Print on Demand for Artists: The Ultimate Guide to Turn Your Art into Cash

About this video

A guide for artists to turn existing artwork into income via print on demand, avoiding inventory and upfront printing costs by having products made only when ordered. Martinez walks through platforms that handle printing, shipping and (mostly) customer service while paying royalties and leveraging their organic traffic: Amazon Merch on Demand, Redbubble, Spreadshirt, TeePublic, and Etsy — which he rates neck-and-neck with Amazon for traffic but notes involves more customer-service work and a third-party print provider, recommending Gelato, whose catalog spans apparel, mugs, wall art, calendars, phone cases, tote bags and more and which also integrates with Shopify. He adds Kindle Direct Publishing for artists who can make coloring books and other low-content books, which Amazon prints and ships. For creating designs he lists free/low-cost tools including a free web-based Photoshop-like editor, Canva, Photoshop, Affinity Designer (which he notes he bought on a one-time sale) and a Merch Informer-style all-in-one research tool. He shows sample Gelato shirts with hand-drawn designs by artists on his team. The core advice is process: know who will buy the design and which niche/product it fits, then actually get one design live, learn the upload process, and scale from one to five to ten designs.

Key takeaways

• Print on demand lets artists sell worldwide with no inventory or upfront printing costs; platforms print and ship only when a fan orders
• Leverage marketplace traffic on Amazon Merch on Demand, Redbubble, Spreadshirt and TeePublic; use Etsy plus Gelato if you accept more customer-service work for your own shop
• Match each design to the right product and a clear buyer/niche — art people do not actually want will not sell however good it is
• Artists can also monetize line art through Kindle Direct Publishing coloring and low-content books printed and shipped by Amazon
• Get one design live first and master the process, then scale to five and ten designs; free or one-time-fee tools like Canva and Affinity Designer are sufficient to start

Episode details: published March 24, 2024 · 12:21 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

← Previous: No Competition Products Found: My Untapped Amazon Goldmine Revealed (Fluencer Fruit🍌) · Next: 5 Evergreen Niches You Must See With Low Competition →

All RJ Martinez videos · RJ Martinez profile · RJ Martinez on YouTube