- Hey everybody! In today's video, I'm gonna
give you 10 important things that you need to do before
starting a print on demand store. And unfortunately, there
are a lot of consequences if you skip over this 10 point checklist, and none of them are good. Some of these can lose you
money from advertising campaigns that were doomed to fail from the start. Some of them can cause
you massive headaches from customer service issues. And some of these can, unfortunately, even result in your advertising campaigns and your stores getting shut down. Plus, in this video, I'm
also gonna be answering some of the most common
questions that I get asked about print on demand. And no, this video is not your usual, "Oh, don't forget that you've
gotta have your designs "on a transparent background." Nope, I wanted to go beyond that and talk about some of
the important aspects of print on demand that
are often not talked about. So some of the things on
this list may surprise you. So with that out of the way, let's talk about the first one. One: Only add a maximum of five color variations to your product. I'll tell you now, one of my
absolute biggest pet peeves is coming to a print on demand store a subscriber's submitted to me to review, and seeing that they have added 10 plus color t-shirt
options to their store. No!! There are multiple reasons
why this is a terrible idea. Starting with the fact that, you know, it looks absolutely terrible
and horrendously ugly having a million, billion color t-shirt on a white background
in the image gallery. The second reason is that giving customers lots of options is usually a bad idea, because of something
called analysis paralysis. Basically, when a customer
sees lots and lots of different t-shirt colors,
they become overwhelmed and don't know which to choose. And so, ultimately, choose nothing at all. And of course, the third
reason is that sometimes certain designs don't even
look great in every color. So when you're choosing
between different colors, something that's really
good to keep in mind is that when it comes to t-shirts, Amazon Merch have found that darker shades usually perform better, with black being their top-selling t-shirt color. Which is pretty cool to know. Two: Check your print provider options before selling internationally. So, here is a common misconception that I see a lot of people make. They think that when they
buy a shirt like this from Printify, that it's
Printify that are making it. But often, this isn't true. Instead, print on demand
services, like Printify, often contract out to
third party suppliers and manufacturers. With Printful, they will
automatically choose which manufacturer will
create the item for you based on what country your
customer is located at. But Printify don't let you do this. Instead, they make you choose. When you come to a
product you want to sell, be sure to scroll down and check
out your different options. As you can see, each of these providers has different pricing. And some offer more color options for their t-shirts than others. And they have different production times. And importantly, some are
based in different countries. So for example, if you
were mostly serving Europe, then usually Textildruck
Europa would be the supplier you'd choose if you didn't
need a color variation that only T-Shirt and Sons creates. And if you were selling
predominantly to the USA, then obviously you would want to come and chose between these suppliers. For most people, they're
probably going to want to choose The Dream Junction, since it
has a great color selection, a fast turnaround time,
and it's the cheapest. Three: Make sure that
you have a credit card or money set aside
before you start a store. So, another common question
that I get asked is this: "Sarah, I've added a pillow I've made "with Printful to my store. "If a customer buys it, who
pays Printful for the item? "Me or the customer?" Good question! And the answer is that
you pay for that pillow, not your customer. I'm gonna show you an
example of how this different two transaction thing works, but I'm gonna use Printify,
because of the fact that when it comes to pillows, it's way cheaper than Printful. With Printful, they cost
$16.95 for their lowest option for the standard square throw pillow. Whereas with Printify, they start at $7.37 with a Printify subscription. Much better. So, anyway, moving on, you've gone ahead and created this coffee
pillow with Printify that you're selling to baristas and cafes. When a customer comes to
your store and buys it for $14.95, you will receive this $14.95 minus transaction fees, not Printify. They get none of it. Instead, what actually happens
is Printify will by default check your store once a day for orders. When it checks and sees an order, it goes, "Boom, let's fulfill it,"
and starts the process. They will charge the
credit card or debit card that you should have added
to your account in advance, and you need to add this
yourself in the settings. You'll be charged the price of the pillow, which, again, is $7.37
with a subscription. They will make sure that the
pillowcase is manufactured and then shipped out to your customer. And so, no, the payment
that is paid to you is separate from the payment that you make to the print on demand provider. They are two separate transactions. And so, it's important to remember that your Shopify payment
will take several days to arrive in your back account, with payouts differing
from country to country. And with PayPal, in the beginning, it can take up to 21
days to get your money. So make sure that you've
either got a credit card or some money set aside, so that you can purchase these items in advance, to tide you over in the meantime. Credit cards are usually
the best option for this, because you've normally
got four to five weeks to pay back the balance
without accruing any interest. And you will receive your
payment well before that happens. Four: Check if your written
phrase is trademarked, and avoid copyrights. So there are two other common questions that I often get asked. The first is this: "Sarah, how do I know "if a design is copyrighted
before I use it or not? "SOS, please help." Okay, so to help me answer this question, I actually found a t-shirt
that features that phrase that is being sold online. Here is a t-shirt
currently selling on Amazon featuring this design. And so, you see it, and you think, "Huh, that's cool. "I'd like to sell a
t-shirt like this as well. "But wait! Is it copyrighted? "How do I check? "I know that I can do a
search for trademarks, "but how do I do a search for copyrights? "How do I know that this is copyrighted?" Well, the answer is that
you don't need to check. Because by default, and law,
the moment a piece of artwork is created, it is, by
default, copyrighted. So yes, we know, without
checking anything, that this t-shirt design
is indeed copyrighted. Whump whump. But, what you can do is use this design for inspiration and to make
your own version of it. And so, I went to Canva, and
I made my own quick design. Now, no, this is not the
world's best design ever. Don't judge me. There is a reason I hire people to do my graphic designs for me. But I just wanted to create
a quick one as an example, so that I could show you
that absolute, 100% legally, I can now take this
different take on that design and sell it on a t-shirt. This t-shirt design here,
while featuring the same words, is visually different. And that's what's copyrighted:
The visual style, the art. And something that's good to keep in mind is that small phrases, like
world's best rabbit dad, cannot be copyrighted. So yes, even though this
design is copyrighted, as long as you redesign
it in your own style, then that's absolutely fine. But, while small phrases
like world's best rabbit dad cannot be copyrighted,
they can be trademarked. Which leads me to the second
question I'm often asked. "Sarah, how do I know if
a phrase is trademarked?" It's a good question, but, you know, I've pretty much spoiled the
answer already in this video. Basically when it comes
to trademark phrases, they are very easy to do a search for. All right, so you've seen this t-shirt is selling well on eBay, which it is, and now you want to make
your own version of it too. How do you know if someone
has trademarked the phrase Freddie says relax? Well, it's actually quite simple. Each country has its own
trademark search engine. I'm here at the USA trademark
electronic search system. To check if this phrase is trademarked, all I need to do is type
is Freddie says relax and do a search, and we do that, we will find that nope,
we get nothing, no result. This phrase has never been trademarked. Now let's compare what would happen if I instead came back
and typed in the phrase let's get ready to rumble! An extremely famous phrase that
most of us will have heard. If we type that in, take a look. We see lots of trademarks. Something to keep in mind though, is that, unlike with copyrights, which
most countries have agreed to protect by default,
trademarks must instead be filed in each and every country. And so for example, just
because something is trademarked in the USA, doesn't
mean that it would also be trademarked here in New Zealand. For example, many moons ago, Paris Hilton famously trademarked
the phrase that's hot, to use on alcohol and clothing merch. Well, if we go back to
the USA trademark search, we can find that old trademark that's hot. It's now dead and has now been abandoned, but we can see that it
once used to be active and had been filed by her. Whereas if we come to the
New Zealand trademark search and look for that phrase that's hot, we will not find any trademark at all. Lots of trademarks
featuring the word that's, but not that's hot. And so here in New Zealand, anyone could've used that phrase. And by the way, if you
are enjoying this video and would like even more free education on how to start your own
print on demand store, then you should be sure to
download our free ebook: The 6 Steps That 6
Figure Online Stores Use To Make Over $10,000 a Month. You'll learn how to
utilize print on demand and drop shipping to build
a successful online store. And you will find a link
to download that ebook in the video description below. Five: Have lifestyle
photos for your products, not just generic mockups. Okay, so when you go ahead
and you create a product with a print on demand
service, you usually get a picture to help you
promote your product, right? Just one problem. These simple mockup photos of a product on a plain white background are terrible when used for advertising. Yes, if you want to run
ads to sell your products, then lifestyle images are key. Well, you know, maybe not this one. My good friend and print
on demand millionaire, Michael Shih, very much
believes that the reason why he was able to make $100,000
with this one design was because he used this
amazing lifestyle image in his ads, and I agree. Luckily though, you can
replicate Michael's success by creating your own lifestyle images without having to order
your products in advance and take your own photos, thanks to an amazing
service called Placeit. With Placeit, you can take artwork designs and place them onto lifestyle
ads that feature models, and they don't just have
to be t-shirt images. They have lifestyle photos
for print on demand mugs, and they have lifestyle photos for different types of tote bags, and they have lifestyle
photos for pillows. And, would you believe, they've
even recently added photos of hooded blankets, due to popular demand. Using it is really simple. Let's say I was selling
this t-shirt from Printify. Well, what I would do is
I would come to Placeit and choose which t-shirt that I wanted. After you've chosen what
color shirt you want, all you need to do is come
and upload that design or picture that you've
added to the t-shirt that you created with
Printify, and let it load. Once loaded, you can
resize it and place it roughly in the same
position as the t-shirt you made with Printify. Placeit will now generate
a lifestyle for you that is awesome to use in advertising. This picture here is absolutely
99.99999% of the time going to convert infinitely
better than the generic product on white background photo
Printify spits out for you. And here's another important tip when you are choosing which
photos to use with Placeit. If possible, it's a great
idea to find a picture featuring something
related to your design. On Placeit, you can use the
search filters on the left to look up specif types of photos. So for this one, I used the pet filter and searched through the different photos featuring people with their pet dogs. By having a corgi featured
in my image ad that, well, has a corgi t-shirt, it is extremely effective and engaging. Considering that it costs just $14 a month for a Placeit subscription,
I think that either that or something very similar
is an absolute no-brainer for print on demand stores. And I have a link to how you can get it in the video description below. Six: Don't just opt for selling t-shirts. Now, look, don't get me wrong. Obviously, t-shirts can
make you a lot of money. Yeah, so they're still good. But they aren't the only type of print on demand products out there, especially if you're
selling in your own store. For example, leggings can
sell for massive markups, because their value is ambiguous. The reason why they are
ambiguous is because, while you could go to your local mall and potentially find t-shirts
that feature dogs on it, you are extremely unlikely
to find anything similar when it comes to leggings. And so when a pug mother
sees her beloved on leggings, she is incredibly
unlikely to have ever seen anything like this before. It is extremely unique and original. Pricing is ambiguous. Now lemme ask you a question. How much do you think this cool
steampunk hat here is worth? For most of you, you're
probably gonna answer, "Eh, I don't really know." You don't know because for most of you, you've never seen
anything like this before. And as scientific studies have shown, the way that most of us decide
how much something is worth is through price anchoring. Is by looking at other similar products and seeing what they sell for. And so when you go and
advertise the pug mother this cool hooded blanket as an upsell, she's likely never seen it before. And so you have a lot more flexibility 'bout setting your price. Seven: Check to see if your design can be printed onto a different product. This reminds me of how, in this video, Michael and I chatted
about repurposing designs. You see, when a customer
buys this t-shirt from him, do you know what other
product he offers them to buy? This! A mug featuring basically
the exact same design. This is usually the easiest way to create effective upsells
with print on demand, by taking the same design and then printing it onto another product. Unfortunately, not all types of designs work on all types of products. This single image design here. It looks great on a t-shirt,
but it doesn't really work when it's printed onto leggings, does it? So something that's good to keep in mind is that designs that
are patterns, like this, print really well onto pillowcases, and onto blankets, and onto leggings, and even onto tote bags. Whereas this sort of single image design may not work so well on leggings, but it obviously works really well printed onto t-shirts, or onto hoodies. Plus they work with mugs as well. And here's a tip for increasing
conversions with upsells. Placeit have a new feature
where some of their models feature both a t-shirt and
a mug in the same picture. That way, you can upload
either the same design or a slightly different design for each. And then use this image
when upselling the customer to say, a mug, after
they bought the t-shirt. You bought the t-shirt,
now buy the mug as well. And by the way, if you
have learned something from this video and you
would like to learn even more about starting your own
successful online store, then you should be sure to subscribe and click that little notification box so that you don't miss
out on any of our videos. Eight: Add scarcity, but
not to every product. Scarcity can be a very
effective way to get customers to buy now, in the moment,
for fear of missing out. One of my favorite
tactics in a Facebook ad is to say that you've got a sale on, but only until stocks last. And to even add an inventory product bar to your product listing,
showing that stock is low and that it will sell out soon. However, this kind of gets
ruined if your customer starts clicking on other
items in your store and sees, hey, all of
these items are on sale, and they all seem to
almost be out of stock. "Huh, this seems a little suspicious. "Maybe these items, they're
not actually on sale at all. "And maybe the store is
just trying to trick me "into thinking that they are." So, if you're item has
maybe 20 items in it, consider having about three
or four that are on sale and that have scarcity timers, and not have every item in your store almost being out of stock. The Shopify app that I used to add the scarcity countdown bar
in was Sales Pop Master. The app is free currently,
and it's very easy to use. Most apps like this cost money, and so I highly recommend
checking this one out if you are on a budget. Nine: Check to see if your
niche is banned on Facebook. Ya know, just imagine if
you've gone to all the trouble to create a store featuring
print on demand rollouts with erotic images and, unlike Seditia, did not ask the question,
"Is this a good idea?" I'm really glad that you did ask, Seditia, because if you had not
asked that question, you would have very quickly discovered that Facebook's advertising policies will make it a nightmare for you if you try and promote your products without your ads getting shut down and potentially getting banned. You would've discovered quickly that Facebook's advertising policies will make it a nightmare for you to try and promote your products without getting your ads shut down and potentially getting you banned, thanks to such broad policies like activities must not be overly suggestive. What does that even mean? I'll tell you what that means. Facebook has a lot of
discretion to shut down any adult product ads
that they do not like. And so, honestly, this
is a niche I'd recommend that you avoid, Seditia. Now obviously, Facebook ads aren't the only way to create products. But, frankly, they are
one of the best ways. And so, it'd be quite a shame
if you went to all this effort to create this great products
and create this great store and then not be able to
advertise your products on there. So go through Facebook's
advertising policies. Be sure to take a look
at what types of niches and products are outright prohibited, and what types of niches
and products are restricted. Now, I've certainly sold
products on the restricted list. But it does mean you'll have a lot more scrutiny from Facebook. So be sure to read the
rules very carefully. 10: Find your most honest friend or family member to get their feedback. Look, here is the blunt, harsh truth. It can be very, very
difficult for us to step back and be objective about
the things that we create. I still remember this
one store view I did. For this print on demand
store here, Domainer Swag, I was absolutely astonished
to see that they thought that selling this t-shirt here, featuring the ugliest stop
sign I have ever seen, was even remotely acceptable. But really, I shouldn't
have been surprised, because as I've talked
before about on this channel, most of us suffer from
the psychological oddity of illusionary superiority. Essentially, the vast majority of people think that they are above average. Which is why it is very important to stake out your most honest
friend or family member that has a reputation for
not beating around the bush to give you their true, honest opinion about whether your products
or your store look ugly. Even if the truth stings a little. If Domainer Swag had done this, then they probably could
have avoided this disaster. Thanks for watching this video. And again, if you would like to learn even more about starting and launching your own successful print on demand store, then you should be sure to
download our free ebook, The 6 Steps That 6 Figure
Online Stores Follow to Make Over $10,000 a Month. And you'll find a link on how
you can download the ebook in the video description below.
