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New Site. New Strategies. New Lessons for YOU!

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My T-shirt tutorial website is live, and I’ve never been more excited about a launch! Why? Because for the first time, I feel like I’m doing things in the RIGHT order. Even though 2 Create a Website has seen tremendous success, I always felt like I did many things backward.

For example, I waited far too long to start a list, sell products, etc. That’s largely because I didn’t have to. Having said that, it worked well for me then because I got an early start and capitalized on search engine optimization, residual affiliate programs that I still earn from today, and other advantages gained as an early adopter.

But things have evolved since I launched this site, and my strategy has to evolve too. When I launched a website years ago, my focus was on building extensive content for search engine traffic and monetizing it with affiliate links and ads. That won’t cut it today. I also care more about building an email list and selling my own products rather than someone else’s.

In this post, I’ll discuss what I’m doing differently with my new site and how I’ve grown as a businessperson. But first…

Say Hello to Passive Shirt Profits!

If you’ve been following me lately, you won’t be surprised by the new website. Since diving into Merch by Amazon last fall, I’ve become completely obsessed with print-on-demand—the process of uploading an image, adding it to a product, and earning a royalty when it sells. By the end of this year, I will cross the six-figure mark in royalties, and most of those earnings have come recently.

I’ve also expanded my horizons and am now selling designs across over 25 different niches/topics thanks to Merch. Not bad for a side hustle!

I decided to create Passive Shirt Profits for two main reasons:

Diversify my income: I want to offer courses and not solely rely on the unpredictable POD income.
Fill a gap in the market: There’s a dearth of resources available to help newcomers learn software essential for creating T-shirt designs. I hear people in the POD community complain about Photoshop or Illustrator being difficult, and I think, “That’s ‘cause you haven’t taken my courses!” 😀

I don’t want to focus solely on individual print-on-demand sites like Merch By Amazon. Instead, I want to teach practical skills, such as brainstorming creative shirt concepts for various niches (one of my secret weapons with Merch by Amazon) and software applications. It seems many people offer Merch sites and courses with similar information. I aim to include more hands-on lessons in mine.

That’s why researching competitors and listening to comments in private groups, forums, etc., is crucial for inspiration for my upcoming courses.

Let’s move on to what I’m doing differently…

I Started an Email List Early

I will never launch another site without having an email list. I didn’t launch one for this site until 2010—by that time, 2 Create a Website was eight years old! I also didn’t have any products to sell then, so I didn’t fully utilize my email list. This time, I started an email list immediately, and thanks to my private group and podcast, I already have 31 subscribers after just two weeks.

The Podcasting Hype is Real

I launched the PSP Podcast on May 29th without announcing it, and had over 30 downloads and two email subscribers within the first week. That shows people are searching for and listening to podcasts about Merch and print-on-demand, making this a smart choice for traffic generation.

After two weeks, I’ve already had 150 downloads!