Yous've waited months for your invite, y'all've spent hours researching t-shirt ideas and coming upwards some designs, and now you discover yourself asking…

Why am I not getting whatsoever sales?

I know, I've been there. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to blame Amazon. I get it. You lot see people all over Facebook groups killing it on Merch; why aren't you having the aforementioned success?

In this commodity, I will show you lot how to tier up apace with Merch by Amazon.

Let's become started!

And sign upward hither, so you'll be emailed every fourth dimension I publish a new commodity!

Stop the Blame

First of all, stop blaming Amazon!

Amazon has given all of us a unique way to brand some side income. Merch allows ANYONE to get-go a t-shirt business. You have the advantage of getting in now, while information technology's invite only. Literally all you have to do is upload designs, choose a few colors, and set up the cost. No inventory, no handling returns, no customer service issues…

It actually doesn't get much simpler than that.

greatleaders

Sure, some users are killing it with organic sales right abroad. If that'due south you, nifty! You should feel actually proud of yourself. There's a good chance that these successful people didn't just sit down effectually waiting for their Merch update.

They actively sought out how to exist successful with Merch by Amazon. They learned how to do Merch past Amazon research effectively, how to write killer Merch product descriptions, or maybe they watched some how-to Photoshop tutorials.

(PS – Adobe Photoshop is only 9.99/calendar month. That's only two t-shirts!)

Maybe your designs suck. Maybe you're niche is also vague. Maybe that quote is overused and you accept no run a risk to stand out.

I remember we can all agree that getting by the 25 shirt tier is the arguably the hardest role about Merch. That, and being disciplined. Later all, if the Pareto Principle applies, only 20% of your sales volition be driving 80% of your profits. Realistically, that ways you lot'll merely accept 3 or 4 shirts that are selling well out of 25.

That's just not a lot of opportunity.

Take a look at my Starting time xxx Days on Merch income study. The Pareto Principle definitely applied in my case. I sold 17 shirts my first month, made $67, and the majority of my sales came from 3 designs. The more than designs you take, the more than shirts you should be selling.

The more shirts you have to sell, the more shirts yous will sell, and the easier it is to tier upwardly quickly.

Merch By Amazon Tiers

In case this is the first mail service of mine you've read, Merch past Amazon has a tier organization in place. Everyone starts out in Tier 1. Hither's how many designs yous can upload in each tier:

Tier ane = 25 designs

Tier 2 = 100 designs

Tier iii = 500 designs

Tier four = 1000 designs

Tier 5 = 2000 designs

Tier 6 = 4000 designs

Tier 7 = 8000 designs

To exit of Tier one, y'all'll demand to sell 25 shirts. To get out of Tier 2, y'all'll need to sell 100 shirts. Information technology doesn't matter if you sell 25 of ane shirt, or if you sell 25 shirts once each. Your goal should be to break out of the 25 shirt tier as chop-chop as yous can, so yous take a improve chance or making sales once you take 100 designs up.

So, how tin yous sell 25 designs as quickly as possible?

Think Exterior The Box

Luckily for you, I've written down a few means. Some of them yous may take tried, others are probably brand new. Read through each, examination them out, and report back here with which method worked best for you.

And as a sidenote – you will not tier up automatically once y'all striking 25 sales. Amazon upgrades users to the next tier in batches, meaning you may manner a week or two to tier up (I'm actually experiencing this now, I SHOULD be in tier 2, merely I'yard nevertheless waiting to exist tiered upwardly).

So, without further ado, hither are some ways to tier upwardly with Merch by Amazon.

The absolute quickest way to tier upwardly is…

Purchase Them Yourself

Yes, you actually can do this.

I don't recommend it, just you can. It may exist the quickest and easiest fashion to tier up, but you would spending at to the lowest degree $274.75 on shirts. Not to mention you'd be stuck with 25 tees y'all don't know what to do with.

Since you won't tier upwards automatically anyhow, I just don't see the value in purchasing all your shirts at once.

But, yous can. The choice is there.

Mayhap if you're stuck at 20 sales, and you merely want to bustle up and hit 25, and then purchasing a few shirts makes more sense. But other than that, if you're slowly seeing sales trickle in – I recommend just waiting it out.

Follow Twitter Hashtags

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This strategy works really well if you are following a sure niche.

For instance, let's say you are actually into wolves (which I personally am). You are probably following quite a few people on Twitter about wolves, wolf preservation, researchers in the wolf community, etc.

Every in one case in a while, a hashtag might catch on among the community. A good example for today is #WolfAwarenessWeek.

That's a great t-shirt! You can literally throw that hashtag on a t-shirt and upload it to Amazon.

If you can learn to dominate just one niche, yous volition make a lot of sales. And so, share it! Make certain and include the #WolfAwarenessWeek hashtag on your Twitter postal service, likewise.

And really, yous may not even demand to share information technology.

Other members of these wolf communities may merely go to Amazon and search "wolf awareness t-shirt" and notice yours. Organic sales are the all-time kind of sales.

Marketplace to Local Facebook Groups

Tiering up with Facebook groups is some other not bad way of making quick sales. In that location'southward Facebook groups for every niche under the sun. This strategy involves joining several Facebook groups in a particular niche, waiting to be approved, and then waiting for your opportunity to share your design.

The members of these groups are very cohesive; almost like family. You accept to recollect, they joined that group to have meaningful conversation about a sure niche or topic that interests them. Y'all don't necessarily have to bring together in on the chat, but at least wait for the right opportunity to subtly drop a link. And make sure to give it an interesting title or comment when posting it.

Some groups will see right through your marketing attempt. Others may allow posts as long every bit it's relevant. Do non just join 100 groups, post a link to them all, and expect sales. That's an easy way to get kicked out of the group for skillful and blow whatever future chance of success. And plus, it comes off as spammy.

If yous are unsure if you tin can postal service your t-shirt to the group, attain out to a grouping moderator. You never know, they may be looking for someone to create a t-shirt for that grouping!

Inquire Your Employer

At i point or another, well-nigh companies have given their employees the option to purchase t-shirts. For visitor events, shirts are probably given away to all participants. This is a slap-up opportunity.

Here'due south what you do:

Reach out to the marketing section. Send them a nice piddling email saying something like this:

Hey marketing,

I wanted to run something past yous. I've been invited past Amazon to utilise a program called Merch by Amazon. In example you lot haven't heard nearly it, it's basically a Print-On-Need t-shirt service. Information technology allows me to upload t-shirt designs, choose a few colors, and ready my ain price for the shirt. I don't accept to hold any inventory at all, handle shipping, cistomer service, or actually anything .

To start, I'g only allowed to upload 25 designs. Once I sell 25 shirts, I will upgraded to the next tier.

Now, I'm not looking to make whatever money on the t-shirts for our company. In fact, I could become the cost downwards to $10.99 per t-shirt, which is the everyman Amazon offers ( that would net me 1 penny in profit  per shirt). I'm sure that'south significantly less than we currently pay. In addition, all designs are live on Amazon is only a few hours, t-shirts arrive in only a few days, and nosotros won't be stuck with any unsold inventory.

I actually think this is a great opportunity for u.s.. Our employees could purchase shirts without our intervention, at very reasonable prices, and our shirts will be ready to purchase but hours after the design is created. The only way this would exist do good me is by helping me tier up to the next tier level, so I tin listing more of my own designs.

If this is something you'd like to hash out further, I'd be happy to go over it with y'all in more detail. Thanks for your time!

See what I did there?

I didn't only ask the company to buy shirts from me, I showed them the value. Companies love to streamline operations, reduce costs, and save space. At my company, we have boxes of XXL shirts that we purchased in bulk that no one wants or needs. And, they were probably paying up of $xv-xx per shirt from CustomInk!

Don't forget to tell them that the designs tin be set to Private, and then only those with the link can come across the design.

Contact Local Bands

Do you know any local bands?

Contact them. They'll want Merch. I guarantee it. When people habiliment their band shirt, it's costless advertizement to them.

Reach out to the 1 of the band members on social media, and see if they'd be interested in having some Merch made for their band. Chances are they already have a band logo made, which is peachy. They can just send you lot the logo and you lot can go started right away.

If they are unsure about the agreement, encounter if they'd be interested in at least seeing a live example of their band'southward t-shirt on Amazon.

Trust me, any band would love to be listed on Amazon.

In exchange, you may have to come up with a 50/50 understanding or something similar that. If you do come upwards with an agreement, you'll probably just have to send them a monthly report with sales totals. From there, just Paypal half to one of the members.

Bands are always looking for boosted income streams. Not only is it a risk-complimentary way for bands to accept Merch fabricated, merely they will probably post your link all over social media for yous. They might even purchase large orders before a large evidence.

Don't disbelieve local or growing bands guys.

Target Community Events

Accept a local Farmer's market place coming upwards? Parade? Clemency issue? Fair? Music festival?

Find out who is spearheading those events, and accomplish out to them. Ask them if they need some t-shirts made for the events. If y'all tin discover designs from the previous year – even better. You tin can make a similar design, add the current twelvemonth, and send them a alive design right away, or even earlier yous accomplish out to them.

Learning how to tier up using local trending topics is a surefire way to get sales, and is a swell way to become involved and requite dorsum to your community.

Sports Teams

Another piece of cake style to tier upwardly is by creating sports t-shirts for local teams.

Yous can create a t-shirt for the whole elementary soccer squad. Y'all could create specific coaches t-shirts. You could practise the high schoolhouse dance team.

If you've always coached a sport, you know how big of a nightmare ordering t-shirts for your team can be.

Pitch it to the coaches every bit a way to simplify the ordering procedure. All they would have to practice is email a link to the players parents. He or she no longer has to manage all the orders, the sizes, and handle the coin.

This is a technique I personally use. I created a sports t-shirt, and a motorcoach must have been on Amazon looking for shirts for that sport, and ordered half dozen shirts in one night!

I was floored. Easiest $30 I've ever made.

Sports are seasonal, so don't create a baseball game t-shirt in the fall or soccer shirts in the winter and expect them to sell. Unless indoor soccer or something like that.

Think about all the different sports off the tiptop of your head. Now recall near all the positions each sport has.

In that location's a lot of opportunity in that location.

Finishing Upwardly

If you lot want to expect for organic sales, that's perfectly fine. It does work for a lot of people. Information technology'south took me virtually 36 days to tier up doing information technology that way. Every bit I said, I oasis't technically tiered up yet(still waiting on Amazon…), but however. It's possible to do, and a piffling over a month isn't that long in the longterm scope of things.

The amount of time information technology takes to tier up is dependent on so many factors, that no 2 sellers volition experience it the same. Just, if yous wanted to guarantee to get at to the lowest degree 25 sales fast, you should really take some of my communication above.

Cheers for reading! Don't forget to follow forth hither, cheque out some of my video tutorials here, and bank check some of the Merch tools and resources I utilise to simplify past brainstorming and design process.

-Danny

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