You may be wondering why I’ve chosen Zazzle to produce our tee shirt designs. I mean, I could produce them myself or use other online services.
Producing Our Own
As much fun as that sounds (and that is sarcasm, by the way) it is not my cup of tea. Or should I say tee.
The equipment to print a good quality image on cloth is very expensive, as is having the place to use it. Then there is inventory, shipping, collecting payments, nothing but work, work, work all the time. All I want to do is the designs and the marketing.
Print on Demand
Well, I did a bit of research into the Print on Demand (aka POD) marketplace and there are a lot of options out there. And they all have something to offer.
Some of them are drop shippers who will print and ship the finished product. You need to create your own storefront. This is great for a company with an existing storefront that wants to add the tee shirt line. But still too much work on the front end for my liking. Not when there are options!
So I focused on those that allow you to create a design within their storefront. They take care of the sales process, production and shipping. They take care of customer service, returns, etc. All I need to do is design and promote.
So, Who Did I Look At?
I was really surprised at how many shops are out there. I looked at almost a dozen (and I didn’t look at all of them) But the big names seemed to be Zazzle, Teespring and Cafe Press. Not that there is anything wrong with the other options out there, but these were the ones that stood out to me.
I’d tried using Zazzle a couple years ago and it was a bit complicated to navigate, but I did have the account set up. So after a short experiment with Teespring, I decided to focus everything on Zazzle for now. The Teespring store is still up, but no new designs are going to be added there. Plus some of the designs were tweaked when I copied them to Zazzle.
There are lots of other sites out that that I will eventually add storefronts to, so check the list at the bottom of the page for more info there.
Advantages of Zazzle
- They allow more complex designs – more than 10 colours in an image.
- They have a broad range of products to put the design on. And not just clothing.
- Customers can order and have it shipped right away. No waiting for campaigns to finish.
- Customers can customize the product! Add their own name or an extra image.
- A strong affiliate program means that others can easily promote our designs.
- International storefronts are automatically populated so people around the world can shop locally.
If you’re interested in learning more about selling on Zazzle as a designer or affiliate (or both) you can get more info at Make Money Online With Zazzle.
And make sure to let me know if you create a product I can promote!
Other Sites I Sell On
I don’t limit myself to selling in only one place. That gives you (and me) options. This is a list of other sites where you can find LoneWolfMuskoka designs!
- TeePublic is now part of our sales force. Check out Why TeePublic?
- Many of my designs are now available at RedBubble.
- TeeSpring has many of my designs but I don’t plan to add new designs there unless I start seeing some sales happen.
