Top 10 Free Sites to Make Money With Print-on-demand Online Business

by Kevin Cook| in eCommerce Web2Print, Printing Business on April 1, 2021 16579 /

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Last Updated on: 31st March 2024, 07:47 pm

You need money to start a print-on-demand business. But there are specific free sites you can make money, i.e., without investing in resources. For example, if you get a platform that won’t charge you anything where you can sell custom decorated apparel like t-shirts for free, it won’t be a good place to start.

Yes, plenty of websites offer you free services to launch and do your print-on-demand online business. Moreover, other popular services are Shopify print on demand, Printful, Printify, etc. But these are paid sites.

However, it would help if you chose only trusted and most preferable sellers like you. Moreover, it has been challenging for me to scrutinize the best eCommerce sites to start your business for free.

But, do remember, commissions!. Although these online sites are free to start, they may charge you a part of your earnings out of each product you sell.

So, let us look into it in detail below.

Top 10 Free sites to Make Print-On-Demand business:

Here is a list of 10 free websites that provide you free services, no hidden subscription services, no hidden fees for setting up an eCommerce store:-

01. Redbubble:

Redbubble is one of the free sites to start your print-on-demand services. It allows you to make money by creating and selling custom products online. You can sell various products like T-shirts, coffee mugs, caps/hats, phone cases, etc.

How to start with Redbubble?

• Create your account by entering your name and email, which is free.
• Start uploading your designs, artwork, and products you want to list and sell with your artwork online,
• You can also customize your products by choosing the appropriate color, style, product description, and title.

Redbubble Services:

When a customer purchases a product from your store, Redbubble provides print-on-demand services.

Redbubble’s production warehouse will print your design onto a T-shirt. And then package and ship that product to your customers.

Redbubble Commissions:- Redbubble charges you a commission of 20% on your product’s selling price for every product you sell.

For instance, you sell a t-shirt for $20, and Redbubble charges you $4 as commission. Therefore, you pay when you sell if there is no sale, no payment.

As you pay the commission on every sold product, you never have to pay any fees. That is why it is free.

02. Merch by Amazon:

Merch by Amazon is a print-on-demand service where you create artwork, upload that artwork to Amazon, and then Amazon will print it on a t-shirt when someone makes a purchase.

Moreover, Amazon also handles the printing, fulfillment, and customer service; therefore, a secure and easy-to-make online business.

It is easy-to-use because, for every product you put on the site, Amazon lists the product in their catalog that is searchable for consumers.

Furthermore, you can set your price, add in your title, description, and fully edit your listing.

How to get started?

Register with the merch account and login with your Amazon ID, and then fill out a form.

Further, it would be best if you had confirmation by Amazon as a formal acceptance into the Merch program. It may take a few days or a month. In the meantime, be ready with the PNG image files of the t-shirts, choose a brand name, product title, description, etc.

After the approval, upload all the product information and get started.

Amazon Merch Commissions and your profits.

Amazon pays you a royalty on every product sold. Your royalty is based on product selling price less the applicable taxes and amazon costs. Amazon costs include manufacturing/production, material costs, fulfilments, custom printing, customer service, shipping, returns, exchanges, etc.

Moreover, the royalty you get paid differs by country.

For instance, if you are in the United States and the purchase price of a t-shirt is $15.99. You get paid a royalty of $2.21.

03. Cafepress:

If you are a gift seller, this is one of the free sites to start your print-on-demand services. It is the right online site for you. Cafepress is a popular online gift shop specializing in selling t-shirts, mugs, stationery items like postcards, greeting cards, calendars, and much more.

With Cafepress, you sell all the customizable products with the Cafepress print-fulfillment and shipping services.

Get started

You need to register with Cafepress and open up a Basic Shop.

Then build your shop button, choose a product page, artwork, title, description, and start selling in your store.

How much do you earn on Cafepress?

Basic shops in Cafepress are free. You can make numerous basic shops. However, you are limited to selling only 1 product in each basic shop.

Talking about the commission, for each item you sell, you get a commission of 10 percent.

Moreover, in Basic shops, you do not receive a performance bonus or get listed at the Cafepress marketplace.

To access such facilities, you need to enroll for Premium Shops that charge you monthly, quarterly, or annual fees for the shop.

04. Design by Humans:

Design By Humans is a unique online print-on-demand shop. It is an online platform for artists, games, YouTubers who create unique graphics for customers’ specific to a particular group of customers of similar interests.

For instance, a gamer can make designs for t-shirts, phone cases, wall prints, tanks, etc., that are loved by eSport players, streamers, and game developers.

While you make the artwork, Design by Humans produce, fulfill, and ship all of your custom products.

How much do you earn?

Similar to Merch by Amazon, you earn royalties for each product you sell.

These royalties are money you get for selling each product as per the royalties fixed by Design by Humans, $3 to $4.5 as royalties over apparel and phone cases.

The print area is also a criterion for setting royalties, like for large print area on the apparel; you get higher royalties.

05. TeePublic:

TeePublic is another custom apparel and design platform owned by Redbubble.

It is similar to Design By Public, where creators, artists, podcasts, streamers can sell their artwork.

Further, TeePublic bears the responsibility of printing and shipping your products without the requirement of your intervention.

How does it work?

An artist uploads a new design that gets displayed as a featured sale for 72 hours. After that, it stays on the site at a regular price.

Furthermore, it is completely free to join, create designs, and sell products on TeePublic.

How much do you earn on TeePublic?

Your payments are divided into two categories, i.e., regular and sale.

As said previously, the first 72 hours of featured sale after uploading a new artwork earns you a $0.5 to $3 for each product sold. The commission differs for each product category.

Further, after 72 hours, your artwork is categorized under regular sales, where you get higher commissions than the featured ones.

As per the earnings chart of TeePublic, you get a commission from $0.5 to $8 for each product sold and varies for each product category.

Moreover, the larger the print area ordered by customers, you get more $ as much commission.

06. Threadless:

Threadless is a popular online store and one of the free sites to start your print-on-demand services. You can put designs on various items like T-shirts, mugs, caps, pillows, promotional items, etc.

Like the list above, you do the design work, and Threadless handles the rest of the duties like warehousing, printing, handling payments, shipping, return, etc.

Like other sites, Threadless allows you to create your shop and branding. With no additional cost, you can easily set-up your online store.

How much do you earn on Threadless?

After you set-up, a shop at threadless, upload graphic designs that people can get printed on the item they want.

After customers make purchases, you get paid the difference between the base cost and the retail price.

What are the base cost and retail prices?

Base cost: It covers the cost in production, material, printing, shipping, etc

Retail price: The price at which you sell the product

Your earning:– Retail price – Base cost

For instance:- The base cost of the t-shirt is $15. You sell it for $25. Therefore, you get a profit of $10 after Threadless’s deductions for the manufacturing and logistics cost incurred by it.

Moreover, it is your sole responsibility to fix the selling price of the product that sells.

07. SunFrog:

SunFrog is one of the free sites to start your print-on-demand services. The company where people can sell customized t-shirts, mugs, caps, hoodies, etc. You have two signup options, i.e., artist or seller. It is free to join, and no monthly fees are charged.

As an artist/seller, you can upload unique graphics on the site. Customers use this artwork to print it on an item and make an order through SunFrog.

SunFrog is Good for Affiliates:

You get the most success in SunFrog if you have a large social media following. You can share your campaigns, products, designs that bring in more customers.

One of the best things about SunFrog is, you have no time limit to display your artwork as in other print-on-demand websites. You do not have to worry about the ending of design campaigns or the burden of reloading them after a certain time gap.

How much do you earn on SunFrog?

As SunFrog is affiliate centric, you have to bring traffic/customers to the site through different sources like social media, forums, etc. Therefore, it offers you a commission of 15% on every purchase made.

Moreover, you get an additional 10% commission if your design sells.

08. TeeSpring:

TeeSpring is one of the free sites to start your print-on-demand services. It is an easy eCommerce platform that allows anyone to sell 20 kinds of products online.

With no risk and upfront costs, TeeSpring handles everything from printing to production and shipping.

If you are an entrepreneur and want to start your own online business, you also have the provision to get funded from the investors.

How do you create products to sell in Teespring?

TeeSpring is a hassle-free and easy to use website that provides you all features with a single click. You can select a product on TeeSpring and use the custom design tools to upload your designs.

How much do you earn?

Earning profits in TeeSpring is similar to Threadless, where you sell a product at a higher retail price than the base cost.

TeeSpring takes the base cost, and you earn the profit difference between the base cost and retail price.

09. Teezily:

Teezily is an online eCommerce platform that allows anyone to sell custom t-shirts online. It is a free and easy to use website where you can share the campaign URL across multiple websites like social media, forums, etc., and collective add mode sales to your bundle.

How do you create products to sell in Teezily?

Choose any product in Teexily and create your designs using the customization tool. Finally, upload the design or graphic on the website.

However, if you lack creating a good design or artwork, you may contact the Teezily graphic designers to make you happy.

How much do you earn in Teezily?

Teezily is an affiliate centric where you share the URL across various social media platforms to bring in more customers.

If an 80% commission of selling price if a customer purchases one or more products within 30 days from his first visit.

However, if a customer does not buy your product but comes through your channel to lands up in the purchase of a different product from Teezily, you earn the same 80% commission on the product.

If you are a designer and add the artwork to the products on Teezily, you get 20% of the commission for every successful purchase of a product with your artwork.

10. GearBubble:

GearBubble is an online print-on-demand eCommerce platform that offers you multiple channels to set up your online store.

You have four sales channel:-

• Sell on Gearbubble with Gearbubble Pro
• Sel on Amazon
• Sell on Etsy
• Sell on eBay

Out of all features, Gearbubble is 100% free to use with no upfront costs and risk. It handles customer service, products, and shipping. Just join and start gearing up your profits.

How to get started in Gearbubble?

All you have to do is choose a product from various product categories like mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, and sweatshirts. Then upload a design which must be of .eps, .png, .jpg, and .gif format.

Moreover, you can also take the design assistance for the designer team of GearBubble to get started.

How much do you earn in Gearbubble?

As we discussed previously, earning follows a similar concept of profits: you earn the difference between the base cost and retail price set by you.

Gearbubble takes the base cost that includes production, printing, customer service, shipping, etc., leaving you the profits earned from the retail price.

Conclusion:

Finally, we discussed the top ten list of free sites that offer you print-on-demand services for the products you sell.

If you are an entrepreneur or think of starting your own online business, then go for the one that fulfills your purpose.

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