12 Tips BEFORE Starting Print On Demand (Beginner Etsy Shop 2025 Guide)

About this video

The creator critiques submitted print-on-demand Etsy shops using a framework of 12 principles, with the first six in this video and the last six linked elsewhere. She introduces herself as an Etsy seller of over seven years who claims over a million dollars in profit on the platform and more than ten years in corporate e-commerce, now teaching thousands of sellers. Reviewing the Kaminsky brand shop with 22 listings and two sales, she says mockups and designs lack brand alignment and cohesion, the target customer is unclear, design scale varies between mockups breaking trust, and SEO, pricing strategy, site merchandising, mobile and Pinterest optimization are missing; a heart sweatshirt might fit a young college girl better than the male models shown. A second shop with 300 sales, 469 listings and open since 2018 is told a good starting goal is 100 sales a month, its banner does not reflect its best work, and it should prune older weaker designs as it adds new ones rather than chasing disconnected trends. A shop with 231 listings and 13 sales, with a pixelated banner and no logo, is warned that Grinch and Sonic wrapping paper might not be allowed, and that shops under 100 sales should not chase holidays because traction lasts only six to eight weeks. A crochet print-on-demand shop with 151 listings, 34 sales since 2014, is said to lack proof of concept for its tan crochet, specific font and white background, should test variations, use her seven types of products framework, and never call out ‘print on demand’ as a selling feature.

Key takeaways

• Maintain strong brand alignment and cohesion between mockups, designs and a specific profitable customer segment, with consistent design scale
• Prune older, weaker designs as you add new ones; do not let pages of early work dilute a shop with hundreds of listings but low sales
• Shops under 100 sales should not chase holidays, because the creator says listing traction for holidays lasts only six to eight weeks
• Do not present ‘print on demand’ itself as a value proposition, and do not focus heavily on one look without proof of concept from sales
• Repeated gaps across shops were broken SEO, no pricing strategy, no site merchandising, and listings not optimized for mobile or Pinterest

Episode details: published March 14, 2024 · 8:31 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dylan Jahraus’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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