TeeSpring Vs RedBubble For Beginners

I experimented with Print On Demand (POD) with Amazon Merch long ago with 3 designs around 2016 but stopped as no sales and no ideas about whether people are viewing. 

Beginning POD in 2020 again, I wish to share my experiences with TeeSpring and RedBubble when I relooked at POD with many great sites like RedBubble and TeeSpring.r

Redbubble and TeeSpring show you the number of views on each design you get that Amazon Merch does not. You cannot imagine how knowing that 4-5 people are viewing your designs daily (not even buying yet) can motivate you to create more.

I had around $10+ of profit in RedBubble while $0 in TeeSpring when I create this post.

Advantages of RedBubble Over TeeSpring

• Great for a starter. You don't need any other following or channels with traffic to sell your own merchandises, e.g. Youtube, Facebook Paid Ads, etc
• One time effort to resize image dimensions (I used my Merch Amazon image and resized for all products except the jigsaw puzzle since I don't do think my artwork is suitable). It works on my mobile phone too so you can design and list in mobile phone.
• Redbubble's organic traffic with their 12,226,500 visits/month is almost 12x more than TeeSpring based on Neil Patel's UberSuggest
• RedBubble also advertise and retarget your shirts to visitors via Google Ads (as I got retargeted too)
• RedBubble's TrustPilot of 3.9 over TeeSpring 3.4
• FYI too,  Redbubble is listed on Australia Stock Exchange and they owned TeePublic (another POD)
• You can interact with other creators and designers too

Advantages of TeeSpring Over RedBubble

• For influencers. They integrate with YouTube and Tik Tok.
• RedBubble only payout above $20 and only once a month, TeeSpring allow cash out every 3 days
• More control over your custom storefront
• TeeSpring give boosted network or traffic from their 904,055 visits/month based on Neil Patel's UberSuggest  (as I am not in the boosted traffic I cannot comment how much better/worse is this than RedBubble's organic traffic) 
• Can integrate into YouTube once you have enough subscribers
• Harder to get banned?
• TeePublic's print and color quality might be better based on some reviews

I don't have a following so I did not go all out with TeeSpring. Their design tool is quite hard to replicate many designs on my mobile phone or desktop too.

My Approach to POD with TeeSpring and RedBubble and Merch

Of course, everyone will ask you to do both TeeSpring and RedBubble since they are both free, especially RedBubble given they really help you sell your items.

I would recommend 2 different approaches for beginners depending on how much conviction you have for POD.

(A) 5 Steps POD for Beginners That Are Just Trying And Want Minimal Effort/Instructions

1. Create Amazon Merch and RedBubble accounts.
2. Create a design using Amazon's Merch shirt dimension (so you only need to make 1 image at 4500x5400) avoiding any IP or copyright's (e.g. logos, movies, soccer teams)
3. List the design in Amazon Amazon Merch and RedBubble. 
4. For RedBubble, do a good 1st design (resizing everything and enabling all products including baby clothes) and you use the copy existing work to speed up. You just need to replace the image and title, tags, description. 
5. For Amazon Merch, sell at zero profit margin. For RedBubble, lower it from default to 1% profit margin
6. Repeat Step 2 daily until you get a sale in 3 months with over 90+ designs then you can decide whether POD is viable for you. You might get banned in RedBubble randomly and just contact RedBubble Support and repeat again when you got restored (probably take 2 months)

(B) POD for Beginners that Got Time to Hustle

1. Create your accounts first to lock your username (Amazon Merch, RedBubble, TeeSpring, TeePublic, etc).
2. Come up with a new design. You may use MerchTitan's Free Tools to research and other RedBubble's research tools.
3. Use TMHunt to avoid outright IP and copyright issues.
4. Create a design using Amazon's Merch shirt dimension (so you only need to make 1 image at 4500x5400).
5. List the design in Amazon Merch, Redbubble. List in other POD based on your time.
6. For Amazon Merch, sell at zero profit margin. You must think long term, getting out of Tier 10 is important and you probably only make money at higher tiers. Some people buy their own shirts to get out too.
7. For RedBubble, do a good 1st design (resizing everything and enabling all products including baby clothes) and you use the copy existing work to speed up. You just need to replace the image and title, tags, description.  
8. For RedBubble, I used 10% just because I don't think my design warrant the default percentage. Some people put a higher profit margin for stickers as those really sell in RedBubble.
9. Repeat Step 5 daily until you get a sale in 3 months with over 90+ designs then you can decide whether POD is viable for you. You might get banned in RedBubble randomly and just contact RedBubble Support and repeat again when you got restored (probably take 2 months).

RedBubble Banned Me 

I almost gave up RedBubble when I get the unexpected "spam filter" ban from RedBubble. 

There is no information of the ban and your login just failed suddenly. 

Your shop items also disappear and the sad part is, RedBubble still email you on your sales progress.

I had over $10+ balance in my account and I emailed them and contact their Twitter support. Nevertheless, they restored my account after 2 months so I am glad to start again.

Just be patient once RedBubble referred you to their Marketplace Integrity Team.

I also got paid by Redbubble twice, once in Dec 2020 and one more in October 2021 after meeting the minimum of $20 USD. 

Conclusion

As a starter too, I hope my guide helps you kickstart your POD journey. Even after my experience of being banned and restored,

I still loved POD as it is relatively easy with no money and designing is like a therapy for me. I can just do everything via my phone in my free time.