Posters are no longer just used by teenagers to hang up band pictures. A nice, framed poster can be found in some of the most well-designed living rooms (thank-you Ikea!) They are used to imitate real art (who doesn’t want a framed Van Gogh in their house?) or to give your house a vintage look by adding some James Dean & Marilyn Monroe.
With posters, the options are infinite. This makes it a great business-model to step into because there are so many niches to get into. The best part? You can start selling posters online for free.
How to sell posters online for free
Starting your own poster-selling business is pretty simple, all you need is some free time and a good niche.
In order to begin your poster-empire, we first need to get down to the basics and learn all about Print on Demand Dropshipping.
What is print on demand dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a business model where you work with a certain supplier to stock and send out your goods for you. This means you never have to carry your own stock, worry about it or pay hefty delivery fees.
So you can save out a lot of time and money. No upfront investments for a dropshipping company so no risk!
Print on Demand is a form of dropshipping where instead of using a regular supplier, you’re using a supplier that prints items on demand, get it?
So they carry a wide stock of products such as T-shirts, mugs, pillowcases, and most importantly posters that you can print whatever you want on and send to your customer. Isn’t that amazing?
These services are completely free to use. There are marketplace options such as Redbubble and Teespring and you can even start your own print-on-demand store inside of Amazon by using MerchByAmazon.
But while these are very competitive (as anyone can upload to them) the best way to start selling your own posters online for free is by starting your own webshop with Shopify.
How to start a Shopify store
Starting your own webshop with Shopify is super simple. All you have to do is create an account (answer so questions but most are skippable) and ta-da! You’re ready to start your poster-empire.
Within Shopify, you can design your store drag-and-drop-style, integrate print-on-demand apps such as Printful or Printify, and upload your own products.
You can create your own domain and start branding your webshop with a logo, color scheme, and more. The customization options are infinite so you can really make your store your own.
You can get started for free by using their free 14-day trial that is completely credit-card-free.
Your Step-by-Step plan to start selling posters
Now that you know how to start your own selling posters online, let’s set you up with a plan you can follow along step by step.
3. Find a poster niche
Your poster business is yours to decide so you can sell whatever you want, but if you’re going to start uploading a random amount of designs, you’re not going to get very far.
There are many established brands already doing that, you will have a hard time trying to compete with them.
What you have to do is find a good poster niche (and ideally you will build your brand around that niche).
For example, you can start selling funny quotes and brand them in your own designs as these guys did:
See how they use a certain font with a funny quote and white background? That’s called branding, you can build an entire store with products just like that.
All you have to do is find the right niche.
2. Pick a platform
I already explained that you can decide between a print on demand marketplace platform or a Shopify webshop. The former is a great option if you truly want to start selling posters completely free but the latter is a better option for starting a real, branded business.
On a marketplace platform you compete with others so you’ll have a harder time finding a non-saturated niche. You are also 100% tied to this platform and any changes they could make. This is a good option if you’re seeking for some side-money.
On a Shopify store, you can really start a brand. Your own brand. This is better for starting a long-term business. Of course, this also means you will be handling the traffic and customer service.
3. Pick your print on demand supplier
For this step, I’m going to assume you’ve decided to start a Shopify store and have to look for a supplier. There are a couple of options for you to choose from.
The most popular are Printful and Printify, both offer custom poster options and both have good reviews over all.
You should check for yourself which is the best fit for your business and maybe purchase some samples from each.
4. Start designing your posters
The last step to completing your shop is by designing the posters and adding them to your store.
To design your posters you can use professional tools such as:
But you can even use free design tools such as:
Or you can hire a freelancer through Fiverr and even utilise printful’s built-in design services.
When designing posters, beware of copyright laws and don’t use any sources you do not own the rights to.
5. Start marketing your store
Once you’ve got a fully functioning poster-selling webshop you can start figuring out a marketing strategy. There are many options for you to pick from.
If you want sales quickly you can get started with pay-per-click advertising on facebook or google.
If you prefer a long-term strategy that is 100% free you can start writing content for your poster business. This is done through blog posts which you can publish to your Shopify store.
EXTRA: Why not make some extra cash by offering a frame with a poster?
A poster looks better when it’s framed, this is perfect for you as the business owner to “upsell” frames to your customers.
You can easily make a couple extra bucks by offering a frame to customers. This can either be done at checkout process through a Shopify App like Zipify or you can even offer this in an after-sales email.
Just imagine: the customer buys a poster from you, once they check their confirmation email they also get an email from your store saying they can get 30% off on a frame if they choose to buy it today!
As of right now there aren’t any print on demand providers that offer frames to come with posters but you can easily fix this by adding your own through a dropshipping supplier.
Can I really start selling posters for free?
If you use a print on demand marketplace platforms such as RedBubble, Teespring, or MerchByAmazon, you can start selling posters online without any upfront costs.
If you chose to start your own webshop, you will have to chuck up a few costs up front such as a domain names and Shopify subscription cost but you will also be left with a business that is built for the long term.
Both are great for making some extra cash or even starting an empire. You’re just one niche away.