How to Start a Print-on-Demand Side Hustle from $0 (Step-by-Step Tutorial)
Let's be real: you're not going to make a million dollars overnight with print-on-demand (POD). Anyone who tells you that is selling you a fantasy. What I can give you is a realistic, step-by-step guide to setting up a successful side hustle starting with zero dollars.
I've been running side hustles for 25 years. Some have become very successful, and some blew up in my face. I'm going to share what worked for me and how you can repeat those same steps to find success.
Print-on-demand is an incredible business model for a reason: you only pay for a product after a customer orders it.
The 3 Keys to Your Success Framework
Before we dive into the details, let's establish the three core pillars of a successful POD business. Every decision you make should fall into one of these categories:
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A winning product. This is a product that's already in demand, with a healthy profit margin and a specific audience.
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A great design. Your design is what makes your product unique and helps you stand out in a crowded market.
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Paying customers. You need to be where your ideal customers are already shopping.
Now, let's break down each key.
Step 1: Find a Winning Product
Success with print-on-demand truly comes down to two things: picking the right product category and creating a design that sells.
Start with a Single Niche
When you're first starting, it’s crucial to focus on one product category until you're bringing in a steady income. Mastering a single niche helps you refine your entire process, from creating designs to writing listings.
It’s also important to limit variations in the beginning. Too many options can overwhelm both your customers and you as the shop owner. I learned this the hard way when I tried offering sweatshirts, t-shirts, and phone cases all at once. Honestly, it was a mess. It's much easier to build a strong foundation with one clear, best-selling item and grow from there.
For my shop, that starting point is personalized engagement and wedding gifts, with a focus on ornaments. From my research, I found that personalized ornaments are a huge hit during the holiday season. My plan is to build momentum through the winter holidays and then branch out into other personalized wedding items for Valentine’s Day and beyond.
Focus on Profit Margins
Be careful with low-price items like mugs, t-shirts, or notebooks. These can be profitable, but only if you have the traffic to sell them in large volumes. When you’re just starting out, it’s better to focus on products that can bring in a healthy profit even with lower sales.
Always keep an eye on your profit margins. Aim for at least 20-30% or more. This gives you room to reinvest in marketing, improve your designs, and scale your shop without constantly chasing high-volume sales just to break even.
For example, I priced my ornament at $20.43. The product cost is $6.22 and the Etsy fee is $2.39. I also offer free shipping, which is prioritized by Etsy listings, and averages about $4.00. This leaves me with a total profit of $6.13 per ornament, which is a 30% margin and gives me room to run a few ads to drive traffic.
Your biggest takeaway here is to choose items with strong margin potential.
Step 2: Create a Great Design
Now that you know what products you’ll be making, the next step is to create some great designs. I like to keep my process simple and use two main tools.
Canva
Canva is a beginner-friendly design tool packed with ready-made templates, fonts, and graphics. I can quickly create quotes or simple illustrations and then export them with a transparent background—perfect for print-on-demand.
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Pros: Easy to learn, lots of free design elements, and no need for advanced graphic design skills.
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Cons: Because it's so popular, some graphics can look a bit generic. You need to double-check that the elements you use are licensed for commercial use.
Gemini in Google's AI Studio
I use Gemini to generate simple but unique design ideas—things like custom patterns or creative layouts that would take me a lot longer to make by hand.
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Pros: It’s fast, great for sparking new ideas, and helps you create more original designs.
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Cons: AI can occasionally produce designs that need editing to meet print quality standards, and you'll still want to tweak the results to match your brand.
By mixing these two tools, you can create designs that are both eye-catching and unique while keeping your workflow quick and manageable.
Step 3: Choose Your Print-on-Demand Partner
Choosing a print-on-demand (POD) provider is a decision that can make or break your shop.
Quality Over Price
It’s tempting to pick the cheapest supplier, but the lowest sticker price often leads to the highest headaches: lost orders, misprints, slow shipping, or poor customer service. A small bump in cost is worth it if it protects your reputation and keeps customers happy. A refund for a bad product quickly erases any savings you might have made.
Why I Like Printify
For my shop, I use Printify because it offers a great balance of affordability and quality. Here’s why it works for me:
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Large network of print partners worldwide, which helps keep shipping times shorter for customers.
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Competitive base prices so you can maintain a healthy profit margin.
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Wide product catalog—from apparel and mugs to ornaments and home décor—making it easy to expand.
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Easy integrations with marketplaces like Etsy and Shopify, so orders flow automatically.
Simple Workflow Demo
Here’s how straightforward it can be:
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Pick your product. I start with ornaments because they’re simple: one size, one color, and they make perfect personalized gifts.
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Upload your design. Use the transparent PNG from Canva or your AI-generated artwork from Gemini.
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Position and preview. Use Printify’s mockup tool to see how your design looks on the product.
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Connect to Etsy. Once linked, every order a customer places will be automatically sent to Printify for printing and shipping.
By keeping the process simple and starting with a single product type, you can focus on perfecting your designs and customer experience before expanding.
Step 4: Find Paying Customers on Etsy
You need a storefront to sell your items, and that’s where Etsy comes in. While you could start your own site on Shopify, you'd be entirely responsible for driving all the traffic to your items. For beginners, Etsy is a better option because it has a built-in audience.
I’m starting my shop on Etsy for three key reasons:
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Built-In Buyers. Etsy already has a massive audience—around 460 million visitors every month—who are actively searching for unique and personalized gifts. This gives me a head start while I'm still learning what designs sell.
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Powerful Research & Selling Tools. Etsy isn’t just a marketplace; it has an entire ecosystem of tools that help sellers succeed. I use tools like Everbee, which helps creators and print-on-demand sellers discover best-selling products by analyzing data from over 180 million listings on Etsy.
3 Everbee helps me:
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Find Winning Products: I can see what's actually selling and find products with proven demand before I even create a design.
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Validate Product Ideas: Instead of guessing, I can see the real sales data behind a niche to validate whether it's worth pursuing.
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Analyze Competitors: I can "spy" on top-selling shops to see what designs, keywords, and tags are working for them.
With these insights, I can design ornaments that already have proven demand and make sure my listings rank well in search results. You can check it out for yourself at everbee.io/store/?via=renee-clancy.
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Low-Risk Way to Validate Designs. Because Etsy charges only about 20 cents per listing, I can upload hundreds of designs for a relatively low cost and quickly see which ones resonate. It’s the perfect testing ground. Once I know which products are consistent sellers, I can confidently scale to my own Shopify store.
Step 5: Market Your Shop (Organically First)
When it comes to marketing, always start organic first—before you ever spend a dollar on ads.
Create short-form content for platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. Focus on telling a story about your product. People love seeing how something fits into real life, not just a static listing photo.
The best tip I can give is to order a few of your own products directly from your Etsy shop. Use them in your social media posts and as photos for your listings. Shoppers love to see the actual product in use—it builds trust and gives your shop a more personal, professional feel. Plus, ordering samples lets you double-check the quality of what your customers will receive.
Once you’ve tested different videos and photos and you can see which ones resonate, then you can amplify your winners with paid ads to supercharge your reach. This way, you’re putting ad dollars behind content that’s already proven to engage your audience.
A Final Word on Mindset
Don't get distracted by big revenue numbers; protect your margins first. It doesn’t matter how many sales you make if your profit is razor-thin. I keep a close eye on my costs and regularly divide my monthly profit by the hours I’ve put in. It’s the best way to see if my side hustle is actually paying me what my time is worth.
And about the idea that the market is “too saturated”? I just don’t buy it. There’s no such thing as a quick buck here—you have to put in the work. Success comes from being better or different, not from finding some secret loophole. I focus on research, keep adding and testing designs, and I’m not afraid to put up hundreds of listings to see what sticks.
Side hustles aren’t dead; they just require persistence. If you keep sharpening your skills and consistently show up, you can carve out your own space no matter how crowded the market feels.
What's the one step you're most excited to take first?