INTRO

Welcome to the ultimate beginner’s guide on how to sell merch! If you’re

looking for a cheap and easy way to earn passive income, then selling

merch is a great option, and we’re here to show you how it’s done. We’ll

cover the basics of print-on-demand (POD), explain the difference be-

tween using a POD platform or building your own e-commerce site, and

give you a comprehensive list of options and products you can sell. In this

guide, you’ll learn how to choose the right platform, do effective keyword

research, and find niches that work for you. We’ll also show you how to

create amazing designs that sell and build a store that attracts custom-

ers. With design ideas for each of the main products, you’ll have plenty

of inspiration to create unique and eye-catching designs. So, let’s dive in

and start your merch-selling journey today!

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INDEX
• How to get licensed designs to sell
Chapter 1 - The Basics • How to do niche research for
Redbubble.
• What is passive income
• What is print on demand Chapter 5 - Keyword Research,
• Why selling merch is the best passive income Niches & Trademark
option
• Difference between a POD platform or • How to do Keyword & Niche
building your own e-commerce Research
• Products you can sell • How to check Trademark
• Top 3 Main Steps to sell merch
Chapter 6 - Making the designs
Chapter 2 - Picking a POD or ecommerce
platform • Online T-Shirt Maker
• PSD Design Templates
• PROS and CONS of joining a POD Platform • Print-Ready Designs
• PROS and CONS of building your own • PNG Designs
eCommerce • Quote Generator
• How to choose the right POD platform • Design Request
• List of most popular POD marketplaces and • Mockup Generator
fulfillment companies
Chapter 7 - Design ideas for each
Chapter 3 - Complete Guide: product
How To Sell in Amazon Merch on Demand
• Mug Design Ideas
• Amazon Merch on Demand Context • Poster Design Ideas
• Amazon Merch on Demand Basics • Phone Cases Design Ideas
• How to Apply to Amazon Merch on Demand • T-Shirt Design Ideas
• How to upload designs to Amazon Merch on • Throw Pillow Design Ideas
Demand • Tote Bag Design Ideas
• How to promote your products • Low Content KDP Design Ideas
• How to grow your Amazon business
• How to do keywords and niche research for Chapter 8 - Building the Store
Amazon Merch on Demand
• How to get licensed designs to sell • Setting up your merch store
• Crafting winning product descrip-
Chapter 4 - Complete Guide: tions
How To Sell in Redbubble • Showcasing your designs
• Boosting traffic to your store
• Redbubble Context
• Redbubble Basics Wrapping up
• How to upload designs to Redbubble
• How to create a store in Redbubble Helpful Links
• How to increase your Redbubble Store
Success

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CHAPTER 01
The Basics

In this chapter, we’ll cover the basics of selling merch online. We’ll start with an explanation
of what passive income is and how print-on-demand (POD) works. We’ll then discuss why
selling merch is a great option for generating passive income.

Next, we’ll compare the differences between using a POD platform versus building your
own eCommerce store. We’ll also provide a list of products you can sell using print-on-
demand and the top 3 main steps to selling merch.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll have a solid understanding of the foundations of selling
merch online and be ready to dive into the more advanced topics.

What is passive income

Passive income is money you earn without having to actively work for it all the time.
Instead, you create a system that generates income for you automatically, even while
you’re sleeping or taking a break.

For example, renting out property, investing in stocks, or creating a product that you can
sell online are all ways to earn passive income. Selling a product online, such as a t-shirt or
mug, enables you to earn recurring income with every sale without requiring ongoing work
or maintenance.

Essentially, passive income is a way to make money without having to constantly trade
your time and effort for it.

What is print on demand

Print-on-demand (POD) is a revolutionary printing technology and business model that
allows you to create and sell custom products like t-shirts, tote bags, and pillows without
the need to buy stock in advance or retain unused inventory.

With POD, the printing company only produces and ships the product when a customer
places an order for it, enabling you to earn passive income without worrying about
fulfillment or storage costs.

This means you can sell custom orders of any size, from a single item to large volumes of
products, and create unique designs without the risks or costs associated with traditional
manufacturing methods.

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The process is quite simple:
1. You build an online store or sign up in a POD platform
2. A customer buys a product from your store
3. The order is sent to the printing company
4. The printing company then prints the design on the chosen product and ships it
directly to the customer.
5. You earn your royalties!

Remember, a portion of your royalties will be deducted due to printing and shipping
services fee.

In short, POD is a hassle-free and cost-effective way to earn passive income by selling
personalized products online.

Why selling merch is the best passive income option

Print-on-demand is the ultimate passive income option with its low risk, easy setup, and
hassle-free fulfillment, making it a great choice for anyone looking to earn money by
selling custom products online.

Here is a list of 8 reasons why Print-on-demand is one of people’s favorite ways of earning
passive income:

1. Fast and easy setup: Unlike other passive income options, starting a POD business is
fast and easy. You can sign up for a POD platform for free and start uploading your
designs immediately.

2. Low risk: Since there’s no need to buy inventory in advance, you don’t need to invest a
lot of upfront money. This means that the risk of losing money is much lower than other
passive income options.

3. No prior skill or experience needed: Anyone can start a POD business, regardless of
their experience or background. You don’t need to have any specific skills or knowledge
to get started.

4. No heavy load on your part: When you sell products through a POD provider, they take
care of the shipping, customer service, and royalty payments. This means that you can
focus on creating and uploading your designs, while your provider handles the rest.

5. Transform your passions into earnings: With POD, you can leverage your interests
and expertise to create a profitable business. For example, if you have an extensive
knowledge of gardening, you can design products featuring clever puns, inside jokes,
or memes that resonate with fellow gardening enthusiasts. This allows you to turn your
hobbies into a source of passive income while also sharing your love for your hobby
with others.

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6. Flexibility to Explore: With POD, you can sell a wide variety of products, from t-shirts to
mugs, phone cases, and more, while also trying all kinds of niches. This allows you to
experiment with different markets and designs to find what works best for you.

7. Scalability & International: POD allows you to sell products on a global scale without
worrying about the costs and logistics of international shipping. You can sell from
anywhere in the world to any place in the world.

8. Sustainability: Print-on-demand is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional

manufacturing methods, as it reduces waste and eliminates the need for
overproduction and excess inventory.

Difference between a POD platform or building your own

eCommerce
When starting a print-on-demand business, you have two paths to consider: building
your own eCommerce website or joining a print-on-demand platform. Each has its own
benefits and drawbacks, and it’s important to understand the differences before making a
decision.

Joining a Print-On-Demand Website

A Print-on-demand website is an online platform where you can upload your designs,
create product listings, and sell to customers who browse and purchase from the
platform’s marketplace. You don’t have to make extra connections with print on demand
fulfillment companies because the marketplaces already take care of that.

Examples of popular Print-on-demand websites are Amazon and Redbubble. While you
won’t have the option for domain or shop customization, these websites already have
a large customer base of buyers coming regularly to buy, making it easier to get your
products seen.

However, competition is also higher, and royalties tend to be lower compared to a custom
eCommerce model. Overall, using a Print-on-demand website is a convenient and easy
way to start selling your products without extensive technical knowledge or set-up.

Building your own eCommerce

Building your own eCommerce store for your print-on-demand business involves
creating a store in platforms like Wix or Shopify and connecting it with a print-on-demand
fulfillment company, such as Printful, Printify, or Gooten.

These fulfillment companies act as a white-label service that takes care of the printing,
packaging, and shipping once a customer places an order on your eCommerce store.

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With your own eCommerce store, you have the advantage of having your own custom
domain and more control over your products and royalties. However, keep in mind that
your eCommerce store is not a marketplace where customers go to buy products, so you’ll
need to put in effort to direct traffic to your store.

Products you can sell

The range of products you can sell in print on demand is huge and varies depending on
the pod website or platform you decide to join or use. Some platforms specialize in certain
products, while others offer a wider range of options.

Here is a short list of the type of products you can sell:

Clothing: You can sell t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, tank tops, leggings, dresses, skirts,
jackets, activewear and all kinds of apparel in most of the POD platforms. Popular in
platforms like Amazon Merch on Demand, Printful, Printify, Gooten, Teespring, Threadless
and Redbubble.

Accessories: There is a range of accessories to sell including tote bags, backpacks, phone
cases, laptop sleeves, socks, hats, beanies, scarves, jewelry, pins, keychains, magnets and
even face masks. Teelaunch, CustomCat, Printful, Gooten, Printify, Society6 and Redbubble
have a variety of accessory options.

Home Decor: There are many different types of home decor you can sell on PODs like
posters, canvas prints, framed prints, tapestries, throw pillows, duvet covers, shower
curtains, rugs, wall clocks, tablecloths and more. Favorite home decor PODs are Society6,
Redbubble, Fine Art America, CafePress and Zazzle.

Stationery: You can sell according to seasons or special dates products like greeting cards,
stickers, notepads, calendars, bookmarks and postcards in platforms like Zazzle, Society6,
Redbubble, Etsy and Printful.

Low Content Books: One of merchers favorites is selling low content books like planners,
coloring books, journals, bookmarks, cook books, activity books and even notebooks on
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Redbubble or Etsy.

Pet Products: Some PODs allow you to sell pet products like dog or cat beds, bandanas,
pet id tags, pet mats, pet blankets and even pet bowls. Printful, Gooten, Zazzle, Redbubble,
Printedmint and CustomCat are the pod platforms that give this option.

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Top 3 Main Steps to sell merch
If you’re interested in selling merch online, there are three crucial elements you need to
consider. These elements include having a store, conducting proper keyword research,
and creating unique designs that resonate with your audience. In this guide, we will take a
deep dive into each of these elements and provide you with actionable steps that will help
you sell your merch successfully.

1. Having a store is essential to selling merchandise online. In the guide, we will show
you how to pick the right one, a list of options and also will cover how to create a store
on popular print-on-demand platforms such as Amazon Merch on Demand and
Redbubble. We will also discuss how to optimize your store for maximum visibility and
sales.
2. Conducting keyword research and selecting a niche is crucial for success in the
crowded world of online merch. Our guide will delve into different methods for
conducting keyword research and provide tips for finding profitable niches to target.
3. Having unique and appealing designs is key to standing out in the competitive merch
market. We will explore various design strategies and tools to create fast and easy
selling designs, and also provide tips for creating high-quality designs that resonate
with your target audience.

By mastering these three components, you will be well on your way to building a
successful online merch business.

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CHAPTER 02
Having a store:
Picking a POD platform or eCommerce

PROS and CONS of joining a POD Platform

PROS of Print-On-Demand Sites

Low startup costs. Joining a print on demand platform is relatively a low-risk investment
as there are little to no start-up costs involved. Unlike building your own ecommerce store
which requires investment in hosting, domain, web design, and marketing. This means
that you can start selling your merch with little to no capital investment, making it a great
option for those who are just starting out or on a tight budget.

The harder part of the work is done for you. From the printing to the shipping to the
dreadful customer support, the hard work is all done by the platforms. You just focus on
doing amazing designs and collect your royalties.

Built-in traffic and audience. Don’t worry about driving traffic anywhere, as you will rely on
the platform’s client base and popularity. It’s worth noting that each platforms’ audience
has its own preferences in design style and it’s essential to make your product easily
discoverable.

CONS of Print-On-Demand Sites

Low Royalties. Having all the hard work done for you comes at a price, and POD platforms
pay out about 10-20% of a product royalties.

Bad analytics. You have zero idea of who your customers are, and dismiss the idea about
creating a mailing list or source any shred of useful information that allows you more
power over your sales and customers.

Your products, their rules. If Amazon decides to change royalties or what contents they
allow, you will have no other option but to abide by that. If they decide your design is
making an infringement, your account might get terminated with no previous notice, and
there’s no going back from that.

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PROS and CONS of building your own eCommerce
PROS of building your own eCommerce

More control. You have complete control over your store, from the design to the products
you sell. You can create a unique shopping experience that reflects your brand and vision.

Higher profits. You have the ability to set your own prices and keep all of the profits. You
don’t have to share a percentage of your sales with a POD platform.

Flexibility. You have the ability to experiment with different products and designs, without
any limitations or restrictions set by a POD platform.

CONS of building your own eCommerce

More responsibility. You are responsible for all aspects of your store, including making
the connection with a print-on-demand fulfillment site and customer support. This can be
time-consuming and require a lot of effort.

Higher costs. Building and maintaining an ecommerce store can be expensive, especially
if you need to hire developers, designers, and marketers to help you.

Less traffic. Without the built-in traffic of a POD platform, you need to drive traffic to your
store through marketing and advertising efforts. This can be a challenge, especially if
you’re just starting out and don’t have a large following.

How to choose the right POD platform

A big part of succeeding in the Merch industry is knowing what to sell and where to sell it.
There are some criteria to decide which one is the best according to your possibilities and
expectations.

Let’s go over some of the options and see if you find the best one for you:

For beginners

Print-on-demand novices are usually looking for a platform that has a low learning curve,
easy to upload products, and is easy to generate royalties.

While most print-on-demand platforms are pretty accessible, some require a high level of
design in order to have winning products, whereas other platforms are easier to design for.
Such is the case of Amazon Merch on Demand, where designs are more keyword-driven
than anything. Or Redbubble that offers many product options to pick from.

You still need to make an effort to make a good design, as it will always help get attention
on your products and close sales.

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But if you’re just starting out it might be a good idea to join a pod platform with easier
chances to sell.

For experts

Seasoned sellers who are looking to diversify and get more income streams may do well in
taking a look at platforms that specialize in certain types of products.

Even though they do feature a section dedicated to apparel and accessories, Society6 is
a marketplace mostly focused on home decor and unique artwork, and it may just be a
platform to hop onto if you haven’t already.

Casetify is a marketplace that specializes in phone cases and mobile accessories. Most
of their products are geared towards iPhone users, so you are expected to meet a certain
design style benchmark.

For traffic

The best POD platform in terms of traffic is undoubtedly Amazon Merch on Demand, with
Etsy a strong top-tier marketplace in terms of traffic. You can check out the traffic in
different marketplaces in tools like similarweb.com.

Traffic is a good reason to choose a POD platform because it indicates how many
potential customers you can reach with your products. A platform with high traffic means
there are more people visiting and browsing products, which increases the likelihood of
your products being seen and purchased.

It’s worth noting that traffic, while being a good indicator of how many potential customers
you can reach, does not necessarily mean that you will sell more since factors such as
design style can be more suited for platforms with less traffic but more specialized.

For customization

At the time of uploading a design, some platforms are more flexible than others.

Such is the case of Redbubble, where during the design upload process you are able to
edit and move around your artwork to fit different products as best as possible.

Spreadshirt’s design upload process follows a similar philosophy, giving you ample tools
and possibilities to make one design work best in a variety of products.

Printful’s Design Maker feature also gives you design flexibility; in this case, you’d need to
be running an eCommerce website.

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For type of product

Despite being the most popular print-on-demand platform, Amazon Merch on Demand
is the platform that offers the least amount of products, focusing on t-shirts, hoodies, and
overall upper-body apparel, and only a handful of accessories, including phone cases,
throw pillows, tote bags, and PopSockets.

In this regard, marketplaces like Etsy, Displate, Society6, and Redbubble offer dozens of
different products to choose from.

Having a business based around mugs is different than running a poster store, and your
design prowess could prove to sell more when used on home decor than on t-shirts.

When considering starting a print-on-demand business ask yourself: what product would I
love to sell? What kind of design am I good at? These are helpful questions in the journey to
Merch success.

For buyer profile

Study and analyze your target market. This doesn’t have to take long days or hours of
thinking, it’s more like applying common sense to the question: what am I selling and to
who?

Let’s take a look at Etsy. After doing a little research, we found that the typical Etsy
customers are females between the ages of 18–35, who make up about 80% of Etsy
buyers. Not only that, but Etsy buyers are more interested in unique, handmade, and artsy
products, rather than standard-looking products.

Displate and Society6 are great marketplaces to sell to people into home decor and
art. Teepublic and Teespring are great for people looking for cool stylish apparel and
accessories.

The best design ideas are the ones that work the best for your customers, so make sure
you listen and understand what your audience wants, and then decide on the platform
where you can satisfy them best.

List of most popular POD marketplaces and fulfillment

companies
The market is huge, so there are a variety of services that can fit different needs, both for
the seller and for the final consumer as well. We set out a list of the best and most known
POD platforms:

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Threadless

Threadless has a unique model where the artist submits the design but it will be only
available for sale only if the TL community votes for it. This makes sure they always have
well-approved designs, as well as designs that sell. And they ship worldwide! They not only
have t-shirts, but also accessories like phone cases, notebooks, hats, beach towels and
more. One of the hottest platforms for talented artists.

Highlights
• Artists can have their own shop
• Original designs by extremely talented artists
• Worldwide shipping

Teespring

At Teespring you can submit your designs to print onto a number of items like tees,
hoodies, posters, mugs, pillows and more. Teespring is 100% free to use for artists and
illustrators. They charge a flat base price per product—you set the selling price and you
keep 100% of the profit. That’s a huge deal!

Highlights
• Good customer base
• Easier to get accepted than to Threadless
• Variety of merch to sell
• Artists get more royalties than other services like Amazon

Redbubble

Redbubble has lots of products and an even greater diversity of artists that caters a rather
large consumer base. They provide the merchers with plenty of tools to make the most out
of their Redbubble store.

Highlights
• Lots of products to sell
• High-quality designs and artists
• No upfront costs

Zazzle

Built for more massive sales than quality graphics, Zazzle lets you create over 1300+ items
and then further customize them, meaning that you as a seller have tons of objects to
display your art on. It’s also one of the bigger platforms with over 30 million visits per
month.

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Highlights
• Hundreds of products to sell, not just t-shirts
• Tons of traffic
• You can become an associate by driving traffic from your site to Zazzle and get even
more earnings

Teefury

Teefury is focused on the artists, allowing them to have an outlet to make money with
their art, and allowing them to keep the rights too. Every day they put 1-2 t-shirt designs at
around $12 so people are always walking in and seeing what’s new. One day it might be
you! What you can print at Teefury: graphic t-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, posters, as well as
limited edition pins, sweatshirts, holiday tees and sweaters – and much more.

Highlights
• Tons of pop culture referred-design
• Everyday they offer one shirt at a ridiculously low price. If it gets to be yours, you may
get lots of sales from there!
• One of the top most popular and best quality services out there

Amazon Merch on Demand

Amazon Merch on Demand is the king of PODs. Starting out in 2015, it began out as a free,
open-admission program for people and brands looking to sell t-shirts and to automate
the whole logistics into one streamlined process. It caters marketers and t-shirt sellers best
rather than artists, who may find a better audience in a non-keyword-ruled platform like
Threadless or Teespring.

Highlights
• Your products are sold in one of the largest marketplaces in the world
• Low-to-zero upfront costs
• Centered in sellers instead of artists
• Prime eligibility

Society6

Society6 has international reach, and they’re mainly focused on Art prints and home
decor, with lots of products to print on. You can set your pricing only for art prints, framed
art prints, and stretched canvases. The rest of the products have default royalties set for
the artists and can’t be modified.

Highlights
• Wide variety of products, from wall art and home decor to apparel and accessories
• No upfront costs
• Really easy to use platform

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Etsy

Etsy is an online marketplace that specializes in handmade, vintage, and unique items.
It’s a popular platform for selling print-on-demand products, including art prints, t-shirts,
mugs, and more. It’s a platform really easy to use and with tools that can help sellers get
their products in front of the right audience.

Highlights
• Large audience
• Etsy provides sellers with tools and resources to create their own shop, list products,
and manage orders.
• Has built-in marketing tools, including SEO optimization and social media integration

Printful

Printful has been around for ages, and it’s a platform that works best for entrepreneurs.
Sellers use Printful by connecting it to a selling platform or website, and when they receive
an order through their store, the guys at Printful receive it, print it, ship it, the whole deal.
Plus, they have lots of different products to sell, not only apparel, so get creative!

Highlights
• You can make the most out of your ecommerce store by fully customizing it without
tampering with your logistics.
• High quality products and dropshipping.

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CHAPTER 03
Complete Guide:
How To Sell on Amazon Merch on
Demand (previously known as Merch by Amazon)

Amazon Merch on Demand Context

What is Amazon Merch on Demand ?
Amazon Merch on Demand is a print-on-demand program launched by Amazon in 2015
that anyone can apply to sell their branded merch. Once approved, users can start selling
t-shirts and other products like hoodies, phone cases, PopSockets, tote bags, and throw
pillows, by submitting designs and using Amazon’s marketplace, on-demand printing
services, and fulfillment capacities to serve customers in multiple countries, earning
royalties per every purchase.

Why is Amazon Merch on Demand a good print-on-demand platform?

Zero inventory. As with any print-on-demand platform, having zero inventory is one of the
most attractive features, meaning anyone can start a t-shirt business without worrying
about storage, fulfillment, and attending customer support.

It uses Amazon’s marketplace, serving your products to millions of customers. Is one of

the largest and most powerful search engines out there, and having the biggest volume
of visitors to the platform on a daily basis. This means that you don’t have to be all over the
place in order to promote your products.

Many Merch tools made specifically for Amazon. When it comes down to research, there
are multiple ways of finding the best keywords for niches on Amazon. Some of them can
be done manually without additional aid, but there are many online software, services, and
tools that are specifically built with Amazon.

Upload process is fast and easy. Their upload process is smooth to handle too, and every
year they launch new products and new markets to sell at, meaning you’ll always have
access to the best selling products in the most active markets.

Boost your products’ visibility with ads. After proving your worth on the platform, Amazon
will unlock the Ads functionality, allowing you to give your products even more visibility and
generate more sales. Not many platforms offer this perk for free.

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Amazon Merch on Demand Basics
Keyword-centered platform

Unlike other print-on-demand platforms that emphasize the originality and artistry of
the seller, Amazon Merch on Demand is a POD where the best-performing products are
those that are keyword-centered. While having a great design is important, in the case
of Amazon Merch on Demand it’s even more important to have a good knowledge of
keyword research and optimization. Keep in mind that Amazon is a search engine at its
core, so it only makes sense to devote your research and upload process around the best
keywords for your niche.

Amazon Merch on Demand Products

Amazon Merch on Demand has a smaller range of products when compared to other
print-on-demand platforms, but be sure these are the products that sell best, and that
every product that they release is carefully selected. To this day, the list of products on
Amazon Merch on Demand is:

Standard t-shirt
Premium t-shirt
V-neck t-shirt
Tank top
Long sleeve t-shirt
Raglan
Sweatshirt
Pullover hoodie
Zip hoodie
Pop Sockets grip
iPhone cases
Samsung cases
Tote bag
Throw pillows

Among these products, Standard t-shirts are the flagship item that shows the best sales.
Other popular products are hoodies, and accessories like phone cases and tote bags are
making a splash in recent times.

What is BSR (Best Sellers Rank)

BSR stands for “Best Sellers Rank” and, you guessed it, it represents the selling score
Amazon assigns to products based on historical sales data.

The smaller the number, the higher it is in the ranking, and the better it sells. For example, a
#10 product is selling much better than a #100,000 product.

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Since many products sell across different categories, one product may have a different
BSR number depending on the category you’re checking.

How is BSR used with Amazon Merch on Demand?

The BSR number helps you figure out which products are making sales, and use them as a
reference for design or keyword research.

In a contested niche, it will help you figure out which are the winning products. If you walk
into a certain niche and don’t find small BSR numbers, then you’re in a low competition
niche and it’s time to create.

Most keyword research tools crawl through BSR numbers to find the ones ranking the best,
so keep that in mind.

What are Amazon Merch on Demand tiers?

To provide the best experience for customers, and to keep sellers under control, Amazon
Merch on Demand limits the number of designs that sellers can publish and keep live at
any given time using a Tier system.

According to Amazon Merch on Demand, to level up tiers their team hand-picks content
creators who have sold the same amount of products as the amount of tier they are in,
and level them up to the next tier. For example: if you are on Tier 100 and have sold 100
products, you’re likely to level up to Tier 500 soon.

It’s important to keep in mind that leveling up is based not only on sales, but also in the
quality of the products the seller has.

Amazon Merch on Demand Tiers are:

Tier 10 = 10 Designs
Tier 25 = 25 Designs
Tier 100 = 100 designs
Tier 500 = 500 designs
Tier 1,000 = 1,000 designs
Tier 2,000 = 2,000 designs
Tier 4,000 = 4,000 designs
Tier 8,000 = 8,000 designs
Tier 10,000 = 10,000 designs

Tiers go up to Tier 100,000, and there’s living proof that sellers have achieved this feat, so
stay productive!

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Competition in Amazon Merch on Demand

Amazon Merch on Demand is the most popular print-on-demand platform, and that
means that there’s a lot of people fighting for relevance and hot niches.
Many sellers don’t realize this soon enough and oftentimes fall into discouragement, which
is completely preventable.

So to compete healthily, we recommend you to stay away from the most contested and
popular niches at first, and try your research into niche topics, hobbies, or interests you are
very much into and are knowledgeable about, and create custom product designs based
on that research.

How to Apply to Amazon Merch on Demand

In order to prevent any kind of exploits, the Amazon Merch on Demand program is an
invite-only platform, to which anyone can apply to after filling up a form. Applications are
manually reviewed, which helps them make sure that only serious sellers and designers go
through.

To apply to an Amazon Merch on Demand account, there’s a series of steps and

requirements that can help you come across as a competent and profitable seller if filled
properly.

That’s why we resumed a quick list of the main steps:

Step 1 - Head over to Amazon Merch on Demand landing page and click on Sign Up

You’ll be led to a Terms page where you must read and accept the terms in order to
proceed. These terms are a meticulous description of the program, how it works, and how
you can use it. We recommend you take a few minutes to read it, it’s well worth it!

Step 2 - Get your business information ready

Gather all the relevant information about your business so you can get through the
application process faster.

• Business or Personal contact information – phone, email.

• Bank account and routing numbers. In case you’re located outside the US, there are
services like Payoneer that grant you an international bank account that you can
submit to Amazon Merch on Demand for payment purposes. We advise you to do your
research on the best service that fits your needs.
• Social security number or other tax identification number that applies to your country
of residence.

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Step 3 - Fill in your Account information

This is where you’ll be using the information gathered earlier. If you don’t have a business
name, it’s a good time to come up with a fantasy name that gives the impression of a
serious, dedicated Merch project.

Step 4 - Fill in the invitation request form

You’ll be asked to complete the following:

• Industry Type – In case you’re an individual you can select ‘novelty t-shirt business’
• Organization name – You can use the name of a business or project you own as well as
your own name.
• Additional Information: As we mentioned earlier, your application is reviewed by actual
people, and this is THE step where you tell Amazon how valuable your participation
can be to the program. This is where you’ll describe your merch project, your
experience, and your goals with the program. More importantly, you’ll have to show
them you are prepared to bring money to Amazon.

To increase your chances to the max, you’ll want to give the impression that your project
is at least somewhat established, even going as far as to create a basic logo and digital
presence such as a blog or social channel.

Providing examples of designs you’ve created is another excellent way of proving you’re
serious about enrolling in the program. Creating a few designs upfront and uploading
them to a blog, a social media platform, or even another POD platform can make you look
like a viable prospect.

Step 5 - Submit

After double-checking everything, submit your form and wait for Amazon to get back to
you.

This process may take weeks or even months; the better your presentation is, the faster it
will be for Amazon’s staff to pick you before others.

How to upload designs to Amazon Merch on Demand

Uploading designs to Amazon Merch on Demand is easy. The whole process is very
straightforward and only demands you to have the right file size: 4500x5400px for t-shirts
and most products, and 4500x4050px for Hoodies. Make sure your artwork file is no larger
than 25MB. If you are using Photoshop, you can choose “Smallest File Size” in the PNG
Format Options dialog to help reduce the final artwork file size.

First, you must select the products you wish to upload designs to. Make sure you select
equal or fewer products than the daily upload limit, defined by your Tier level.

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Once your design is loaded, select the colors that your product should feature, and the
royalties you expect from your selected products.

Product listings are the key section where you should add all the relevant keywords and
terms, without spamming them too much. We strongly recommend you to check out
Amazon Merch on Demand’s Content policies, as well as their Guide to Merch Product
Quality to keep your account on the safe side.

How to promote your products

Relying on organic searches might be the only way to get sales at first, but even then,
there are a few ways to promote your Merch products onto broader audiences that are
within reach.

ADS

You can harness the power of ads once you become eligible for this feature. This is
granted by Amazon, and while there doesn’t seem to be a clear indication of how to get
accepted into the ads program, they notify you via email.

That being said, once you get access to Ads, you can start pushing your products even
more. They will appear in Amazon’s search results as Sponsored products at the top of the
results, seamlessly mixed with regular search results.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to bring your products to a wider audience. This is especially
true if you already lead a sizable community on a specific niche. In fact, many sellers
create communities around a specific topic just to make it easier to promote their t-shirts.
Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are the best platforms to do this, and they all have
different ways to go about it, so try it out!

How to grow your Amazon business

Growing your Amazon Merch on Demand business is simple with some useful tweaks and
tricks, but it requires time and work to make it happen.

Make the sales begin

The very first way of growing your business on Amazon Merch on Demand is by purchasing
your own products yourself or getting friends and family to buy them from you. This is
the best way to start out your Merch journey since all it matters to Amazon is that your
products start getting traction. Don’t leave 5-star reviews with your own account, just
let that be the work of other people who buy from you. This is also the best way to tier up
when you just get started.

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Fill up the product slots

Once you have some wind under the wings, focus on filling up your product slots as much
as possible, since the Tier system pairs up with how many products you have published.
Plus, the more products you have available, the higher your chances of getting sales are,
given they aren’t just cheap or poorly designed. To fill up your product slots, find ways to
scale your t-shirt designs as much as possible, for example, creating variations based
on tweaking text, design, or color details. Our T-shirt Maker and PSD t-shirt templates are
excellent options for this.

Ads and Trends

Using ads is obviously another good way to boost your products in relevant listings. In
terms of content creation, hitting on trends is one of the best ways to get sales, yet this
highly depends on your proficiency to spot rising trends and executing design that’s
relevant and attractive to the audience.

There are also some special tools that could help you scale up in Amazon Merch on
Demand through a good keyword and niche research, you can learn more about them in
the next section.

How to do keywords and niche research for Amazon Merch

on Demand
There’s a handful of online research tools for Merch that provide tons of insights and data
to help you find ideas for winning designs, but for the most part, you can research ideas
that sell for free.

Let’s have a look at some of them:

Productor for Merch by Amazon

Arguably the most basic way of finding winning products on Amazon is by looking at their
BSR number.

While manually going through various products checking if their BSR is viable, Productor for
Merch by Amazon is a sturdy and free extension that simplifies the process of sorting BSR
right on the product listing’s first page.

Just input a search term for the niche you want to do research on, and after all products
are loaded, look for the BSR button above the search results and click it to sort products
from lowest BSR to highest.

Productor also details all the keywords used, so you can take further inspiration from it.

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Outside of sourcing BSR numbers, there are plenty of other methods to research for t-shirt
design ideas.

DS Amazon Quick View

DS Amazon Quick View is a powerful browser extension designed to streamline your

keyword research process on Amazon. It lets you access Amazon rankings and seller
information directly from the search results, allowing you to see the different categories
and keywords used on the product. Additionally, by hovering over a product image, you
can quickly view full product details without having to navigate to the product page.

This valuable tool saves you time and effort by providing crucial insights at a glance,
helping you make informed decisions when selecting the most relevant keywords for your
listings.

Pretty Merch

PrettyMerch is an extension toolkit for Amazon Merch on Demand sellers. It offers a

beautiful dashboard with real-time notifications, detailed analytics, and a powerful
Product Manager. With features like the Trademark Search Tool and Research Tool, you can
stay safe and discover trending designs.

Just Google it

Google is one of the best sources to find keywords and niches. Just start searching for a
big niche and click on the “people also ask” or “other searches’ ‘ until you get to one you
feel confident about.

You can even use Wikipedia for keyword search, which is a very unusual and yet effective
way to find your niche on Amazon. For instance, by looking at a list of Hobbies and then
searching by categories, like Indoor Hobbies or Collection Hobbies. This will lead you to the
list of spheres that belong to a certain category. Pick the spheres that suit your product
well and list these spheres as niches in your product description. For instance, if you sell
your designs on fashion items, you can list User Experience Design as one of your niches,
showing that you’re ready to work with your customers to create personalized designs.

Google Trends helps you find and compare trends easily, giving you a graphic
representation of how a trend performs in time, or in comparison to another. When it
comes to spotting a trend before it peaks, Google Trends’ visual graph is just what you
need. Although it features a “Recently trending” section, we recommend you use Google
Trends more to confirm trends rather than to discover them.

For a more in-depth keyword search, you can apply tools like Google Ads, which is an
online advertising platform designed by Google.

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The Google Ads Keyword can show you what’s trending on the web right now and which
keywords are looked up frequently while also letting you search keywords related to your
niche. This will give you major clues on how to find your niche on Amazon.

Keywords Extensions & Tools

Similar to trend searching tools, keyword extensions like Keywords Everywhere and
Keyword Surfer are excellent ways to find and explore keywords that either are trending or
could become a trend, when you make a search on google or even Youtube, the extension
will provide at the side a list of all the other related keywords people searched for.

By providing data on the popularity of the keywords you submit, as well as giving
suggestions that further expand ideas based on your queries, keyword extensions are
simple to use and can be exploited to find or confirm trends that you can create designs
for.

Investing in some paid Merch tools can be highly beneficial to your POD business. Tools
such as Merch Informer, Merch Report, Merch Dominator and Merch Data.io provide
you with advanced features to conduct research, optimize your listings, and analyze the
competition.

Vexels Merch Digest

Every month we send out a Strategy-packed Merch guide to all our Merch subscribers to
help them make the most out of their activities. It features tips, hacks, design spotlights,
future trends, list of niches, and actionable ideas based on research, data and current
design and apparel trends. It’s packed with ideas that are relevant for anyone interested
in becoming a better print-on-demand seller.

Vexels Quote Generator

If you are struggling with writer’s block or spending too much time researching keywords,
niches, and quotes for your products our Quote Generator can also be of great help. With
this tool, you can easily browse through niches, discover catchy and unique quotes, and
find inspiration for sub-niches. Simply jot down the main keywords, quotes, and ideas and
use them directly in your products or next designs, streamlining the design process and
saving you time and effort.

Social Media

Social networks are the quintessential source of information about trends. Day in and day
out our timelines are bombarded with the latest, whether they’re products, news, events, or
anything in between.

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To find trends in social media all it takes is to be alert at what’s going on in the
communities or niches you are most interested in and use comments and posts as
inspiration to create new designs. Every platform has its own take on content, but it’s up to
you to decide which one works best for you.

There are also lots of groups you can join to learn more and be updated like Merch
Momentum and Amazon Merch on Demand Mastermind on Facebook.

Following hashtags is a way to stay up to date with content that’s relevant to you, and
it could prove a viable way to find trends too. Having access to the latest content that’s
curated for you (allegedly) is an automatic way of getting trend design inspiration
delivered to your devices. Twitter and Instagram are the usual suspects, but TikTok also
makes big use of hashtags to deliver personalized content.

Blogs and Reddit

Blog writers are always looking to create content featuring the latest, and this is especially
true when it comes to gaming blogs and tech-related blogs. If you’re a die-hard blog
reader, you’ll appreciate the quality of information you can get, and the inspiration you
can draw from a single blog post. Our own blog features a blog post about t-shirt trends,
and you can be sure that many design and fashion blogs also feature their own trends
posts in one way or another.

Reddit differs from regular social media outlets in that it’s more about specialized
communities rather than social networking. That being said, Reddit is one of the best
places to find trends that you can turn into t-shirt designs.

We recommend you join Reddit if you haven’t already and start following subreddits
relevant to your interests, just make sure they’re active communities, as some have fallen
off across time. Once you’re in, just browse through the different subreddits and stay alert
at things that you can turn into designs. There are plenty of new subreddits you might
want to check also, even if you’re not too interested in the content overall.

There’s even a subreddit called /r/AmazonMerch where you will find valuable discussions.

Following Trends

Obvious, but not to be underestimated, keeping an ear and/or an eye out for news is
another great and reliable way to spot trends as soon as they appear. From social issues
to hilarious characters making their way into the mainstream, the news is definitely a
source of inspiration for trendy content at any point throughout the year. When creating
trendy products based on the news, be sure to stay as safe as possible with your content,
as most print-on-demand companies’ policies strongly advise against profiting from a
catastrophe or disaster of any kind. Even if your intentions are showing support, try to stay
away from creating merch out of tragic events.

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Speaking of events, special events can easily inspire new original ideas, as long as you’re
not doing anything using the name of the event or anything that’s infringing on copyright
or intellectual property. Events like the Area 51 raid back in 2019 or solar eclipses are perfect
examples of how events can bring loads of ideas to mind.

Sometimes all it takes is a rumor to kick off ideas that become trendy. One example
could be crypto designs, which started being produced somewhat slowly but in time they
managed to become a category on their own. Not everything that’s a rumor is viable for a
design that sells, so make sure you train your design criteria and research skills to become
a good trend hunter and avoid wasting time.

As you can see there are several free and paid methods to conduct keywords and niche
research for Amazon Merch on Demand Combining these methods can help you identify
profitable niches and create successful designs for your print-on-demand business on
Amazon Merch on Demand, give it a try because ideas are everywhere.

How to get licensed designs to sell

Many sellers don’t come from a design or artistic background and find themselves
struggling to make good products to sell. For this kind of seller, finding licensed designs
for Amazon Merch on Demand is the safest and easiest way to acquire design power and
elevate the quality of their portfolio.

Vexels is a merch design platform that specializes in print-ready designs, editable design
templates and online design tools that allow users create custom t-shirts or any product
designs, while also helping them in all the steps to start selling merch online.

In the case of Amazon Merch on Demand, arguably the best way to get designs for print-
on-demand is to use PSD t-shirt templates as well as the Online T-shirt Maker. Which both
allow creating original t-shirt designs quickly and with the highest quality.

Our templates contain customizable texts, images, elements, and effects, offering more
robust editing options and complex artwork. These templates foster scalability, allowing
sellers to create multiple products and design collections with just one file.

While the T-Shirt Maker lets users create designs using dozens of thousands of transparent
PNGs combined with figures and creative fonts. As well as premade templates that can be
fully edited, including texts, fonts, elements, and colors.

Another option is to download print-ready designs from the platform. Sellers can
download designs specifically created to perfectly fit each product, but they can also
select a design they love and effortlessly apply it to any product of their choice. To make
your products more unique and avoid potential rejection for duplicated content, it’s highly
recommended to make slight edits to the print-ready designs. With the help of editing
tools or the maker tool, you can customize and transform any design, bringing your own
creative touch and ensuring that your products stand out and reflect your unique style.

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If you have a truly unique and original idea that hasn’t been discovered within the platform
or existing tools, you have the option to ask one of the team’s skilled and professional
designers to create a custom design that perfectly aligns with your needs.

Users can create designs from scratch with a combination of high quality PNG designs
and a cool lettering quote. And if you need ideas for coming up with quotes, you can
access the First Merch Quote Generator we have built for our users. You just pick or type in
the niche you want, select mood and length and get all the inspiration you need.

Finally to showcase your designs in Amazon Merch on Demand, it’s important to use the
provided mockups by the platform. However, if you’re creating ads, social media posts,
blogs, or other communication channels, using a tool like the Online Mockup Generator
can be incredibly helpful. It allows you to display your designs in high-quality mockups,
enhancing their visual appeal and capturing attention.

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CHAPTER 04
Complete Guide:
How To Sell on Redbubble

Redbubble Context
What is Redbubble?
Redbubble is an online marketplace and print-on-demand platform that allows indepen-
dent artists, designers, and creators to sell their artwork and designs on a wide range of
products. It offers a diverse selection of items such as apparel, home decor, stationery, ac-
cessories, and more. With Redbubble, artists can upload their designs, set their own prices,
and earn royalties for each sale made. They provide the artists with plenty of tools to make
the most out of their Redbubble store.

Why is Redbubble a good print-on-demand platform?

Zero inventory. As with any print-on-demand platform, having zero inventory is one of the
most attractive features, meaning anyone can start a t-shirt business without worrying
about storage, fulfillment, and attending customer support.

Large selection of products to sell, it offers one of the largest varieties of items available
for sale, much more than Amazon Merch on Demand. This diverse selection allows sellers
to cater to different customer preferences and target various niche markets maximizing
their options and earning potential.

Low entry barriers, unlike Amazon Merch on Demand or other POD platforms that have
a strongest application process or limited access, Redbubble welcomes creators easily.
Whether you’re an established artist or just starting out, you can easily set up an account
and start selling your designs on Redbubble.

Huge organic traffic, similar to Amazon Merch on Demand, Redbubble also attracts a vast
amount of organic traffic. With millions of monthly visitors, Redbubble provides a thriving
marketplace where sellers can showcase and sell their designs to a large audience. By
tapping into its substantial organic reach, sellers have the opportunity to reach a wider
customer base.

Your own custom store, Redbubble allows sellers to have their own customized store-
front, tailored to their unique brand and style. This feature provides sellers with the ability
to create a personalized online presence that reflects their creative vision and enhances
their product appeal. By customizing their storefront, sellers can showcase their artwork,
designs, and products in a way that resonates with their target audience.

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Upload process is fast and easy. Redbubble offers a seamless and user-friendly
experience when it comes to uploading products, making it incredibly easy for sellers to
showcase their designs. Sellers can efficiently manage their inventory, make updates to
their designs, and launch new products with just a few clicks.

Global Reach. Provides sellers with a global marketplace, reaching customers from
around the world. The platform supports multiple currencies and offers international
shipping options, allowing sellers to tap into a diverse customer base and expand their
market beyond local boundaries.

Redbubble Basics
Artist-centered platform

Redbubble is a platform that allows sellers to earn money with their artwork based on the
selling price of each product. Royalties are a percentage between 10-30% of the selling
price, and it’s set by the seller for each product uploaded. This way, different products may
have different royalty rates, which can be relevant if a seller is running some kind of pricing
strategy. This way Redbubble helps buyers find items that they love, and sellers reap
royalties from their uploaded artwork, without additional fees.

Redbubble’s mission is to empower artists to make money with their artwork, so it’s safe
to assume that Redbubble’s products are more geared towards creative, artistic content,
originally created by artists.

This doesn’t mean that you are required to be an artist to sell on Redbubble, it only means
that you should consider producing designs that match or exceed an artistic and quality
benchmark if you want to meet buyers’ expectations.

Redbubble Products

Redbubble offers many more products than Amazon Merch on Demand, which can
make it a more viable business opportunity for you; such is the case if your art fits better
products outside t-shirts, like mugs.

Here’s a comprehensive list of products to sell on Redbubble:

Standard T-shirts
Caps
Chiffon Tops
T-shirt Dresses
Graphic T-shirts
A-line Dresses
Stickers & Magnets
Phone Cases & Skins

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Desk Mats
Mouse Pads
Pillows
Totes
Prints, Cards & Posters
Pouches, Laptop Skins & Sleeves
Duvets, Comforters & Shower Curtains
Mugs
Travel Mugs
Mini Skirts
Scarves
Tablet Cases & Skins
Drawstrings Bags
Spiral Notebooks
Hardcover Journals
Clocks
Art Board Prints
Acrylic Blocks & Coasters
Throw Blankets & Tapestries
Bath Mats
Water Bottles
Wood & Canvas-mounted Prints
Cotton Tote Bags
Pin Buttons
Masks
Aprons
Jigsaw Puzzles
Sleeveless Tops
Floor Pillows
Phone Wallets
Leggings
Socks
Backpacks
Duffle Bags
Fitted Masks

Among these products, t-shirts and stickers are some of the best-selling products, but
other items like mugs, posters, and phone cases are extremely popular as well.

How is Redbubble pricing?

Sellers earn royalties per each item sold, and these royalties are a custom percentage you
can set yourself.

Depending on your strategy, the earnings margin is usually between 10% to 30% of the
purchase price.

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For example, if you’re using a low pricing strategy, products with a lower margin are
expected to yield small earnings at first, but at the same time it makes your product more
accessible, easier to buy, and ultimately can generate multiple sales. On the other hand, a
higher pricing approach could make your product appear to be more valuable, thus, more
desired.

In general, consider that for a $22 t-shirt, you could earn easily between $3 to $5
depending on your strat.

How to upload designs to Redbubble

Step 1 - Make sure your design file is in the right format

Go to the Redbubble Selling Page and make sure that your design matches the product
you’re interested in selling as best as possible.

To ensure the best printing quality in each of their products, Redbubble features an
extensive list of the appropriate design dimensions you can check out on their website.
Here are a few of the most important for reference:

Men’s Graphic T-Shirts

• 3873×4814 px
Phone Cases & Skins
• 1187×1852 px – This covers the printable area, however, you can resize larger images to
fit.
Mugs
• 2700×1120 px for Standard Mug

In case you’re having a hard time creating designs, Redbubble offers a folder complete
with design templates for most of their products.

That being said, as a general rule, Redbubble recommends high-resolution JPEG, PNG, or
GIF files, with a minimum resolution of 1000 px, but we strongly recommend you to always
work in PNG format for all print-on-demand design purposes, as it’s the safest to work with
and the format that delivers the most quality.

Step 2 - Head to your Profile menu and click on Add New Work

With your artwork ready, click on your Profile pic button and click on “Add New Work”.

On the following page, you’ll have two options for creating products, but since we’re just
getting started, let’s pick the option “Upload new work”, where we’ll pick the design we want
to create products with.

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Step 3 - Describe your product

After the design is loaded you’ll be ready to complete the Title, Tags, and Description of
your product.

Much like in other keyword-centered marketplaces like Amazon, make sure your Title
features the main keywords relevant to your buyer or niche, which will make it much easier
to find.

Complete the Tags and Description section with main and secondary keywords as well.

When uploading artwork, Redbubble automatically applies said artwork to all their
products, but you can manually select which ones you want to sell.

This is important when writing a description since the more specific your product is, the
more detailed its text should be. For example, if you’re only focusing on T-shirts, then you’d
like to say something like “great for casual wear” or “comfy for everyday use”, which would
sound very odd if you were also selling clocks or bottles with the same design.

Step 4 - Select your products

Once you upload your artwork, you’ll notice that it’s immediately added to all their
products, which are over 40.

You’ll also notice that some of them are “Enabled” while others are not and that every
product has an “Edit” button as well.

Having full control over the products you can sell means that you can create a store (or
multiple stores) around a specific product where you are really good at, increasing your
chances of success.

The Edit button allows you to adjust and customize how your artwork will look on a given
product.

When publishing multiple products at once, adjusting your design to fit each product best
will be a necessary step to take.

Step 5 - Adjust your design to your chosen products

After you’re done adjusting your artwork, there are a few more simple steps to take.

First, select up to two medias that represent your design the best. Options are
Photography, Design & Illustration, Painting & Mixed Media, Drawing, and Digital Art.

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The final setting that’s required of you is to state if your products feature mature content.
We strongly recommend you stay away from this kind of content!

Step 6 - Save work

When you’re done, click Save work and you’re done!

How to create a store in Redbubble

Creating a proper Redbubble store should be a top priority if you wish to succeed on this
platform.

Unlike Amazon Merch on Demand, where having a brand isn’t required nor relevant to
the success of your products, Redbubble gives you the option to have your own digital
storefront as customized as you need.

Having a branded store greatly influences your business and product appeal, since
through branding you can better represent what your offer is about, and have an extra
point of connection between you and your customers.

Creating a Redbubble store is easy:

Step 1 - Come up with a memorable store name

Simple and catchy, easy to remember store names are the ones that work the best. Bonus
points if they represent what your store concept is about, for example, if it’s a pet gift shop
or a shop geared towards stickers.

Step 2 - Create a branded Avatar and Cover image

Having a good-quality avatar and cover image is the best way to reassure your customers
that you care about your products and their experience. You might want to explore online
tools like logo makers (in Vexels you can find one!) and choose colors that best represent
your brand.

How to increase your Redbubble store success

Build your Brand
Beyond creating a store, building a brand is about developing a voice and a style that best
represents what your products are about.

You want to create a brand that’s both honest to you and in sync with what your target
audience likes and understands too.

A brand is more than just the logo or its colors, it’s about how it looks and how it
communicates as well.

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Take it to Social
The best brands out there actively interact with their audiences, and there are multiple
social channels where you can connect with them, mainly Instagram and Pinterest, with
TikTok being a strong contender as well. If you or your audience is more into Facebook, by
all means, try that out as well.

Mockup your artwork

Many Redbubble sellers purchase their own products to take photos with them to use
on social media, and this is a great way to generate more buzz around your brand and
products.

If you’d like to have awesome product photos but don’t want to do them yourself, a tool
like a Mockup Generator (see ours at Vexels) provides you with hundreds of high-quality
photos that you can use to create striking product photos online, uploading your artwork
and adjusting it on the mockup to make it fit. After you’re satisfied with how the artwork
looks on a model or product, download the mockup and start rolling it on your channels.

Develop a community
Developing a community is the best way to get your products closer to people that
are willing to buy them. Communities are built around a strong sense of belonging and
community, so groups about hobbies, niches, and interests are the better ones to consider.

Developing a community takes time and effort, but if you’re really working on succeeding
on your Redbubble store, you’ll definitely want to take this tip to heart.

Do giveaways
Everyone loves giveaways, and for a Redbubble store, this can serve as a great
engagement tactic for your community. The concept is really simple, just purchase a few
of your products and run a giveaway! Consider it a small investment when building a store
that’s meant to last.

How to do get licensed designs to sell

Being a Print-on-demand platform where great quality artwork is preferred by buyers,
creating designs for Redbubble might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be
that way.

For sellers and creators with no expertise in design who are looking to create original
custom tees, Vexels T-shirt Maker is the perfect tool for the job. Creating custom designs
is easy, using dozens of thousands of transparent PNGs to create compositions, or using
design templates that can be fully edited, including texts, fonts, elements, and colors.

All of the T-shirt Maker contents are created by Vexels’ Art team, and both graphics and
templates are being updated on a daily basis in order to constantly offer originality to
sellers and other creators.

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The T-shirt Maker also allows sellers to upload their own custom artwork to further edit
online, you can upload your own design and add a few lettering or elements, or upload
Vexels PNGs and premade designs and give them their final touch .

Another excellent tool that enables sellers to create original artwork is PSD design
templates, containing customizable texts, images, elements, and effects, offering more
robust editing options and complex artwork. These templates foster scalability, allowing
sellers to create multiple products and design collections with just one file.

Finally Another great tool that will help you create unique designs is our Quote Generator.
This tool delivers personalized quotes on any topic you choose, and lets you pick the length
and tone that best fits your needs, to generate a quote that perfectly aligns with your
desired outcome.

How to do niche research for Redbubble

To sell on Redbubble, as in any other POD platform, you could use two different strategies:
you can chase the latest trends or you can concentrate on a few niches at a time.

The first strategy demands a lot of effort in being updated about the latest news and
the memes of the moment. You can easily find this data on Social Networks like Twitter,
Instagram, or Reddit.

For this method, you must develop a framework that allows you to create a design and
upload it as quickly as possible. But take into account that trending topics usually fall out
as fast as they come up.

The niche-oriented strategy may be a little slower in becoming profitable but oftentimes
is more reliable. You need to find niches where you see yourself with the ability to create
original designs and quotes with a chance to be a selling hit.

In case you want to explore niche options, here are a few tools & tricks to help you with
that:

Redbubble itself

In Redbubble, every design and every product must have a description and some tags to
describe the design and features. Choosing proper tags is crucial for your audience to find
your designs and those can be used in the title, description, and tags section.

But this could also be used as reverse engineering to find the trending niches on the
marketplace. Studying other sellers’ tags to find the ones that are popular and the ones
with more or less competition could be a way to decide which niches are interesting to
expand our business with.

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redbubble.dabu.ro
This tool offers a weekly base rank with the popular tags and quantity of designs offered in
each category. An easy way to find out if there is an audience for one of your niche ideas
and check the competition at the same time.

topbubbleindex.com
A free platform to find information about Redbubble and Etsy. The Keyword research tool
can show the number of shops competing in a certain keyword or the average monthly
research on this topic. There is also a trending keywords tool with information on a daily,
weekly, and monthly basis.

insightfactory.app
While mainly geared towards Etsy, insightfactory’s app contains information about
niches on different platforms, Redbubble among them. They offer information about the
competition, countries, and potential sales for trends.

bubblescout.com
Another of the more popular tool to research the viability of a new niche is the Chrome
extension bubblescout.com, which offers information about prices, sales, and scores of
every search inside Redbubble.

Check out the tips and tricks of how to do keyword research and niche search for Amazon
Merch on Demand, some of the tips mentioned there also works for Redbubble, like
using Google, Keywords Extensions, our Merch Digest Newsletter, Social Media, our Quote
Generator, Blogs and following trends, scroll back up to check them out.

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CHAPTER 05
Keyword Research,
Niches & Trademark

How to do Keyword & Niches Research

In the last chapters containing the two complete guides on how to sell on Amazon Merch
on Demand and Redbubble, we mentioned a variety of options, tools, and techniques for
keyword and niche research and also finding trends. These tips are not exclusive to those
platforms but can be applied to other PODs or stores as well. To summarize, let’s briefly
mention them.

Social Media
Social networks are a prime hub for staying updated on trends. Our timelines constantly
overflow with the latest products, news, events, and more. To discover keywords or niche
trends on social media, all you need to do is stay attentive to the communities or niches
that interest you the most. Use comments and posts as inspiration to craft fresh designs.

Reddit
Reddit is a unique platform focused on specialized communities. It’s a great source for
finding keywords and niche trends. Join active subreddits related to your interests and
browse for inspiration. Don’t overlook news subreddits for additional insights.

Blogs
Blogs are a treasure trove of up-to-date information and inspiration, and there is a blog
for every topic or niche. As an avid blog reader, you’ll find valuable insights and creative
sparks within a single blog post. Our own blog covers merch trends, as numerous design
and fashion blogs showcase trend-focused content in their own unique ways.

Google Trends
Google Trends is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of finding and comparing
trends. It offers a visual representation of how a trend evolves over time or in comparison
to others, making it easy to identify emerging trends. While it includes a “Recently trending”
section, Google Trends is best used to validate existing trends rather than as a primary
source for discovering new ones. Its informative graphs are invaluable for tracking trends
and staying ahead of the curve.

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News
Don’t overlook the power of staying informed with the latest news as it offers valuable
insights into emerging trends, from social issues to popular characters, providing
inspiration for trendy t-shirt designs, but exercise caution and ensure your content aligns
with ethical guidelines, avoiding profiting from catastrophes or tragic events to maintain a
responsible approach.

Following Hashtags
By actively following hashtags on platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, you can
effortlessly stay informed and connected with relevant content tailored to your interests,
providing a convenient source of trend inspiration and design ideas right at your fingertips.

Keyword Extensions
Keyword extensions such as Keywords Everywhere and Keyword Surfer function similarly
to trend searching tools, offering a valuable resource for discovering and investigating
trending keywords or those with potential for becoming trends. These extensions provide
insights into keyword popularity and offer suggestions to broaden your ideas.

Wikipedia
An unconventional but effective method for niche keyword research on Amazon is
utilizing Wikipedia. By exploring specific categories such as Hobbies and narrowing down
to subcategories like Indoor Hobbies or Collection Hobbies, you can discover a range of
related spheres. Select the spheres that align with your product and incorporate them as
niches in your product description.

Google Ads
To conduct a comprehensive keyword search, utilize Google Ads, a powerful online
advertising platform. With Google Ads’ keyword search engine, you can discover industry-
related keywords and identify current trends on the web, providing valuable insights to
help you find your niche.

Vexels Merch Digest

Each month, we deliver a comprehensive Merch guide to our subscribers, packed with
strategic insights, practical tips, design inspirations, keyword lists, emerging trends, niche
recommendations, and actionable ideas derived from thorough research, data analysis,
and the latest design and apparel trends.

Vexels Quote Generator

If you’re facing writer’s block or spending excessive time on keyword research, niche
exploration, and quote hunting for your products, our Quote Generator is here to assist
you. This tool allows you to effortlessly explore various niches, uncover captivating and
distinctive quotes, and gain inspiration for sub-niches.

Google it
Google is a valuable resource for finding keywords and niches. Begin your search by
exploring popular niches and delve into related questions and alternative searches until
you discover one that resonates with your audience.

Research Tools
• Merch Informer
• Merch Report

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• Merch Data.io
• Merch Dominator
• Productor for Merch by Amazon
• redbubble.dabu.ro
• topbubbleindex.com
• insightfactory.app
• bubblescout.com
• DS Amazon Quick View
• Pretty Merch

How to check trademark

Ensuring trademark compliance is crucial in the world of print on demand to protect
yourself from potential legal issues. By checking trademarks on your designs, you can
avoid infringing on someone else’s intellectual property rights, maintain a good reputation,
and safeguard your business from costly legal disputes. It’s essential to prioritize originality
and respect copyright laws to build a successful and sustainable print-on-demand
venture

It’s important to conduct thorough research across multiple platforms and databases to
ensure comprehensive trademark checks and protect your print-on-demand business
from legal issues.

Here’s a list of platforms where you can check trademark in a quote or design:

• United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): The USPTO’s Trademark
Electronic Search System (TESS) allows you to search for registered trademarks in the
United States and assess if your design infringes upon existing trademarks.
• European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO): For print on demand businesses
targeting the European market, EUIPO offers a comprehensive trademark database
called eSearch plus. It enables you to search for registered trademarks within the
European Union.
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): WIPO’s Global Brand Database
provides access to multiple trademark databases worldwide, allowing you to search
for trademarks internationally and ensure your designs comply with global intellectual
property laws.
• Google Trademark Search: Google provides a dedicated tool called the Google
Trademark Search, which allows you to search for registered trademarks and see if any
conflicts exist with your design ideas.
• Etsy Intellectual Property Policy and Brand Registry: If you sell on Etsy, their
Intellectual Property Policy and Brand Registry are valuable resources for ensuring
compliance with trademark regulations. They provide guidance on identifying and
respecting trademarks to protect both your business and the rights of trademark
owners.

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CHAPTER 06
Making the Designs

For sellers without a design background, having high-quality designs to place on products
to sell can be a challenge. However, at the moment there are many different solutions to
come up with a design: licensed stock designs, PNG graphics, AI design tools, online design
tools, customizable templates and more!

At Vexels, we provide you with a comprehensive set of resources and tools to help you
create original and high-quality designs. Let’s explore all the options available to you:

Online T-Shirt Maker

Our T-Shirt Maker is a powerful tool that makes it effortless to create personalized designs.
With an extensive collection of pre-made design elements, templates, and customizable
features, you can easily transform your unique ideas into visually striking products in just
minutes. Whether you prefer to start from scratch using our diverse range of PNG graphics
and combine them with shapes, badges, texts, and more, or if you prefer to select a ready-
made template and customize every element, the possibilities are endless.

PSD Design Templates

Take advantage of our versatile templates that provide a wide range of customization
options for texts, images, elements, layers, and effects. Our templates offer advanced
editing capabilities and support intricate artwork, making it easier for sellers to create
multiple products and design collections using a single file. Streamline your design process
and unleash your creativity with our customizable templates that promote scalability and
efficiency.

Print-Ready Designs

We provide print-ready designs that are tailored to fit each product perfectly. Alternatively,
you can choose a design that resonates with you and effortlessly apply it to any product of
your choosing. In order to make your products truly original and avoid the risk of rejection
due to duplicate content, it is essential to make slight edits to the print-ready designs.
Utilizing compatible editing software or our t-shirt maker, you have the opportunity to
customize and transform each design, ensuring that they exude uniqueness and perfectly
embody your distinctive brand.

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PNG Designs

Easily create new designs using our extensive collection of PNG graphics. Mix and match
these graphics with different texts or elements, allowing you to craft unique and eye-
catching designs. Or, if you already have a design but feel like it’s missing that extra spark
or certain elements, you can choose from our collection of PNG graphics that perfectly
match your needs. These graphics can be seamlessly incorporated into your existing
design, allowing you to create the exact design you had envisioned.

Quote Generator

While the Quote Generator may not be a traditional design tool, it is an invaluable resource
for overcoming creative blocks and igniting your inspiration. By providing personalized
quotes on any topic, you can easily find the perfect quote that resonates with your niche.
Every quote can be transformed into a new idea for a design and every design can be
enhanced with a good original quote. This tool will get the ball rolling and spark your
creativity, paving the way for the creation of unique and captivating designs.

Design Request

If you have a one-of-a-kind idea that hasn’t been explored within our platform or existing
tools, you can leverage the expertise of our talented team of professional designers. They
are ready to bring your vision to life by creating a custom design that perfectly matches
your specific requirements and aligns with your unique needs. With their skills and
creativity, you can ensure that your design stands out and represents your idea in the best
possible way.

Mockup Generator

In the final stage of the design process, when your design is ready to be showcased and
marketed, the Mockup Generator becomes an invaluable tool. It allows you to create
compelling and visually appealing images that effectively showcase your design,
making it shine and attracting the attention of potential customers. With a wide range of
customizable mockup templates and settings, you can easily place your design on various
products, adjust the background, colors, and other elements to create eye-catching
visuals that effectively communicate the essence and appeal of your design.

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CHAPTER 07
Design Ideas for Each Product

With the combination of thorough keyword and niche research, you likely already have a
clear idea of what designs to create. However, if you’re looking for an extra push or some
fresh inspiration, we’ve got you covered. Our curated list of ideas for each of the main
products will provide you with a diverse range of design concepts tailored to specific
categories.

Whether you’re targeting t-shirts, posters, mugs, or any other product, this curated list
will spark your creativity and help you discover new design possibilities. It’s a valuable
resource to explore and find that perfect design idea to captivate your audience and
make your products stand out in the market.

Note that while we’ve categorized the ideas based on different types of products, many of
these concepts can be seamlessly interchanged across various products. The versatility
of these ideas allows you to adapt them to different products effortlessly. So, feel free
to mix and match, get creative, and explore the endless possibilities of bringing these
captivating concepts to life across your entire product line.

Mug Design Ideas

Vintage-style mugs
A vintage-style mug design offers nostalgic appeal, unique character, and timeless
charm, making it a great choice for adding style and sentimentality to any occasion.
Birthday mugs work great all year round, and a vintage-style mug can do more than one
trick for you if you’re going for a more adult audience.

Hobby mugs
Hobbies are excellent sources of inspiration for Merch designs, they offer a captivating
way to cater to niche audiences and attract passionate customers. With personalized
designs that celebrate their hobbies, these mugs become a cherished ally for enjoying
beverages and igniting conversations.

Pet love mugs

Pets are family, and the love for these beloved animals is a great inspiration to come up
with pet love mug designs. Cats and dogs are the obvious first choices, but dare to think
about off-beat pets or exotic ones, like lizards, spiders, or snakes!

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Inspirational mugs
For some people, the morning coffee helps set the tone for the day, making mugs with
inspirational and positive quotes are ideal for those needing a dose of motivation and
positivity.

Caffeine-inspired humor mugs

Those who aren’t a morning person see coffee as the only way of waking up and being
able to socialize. Mugs with witty messages like “Don’t talk to me before my coffee”
resonate with these coffee lovers who understand the importance of the first cup. They are
funny, sarcastic and great to have in the office.

Puns mug design

Puns always bring a touch of laughter with clever yet funny messages. Mugs with these
humorous messages and wordplay add a lighthearted element which captures the
attention of people who love a well thought joke.

Nature and Wildlife mugs

Sometimes a simple mug with the beauty of the natural world decorated with stunning
landscapes, wildlife or botanical illustration are just perfect. Ideal for people who love
hiking, camping, botany or anything related to nature.

Seasonal Themed mugs

Some people have a deep love for a particular season that lasts all year round. Have you
ever come across those who claim that October is the ultimate spooky season? Embrace
the charm of each season and celebrate holidays with mugs that showcase designs
specific to those occasions.

Family themed mugs

People love to celebrate and honor their new or favorite family roles: moms, dads, uncles,
grandpas, grandmas, daughters, sons, the list goes on. Whether it is to show appreciation,
share a laugh, or simply express love, these family-related mugs are a favorite choice for
someone wanting to make a gift.

Abstract or Pattern mugs

Sometimes a cute pattern or an artistic abstract design is enough to capture people’s
attention. These visually captivating patterns and colors create a unique and eye-
catching aesthetic, making them a great choice for art enthusiasts and those who
appreciate creativity.

Poster Design Ideas

We got swept away by our love for poster designs and came up with an extensive list of
over 300 imaginative ideas to fuel your creativity.

/ 43 /
However, we want to remind you to steer clear of design concepts that might infringe
upon intellectual property rights, such as film titles, famous musicians, car brands, popular
characters, and more.

Take a look at our compilation:

Film poster designs • Moon phases poster design

• Spy film poster design • Sun and moon poster design
• Horror film poster design • Tarot card poster design
• Love film poster design • Wicca poster design
• Adventure film poster design • Ouija board poster design
• Old Film poster design • Spellbook poster design
• Sci-fi film poster design • Affirmation quotes poster design
• Chakras poster design
Comics & Cartoon poster designs • Aura colors poster design
• Comic poster design • Third-eye poster design
• Manga poster design • Psychedelic trip poster design
• Manga-style poster design
• Cartoon poster design Dark style & Horror poster designs
• Cartoon-style poster design • Dark entity poster design
• Anime poster design • Monster poster design
• Mecha poster design • Folklore horror poster design
• Shonen anime poster design • Witch poster design
• Shoujo anime poster design • Zombie poster design
• Superhero poster design • Skeleton poster design
• Evil character poster design • Skull poster design
• Arch-enemy poster design • Skull and flowers poster design
• Vampire lord poster design
Esoteric poster designs • Werewolf poster design
• Astrology sign poster design • Ghost poster design
-Aries poster design • Possessed girl poster design
-Taurus poster design •
-Gemini poster design Dark style & Horror poster designs
-Cancer poster design • Dark entity poster design
-Leo poster design • Monster poster design
-Virgo poster design • Folklore horror poster design
-Libra poster design • Witch poster design
-Scorpio poster design • Zombie poster design
-Sagittarius poster design • Skeleton poster design
-Capricorn poster design • Skull poster design
-Aquarius poster design • Skull and flowers poster design
-Pisces poster design • Vampire lord poster design
• Zodiac poster design • Werewolf poster design
• Moon poster design • Ghost poster design
• Possessed girl poster design

/ 44 /
Gaming poster designs • Fantasy brewery poster design
• Gaming room poster design • Wine poster design
• Gaming quotes poster design • Love wine poster design
• Gaming culture references • Wine tasting poster design
poster design • Whisky poster design
• FPS game poster design • How to make Whisky poster
• RPG game poster design design
• Sandbox game poster design • Bourbon poster design
• PC gamer poster design • How to make Bourbon poster
• Console gamer poster design design
• How to make beer poster design
Bathroom poster design ideas • Fruits poster design
• Funny bathroom quotes • Vegetables poster design
• Pleasant nature poster design • Keto food poster design
• Positive quote poster design • Paleo food poster design
• Looking good quote poster • Vegan food poster design
design • Coffee poster design
• Coffee addiction poster design
Kitchen poster designs • Love coffee poster design
• Recipes poster design • Tea poster design
• Food elements poster design • Food poster design
• Food chart poster design • Dessert poster design
• Nutrition guide poster design • BBQ poster design
• Home sweet home poster design • Pizza poster design
• Food quotes poster design • Love pizza poster design
• Love baking poster design •
• Love cooking poster design • Burger poster design
• Funny kitchen quotes poster • Cheeseburger poster design
design • Sandwich poster design
• Funny cooking quotes poster • Ramen poster design
design • Chicken wings poster design
• Cooking inspiration poster design • Chinese food poster design
• Start the day poster design • Ethnic food poster design
• Breakfast quote poster design
• Love eating poster design Living Room poster designs
• Eating poster design • Home sweet home poster design
• Chalkboard-style kitchen poster • Home quote poster design
design • Abstract style poster design
• Vegan cooking poster design • Wanderlust poster design
• Keto cooking poster design • Family love quote poster design

Food & Drink poster designs

• Beer poster design
• Beer brewing poster design

/ 45 /
Kids’ room poster designs • Small town poster design
• Girl’s room poster design • City landmark poster design
• Boy’s room poster design • Map poster design
• Baby room poster design
• Baby boy room poster design School poster designs
• Baby girl room poster design • Letters poster design
• Sleep time poster design • Alphabet poster design
• Cute cherubim poster design • Numbers poster design
• 90s kids poster design • Math poster design
• Educative poster design • Classroom poster design
• Anatomy poster design
Garage poster designs • Muscle anatomy poster design
• Funny fix it quote poster design • Chemistry poster design
• Cars poster design • Physics poster design
• Love cars poster design • Skeleton anatomy poster design
• Hot rod poster design •
• Motorcycle love poster design Fitness & Sports poster designs
• Trucks poster design • Fitness poster design
• Types of vehicle poster design • Fitness Motivation poster design
• Fitness quotes poster design
Man cave poster designs • Running poster design
• Man cave quote poster design • Cycling poster design
• Hardcore gamer poster design • Mountain bike poster design
• Table pool poster design • Football poster design
• Darts poster design • Volleyball poster design
• Arcade poster design • Basketball poster design
• Sports fan poster design • Ice hockey poster design
• Poker cards poster design • Baseball poster design
• Track and field poster design
Decorative poster designs • Calisthenics poster design
• Tropical flower poster design • Bodybuilding poster design
• Floral poster design • Swimming poster design
• Painting poster design • Crossfit poster design
• Original artwork poster design • Cricket poster design
• Photography poster design • Bowling poster design
• Landscape photo poster • Yoga poster design
• Portrait photo poster design • Yoga poses poster design
• Family photo poster design

Travel poster designs

• Love travel poster design
• Traveling solo poster design
• Travel map poster design
• City skyline poster design
• Big cities poster design

/ 46 /
Bar & Pub poster designs • Spaceship poster design
• Drinking quote poster design • Other planets poster design
• Beer quotes poster design • Galaxy poster design
• Cocktail poster design • Solar system poster design
• Retro style bar poster design • Outer galaxies poster design
• Types of beer poster design • Space photography poster
• Types of drinks poster design design
• Have a good time quote poster
design Music poster designs
• Concert poster design
Fantasy poster designs • Music instruments poster design
• Fantasy creature poster design • Jazz instruments poster design
• Faeries poster design • Rock music instruments poster
• Wizard poster design design
• Orc poster design • Pop music poster design
• Troll poster design • Rock music poster design
• Elf poster design • Blues poster design
• Dwarven mines poster design • EDM music poster design
• Legendary warrior poster design • Classical music poster design
• Moon priestess poster design • Music party poster design
• Sorceress poster design
• Folklore creature poster design Nature poster designs
• Cyberpunk poster design • Landscape poster design
• Steampunk poster design • Meadow poster design
• Futuristic poster design • Mountains poster design
• Mythology poster design • River poster design
• Olympian gods poster design • Desert poster design
• Mythological creature poster design • Forest poster design
• Goblin poster design • Ocean poster design
• Undead King poster design • Jungle poster design
• Amazon queen poster design • Underwater poster design
• Dark mage poster design • Coral reef poster design
• Waterfall poster design
Character poster designs • Rainbow poster design
• Samurai poster design
• Ninja poster design Pet & Domestic animal poster
• Barbarian poster design designs
• Necromancer poster design • Dog poster design
• Viking warrior poster design • Cat poster design
• Spy poster design • Cow poster design
• Assassin poster design • Sheep poster design
• Pet rat poster design
Space poster designs • Piggy poster design
• Aliens poster design • Parrot poster design
• Spacemen poster design • Hamster poster design
• Farm animals poster design

/ 47 /
Wild animals poster designs Other poster design ideas
• Lion poster design • Typography poster design
• Elephant poster design • Negative space poster design
• Zebra poster design • Optical illusion poster design
• Crocodile poster design • Daily quote poster design
• Stork poster design
• Sloth poster design Occupation poster designs
• Gorilla poster design • Doctor poster design
• Bear poster design • Pilot poster design
• Panda bear poster design • Firefighter poster design
• Flamingo poster design • Scientist poster design
• Whale poster design • Law enforcement poster design
• Shark poster design
• Tropical fish poster design Design styles to try for poster designs
• Orca poster design • Retro poster design
• Safari animals poster design • Vintage poster design
• Dinosaurs poster design • Watercolor style poster design
• T-Rex poster design • Oil painting style poster design
• Monkey poster design • Grunge poster design
• Snake poster design • Horror poster design
• Scorpion poster design • Art Deco poster design
• Spider poster design • Art Noveau poster design
• Capybara poster design • Minimal poster design
• Abstract poster design
Plant & Floral poster designs • Collage poster design
• Flower poster design • Japanese style poster design
• Tropical plants poster design • Psychedelic poster design
• Tropical flowers poster design • Gradients poster design
• List of flowers poster design • Neon designs poster design
• List of red flowers poster design • Cute poster design
• List of blue flowers poster design • Black and white poster design
• List of plants poster design • Pop Art poster design
• Succulent plants poster design
• Flowers in a vase poster design

Business poster designs

• Bakery poster design
• Restaurant poster design
• Coffee house poster design
• Gym poster design
• Office space poster design

/ 48 /
Phone Cases Design Ideas
Travel tickets phone cases
Travel ticket designs are an interesting application of the concepts of being on the move
and love for traveling. Consider this idea if you’re interested in targeting a wanderlust,
travel-loving audience. These designs can be easily made in custom online editors or
image editing software like Photoshop.

Concert Tickets phone cases

Concert ticket designs tap into the passion for live events and love for music, taking
advantage of the rectangle ticket-like shape that phone cases offer. Be sure to avoid using
actual bands and artists as part of your design since that might get you in trouble, just
stick to the format of the concert ticket and you’ll be fine.

Credit cards phone cases

Fake credit card brands can be a fun joke to play around with. You can use the core
visual elements of popular brands but change features like their text and color palette to
create new ideas. For example, you can make a phone case design of a VISA card but with
different colors and say LISA, a great gift idea.

Polaroid photo phone cases

Polaroid photo designs work great for phone cases, even in a better fashion than how
they work on t-shirt designs. Polaroid photos are usually kept as souvenirs, and having
a Polaroid photo image as a phone case design can give the effect of carrying that
memento along at all times.

Tarot cards phone cases

Among artistic designs, Tarot card designs offer some of the most attractive designs due
to their mystic and interest in the otherworldly. Tarot decks have lots of specific images
that can be made in any type of style, adding more variety to the possibilities of this idea.

Cassette tapes phone cases

Cassette tape designs, as well as VHS tapes and their corresponding box sleeves, are
a design concept that seeks to resonate with feelings of 80s-90s nostalgia and analog
technology. Very popular among this demographic, retro device designs can have
modern-day twists to them, which might make them even more interesting.

Food phone cases

There’s something about food designs that just clicks for using them on phone cases. Food
designs are a great place to start when creating new phone case designs because there
are many sub-niches that can be explored, like vegetarian, vegan, keto, low-carb, and tons
of many others that easily come to mind.

/ 49 /
Pattern phone cases
Pattern designs on phone cases are a particular design device that can be made in
multiple styles and adopt pretty much any element. There are evergreen patterns as well
as seasonal ones, and they can use the elements that represent your chosen niche the
best.

Plants phone cases

Plant designs are popular among home decor lovers, as plants make up for beautiful
details in any warm house. Phone cases featuring plant designs are another way to
represent love and appreciation for nature and harmonious living environments and can
be made in soft styles like watercolor or more vibrant and striking shades of green

Flowers phone cases

Unlike plant designs which make more use of the green color palette, floral phone case
designs happen to feature many more colors and more complex designs. It so happens
that leaves are usually easier to draw than specific flowers unless you’re going for a simple
design approach that’s attractive. To design flower phone cases, downloading and using
flower PNGs is a good option to go with.

Astrology phone cases

Zodiac signs are an artistically rich concept that is highly relatable to buyers, as they’re
often considered as a representation of the inner workings of the self. You know, you’ve
heard someone say “oh, you’re such a Scorpio” or something like that before, right? In the
world of phone case designs, Astrology designs are a viable concept to practice.

Affirmation phone cases

Phone cases can be used as platforms to transmit a message, and affirmation quotes
are great ideas that function. As reminders of self-worth and personal growth. If you’re into
these topics, you’ll find it easy to come up with affirmation quotes that are meaningful to
you and your audience.

Sticker phone cases

Sticker designs are one of the most purchased designs on platforms like Redbubble, and
they happen to work well on phone cases too as they give the benefit of a sticker-like
design without the drawback of actually having hard-to-remove stickers on your phone or
your case. This is a style that works particularly well on phone cases rather than on t-shirt
designs, so keep that in mind!

Landscape phone cases

Talking about design ideas that are fitting for phone cases, landscape phone case designs
are a great idea due to their complete use of the product’s design canvas. It’s like carrying
a mini-poster with you at all times, and we sure know how people love nature posters!
Landscape designs are all about big spaces and a well-defined natural environment like a
desert, jungle, forest, and biomes in general.

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Watercolor phone cases
Watercolor style goes in and out of fashion all the time, so it’s safe to try it out every once in
a while. Flowers, animals, and abstract shapes are some of the most common, but feel free
to try other concepts for watercolor phone case designs, like sports and food designs!

Gradient phone cases

Gradient backgrounds have gradually become more visible among modern phone
case designs. They’re simple yet attractive, and the ability to find or create many unique
gradient designs also makes it a design idea that’s easily scalable. Consider gradient
phone case designs if you’re not particularly inclined on any specific niche.

Old School Tattoo phone cases

Old-school tattoo designs work great on t-shirts as they do on phone cases, so feel free to
use this idea if it’s a style you fancy. This can also work great with sticker-style designs, or
as a full-art phone case design.

Cat & Dog breeds phone cases

Pet lovers should always be considered whenever you expand onto a new product like
phone cases, and cat and dog phone case designs prove to be a winner, especially if
you’re including specific cat and dog breeds into the design. Although every year there are
lists of the most popular breeds of the year, it’s safe to assume that people love animals
regardless of their breed, so take a shot!

Other animals phone cases

Outside of pets, animal phone case designs include exotic wildlife such as koalas, sloths,
unicorns, axolotls, and many more. Animal phone case designs come in all styles, so
there’s no excuse not to make even the simplest of animals, like a cute little frog.

Minimalistic phone cases

Along the lines of simple designs, minimalistic phone case designs are all about doing
as little as possible but delivering a strong design concept or message. Sometimes less
is more, and in the case of minimalistic designs, this is as true as it gets. Consider simple
typography or black and white style of patterns. You’ll soon come across many design
options you never thought of before!

Flags phone cases

Flag designs are another simple yet effective way to make use of the phone case design
format. Despite being a rather universal design concept, applying different effects and
elements to flag phone case designs can make them more appealing to customers.

3D effects phone cases

3D effects work especially well on phone case designs, turning a simple object into an
interesting work of design. 3D effect phone case designs can take multiple forms, from
designs that work with 3D glasses up to visual effects that give the perception of depth
or distance. If you’re into quirky phone case designs, do some research on this particular
design style.

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Flat design phone cases
In contrast to 3D designs, Flat style phone case designs are characterized by its graphic
design-driven aesthetics, focusing more on art than on generating a special visual effect.
The great thing about this design style is that it can be applied to any niche and any
element, making it a versatile design resource that’s easy to achieve.

Texture phone cases

Phone cases with texture designs such as marble, rock, galaxy, and more provide a stylish
and sophisticated option for those who appreciate elegance. These minimalist yet eye-
catching textures are highly appealing to customers seeking both fashion and simplicity.

T-Shirt Design Ideas

In this curated compilation, we present you with evergreen t-shirt design ideas which
mean they have proven their success in the past, remain relevant in the present, and hold
promising potential for generating revenue in the future. These ideas have stood the test
of time and offer a reliable pathway to capturing sales and maximizing profitability for
your business.

EVERGREEN DESIGNS:

Outdoors
People who enjoy outdoor activities are usually really passionate about them, with a love
for nature, animals, and traveling that makes it easy for you to pick an outdoor-related
topic and flesh it out as much as possible. Some popular outdoor niche design ideas are:
Fishing, Hiking, Stargazing, Camping, Mountains, Lakes, Forests.

Fantasy
Since ‘Unicorns’ is a pretty saturated niche, it should be noted that the Fantasy niche is
very wide and appealing to the fantasy literature enthusiasts and for the nerd audience
as well. Dragons, faeries, wizards, spells, and Dark Lords are all more than viable elements
to design fantasy t-shirts if you’re into it. Some popular fantasy niche design ideas are:
Mermaid, Barbarians, Elves, Magic, Castles, Giants.

Leisure
By definition, ‘leisure’ represents time and activities devoted to anything outside working or
basic needs (like eating). Subjects vary widely, and they can go from something laid-back
to something more serious. Here are a few ideas: Listening to music, Sunbathing, Reading,
Napping, Knitting, Going out, Bike Riding.

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Party
Party t-shirt designs usually talk about having a good time, a funny reference to a
particular event, the people you’re partying with, or party activities like drinking and
dancing. Funny and upbeat messages are at the heart of these designs, and they are
mostly intended to bring a smile to whoever sees them. Some party t-shirt designs
address the following: Funny quotes, Drinking, Dancing, Music genres to dance, Colorful
patterns, Funny illustrations, Birthdays.

Wedding
This category should actually be more about bachelor/bachelorette parties rather than
about Weddings themselves, but given the ‘marriage’ context, the categorization felt
right. Here, like in various other categories, it’s all about the message. Popular designs are
about bachelor and bachelorette parties, like the classic “I’m Getting Married” whether it’s
celebrating or suffering it, or also post-marriage t-shirts, like quotes praising the husband/
wife.

Family
Family relationships are diverse, and when ‘Best Dad’ and ‘Best Mom’ t-shirts are the
only thing that come to mind, you should start looking sideways and think about the
special moments you share with all your relatives. Think about the special moments they
live throughout their lives, like birthdays, anniversaries, graduation events, important
achievements like forming a new business, and you’ll soon realize that others (your
buyers) go through the same things. Some family t-shirt design concepts you can go for
are: Pregnancy, Graduation, Best cook/musician/partner, Expert in-, Mom of-, brother of-,
Birthdays, Family Reunion, Large Families, Baby Reveal.

Events
Local events, small or large, are excellent opportunities to sell t-shirts to event-goers. Music
festivals, open-air concerts, and theaters bring people together who are looking for any
type of memorabilia. Even if you sell online, staying ahead of future events will give you an
edge when designing t-shirts related to a landmark event or show. It’s worth noting that
you should never use the name of the event or artist/band as part of your t-shirt design,
yet feel free to make a reference to it.

Local businesses
A not-so-popular but very viable option in its own right is to tackle local businesses as
a t-shirt provider, given that you have a POD account and the design power to back it
up. The way this works is to head out to a local business and offer your t-shirt service,
whether it’s to brand up the business or as a marketing stunt to further promote it. Some
examples of t-shirt designs for local businesses are: Gyms, Pizza Places, Laundry Services,
Restaurants, Drugstore, Stationer’s Shop, Coffee Shops.

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Gaming
Gaming enthusiasts form a fervent niche of individuals who take great pride in their
favorite games and characters. Exploring the realm of gaming t-shirts proves worthwhile,
as successful design ideas often involve clever references to specific games, characters
or gaming experiences, often through humorous puns or recurring jokes. It’s important to
avoid using gaming characters or elements as-is to avoid legal issues, but incorporating
funny quotes or graphic design humor can effectively captivate gamers and attract them
to your designs.

Unorthodox Animals
Cats and dogs are the quintessential animals to stamp on a t-shirt design, which makes
complete sense since few people are able to house an ox, a goat, or a bear in the comfort
of their own place. That being said, there is a particular interest in other wild animals that
people often relate with, or even if they don’t relate with, they are either weird enough
or attractive enough to justify making a t-shirt out of it. Despite some animals not being
“weird”, here are some unusual animal t-shirt ideas you can go with: Axolotl, Capybara,
Dragonfly, Possum, Honey Badger, Meerkat, Koala, Hedgehog.

Trends
Trends are one of the most elusive, yet most effective ways to make t-shirt designs that
sell. Due to their fleeting nature, trend-based designs need to be fast to produce and
upload, as well as deliver the right message and avoid copyright infringement at all costs.
Because of the latter reason, they are also somewhat tricky to get around, but if you detect
a trend that’s hot as well as safe, then you’re good to go. To keep it as timeless as possible,
we won’t suggest any current trend, but we can tell you that to look for trendy designs take
a more objective look at your social media channels, mainly Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok,
which are the most visual and popular at the moment.

Mental Health
Mental health is an increasingly popular topic nowadays, even though it has always been
around. To some degree, it’s a relatable subject for everyone. Bringing visibility to difficult
afflictions and messages of support for those who struggle is a great way to source t-shirt
design ideas. Here are some topics about mental health: Neurodiversity, ADHD, Anxiety,
Depression, Therapy.

Positivity
Positivity t-shirt designs are a mixture of text and images that are meant to be cheerful,
upbeat, pleasant, and bring a smile to your face. Even if you feel a little cranky from time
to time, do make an effort to browse around for products with positive messaging. We
recommend going over to Etsy, where you can find thousands of good-spirited messages
and products. These products usually come in pastel, soft colors that are pleasing to the
eye, so save your red and purple ideas for other t-shirt niches.

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Social issues
T-shirts are a great way to express messages, feelings, emotions, and also raise your voice
and awareness on social matters. Keep in mind that some topics are more difficult than
others, so you will want to stay clear of subjects that might be interpreted as offensive or
hateful.

Support
Unlike ‘positivity’, support messages can oftentimes spring from negative situations or
feelings, and many t-shirt designs have been made to support individuals as well as
movements and causes.

Abstract
Another popular t-shirt idea is going into abstract designs. Finding the “right” abstract
design requires handling a certain degree of artistic concept just to better understand
what could click more with your buyers. All in all they work amazingly well for people into
trippy and graphic t-shirt designs. As a rule of thumb, they rarely feature text, and present
vibrant, appealing colors and shapes.

Quote
Quote t-shirt designs are among the most popular t-shirts out there, and it’s up to your
wits and humor to make the best impression possible in your audience. As a guideline,
the fewer words, the better, and always, always be sure to first check for copyright before
going into designing. Stay away from pop culture quotes, but feel free to create your own
original phrases. If it’s extremely viral, you probably don’t want to use it, since you never
know when it’s going to be submitted for trademark.

Politics
Many people feel strongly about politics, and it’s no wonder why so many t-shirt designs
have been around this subject since the beginning of print-on-demand. Some use political
t-shirt designs to express their opinion on a specific matter, others use it to mock a certain
representative or affiliation. It’s because of this strong impact that political t-shirts are
prone to be bought by passionate people, i.e. people more inclined to buy. Like with most
sensitive or edgy kinds of designs, we recommend you to stay as safe as possible design-
wise since we have seen designs being rejected due to their offensive or conflictive nature.

Baby
Babies are a great idea for t-shirts since there is a newborn announcement every minute
worldwide. Popular baby t-shirt designs feature one or some of the following: cute animals,
a quote related to parents, etc.

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Puns
Pun t-shirt designs come in the form of quotes or graphic designs, and they refer to silly
jokes that usually pair up ideas that have or appear to have more than one meaning.
Keep in mind that there are puns that are extremely funny, puns that are so bad that they
turn funny, and puns that are so awkwardly bad that are unusable. While they usually
take written form, many of the best puns in t-shirt designs are actually made with funny
illustrations or combining words and images under a witty concept.

Travel
Humans have a natural tendency towards traveling. Our sense of discovery and adventure
is deeply rooted in our DNA, and travel t-shirt designs are a great way to elaborate on that
edge. Some Travel t-shirt ideas you can pick from are: specific countries/sites/locations,
quotes related to traveling, travel concepts.

Funny
Funny tees are arguably the best kind of tees you can make since they are the most easy-
to-buy t-shirts due to their likeableness and ‘relatableness’ (it’s not a real word, but you
get it); they are excellent options to start thinking about producing designs. Funny t-shirts
also happen to be easy to make because there are loads of different variables you can
go with, whether it’s a funny quote joke or a graphic pun. You can pretty much make fun of
anything (without being offensive) and possibly find your next winning design.

Anime/Japanese
The Anime and Japanese style has been on the rise in recent years and it’s definitely a
niche and style that’s here to stay. Anime t-shirts usually feature some kind of anime style
character like a boy or a girl, a quote in Japanese kanji, and also might feature some
Japanese-style drawings, evoking the millenia-long art of woodblock printing, most
famously the ukiyo-e style. Given that it’s usually a design-heavy style, sellers usually
commission this type of t-shirt design to professionals. To stay on the safe side and avoid
any legal trouble, it’s best to avoid using characters or elements from real anime or
manga series.

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LAST TRENDS:

To add to the t-shirt ideas, we’ve put together a handpicked collection of the latest and
most unique trends that have been causing a stir in recent years. Just keep in mind that
trends come and go, so stay ahead of the game and be ready to adapt.

All-over print
All-over prints are unique Merch products that feature designs that cover the entire item.
You’ve seen them before: patterned leggings, trippy tees, fully-printed backpacks, and
many other popular products. We expect to see much more of these products in the
near future. With POD companies like Printful offering many all-over print product options,
you definitely should take advantage of this if you’re looking to grow your online Merch
business. Pattern designs are excellent to get started!

3D effects
3D effect designs are a graphic design trend that hasn’t been really exploited in Print-on-
demand in recent times but is poised to make a comeback. Since 3D design requires a
certain degree of expertise, tools like PSD t-shirt design templates have bridged the gap
between sellers with little design skills and truly awesome tee designs, enabling them to
use ready-made elements in different compositions and create multiple original designs
this way.

Brushstroke
Brushstroke style design has been around for years, and we’re confident that it will stick
with many new twists to this relevant style. Keep an eye out for brushstroke text designs
and effects that can work as details to make your designs pop even more.

Y2K
Y2K designs invoke early 2000s nostalgia, usually playing around with simple designs
commonly for women’s tops, including elements like flowers, butterflies, and short texts
with stylish typefaces. Y2K style is playful above all. At the moment it’s a great option but it
will be a trend that eventually fades, so keep that in mind!

Early 2000s
Besides Y2K, early 2000s aesthetics are also making a splash in upcoming design trends.
This trend thrives on internet culture and early Web 2.0 references, which have similarities
with the Vaporwave style you might have seen in recent years. Like Y2K style, this is a trend
that has a limited lifespan, so make the most out of it while you can!

Serif font texts

When it comes to text-based designs, letterings are usually the most visually appealing
style, but serif fonts may be a change of pace from what the industry has been featuring
in the past year, and this can be an interesting design pivot to take in the coming months.
If you’re up for experimenting with new styles, serif font texts are an easy choice to get
started with.

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Creepypasta horror
Horror designs are one of the most popular and creative subjects for Merch products, and
creepypasta horror has slowly been creating a cult following in modern internet culture.
There are many stories to get inspiration from, including popular critters like Slenderman,
to more obscure and more ‘underground’ stories that might strike a chord with the right
audience.

Tie-dye hippie style

Tie-dye style clothing is always looming around, but we know can assure this trend made
a comeback.. This design style works best on all-over items, like the ones we mentioned
earlier, and trippy designs can only make them better.

Big text
In most cases, big, simple designs are easier for the eye to catch. This applies to simple
quotes and texts made in big bold fonts. Adding colors and details make these designs
stand out even more, yet sometimes a simpler style does the trick. Editable text templates
help make this job even easier.

Pop culture observations

Being a sharp observer of popular culture can be a key trait in creating Merch designs that
are highly relatable and sought after. With the necessary disclaimer of keeping away from
trademarks and popular figures, making relevant comments and observations on stuff
that’s trending at any given time can be the creative pivot your Merch business is in need
of.

Poorly handwritten quotes

Sometimes the joke lies in the aesthetics of the quote rather than its content. Poorly
handwritten quotes give out a sense of relatability that’s usually easy to lock in with. You
can make these designs yourself by writing your quote in this style on a white page, taking
a photo of it, vectorizing it, and removing the background. You can even upload your quote
in a T-shirt Maker and customize it further!

Trippy cartoon
One of the main Merch design tips is to make designs that are easy to find. Well, trippy
designs have one of the most fun and interesting search terms and usually tend to be very
eye-catching to potential sellers.

Collage
Digital collage artists and enthusiasts have found print-on-demand to be an excellent
excuse for earning money with their passion. Nowadays, tools like collage PSD templates
also enable sellers with little artistic or design expertise to participate in this style.

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Realistic wildlife
Among merch designs with animals, realistic wildlife is one trend we rarely see being
exploited, and we expect this one to be a sleeper for the coming months. Realistic animal
designs can be surprisingly easy to make with editable templates, or even using an online
t-shirt maker.

Gradients
Gradient designs are not going anywhere anytime soon, so keep an eye on this style as
part of your product strategy for the coming year. Experiment with different mixed styles
and elements, like gradients and collages, and apply gradients to big bold text, just to kick
things off with a few ideas.

Optical illusion
Optical illusions are another extremely fun and interesting graphic style that stands out
among the rest. We’ve seen very little of it being used recently, and we believe it’s a style
that can make a splash in the near future.

Positive vibes
In times of uncertainty and overexposure, reinforcing and positive messages can not only
be appealing but also purposeful. From short to long quote designs, positive messages
are usually made using a colorful palette which can go from loud to gentle by tuning its
intensity. It all depends on your message.

Urban dictionary lingo

Many of our favorite everyday words are completely made up of trends, and with the
hyperconnectivity that we have through the web, every year brings a tidal wave of new
words that become part of the culture. In recent times, terms like ‘cap’ (it means ‘lie’ or
‘you’re lying’), ‘fr’ (‘for real’), and ‘ngl’ (‘not gonna lie’) have taken over our speech, and they
can easily take over your products. Keep an eye out for new words and be swift when
getting them onto products.

Retro Futuristic
Retro Futuristic design is conceived as a view of the future through the lens of the past.
Applying modern technology and concepts with a retro take is an interesting idea that we
think can get more and more traction in months to come. In a way, this concept ties well
with steampunk and cyberpunk design ideas.

Fantasy
Fantasy designs feature traditional characters like elves, fairies, gods, monsters, and
everything in between. Regarding upcoming trends, we believe Fantasy-themed shirts
with modern-day jokes and observations can add a touch of flavor that is yet to be used in
the mainstream.

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Bootleg
The term “bootleg” is used to describe an article that’s sold illegally, and in the sense of
fashion, you might recognize bootleg t-shirts as t-shirts that look old and worn out, usually
in the style of poorly-designed t-shirts sold in concerts in the 90s-early 2000s. These
original designs were by no means professional, but since they were being purchased out
of special events, these items became as valuable as officially-licensed elements. This
style can be easy to make since one of its major aspects is that it doesn’t require strong
design concepts.

Cottagecore/Rainbow Core/-core aesthetic

Cottagecore is an aesthetic centered around a romanticized idea of western country life,
characterized by nature-esque colors like green, brown, and yellow, and elements like
wildflowers, farm animals, pies, and the namesake cottages. This design style will definitely
be around.

Minimalistic
Stroke-style designs, as well as texts with minimalistic typography (usually sans-serif),
are bound to be present next year, mainly on platforms like Etsy, where the majority of
customers are young fashionable women, instead of loud teenagers. The good thing is
that they’re fairly easy to design, the not-so-good thing is that you really have to hit a nail
with the design concept to make it work.

Comic book
While at first glance comic book t-shirt designs may appear one-dimensional, these
t-shirts are more about the design style than about the content itself, making it a versatile
style that could seamlessly be applied to a variety of concepts. This being said, comic book
t-shirt designs are more inclined towards the funny side than to the more serious side, with
the latter being more benefited from bland messages or ideas than from quirky or funny
concepts. Another big plus is that geeky audiences might be much more permeable to
this type of design, and this audience is known to buy things online!

Retro Gaming
With more years being added to the history of gaming, it’s no wonder that retro gaming
t-shirt designs belong to a trend that will hardly fade anytime soon. It’s not only that retro
gaming is awesome, but the nostalgia factor plays a big role when it comes to the buying
experience. It’s worth mentioning that ‘retro gaming’ is also representing a design style
in and of itself, and even if it’s not about gaming, on many occasions the retro gaming
design style is all you need to make a t-shirt work. This is a style that will most likely
become more popular in years to come, so keep an eye out for it.

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Throw Pillow Design Ideas
Patterns
Vibrant and eye-catching geometric patterns, natural, food, animal, or abstract patterns
can add a modern and stylish touch to any living space, making them a popular choice
among interior design enthusiasts.

Nature-inspired Prints
Designs featuring elements of nature such as flowers, leaves, or landscapes can create a
calming and refreshing ambiance in a room, making them a sought-after choice for those
who love the outdoors.

Inspirational Quotes
Throw pillows with uplifting and motivational quotes can bring positivity and inspiration to
any space. They are particularly popular for bedrooms and cozy reading corners.

Animals
Animal-themed designs, such as animal prints or illustrations, are always a hit among
animal lovers. From cute and cuddly to majestic and wild, animal-themed throw pillows
add a playful and whimsical touch to any decor.

Abstract Art
Abstract designs offer a unique and artistic flair to a room. With their bold colors,
interesting shapes, and creative compositions, abstract art-inspired throw pillows can be
a captivating focal point in any space.

Seasonal Themes
Creating throw pillows with designs inspired by different seasons can be a great way to
cater to seasonal decor trends. Think of designs featuring snowflakes for winter, blooming
flowers for spring, beach themes for summer, and warm tones for autumn.

Vintage and Retro

Vintage-inspired or retro-themed designs evoke nostalgia and charm. They appeal to
those who appreciate classic aesthetics and are looking to add a touch of vintage flair to
their living spaces.

Whimsical and Playful

Designs with whimsical elements, like cute animals, playful characters, or imaginative
illustrations, are perfect for adding a touch of fun and personality to a room, especially
children’s spaces or eclectic decor styles.

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Hobby-inspired
Create throw pillows that celebrate popular hobbies and interests. Whether it’s gardening,
cooking, gaming, knitting, or photography, designing pillows with hobby-themed graphics
can resonate with individuals passionate about their favorite pastimes. These pillows can
serve as a cozy reminder of their hobbies.

Food
Indulge the senses with throw pillows featuring mouth-watering food designs. From
delicious desserts to savory dishes, food-themed pillows can add a touch of culinary
delight to any space. Whether it’s a slice of pizza, a cupcake, a juicy burger, or a vibrant fruit
design, these pillows can appeal to food enthusiasts, chefs, and anyone who appreciates
the artistry and enjoyment of food.

Tote Bags Design Ideas

Recycling tote bags
Tote bags are a good way of looking after the environment, saving the need for using
plastic bags that are ultimately meant to be discarded. Recycling designs make sense on
products like tote bags, so consider quotes about recycling as well as recycling symbols
and elements.

Green tote bags

Similar to Recycling designs, green and environmentally-focused designs are a solid tote
bag design idea that works all year round. Green tote bag designs can also be messages
of protest, like “Ride More Bikes” for example.

Positivity tote bags

Tote bags make a great platform for expressing positivity quotes, whether they are about
self-care and empowerment, as well as messages of encouragement for others. Positivity
quote designs oftentimes feature beautiful letterings and bright colors, but can also lean
towards minimalistic designs as well.

Abstract tote bags

When creating a collection of tote bag designs, consider developing a collection of
abstract designs since they’re popular for people of all ages. Abstract designs, when done
properly, can be easy to make using basic elements such as circles, triangles, and lines.

Minimalist tote bags

Minimalist designs are limited in terms of colors and shapes, oftentimes featuring only one
color and a small number of basic graphic elements. Some minimalist designs rely on only
one word or short quote, also in a minimalist typeface. These kinds of designs are more
fitting for stylish tote bags.

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Watercolor tote bags
Watercolor designs are one of the most pleasant and beautiful designs for tote bags,
making this one of the go-to styles to exploit when making tote bag designs. Watercolor
designs work best in multiple colors and when illustrating nature scenes and elements.

Japanese tote bags

Japanese t-shirt designs are not only fit for t-shirts, but Japanese design style can also
work awesomely for tote bags too. From Anime designs to ukiyo-e traditional Japanese art
style, Japanese designs can easily adapt to tote bags, turning them into fashion items.

Lettering tote bags

Lettering quote designs are among the most popular tote bag designs, as there are many
ways of using this design resource on this product, for example, quotes like “Carrying my
hopes and dreams” can be very fitting for a tote bag. For some lettering designs you can
rely on cool fonts you can use commercially, but in this case, we would recommend you
get professional lettering work, or check out ready-made lettering designs that you can
edit online.

Vintage tote bags

Vintage designs are a classic type of design (pun intended) that makes use of very
ornamental elements and old school typefaces together with grungy and vintage-like
effects to make the designs look old and worn. Elements like ornamental frames, arrows,
and lines work great, and old school-type of designs are a staple for this kind of aesthetic.

Retro tote bags

Retro designs feature elements usually from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, so there are plenty of
styles and elements to pick from, like retro sunsets, vintage cartoons, hippie floral patterns,
neon cassette tapes, and tons of others.

Geometric tote bags

Tote bags with geometric elements may fall into different categories we have mentioned
earlier, and we wanted to reinforce the idea of using geometric elements in general, since
they are very practical and easy to design with while staying creative at the same time.

Pattern tote bags

Unlike with t-shirt designs, pattern designs are a type of design that works perfectly on tote
bags, since they are mostly used as accessories and fashionable items. Patterns are more
natural to use on plain, geometric canvases like mugs and tote bags.

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Food tote bags
One of the uses tote bags have is for grocery shopping, and food designs fall naturally into
this category. Food elements like veggies, fruits, and dairy products can easily be adopted
into grocery tote bags, and health & nutrition quotes are also more than welcome in this
kind of design.

Nature tote bags

Nature and outdoor lovers can also be tote bags due to being an environmentally-friendly
element in the long run, so think about elements for nature designs or referring to outdoor
activities like fishing, hiking, or going on a picnic, just to name a few.

Beach tote bags

Tote bags are a perfect item to take to the beach, making beach designs a no-brainer
when it comes to tote bag design ideas. Quotes about the beach or about summer work
great, and elements like fruits, umbrellas, waves, and the sun have many style options to
choose from.

Animals tote bags

Everyone loves animals, and animal designs are present in nearly every type of print-on-
demand product, including tote bags. Animal tote bag designs outside cats and dogs
include animals like bears, deers, and birds, usually in hand-drawn fashion, with a hipster-
like style.

Flowers tote bags

As with animal designs, floral designs are also a great design idea that’s sought-after by
many sellers. Indie-style artwork is great for flowers, and some of the best floral designs
come from professional illustrators. Other styles like watercolor also work like a charm for
this kind of design idea.

Low Content KDP Design Ideas

“KDP” stands for “Kindle Direct Publishing”, and it’s Amazon’s self-publishing platform, where
you can create either ebooks for Kindle or paperback books. They even provide interior
and cover templates to calculate dimensions.

This means that you can upload your book to Amazon for free, sell it on their marketplace,
and collect royalty from its sales. Isn’t it great?

Low-content books, as the name suggests, are books with minimal or no content inside,
making them a popular choice among merchers. This simplicity and ease of creation have
made low-content books a favorite product to sell. With the help of a basic template, a
text editor like Word or Google Docs, and some PNG graphics, you can effortlessly create a
highly marketable and engaging product.

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These low content books are not limited to Kindle Direct Publishing. You can spread your
creativity even further by selling them on other popular marketplaces like Redbubble and
Etsy.

Here is a list of ideas for low content books:

Lined Notebooks
These are your classic lined notebooks used for writing and note-taking. Creating a
template for these products is really easy, and you can replicate this for any kind of
notebook you want. Another popular variation is grid notebook pages, where each page is
a grid made out of tiny squares.

Journals
Journals act as confidants and as therapy, but more on the daily tracking side of things,
and they come in many different sizes and forms; some are lined, some are grid style, and
there are even blank journals that allow for writing as much as for drawing. Whenever you
create these, think about making them a gift for whoever receives them.

Diaries
Much like Journals, Diaries are also a therapeutic aid to relieve thoughts, feelings, or just
to keep track of what goes down in life and reflect on it. Some publishers use a variety of
quotes to further appeal to buyers, and we wholeheartedly agree.

Coloring Book
One of the most popular low-content books comes in the form of coloring books, both for
kids as well as for adults. For kids, cartoon animals and characters are the way to go, while
adult coloring books prefer a more mature style of drawing. Examples of graphics for Adult
coloring books are mandala designs, plants, flowers, and abstract elements.

Logbooks
Logbooks are used to keep a record of important events and they’re usually filled daily.
They are mostly used for professional purposes, but it’s common to see fitness logbooks as
well, among other types.

Fitness journal
These make for awesome gifts at any time of the year. Motivation books are always a
great idea.

Food tracker
You can go deep into different niches based on different kinds of food or nutrition needs.
Weight loss goal tracker
There are many variations to weight loss trackers, some depending on objectives and
others depending on graphics, for example.

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Weight loss goal tracker
There are many variations to weight loss trackers, some depending on objectives and oth-
ers depending on graphics, for example.

Bullet journal
Bullet journals are very flexible, as they can pretty much take any shape or form.

Calendars
Also seen as Agendas, calendar books come in great as a way to organize your days or
activities.

Sketchbooks
Perfect for artist souls who only need a blank canvas. Sketchbooks are among the easiest
to make, as they usually don’t require any content at all.

Blank notepads
Like sketchbooks, blank notepads are also sought-after items for people who don’t like
following guidelines.

Activity books
There are too many to count, but here are a few ideas: Maze puzzle books, Funny quotes
book, Brain activities, Calligraphy books, Crosswords, Sudoku.

Planners
A very effective way to get stuff done, planners come in various formats and include many
different options like blank spaces, to-do lists, ruled sheets and more.

If you want to learn more about how easy it is to make a kdp design, we made a blogpost
covering step by step how to create a coloring book for KDP with ready made PNG designs.

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 F A S H I O N B R A N D S U P P LY C O .

CHAPTER 08
Building the store

As we reach the final chapter of this merch journey, it’s time to reflect on the key aspects of
setting up your merch store for success.

In this concluding section, we’ll cover a brief summary of how to set up your store, strategy
for effectively showcasing your designs, crafting winning product descriptions, and boost-
ing traffic to your store. By implementing these insights, you’ll be well-prepared to go back
to your merch store and attract new customers. So let’s dive into it and equip ourselves
with the knowledge to take your merch business to new heights.

Setting up your merch store

Throughout this guide, we have extensively covered the process of setting up a store on
popular platforms like Redbubble and Amazon Merch on Demand. However, as mentioned
earlier, there are numerous other marketplaces and eCommerce platforms available for
you to create your store.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” formula for creating a perfect store, as the process, features,
customization, and other aspects vary from one POD or e-commerce platform to another.
It’s essential to examine “the results of” each case individually. However, there are certain
steps that are repeated in most cases or are worth paying attention to. Here’s a rundown
of them.

The Store Information

The store information, including the store name and description plays a vital role in at-
tracting and engaging potential customers. It serves as the first impression and sets the
tone for your brand. A well-crafted store name can convey your unique identity, while a
compelling store description helps customers understand what you offer and why they
should choose you.

Tips for your store name:

• Think a name that reflects your products or service
• Consider the style, aesthetic and overall vibe of your products and try to capture the
essence
• Choose an easy name to remember and that stands out from competition
• Make sure it appeals to your target audience

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Tips for your store description:
• Introduce yourself or your brand and highlight what makes your products special
• Make sure the benefits, features and values offered are clear for current and future
users.
• Use descriptive language, engaging storytelling, and persuasive elements to make
your store description compelling and memorable
• Keep it concise and easy to read

The Store Look and Feel

The visual appeal of your store creates a sense of professionalism and trust. Investing
time and effort into refining these aspects of your store can significantly impact customer
perception and ultimately drive sales.

Some aspects to take into account:

• Make a logo that accurately represents your brand and style
• Incorporate elements like banners, graphics, or icons to enhance the visual appeal of
your store
• Create a cohesive visual theme by selecting complementary colors, fonts and layouts
for the overall shop appearance
• Use high-quality product images that showcase your offerings in an appealing way
• Organize your store layout in a logical and intuitive manner, making it easy for
customers to navigate and find what they’re looking for

Setting Up Prices
When it comes to setting up prices in your store, there are a few key factors to consider.

Royalties. Take into account any royalties or fees that the POD fulfillment company or
Marketplace may charge. This will help ensure that you set prices that cover both your
production costs and the platform’s fees.

Be Realistic. It’s important to be realistic about pricing, especially when you’re just
starting out. While it’s tempting to aim for high-profit margins, consider pricing your items
competitively to attract customers and establish your brand.

Pricing Strategy. Don’t forget to factor in shipping costs and taxes when setting prices.
Consider whether you’ll be offering free shipping or charging customers for it separately.
This decision will impact your pricing strategy and overall profitability.

Brand Positioning. Determine how you want your brand to be perceived in the market. Are
you positioning yourself as a premium, high-end brand or a more affordable option? Your
pricing should reflect your brand’s positioning and value proposition.

Competitive Analysis. Take some time to browse the internet and explore what similar
items are being sold for. This research can give you insights into market trends and help
you determine a reasonable price range for your products.x

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Profit Margins. Set realistic profit margins that allow for growth and sustainability.
Consider your business goals, overhead costs, marketing expenses, and the amount of
effort you put into each sale. Aim for a balance between competitiveness and profitability.

Crafting winning product descriptions

Making captivating product descriptions is crucial for merch sellers. These descriptions not
only inform potential buyers about the product’s unique features but also use strategic
keywords to enhance discoverability. A well-written description grabs attention, creates a
connection, and convinces customers to make a purchase.

So let’s see the most important steps to build one:

Master the Art of Keywords

In any online marketplace or search engine, keywords play a vital role in making your
products discoverable. This means that before writing your description, conducting
thorough keyword research is essential to seamlessly incorporate them.

Striking the right balance with keywords is essential in your description, as overcrowding
it with excessive keywords can be counterproductive. Instead, it’s important to prioritize
using specific and relevant keywords.

To delve deeper into keyword research, refer back to Chapter 3 of the Amazon Merch on
Demand Guide or Chapter 5 on How to Perform Keyword Research.

Write an Optimised Title

The title holds utmost importance in your Merch description. Whether you’re crafting
a description for a t-shirt or a mug, the title serves as the main point that captures the
reader’s attention amidst a sea of other products, compelling them to explore further,
while also helping the product being found.

It’s crucial to include relevant keywords in your title, but it’s equally important to strike a
balance and avoid cramming it with an excessive number of keywords that may appear
spammy. Craft a title that is concise, engaging, and effectively communicates the
essence of your product to entice potential customers.

Writing Accurate Content

Imagine coming across a product description riddled with mistakes, typos, and
grammatical errors. It’s highly likely that you would quickly lose confidence in the product
and seek alternatives elsewhere. This highlights the crucial significance of crafting product
descriptions with utmost care and attention to ensure they are of the highest quality. By
presenting well-written and error-free descriptions, you establish trust and credibility
with potential customers, increasing the likelihood of them choosing your product over
competitors.

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Highlighting the Key Features
Moving onto the actual product description itself, the first thing you’re going to want to do
is making sure you detail the key features of the Merch.

Within this; you’ll want to include considerations like:

• Target audience: Who is the product for?

• Purpose: What purpose does the merch have?
• Use: What kind of situation would the merch be worn?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to create a well-structured product

description that effectively communicates the necessary information to your readers.

For instance, you can craft a description that highlights the unique qualities of your Merch
and how it caters to the needs and preferences of your intended audience.

Specifying technical details

Including technical details and specifications in your product description is crucial for
providing potential customers with essential information about the product. By clearly
stating the technical features, dimensions, materials, and other relevant details, you
establish transparency and build trust with your audience. Detailed product descriptions
not only help customers make informed purchasing decisions but also minimize the
likelihood of returns or misunderstandings.

Remember to present the technical information in a concise and easy-to-understand

manner, ensuring that it complements the overall description and highlights the unique
selling points of your product.

A/B Test
It’s always a great idea to A/B test your descriptions and write multiple versions to test
which works the best for you continuously. With an ongoing process such as this; you’ll be
able to sell the highest amount of merch products, guaranteeing your business’ success!

Showcasing your designs

When it comes to selling your merchandise and building your store, showcasing your
designs in an appealing way plays a crucial role. While some POD platforms restrict you to
using their provided mockups, there are others that offer you the freedom to choose. This
is where mockups become your best solution.

By using mockups, you can present your designs in realistic products or settings that help
potential customers visualize how the design will look in real life. To create one you can use
PSD Mockups or a Mockup Generator.

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Mockups allow you to customize and experiment with different colors, backgrounds,
and even models or environments to create a captivating visual representation of your
merchandise. A Mockup Generator does exactly the same but Online, you don’t need any
additional software.

At Vexels, we offer two options for mockups: downloadable PSD mockups and our
preferred choice, the Online Mockup Generator. This tool offers a seamless editing
experience, allowing you to customize various aspects such as product colors,
backgrounds, model positions, and more. With a vast library of mockups available for
every product, all created in-house by our team, you can be confident in the high quality
and professional look of your designs.

Boosting traffic to your store

You’ve set up your store, created stunning products with appealing mockups and
compelling descriptions. Now, the next crucial step is driving traffic to your store. While
some POD platforms may generate some incoming traffic, it’s important to make your
products even more discoverable. And if you have your own ecommerce store, the
effort to attract traffic becomes even more essential. Let’s explore effective strategies to
enhance the visibility of your store and increase its reach.

Make good use of Social Media

Social media is one of the most powerful tools for driving traffic toward your store. You can
start by creating profiles on at least two or three social media sites that are popular with
your target demographic (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc.), post content regularly
that is engaging and relevant to what you’re selling, and use hashtags to increase visibility.
Also, consider running paid advertisements on these sites – it can be an effective way
to reach a larger audience than organic posts alone. You can also try joining relevant
Facebook groups or forums; this can help establish good relationships with potential
customers while providing valuable feedback regarding your products/services.

Utilize SEO Strategies

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is another great way to drive traffic toward your store.
This involves researching keywords related to what you sell, then using those words in
your titles, descriptions, product pages, blog posts, and other content you create. Doing
this will make sure that search engines like Google recognize and prioritize your content
when users search for related terms. The URLs of your store and product pages should
also be SEO-friendly, meaning they should include relevant keywords and be easy to read.
Remember that in SEO it takes some time to start seeing results so be patient!

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Create Content That People Want to Share

One of the best ways to get people interested in your store is by creating content that
gets shared. Whether it’s blog posts, videos or podcasts, creating something valuable that
people want to share will not only increase your visibility but also help build trust among
potential buyers.

Implement Ads & Paid Campaigns

Paid campaigns can help bring more attention directly towards your website if done
correctly – platforms such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads offer great opportunities for
targeting very specific audiences based on age, location, interests, etc., so take advantage
of these services when appropriate.

Here’s some tips to make your Ads even better:

Know your audience

The first and most important step in creating effective ads is to gain an understanding
of who you’re targeting. Take some time to research different demographics and identify
who would most likely be interested in your product or service. Knowing what motivates
them, what their goals are, and what topics they like can help you craft an ad that speaks
directly to them.

Understand your benefits & offerings

Once you know who you’re talking to, it’s time to consider what kind of benefits or offerings
you want to highlight in your ad campaigns. Think about the unique selling points of your
merch – why should customers shop at your store versus competitors? What makes it
stand out? If you have unique features such as discounts make sure they’re highlighted
prominently in both visuals and text.

Make it eye-catching
Now it’s time to design! The first step in creating an ad is making sure it stands out from
the rest. You want your ad to be eye-catching and attention-grabbing so that it catches
people’s interest and makes them click on it.

Some ways to do this are incorporating bright colors, playful fonts, and modern design
elements to draw attention. In addition, use creative visuals like photos or videos to create
a striking message that stands out from the competition. Always use high-quality images:
advertisements with these images tend to perform better than those without. Make sure
the images you use are clear, well-lit, and show off your products in the best possible way.
Lastly, use short statements that are easy to understand and remember.

Pay attention to copywriting

Copywriting plays an important role in any successful advertisement. The words used
should be catchy and persuasive enough to convince viewers to shop at your store.

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Make sure that the headline is particularly eye-catching since that’s often the first
thing people see when they come across an ad. Moreover, keep the copy according
to the recommended length stated in each platform and make sure the text you write
includes keywords relevant to your ad. This last aspect is crucial as it not only increases
the chances of your ad being seen by potential customers but also allows platforms
to recognize its relevance to specific user searches, resulting in improved visibility and
effectiveness of your campaigns.

Test different ad formats

There are many different ad formats you can use, such as text ads, image ads, video ads
and diverse options within each platform or social media. Try testing different formats to
see which ones perform the best for your store. By following these tips and best practices,
you can create effective ads that will help your store stand out and reach the right
audience! Keep in mind that advertising is a continuous process; you should continuously
monitor and optimize your ads, keeping track of the performance and making
adjustments as necessary. Remember to be persistent in your efforts to optimize your ads
and reach your target audience.

Wrapping Up
Congratulations on completing the Merch Guide! You’ve gained valuable insights into the
world of print on demand and learned the fundamentals of building a successful merch
business. It’s time to embark on your print on demand journey and start earning passive
income.

Remember, building a thriving print on demand business takes time and patience. It may
require several attempts and iterations before you find the winning formula. But rest
assured, the effort is worth it. Just like our user, Ryan, who grew his business to achieve
significant success.

At Vexels, we’re here to support you every step of the way. We provide the tools, resources,
and answers to your questions as you navigate the print on demand landscape. Whether
you need help with designing eye-catching graphics, getting merch data, discovering
the best keywords and niches, building your own store, or anything else related to merch,
we’ve got your back. Our goal is to simplify the merch selling process and provide you with
everything you need to succeed.

From understanding the basics of passive income and print on demand to picking
the right platform, optimizing your designs, and building your store, you now have a
comprehensive understanding of the key aspects of the merch business.

So, take the plunge, unleash your creativity, and embrace the world of print on demand.
Success comes with persistence and continuous improvement. We believe in your
potential and can’t wait to see you achieve remarkable results in the print on demand
industry.

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 HELPFUL LINKS

AMAZON Google Ads

Keywords Everywhere
Amazon Merch on Demand
Keyword Surfer
Amazon Product Templates
Merch Informer
Amazon Best Seller Rank Guide
Merch Report
Amazon Image Upload Best Practices
Merch Dominator
Amazon Merch on Demand Content
Merch Data.io
Policies
redbubble.dabu.ro
Amazon Guide to Merch Product Quality
topbubbleindex.com
Amazon Ads
insightfactory.app
Kindle Direct Publishing
bubblescout.com
Kindle Interior Templates

Kindle Cover Calculator ONLINE GROUPS

Merch Momentum
REDBUBBLE
Amazon Merch on Demand Mastermind

Redbubble Selling Page Amazon Merch Reddit

Redbubble Design Dimensions

TRADEMARK CHECK
Redbubble Design Templates
United States Patent and Trademark

TOOLS & EXTENSIONS Office (USPTO)

European Union Intellectual Property

Productor for Merch by Amazon
Office (EUIPO)
DS Amazon Quick View
World Intellectual Property Organization
Pretty Merch
(WIPO)
Google Trends
Etsy Intellectual Property Policy

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 HELPFUL LINKS

VEXELS

Merch Digest

Merch Quote Generator

Print Ready Designs

Design Templates

T-Shirt Design Templates

Custom Design

Online T-Shirt Maker

Online Mockup Generator

PNG Designs

DESIGN LISTINGS

Mug Designs

Poster Designs

Phone Cases Designs

T-Shirt Designs

Throw Pillow Designs

Tote Bag Designs

Low Content KDP Designs

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