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🙏 All content on my channel is my personal opinion. I am NOT a lawyer, accountant or financial advisor. I do not have any professional licenses. My opinions are not a replacement for the guidance of a professionally trained and licensed individual.
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WATCH MY MOST POPULAR VIDEOS:
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Got any questions about "legal stuff" like copyrights, trademarks & refunds? Chances are, by watching these videos, you'll have most of your questions answered!
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VIDEO CHAPTERS:
0:00 Getting Banned On Etsy
0:26 Be Wary Of Cheap Printing Providers
2:23 "Unique" Products Are Risky To Sell
5:23 NEVER Sell Unique Product Colors
6:55 Only Sell "True To Size" Products
7:57 Read Reviews For Base Items
10:08 Auditing Print Providers
12:46 Avoid Chinese Printed Products
13:57 Prioritize Global Products
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WHY SUBSCRIBE TO WHOLESALE TED?
Hey there I am Sarah (aka Ted). My goal is to help new entrepreneurs grow & scale a business that is right for THEM!
Yes – the business that is right for THEM. Because I believe that time is the most valuable thing we have, and that we should spend it doing things that we love: and what I love may be different to what you love. Which is why on this channel I share:
* Latest news & updates from within the Print On Demand & ecommerce industry.
* Examples & case studies of businesses that I enjoy (such as Print On Demand ecommerce businesses) and sharing my tips & strategies I've learned along the way.
* Examples & case studies of other businesses that entrepreneurs love running (even if I personally wouldn't find it fun myself!)
* Plus a sprinkle of entrepreneurial motivation thrown in too!
I hope my actionable content can help you: whether you're running your own online business, or are in the process of building one, and want some tactical advice to help you along the way. If that is you, subscribe today! 🔥
⚠ WARNING! I do NOT censor people or delete comments, even if you disagree with me, or post something not-nice about me. HOWEVER, YouTube DOES censor them. If you want to post a negative comment, the following things will get it removed & potentially get you auto-blocked from my channel by the algorithm:
1) If you leave a comment that is insulting to someone or would be considered “mean”
2) If you “reply bomb” (e.g. reply to lots of other comments really fast)
3) If you make a not-so-nice comment about how I look.
I would like as much discussion, both good or bad, to be able to happen. So please keep these things in mind before leaving a “negative” comment. Thank you 🙏
How could someone make a not-so-nice comment about the way you look?! You look wonderful!
Been following your channel for years and will continue to follow, you always put out excellent information. So don’t understand the comments about your looks—there is nothing wrong with the way you look, it is so absurd. Just ignore and keep up the good work. Keep laughing all the way to the bank!!
Haha thank you! Yes, some people will even just throw it is as a little side-comment, and the algorithm flags those comments almost immediately. In that case there, I’m much more understanding that it does, but yes, it does mean the entire comment gets flagged!
Can you do a shopify vs etsy
Another great video! Quality is always a good way to go. T-Shirts do have a ton of competition but I love them.
Lots of competition means that there is lots of demand, which means lots of room to profit, especially if you find the less competitive subniches within the competitive niches 😉
This is great info. Your behind the scene looks and deep dive are appreciated. Learned big time. 👏🏾
Thank you so much for your support, it is so great to hear that the video could help someone 🙏
Saying things that need to be said. Good on you. Etsy has a reputation for banning stores for seemingly no reason. You have told people what the reason may be.
It’s true, they don’t communicate their reason for banning people well at all! The most common reasons are:
1) There are LOTS of scammers on Etsy. So new stores are often pre-cautionary banned, and those pre-cautionary new store bans can be easily appealed. Etsy is just testing you to make sure you’re a real person, essentially. They don’t communicate about this ban at all and people just suddenly get banned before they have listed any products often, and don’t understand why.
2) Having a low customer satisfaction score, which is much harder and less likely to be successfully appealed.
3) Selling copyrighted products – which is also much more difficult to appeal.
Wow ! Your videos are so intelligently informative. You instill such a confidence in those looking for answers by simply knowing your craft so well. Love it.
Great tips Sarah, I wouldn’t have thought of upfront. Even if you use your own website instead of Etsy/Amazon etc, these tips ensure a good customer experience, which is then totally your own responsibility, rather than a 3rd party website.
Really helpful. Had never considered the ‘out of stock’ angle before. Maybe one solution is to limit inventory numbers, then refresh, but not ideal if you don’t want to intervene in your processes too often.
That is an interesting idea. Something I’d note is that you also don’t want to go out of stock continuously as this also impacts your algorithmic rankings (this includes your own store, as Google isn’t a fan of stores going out of stock all of the time). But it is an interesting idea to manage your risk! This is literally something I have dealt with, so its a genuine, serious thing to think about before jumping into a product with no alternative suppliers.
@WholesaleTed thanks for the tip, good timing as I’m hunting for cool products to sell for Christmas. Will certainly bear this in mind! Nga mihi nui 👍
Thank you Sarah! It is super great to see the in-depth explanation videos that you provide that highlight copyright laws and detailing, in this video, the culture of customers and the pitfalls of ecommerce. Some ethical considerations and duties that many “drive-thru” You tubers skip and/or ignore just to earn cash is a significant problem of individual responsibility nowadays, but the best parts is that the information that you provide is transparent, considers the ethics of ecommerce, and an excellent springboard for the viewer to embark on their own extended research and walk down the ‘print on demand’ path with more confidence. I am retired from teaching, in Tasmania, but too old to retire and too young to hire, therefore I am building my own multiple stream ecommerce business. And ‘print on demand’ seems like a nice little creative side hustle.
Thank you! And yes, it is honestly just so much fun to create and design things and then know that people around the globe are wearing your creation.
Thank you for posting this Sarah, although it’s nothing new, but people need to be reminded. Of all the print provider out there, and if you could only choose one, which would it be? And, what do you feel is the maximum providers one should have so it makes the whole backend process run more smoothly. I know the more you have the more headaches, issues, confusion, time and effort. Whereas keeping these more streamlined provides a more seamless process, like having just one or two, 3 max.
Would love your thoughts. Thanks heaps! 🙂
Thank you! And that is easy, Printful. Very high quality control through their entire catalog, which is comprehensive, multiple print shops worldwide. Nothing compares. But it’s also the most expensive. Printify requires more research since to have a variety of items to sell, will require multiple print providers. But it’s much cheaper. Pros and cons!
Valuable tips, clear narrative, good examples. Well, POD isn’t a straightforward market area. I’m going to read your book! Thank you! Of course, I’m subscribing to your channel.
I love this! This is really an important information. My next action is to change from *that* provider to another provider. Yes, I do agree with prioritize customer experience and satisfaction because I have buying shirt and sweatshirt myself. I remember that regret and your video reminds me not to make our own future or current customer from bad experience so the most logical thing to do is go for quality.
Thank you for this. I was starting to populate my Etsy store and this is eye opening for me. Thank you again. 👍👍👍
Really, really good points of view. I started RB shop recently as a side hobby for now. But it made my wife thinking about going in POD totally. She was thinking about it years ago but well… It was dark time for us back then and idea died. But it’s up again and all this information will be really helpful. I analyze a lot of information about this market for some time and it’s really, really useful info. Thank you.
Thank you! I highly recommend she watches my previous video if she is just getting started, hopefully it’ll help her have success faster: https://youtu.be/Phucc1uMllw?si=FLqXkpNxHZnOKtir
Thanks for yet another great video, Sarah! I have a small POD store, and I love to learn as much about this business as possible. My biggest problem though is the feeling of “overwhelm”. I feel there are so many things I should do, ought to do, that I might not yet know that much about (SEO for instance), and everything feels urgent, and because I’m still learning I don’t know what is really urgent and should be prioritised, and what is urgent but don’t need to be on my list of the 10 things I should prioritise first. Could you do a video on simplifying the most important steps to get ready to sell products, and different strategies to try to get your first sales? Anyhow – I love your content and your straight forward approach to things, keep it coming!
Thank you! And actually, I kind of did make that video. It was my latest video. Have you watched it? https://youtu.be/Phucc1uMllw?si=FLqXkpNxHZnOKtir
It’s really not that complicated. It comes down to:
1) Identify a product/customer base that you can do different/better.
2) Create products for it. Only add in products good enough that you would buy. Quality over quantity.
3) Be descriptive in your title/tags/description. Don’t overthink it, just do your best to be descriptive.
4) Keep adding new products regularly, because the way the Etsy’s algorithm works as I described in the video, it will help it a lot to just keep adding items regularly. You could set yourself a small goal, like add 1 per day.
If your products are both great, AND fill a gap in the marketplace, that is the key to fast sales. Most people don’t do that though. They just focus on niches with lots of great options already and don’t add to it/improve it.
I learn everytime I watched your video. Can you do also videos about digital products because I think those are not risky to sell 😁☺️❤️
Thank you! And I actually plan to make a video about digital products soon!
Thanks for all the tips. That was my biggest fear at the time in choosing my printify provider. Now with this help, I can make a better background check!
Also, is there any chance you would make a tutorial, on how to build your on website with POD? Thank you again for all your tips!
Thank you! And that is a great idea for a video, I’ll put it on my video idea list 🙂
Thanks on this Information 👏👏 ” Just keep going ” 💪💪
So many great points .. thank you Sarah! ❤
Fab video thank you! I got banned from etsy, they didn’t email me to tell me why and they didn’t tell me why when i asked them via an appeal! How is anyone supposed to improve if they don’t tell you!? 🤔 🤦♀️
So, due to large amounts of scam accounts being created every day on Etsy, they temporarily “ban” a lot of new accounts. That is what the suspension message I showed at 0:02 was – it was a “new account suspension.” If you appeal this “ban” they will reinstate your account very fast, usually within a week. This account was reinstated in about 3 days after appealing it. It is very, VERY common to get “banned” within your first few days (sometimes within your first hour!) and people mistakenly believe that they have been legitimately banned. They’ll sometimes even blame POD and say that is why they were banned, even though POD providers like Printify have a direct integration and are an official app partner with Etsy.
It sounds like this was your “ban” – however, they do NOT explain it. You can see my suspension message didn’t explain it. They just ask you to appeal it. It is confusing.
The reason Etsy seems to do it, is to stop the scam accounts. The scammers don’t appeal the ban, because they know they’ll get caught. From Etsy’s perspective, it is crucial that they stop scammers, because they are processing payments. Credit card companies like Mastercard/Visa do NOT tolerate scams. They have to be more careful than say, YouTube, which isn’t as vigilant at stopping scammers in the YT comments.
It is annoying, and frustrating, but it isn’t personal, and you weren’t banned for doing anything wrong 🙏
Great video Sarah. Been subbed a few years now. My humor sometimes sucks. Keep it up ❤
Hey Sarah! Thanks for your video and advice! In regards to your comments on the location of printers, is it possible to sell a tshirt that has an option for different printers on the same listing for people to choose which is going to get to them sooner or do you have to create a separate listing on your store?