Why I Removed My 2Create Courses & More Updates!
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Heeeeey everyone! Long time no “see!”
I wanted to update you all on some things since it’s been a while since I’ve posted.
The number one email I’ve received in the last few months has been regarding my 2Create courses. You may have noticed that most of them have been set to “private.” After my dad got sick in March, I knew I wasn’t going to have time to focus on supporting students for two websites. PSP was my main focus, and I also have a private student group to support. So I decided to set the 2Create courses to “private” to prevent new students from enrolling.
Then once things returned to normal in my personal life, I had to be honest with myself. I wasn’t doing much with website building or marketing, other than passively using my podcast to promote PSP courses. I’m making waaaaay more money selling my T-shirt designs than I am with the actual courses that teach what I’m doing.
I’ve had about 500 students enroll in my PSP courses. While that’s not bad, it could have been so much better if I did more marketing.
I’ve never been comfortable or efficient with marketing my products. It intimidates me. That’s one business hump I’ve never been able to get over. I admire people who are diligent with tracking email campaigns and conversions. It all just makes my head spin. I’d rather make a T-shirt. 🙂
Why The T-Shirt Biz is So Rewarding to Me
For a long time, affiliate marketing and AdSense were my favorite and most rewarding ways to earn online. However, POD now holds that top spot.
I don’t come from a design background so I’ve had to learn a lot. When I worked as an HTML Analyst for American Airlines over 10 years ago, my team lead forced us to use Photoshop, but the company provided zero training. I remember staring at the blank Photoshop interface wondering what the heck I was supposed to do with all those tools and buttons as they stared back at me. 🙂
I never actually learned much about Photoshop until I quit my full-time job in 2006 to work on this site. Fast forward 12 years later, I’m now using Photoshop and Illustrator to create some very detailed art that I never thought I would be able to do. To see how far I’ve come, and then to have people buy my designs by the thousands, is incredibly rewarding and slightly addictive. 🙂
It also goes to show anyone can do this regardless of your design background. I have one T-shirt that has netted over $20,000 in royalties. Yes, from ONE T-shirt design!
Think Before You Leap
With all the income potential, print on Demand is not for everyone. Just like anything else, don’t get into this just because you are in desperate need of money. You need the desire to learn the POD business and even something about software if you want to scale your income. And for long-term success, you should be thinking of building a brand instead of relying on passive traffic and income like I’ve been.
Even if you’re a talented designer, you will quickly learn that’s just the beginning. You also have to understand keywords and find niches to design for. It’s getting very competitive, so make sure you jump in for the right reasons.
If I’m honest, I was drawn to this venture for the money, but I’ve STAYED because of my love for the work. When my dad was sick, I was super stressed. I found the creation process to be therapeutic. A lot of my success has come because of creative ideas that just haven’t been done, and the creative work is what makes this fun for me.
On the flip side, you also have to be prepared for theft. That’s been the biggest disappointment of this whole experience. It’s why I use an alias for my POD accounts, and don’t share much of my work. As a result of Amazon and other PODs not protecting our work with a wrinkle or watermark, my images have been stolen and re-uploaded to numerous sites.