Last year, I dabbled in a new side hustle: Amazon Merch.
This post contains affiliate links
Ultimately, I decided it was not for me after a couple months. I had been spreading myself too thin with all my side hustles, so I decided to just concentrate on a couple.
That doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a good opportunity for you. I think your time would be much better spent designing shirts than watching TV.
While I am not a graphic designer (actually, really bad, but getting a bit better), it’s easy to get started. The first step is to request an invitation.
My invitation was approved after a week. Amazon works on a tier system, giving you 10 designs to upload initially. Once you sell 10 shirts, you go to the next tier, 25. You can keep going up based on your sales.
You cannot upload designs with profanity, threats, or advertise as benefiting nonprofits (I pulled my first design when the rules changed late July since the proceeds were advertised to benefit the nonprofit I work for.)
In 30 days, I designed 8 shirts. It took me 9 hours total, but I never sold enough to earn minimum wage.
Any shirts that do not sell in 180 days are removed. Once a shirt sales, the design stays permanently, so you would need to review your poor sellers. My first few designs were done through Paint. The dimensions have to be 4500 x 5400 pixels, which was hard to manage with paint.
After a few simple word designs, I learned that GIMP is open source and free to download. Amazon even gives a template for GIMP to make it easier. Amazon also has a Photoshop template. I have been getting a little better as I design more, such as learning how to remove white space around my designs.
My first designs were wording only, or done with paint, but then I discovered Canva. Canva has numerous free and paid graphics you can use. Four of my eight designs use artwork from Canva.
I started my Merch account after hearing a podcast explaining how Elaine made money, primarily in political designs.
The political shirts took 2-3 days for approval, the others took just 24 hours. You can set the price, as low as $13.99. For example, a 1-sided shirt selling for $15.99 would give you a royalty of $2.36. You would need to sell a 2-sided shirt for $19.99 to make a similar royalty.
Considering how easy Merch was, I may circle back to it in the future.
Some books on Amazon about making money on Amazon Merch:
Books on GIMP photo editor:
YouTube video on beginning with Amazon Merch:
Podcast episodes to listen to to help inspire you in Amazon Merch:
YouTube beginner guide to using GIMP:
Other side hustle posts:
In the comments, feel free to link up your Merch designs and tell your successes or struggles.
While I only sell one design on Amazon Merch, I still prepare tax returns. It is my second largest source of side income. You can find me at Fiverr.
