This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Print on demand store crushes it without ads. Welcome to Side Hustle School. Welcome back. My name is Chris Guillebeau, or welcome as well to any new listeners who have just discovered the podcast. Recently, we are on episode 3085.
That's right, 3000 plus episodes. One comes out every single day. In this particular segment today, it's part of our Throwback Thursday segment, where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Podcast is all about helping you create extra income without quitting your job. Last week, we heard from a former lifestyle blogger who ditched her old site and scaled up her Pinterest affiliate marketing into a reliable full-time income.
So that was pretty cool, but today's is special as well. We're gonna hear from a side hustler who builds a big print on demand business by tapping into ultra-specific niches. What do I mean by this print on demand? You're selling things online, on a website, on a platform like Etsy or Amazon, similar, and those items aren't actually produced until people order them. For example, he's selling retired paramedic mugs.
Somebody who is a retired paramedic or who wants to buy this as a gift for someone will purchase this. And they built this business without using any ad spend. So they're not actually spending on ads. They've built it through organic traffic. Let's talk about how that exactly looks.
This is pretty important because if you want to have a business like this, your success is gonna depend on the traffic that you receive. So a lot of people succeed with print on demand by purchasing ads. And that's great, but obviously that cuts into your profit margin a great deal. Whereas if you can have organic traffic, which comes free from Google or Etsy searches or pretty much any search engine, that is so much better. Let's hear the story.
It's gonna feature the phrase geocaching grandma, which is a phrase that has never before appeared despite 3,085 episodes in the podcast. So that's fun. Hope you enjoy it. I'll be back at the end with a few words of wrap up. [Music]
I started my print on demand hustle pretty casually.
It began with a T-shirt I made for fun, something like retired paramedic saving lives at home now. So I made it for my family, but then I threw it up on Amazon just for fun and strangers started buying it. That was my first sign that there might be something here. So I started adding 10 new items a week. Instead of going broad, I went deep, super specific slogans for tiny communities, like retired electrician, beekeeping grandma, knitting addict turned spoiler of grandkids.
And the more niche I got, the better response I got. These weren't huge audiences, but they were passionate ones and nobody else was really talking to them. I didn't spend any money on ads. I didn't have the budget anyway at the time. So instead I leaned into free stuff, Pinterest boards, niche forms, Etsy SEO, I learned to write titles the way real people search them.
Things like funny mug for retired nurse or pickle ball grandpa T-shirt, nothing fancy, just simple and searchable. So fast forward and I've expanded way beyond that first pandemic tee. I've got an entire retired medical section now, plus hobby based humor like geocache and grandma, kayaking grandpa and so on. And I've never run a Facebook ad or Instagram ad. People always ask, are you leaving money on the table?
Maybe, but I'd rather focus on real engagement. I run most of my business through Amazon. It drives about 70% of my sales, but I also have a Shopify site too, mostly for flexibility and long-term branding. SEO is still my bread and butter. I stay top of keywords, update the listings and watch how the algorithm shifts.
If traffic dips on a design, I tweak it. One thing I always recommend is a seasonal update. Retired paramedics first Christmas sells every year like clockwork. I do Valentine's, Halloween, you name it. These spikes help smooth out slower months.
The ad free approach has its perks. My profit margins are higher, my customers feel more connected and some of my designs keep selling year after year without me touching them at all. It's not like about chasing trends. It's about showing up in exactly the right search for the exact right person. That said, there also are some problems.
Print quality can vary and I've had to eat the cost of reprinting bad batches when people complain. I also try to keep the store from becoming a cluttered mess. I group things by theme and prune the ones that don't perform. The day I hit my first $1,000 a month without a single ad felt surreal. Now I'm averaging $5,000 plus from Etsy with another couple thousand from Shopify and I'm still having fun.
I get to make quilting grandpa mugs. What's not to love? If you're starting a pod shop, you don't have to spend big. Get weirdly specific, focus on SEO and let your niche people find you. They're out there and they're looking for something that speaks to them.
[Music]
Well, that sounds pretty cool. Surpassing $5,000 in monthly revenue just from one source and then the Shopify site bringing in an extra $2,000 to $3,000 on top. Pretty amazing results and again, from organic traffic. So that is the key success. He's not just paying for traffic, he's getting the traffic free.
That's pretty cool. If I had a kayak and grandma, I would want to buy her a mug or something else. I don't know. So I have to think about that and check out the store. Listeners, let me know what you think, who you'd like to see featured from our archives of, well, how many is it?
Thousands of episodes. If you have a question or an update, you know where to go, sidehustleschool.com. The complete archive of the podcast is available there as well. And of course, much more is coming up. New episode every day.
My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
