Merch By Amazon Review

Welcome to my Merch By Amazon Review.

If you have not read my previous reviews on the other PODS I suggest that you go HERE to read it FIRST.

Print-on-demand service has become a popular attraction for the younger crowd to make extra money and even supplying a full-time income.

Albeit it’s very possible to provide a good level of living from PODs however it appears that some of the POD services are a little more sketchy than others as I covered in my previous reviews on PODs.

At the time of writing the other PODs, I never heard of Merch By Amazon.

We have all bought things from Amazon and can easily see the potential in selling anything on Amazon.

Now with Merch By Amazon, anyone can get into selling their own printed clothing on Amazon and have huge exposure to millions of people.

Normally to sell anything on Amazon costs a lot to get into due to Wearhouse storage, ordering products to sell etc.

But this is not the case for Merch By Amazon, you don’t have to purchase anything to get started.

But… is it the best route to take?

Or, are you wasting your time for a few bucks when you could be making thousands using another POD?

These and many other questions will be answered in this article but first.

You need to know that I am not associated with Merch By Amazon in any way.

This way you know you will be getting an unbiased opinion on this program. In fact, I do not make any money on POD’s. I make my money by other means.

You Can Click Here To Learn How I Make A Living Online

I have to warn you, there are plenty of shiny opportunities out there that promise you will make all kinds of money in a short time. Albeit some are legit, the majority are just out to scam your hard-earned dollars from you.

And then there are those that sit on the fence about being legit or a scam.

If you want to know how you can tell a scam from a legit program read my article How To Know A Scam Here, this will help you identify the tel-tail signs of a scam so you can avoid them.

Alright, let’s get started…

What Is Merch By Amazon About?

Merch by Amazon is a print-on-demand service where you can sell your own t-shirts and sweatshirts directly on Amazon as a side hustle. And like some of the other POD programs I have covered, you don’t have to worry about the logistics side of things.

You just have to come up with an awesome T-shirt design, place it up for sale and Amazon will do the rest for you.

They don’t advertise directly, what they do instead is give you exposure to the search results.

The problem with this is that they only give you a percentage of the search depending on your Tier level.

Merch By Amazon Tier System

The purpose of the tier system was to help fight against spammers from setting up new accounts and uploading thousands of designs right away thereby abusing the system.

The Tier system goes like this:

• Tier 1 – 10 designs
• Tier 2 – 25 designs
• Tier 3 – 100 designs
• Tier 4 – 500 designs
• Tier 5 – 1000 designs
• Tier 6 – 2000 designs
• Tier 7 and up – A lot of designs

When you first create your account you are placed at Tier 1 which means:

1. you can only have between 1 and 10 designs live to sell.
2. You can only submit 1 new design per day.
3. To move up you have to sell 10 shirts total to move to Tier 2 of 25 designs.

And of course, when you sell 15 shirts bringing you to a total of 25 sold you move up to Tier 3.

Tier 3 you have to sell 75 shirts plus the 25 you already sold to bring you to 100 sold to reach Tier 4 and so on.

How To Move Up Fast in Merch By Amazon

To move up fast in Merch By Amazon you have to come up with really good designs at the beginning. This will get you more sales fast which will bring you up the ladder faster so you can get a higher exposure with the search engines.

The real money within Merch By Amazon is by putting up a lot of shirts for sale so you flood the search engines with your products.

Amazon knows this which is the reason behind the tier system to prevent spammers from flooding the market.

The problem is that it only stopped them at the beginning but also makes it really hard for anyone else to get in on the action.

High Competition In Amazon

You can scrape by for a long time before you find a home-run design that should take you to a new level in your business. The problem with that is that those scammers are spending all day searching on Amazon for any winning designs that others created so they can steal them.

As soon as they see a design starting to take off they quickly make a copy of the design to sell it.

Because they are in a higher Tier, their design will skyrocket while you are left wondering what happened.

This is a huge problem within Amazon, they do monitor to prevent others from copying however all you have to do is change the color or use a different font or even change a word here and there to make it your own.

Because Amazon doesn’t see it as a copy, the copier gets to keep the credit for it and because they are at a higher level than you they will get more exposure resulting in more sales.

They will then come up with different variants of the same shirt which really blows you out of the competition.

You are quickly knocked out of the search results by these scammers and there’s nothing you can do about it.

How To Find That Winning Design

Ok, so you decide to give it a go anyway, good for you, that’s the spirit.

Here’re a few tips to at least get you in the game with the scammers.

Before you open your account with Amazon…

…sit down and come up with lots of designs. Do not post them anywhere.

Note: If you go planing on sticking with one of the other programs I mentioned in previous reviews, you can go ahead and post your designs with no worry.

Just don’t post them anywhere else if you are planning on posting on Amazon.

I am not talking about 5 or 10 designs here, if you want to win the game you have to be willing to play by the rules right?

So this is Amazon’s rules they have set, now design 25 to 30 shirts to be ready to launch.

And when you do launch them, keep coming up with more designs every day because many of those designs if they are winners will get stolen very fast from you.

The trick is to move up the tiers quickly so you can get more exposure to the search engines. Remember, your competitors are at Tier 5 or higher and this is where you want to get.

Using A Tool To Help

The more designs you can come up with on your own the better. Once you have exhausted your list it’s time to take it up a notch.

This will put you in the front row of the game so you at least have a fighting chance.

This is like taking a chainsaw to the axe competition.

Click here and get the Game Changer Tool, it’s the only one I know of that will help you gain the edge like having a pro by your side.

This truly is a huge game-changer for you.

Yes, the scammers also use it however this gives you the same power that they have.

In fact, sign up for this program and go through the lessons first before you even join Mech By Amazon. Don’t take this advice lightly, do it now so you start out like a pro.

And don’t skip any of the videos, watch them a minimum of 2 times so you know all the tricks of the trade. They are not long and are easy to follow.

What Does Merch Informer Give Me?

That’s a great question, this review is not about Merch Informer however due to its importance I will touch on it here.

Merch Informer teaches you a whole lot about advantage concepts like Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis, and listing Optimization. It may not sound like much but it holds a lot of weight.

These key points are so important that they will either make or break your print-shirt business on Amazon. They are all the important tools to winning by figuring out how to get your designs ranking high in Amazon.

Let’s be clear here, you are not trying to beat them, you are just trying to get up to the higher tiers so you can get more exposure on the search engines.

You can go here and sign up for the free account and check it out.

Do it now, and spend a few minutes looking around and then come back.

 

You’re back… Great, let’s continue,

Now that you got a glimpse of the most powerful tool at your disposal, let’s go over a few things.

The free version is no good to you, you will have to upgrade to gain the edge you need to be in the game.

Merch Informer Pricing

Merch Informer has 4 pricing levels, you do not need to waste money in the higher levels, the cheapest option will work plenty for you which will only cost $10 a month.

Do not think you are going to play this game against the giants without this tool. You need EVERYTHING in your favour.

If you don’t buy the minimum level… then selling T-shirts on Amazon is probably not for you.

Level one will work because all the higher levels give you is the ability to track historical data like keywords, trademarks, products and a few other things which are not important.

If you want that ability you can always upgrade later.

What you want the tool for is to see all the designs that will show up for specific keywords. You can also browse designs in order of the number of sales per month.

You will also find out which keywords that your competitors are using. You will quickly learn which words will get you high exposure with the least amount of competitors.

This is where you will gain your exposure to rising quickly up the Tier.

Keep in mind each level you go up will get a little easier and bring in more money. Don’t expect to get rich selling T-Shirts on Amazon. They just don’t pay out enough and that is the same for their affiliate program. Not worth being an affiliate for.

And you can also find out which designs the scammers are using so you can create your own similar that may sell just as well.

I do not recommend stealing other’s designs, just come up with your own ideas.

Here’s a rule to follow:

A T-Shirt that sells a couple per week gets a best seller rank of 100,000.

This is a great place to start, if you can sell a couple of shirts a week it will allow you to grow at a nice rate.

This will also cover the $10 cost of the program.

Anyway, watch the videos a couple of times especially if you are new to keyword research tools.

How To Create Your Design

Amazon does not have a built-in design creator so you will have to use an external resource.

A great powerful design tool is Photoshop or Gimp.

Both will do a great job on any design however they do come with a learning curve.

You have to make sure your design is 4500 x 5400 px or Amazon will give you an error.

For a more simple approach, you can use Microsoft Paint, just keep to the size I mentioned above and you will be ok.

Merch By Amazon Payout

The commission you make on Amazon is not very high.

Amazon controls everything so you have very little flexibility for setting the price.

Of all the POD’s I have reviewed, Amazon has one of the lowest commission payouts.

As an example, if you sold a T-Shirt for 15.99, you would receive just $2.36 for your efforts.

Don’t expect to get rich anytime soon on Amazon.

Merch By Amazon Products

They currently only have T-Shirts, Long-Sleeved T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, Hoodies which are not a huge selection of products.

Another problem with Amazon is their quality, you can not pick the quality of the products for your print. They only use low to the medium-quality fabric which doesn’t last very long. So if you want to have a name for quality products Merch By Amazon would not work.

What I Like About Merch By Amazon

• Everything is done for you so all you have to do is come up with your design.
• A little work up front pays off well over time.
• Amazon has a huge exposure

What I Don’t Like About Merch By Amazon

• You have to do your own advertising which can be very expensive
• Amazon does not pay out very well for your work
• Competition is very high with Merch By Amazon
• It’s real easy to copy someone else’s work and get the credit for it especially if they are on a higher level than you
• Amazon is a great place for hackers to hang out trying to find information about you to steal your identity.
• There is no design editor, you will have to an external source.
• Branding is difficult to do due to the limitations you have
• You are not in control of your own store or products

There are better programs available than Merch By Amazon. I have completed a review of these other POD services which you can read here.

I would advise learning more about what is available to you before making a decision on which one to go with.

Which POD Is The Best?

All the POD services are different in one way or another, but in my opinion:

1. If you are a beginner and are interested in giving print business a go then it would make more sense to go with Redbubble because they really do everything for you including advertising which makes it the best one for starting out.
   1. Once you gain some experience and wish to expand out to maximize profits you can take a FREE course here to learn about building a webpage and finding free traffic.
   2. Not only will this expand your printing abilities but also open the door to affiliate marketing which is where the big money is.
2. However, if you already have a webpage or know how to build one then you can go with Printify, Printful or for more choice of products and the highest quality printing go with Subliminator. In my opinion, I believe Printify would be the best choice for the following reasons:
   1. They offer a good quality shirt and products with good printing service
   2. Their lower cost leaves you with a higher profit
   3. Their delivery service is good so you won’t get issues there.
3. On the other hand, if you are serious and ready to build a business in selling your own branded products I would recommend taking the training here on building and handling a webpage, and how to get free traffic.
   1. Then come back and join one of the 3 better print services. With good quality print and good customer service, you will have many repeated customers. That is when you will start to see your efforts explode.
   2. For your own branding and specialty products, you will have no choice but to go with Subliminator. But this one is not for the beginner.

Start small and work up, you have a lot to learn about marketing which has the battle. The trick is to continue to grow at a steady pace and don’t try to climb the mountain in one day.

Of course, making money online with a print service is not the only way to make money.

Here’s How I Make A Living Online?

I’ve been making a living online now for the past 4 years and from my experience, I found the best way is with Affiliate Marketing and here’s why:

• you don’t need a product
• you are not tied to any product to promote or company
• there is no recruiting as in MLM’s
• no dealing with customers
• No handling of products
• No customers to deal with
  
• pay raises come naturally as more people find your site
• it’s the lowest entry-level into online marketing
• the income is unlimited
• You are not controlled by anyone else but you
  
• you get to design your own website and be dependant free

The best part is that everything you do towards your own business builds to greater potential. No one can shut you down,  you are your own independent business.

If a product is no longer available or you can get it cheaper somewhere else great, more money in your pocket.

And you will always have an income even while you sleep or go on vacation.

Click Here To Learn More About The Program That Got Me Started