Q&A: Is it still a good idea to sell Merch by Amazon?

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Way back in the Dark Ages, also known as year one of the podcast, we featured several stories of people who had done quite well using the Merch by Amazon platform. And they were typically using this platform to sell t-shirts and other print on demand items. Now, if you're not familiar with this process, basically they would upload designs. They would either make those designs themselves or commission the designs sometimes from a contractor on a site like Fiverr or Upwork. And then whenever those t-shirts or whatever the items were sold on Amazon, they would receive a percentage.

Now, some of our listeners had success with this as well. Like once we started talking about this model, I had a lot of reports of listeners who were signing up. It's essentially a no risk business opportunity. It might not work, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't cost you anything. We had at least one listener who made more than $30,000 in less than a year by following the process.

Now, opportunities come and go, of course. As I mentioned, this was the Dark Ages several years ago. So today's caller is wondering about this particular opportunity. Is it still worth it? Is it still a good idea to sell Merch by Amazon?

That is today's topic. The question and my detailed answer is coming right up. [Music]

Hey Chris, this is Lucas from Jacksonville, Florida. And I've recently found your show through a friend suggestion. A couple of years ago, you had some stories about people designing T-shirts for sale through a program called Merch by Amazon.

I just heard those episodes and went to look. And it seems like the program is still active. Has anything changed? And do you think this is still a good idea? If you think this still has potential, what are some of the most important things to know before getting started?

Thanks, I'm looking forward to hear what you have to say on this. [Music]

Lucas, thank you for the blast from the past. I have not thought about Merch by Amazon in a while, but I went to check it out. It is, in fact, still active. They had closed new applicants or closed the program to new applicants for a while.

But I think it's back open, or at least they're taking applicants. So you might as well put your name down. It's free. I did also go to look at my account 'cause I had signed up when I told all of our listeners, "Hey, go and check it out, sign up, I will too." But I saw that my account had been suspended. I was like, "Oh my gosh, WTF, what happened here?" And it says, "Your account has been suspended.

"Merch by Amazon reserves the right to close accounts "due to issues such as terms of use violations "and long-term inactivity." So I'm pretty sure it's the second one of those, the long-term inactivity, because I never actually did anything with mine, not because I violated any other terms of use. But I checked because, as mentioned, for a while, they weren't taking new signups, perhaps Cytos will school sent them thousands of new t-shirt sellers, who knows. You absolutely still can try. You can check it out. There's no real downside.

You're limited by the number of designs you are allowed to upload, and that design limit increases as you sell. So in other words, the more you sell, the more you're able to sell. Just think of it like subprime mortgage lenders who get richer and richer while homeowners in Florida are getting squeezed. Okay, maybe that's not the precise analogy. But especially if you have some design skills, it's worth a try.

I just don't think of it as a goldmine. Like, I think it's in the category of highly experimental. But one thing you do wanna know, I think Lucas asked about that as well, one thing that's important is you want to get those quantity limits lifted as soon as possible, and then make more and more designs. So the more, the better, and then delete the ones that don't work at all, essentially. So that is one thing that could be helpful.

But it's a very, very competitive space. You know, there are lots of people uploading lots of designs. So if you wanna have better odds, you'll probably need to do something more original. But hey, I'm all about experiments. So it's worth a try.

Good luck, let me know what happens. Listeners, if you've got a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Continue to feature them throughout the year along with updates. And also if you've been selling on Merch by Amazon, let me know your report, your update. We can pass that on to our community.

You can subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm here every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.