In this beginners guide I am going to take you through how to integrate Etsy & Printful. You can get started today with print on demand without any money or graphic design skills.

By the end of this how to guide you will have your first product listed for sale and have made your first step towards passive online income.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Etsy Print On Demand Beginners Guide

In order to start selling print on demand products on Etsy, you need to use a fulfillment partner. The partner will print and ship your products when they sell to your customers.

We will be using Etsy with the official Printful API integration. This is approved by Etsy and acceptable with their terms of business.

Lots of sites and gurus will charge you for this knowledge but I am giving it to you today for FREE…let’s get started.

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Pick a Niche or Theme For Your Store

So before we actually set anything up you need to have a think about what niche or theme your store is going to be based on.

This could be a very specific niche like ‘Horse Riding’ or a more broader theme like ‘Cute Baby Clothes’. Either way you need to write down a few ideas, we will need to use this later in this guide.

My recommendation for picking a niche/theme for your online merchandise store is to go with something you know. That way it is going to be much easier to come up with ideas, designs, sayings, jokes etc to put onto your merchandise designs.

Think of what hobbies or subjects that you know about, have a passion for or would buy yourself. Make sure it is not either too broad or too obscure, as this could harm your chance of making sales.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Dog Lovers

Coffee Drinkers

Cute Baby Grows

Cat Lovers

Funny Kids T-Shirts

Horse-riding

Gifts For Geeks

Fishing Fans

Set Up Your Etsy Marketplace Shop

Etsy is a huge worldwide online market place that specializes in custom and handmade clothes, gift and all kinds of merchandise. This is where we are going to advertise our print on demand merchandise for sale.

If you have already got a existing Etsy store then you can skip this step. If you don’t have a store then you need to head over to Etsy by clicking HERE and register as a seller.

In this guide we are going to use Printful to fulfill all our orders, printing and worldwide shipping. They are a Print On Demand Drop Shipper and have a good reputation, with nearly 1 million sellers already using them.

I have used Printful with my own store now for nearly a year and have never had a single issue or complaint.

Click HERE to head on over to Printful and sign up now as a seller. Once you have done that come back here to complete the next step.

Below is a short video explaining how Printfuls print on demand drop shipping works.

Link Etsy To Printful

By now you should have opened your Printful Account and also registered your Etsy store. Next we need to link them together so that when an order is made on Etsy it is automatically sent to Printful for fulfillment.

Log into you Printful account and follow these steps:

Select ‘Stores’ from the dashboard

Then select ‘Choose Platform’

Under the Etsy logo select ‘Connect’

Click the “Connect to Etsy” button

Log in with your Etsy account and “Allow Access” to the Printful app

Right that’s it, you are set up and ready to create your first listing.

Create Your First Design Using The Printful Mockup Generator

For the purpose of this step by step guide we are just going to create a simple text design to get you going. In future guides you can learn how to create more complex graphic designs. One of the benefits of using Printful for beginners is its built in mock-up generator to create new designs.

Thinking back to your niche/theme idea you need to think of a phrase, saying or joke. If you need some inspiration you can go back to Etsy and search within your niche.

Printful Design Example

For this example I am going to use Horse-Riding and the Phrase “Gone Riding Back Whenever”. Below are the steps to follow to create your first design using the Printful Mockup Generator:

Log into Printful and select ‘Stores’

Next the Etsy select ‘Add’

Choose a Category, for now lets stick with men’s or women’s T-Shirts

Now you should be at the ‘Configure Design’ page

Select ‘Add text’

Type in your selected phrase

Play around with the layout and typeface.

Make sure it fits correctly into the print area

Select what colours and sizes you want

Proceed to mockups

Create a title and description

Think about what keywords your target audience might search for

For inspiration search on Etsy for a similar design

I usually select both imperial and metric measurement guides

Tags is probably the most important section (after title)

Tags allow Etsy to find your item and display it in search results

Avoid single words and try to think of long tail keywords

So instead of ‘Horse’ I would use ‘Girls Horse Shirt’

Proceed to Pricing

There are is no correct way to price but you need to make sure you are making a profit

The Printful price is what they will charge you for the order

You will also be charged 8% by Etsy if you make a sale

The retail price can be whatever you want

I make mine high so that I can offer Free Postage, normally 100% markup

Trade Marks & Copyright

You need to make sure your idea is not already Trademarked or covered by Copyright. So NO BRAND NAMES, MOVIE CHARACTERS ETC.

You can check your idea against the US register for free over at Trademarkia.

Publish Your First Etsy Listing

When you have submitted your listing in Printful it will be saved on Etsy under “Draft”.

Go to your listings and under draft items select to edit your design. Check every part of your listing and fill in any blanks.

Finally submit and activate your listing.

Final Considerations

Congratulations if you have made it this far then you have taken action and done the hardest part. This is just a beginners guide to getting started there are a few things I have not covered.

This is a BUSINESS and you need to be set up appropriately for whichever country or state that you live in. If unsure speak to a local accountant

One design is unlikely to make any money, it is a numbers game and the more unique listings you have the more you will sell

There are many things that you can do to optimize your listings and store, I will cover these in future blog posts

Congratulations You Now Have A Print On Demand Store!

If you have any questions and need any help, then please comment below.

Free Print On Demand Guide

Learn more about all the different ways to make money with print on demand in my free guide.

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