--- title: 'How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business: Complete Tutorial' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-00bCG6t2g' video_id: 'Z-00bCG6t2g' date: 2026-07-12 duration_sec: 2167 --- # How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business: Complete Tutorial > Source: [How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business: Complete Tutorial](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-00bCG6t2g) ## Summary This tutorial provides a comprehensive guide to starting a print-on-demand business, covering the three main business models, essential data analysis for design selection, and a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up an Etsy shop integrated with Gelato as the printing partner. The video emphasizes the importance of niche research and using tools like Kittle for design creation. ### Key Points - **Introduction to Print on Demand** [00:01] — The video will cover building a complete print-on-demand store, creating designs, and identifying which designs to create based on data analysis. - **Three Business Models** [00:27] — 1. Marketplace model (e.g., Spreadshirt) with no costs or returns. 2. Own online shop with higher margins but responsibility for returns. 3. Hybrid system combining both. - **How Print on Demand Works** [02:02] — Success depends on analyzing search queries and competition. Use tools like Alura Research App and E-Rank to evaluate niches. - **Calculating Niche Viability** [03:37] — Calculate the percentage of search volume relative to competition. A higher percentage indicates a better niche. Example: 619 out of 52,000 = 1.76%. - **Dealing with Competition** [05:09] — If entering a crowded niche, use paid ads or niche marketing (e.g., combining niches like motorcyclists and pensioners). Also consider niche transfer. - **Tools for Design and Production** [08:06] — Kittle for design templates with AI features; Gelato as printing partner with 140 printing sites in 32 countries for fast shipping. - **Using Kittle for Design** [09:41] — Kittle offers pre-made templates, fonts, vectors, and AI design generation. Start a new project with dimensions like 3200x4000 pixels. - **Setting Up Etsy Shop** [15:15] — Register on Etsy, pay €12 opening fee, choose shop name (e.g., 'Fishing Franks'), set currency and language, and provide bank details. - **Customizing Etsy Shop** [18:03] — Upload profile picture and banner created in Canva. Set terms and conditions, cancellation policy, and seller status to 'Dealer' for commercial operation. - **Connecting Gelato to Etsy** [25:13] — In Gelato, click 'Stores' and connect to Etsy by granting access. Then add products by dragging designs onto T-shirt mockups. - **Product Listing and Pricing** [28:55] — Add description and tags using keywords from successful listings. Set prices considering production costs (e.g., €7.30 for product + €3.99 shipping) and desired profit. - **Finalizing and Publishing** [33:04] — After publishing, products appear in the Etsy shop. Customers can choose color, size, and purchase. The system runs on autopilot. ### Conclusion By following this guide, you can set up a print-on-demand business with an Etsy shop and Gelato integration, allowing you to sell designs without inventory. Success hinges on thorough niche research and leveraging the right tools. ## Transcript learn how to start a Print on Demand business. That means I'm going to build a complete print-on-demand store. show you how to create the designs and how to find out which designs you should create. That means how to In this tutorial, however, I decided to do something else, namely to lay out the most important basics that you really need to run this business successfully. Let's begin demand are there? Firstly, there is the so-called marketplace model, or organic business. This means, for example, Spreadshirt, which and already have a customer base. There I can upload designs that are then shown on products, and when someone buys something, so we have no costs, no obligations, we do n't have to worry about returns, and these are all advantages that we have with the organic print on demand with its own online shop. Its advantage is and, of course, significantly increase the range of products . But then I have to take care of the returns, which then has to be weighed against each other a bit . The advantage is that I can sell , which is similar to selling a house – simply the sale of can sell with leverage. That means for more than what you currently do with it on a monthly basis. Then there is model number 3, for example for a hybrid system, a marketplace. You can run the whole thing passively by simply not advertising, because you already have customers. This is, for example, the Ezi a printing provider. You can also place advertisements there with the Esiads to give the whole thing a boost. And that brings us to the point you need to understand: you have to doing, the research and how you run it will be completely personalized products, where the customer basics cleared up. Let's get started. How does print on demand work? You must are absolutely essential. On the one hand, we have the search queries. How much or how often is there actually a search for a specific design or niche? And on the other side, we have the competition. How many competitors do we have? Depending on how you we have? Depending on how you you will be more successful when the circumstances are in your favor. and just design something random because they've found an AI that are lost. So, in print on demand, it's all about analyzing data, like Kevin Spacey in 21. To analyze this data , we use two or three significantly more tools. For this tutorial, I'll just make two or three examples for you to keep it simple. For example, I could use the Alura research app to first check when I can actually , because there are designs that sell all year round. But there are also seasonal designs that only sell, for example, either at the going on Father's Day, it's probably in May, or something like that. uh, May and that will obviously save you some work, because n't exactly clever. You should upload it around October or November , when the first sales start. But I also have the advantage that I can see, for example, the competition here. How much competition do I actually have, or what is my search volume in relation to the competition from my competitors? I've linked all the tools for you below. So here, for example, we have the score, which calculates whether it makes sense to go into this niche at all, want to calculate it manually yourself, which I will show you in a moment. However, there are also tools like E-Rank that I can use. So I just enter my keywords to see if it makes sense to search volume and my competition here, and if I now go to blitzrechner.de and simply enter that, what percentage is 619 out of 52,000 as an example? I've simply rounded it off here. Then you see, okay, that now has a percentage of 1.76. I suddenly have five, where I suddenly have 8%. So. And then it makes much more sense to go in there, for example . If there is absolutely no a reason why you're completely reinventing the wheel; that's relatively impossible or extremely rare. It usually doesn't make sense, so choose a different niche. The second thing you should be aware of is that if the search volume is too low, you won't be making enough sales In other words, you should perhaps choose a different niche . The higher the search volume and the lower the competition, the for dealing with the howlers? The complainers are always the ones who whine and say the blah blah, which can't actually be true , because the great thing is, every day new designs, new niches, new trends come into this business. They're just too stupid to find Trenze. But if you still decide to enter a crowded niche, there are two ways to go. Firstly, you can buy your way past people with an advertisement and then do later with the Zi Ads, uh, what I can show you briefly, or you can use manual methods, e.g., niche marketing . "Down niche" means, as you can see here, I have T-shirt designs that combine different niches, for example motorcyclists and pensioners. have retro gamers. And then there are subcategories. I can, for example, target anglers. Fishing is not a niche market. Anglers are simply a for example, float fishing. Float fishing is a subcategory of fishing with a casting rod, or deep sea fishing. So, these are subcategories of this main category, and this is a niche, a less crowded and this is a niche, a less crowded market, in other words, I just told you, and what's important, but still has search volume from people looking for it. I can also do a niche transfer , transferring a trend design that works well in one area to other generate sales there as well. There are quite a few things I want to show you another tool, namely the Flying Research tool. This is also quite nice for people who are new to this business . But you also have to be able to work with that. That means, for example, you can enter your niches here and run a niche analysis, then you'll see, okay, if it makes sense to focus on that value. There are, like ABC and so on, ABC and so on, the whole thing is worthwhile or not. Use the Flying Research tool (link below in the video description) and code Frank 20 for a 20% discount. on Bestsellers and you can directly select niches from there. You Enter once, and set the marketplace beforehand. And then you can see directly what I'm selling. Um, and you can pick out the designs you should make there. Here we're playing a for things that come up more often. The chance apparently proven itself in several variations . Well, if you only placed there, it's always questionable why they're there. It's possible did something and pushed it, which is why that one design is at the forefront. Take a close look at the fonts used, the colors used, and how the elements are arranged, which you will see later in the drawing tutorial. Okay, some you build a live print-on-demand business, click by click, and for that we'll use two or three things. The first one is a is Kittle. Kittle is a really great website. It has templates that we can use, pre-made designs that you own niche. You can change the text , you can change the images, you can even add something yourself using AI . I'll show you everything in a moment. And then we will upload this design to the Et Market with our partner, the one from today's video, namely Gelato. Gelato has the following advantage. It has 140 printing sites worldwide in over 32 countries. and can therefore send designs very quickly, or . This means that customers have the same feeling as if they were simply buying something from a large online shop and they do n't realize that it is being produced especially for them on order . Schlato That means when you look at the products, you really think, sold to a customer. That is also very, very important. Quality and shipping time are the main points that affect the customer, and that's where . And the advantage of Gelato is that with Gelato Plus you can even further reduce the production costs if you also use a subscription model to add the booster However, I can recommend it, as you will I use the Kittel website. The link is below in the video description. There's discount if you're in the t-shirt business . This tool is the number one tool you really need. Get this, because this thing has the following features. It has pre-made templates. It's like riding with training wheels for those who aren't designers. They can simply pick out pre- and then perfectly adapt these templates to their own needs. You can change the fonts, you can search for new vectors or new images that . You have the licenses for the fonts, the licenses for the images. You have all the AI ​​that's on the market for those who are so AI- crazy they absolutely want to do everything with AI now. That means you can have designs created there and you do n't need to includes everything and with which you can do everything. Okay, to start with Kittel , let's start a new project. That means we first choose a size that fits. Here you even have a pre-template from Print on then you already have all the important dimensions you need for the marketplaces use a classic like 3200 x 4000. I always use that sometimes; it works use any Amazon measurement, like the one I just used. Okay, let's begin. So first, I'll find a template here in the fishing niche to see wanted to create this design, born to fish, forced to go to school, thought, hey, wait a minute, there's this, um, this dad with his child. child school, that fits, but these text elements, I don't need them, click on it and press the delete key once , then I have it all. I . So, I can make it bigger, make it smaller, adjust it as I need, and also add new lines of text here. , for example this word "zum", we'll start with the first, um, row. I always keep them separate . Um, let me move this over to my main artboard, which I have here now. I've you can do that beforehand as well. Um, um, we want to adjust these lines of text a little bit now. Okay. And I'm doing that now by, for example, making these frames all the way to the end and then centering them. This way I can the center and I can now make the whole thing bigger here. Um, until it fits, that is . So, now I'm pasting, and I can simply type out the next lines here. Just type "Fishing" here and then I'll copy it again. Um, let's say we were born to fish, but forced to go to school. Okay, we can add the part below as well click up once, click out once, and then copy and paste using Command and C, Command and V. Uh, you can just insert that. Okay. And the font doesn't matter for now. For now, it's just entering the text so that the text fits. the text fits. usually where Frankie becomes a problem. So, and uh, once we have that, we can looking at the sizes a bit. Where are the elements anyway? Ah, look. Okay, bottom, and then we've size. So we'll adjust the whole thing a little bit now. And now you rearrange things so that the size fits. Now I can see I can make my picture here much bigger. Um, so, and then I can adjust the texts accordingly. So, an important thing to know when designing a t-shirt is, for example, that if this word is about fishing, then I will enlarge "Fishing", making it significantly larger than the other words so that it simply stands out more to the eye . The cooler. You'll see this in many designs, where the main niche is shown more directly. So, now we can select everything and then choose the font here. There are so incredibly many fonts available that you don't actually need to upload any new ones, because they are all proven print-on-demand basically take any one of them here. Everyone has their favorites. I do n't want to interfere too much, but just really take a look. For example, here it's a fun design, and a fun design often has rounded edges . So, on the uh there there are no hard uh letters, but funny. So, now I've I actually want to add a bit more background information here. Frankie is a few other templates where I think, oh cool, I find the background really nice, we can use that . You can also have something like this created for you using AI , so you can enter something and say, build me this and that, I want a river and that add that here later, but the question is, do I want it like that? It does I'm just using pre-made templates here, rather than spending ages writing text commands, but experiment as you like. Okay, I'll quickly adjust that one more time. Then we have a design that's not necessarily like that. The best part is that it's I just wanted to try something different, so I fishing buddy here, whom I met here. We've created designs, but now it's about currently building, where we're integrating the printing provider Gelato. Okay, so we'll start by registering here at Etzi. It's relatively easy. You can It's relatively easy. You can very quickly. Okay. And once we've done that, we click we've done that, we click on register. Okay, let's talk about leather for a moment. , but we can't sell yet; first we have to sell yet; first we have to So we now have an EZI account, but not yet an online shop. We can do that by clicking on "sell" in the menu click around a bit here now. Well, what's new is that there's an opening fee of €12 to deter all the scammers. Um, and that's why we're starting here. So, I already have an online store, we want to start. Open a shop. Okay, and now let's get started. . If you want to sell in English, you should the text and everything else will be in English . We're focusing on the German market for now. Accordingly, I have now entered Germany, Euro, Okay, next we need to name ourselves or give ourselves a name. Um, it should be continuous. I just wrote "Fishing Franks" here and, uh, I'll continue from here. Where is your bank located? The bank is located in Germany, so we have to start here as sole proprietors because we're not we just need to fill this out a little bit . Okay, first name, just skip that for now, and I don't necessarily have to give out my address You already know that, and you already know your bank details. That means I-Bahn and similar services. Just enter them there. So, next comes a process where you have to upload your ID photo or take a picture. My advice is to do the quick check; it's always a bit faster that way, although it released. So, once that's done, you just need to know what to expect . So, there's a listing fee of 20 cents if you list a product there . Well, there are worse things for a business . Um, okay, then please add your credit card details here again. Um, and then just send the whole thing off. Then, uh, confirm the mobile number here again, and once I have everything sorted, I'll just enter here now, it's almost done you can download to make it easier. So, and once you have that, yes, you're done and then you can go on to my shop and you're finished in that sense . Welcome. You have founded an Etzi Shop. It's still still need to decorate it a bit, namely the outer facade of our online shop, where we first want to put the name on the nameplate . Uh, for that we go to Settings and click here first, or I'll show you here first. You can see Fishing Franks there, for example. So, that's pretty much everything that's written there. And now we'll just add our name here again. name here again. Okay, wait a minute. So, Frank's Fishing, uh, Shirt Shirts or something, that's what I'll just call it now, and underneath there's can insert. I'll show you another way to do it in a moment . Okay, and then there's should fill out down here, namely the message to the buyer. It also indicates rating or give you some feedback. That can never hurt. And he can simply give you confidence for the next sales you will make here . Okay, once you've done that, click save. And that's it, we've finished all of this. Um, let's just go back to the settings and scroll down to the now have various settings for your online shop, such as how you make it ready for operation . For example, you can rearrange articles here , uh, whether you want to set them permanently yourself or whether you you do something new, it will be moved to the front. That's just a tactic. Depending on your you can choose how you want it. There are a few things you should definitely adjust. Um, we do that sort of thing when it comes to custom orders we do that sort of thing when it comes to custom orders . gift wrapping. We're really running a basic shop, so we're not offering gift messages here initially . You can do that sort of thing, but we're not going to. We're really only doing basic stuff now. Um, okay. Then it continues downwards stuff now. Um, okay. Then it continues downwards . We have everything we need here. Uh, now I need to scroll down here. So. Uh, sold items. Um, okay. Do want to appear on competitor websites, then simply select "no" and choose "do not show have a top seller, your competitors won't be able to see that it 's a top seller. Okay, now let's go over to Canva. Then we'll go over to Canva. In Canva I can create the image files for banners and profile pictures; first I enter ETSI and then Icon Fishing. You can also enter Etzi banners and all sorts of other things there . Okay, let's take a look around here So, let's continue. I entered it up here and now I'm just looking for something that's somewhat related to fishing and fits my interests. Like I and searching for something; I'll just pick something. And so, this template can be customized. Okay , I'll adjust that now. So, first of all, changing the name, because it's not called Fishing Club anymore, but . Or I think I called him Franks. It doesn't matter now. So, estimated", I could adjust it somehow, but since the font is too small, I'll just delete it. Um, and now I'm going to make this whole thing a bit bigger and So, you can make it bigger, you can choose the font however you like from the menu. So, and then, um, I've now removed the "estimated" part here again . Exactly. And now we have here part of our banner, which I created earlier. Um, I basically extracted the color, the color code, and create a background, i.e., insert a rectangle here, which I will adjust in terms of color, and once I have done that, quite good as a background. So here I can take out the same color again. Now move that back from the levels . Um, then I'll go all the way to the back here I have a logo here. I can save it, go to share and then save it. Okay. And then I can add that to my online shop. Okay, once I clicked on Download, he downloaded it. Okay, next we'll go back to Info and View, or rather, we'll go back to Settings and upload your profile picture here. I just quickly did this here so that we can upload this, uh, this shop symbol have our banner image. To do this, you simply need to go to your Ezi Store and then click on "Edit shop here". And then you'll see that so that customers immediately know where they are. What's options. I would always choose the large banner; it just looks really nice. Um, and there you can upload your banner, which we just upload your banner, which we just created. Okay, and uh, myself now. First, a quick profile picture, and with that we already have a banner image, uh, shop icon, and also our personal, uh, face. So, that covers some of the basics. Now we just need the terms and conditions settings. There are two possibilities. You can either use pre-made terms and conditions possibilities. You can either use pre-made terms and conditions , simplified terms and conditions, or create your own terms and conditions simply choose to create our own and can now, for example, accept or decline returns. What we do not accept is the exchange, i.e., that they send things back and forth haphazardly, because the whole thing is print on demand. We don't need that. That's why we do it this way. Um, the buyer must contact me and return the item within 30 days. and then just click save once we have everything. Is everything filled out? Yes, we do. Okay, then click save. Okay, next you'll see there's a menu at the top. This is usually overlooked, but that's where . For the next point, which we will now also click on, we will create terms and conditions for the cancellation here. Do we want to allow stagnation, or do you can see how much on demand, it's usually not printed immediately. . Now let's go back to editing the shop go back to editing the shop and scroll all the way down. And what's the point? Where is he? Uh, exactly, that's where we have the seller status in the EU again. We need to change that again, because even though we are now sole proprietors, because it's such an American thing, since Et is essentially an American website and there you are no longer acting as a private individual, or as it says underneath, but rather we are operating commercially. Therefore, you just need to click on "Dealer" here and then save. Well, now the whole thing is finished and we actually already have a pretty good store that we Okay, we've finished our Et Store. Now we need to combine and connect the printing provider and upload our designs there. We'll do that in the next step. Okay, we'll start in Gelato. You can register at the bottom of the video description. I've included a link just for you. Um, will you also get another special offer, namely 50% off your first order? If you want to order products to your home to see the quality for yourself, um, you'll get another 50% discount, so you can test everything out. Take the link supports and helps promote this video . Okay, this is Gelato, our backend. We simply click on Stores and connect this one if you already have your store open in your browser, you'll see it right away, and then you just need to click on Grand Access and suddenly everything is connected and linked, and you're done. That's pretty simple. So, for example, we now have two stores, plus one more from the other tutorial. So, and now I have this Active Button here. That means can create products right here now. I click on "Add product" and can now, for example, start producing a single product. We have a whole range of products that we see here, such as, yes, various men 's clothes. We also have do, and is always very, very popular if you want to open poster shops also use other types of clothing , you can also use business utensils. You can , whatever you like. And um, we'll start with a classic T-shirt and look for a Gildern here. Um, I'd say 5000, just get out maybe from the top. I'll show you again what else is available here bestseller is the Gildern 5000, because it offers a good selection of different colors. Okay, and if I click on that now, I can create my product. That means means I just need to drag and drop my design here . So, I just pick my design from my file, drag it on, and then it's already on the T-shirt. So, I 've done this again. Um, so, and there I can select the different print areas . So I can now also the shoulder, on the back, and so on. But I'm going looks a bit silly. We want to use a different color now for example, remove the color, then the white, and now I have also make it in a different color if I want it in sand color now. It does so I'm taking it out again. And now you can choose your colors . Choose a maximum of five, because the more stops you make, the harder , because the customer will be so overwhelmed that they end up not buying anything at all. Okay, we've selected DGT, that's correct, and we'll continue from here several other options. You can also add clip art directly to Gelato. We don't need them now because we already created the design beforehand. Um, and that's it. warning mark here because I accidentally set the wrong DPI value. Um , but that's not a problem. You can find a missing page with 300 DPI. Good. our mog-up images, i.e., our Gelato Plus you have the advantage of having a bit more choice. That means you don't need to order the thing to your home, put it on, and set up a photoshoot; instead, you can have it digitally created here, select models you like, and then transfer it directly to your online shop for a few products. So, I just walked through here to of different mockup images that I can choose from here. And now I'll move on to the next point. So, now we come to the description. Of course, there are several ways to do that. Importantly , we now select, for example, Alura using the app. What sells well? So, we'll naturally take a look at the listings for those. What keywords did they ? And we will use these keywords . That means just throwing anything in makes little sense; you should sells well. To prevent this from getting out of hand, I'll just add a few words here. So, those who are going in this direction. English below . I'm working on the second design so as not to make this too long. Okay. And then you just insert the words there. You can also separate them with a comma. Um, and then you add the tags at the bottom. Tags are simply the search terms that people enter directly on the page . Here I entered things like " angler fishing", "fishing T-shirt" and so . You can expand on the typical information customers enter here as much as you like. Um, this is just for the tutorial for now. I'm not going to put too much in there. Okay, so here are two points. Um, you obviously want to display the product in the store, and you also want to, um, you can, for example, offer free shipping here. So, then you can simply calculate it as the final price. Okay, if shipping is already included, what final price do I want and can I choose that? So, we now always have both our versions included here: Military, Green, and Navy. And back here you can see what kind of profits you're shipping costs and the production costs, which the printing provider deducts. So he charges €7.30 for the product and €3.99 for shipping. And then you can set different prices here, where you say, okay, I want to just give you some example here. Instead of €14.60, we now want to do, for example, €1995 . Okay, and I can enter that here now . Always remember that if there's more fabric, then eventually the price will also increase, because you have to consider the price of cotton the 3XL shirts are now suddenly available for €20. You can, for example, set a price of €21 and then it just continues from there, i.e., you set your prices there. Okay, now let's go to Continue to Review. We've just shown everything now. That means we'll now see here, um, whether we transmit. Okay, then everything will be . While the transmission is ongoing, I've It's relatively quick, so you can So, once I clicked on it, um, we now have another design here , which I had already uploaded before. Um, just this school design. Okay. Select DGT pressure. I want to pick out a few colors here think, okay, yes, then I have to use light colors because the text is dark now. Double-check everything. So really click on everything again to make sure every color looks good. Um, so, and when I'm finished, adjust the size if you want to change anything. Um, so, and then we'll just quickly go back to the mockups, so . And there they are. I can now say, I want this, this, this, and this. Um, let's just take 3 VI. here. Okay, don't make it too complicated. Continue to details. I'll start right now by going over description again. Well, we were born to fish I'll just translate the other text using Google Translate I'm just doing the basic version now, so you can see how drafted my text here. I can select them again now. Bam, I've got them in there. Check my two boxes and click " Continue to pricing". So, here are the prices again. . I'll just press publish now so he can see that there looks a little better. And then, once everything is uploaded, it just takes a small second. Um, then all products in your Before we look at them, do we need to provide a production partner, or should you do that? You can do that in the settings under Production Partners. Then you simply enter, for example, "Gelato" here; you can also display that to the customers. Um, so, and then you just describe what it is. It's a printing company. Um, where is all of this manufactured? Or rather, the points are listed below again. Um, that you simply don't have the technical skills or the equipment to manufacture those things . You design everything yourself, and in the production process, the production partner does virtually everything for you. They package, uh, manufacture the items and ship them for you, but you're the one who creates the design. So, up above we had the umm what he does for you. You can does for you. You can write a short little text in there. Um, he 's my printing partner; he basically takes care of production, shipping, and all that other stuff. So theoretically you could type it out here too. I simply entered Berlin as the location, since Gelato has several printing locations all over the world. Um, it's actually not that important. So, we've got that down pat. Um, I'm going to go to the online shop now, and you'll see our finished online shop here, filled with print-on-demand products where people can actually buy things. So, they can now click on the product here, they can choose the color can also choose the size they want, and then they can put it in their shopping cart and buy it. Everything is already finished, set up, and so we now have a really cool system here. Uh, if you simply go to your items, for example, and say, "Okay, you want to n't want them anymore." Then you can click "delete" here, and just so you can delete now," and then the products will be removed. But what don't you want , because the great thing is, with every product you produce, you have a little worker who works for you 365 days a year, 7 days a week , without you having to do anything . So, completely on autopilot. The you will sell later if you create the right designs, and that's how you build a cool print-on-demand business. If you to my courses below in the video description . You can find all the information you need about this topic there. That's excessive, to put it in broad terms printing partner Gelato, who made all of this possible. You should definitely try this video description. This way you can . See you next time. Have fun trying out the tips and, as always, best of luck with your sales.