts on Etsy
• A customer finds your t-shirt, likes it, and buys it
• Your order will be sent to our production partner, who will then confirm your order with the click of a button.
• Our production partners will print your digital design files onto t-shirts in your desired size, package them, print shipping labels, and ship them to you.
• Our production partners upload tracking information to Etsy and mark the order as completed.

That’s it! Etsy pays you (minus transaction fees), you pay your production partner, and the difference goes in your pocket – usually about 30% of the price you listed on Etsy. You pay 100% of shipping costs.

As you can see, in this process, you never actually pick up a physical item – our production partners handle it all for you.

3. What print-on-demand products can individuals sell?

Almost anything! I don’t have an exact number, but I believe there are thousands of different products available for print on demand.

Each production partner offers different products, and most of them are constantly adding new products, and within each product category there are often many variations – for example, there isn’t just one type of mug – they come in different sizes, different shapes, different colors, different materials.

Here are some products that can be printed on demand:

• Mugs
• Tumbler
• T-Shirts
• Sweatshirts
• Tote Bags
• Cosmetic pouch
• Wall Art
• blanket
• Desk Mat
• Mobile Phone Cases
• Decorations
• Bumper Stickers
• Jigsaw Puzzle
• Pet Bowl
• Can Cooler

If you can dream it, you can probably achieve it!

4. How much can a beginner make selling print on demand?

It’s possible to make around $500 per month on Etsy within the first 3-6 months if you commit to the process.

I started making that amount in just a month or so and luckily for me, I quickly had a bestselling product – it wasn’t my intention (I got excited about one sale!) but I happened to release a product that resonated with people.

After the initial start-up period, it’s entirely possible to make $500 to $1,500 a month working part-time on Etsy. Full-time on Etsy you can achieve $40,000 to $70,000 a year.

You’ll notice what I’m saying On EtsyBy creating your own store (Shopify is a popular platform for self-hosting) and using a lot of paid advertising and social media, you can scale up significantly – some people are making six figures a year.

5. How much does it cost to set up and run a print on demand business?

If you’re starting a shop on Etsy like I am, here’s a general overview of the costs:

• Etsy (selling platform): There is a transaction fee of $0.20 for each new listing and 6.5% once a sale is made.
• Adobe Illustrator (design software)*: $22.99/month
• Creative Fabrica (to get fonts and images for your designs): $3.99/month
• Printify (production partner): There are no subscription fees, but they do offer a premium plan that allows you to purchase their products for less for just $24.99 per month (highly recommended if you plan to start making more than 10 sales per month).

*Some people use Canva, but I’ve found it’s easier to create high-quality designs using Adobe Illustrator. That said, Canva is constantly improving, so I think I’ll eventually make the switch.

6. What do you like about print on demand? Is it worth it?

I like to joke that I’m both super motivated and super lazy, but I’ve found that print on demand, especially on Etsy, is perfect for someone like me.

I love that I can publish as many product designs as I want with minimal effort and minimal risk. If something doesn’t work out, it’s no big deal – I just move on to the next product. After seeing another side of inventory-based business, print-on-demand is so easy and so much less stressful.

I’ve also grown to love the creative process of designing new products. I’ve always felt like I wasn’t creative, but print-on-demand has ignited a creative flame inside of me that I never knew existed. My designs are pretty basic, but sometimes I’ll spend hours designing a product without realizing the time has passed.

It’s 110% worth it. It’s a super fun hobby that also pays well. Print on demand is a great way to fund vacations, home improvements, some me-time (like spa time), pay the bills, and more. Plus, if your goal is to take it full time, it’s achievable.

7. How can you get customers for your print on demand business?

I highly recommend starting with Etsy because they have an existing customer base. Etsy has about 92 million active buyers worldwide, so the potential is huge. People aren’t going to Etsy for any other reason than to buy something, so you can focus all your energy on acquiring customers.

Like many online platforms, Etsy relies heavily on SEO for its product listings, so optimizing your product listings for search engines will help you get found by potential buyers.

While Etsy is the “easy button” for print-on-demand customers, there are other ways to acquire customers: organic social media and paid social media (advertising). With these methods, instead of hosting your products on Etsy, you’ll have your own online store through a platform like Shopify, Wix, or Woocommerce.

TikTok Shops are also becoming a popular way for print-on-demand sellers to reach customers. With TikTok Shops, you can sell and customers can buy directly in the app, without having to have a separate store somewhere.

TikTok has strict rules about selling in your store, including the maximum number of days for items to be shipped to customers. Previously, some products took a little longer to ship (because they had to be printed before being shipped), which created a barrier to entry for print-on-demand, but now more manufacturing partners are striving to ship products within TikTok’s timeline.

8. Can someone with no technical skills do this?

Yes! You don’t have to be super tech savvy to get started. You just need to be willing to learn new skills. People of all skill levels can succeed with print on demand.

You don’t need to be an expert when it comes to graphic design either – as I mentioned before, some of my bestselling designs are text only. Plus, with an inexpensive subscription to a site like Creative Fabrica, you can get millions of images and fonts to use in your designs.

9. What is the best print on demand platform?

I use Printify and love it.

The two big companies for print on demand are Printify and Printful, but I chose Printify because I liked their pricing and product range. They have been great and I have no regrets.

10. List the steps you need to take to start selling print on demand.

If you choose to go the Etsy route, here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Set up your Printify account
2. To get fonts and images, sign up to a site like Creative Fabrica.
3. On Printify, you start by choosing one or two products (mugs are always a good choice) and downloading a design template.
4. Download Adobe Illustrator, open a design template and start designing
5. Upload your design to Printify
6. Open an Etsy account and connect Printify to Etsy
7. Upload your products to Etsy
8. Now on sale!

Of course, this is just an overview — there are other important pieces to the puzzle, like researching your niche, choosing between different design styles, and properly crafting your Etsy listing so that it shows up in Etsy results.

11. Can you tell me more about your course?

“I Love Print on Demand” is the course I wish I had taken when I started my print on demand journey.

It can help you set up your print on demand business for success from day one, so you can start making money faster and with less stress.

To be honest, when I started I had no idea what I was doing and it’s a miracle I even understood the 8 steps listed above, let alone all the other moving parts and components. It was a slow learning process for me, I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning and it was a pretty stressful experience.

When creating the course, I thought about all the questions I had and things that were hindering my progress and created a course that addressed all those aspects.

We also tried to keep it simple by focusing on the top 3 highest selling products. Print on demand is a bit like a Cheesecake Factory menu: there are so many product options that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You can branch out to other products later, but we kept our focus so we could focus on what works from the start.

If you are interested, I Love Print on Demand Course.

You can also sign up for my free e-book. Here are 17 popular print-on-demand products to help you pay for your next vacation.

Do you want to learn how to start a print on demand business? What will you sell?

Note from Making Sense of Cents: I hope this article on how to start your own POD business was helpful. As you learned above, there are many marketplaces and e-commerce platforms (suppliers that fulfill your orders) that you can start with. There are also many unique designs that will set you apart from other businesses. I have purchased many items (a wide range of products including apparel, accessories, home decor, etc.) from POD businesses over the years, and I expect many more will continue to do so in the future. There are also many ways to grow your print-on-demand business (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.). These methods can also help you increase your revenue and increase your profit margins. I wish you great success!

Recommended reading: