---
title: 'How I Would Start Print on Demand Business In 2026 (If I Could Start Over)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=DuHpmO_gb0I'
video_id: 'DuHpmO_gb0I'
date: 2026-07-12
duration_sec: 804
---

# How I Would Start Print on Demand Business In 2026 (If I Could Start Over)

> Source: [How I Would Start Print on Demand Business In 2026 (If I Could Start Over)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DuHpmO_gb0I)

## Summary

This video provides a step-by-step guide for beginners to start a successful print-on-demand (POD) business quickly. The creator, Mac, shares strategies for product selection, design creation, store setup, branding, email marketing, and free traffic generation based on his experience since 2020.

## Transcript

If I was going to start over with print on demand and set up a successful shop quickly, this is exactly what I would do. And I would keep it simple, but implement systems that actually work. I'm Mac and I've been a print on demand
seller since 2020 after losing my job, so I've learned a lot in this process. So, if you want to do something quickly and efficiently, my first tip is to pick be a mug, a journal, maybe a candle. And if I was a completely new beginner, I
would actually go with a product like a mug, because this across the board on Etsy, Amazon, even just shops on Google, is an incredible seller. It's evergreen. People buy mugs all the time for gifts, for specific niches. And if you're
wondering where to source the mugs, I use a print supplier called Printify. It is a print on demand company that prints, packs, and ships your print on [music] types of mugs, but again, to keep it simple, you want to just start
with one product and you can later expand on after you've actually set up your store or stores. Now, once you have your product that you're going to start with, the next thing that you need is a design, because a print on demand
product that is one going to sell and two looks good and has a customer base. that you're interested in and see if there's a demand already and people
actually buying in that niche already. Some examples of niches can be travel, pets, occupations, self-care, mental health, sports. There's really lots of demand is you can sell multiple different types of products on your
store later on just while changing out your designs that are niche specific. ahead and go to Etsy and see when you type things in if maybe that's coming popular now. That's a good sign that people are searching for that product
our niche specific design, which honestly used to be the hardest part for me. I think that designing in general is something that a lot of people get stopped at or they just assume their designs aren't good enough or they don't
know how to design, but luckily we have so many tools and resources that we can use to make incredible designs even if we have zero experience. And one of my favorite ways to do this is using something called Kittl Flows. You can
use a simple design that you create in just a few minutes using some text and maybe a few graphics and then use their AI flow boards to make a complete Etsy listing within Kittl. Yes, Etsy or any type of product listing within Kittl's
then further creating it into mockups for photos and video mockups and even social media posts for marketing all within one artboard. This is such a new
valuable feature. I absolutely love it. I'm not going to make this a full design tutorial, but I'm going to leave a design tutorial in the description for can really implement this strategy. Now, once you have your actual designs, you
can start uploading them to your products on Printify to then list on an online store. So, Printify is great because it actually integrates with a lot of different companies and website hosts. So, for example, two of my
favorites are Shopify and Etsy. And while they sometimes can seem like an e-commerce marketplace with active buyers already on the platform ready to shop. With that though, comes the side of there is also active competition and
Etsy ranking. Shopify on the other hand is a website host in which you will create your own standalone storefront to sell your products on. This is great to drive traffic to your standalone store because it's not on a marketplace
like Etsy where there's already built-in traffic. Being a seller of so many years, if you're really trying to scale, you can set up both of these stores very seamlessly and it really doesn't take that much time. Once you start uploading
products to your Printify account, those are saved and you can duplicate them to a separate store. So, for example, if you want to start out on Etsy because it's a marketplace and easier for beginners, you absolutely can. And once
you start uploading those products onto your Printify store that's synced with Etsy, you can later duplicate them, the same products, all the info, over to a people don't know this, but a great strategy is to have a standalone Shopify
website because you own complete ownership of it, you can scale it, you can even market it to people who have purchased from you on Etsy later on. And maybe going to get you some data for not having to actually outsource in
marketing. So, they're both a really gold system. Pretty much every Etsy seller I know that's successful also has a standalone store with the same products, but just with better branding. And it's very cool because Printify does
not charge you until you get a sale. So, you can sync both of these stores, list all of your products. You already have the assets from if you create using Kittl Flows like that. So, everything is pretty seamless in the upload process.
Printify also is going to do a lot for you. They do their new AI now, so it gives automatic details, titles, and descriptions for your actual product and even gives you suggested pricing based on the market, which is very helpful
because if you're new, it can be really hard to decide what you want to price with even as a season seller is figuring out what price point is good and whether can go ahead and hit publish and your product will be uploaded to either your
storefront or your Etsy shop in just a few minutes. [music] Now, with our branding, we want more than one sale, right? For a successful shop, we don't another sale again. And that's why it's important to have our branding on point,
to have products that are relatively within the same niche and our aesthetic, products or even buy more than one product at once in their cart. This is why offering different incentives and deals can be really beneficial. And one
of my favorite ways to do this, which is so underrated, is through pop-up methods and email marketing. I find a lot of sellers don't do this and I'm constantly screaming why, because it's something that has brought me so many sales and so
many repeat customers and a way to retarget people. So, we've all been a shopper ourselves where we go to someone's website and we really like an item and maybe we add it to the cart or maybe we click off because we're busy
and then we completely forget about the product until we maybe see it again. But time or that full decision in that moment. And so, put yourself in your buyer's shoes and figure out how you can implement on that and become a better
seller. Like I said, this can be done through a pop-up method followed by an email marketing campaign. And while this can sound intimidating to set up, it's really not complicated at all if you have the right system in place. So, what
a pop-up method is is essentially a way to get someone on your email list in exchange for an incentive. An incentive meaning free shipping, a discount off before a pop-up has come up and asked you to enter your info in exchange for a
discount. And most of the time, you will do it because we all love a discount and it helps us to want to buy something. Now, from the seller's perspective though, that's really great because now you have a way of contacting that
customer. Meaning, you can retarget them when they did what I was talking about purchase in the moment and forgot about it. Now, you can do this on Etsy through gathering people to your email list, but you can't do it directly by anyone who
purchases from your Etsy shop. You have to actually outsource them using maybe a QR code with a pack-in label in your products, which is a great idea, or having your Shopify store listed somewhere on your Etsy shop like in your
banner with even maybe a discount to entice the buyer to purchase off of your policies cuz they're constantly changing, which I will put a link to. So, how I like to do this is use what's called Omnisend. This is an email
marketing and SMS marketing platform. It does a lot of things and it's really great for anyone in the email marketing space even if you are brand new. So, you create a pop-up method that will automatically start collecting
welcome series flow, which will give that customer automated emails in a sequence of one, two, or three emails reminding them about your product if
they did not purchase. Setting this up on Omnisend is really user-friendly. customization, and as I mentioned earlier, sync it directly with your Shopify store. You can set up your pop-up followed by your welcome series
in just a few minutes. And then you can also put in different automations for if you want to set up an abandoned cart or a abandoned checkout or even if you want discounts that are coming up. These are all things that are available through
templates that are really beautiful and like I said, all customizable description for you to give it a try. And there also is a discount code there if you would like to sign up under money with Mac30 to get an additional discount
is incredible. Now, once you have your stores set up, something that I definitely recommend as well is a marketing strategy. So, a lot of people when they're selling on Etsy, kind of think about the fact of like, "Okay,
well, there's already built-in traffic, so I don't necessarily need external traffic." Which is true, but it doesn't hurt to put your products elsewhere and start marketing them to get more eyes. I personally grew an Etsy shop in the
early days of my Etsy journey through Pinterest and Pinterest marketing, so social media or on Pinterest, you can also use other mock-ups to then get people to your Shopify store as well. And this is really great because who
doesn't love free traffic? And we're in such a cool day now to where we can really post on anywhere for free without having to run paid ads. Sure, the traffic might be slower than a paid ad, but how cool is that that we really can
take advantage of a lots of free marketing strategies. One of them being, as I mentioned, email, and then also marketing through things that are free to post on like Pinterest or social medias like TikTok, Instagram, or
Facebook. I suggest starting out with one strategy first. Like, if you're going to start on Pinterest, go ahead and, you know, take your time to do that, schedule out your pins, and then maybe start posting on another social
media platform. It's more realistic and not going to take too much of your time by picking one strategy and scaling that and trying it out first, and then using what works there on another strategy like social media. And Pinterest is not
a social media, it is actually a search engine more closely related to Google. So, I find that maybe that's why that always works best for me rather than having to try to post things on social because they aren't exactly the nicest
do have a Pinterest marketing or a few videos on that, which will also be a lot, but it will all be down there for you organized so that you can check
journey. So, I just want to say that I know print on demand is not easy, and I am by no means trying to get that point across that it is. However, if you have
can be successful in this. I've done it, I've scaled multiple stores. I know so finish. I've seen friends of mine do it, other people in the industry. It is so
possible. The only thing stopping you is you and not putting the time into it. little bit of time to figure out how to maneuver everything on the websites, how
to figure out how to upload a listing, but these are all things you can find free tutorials on, even on my page as well, or anywhere else on YouTube or Google, TikTok, to just see someone else do it as a visual can be really helpful
business model is growing. It is one of the fastest online business models and scalable. The way that it's going to be growing even more in the next 5 to 10
it's something that I'm always telling people to get into if they're looking capped and have a ton of money required up front. So, if I were you, I would get
the momentum going. I would start now, even if you don't feel ready. Implement all these strategies and get to it because it really can be worth it. As for watching today's video. If you found it helpful, please leave me a like or
channel if you'd like to see more videos like this one. Thank you so, so much for watching. Happy selling, and I hope to see you in the next video.