Have you ever heard of print on demand (P.O.D.) affiliate programs?
You create a free store, upload images, add them to shirts, buttons, hats, and other merchandise. You set your own markups and that becomes your commission when products are sold.
The companies do all the printing and shipping, you just collect your commissions.
Well, I just switched from Zazzle to Spreadshirt and increased my earnings by about 300%. My average commission per shirt sold is between $7 and $9.
Updated! Take my Spreadshirt course here and learn how to make money like me!
There are four reasons this payment excites me…
First of all, it reminds me of the opportunities available online and I wanted to do this podcast to help give you ideas — especially those of you who are in niches where there are not a lot of monetization options.
People LOVE wearing shirts that allow them to express themselves. (Not to mention the selfies they may take, which can mean even more promotion for you!) The key is the sayings and designs. You really have to know what your audience would like.
I’ve found people like shirts that…
- promote social awareness
- display pride
- are comedic or fun
- include a play on words or well-known phrases
- have a good design
It’s a lot of trial and error. Some shirts are instant hits for me, others are straight up bombs! 🙂
The second reason I’m pumped about this is I’m not much of a designer. So the fact that someone like me can open up Photoshop, take my basic knowledge of the program and create a design that sells makes me feel good. I create some designs myself and outsource others.
(Don’t worry, you don’t have to know Photoshop or any graphics program to make money. I’ll be talking about five other options. But if you want to learn Photoshop, my course will make it easier than you’ve ever imagined.)
PSSSST… Did you know you can get Photoshop for FREE? Yes! And it’s 100% legal. Watch the free “Preview” video near the bottom of my course landing page.
Third, it’s fun! There’s something incredibly rewarding about knowing I can have an idea for a shirt, create something in 10 minutes and put it up for sale immediately. Gotta love the convenience of the Internet!
And last but not least…when you have a site with traffic, the income can be very passive. The only direct promotion I’ve done for my shirts was Pinterest. Other than that, I am driving all the traffic to my store from links and images on my site and forum.
Update January 2015: I had a record commission ($55) for one order in December, 2014. I added a banner at the top of my store and reminded people that the shirts make great Christmas gifts. A few big orders came through around this time.
I wish I had thought to put that banner up sooner!
If you want to learn how to make passive income online like me or learn more about customizing your WordPress site and more, enroll in my online courses here!
Where My Sales Come From
About 70% of my sales are generated from links on my site to store. The other 30% come from the Spreadshirt marketplace.
The cool thing about the marketplace is people don’t have to visit your store directly. So this is convenient if you don’t have a large website following. There are two ways to earn…
1) Other Spreadshirt shop owners can sell your designs from their stores, and you get to set your own commission. (This is optional if you don’t want others to sell your shirts.)
2) Some customers go to Spreadshirt.com directly to find images, put them on products and you also can earn that way as well.
Imagine if I had used social media more (other than Pinterest). I probably would sell a lot more. I admittedly slack in that area, and because of that, my followers are not very engaged. 🙁 So I haven’t really tested anything beyond Pinterest.
But if you do have an engaged social following, there’s a lot of opportunity there. In the podcast, I discuss a YouTube channel I follow and how the owner uses social media to generate more sales for his Spreadshirt store.
Check out the podcast below. Here’s the transcript.
In This Episode
- Why I’m earning so much more from Spreadshirt than I did with Zazzle
- How you can earn money from the Spreadshirt marketplace without direct sales to your store
- 5 different ways to get designs/images for your store (no graphics program needed)
- How to get a discount on my new Photoshop course that includes a video on how to create images for the shirts
- How I got scammed by a designer from 99Designs and a warning about outsourcing
- The trick to maximizing your commission per shirt
- Why I’m OK (for now) with using P.O.D. affiliate stores instead of selling shirts directly without the middleman
- A clever way a YouTube duo is using social media to get more sales for their store
- Teespring – another P.O.D. alternative that has caught on
Show Notes:
- My Spreadshirt Store
- My Photoshop course that includes one video on how to create the shirt images (text and shapes only) in Photoshop
- Honest and educational article about a woman who made money with Teespring in the nursing niche
- Read the transcript
- My Spreadshirt Course
Hello, Lisa! I’ve been following your videos on Youtube for a few years!
And now I found this article about selling t-shirts online!
My sincere congrats! You did it again! 🙂
Here’s my store in case somebody wants to take a look:
http://coolprintsforall.spreadshirt.com/
Hi Lisa do you design your t-shirt pictures with Photoshop? They are are very nice.
Thanks Rene, when you ask “how” are you asking for a specific Photoshop tutorial? Each shirt is different depending on if it’s text, image or both. Wasn’t sure how detailed you wanted me to get. Do you have Photoshop?
Wow! that is great Lisa, I will have to check them out for some of my art work. Thank you again..
Another great tip for earning money Lisa :). Hope I can also have this kind of business.
Thank you so much for this article Lisa.
I joined SpreadShirt a couple of years ago but didn’t have a clue as to how to use it. Reading this has re-sparked my interest and i find it easier to figure out now.
One question . . . After creating a T-shirt, and the price appears, am i still supposed to add a “shop-product commission”?
For instance, if i choose a $10 product, it reflects an additional $5/$6 bringing it to a total of say $16. I am not sure if i still need to add an additional commission.
Am i making any sense?
Hi Virginia
Great question. The shop commission is for people who find your shirt through your store. So if you think you will get more sales from your shop, put more of your commission on that. If you want to get more commissions through the marketplace (customers searching and finding your image through spreadshirt.com) then you would put more of your commission on that side. But no matter where the sale comes from you ALWAYS get the design commission. But you only get the shop commission if they order from your store. Most of my sales come from my store so I have my shop commission set higher.
Thanks a million Lisa. I think i get it. It’s like a brand new toy for me at the moment so I’ve been doing some shop building and trying to navigate around the site better.
When you say . . . “no matter where the sale comes from you ALWAYS get the design commission” . . . I understand it means if they are my designs i get the whole design commission. But how about the designs i utilise on SpreadShirt, do i earn from those?
I really appreciate your response.
You can only earn from those via your own shop. So you would set your own price. So if the base price of the shirt is $10, the person who created the image would get their design commission. Let’s say it’s $5. So the price is $15 already and then you add your own commission and that’s what you’d get.
Let me clarify one sentence in that reply above. I said “if you want to get more commission through the marketplace.” That made it sound like that will help you get more sales from the marketplace. What I meant was if you are just focusing on getting sales from the marketplace (if you don’t have much of a following) then that is the commission for that. Hope that helps!
I tried once but failed to make any money …. any tips to know what type of design people like to buy?
Well that’s why it helps to have a niche site first because you know more about what people like in general. Most of my sales come from my site. But as far as text designs go, large fonts and simple designs seem to go over best.
Lisa,
“Número siete,” well said. Loved this podcast. I’ve been thinking about selling t-shirts from my Pinterest account and website. Lots of actionable tips!
Hey Lisa,
Since I was married to a woman of color for many years, I feel I can give you this little T-Shirt Slogan I just thought of after viewing Napturally without seeming to be anti-cultural…
It just popped into my head………..No More BB’s
LOL
Very cool of you to share this Lisa! I better go dust off my 8 (or 9 even!) years old Spreadshirt account 😀 I had one back around 2008-2009 to sell Mac t-shirts to my podcast listeners:)
Keep up the good work
Oliver
Hey Lisa,
It’s awesome to see you making money from t-shirts with really cool designs. All over Facebook and the internet you see people promoting T-Spring shirts and programs and it makes you wonder if it’s really possible and whether to believe the hype.
But hearing it from someone like you, who I actually trust and believe in, makes all the difference.
And again it’s because you make it pretty straight forward and simple. It’s another marketing stream to your targetted audience, so it makes sense that they’d wanna buy a t-shirt that speaks to them and the people around them!
Hello there and Happy New Year Lisa! Just wanted to say first off, thanks for the post. I have been wanting to create a tshirt shop for quite a while now, but hadn’t decided what platform I was going to use to create the store on.
I’ve finally managed to get a shop setup…but now I’m running into another issue with pricing. It seems that my friends and others think the prices of the T-shirts are too expensive.
Can you please tell me how you developed a pricing strategy for your shop and also…(if you do not mind) critiquing the shop for me. Thanks so much!
Hi Kim
What is your average price? Honestly it’s all experimentation for me. I started with $19 for most shirts and then gradually began lowering a few just to see if it would increase the number of orders per person. And it definitely does. Now that I have several shirts under $19 I get way more sales than I did over at Zazzle.
Keep in mind, sales will be slower in the winter so consider lowering them even more during the winter and raising them in the summer when people are more likely to buy. Just keep experimenting. But if your friends are in your target market and think they are too high then that’s something to pay attention to.
Hi Lisa, I hadn’t heard about Spreadshirt before, but I have used Zazzle. I was wondering do all of your sales on spreadshirt come directly from your hair website? Do you think you would be as successful without the website tie in? Basically, can I put designs up on spreadshirt and get natural sales through the marketplace, or do I have to drive traffic? Did you ever use facebook ad campaigns for your shirts? I’ve heard a lot of talk about that in conjuncture with teespring and was wondering your thoughts? Thanks for your great site and valuable, honest info!
Hey GiGi!
Yes. As soon as I put up my store, I began getting sales from the marketplace (within a week). That means they didn’t go through my site or store. BUT having a site with traffic is a HUGE help. About 25-30% of my sales come from the marketplace.
Honestly, I’m terrible at paid ads and have wasted a lot of money on them. I did try a Teespring FB campaign earlier this year and it was an epic fail. So I got tired of trying to figure out FB ads.
Let me know if you have more questions!
Hi Lisa,
I listened to your podcast on this topic through stitcher, I checked out SS and found the $10 shirts, but didn’t realize you get charged like $5 to upload your own design 🙁 this kills my margin unless I’m missing something. I would have to sell at 19-20 to make a decent margin plus the customer pays shipping. Seems expensive. Any thoughts?
Sarah
21dayworkoutplan.com
Hi Sarah,
What do you mean you get charged? You don’t ever get charged. The fee is passed on to the customer. When you upload your design you set a design commission. That is there if someone else wants to use your design on their store. If they get a sale you get that commission you set. You also get that same design commission if you get the sale from your own store — in addition to your store commission.
So I usually start with the $11 shirts. Then I set my design commission around $2 for the marketplace. Then I set my store commission between $5 and $8. My average commission per order is around $7-$9 and I sell quite a bit of $19 shirts.
I think that’s a VERY reasonable price for a custom and well-designed shirt. Trust me. People will pay for it. And you will be surprised at how many people will buy multiple shirts even at $18 or $19.
Experiment with pricing and see what works. Some opt to sell them at only $14 for the lower commission and go for volume. But I’ve found that $16-$19 is a good price point for me.
Make sense?
Lisa,
Thanks for the clarification. I didn’t know I could adjust the price of the design commission. When I uploaded an image the commission automatically set at $5 so the total price of the shirt before my own store commission was $16 leaving very little wiggle room for me. I will have to get back on and play around some more, I’ve always monetized with ad words, drop ship or affiliates. This is a new concept, but one that def seems intriguing 🙂
OK cool! That’s strange that it’s set to $5. Mine is always $0 by default. Hmmm… Anywho, glad you got it squared away. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Yep, experimentation is the key for sure! Have fun. 🙂
Im super excited about this! I have been working my brain to figure out how I will get my clever t-shirt ideas out there. I have been coming up with phrases for yrs! Thank you so much.
Also i have 2 fb pages, one of which I am getting so bored with because I know I can do more with it im just not sure exactly how to even start. Ive been watching your videos on and off for yrs. Question How do I get a one on one consultation with you? I need help.
-Den Brown
I have an idea for a t-shirt and had considered investing in screen printing equipment. Spreadshirt is a no brainer. Thank you so much.
Love the podcast. I can listen to it in the background while I work.
Spreadshirt.com is for USA. Spreadshirt.net is for Europe.
I’m in Europe. If I have american followers, should I create a store in Spreadshirt.com as well? Customers will save some bucks in shipping.
Since it’s free, I say why not? I certainly would.
Lisa, I’m a HUGE fan of your work….but I have a confession to make: Everytime your new theme song comes on I do a different old school dance. Today it was the Kid ‘n Play! Thanks for the new routine!
Hilarious! That’s my favorite era of music so I can’t help it with the throwbacks. lol
Hello Madam Lisa,
I like the ‘newest’ in your title. This is my first time hearing of Spreadshirt and I guess it will be prudent giving it a try as well and if everything should go according to plan, the name Madam Lisa should be the one I must be grateful for.
Here is my new shop with a T-shirt design. Can I have your feedback please.
http://macaw.spreadshirt.com/
Hi Lisa,
I have already designed a T-shirt and want to add it on marketplace but I don’t know what to write on product description. I don’t have any idea what should I write. Can you please give me some suggestions about that?
Also how much commission should I add on my design and for the T-shirt I have created?
Looking forward to hear from you.
Thanks
Masum
Hi Masum
I just usually describe the design. So if it’s text, you just say what the text says. If applicable, I use keywords that are relevant to the shirt. For example, if it’s a picture of a woman with an afro, I might say “Natural hair woman with afro that reads ‘Naturally Fly’.” I don’t really think the description matters much but it doesn’t hurt to add it.
I would try to keep your total price under $20 if you can. So that is going to vary depending on the shirt you choose.
Hey Lisa,
Thank you very much for this informative post. I am a graphic designer and couple of days ago I have enrolled one of your course on Udemy and heart about the Spreadshirt from you. Today I spent lots of time learning about spreadshirt and finally I have submited my design and it is already accepted by manual process now waiting for the final approve.
Hope to get more post about spreadshirt from you.
Thanks
Masum parvez
Blogging from Paradise T-shirts, anybody? 😉
What a creative idea Lisa! As Nate Noted above, opening passive income streams through clever channels helps increase your online cash flow.
I don’t have a design bone in my body but am buddies with an incredibly talented designer. I’d be more than happy to go this route. Now for the idea grooming process 🙂
People love T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc, etc….and if you can brand yourself and your blog, or if you delve into different creative areas, why not?
As long as you’re having fun, go for it.
Thanks Lisa!
Ryan
Hey Ryan, that’s super convenient you know someone with design skills. I am still determined to find my inner designer through this process. I will find her. LOL Enjoy! Hope it’s a success for you.
This is great idea to read your latest post. Really it is my first time to see this website of spreadshirt. Thank you so much liza Irby for sharing But do you know liza, I am old person that I just completed 4 years I guess and I learnt from your website step by step and specially Learning HTML and CSS because HTML made my website ranked fast because I choose Niche article what I want to try to talk about. I learnt SEO from you .. I meant from you ONLY not from others really because you made me to think more how to make Niche Website using HTML and CSS. As I am from Middle East and I am arabic man, I talked to students about your experience because they want to learn HTML. I made The Ads in college and Forms about you that they must to start from zero from you Liza. But I have to much words want to say which made me right to get soft weeping because You changed my life and learnt NEW things in HTML.
Any ways. I have question to you because I loved your Style Website you editing but my problem is how to customize as you make your website for mobile friendly. Will you make a course about it.
I will be waiting your reply as soon as possible
– Saheem
Lisa,
Its funny how I have been researching online storefronts to create and sell t-shirts and came across your post. I was meant to find this article because I gained even more insight on the entire process and how to profit from it.
Aside from this article, I have noticed some other useful links on your blog and google + page that I must read so I can take notes (I am note fanatic). I don’t have any websites established yet but I have been working on creating two sites with one dedicated to parenting and the second focusing on getting kids with ADHD to connect. Do you think it would be more beneficial if I worked on creating the sites first before creating merchandise?
I think you have found yourself another avid follower. Good too see a sucessful woman doing awesome things!!
Nickicia
Hi Nickicia,
Thank you! I definitely think you should work on building your site first. My site is a funnel to the store so I wouldn’t have done as well if I didn’t have the site first. Not that you HAVE to have a site, but that’s the way I did it.
Thank you Lisa for responding with some helpful advice. I have so many ideas in my head that I need to take a step back and put things in order. I clearly have a lot of studying to do and using your blog and forum will help guide me towards building a website and forum for my two passions. Thanks again and Happy Holidays!!
Nickicia
Thank You! This was very Helpful!
I’m going to do this!
Hey Lisa, just wanted to say thanks for everything you teach. I have created WordPress websites, YouTube channels with your help. Also, I bought hosting switching from free blogspot sites because of you. I have bought genesis framework and a child theme (will try their affiliate soon), had success with adsense on websites and YouTube channels, also started a zazzle store which is doing good. Been following you for years and started implementing the knowledge. Thanks. 🙂
I have become Google Adwords certified recently and gonna try freelancing now. Will share how it goes with you. 🙂
Maninder, that is great! Always refreshing to hear about people finding success online. Keep it up!
Lisa, thanks so much for publishing this podcast! It never even occurred to me to try selling something like this to my readers. I was just planning on selling ebooks and online courses. I’ve already thought of several t-shirts and other items that I think will sell well. And this will be another way I can use the PhotoShop skills that I learned through your course!
Awesome!! I hope you have tons of success with it, Debra. Thanks again for buying my course. 🙂
Lisa,
First of all I love your new website design. It is very fresh and clean.
And I really enjoy your podcast. I think I will try spreadsheet for my freelancer’s site. I am looking for multiple ways to monetize that site.
Thanks, Clara! You should definitely give a try. It’s fun!
This photo shop course sounds to be just the thing I’m looking for! Lisa girl, I want to thank you for all you do on the ole-in-a-web……. As spoken by Gas Monkey garage s Richard Rawlings , Your wanting to help us dummys out is such a blessing! I know you will make some money on us but that is just part of the process.
Here I go again at 12:47 AM and I’m pooped.
Thank you And Good Night,
Allan
LOL! Hilarious, Allen. Well I hope you got some sleep. I really think you will enjoy the Photoshop course. It will take the intimidation out of Photoshop and I teach it in a way that will make it easy for you to learn…. especially if you just want to create your own headers, social media images, etc.
Since I have been looking into this Photoshop I realized I will have to purchase the product along with yours so when I get back out west from my trip to MI which starts Dec 3, yea I know, it’s coming at a lousy time to do a banzi trip, fly out, grab a rental truck, unload a storage bin, grab our stuff and my hotrod, load it ALL on the truck and trailer then hit the road and be back out west as fast as I can. And thus hopefully ending a year of family deaths and dealing with the courts and insurance companies. Then it’s time to get to work! .
P.S. One of these days I must answer these in the daytime…….
Just curious, are the shirts good quality? Cheap is not always bad, but…
Or maybe they are not taking as much of the profits?
Yeah, I talked about this in the podcast. They were better than I thought they would be. I was skeptical at first. The printing is also digital and holds up well in the wash.
That’s what I get for not listening to the podcast 🙂
LOL, it’s OK. I understand podcasts aren’t everyone’s thing. I should have put that in the post.
Thank you Lisa!
I’ve been trying to make money online for almost 3 years, and it’s been so frustrating for me. I think the main thing is that I just never felt qualified to write about anything, so I’d struggle with one niche site or niche blog after another, never really able to write the amounts of content that I needed to, and half the time feeling too embarrassed about my own sites to share them with people…
Finally I decided to ditch most of those efforts and just focus on the one thing I am actually good at: drawing cartoons and writing short little dorky blog posts about nothing really haha.
Anyways, since I first started online, I always avoided the humor niche because everyone talked about how hard it is to monetize, but now I finally get it that I should just do what I do and monetize with products…like maybe t-shirts!
I also dragged my feet over the Zazzle thing. I never bothered to make a store, because I was like, “who the heck is gonna pay $30 for one of my tshirts??? I sure wouldn’t…”
But maybe this Spreadshirt is just what I need to get going with.
Thanks for sharing your experience and earnings with us, Lisa. Much appreciated. =)
Aloha, Chris
Hey Chris, yeah $30 for a shirt is just too much in my opinion. I had trouble getting people to buy at the very minimum, which is $20-21 on Zazzle so I know $30 is out of the question. I hope Spreadshirt keeps their prices low. Give it a go. Good luck to ya!
That is a great idea Lisa and it looks so easy. I wish I had the following you have because I can definitely see this as a viable income stream.
I love the money making ideas you introduce us to.
Thanks for sharing, Lisa. I think this is a fit for me and I’m going to look into this once I get my book published.
Hi Lisa, is that one months earnings?
I’m suprised you earn more via that than Zazzle, I always thought Zazzle was more popular and people would trust it more! Either way you’ve given me an idea for one of my sites that I never would have considered.
Hey Ash, it’s for about 1.5 months. They pay quarterly and I joined in the midst of the 3rd quarter.
The reason has nothing to do with the popularity. I was making sales on Zazzle, but I had to charge more (over $20) so I sold fewer shirts. With Spreadshirt I often get multiple orders (as shown in that one screenshot above) because my shirts are so much cheaper.
Oh and I also forgot to add I’m earning $7 – $9 per shirt commission vs. $1 on Zazzle. As you can see, that would make a big difference in one’s earnings.
Hey Lisa, I like your spreadshirt site. I like how everything is designed around hair. I have a major problem. I have been on Spreadshirt for over 2 years and I have only made 2 sells. I am very happy about the sales that I have made. But I really would like to make more sales. I am on facebook and I have about 2,570 like fans, and I have just created an account with Pinterest. I will create an account on Instagram soon. I would like to know what am i doing wrong. I hope my work doesn’t suck; http://www.slysport.spreadshirt.com. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Sylvester aka Sly Sport
I see two problems. Your prices are very high. Most people don’t like to pay more than $20 for a shirt unless the design really catches their eye.
Second, a lot of your designs are very cool but busy. I’ve found that the shirts with a lot of detail and small text sell a lot less than the larger, basic designs.
Try experimenting with simpler designs and promote those on your front page.
Also, is your social media following targeted? Meaning what are their interests? And are those shirts related to what they like? That’s a BIG factor. Numbers of followers means very little if the people aren’t targeted to what you’re selling.
Thank you Lisa, you have been very helpful. thank you for your comments. I have a lot of work to do, now.
Lisa, I like your new website look. I have several Ideas I can put on a t-shirt. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you Kristine!
I like every bit of this.. thanks Lisa. I will definitely give it a big shot.
Wow Lisa, aren’t you just a multi-talented, multifaceted, gemstone.
Thanks for sharing all you discover with all of us . I’m going to check this site out for sure.
I’ve been uploading to a similar type of site called redbubble . So far I’ve uploaded photography, but I also love to draw, and paint. I have been working on graphic design and thinking of trying other sites to create shirts, sayings, and the like.
I loved your shirts and designs! So cute. Girl, I’m glad I found you. You’re just full of exciting surprises. There is nothing like making a living, doing what you love. Right?
Thanks again!
S.
aka HanieB. (C.~)™
Yes, there sure is nothing like it HanieB! I’ve never heard of Redbubble. Geez, there are sooooooo many programs out here! Can’t keep up.
Hi Lisa,
Okay this is amazing. Period. I think you did real good and seriously, who ever thought of selling shirts online?
I heard about this but yet to really on it yet. I may do so during the year end but again, let’s see how it goes.
Love it and definitely back for more!
Do it Reginald! It’s fun. 🙂
As a hair-impaired person, your site is not PC for me! LOL Just kidding.
I think your site and shirts look great. Hopefully you’ll keep us updated to let us know how it’s working for you.
I agree, I think social sites like Pinterest are perfect to sell these kinds of products.
Curious, does this program have the limititations like Tspring? With the limited time frame, must sell so many, ect?
Hair impaired!! LOL That is tooooooooooo funny, Ron. No, there is no limit time frame like Teespring, which is why I like it better.
Wonder, wonderful article! I’ve also been using Zazzle to sell journals and such featuring my drawings. I never really got into their t-shirt area, though. The reason being is because everything is so high! If I don’t see myself buying one, I don’t see how anyone else would. I tried Cafepress also, but their setup is a total headache. Spreadshirt has really been on my radar lately and, thanks to your article, I feel inspired to finally give them a go.
Cool, Troi! Glad I could encourage ya. I hope it works out for ya. 🙂
Love your work and dedication, Lisa. I’m an artist and photographer. I have thought about selling some of my work on Fine Art America, or some of the other sites (like maybe etsy). I’ve seen videos about selling art in other art sales sites. But I haven’t seen any up to date sales data for any of those sites (except the one you mentioned today). Right now I have a photo blog and a humor blog. I don’t have a static site to sell anything. It’s my impression that it’s very difficult to make any real money selling art on line with all the people trying to sell their art (or clothing with art on it) . BTW I’d consider $500 or more a month real money. I also have noticed that social media sites like Twitter are mainly used by folks wanting to sell their books, merchandise, or services. I’m not sure anyone is buying anything via Twitter, except maybe books from established writers. Anyway, who has time to read all that stuff on Twitter? Facebook seems to be a place for family and friends to share photos and events in their lives. It’s not a productive market place. I don’t see it as a money making medium. I think the internet marketplace is saturated with art and book sellers, but not buyers, except perhaps at cut rate sites like ebay where you can find a painting for a few dollars, or Amazon where you can find free books that don’t sell. What a shame. I have a novel on Amazon which isn’t selling at all. However, “how to” sites, videos, and publications (like yours) will always make money. I think there is a lot a money being made in selling education/advice. That’s probably be the best way to make money on line these days unless you can make a viral YouTube video. Thanks for the space to state my opinions. I hate to sound so negative, but that’s the reality of the situation as I see it. Correct me if I’m wrong. You’re the real sage in this arena.
Wow, it just never stops! The internet is such a magnificent platform for creating multiple sources of residual income. What you earned passively from a few minutes of work is awesome! This might be something to consider in the coming year.
Great job Lisa and thank you thank you for always being so generous!
Your site revamp is great by the way. 🙂
Hey Cynthia!
Yes the opportunities are endless! You should definitely look into it. I’ll be here if you have questions about anything. Thanks for the compliment.
Hey Lisa thanks for sharing this! I have a good social media following and this may get me back into the fashion business. I made more in the fashion business than any other over short periods of time.
Thanks for sharing. You Rock!
Cool, sounds like this is right up your alley Kamau! Good luck to ya.
Hi, Lisa.
Excellent guidance, will aggressively follow every detail. Thank you.
By the way, love the hair. . . 🙂
Thanks Donnie!
Hi Lisa,
Sounds like a great idea!! 😀
You know I have just opened my store at Society6 at http://society6.com/angelsp0wer. I just opened it and it’s still in the process of adding more photographs and eventually I want to upload my “digital artworks”. In a way it’s kinda similar to Spreadshirt Store.
In Society6, I don’t have to deal with shipping. They do it all for me. All I do is upload my photographs or arts. Is that the same thing? Maybe, huh. Or maybe close. Anyway, I will check out more on this Spreadshirt Store. I have bookmarked this post and will keep it in mind.
Thanks,
Angela
Yep sounds like it’s the same thing. Good luck with your store. I’ll have to check yours out too.
Lisa, I think Spreadshirt Store is prolly giving a higher profit sales compare to Society6. Check out their selling page here: http://society6.com/help/selling
Like I said I just started and I’m not sure if this is profitable or what but I thought I had to start somewhere. I definitely need to check Spreadshirt Store.
Hey, thanks for the info about SpreadShirt. I’ve been creating t-shirts and hoodies for Sunfrog Shirts and a couple of other POD sites. I had not looked at SpreadShirt until now. I have a question for you though: How much money do you think you could generate without using your own established website or forum? I have had no luck with websites of my own and was wondering if a decent income could be earned using just social media (FaceBook, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc), niche forums, and free blogs/websites like Blogger, HubPages, and the like. Just wanted to pick your brain and get some feedback. Thanks in advance.
Hi Troy
I think it would be harder for me simply because I don’t use social media that much. So I am definitely relying on my site and forum. BUT if you can put out really good designs, you could still earn through the marketplace AND through social. Honestly, it’s more about how engaged your social following is and how great the designs look. In the podcast I talked about a YouTuber who primarily uses Instagram, Twitter and YouTube (he has no site) and I believe he is doing very well based on the number of people he features in his videos who have bought the shirts. I would estimate he is doing far better than me.
Lisa,
I have a rudimentary question here: How did you sell through your own website as an affiliate for spreadshirt? I see from spreadshirt.com website that one can only set up a shop within the site itself. How does the order goes through your own website to spreadshirt site in order to be produced and shipped?
Hi Stephanie,
It doesn’t go through my site. I just send people to Spreadshirt to order.
Oh and I forgot to add, the wonderful thing about this is it isn’t going to cost you a thing but time (unless you outsource the designs, so might as well try it right?)
Wow, this is great! I have always wanted to design and sell custom shirts for my existing business. You got me thinking and now I’m excited. Nothing wrong with passive income! You rock Lisa!
Go for it, Edward! It’s fun coming up with the different designs. Nothing like finding a way to make money doing something you enjoy.
Thanks so much for this! I’ve tried both Zazzle & cafe press and haven’t been thrilled with either. I’ve been looking for another alternative and haven’t had a whole lot of luck so I will definitely have to check this one out!
Ugh! Zazzle frustrates me on many levels. The prices are too high, they charge different prices for different colors, just too many things I didn’t like. Hope you have more success with Spreadshirt!
Hi Lisa,
This is a great way for many of us to monetize our blogs who may be struggling in this area. I love your new website design also.
Excellent, Nathaniel. Hope you can start earning too. Thanks for sharing this on Twitter. Just saw your tweet go through.