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Print on Demand (POD) is a great passive income business for busy moms. You can create designs using a variety of programs and then upload them to your favorite POD site and list them for sale on any number of products.
Popular POD sites include Red Bubble, Zazzle, Tee Spring, TeePublic, Spreadshirt, CafePress, and Merch By Amazon. Plus there are tons more. You can also do print on demand through your Etsy site using sites like Printful, or Gear Bubble.
All you need to do is create a design using Canva, or Affinity Illustrator, or Photoshop. You can use commercial use images or fonts to create your design. I love graphics and fonts from Font Bundles and Design Bundles.
It’s important to make sure that you verify that you you have permission to use any fonts or graphics in your designs for commercial use. Sometimes there is an added fee for commercial use. Either way it’s definitely necessary to check.
Once you create your design you can upload it to your favorite POD site and list it for sale. I’d pick one site to start with. Look at the different sites you are considering and make sure that they offer the types of products you want to design. Then start designing away.
Below are my picks for popular items to start designing as we head into the holidays.
Holiday Greeting Cards
Holiday cards are popular every year, but especially this year when people may be unable to visit family and friends. You can can design cards using Canva and then upload them onto a site like Zazzle where customers can personalize them and the order the printed cards to be mailed out.
Holiday Party Invites
We may not be having big parties, but we can still make small get togethers feel festive. If you are quarantining with your neighbor or your grandma, you can invite them over for a small get-together with a cute invitation.
Holiday Home Decor
People love to make their homes feel festive for the holidays. You can design wall art, pillows, throws, picture frames, or ornaments. You can even use the same design on multiple items. Make a cute snowman design and put him on pillows, candles, mugs, and coasters.
Clothes
This time of year people aren’t just buying things for themselves, they are also buying gifts. You can design shirts and socks and leggings and dresses and hoodies to be gifted. Pop culture references are always great as well as items referencing someone’s profession.
Teacher Gifts
This is the time of year when parents start scrambling for gifts to send their kids’ teachers. This year we are especially thankful for our teachers who are learning new technologies and make so many changes to teach our kids during these crazy times. You can design plaques or mugs or notebooks or candles or keychains that can show your appreciation for all the teachers out there.
Masks
Now that we’re required to wear them, people love choosing fun and festive masks. You can design a collection of holiday themed masks to sell in your POD shop.
Other Gift Items
Other items you can design are hats, playing cards, posters, wrapping paper, nursery decor, golf balls, gym bags, blankets, totes and more. You can make a gardening design, put it on a variety of items and then tag it with the phrase “gift for gardeners” or “garden lover gift”. This will make it easier for people looking for gifts for gardeners to find them.
There are so many items you can design for sale this time of year. People love items that are for a specific interest or personalizable. When you don’t know what to get someone for the holidays, what do you go for? Their occupation. Their interests. Something sentimental. Pretend you are looking for a gift to buy someone and make items you would feel good about gifting.
Also, start listing right away, it can take some time for the items you create to become searchable and show up for the correct search terms. You want things listed as early as possible to get the most sales. So get designing!
Cheers,
Emily
