Guide On How To Start A Print-on-Demand Business

Due to its direct impact on a company’s bottom line, website monetization is looked upon as a core activity by business owners. There is a copious amount of ways to adapt conventional methods in order to make a site more productive but these are often too common and overused to produce the level of success you may be looking for.

The idea of starting your own POD (Print on Demand) business with little start-up costs, no need to carry inventory, fast shipping times, and lots of success stories sounds alluring so why not give it a try? However, it is important to treat it as a real business,, and as enticing as it sounds, if you don’t follow the necessary steps to set up properly before starting your store, the chances of succeeding will be slim.

What is Print on Demand?

POD is a way of offering various custom-made items to an audience as a subtle but powerful way of turning the attention of niche visitors to your business. Products such as t-shirts, household items, and mugs are all items that can be used as a method to get orders and sales. However, in order for this method of product sourcing to yield results, effective marketing strategies are essential and it must be created and supported on a high-performance e-commerce platform.

In order to help you avoid some of the many common mistakes made along the way, here are some important steps to follow before you start attracting customers to your POD store. If you take the time to follow these steps you will soon be on the way to becoming a successful POD entrepreneur, growing your business from strength to strength.

How to Launch a Successful Print-on-Demand Business

Step 1 - Do Your Homework to Find a Profitable Niche and Products

This is probably the most important challenge to overcome on your journey to launching your POD business. The first thing to do is decide on a niche you like that is most likely to succeed. If you have no idea where to start, create a list of items you like. Some ideas to get you started include

-Healthy living
-Comics
-Football
-Ecotourism
-Sports
-Equestrian sports

Your POD business can either focus on a product or a subject niche.

• Product Niche
  If you decide on a product niche you will have to select a product at the outset and stick to it. For example, you may choose to sell t-shirts with humorous quotes or movie-inspired coffee mugs. This means that you will sell only t-shirts or only mugs but with many different themes and designs on them.
• Subject Niche
  If you choose a subject niche you will need to find a trendy subject and create a range of products to carry the designs reflected by the particular niche. Examples of products to carry a subject include everything from t-shirts to wall tapestries and tote bags.

Step 2 – Prepare your Design and Website

A POD business relies heavily on creating quality designs to print onto your products. If you don’t know how to create your own designs you can modify design assets from CreativeMarket that are copyright-free. You can also purchase designs from Upwork, Design Pickle, or Fiverr.

Step 3 – Set up your Online Store

Once you have decided on your winning product or subject niche you can proceed to set up your online POD store. Do some research on other successful e-Commerce sites for some inspiration. Your website is the face of your brand so make sure that it will inspire the trust needed to entice your target audience to continue browsing. Here are the steps to follow:

• Choose a catchy name that is easy to remember then head on to GoDady to register your domain.
• Choose your favorite e-Commerce platforms such as WordPress+WooCommerce plugin, Shopify, or Etsy.
• Design the look of your store and create your custom products using customizable, pre-built templates as a starting point. Later you can add relevant new customized pages such as About, Homepage, Shipping Information, Contact, Payment, etc.
• Select a Print Provider
  The POD plugin you integrate will become your printing partner and will fulfill all your incoming orders. Remember that your reputation will depend on choosing a reputable and reliable partner. Printify easily integrates with WordPress, Etsy, and Shopify for a straightforward process. The Printify app allows you to choose the supplier that best suits your brand from a list of 15 suppliers. The app also offers 250+ blank products you can choose from and you can create mock-ups within the app.

Step 4 – Promote Your POD Business

Create a pathway for customers to find your Print-on-Demand business by:

• Setting up Several Social Media accounts to hunt for leads such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
• Use a platform that is most relevant to your brand to spread to word and get sales.
• Create testimonials from customer reviews and comments.
• Use SEO optimization to optimize your pages with high-ranking keywords.
• Write interesting blog posts.

Step 5 – Experiment, Make Improvements and Check Performance Regularly

Once your business is up and running it is time to check what is working and what is not. At this stage, you may have to adjust prices, redesign your store, add new products, or change collection pages to improve your results.

Find a unique product to make your business a key player in our niche market. Print-on-Demand is a better option than conventional eCommerce as it is easy to set up with low startup costs and no need for inventory management and has a high potential for success.