In 2014, he was making $85,000 a year as a full-time web developer. Although I was earning enough to cover my living expenses, I felt that I was spending too much time at work.
I knew there were opportunities to earn passive income in e-commerce. So in 2016, after experimenting with “dropshipping” (a business model where sellers don’t need to have any products in stock), I found a reddit post that inspired me to start a print-on-demand side job.
Print-on-demand allows me to sell t-shirts while outsourcing the printing, packaging, and shipping to a third-party vendor. By 2020, I made enough money to quit my job and focus on taking care of my side job full time.
Today, at 33, I earn an average of $14,600 a month in passive income from my print-on-demand business. The best part is that I only work on it an hour a day.
How I got started with no design experience
My first t-shirt design was a poorly drawn Loch Ness monster. I started out using Adobe Photoshop, but found it too difficult to navigate without any formal training.
now i use every sunset, creative factory Y vexels to create my designs. These sites are great for print-on-demand sellers who don’t have a lot of graphic design experience because they can download artwork for commercial use, rather than create it on their own.
Membership prices for All Sunsets start at $59/year, Creative Fabrica at $4/month, and Vexels at $22/month.
When coming up with layouts, I research which keywords are popular with customers using the DS Amazon Quick View Y nice merchandise Chrome extensions. Sometimes I make t-shirts inspired by pop culture moments and upcoming events.
When coming up with layouts, Ryan researches which keywords are popular with customers using the DS Amazon Quick View and PrettyMerch Chrome extensions.
Photo: Ryan Hogue
How do I earn passive income through print on demand?
About 50% of my passive income comes from Amazon merchandise on demand, where I sell most of the items. I like this platform because you don’t have to pay money up front for inventory.
The process is simple:
- Create a t-shirt design and save it as a PNG file (a high-quality graphic file format).
- Upload your artwork to Amazon Merch on Demand.
- Choose the type of product and add a description.
- Amazon then creates a 3D Representation of what the shirt would look like in real life.
- Amazon creates a product listing on Amazon.com, making the design available to purchase.
- Every time a customer makes a purchase, Amazon handles production, shipping, and customer service.
Amazon Merch sellers earn a royalty rate between 13% and 37%, depending on product type and listing price. Amazon has default list prices that sellers can choose from.
My best selling product is a standard t-shirt. I charge $19.99 per t-shirt and earn a 26% royalty fee per sale, which equates to $5.23 in profit. Amazon keeps the rest.
In addition to t-shirts, I sell my designs on hoodies, sweatshirts, mugs, hats, and other accessories like stickers and phone cases. I always list my products for at least a $5 profit per sale, but I sell larger items like hoodies for a $10 profit.
Another platform I use is Printful, which is similar to Amazon Merch on Demand and is a cheap way to get my products in front of more people. Print, package and ship designs that I list on eBay and Etsy. It costs $0 to list a design on eBay and $0.20 to list a design on Etsy.
A little creativity and a lot of drive will take you far
During the hours I work, I mainly create new designs, publish products and learn tools that will help me further automate my business.
I have also started a YouTube channel and created online courses to share my knowledge. I want people to know that you don’t need a graphic design degree to be successful in the print-on-demand business. They just need a little creativity and a lot of push.
ryan hogue is a former web developer and adjunct professor who quit both jobs to run his e-commerce business. Their Youtube channel teaches people how to earn passive income using the “Ryan Method”.
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