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Have you ever considered investing in a printer to convert to sublimation? You could use an old toaster oven or air fryer and make your own mugs as people order them. Even if it's local at first. It's how I make mine and it's such a relief for quality assurance checks.
I’m so terrified that I’ll pick a poor printer and they’ll send out bad products that break and look really cheap, I’m so glad you’ve done this experience for us 😊
I solved the positioning issues by making a template in my photo editing software the same size as Printify's and making all the adjustments there first. You add your image as a layer to your template and adjust it so it fits half the width of the template then copy and paste it as a new layer and flip it (if needed) to be the opposite of the other side. When happy they match up, save it and it is ready to drop into Printify's temple with no adjusting needed.
Thank you. I watched a ton of tutorials on "sell Christmas ornaments using Printify" last year. The successful shops do exactly what you do to size their images correctly.
Answering this with fingers crossed very tight. I've been on Etsy for around 14 years and the past 3 or 4 have sold only POD. Main product is a book of pictures (funny wild swimming drawings) printed by Kindle Direct Publishing, then I've put various art on to things like stationery as well, using different POD companies. So far, so good .
A few thoughts: Printify has an option, at least available in the US, where you can make a shop on their platform and you do not have to prepay. Some people create their items, keep them private, and order through that method, but you have to have the customers payment details to enter. Or you can direct people to the printify store you set up, but then you're sending traffic away. I consider you an artist so POD as many of your designs as you like. I understand your concern about possibly risking your Etsy shop by adding POD that the bots reject, so I would suggest opening the separate shop using the same name but adding mugs at the end, if you're just going to stick with mugs. The allure of POD is scale. The per item profit can be relatively small, but you're not making each one, so you can sell more than you could make. It is essentially residual income that you're only effort may be to process the order, you don't have to fulfill it so that takes a great deal of the work out of it. Also, I am particularly fond of the make upon order aspect of the business model. So many horror stories about unwanted inventory and what happens to it, of all types of merchandise. As always, thanks for sharing your experience, your thoughts, and concerns. You are a very thoughtful business person, and I appreciate your opinions more than most.
@@KimBliss Watching your vids are the best part of Mondays. Like dinner with a friend. Suggestion for handmade product: mindful mending or artful mending are becoming a thing. Maybe patches for mending, appliques to cover a repair, could be a thing? I'd rather have a pretty little bit of embroidery adorning an item rather than my clumsy stitching. Just a thought. Be well and game on!
I actually did make someone a custom patch before Christmas! I have toyed with the idea of making more, it's just a time issue. But maybe for a future collection? 🤔
Hey Kim! I've had my Etsy shop for 11+ years now and I started with handmaking jewelry for a niche. In the last 3 years I've toyed with print on demand to make more items for my target customer (her name is Hannah; lol) and I started with a second shop, but starting a new shop for me was requiring more time to grind out new listings than I had the mental bandwidth for. I did okay, but I started doubting myself and took it down. About a year went by and I decided to add it to my main jewelry shop and the POD items don't get much attention and it's probably because I don't have a lot of them and I need more variety of designs but I still have to make and fill jewelry orders which is obviously comes first. - Regarding the mockups; I understood that Etsy wants only the ones from the print provider and not mockups generated from another source so that it gives the best representation of what the customer can expect. I've also noticed that Printify has the ability for sellers to upload a different background for the mockup images so that it gives the seller a different look and not match all the other mockups on Etsy or other search pages. Love your videos! It's hard to find a fellow handmade seller these days. ♥
Oooh thanks for the mock up tip, I didn't know that! I have taken some photos of the mugs I've got, but I'm still on the fence as to whether I'll actually list them on Etsy. We'll see when it comes to restocking them I guess. And I love that you've given your ideal customer a name too! I'm glad I'm not alone there. 😄
Kim, not sure if you found this out or not, but you can in the settings, have them hold orders until you approve them, which means they will not make them or charge you until you approve it.
Yeah I've seen that. The trouble is that by that point I've made the sale and taken payment from the customer, so it doesn't make sense to hold the order and keep them waiting. Although I appreciate this would be easier the orders only needed to be held for a day or two.
Great thumbnail, Kim 😄Ah, the joys of outsourcing printing. I got some greetings cards printed a couple of years ago and they weren't quite right. The card quality was great but the print was just a little blurry. My family couldn't see what I was complaining about but it was obvious to me. I ended up buying my own printer and making them myself. I do like having quality control myself 😁
I purchased a couple blank mugs off Amazon and I plan to make my own mockups with those. I made sure the ones I bought were identical. They're not just white mugs, they are called "sublimation blanks" coated specifically for being printed like Printify does.
Cool idea, but will your product photos be accepted by Etsy as they won't be what is actually sent out by the pod company? That's one of the reasons some pod shops are getting into trouble. Apologies if I've misunderstood what you mean.
I used to sell POD products in my Etsy shop (from Printify) and ultimately didn’t like how I had absolutely no control over the quality that was being sent out to my customers. 😣 To me, it felt like all the POD manufacturers did was print and ship the products out and if the products looked bad, then they didn’t care. The only people that suffered were the small businesses who had to deal with angry customers. The POD manufacturers did their job, so whatever else happened wasn’t their problem 🤷♀️ So yeah, I’m not touching POD with a 10 foot pole 🤣
I thought about trying it but every niche I was interested in was SO saturated I could not imagine having a sale. And the niches I thought about were unusual too … thanks for the videos Kim !
The positioning issue you talked about on Printify is the reason why I've stopped myself multiple times from selling mugs. I imagine customer reviews. "It's crooked". "it's not centered". That seems like a big deal
The funniest part is that it's not even getting it centered that's the only worry. Working out just how far from the rim of the mug or the bottom, judging from the mock ups alone is almost impossible. It's never wildly off, but there's always an element of not knowing for certain and hoping for the best that I just couldn't get comfortable with.
Loved to hear your experience and thoughts on POD. Not something Ill be dipping my toes into but loved to hear how it went with you. I do enjoy the toad stool cup one I bought though!!!!😄
Aw thanks John. I definitely like them and I use the toadstool one all the time now. But I don't think I'll be going back to make more pod products anytime soon. 😋
Certainly enjoyed this. As usual, you were delightful. But I must say I am totally confused. I have considered putting some of my pieces on mugs, shirts, etc. because it’s been requested by my clients. I think I will just wait another six months and see how well this turns out for you. Thank you for taking us on this exciting print-on-demand adventure. Wahoo! Best of luck!
Thank you Susan. But don't take my experience as a way to see if it's good for you though, because honestly the only way to tell is to jump in and test it out yourself. I'm going about this slightly differently in that I'm not going after organic sales for these at all. They were literally just made for the community here on RUclips and it's never been my intention to sell a huge amount. It was just something I wanted to try out and play with to get a better idea of the process. Which as I mentioned, it turns out I'm not a huge fan of. I'll stick to the stitching. 😄
@@KimBliss Well…with the amount of time print-on-demand required you to expend on something that didn’t bring you as much joy as your embroidery, it doesn’t take a genius to learn from other people’s (whom you admire) experience. After all, it’s why I watch, enjoy, but most importantly trust you and your channel. Print-on-demand semi-attracted me as it did you, as a possible side interest. Thank you for sharing. I’ll put my time into carving, thank you. Hugs, my friend. 🥰 BTW, Back in the day, I used to embroider…big time! It was a joy. I still have all sorts of hoops and floss and half-finished projects stashed somewhere, waiting for me to return. ☺️
I’ve sold thousands of mugs through printify … pick a provider with a good review score and the quality is an issue. There’s always the 1% that will either arrive broken due to some freak incident or the print is bad. Apologizing to the customer and shipping out a new mug (they replace it for free) has always fixed any issue.
Hmmm this is kinda timely. I've been humming and ahhing for ages about adding just a select few crochet themed pod items to my etsy crochet pattern shop. I've not done it for all the same fears you express. I thought it would add added extras for my regular customers to add to orders etc. but im still on the fence lol
Don't let my feelings on it put you off. It can definitely still be a good way to get your work on more products that your customers might like, so I'd suggest trying it to see how you feel about it. I don't regret trying it and like that I can offer mugs to the community here. It just showed me what a control freak I can be with my products! 😄
Unfortunately not, but it's ok. The way it works is fine, I just prefer making things myself. But I'll still be offering the mugs and they'll be back in stock soon. 👍😊
Yup I did that. It certainly helped with getting the positioning centred, but the distance from the top and bottom of the cups still varies depending on printers. Even when using their templates.
Hi Kim, a very insightful video. Defiantly a lot more goes into it than people realise. I can relate with the anxiety over loosing controll and guessing on quality, it would scare me too... Urm, now might be a good time to ask, on my to do list for later in the year is to reach out to you about your opinions on some sewing/ stitching themed designs (I do glass engraving, so it would be more like illustrations type of thing) when I do designs that I'm not directly related to I like to get someone's opinion. :) might that be something you could glance at? And where might be best to contact you about it. I have a friend that's a watercolour artist and they do pod but just buying in stock from a local company and selling in craft stalls. They do well with the mix of original artwork and then cheaper prints. Does it work similar for you or do you think its maybe a new category that your attracting with the mugs? Curious about that. :)
Hmm this is a really good question. It would really depend on the products you're thinking of making. There's a lot of conflicting opinions out there as to whether you need to stick to a niche if you're selling on Etsy for example, but I've done both (online and in person) and found that they both work well, it just comes down to the demand for the items you're selling. And when testing out new products, if it appears that there is a demand, often the next step is to just test a couple out. Sometimes that's really the only way to know for sure. That's my approach anyway so take from that what serves you and ignore anything that doesn't. But if you were after my opinion, if you think you have a product idea that has legs, don't over think it and test it out. 😊
@@KimBliss Hi Kim, many thanks for the detailed reply, that's all cool and makes sense. true t should work to grow the range into the different parts I believe. :) cool, when I get to that point I might just put things up and see what the market thinks and adjust as needed. :)
Thank you. I have used POD with no problems in the past and have added a few items to my shop recently with no problems. I use the item from my supplier and put it in a Canva setting. Like a mug on a table. The idea of not seeing each item before the customer does bothers me too.
Have you ever considered investing in a printer to convert to sublimation? You could use an old toaster oven or air fryer and make your own mugs as people order them. Even if it's local at first. It's how I make mine and it's such a relief for quality assurance checks.
I’m so terrified that I’ll pick a poor printer and they’ll send out bad products that break and look really cheap, I’m so glad you’ve done this experience for us 😊
I think it works better if the images are drawn or designed. Photos of textured crafts like embroidery will always lose something though, I think.
I solved the positioning issues by making a template in my photo editing software the same size as Printify's and making all the adjustments there first. You add your image as a layer to your template and adjust it so it fits half the width of the template then copy and paste it as a new layer and flip it (if needed) to be the opposite of the other side. When happy they match up, save it and it is ready to drop into Printify's temple with no adjusting needed.
Thank you. I watched a ton of tutorials on "sell Christmas ornaments using Printify" last year. The successful shops do exactly what you do to size their images correctly.
Answering this with fingers crossed very tight. I've been on Etsy for around 14 years and the past 3 or 4 have sold only POD. Main product is a book of pictures (funny wild swimming drawings) printed by Kindle Direct Publishing, then I've put various art on to things like stationery as well, using different POD companies. So far, so good .
A few thoughts:
Printify has an option, at least available in the US, where you can make a shop on their platform and you do not have to prepay. Some people create their items, keep them private, and order through that method, but you have to have the customers payment details to enter. Or you can direct people to the printify store you set up, but then you're sending traffic away.
I consider you an artist so POD as many of your designs as you like.
I understand your concern about possibly risking your Etsy shop by adding POD that the bots reject, so I would suggest opening the separate shop using the same name but adding mugs at the end, if you're just going to stick with mugs.
The allure of POD is scale. The per item profit can be relatively small, but you're not making each one, so you can sell more than you could make. It is essentially residual income that you're only effort may be to process the order, you don't have to fulfill it so that takes a great deal of the work out of it. Also, I am particularly fond of the make upon order aspect of the business model. So many horror stories about unwanted inventory and what happens to it, of all types of merchandise.
As always, thanks for sharing your experience, your thoughts, and concerns. You are a very thoughtful business person, and I appreciate your opinions more than most.
Aw thank you Rebecca. Both for the Printify tips and your kind words. They're extremely appreciated this morning. Thank you. 💚
@@KimBliss Watching your vids are the best part of Mondays. Like dinner with a friend. Suggestion for handmade product: mindful mending or artful mending are becoming a thing. Maybe patches for mending, appliques to cover a repair, could be a thing? I'd rather have a pretty little bit of embroidery adorning an item rather than my clumsy stitching. Just a thought. Be well and game on!
I actually did make someone a custom patch before Christmas! I have toyed with the idea of making more, it's just a time issue. But maybe for a future collection? 🤔
Hey Kim! I've had my Etsy shop for 11+ years now and I started with handmaking jewelry for a niche. In the last 3 years I've toyed with print on demand to make more items for my target customer (her name is Hannah; lol) and I started with a second shop, but starting a new shop for me was requiring more time to grind out new listings than I had the mental bandwidth for. I did okay, but I started doubting myself and took it down. About a year went by and I decided to add it to my main jewelry shop and the POD items don't get much attention and it's probably because I don't have a lot of them and I need more variety of designs but I still have to make and fill jewelry orders which is obviously comes first. - Regarding the mockups; I understood that Etsy wants only the ones from the print provider and not mockups generated from another source so that it gives the best representation of what the customer can expect. I've also noticed that Printify has the ability for sellers to upload a different background for the mockup images so that it gives the seller a different look and not match all the other mockups on Etsy or other search pages. Love your videos! It's hard to find a fellow handmade seller these days. ♥
Oooh thanks for the mock up tip, I didn't know that! I have taken some photos of the mugs I've got, but I'm still on the fence as to whether I'll actually list them on Etsy. We'll see when it comes to restocking them I guess.
And I love that you've given your ideal customer a name too! I'm glad I'm not alone there. 😄
Kim, not sure if you found this out or not, but you can in the settings, have them hold orders until you approve them, which means they will not make them or charge you until you approve it.
Yeah I've seen that. The trouble is that by that point I've made the sale and taken payment from the customer, so it doesn't make sense to hold the order and keep them waiting. Although I appreciate this would be easier the orders only needed to be held for a day or two.
Great thumbnail, Kim 😄Ah, the joys of outsourcing printing. I got some greetings cards printed a couple of years ago and they weren't quite right. The card quality was great but the print was just a little blurry. My family couldn't see what I was complaining about but it was obvious to me. I ended up buying my own printer and making them myself. I do like having quality control myself 😁
This was my experience too. My family couldn't see the blurriness I was talking about, and I couldn't see how they *couldn't* see it! 😄
I purchased a couple blank mugs off Amazon and I plan to make my own mockups with those. I made sure the ones I bought were identical. They're not just white mugs, they are called "sublimation blanks" coated specifically for being printed like Printify does.
Cool idea, but will your product photos be accepted by Etsy as they won't be what is actually sent out by the pod company? That's one of the reasons some pod shops are getting into trouble.
Apologies if I've misunderstood what you mean.
I used to sell POD products in my Etsy shop (from Printify) and ultimately didn’t like how I had absolutely no control over the quality that was being sent out to my customers. 😣 To me, it felt like all the POD manufacturers did was print and ship the products out and if the products looked bad, then they didn’t care. The only people that suffered were the small businesses who had to deal with angry customers. The POD manufacturers did their job, so whatever else happened wasn’t their problem 🤷♀️ So yeah, I’m not touching POD with a 10 foot pole 🤣
Good to hear your experience! I've just placed a test order for mugs and a t-shirt on Gelato, so we'll see how that goes!
Hope it goes well! 🤞
I thought about trying it but every niche I was interested in was SO saturated I could not imagine having a sale. And the niches I thought about were unusual too … thanks for the videos Kim !
The positioning issue you talked about on Printify is the reason why I've stopped myself multiple times from selling mugs. I imagine customer reviews. "It's crooked". "it's not centered". That seems like a big deal
The funniest part is that it's not even getting it centered that's the only worry. Working out just how far from the rim of the mug or the bottom, judging from the mock ups alone is almost impossible.
It's never wildly off, but there's always an element of not knowing for certain and hoping for the best that I just couldn't get comfortable with.
Just leave the mugs on the website for the fans! No need to risk it!
That's definitely crossed my mind, especially as they're only really here for people who watch this channel anyway. 👍
Thank you Kim for sharing your experiences. Very helpful!
You're welcome! 😊
Loved to hear your experience and thoughts on POD. Not something Ill be dipping my toes into but loved to hear how it went with you. I do enjoy the toad stool cup one I bought though!!!!😄
Aw thanks John. I definitely like them and I use the toadstool one all the time now.
But I don't think I'll be going back to make more pod products anytime soon. 😋
I love your videos. I use printify for my POD and agree about centering of the mugs! It's frustrating!
There's definitely a knack to getting it right, but everything has it's challenges I guess. 😁
Certainly enjoyed this. As usual, you were delightful. But I must say I am totally confused. I have considered putting some of my pieces on mugs, shirts, etc. because it’s been requested by my clients. I think I will just wait another six months and see how well this turns out for you. Thank you for taking us on this exciting print-on-demand adventure. Wahoo! Best of luck!
Thank you Susan. But don't take my experience as a way to see if it's good for you though, because honestly the only way to tell is to jump in and test it out yourself.
I'm going about this slightly differently in that I'm not going after organic sales for these at all. They were literally just made for the community here on RUclips and it's never been my intention to sell a huge amount. It was just something I wanted to try out and play with to get a better idea of the process. Which as I mentioned, it turns out I'm not a huge fan of. I'll stick to the stitching. 😄
@@KimBliss Well…with the amount of time print-on-demand required you to expend on something that didn’t bring you as much joy as your embroidery, it doesn’t take a genius to learn from other people’s (whom you admire) experience. After all, it’s why I watch, enjoy, but most importantly trust you and your channel. Print-on-demand semi-attracted me as it did you, as a possible side interest. Thank you for sharing. I’ll put my time into carving, thank you.
Hugs, my friend. 🥰
BTW, Back in the day, I used to embroider…big time! It was a joy. I still have all sorts of hoops and floss and half-finished projects stashed somewhere, waiting for me to return. ☺️
I’ve sold thousands of mugs through printify … pick a provider with a good review score and the quality is an issue. There’s always the 1% that will either arrive broken due to some freak incident or the print is bad. Apologizing to the customer and shipping out a new mug (they replace it for free) has always fixed any issue.
Yes, I'm in the USA. LOUISIANA
Hmmm this is kinda timely. I've been humming and ahhing for ages about adding just a select few crochet themed pod items to my etsy crochet pattern shop. I've not done it for all the same fears you express. I thought it would add added extras for my regular customers to add to orders etc. but im still on the fence lol
Don't let my feelings on it put you off. It can definitely still be a good way to get your work on more products that your customers might like, so I'd suggest trying it to see how you feel about it.
I don't regret trying it and like that I can offer mugs to the community here. It just showed me what a control freak I can be with my products! 😄
❤
Enjoyed the video. Thank you.
You are very welcome. 😁
Curious...did you photograph your embroidery designs and upload to printify? (forgive my ignorance)
Dipped in myself
Can customers go to the site and order from them, and you receive the commission?
Unfortunately not, but it's ok. The way it works is fine, I just prefer making things myself. But I'll still be offering the mugs and they'll be back in stock soon. 👍😊
Did you make a video how to sell on facebook page, facebook shop ?
I'm afraid not as I don't use Facebook.
have you had any broken mugs? If yo, where you happy with Printify's customer service?
Not yet! So I can't speak to their customer service yet.
But that is why everyone use print on demand... because everything is out of hands 😅
I guess I'm just different then. 🤷♀️
Do the design on something else first with the template they provide you for perfection positioning. Then upload.
Yup I did that. It certainly helped with getting the positioning centred, but the distance from the top and bottom of the cups still varies depending on printers. Even when using their templates.
Hi Kim, a very insightful video. Defiantly a lot more goes into it than people realise.
I can relate with the anxiety over loosing controll and guessing on quality, it would scare me too...
Urm, now might be a good time to ask, on my to do list for later in the year is to reach out to you about your opinions on some sewing/ stitching themed designs (I do glass engraving, so it would be more like illustrations type of thing) when I do designs that I'm not directly related to I like to get someone's opinion. :) might that be something you could glance at? And where might be best to contact you about it.
I have a friend that's a watercolour artist and they do pod but just buying in stock from a local company and selling in craft stalls. They do well with the mix of original artwork and then cheaper prints. Does it work similar for you or do you think its maybe a new category that your attracting with the mugs? Curious about that. :)
Hmm this is a really good question. It would really depend on the products you're thinking of making. There's a lot of conflicting opinions out there as to whether you need to stick to a niche if you're selling on Etsy for example, but I've done both (online and in person) and found that they both work well, it just comes down to the demand for the items you're selling.
And when testing out new products, if it appears that there is a demand, often the next step is to just test a couple out. Sometimes that's really the only way to know for sure.
That's my approach anyway so take from that what serves you and ignore anything that doesn't. But if you were after my opinion, if you think you have a product idea that has legs, don't over think it and test it out. 😊
@@KimBliss Hi Kim, many thanks for the detailed reply, that's all cool and makes sense. true t should work to grow the range into the different parts I believe. :)
cool, when I get to that point I might just put things up and see what the market thinks and adjust as needed. :)
Thank you. I have used POD with no problems in the past and have added a few items to my shop recently with no problems. I use the item from my supplier and put it in a Canva setting. Like a mug on a table.
The idea of not seeing each item before the customer does bothers me too.
Have you added them to your Etsy shop? This is the last thing I have to do and it the part I'm most worried about in case I get dinged by bots! 😄
Yes. I have some I’ve added in the past couple months and one in the past week.
I have other handmade items in the shop like stitch markers and crocheted things.
This is really encouraging to hear, thank you! 😁
I use a credit card for POD purchases and get rewards off of it!
I do too! Except the rewards part. The only reward I get from my credit card company is a bill through the post every month. 😄