Can you really just pick a platform, click a few buttons, upload a few images and voila! , watch the money roll in?

Maybe you can, but I found that it required a little more time and skills than I had. And you really don’t want to attempt this with only your phone, although the apps are pretty good, you really need a computer. Thankfully I have one with plenty of hard drive space. More on this later.

First let me explain my situation. It may be similar to yours. I have no money to invest in a risky business. I have no business experience. I’m trying to find a way to make passive income from home because I am my disabled daughter’s full-time caregiver.

My creative husband has a sketch pad full of artwork that he has wanted to put on T-shirts and sell. And I have a website for my town that I am trying to build and grow. I wanted to add some merchandise to it with the logo that I designed because I like it. That’s what led me to print on demand, or POD.

My first mistake was using ChatGpt for business advice. It directed me to some POD companies. I read the list, did minimal research and picked Teespring. It was free, after all, and I recognized the name. I set it up. I started creating products. At first it went well and I got excited! It seemed like I had finally found a way to achieve my goals.

But then my favorite product disappeared from the store after I spent a lot of time on it and I needed help from Teespring. Teespring is now called Spring, by the way. I began to search for support on the website and couldn’t find answers , ended up on Reddit, and discovered that this company has a lot of complaints and is old and unreliable compared to some newer POD companies. When I was searching for help I found many people had the same problem, disappearing products. I learned this discouraging information after I had ordered two of my own products as “samples” so I could see what the quality is like. I started thinking I might need to switch POD companies.

In the meantime I was trying to get that “disco longhorns” to upload. I renamed it “pasture party” to fit the local lingo. This shirt is different than a regular POD shirt. The design covers the whole shirt, front , back and sleeves . I had a hunch that the way I’d done it had made the image file too big, even though the design program didn’t block it. I was discovering that creating products is not always simple, you need some knowledge of image editing techniques. I had tried GIMP and been totally lost, so I started working on learning more advanced techniques on Canva. I signed up for a free trial so I could use the pro features.

Canva is a good platform, and it has a website and a full function app, but it has a few limitations compared to something like Photoshop. For me the biggest problem is not knowing how to do the complex stuff and then figuring out how to download the right size. It took me two days of experimenting, but I figured out how to get my all over print (AOP) design on the shirt and uploaded to Teespring and actually available on the store. These uploads take some time and don’t always work, I’ve discovered. I felt very proud of myself.

Then I realized that I hadn’t really considered the most important part, marketing the store and products. Now these websites will imply that it’s super easy , just design it and “they will come”. But the reality is that there are millions of people doing this. You have to advertise or no one will know you exist.

My next step was actually starting over where I should have started, doing my own research instead of asking ChatGpt . In this case my Google searches showed that more people are actually shopping on Etsy and Amazon than anywhere else for this type of product. So I applied to sell on demand merchandise on Amazon, but it takes two weeks to get an answer, and I might not be approved. Then I began setting up an Etsy store at 9:00 last night but I didn’t make it through the long process. Be prepared to list a product during the sign up process. You will also need the address for the print on demand service you’re using.

Another issue is if you’re using a phone, it’s hard to download images . A computer is easier. But if you don’t have a computer , you can download your images to your Google Drive and then upload it to your chosen print on demand designer from there, but creating it on a computer will be much easier. Many people can’t find their Canva downloads on their phones and they’ll load up your storage space.

I also decided to sign up with Printify because it gets good reviews and has a much more robust business model and more options than Teespring. They use multiple print companies instead of just one. Once I get all this done I will probably cancel Teespring or I may just use it for specific uses, if the products arrive in a timely fashion and are of good quality.

So as you can see, getting this on demand t-shirt business going turned into a learning experience for me. And, as usual, I jumped into it with no plan. However, it was an idea that my husband and I have kicked around for years. I’ve learned a lot in a few days. Thanks for coming along for the ride!