How To Print On Demand

In The Beginning

I opened my first Zazzle store about a year and a half ago - after being made redundant. 

I didn’t know anything about it, I hadn’t even heard of it at that point but learning how to use Photoshop Elements, publishing designs and working out how to market them, proved to be a great way to stop myself from being driven to distraction by boredom.

Lesson 1 - Keep Making Stuff

At first I started with some fairly basic designs, none of which were very good and I have steadily deleted most of these earlier designs because, as I’ve developed more skills, I think my work has gotten better.

The point is that unless you stick with it, you won't get any better and that goes for designing through to publishing and marketing. Zazzle is a massive site with an enormous range of options and I’m still learning new things everyday. 

Lesson 2 - Don’t Give Up Too Soon

I waited nearly three months for my first sale.

It was a postcard and I think my commission on the sale was .50 cents but the value didn’t matter because someone, somewhere liked what I was doing enough to pay for it - I was over the moon.

After that sale I made another, a few days later, and then nothing for another month but those first sales spurred me on to design more.

My average commission on sales is currently $4.10 and sometimes I don't make a sale for weeks but a year ago my average commission was $1.35 and I could go several months without a sale - stick with it and sales will improve.  

Lesson 3 - Tell Your Friends

In hindsight, it’s easy to understand why my first sales took so long. The Zazzle marketplace boasts something like four million designs and no matter how good your design is, no-one is going to find it unless you tell people it’s there.

Start a Facebook page, Pinterest board or free blog for your store - do all three but don’t forget to tell your friends and family and ask them to share your page with their friends. I’m no expert but Google rankings are determined by activity - page visits, shares and likes etc… the amount of people interacting with your social media online, determines where Google will rank them in their search results. 

Next: How to create a store and upload designs