Selling Your Designs Online
Would you like to sell different designs, for example, on tote bags or t-shirts? There are several online services you can take advantage of, and the best part is that they are completely free! You probably already know what print-on-demand is, right? It’s a business model where products are manufactured only after they are sold. In this business model, designing and marketing the products usually falls on you, possibly also maintaining the online store platform and at least handling customer service. But did you know that there are even more advanced, somewhat similar print-on-demand business models? This kind of business model has been taken to the point where all you have to do is upload your own designs to the service, and they will create products for sale on their own marketplace. You also receive a commission every time your designed product is sold. In fact, selling your designs couldn’t get any simpler than this.
You don’t necessarily have to be an artist to start selling your designs, but some artistic sense would be good to have. Not all design needs to be illustrations; often, plain text is enough. Additionally, the marketplace naturally also promotes your products to increase sales because it’s a win-win situation for both of you – the marketplace and you if your products sell.
Creating designs for sale
Imagine a situation where you would like to sell your own designs, but you don’t know where to start or how to create selling images. The internet, especially various online marketplaces, are great sources to check what is currently selling and what kind of products others have created. You can draw inspiration from these, but avoid directly copying products as they are protected by copyright! You can also utilize ready-made image banks and customize designs to fit your needs. This is a quick and easy way to create a variety of products. Personally, I recommend Creative Fabrica, which is incredibly affordable yet massive website to acquire various clipart images and much more. There are over a million illustrations alone, with new selections added daily. Some of these products are even bundles where one product includes multiple different images! With an affordable annual subscription, all the material is at your unlimited disposal. Creative Fabrica also offers a wide range of fonts that members can use without restrictions. Different beautiful fonts enable the creation of stunning text-based designs. Text-based designs sell just as well as images, if not better. You probably even have clothes in your wardrobe that have some text on them?!
Once you have finished creating your design, you are ready to sell it. Make sure that your image is of high quality and large in size. PNG format works best for creating printable products as it allows for a transparent background, and PNG images do not lose quality as much when scaled, compared to, for example, JPG images. The best format for scalable images would be vector graphics, but usually those file formats are not supported on selling platforms.
Selling your designs
One good platform for selling your designs is Teepublic. Teepublic offers a user-friendly platform for selling your own designs. Creating an account and using the platform is completely free for you. In practice, all you need to do is create an account, enter your PayPal or Payoneer account details to receive payments, and start uploading your designs. Pretty straightforward!
When you upload your images to the platform, you can preview your designs in different colors and products. You can choose which color options are offered for products, such as shirts. This helps optimize your product for sales and ensures that your design looks good in all desired colors. It’s also recommended to add relevant tags or keywords related to your design topic when adding your product. This helps buyers find products with your design.
You can also choose which products your design is used on. Teepublic allows you to use your design on items such as t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, sweatshirts, long sleeve shirts, kids’ clothes, and baby onesies. Additionally, the product range includes masks, wall art, notebooks, mugs, pillows, tote bags, flags, pins, phone and laptop cases, stickers, and magnets. So, there is quite a wide selection of products where your design can be printed.
Teepublic has a sales channel where your added products are listed on their website. Teepublic handles everything for you – pricing, customer service, printing, and shipping. You can also enable “off-site” marketing, meaning your products will be promoted on platforms such as Google, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Bing, Verizon, TikTok, and Google Display ads. And it’s all automatically done – and free for you!
Earning through Teepublic is relatively easy when you create a design that sells. For most products sold at the regular price, you earn $4 per item. There are exceptions in different product categories, like art, where higher commissions are typically offered. For example, if a t-shirt is priced at the regular rate, you would earn $2 when the item is on sale. Teepublic occasionally runs promotional campaigns with all products on sale to boost sales. Of course, selling just a few shirts a month won’t make you rich, but it’s about volume, so it’s recommended to create and upload multiple diverse designs to maximize your earnings. Through this channel, you can generate passive income with a reasonable amount of effort.
Links:
Creative Fabrica
Teepublic
Watch this video for tips on where you can sell your own designs, as you can easily start a print-on-demand business.
