Hiya I’m back again, its becoming routine now. Today my focus will be on POD, print on demand and my views on it from my experiences with it, and I am sure some people will not agree, but this is my view I do not expect anyone to feel the same as we all have different experiences. And those experiences will be determined by how good you have been at doing what you do. In my case, and I will continue to insist, don’t look towards me for how to make money, it’s the one thing I have little success in doing, I am your everyday artists who has dreamt of one day making a living out of art, but never have, and doubt I ever will. That probably makes me one of many millions who are like me.
https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Play-Football-by-stephenignacio/160799944.WFLAH.XYZ
Anyway. Here goes.
Ever had anyone come up to you and say “my god I didn’t know you produced such professional designs, you must be doing so well with that online shop?” or even “I didn’t know you were running your own businesses, wow, you must be doing well.”?
When I get these type of comments I smile because first of all you know you have reached someone with your efforts, but at the same time you thinking, “why didn’t you buy something if you like it so much? If only you knew.”
https://www.spreadshirt.co.uk/shop/user/sigydesigns
That is the reality of POD for the majority of people. Print on Demand (known as POD) is probably one of the most difficult ways to make a living if you are not the site owner, or printer and just the designer.
Basically with POD designers design, submit their designs and pray that someone will like it somewhere across the world and buy it. The designer will get his commission, a couple quid, maybe four, for a teeshirt, ten, twenty or thirty pence for a sticker, maybe, if lucky a tenner for something else such as a duvet or something, depends on which site you are submitting to and what their commission rates are.
Your best friend trying to help you build your business by supporting you and buying one of your designs might have forked out £16 or more for a teeshirt, plus whatever the delivery charges are and will be feeling happy at having spend so much on you. The reality is you will be earning a mere four pounds out of this transaction, and that £16 for all intents and purposes might have been better spent donating it directly to you for a print out of your design to hang on his wall.
But lets not close the doors on POD. These are the major drawbacks of POD. Your earnings will be low and the amount of work you will have to do to get a decent income will probably be far greater than you expected.
To succeed in POD you have to know your market, know the trends and meet them constantly. You will have to put your name out through advertising, social media, interactions, whatever it takes so that people head in your direction. If possible with your efforts ensuring that the millions of other design works out there do not also attract their attention. And you have to try to be the best and different. Different enough to catch the eye and keep their attention.
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stephenignacio/
Anyone thinking of quitting their jobs just to focus on POD design market must consider whether the effort is worth the returns. After all, although there are no actual fees to submit with most POD sites offering free services for designers to submit their works, as for them artists are the bloodstream that keeps their hearts pumping, for the designer there is a cost. The cost of living and producing. From internet access, to keeping up with trends, to ensuring your equipment is up to the task for what you will need to produce, to the simple things such as eating and paying the rent.
The one big advantage of POD is that you won’t be restricted in marketplaces, there are many such as Redbubble, TeePublic, Spreadshirts, Zazzle, DesignbyHumans, and more. All of which, in the main, allow you to place your designs across all of them.
POD will provide designers with a showcase window of their works, and greater exposure online. However, as a money earner, the majority of POD artists will be looking at the facilities being a mere passive earner. Something which will provide them with a loaf of bread possibly at the end of the month, but which is unlikely to provide the main meals to the table.
If you are like me, even this passive earner will nevertheless have an attraction which keep you going back to it and putting in the effort to produce better work and see if it sells.
You will be amazed sometimes at what does sell and what doesn’t. The things you think most likely will never get off the ground could become your biggest money earners, whilst the designs that took hours, even days to complete could be the one that never takes off. But if you put in the effort, and keep at it, years down the line, what might be a trickle of pennies, could turn to a trickle of pounds and you could be buying your next monthly loaf of bread, cuppa coffee and bun through this passive earning. If you are astute enough, and there are some out there who have succeeded, you might even start thinking of buying your next home or car with your efforts.
Although I wouldn’t go by the success stories you will be told by the site owners as your basis for deciding, before you decide to quit your job, give it a try, see what the trends are, and decide where in your list of things what priority POD gets. But do try it out, even if its just to get your designs seen.
My Latest POD shops – Don’t worry SigyDesigns, El Yanito and StephenIgnacioArt are all my different brands as I try to manage the different types of markets I am trying to reach and how I wish my work to be seen… plus some stuff I just won’t let go off since I have been running some of these “shops” for another word for them, for some ten years. And even those which have had a decade of existence and haven’t brought in even enough to meet one week’s minimum wage if I were to add all they have sold in ten years, I still won’t let go unless I have to purely for nostalgias’ sake.
Discover SigyDesigns designs online | Spreadshirt
T-Shirts by Stephen Ignacio Art | TeePublic – www.teepublic.com/user/stephen-ignacio-art
T-Shirts by SigyDesigns | TeePublic – www.teepublic.com/user/sigydesigns
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stephenignacio
https://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/stephenignacio
https://www.spreadshirt.com/shop/user/the+yanito
stephenignacioart 
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