This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Well, in year one of the podcast, which goes back a long time now, nine years, and I think probably since then, maybe two or three other times, we have featured some stories of people who've done very well using the Merch by Amazon platform to sell T-shirts and other print-on-demand items. This is a program that from time to time, it changes the rules, and either everybody can be part of it or you have to apply, and there's a waiting list and so on. Basically, it's a program where people can go and upload their T-shirt designs and other merch designs. If people purchase those designs, then Amazon does all the fulfillment for you and then pays you money. Amazon pays itself a lot of money too, just to be clear, but still, Amazon has a lot of customers.
We actually featured some listeners who had success with it, some listeners who heard the initial episode and went and did this. One of our listeners made $30,000 selling T-shirts without stocking any inventory. It's especially interesting because this could be a zero-dollar startup. It doesn't cost you anything at all if you can design the shirts, and of course, now people are doing that with AI and other tools. Other people were paying people on Fiverr, paying a really small amount of money to go and design a bunch of T-shirts, so it could be a zero-dollar startup or an extremely low-cost startup with no inventory and no ongoing costs whatsoever.
It literally costs you nothing to do this. What's not to love? Why doesn't everybody do this? It doesn't always work. It is a saturated market, et cetera.
Let's talk about today's callers wondering, is this opportunity still worth it at all? Is this program still viable? I'll do my best to give some updated comments here to Lucas from Florida. Stay tuned for his detailed question and my answer. 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. Well, Lucas, way back when we first featured the original episode or one of them about Merch by Amazon, I was like, maybe I should make an account. I should do this just for the sake of side hustle experimenting. When I went to record an update, I looked at my account and I saw it had been suspended.
I got suspended by Merch by Amazon, and I have no idea what I did to deserve it. I think it's probably just because I didn't really do much with the account at all. I don't think I violated any actual terms of use, but who knows? Maybe Side Hustle School sent them thousands of new T-shirt sellers. We definitely talked about it, and I had a strong response from listeners.
Can you still do it? As I said in the introduction, it goes back and forth between when they are taking sign-ups and not, but if they are taking sign-ups now, you absolutely can still try. As I said, there's no real downside. It doesn't cost anything. You are limited by the number of designs you're allowed to upload, and then as you actually sell those designs, like if the designs you sell convert and bring customers to Amazon, then they increase the limit.
It is a thing where the sooner you get in, the easier it's going to be, the more profitable you will be in the long term because you'll be able to sell more items. There are some sellers that have tens of thousands of listings, and most of them are not selling on a regular basis, but it's just a numbers game where you're like, "Okay, well, if each of these items sells one unit a month, and I only earn a couple dollars on each sale, but look, I've got lots and lots of listings," then it definitely can add up. Especially if you have some design skills, I think it's worth a try. It's not a goldmine. For most people, it falls into the category of highly experimental, meaning might as well try it if you have some time and you want to experiment, you're trying different things, but if you want to have better odds of success, then you're probably going to need to do something more original.
Is it still worth it? It can be. You can put one on it. Probably not. That's what I think about that.
Listeners, let me know what you think. If you have an experience with Merch by Amazon or anything else, sidehustleschool.com/questions there, you can send me a note. You can also access resources for the podcast going back nine years and subscribe to our email list, all kinds of fun stuff there. New episodes come out every day, of course, seven days a week. My name is Chris Guillebeau, you're listening to Side Hustle School.
