Design
After researching and compiling a list of Merch designs which are selling well and have little competition, you should check for any potential trademarks, and then begin with the designing phase. As a Merch by Amazon designer, you will quickly learn and adapt to creating and mass-producing hundreds, if not thousands of t-shirt designs. Even if art, design, or creativity is not your strong point, you can still succeed on Merch through text-based shirts, outsourcing your designs, and more thorough research. As this book teaches, these programs and websites that I use are completely free to use and are really all you need for your Merch career. However, I would advise you to invest in a paid program such as Adobe Photoshop as you reach tier 4 (1000 designs) if you want to earn more than $1000 per month consistently.
If you are unfamiliar with how to use any design software, I would suggest starting with Canva and then using Lunapic and Resize Images to format the design for Merch standards. You can also use the Merch Designer website listed below to create simple text-based (no graphic) shirts. I would advise you to look at YouTube tutorials, as they are free, and were really all I needed to begin learning advanced design software such as Gimp. In the end, whichever platform you choose to use for your Merch designs all comes down to personal preference.
Remember, create multiple designs at higher tiers to fulfill the daily quota. You should always complete the daily quota as this will lead to more sales. For example, you could create a dark background t-shirt and a white background t-shirt under the same brand. Or perhaps you could alter the text, font, and/or imagery slightly and test whether this leads to different results. You can also use premium or default shirt options and keep this under the same brand name. These methods will all help in maximizing your daily upload limit.
Resources / Tools
Merchdesigner.com - Perfect for basic text-based designs. This online software designing program includes options such as inverting colors and color filters. The transparent and image proportions for uploading to Merch are already set as well. This program is great, especially in the later tiers where you should be uploading more designs, as it is very simple to use and requires little effort on your part.
Gimp - This program is harder to use, and more training and practice is needed. I would suggest looking up Gimp tutorials on YouTube. Master this program, however, and you will see higher profits with higher quality, and more customizable shirts. Make sure to have proper dimensions (4500 * 5400 px) and a transparent background on your designs.
Canva.com - Great for simple designs or more advanced text-based designs. I use this website the most in creating my designs. The most frustrating part, however, is that you must make each design you create transparent and to Merch by Amazon size standards (4500 px * 5400 px). This process should not take long but will take up a lot of your downloads folder. You can combat this by using an alternative program or by paying monthly for “Canva for Work” for $10.00 per month if you select the yearly option. Make your custom dimensions on Canva to be 4167 px * 5000 px, so that when you go to resize it, it does not become too distorted or low quality.
Lunapic.com - To make any image background transparent. Simply select the transparent background button and click on the background (which should be a different color than your design or font). Save the image and then go to the link below for resizing images.
Resizeimage.net - To resize your Merch by Amazon designs. Do this after making the background transparent, if necessary. Resize Merch designs to 4500 px * 5400 px exactly!
Pixabay.com - My favorite site for images that are labeled for “noncommercial reuse with modification” (trademark and copyright free). The #1 site I have found for images which are not trademarked.
Google Images - Go to advanced search and search for images which are labeled for “noncommercial reuse with modification.” Use these images for your designs. Most relevant images, however, will link to Pixabay.
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