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How To Sell More Shirts!
Strategies, Tips and tricks to help you sell T-Shirts online with Merch by Amazon, Redbubble, Etsy and more.
© 2017 by Michael Essek Second Edition All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by copyright law. For permissions contact:
[email protected] Disclaimer: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties or merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by a sales representative or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss or profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to: special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Michael Essek
[email protected] www.michaelessek.com 2
Table Of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Different 3. T-Shirt 4. One
T-Shirt Markets & How To Tap Into Them
Math For Dummies
Super Easy Way To Find Shirts That Are Selling
5. Tips And Advice 6. 3 Tips
For Selling On Redbubble
On Niches And Idea Generation
7. Why Your Text-Only Shirt Designs Are A Liability 8. My
Halloween Sales & Why You Must Be Original
9. 3 Ways
To Level Up Your T-Shirt Designs
How I Organise Hundreds Of T-Shirt Designs, And Why It Matters
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How A Stolen Design Made Me Money
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3 Easy Ways To Stand Out In Trending Niches
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One Simple Way To Find Low-Competition Ideas
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3 Common Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Sales
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How Can You Generate More Sales On Merch By Amazon?
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TeeSpring Questions Answered
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Bonus - Q&As
18.
Final Thoughts
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Introduction Do you want to sell more T-Shirts? Maybe you’re an artist or illustrator who has started designing T-Shirts in the hope of generating a regular side-income. Or perhaps you’re an experienced online seller, looking to get a piece of the ‘online TShirt’ pie. Whoever you are and whatever your experience, I want to help you make more money from your T-Shirt designs - and grow a sustainable, long-term T-Shirt business.
My Story I am a graphic designer by trade who started designing T-Shirts in 2013 as an attempt to develop a side-income - via ‘print-on-demand’ sites like Redbubble and Society6. Over the past 3 years ( I am writing this in 2016) I have had designs featured on major TShirt sites like TeeFury, BustedTees, ShirtPunch and others. But the vast majority of my earnings have come through Print-On-Demand websites like Redbubble, Teepublic and most recently (and most importantly) Merch By Amazon. These sites are open to all - so anyone with a design file can upload it immediately and potentially start making money - right away - from their work. It is thanks to these sites that I am now able to focus full-time on my T-Shirt business and am able to make a decent income from my work - even though I wouldn’t describe myself as anything more than a ‘competent’ graphic designer. I believe that anyone with ‘competent’ design abilities can achieve similar (if not much better) results, thanks to the ever-increasing opportunities for creative individuals to make money online. Furthermore I believe these opportunities will continue to grow and develop over the coming years. And these opportunities are not limited to artists and designers. If you are willing and able to commission original artwork, then you too can make a good income from T-Shirts online, even if you have no ‘creative’ talent of your own.
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About This Book In August of 2016 I began writing a public blog to chronicle my progress, and to share advice with others who are trying to develop an income from selling T-Shirts on the internet. Separately, I launched a private email newsletter to share some more practical information and ideas with a smaller group of engaged readers. This book is a collection of those emails - dating from August 2016 to January 2017 edited, tweaked and improved for readability.
A Few Things You Should Know Firstly, this is not a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ to print-on-demand, or to platforms such as Merch By Amazon. I will not be explaining how these sites work, walking you through the process of setting up accounts, or telling you how to use Photoshop. Instead this book is for those who have already started selling Shirts online - who know and understand the basics - but want to take their sales and earnings to the next level. Secondly, the majority of my income currently comes from Amazon’s internal print-ondemand program: ‘Merch By Amazon’. As such, a lot of the advice in the following chapters relates directly (and in some cases exclusively) to ‘Merch’. However, many of the principles I share are also applicable to other print-on-demand websites. If you feel a bit overwhelmed or confused at the language and terms used, then you may benefit from reading the following articles on my website: - Zero To $10k A Month In Passive income from T-Shirts: 3 Key Principles - Where Can You Sell T-Shirts Online? The Ultimate Guide To The Different Types Of Shirt Sites
- Merch By Amazon Review: Merch vs. Redbubble vs. Teepublic vs. Etsy – Where Is My Income Coming From?
…these serve as good introductions to the online T-Shirt market, and explanations as to how (and where) I make my money.
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Disclaimers And Notes I hope you’ll discover some useful tips, tricks and advice in the following pages. This information is provided ‘as is’ - and because the internet moves fast - some of the methods included may no longer be applicable or relevant, depending on when you are reading this. I leave it to you to test out these techniques for yourself to see if they are effective for you. Beyond the practical advice and tips contained in these chapters, there are more than a few articles that focus on general principles; in an attempt to help you think in a way that leads to more sales. So even if every piece of practical advice contained within is now redundant - you should still be able to glean some value from these pages! Finally - and this may disappoint some readers - there is no ‘get rich quick’ scheme contained within this book. Selling T-Shirts online is just like any other business: longterm success and reliable sales only come from delivering quality and value to the customer, over and over again. It took me 3 years to go from zero to ‘quit my job’ levels - and although I think it is now easier (and quicker) for someone to make the same journey, there is still a lot of work that is required if you want to develop a steady and sustainable income. In other words: if you think selling T-Shirts online is going to make you rich quick, you’re wrong. Yes, it is easier than it has ever been for savvy designers to make money online. But that does not mean it is easy. The barriers to entry have been forever lowered, and the levels of competition in the space have consequently gone up. The good news is that - if you’re prepared and willing to learn and work hard - you can win big, and not just in the short term. The principles and skills that are required to make a successful T-Shirt business are also those that are required to make a success of almost any business.
Where You Can Find Me My blog is at MichaelEssek.com - and you can also find me on Facebook and Twitter. My private newsletter includes new tips, tricks, strategies and ‘big picture’ principles for people who want to make money selling their T-Shirt designs online. If you are not already subscribed, you can do so here: Michael Essek’s Private Newsletter.
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Finally if you have any feedback, comments or questions please don’t hesitate to contact me at
[email protected] Alternatively, you can contact me via my website here. Thank you for reading - I wish you the best with your T-Shirt business - and I hope I will be able to contribute to your success, both now and in the years to come. best, Michael Essek
[email protected] michaelessek.com twitter.com/michaelessek facebook.com/mikeessek
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Different T-Shirt Markets & How To Tap Into Them Originally published: 1st November 2016.
Merch By Amazon is not a market. It’s a way to deliver T-Shirts to customers. It’s a mechanism or vehicle connecting creators (designers - that’s you!) to buyers. Nobody is looking for a ‘Merch By Amazon’ T-Shirt. Customers don’t - and shouldn’t even know what Merch is. So thinking of Merch By Amazon as some kind of self-contained eco-system through which you can easily make money is a misunderstanding that will limit your thinking and your income. If Amazon was a local indoor market, then Merch By Amazon is a T-Shirt printer working behind the scenes to print Shirts on demand. Nothing more. The real ‘markets’ are not contained within Merch, or even limited to Amazon. They are out beyond the borders of Amazon - they stretch all the way out to other websites - and you can even see them in - gasp - the real world!
A Breakdown Of T-Shirt Markets There are a number of different T-Shirt markets (but Merch is not one of them). This is by no means exhaustive - but here are a few examples of what I would call ‘broad markets’ that exist within the larger T-Shirt market: • Commodity T-Shirts. These are practical, usually work-related Shirts that are motivated by needs (rather than wants, trends or fashion). Examples: ‘Staff’, ‘Security’, ‘Lifeguard’. As they are commodities, customers look for the lowest possible price. (Sub-$10 market). • Novelty T-Shirts. At the lower end this would include stuff that is just a slight step up from commodity Shirts (stuff you wear once - think ‘Bachelorette Party’) - and at the higher end may include Halloween Shirts and Funny Sayings for gifts or special occasions. Customers in this market may not be actively seeking out the lowest price, but are likely to want to pay the lowest price they can. ($10-$20 market).
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• Viral Trends. These might be a little higher priced than your standard novelty Shirts - if only because there is a sudden ‘rush’ towards a trend, and so you may be able to charge a higher price - as long as someone isn’t under-cutting you from the get-go. I’ve had viral stuff that sold at $25 or thereabouts in very large volumes…but usually after a few days the competition moves in and prices come down. ($15-$25 market). • Pop Culture, Movies, TV, Music, Games . Think TeeFury / BustedTees and other such websites. In general such designs sell at around $20, but are often discounted in sales and promotions. The subject matter is often parody-type stuff, in an attempt to swerve potential copyright infringement issues. Usually fans of a particular Movie or TV Show will happily pay $20-$25 for a Shirt related to it . • Niche Interests. I’m distinguishing these from the previous category only because Movies and TV Shows are unsafe areas to play in (because of copyright issues) - whereas ‘Niche Interests’ (eg. Ultimate Frisbee, Craft Beer, Drones etc.) are generally safer. People are usually proud of their hobbies, and so you should be able to charge around the $25 in this market without much difficulty. • High End. There are a lot of T-Shirts that sell above the $30 mark - but it’s quite difficult to get sales at that level in the world of Merch and other POD platforms. Where might it be possible? In spaces where there is little or no competition - low sales volumes - very specific niches (no mass market appeal) - or where the motivation to purchase is tied to the designer/artist or brand behind it. ($25+) …as I said, this isn’t an exhaustive list - it ’s just my rough observations after a few years in the game. (If you have something to add to the list, I’d love to hear it!) One thing all markets share: they are made up of people who want a particular product have a particular reason for wanting it - and have a certain price they are willing to pay. If you don’t understand those fundamentals, then selling T-Shirts is a whole lot harder than it could be.
Put The Customer First Think of it this way: somewhere out there is a person who will purchase a T-Shirt today . They do not do this because some magic ‘t-shirt buying voodoo’ fell upon them. They have to have a reason - a motivation - a need - or a want - that moves them towards that purchase. Some examples of those motivations could be: • wanting to show support for a presidential candidate
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• needing a last-minute Halloween costume • requiring a birthday gift for a family member or friend • wanting that cool T-Shirt they saw someone else wearing on the bus …and of course literally hundreds (or thousands) of other potential reasons. If you look on Amazon and find a T-Shirt that is selling well - you really only know one thing: people are buying this T-Shirt . You don’t really know why they are buying it. They could be buying it for a friend. They could be buying it ironically as part of some big internet-wide joke. They could be buying it because a famous person just wore it and it went viral, or because someone just posted a link to it in a little known online forum. It could be that a Merch seller has connected with a local sports team and placed a huge bulk order. But if you want to get ahead of the competition and produce designs that sell - before anyone else does - then knowing something about the motivations and reasons behind
a potential sale are essential. You need to understand why certain people buy certain T-Shirts. Once you know this, you can: • create the kinds of designs that meet the needs and wants of the customer • use the right kinds of words and key phrases in your titles and descriptions that will get your Shirts ranking well and lead to more sales • successfully market to potential customers in ways others don’t know about …and so much more. You can’t get a head start on the competition when you simply re-create designs that are already selling. By definition - you are a step behind! Now I’m not saying you must always know everything about a certain niche, or community, in order to make sales to those people. But in general it’s going to be a big advantage when you have knowledge about an area that others don’t. Others can come and copy your designs, your titles and your descriptions - but they can’t replicate your knowledge or your ideas.
I think you'll find that when you design for markets and people you know something about, your sales will be much higher.
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T-Shirt Math For Dummies Originally published: 29th November 2016.
Do you have goals for your T-Shirt business? I’m not really much of a goal setter. When I started designing T-Shirts I had a 'vague' plan. The plan was this: I would just add more and more designs, and eventually (hopefully) my income would be enough to let me quit the day job. That was it.
I had no idea about the number of designs I might need to hit such a target, how many sales I would need to make on a monthly basis, how long it would take me to get there… none of that stuff. So today I want to encourage you to think seriously about your goals for your budding (or already well-established) T-Shirt business and run the ’T-Shirt Math’ - so that you can know exactly what it will take to get you where you want to be. What Does It Take To Make X Amount A Month?
Ultimately, we all start a business to make money. So it makes sense to start with this goal in mind (the income target), and then work backwards. Let’s say we want to make just $100 a month. What do we need? Well, let’s assume you are selling only on Merch By Amazon. And Let’s assume you price your Shirts at 22.99 (A very reasonable and achievable price point, at least in my experience). So now you’re making about $10 on each and every T-Shirt sale ( actually a little bit more than that, but whatever ).
How many sales do you need to make in a month to make $100? Even if you’re terrible at maths - this is a pretty easy one. 10 Sales. How many sales is that a week?
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less than 3. How many sales a day? 0.3. Less than a third of a sale a day. Is this possible for you? Not only is it possible, it’s incredibly achievable, at least in my experience, once you know the basics and can produce the necessary designs. Even if all you know is the basics of a platform like Merch, you should be able to hit that target. So let’s expand our numbers a bit (rounded up/down slightly): To make $100/month - 10 Sales a Month. 3 a week. 0.3 a day. To make $500/month - 50 Sales a Month. 12 a week. 1.6 a day. To make $1000/month - 100 Sales a Month. 24 sales a week. 3 a day. To make $2000/month - 200 Sales a Month. 47 sales a week. 7 a day. To make $5000/month - 500 Sales a Month. 117 sales a week. 17 a day. To make $10,000/month - 1000 Sales a Month. 233 sales a week. 33 a day. To make $100,000/month - 10,000 Sales a Month. 2333 sales a week. 333 a day. I don’t know where you are at personally - or what you think about the numbers above. Maybe you think a few sales a day would be amazing, or maybe you think 333 a day is a low target. Wherever you’re at - my point is this: it’s just maths (or ‘math’, if you’re American). Whatever you’re doing to bring in 3 sales a week (and trust me - you did do something) you simply need to times that by 10 - and you’ll be making $1000/month! Maybe that means upping the number of your designs (by 10 times). Maybe it means getting increased exposure to your designs online. Maybe it means reaching out to more community groups and designing more Shirts for them.
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(There is no single ‘right way’ of approaching this problem - there are a lot of ways to make money with T-Shirts - and even within Merch by Amazon. And of course you don’t need to just employ one tactic - you could combine a bunch of them.)
Whatever it is for you - it is do-able. It will be work and it will take time, but if you are willing to do what it takes - nothing can stop you! …And we haven’t even considered other Print-On-Demand websites (like Redbubble or Teepublic) or other marketplaces like Etsy. Or considered the impact of paid advertising. Or what your own Shopify store might be able to make. There’s a lot of scope out there for you to make money - just from T-Shirts. All it takes is an understanding of what you must do, and then the wherewithal and dedication to see it through. Where To Focus Your Attention
It doesn’t matter what your goals are - if you aren’t designing Shirts that people want to buy - and Shirts that you can get in front of those people - you aren’t going to make any sales. So where should you focus your attention? How do you find niches and opportunities that are worth your time? The truth is that there’s a lot of different niches out there, and a lot of markets you can make money in (and a lot of new markets today that weren’t there yesterday). But it’s also true that certain markets are choc-a-bloc with competition, and are going to be harder to make sales in. Here’s a diagram I put together to illustrate this point:
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How do you determine 'search volumes'? No simple answer - but some possible answers are: • BSR Rank on Amazon T-Shirts (or other products). If a lot of people are buying, it means a lot of people are searching. • Amazon Auto-suggested searches (usually derives from popular search phrases). This is where you start typing in the Amazon search box and they auto-suggest the rest of your search. • Bestselling Shirts on other websites • Popular stories or breaking news / trends that aren’t yet reflected in sales • Search indicators like Google Trends or Adwords Keywords tool • Trending topics on social media And what about determining the level of competition? That is a little easier - you would usually look for: • The number of search results for a given search phrase • the actual sales numbers (BSR) of those competition products • The quality of the keywords of the competing products (can you do better?)
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• The quality of the design of competing products (again, can you do better?) • certain features of those products - eg. are they prime eligable etc. (If not, then they are a good target) All those factors are worth considering before you go rushing into creating a design. The ideal areas to design for are those niches and markets that have high search volumes (or a large audience) - but low competition. Even a market with medium search volumes and low competition is worth playing in. Of course there are a lot of other factors that come into play that aren’t shown on this diagram - for example the design quality of the competition…the price points within that market…etc etc. But if you can at least start your research time with the mindset of ‘decent traffic, low competition’ - you are going to come out the other side with ideas and designs that are much more likely to succeed. — Anyway - I hope this little blast of info has given you some fuel to think about your own personal goals, and how you might go about achieving them. Once you have those goals set - you just need to make regular (ideally daily) progress towards them. It’s not rocket science!
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One Super Easy Way To Find Shirts That Are Selling Originally published: 30th August 2016.
Are you struggling to find ideas for t-shirts that will sell? There are lots of methods out there to find new ideas for designs - but it can be hard to validate those ideas (ie. check if your ideas will actually sell). I want to share one of my favourite ways of brainstorming new opportunities that will sell - using Etsy. If you don't already know about Etsy.com, it's a marketplace site with a big organic audience. It sells a lot of fashion products, and T-Shirts do sell pretty well over there. Anyway, here's how I use Etsy to find shirt ideas that are currently selling: (here's a link to a screen recording to follow along)
1. Go to Etsy.com, and hover over the 'clothing & accessories' tab (first menu item) 2. Hover over the 'clothing' option - then go to 'womens' > 'tops and tees' (this will take you to the women’s tops and tees category, but you could also go to the guys section, or kids) 3. Click the 'sort by' link to the top right of the product area, and choose 'most recent' (This displays those products that have been recently re-listed on Etsy. Whenever a product sells on Etsy it gets automatically re-listed in most cases, and so this - for the most part - is a list of products that have recently sold! )
4. Find a Shirt that catches your eye, and once you land on the product page, click the store’s title to go to that store's main shop page. 5. In the left hand column of this page, you should see a number of sales (eg. '1030 sales') link above a 'number of admirers' link. Click the sales number link - and this will display all the products that this store has recently sold - from most recently sold.
(Note: For some reason this feature isn't available for all Etsy stores - so for some shops you will be able to see the number of sales but not the clickable link. If this is the case you should be able to get a rough idea of recently sold shirts by sorting the shop page by 'most recent' - as explained in step 3 above).
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So there you have it - if you see the same design appearing repeatedly in the 'sold' page of an Etsy shop, then you know there is real demand for that design. And if it's selling well on Etsy, chances are it will sell well on other platforms too. Of course you should never copy or steal another persons designs - that is copyright infringement, and could land you in hot water. Instead, think about how you could use this information to create a design that taps into the same market, or uses some of the same terms. You may also have noticed that the store I chose at random in the video had a lot of 'feyonce' shirts - which is a term Beyonce is suing people over - so definitely stay away from that one!
Final Thoughts This tactic is not guaranteed to be around forever, and indeed Etsy may change things at any point. The real purpose here is not necessarily to find Etsy best-sellers (and copy them) but instead to use Etsy to help inform our own idea development process. By using Etsy as a starting point - and especially by working from a foundation of those Shirts that are already selling - we should come out with sales-friendly ideas that are more likely to appeal to customers. Remember, it’s the idea that people are really purchasing when they buy a Shirt. Etsy is just another platform we can use to gather and evaluate ideas.
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Thank You For Reading This Far!
There's a lot more info to come in the next 14 Chapters! To
get a full copy of the book please head over to: MichaelEssek.com/sell-more-shirts-ebook
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