Print On Demand – POD – What is it?
Print On Demand, or POD as it is also known as are websites that allow you to print products on demand!
Now before I go any further I need to say that this is not part of the Internet Marketing Explained Course that I am doing – in fact it is not even mentioned in any of the course materials that I have read.
However, this is something that I also do, so I would like to share this with you to give you another option for an income stream.
Ok, so in a nutshell, POD sites work like this:
- You create a graphic file
- You upload it to their site
- You choose what products you would like to have your design printed on
- You choose your markup
- You publish your products
- People buy them
- You make money
The advantages of POD sites is that you do not have any initial costs, nor do you have to carry stock. POD sites also have what they call a marketplace, where all of the products from their members are searchable. Of course you can choose to let your products be searchable or not.
My next article will give more information about where you can set up a POD site and things to look for as well as a link to my POD site so you can see a working one – stay tuned!
How to make money with POD services?
If you are an artistic person or you enjoy using graphics programs, you can harness your talent and skills to make money online through Print On Demand or POD sites.
Having used POD for about 4 years, and made money for my hobby site, in this article I will explain how to do it and where to do it.
While there are differences between different POD sites, they all basically offer a free shop where you can sell your products.
Firstly, you need to create graphic files and different POD sites will have different dimensions for the files and the products, so you have to choose a site that you are going to use in order to find out what file size and dimensions you will need.
When I first started doing this, I used CafePress which is one of the oldest POD sites around. However, one of the limitations to their services is that you can only have one product per shop. If you want to do just one product (say coffee cups) with different designs you have to open multiple shops – which are free but then people can not see and compare your designs.
CafePress also have a very high base fee. A base fee is what they charge before you can add any price on to make a profit. For example, the base fee of CafePress (without any profit added on) is higher than the base fee with a $5.00 profit at printful.com which is where I use now.
At printful.com not only is the base price lower, therefore you can have a higher markup but their free stores allow you to have multiple products and designs. They also regularly add to their product range so more and more products are coming in.
Although printful.com is a spin off of ArtsNow and ArtsCow the advantage of using printful.com is that Lee, the owner gives alot of support and help – he is just a message away.
After I had tested my free shop for a month and I made sales, I upgraded to a VIP store where I have my own domain, the base price is lower than at the free shop and people can open free shops underneath my domain.
printful.com payout through Paypal and they will pay twice a month as long as the balance is $25USD or more. It is nice to get paid every couple of weeks!
It is a fun way to make money online, and once you have a good portfolio of designs you will find which ones sell well.
However, the real beauty of making money online with POD is once it is set up and people find and like your designs, you will generate passive or residual income.
