Print on in Demand/ Merch Thread

I asked the same question a week ago, but no replies

I did get an answer from the artust alley thread at cgl though

Redbubble seems to have the most traffic, you can set your own prizes, no starterfee for monthly income and offers a wide range of products

Society6 has a set prize but is the most common ( could be con since you have more competition or a pro because you have the specific audience)

I've been doing this for years. I've been making just enough passive money every month to cover all my living costs at the moment (I'm in the US). /ic/ is not the best place to ask for help, as the type of work that sells well on PoD sites is not the same type of work that /ic/ is into (fantasy/sci-fi/concept art). Regardless, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have!

>>2959307
what kind of work sells the most on these sites? any tips?

>>2958487
They're fine, mostly for the convenience factor. But short run printing is a thing now, with ink jets getting better and cheaper to run, so printing off flyers to sell, you might make more profit having 100 posters printed at a short run house, and then selling on Etsy or sites like that. Or do both.

>>2959394
These sites are all about quantity.

You need to put hundreds of designs there to see decent profit.

>>2959307
This guy can confirm it

>>2959307
I quit my job for no reason at all 2 days ago. I have 700$ left in my account, next rent is 500$. How can I make money doing this? Do you post on multiple sites? Did you have to build yourself a reputation first? How quick can I get money in?

>>2959307
>>2959405
How do you get people to see your designs? I've had some up for years with no hits.
Is it possible to get seen solely through the site, or do you advertise outside of it (where)?

/cgl/ actually has a giant population of artists who sell merchandise. I'm just going to copy/paste their OP post for that general for everyone.

>Please read the FAQ
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PpDyjw2LDxbupdvHMNsBUOBVB66Lzwf44RM1You1GDA/edit?usp=sharing
>Resources
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10uNmynwRn6CRc-OMqCeXmJwCNnEnd-vYi-7AQzSx74I/edit?usp=sharing
>Taobao/Alibaba services (broken link)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14zGSegr0b-429wZq5_xdMbE9hpLcXg8fqqe0OxnU2Yo/edit#gid=0
>Artist Spreadsheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ESQ-1h4IRUivbGNaxJFxXyDU1lSv26xTmMdH0sDX7sU/edit?usp=sharing
>How to order from Vograce (now with video on how to set up files)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18UxKnpgrmeb82NnW5e4YIEX-eZ3zHt178Mp6i0A5gME/edit?usp=sharing
>Convention List (WIP)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13o7hD5xS3sDqVptnTVGUlRae3ovEE-vPPST_QOrQwtM/

>>2958575
You probably got no replies because no one in that general really uses these sites. The quality is shit. It's only good for the traffic, which is also why it's bad. You're going to get drowned in a sea of artists. The people in the artist alley general get their merch made on various sites and then sell through Etsy/cons/StoreEnvy/whatever.

Alrighty - here we go. You can see my work here >>2942022 for reference.

>>2959394
If you want to think of stuff that sells, start thinking in niches that you think people might enjoy. Don't just make random artwork that you think is cool - think instead in terms of search terms. You need to be making stuff that you think people will search for.

Pop culture work is a niche itself, and a fantastic one at that. Piggybacking off the success of a popular franchise is - without a doubt - the easiest way to make sales.

It is critical that you make work that looks good on apparel. This means creating work that is not constrained by a traditional square or rectangle canvas. A .PNG file with a design that be slapped onto many different products is better.

>>2959405
Partially agree - I wouldn't say you need hundreds of designs, but the more the better. You need to strike a solid ground between quantity and quality.

>>2959406
Lets break this down:
>How can I make money doing this?
You create a design and upload it to PoD sites. When someone buys something, they create a product and give you a margin of the profits.

>Do you post on multiple sites?
Besides time spent uploading, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from posting on every site. It is to your benefit to do so.

>Did you have to build yourself a reputation first?
No. There are two ways to make money on these sites. They are
1. Relying on off-site traffic (you bringing in fans)
2. Relying on on-site traffic (you showing up in searches).

>How quick can I get money in?
It takes quite a while to build up, and to learn what works and what doesn't. If you don't already have an archive of ready-to-go designs, then you need to create a bunch as well. PoD sites are NOT a short term solution for earning money. Given your current financial situation, you should apply for a real job ASAP. These sites won't pay your next rent in time.

>>2959880
Thanks for the break down. I guess it's gonna be manual labor for me until a while.

(continued)

>>2959472
If you're comfortable sharing your work or linking to a store, that would help a lot.

>How do you get people to see your designs?

This is the big kahuna right here, and probably the most important question of the thread so far. It goes without saying these sites are completely over-saturated - so how do you stand out?

There are two factors to making on-site sales:
1. Creating work that resonates with people (** doesn't mean it has to be good work. Having the right work isn't the same as having the best work, if that makes sense)

2. Writing your titles, tags & descriptions to give it the best possible chance to show up in relevant searches. (ie. if someone searches "lion shirts", you've written out titles/tags that are relevant to that shirt). Remember - if you're not making work that people might specifically search for, then you'll have a hard time making sales.

No one can help you with #1. It is completely up to you to make designs that people enjoy.

In regards to #2 - this is where I think a lot of people fall flat. They don't bother writing out good tags. Tagging systems vary from site to site, as does the algorithms that determine what appears higher up in searches. There are a couple good strategies that work across most sites though:

For the titles of your work - ditch the artsy, non descriptive names, and replace it with your most relevant search terms.

For the tags - Get specific. For a lion design, forget tags like [artistic] [drawing] [digital art], and do tags like [lion shirt] [lion t shirt] [lion tshirt] [lion art] [lion wall art]. The more specific the better. Vague, non descriptive tags are doing nothing for you.

Hope that helps!

>>2959307
You're making enough passive income to cover all necessities entirely? How long did it take to get to that point?

>>2959900
Thanks for all the tips! I recently deleted my store in order to move urls (Society6 apparently doesn't allow changing of urls). I was on it for 3 years in all. I'd be more comfortable sharing by email, but if you don't have time for that, it's okay. You've already given a lot of helpful advice.

I made close to 100 dollars from a Mac Demarco design before Capture Tracks made them take it down. I also made a FlapJack design but couldn't sell shit. Gotta appeal to a certain niche

>>2959930
I am indeed. It probably took about a year to get to that point, occasionally uploading stuff and hoping it passively make sales from there.

>>2960341
Society6 is pretty awful in terms of passive sales, and the fixed margins on many of their products are a joke (especially shirt sales). It's fine to upload there, but be sure to throw everything up on Redbubble at the very least, and TeePublic if you have a lot of work that works well on shirts.

>>2961219
How often would you say "occasionally " is? Once a week, twice a month?

>>2959900
A lot of t-shirt artists also get articles and links on sites like Neatorama - there are several established t-shirt artists who started out having a series of cool designs highlighted there, like the girl who did Harry Potter themed shirts.

Has anyone sold stock, like stock illustration or photography? Does it devalue your art/brand to sell stock? That's the only reason I haven't tried it.

Quick tip for those interested in making shirt designs based off popular games + movies: These can be very lucrative because if the design is good, you can shop it around to different shirt daily sites. You can submit it to multiple dailies too, because they all dropped their exclusivity clauses a few years ago. I'd recommend TeeFury, ShirtPunch! and The Yetee.

>>2963260
It's hard to say since I sort of create stuff in waves. I'd say on average - it's once a week. Recently, more.

I've gotten much faster about it though. In my opinion, I really think it's important to realize that it's to your benefit to not spend a lot of time on designs.Pouring 10+ hours into some elaborate work holds no more guarantee of success than pumping out work in under 2 hours. I've seen massively successful designs that couldn't have taken more than 30 minutes to make. As I mentioned above - you need to strike a ground between quality & quantity.

>>2963278
The guys at Neato are the fucking best. Alex is a great guy. I hardly make any money there, but I know some people who swear by them. They recently opened up a drop shipping service too so you can sell stuff elsewhere with their printing (something I do with another printer and I highly recommend).

>>2964821
It takes a massive quantity of work to make stock worthwhile. If you were to do that, I'd pump out work that caters to specific niches and situations, just like anything else. Also -
there's no reason for you to associate your stock work with your main art brand, therefore it can't devalue your other work.

>>2965170
>designs based off popular games + movies...

How does copyright works in that context? Do these companies just don't care, or?

>>2965250
The whole thing is a massive grey area. I think most artists think they're protected under 'fair use' because they made a parody of pop culture work, but 1. Most people don't know what a parody is and 2. Just because it's a parody, doesn't mean it's fair use.

Make no mistake - almost all people making pop-culture inspired work are in committing copyright infringement.
Here's what typically happens on print-on-demand sites:
Either
1. A company just doesn't give a shit. Some IP's (intellectual properties) are relatively safe. This is why there's so much Nintendo fan art for sale on these sites. Nintendo just doesn't seem to care, and you can sell your work just fine.

2. A company gives many shits. Some IP's are notorious about chasing infringing products. Rockstar (GTA) and HBO (Game of Thrones) are well know on these sites for going after infringing material.

Here's what happens when an IP goes on the hunt: On PoD sites, they search "game of thrones" (for example), and get a whole list of infringing products. They then issues DMCA takedowns to the website, and request that the products be removed. They will do this in waves. The TeePublic facebook group is actually throwing a shit fit today because Disney went on a massive purge of anything using Disney IP's.

It's a risky game to play since it can be so much easier to sell pop culture stuff, but it can be taken down at any moment. That's the worse that happens though - a DMCA takedown. I've never, ever heard of an artist getting sued through these sites. Usually if you're a regular and repeat offender, you may get your store removed.

You can also use DMCA takedowns to have sites remove work that was stolen from you too.

>>2965379
Thanks, this is very helpful, anon.

>>2965379
I don't get why Nintendo is cool with bootleg merchandise but freak the fuck out over youtubers doing let's plays even though a lot of people will buy a game if they can see some firsthand gameplay from someone who's opinion they trust. They even took down an unrelated video just because some of the people sang part of the DK Crew song.

Anyway to add to your post, I guess it's logical to say that the smaller the IP, the safer you are. I also know anime is a pretty safe bet too even if distribution is done by Disney in the US (I know someone who makes bank off Ghibli who releases exclusively through Disney if i'm not mistaken).

In general i wanna thank all the contributing anons in this thread. It's not often a thread isn't derailed into retarded arguments and I learned a lot from this thread. I'm gonna screencap some of it to share with future posters if the question ever comes up again.

>>2966145
>freak the fuck out over youtubers doing let's plays

I never really thought of that. I was talking in a Facebook group about how if Nintendo ever targets these sites, then we'd all be fucked. I'm sure a day of reckoning is coming.

>>2966103
>>2966146
Happy to help! Let me know if you have any other questions before this thread dies.