HOW TO MAKE MONEY BY SELLING T-SHIRTS ONLINE
Selling T-shirts online to make money
The easiest way to sell T-shirts online to make money is through a print-on-demand platform (POD).
Print-on-demand is an AWESOME system because it allows anyone to start their own online business with no money!
Basically, print-on-demand is when you design T shirts and other products to sell. But the designs are only printed onto the products once a customer has bought one. So there’s no waste or surplus stock.
This keeps the costs and risks low for everyone.
Let’s look at the process in more detail:
First, you upload a design file to a POD website (let’s say Merch by Amazon, because that’s the main one I use). The site creates a mock-up of what your design would look like printed on a T shirt.
You set your price, write a description, and list your T shirt for sale, using the mock-up as a product image.
Your T shirt is now available to buy online, even though doesn’t exist in physical form yet!
When somebody buys it, the POD company prints out your design onto an actual shirt and ships it off to the customer for you.
And then they send you a royalty payment at the end of the month!
You don’t need any stock, any equipment or even your own website. You don’t have to deal with customer service or shipping – the POD companies handle all that.
Literally all you need is time, internet access, and some basic design program or app (which you can get for free – more on that later).
selling t shirts online laptop set up
It’s a great way to make money online because it’s so hands-free. You don’t have to deal with any physical products yourself.
It can also be a source of passive income: you can keep selling shirts and making money even when you’re not actually working.
How to start selling T shirts online
Sounds good, right? So how do you actually get started selling T shirts online?
Choose your platform
Step 1 is to choose your POD platform. There’s nothing to stop you listing the same design on multiple platforms, but I’d recommend focusing on just one to start with.
My top recommendation is Merch by Amazon! This is Amazon’s own POD platform and it’s the one I use.
The main advantage of selling on Merch by Amazon is that your products will be sold on Amazon (obviously) and you get to benefit from their huge customer base and traffic.
However, Merch does have a short application form and wait list. So get over there right now and hit ‘request invitation’ to get the ball rolling!
If you don’t get in, don’t worry – just pick a different POD site for now and reapply in future.
(There’s a list of other POD sites further down this article).
Make some designs
So once you’re all set up with a POD account it’s time to create your first design!
Check the instructions of the site you signed up to for specifications such as design size and file size. You can find Merch’s specifications here.
You can create your design in any design program you like. Obviously, if you already have software like Photoshop then use that.
If you’re starting from scratch and you don’t have any design software, there are free programs you can use!
I make a lot of my T shirt designs in Gimp. This is a free open source image editing software. Merch even have templates to use in Gimp.
I found Gimp a bit tricky to use at the beginning, but there are loads of free tutorials on YouTube. So just invest some time to learn the basics and you’ll be fine.
Another option is Canva. This free design site is a lot more user-friendly for beginners. However, you will have to pay a monthly fee if you want to download your designs with a transparent background. The transparent background is a requirement to sell T shirts on Merch, but not other products such as PopSockets.
There are also lots of free or very cheap mobile apps you can use. Usually these are kind of limited, but a useful way to knock out some designs on the go. Here’s a list to start you off.
Once you have your first design, follow the instructions to upload onto your POD site and you’re away!
selling t shirts online - person holding a portfolio with the word 'design'
Make MORE designs!
A lot of the time, POD is a numbers game.
Simply put, the more designs you have out there, the more you’ll sell.
And you can’t expect every shirt you make to sell. So put up as many as you possibly can!
On a podcast I once listened to with a pro T shirt seller (sorry, can’t remember what it was now), he said that only 2 or 3 in 10 shirts actually sold at all, and only 1 in 10 shirts really took off. Personally, I’ve found my stats are even lower than that 🙁
So you have to put a lot of different designs out there before you find out which ones will be your best sellers.
Luckily, the beauty of the Print-on-Demand system is that you’ve got nothing to lose if your shirts don’t sell!
If they don’t sell, they won’t be printed, so you don’t end up with piles of unsold stock.
At the beginning of your Merch career, I would recommend focusing on VOLUME of designs. Don’t spend hours and hours on beautiful works of art if you don’t know whether they’ll sell.
Create a large number of simpler designs targeting a number of different topics or niches. Then when you start making some sales, you’ll see what kind of niche to focus your energies on going forward 🙂
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What if I have no design skills?
So as I mentioned in the introduction, I have NO design skills. None. Not an artistic bone in my body!
So how am I succeeding in this business?
Well, you really don’t have to be a designer or artist to create good T shirts designs.
Simpler is usually better!
Text only designs
Most of my designs are just plain text.
You can use popular phrases, in-jokes or slang that appeal to a particular niche.
Do you have any hobbies? Are there any catchphrases or jokes that only fans of your hobby would get? Things like this make great T shirt slogans!
A good starting place for research is to look at memes or inspirational quotes in your niche on Pinterest.
I have a series of T shirts that are just funny or slang words in a foreign language that I speak. The T shirts are aimed at people studying the language, or who are interested in the culture associated with the language. Several of these sell very well, and they’re literally just one word that took me all of 2 seconds to type out!
You can still make a plain text design attractive by choosing an interesting font. Most design programs come with plenty of fonts, or you can download them for free from sites like 1001 Fonts. Just make sure the fonts you choose are free for commercial use.
selling t shirts online - simple one word text design t shirts
Design elements
If you do want to create slightly more advanced designs, you can purchase basic design elements from websites such as Creative Market. You can buy things such as patterns, textures, fonts and clipart which you can mix and match into your own designs.
I love Creative Market because they have 6 free design goods every week, and many of these are suitable for print-on-demand designs! But again, do check the licence before you use them.
Creative Market has lots of cheap bundles of repeating patterns which work really well for POD products such as PopSockets, phone cases and notebook covers (the availability of these products depends on the platform you’re selling on).
Under the terms of their licence, you can’t use an element exactly as purchased if you want to sell it for money. But you can add some slight modification – such as using a pattern as the background, and adding a word or initial in a fancy font on top – and you’re good to go. This has worked really well for me selling PopSockets on Merch.
a notebook with scribbles and designs in it
Best place to sell shirts online
Print-on-demand has been growing like crazy over the last couple of years, so there is a huge range of sites to sell your designs on!
I recommend focusing on just one site to begin with. Then once you know what you’re doing, upload your best selling designs onto a few different platforms and see what works for you.
Most sites have a range of products in addition to T shirts. So if you know that you really want to sell tote bags, for example, that will help you narrow down your choice.
Merch by Amazon
Merch is Amazon’s own POD platform. It’s the main site I use and it sends me a regular pay cheque each month!
I would definitely recommend Merch as the first site you sign up with. I think it’s just easier to make sales on Amazon, because you get to benefit from all their natural traffic.
Plus, all Merch products are available under Amazon Prime, which influences the buying decision for many people.
In addition to T shirts, you can sell hoodies, sweatshirts and PopSockets on Merch.
PopSockets started selling quite well for me over the Christmas period. You only make a small royalty on PopSockets, but on the other hand they’re very quick and easy to create designs for!
Originally Merch only let you sell in the US marketplace, but now you can sell your T shirts on Amazon UK and Germany as well. You don’t need to be based in these countries to sell there since it’s all online!
You might not have all the different products and marketplaces available when you first sign up, but they are rolling them out to all users.
There is an application process to get into Merch. But if you don’t get accepted straight away, no worries.
There are many other print-on-demand platforms, including some which integrate with Amazon so you can still sell on Amazon’s marketplace.
Printful
I’ve recently discovered Printful and I’m looking forward to testing them out.
Printful have LOADS of different products that you can put your designs on. They have several different types of basic T shirts, hoodies, tank tops etc.
In addition, there are all kinds of other products such as leggings, dresses, baby clothes, phone cases, tote bags, caps and mugs.
They also have several items with an all-over print option (with Merch, your designs are confined to a small space).
Printful integrates with Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Shopify and several other platforms, so you can maximise your sales by selling the same item in multiple places.
This could be a great second option if you don’t get into Merch, especially with the Amazon integration!
man wearing baseball cap with 'love your neighbour' slogan - another item you could sell with print on demand
Other print on demand sites to sell shirts online
There are loads of different POD sites out there. Here are just a few that I’ve heard good things about:
Redbubble
Teespring
Zazzle
Teelaunch (Here’s a tutorial on Amazon integration with Teelaunch and Shopify)
Can I do Print-on-Demand in my country?
One other great thing about selling T-shirts online with print-on-demand is that it’s completely international. Wherever you are in the world – UK, India, the Philippines, etc – you can design and upload your shirts from your own home and sell them in the USA, even if you’ve never set foot in that country.
If you are wondering how to get paid by Amazon without a US bank account, I use a website called Payoneer.
Payoneer in effect sets up a US account in your name so you can give the payment details to Amazon (or any other site that requires a US bank account for payment).
You can then withdraw from your Payoneer account to a foreign bank account for a small fee.
That said, different POD sites may have different payment methods and/or restrictions. I am not familiar with all of them so please check the T&Cs of the site you’re interested in before signing up.
How to avoid copyright infringement with T shirts
When you come up with designs to sell online on Merch or elsewhere, it’s really, really important that you avoid any copyright infringement.
At best, you could lose your account. At worst, you could face legal trouble!
I hope it goes without saying that you can’t use logos or brand names belonging to brands or celebrities. And you should never copy someone else’s design, or use a design element (such as image or font) that you don’t have the rights to use.
But even lots of people who would never knowingly use a copyrighted design get caught out, simply because so many common words and phrases have been trademarked by various businesses!
Therefore I strongly recommend that you check every phrase you’re thinking of using through the official trademark and/or intellectual property office of any country you’re intending to sell in.