Print-on-demand mugs on Etsy: $220,300 a year in about 10 hours a week
Emily Odio-Sutton had a remote 9-to-5, two young daughters, and no design background. She started an Etsy shop for under $40. Here is exactly how it works, what she did, and how to start your own.
Overview
Emily Odio-Sutton, 36, lives in Melbourne, Florida. She worked as an internal operations manager at a publishing company. Her job did not let her leave in the middle of the day, so she could not pick her daughter up from school.
In December 2022 she was on her couch watching Real Housewives when she found a run of YouTube videos about print-on-demand. She opened an Etsy shop. Her first sale came at a birthday party in a gym lobby: a $22 T-shirt with a speech pathology design.
Her early shirts went nowhere. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day designs flopped because Etsy was full of them. Her reviews kept saying the same thing: this was the perfect gift. So she switched to gifts for one job or one hobby, and the shop took off.
Revenue
| Figure | Number |
|---|---|
| Main shop sales, 2023 | $220,300 |
| Best single month, 2024 | $54,900 |
| Average month, 2024 | about $26,200 |
| Total across her Etsy shops, about two years | over $560,000 |
| Profit | about a third of sales (around 30%), her estimate |
| One bestselling design | took 15 minutes to make, sold over $27,000 |
| Second shop (downloadable printables), 2024 to September | $17,200 |
What the money did: it paid off her $20,000 in student loans, opened college savings accounts for both daughters, started her investing, and paid for a cruise with her husband. In June 2024 she cut her job to part-time, 20 hours a week.
How it makes money
Print-on-demand means you never hold stock. You make a design and list it on Etsy. When a customer buys, a printing company (she uses Printify) prints the design on the mug, candle or tote bag and ships it straight to the customer. You keep the difference between the price and the printing, shipping and Etsy fees.
Her typical prices run from $18 to $30. About 95% of her sales come from people searching on Etsy, with almost nothing from paid ads or social media.
Growth
- Etsy search. She writes listings for exactly what buyers type in, a job plus an occasion, such as "teacher appreciation candle."
- Gifts, not decor. Her rule: if she cannot picture someone giving it to a person in their life, she does not list it.
- Volume. She has retired about 1,500 designs that never sold. The winners pay for the misses.
- Seasons. Her busy times are spring (Mother's Day, graduation, end of school) and the holidays.
Her method
1. The template method
She calls herself not creative and not a designer. Most of her designs are plain black text on white. When one sells, she reuses it as a template and swaps the words for a new job or hobby.
2. Niche lists from ChatGPT
She asks ChatGPT for lists such as top careers and popular hobbies, then checks Etsy and Pinterest to see what already sells for each one.
3. Emotion over trends
She looks for designs that are funny, sentimental or relatable to one group. She draws on workplace memes, for example a candle for social workers buried in reports and data.
4. Batching
One day she designs about 10 candle labels. The next day she writes the Etsy listings. She often works on her laptop during her daughters' gymnastics and swim practice.
5. Pricing backwards
She starts from her costs (printing, Etsy fees, shipping) and her target profit, then checks that the price sits in line with similar listings.
Tools and costs
| Tool | What it does | Cost (her figures) |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy | The shop and the buyers | $15 to open |
| Canva Pro | Designs | $10 a month |
| eRank | Keyword research for Etsy search | $6 a month |
| Printify | Prints and ships each order | Paid per order |
| ChatGPT | Lists of niches to research | Free tier works |
Total to start: under $40.
Start your own: step by step
Week 1: set up
- Open an Etsy seller account and pay the setup fee.
- Connect a Printify account to your Etsy shop.
- Order one sample of the product you plan to sell first (a mug is a good start) so you see the quality your buyer gets.
Week 1: pick 20 niches
Ask ChatGPT: "List 50 jobs where people buy each other gifts" and "List 50 hobbies people are proud of." Search each one on Etsy with the word "gift." Keep the ones where listings have recent sales and reviews but the designs look plain. Example niches to check:
- Dental hygienists
- School bus drivers
- Night shift nurses
- Pickleball players
- Accountants in tax season
Week 2: make 20 designs
One simple text design per niche, black text on white, in Canva. Write the line the way people in that job talk, an inside joke or a proud phrase. Use one layout for all 20 so each new design takes minutes.
Week 2: write the listings
Put the job and the occasion first in the title, the way a buyer would search. Example: "Dental Hygienist Mug, Funny Hygienist Gift, Dental Office Appreciation Gift." Price from your costs: add up the Printify cost, shipping and Etsy's fees, then add the profit you want.
Weeks 3 and 4: add more, cut nothing yet
Add 5 to 10 designs a week. Most will not sell. That is normal: she retired about 1,500. When one sells, make 10 versions of it for neighboring jobs or hobbies.
Month 2 and after
Plan ahead for the gift seasons she names (Mother's Day, graduation, end of school, the holidays). List your seasonal designs weeks early so they have time to show up in search.
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Sources
- CNBC Make It, "36-year-old's Etsy side hustle brings in $220,000 a year and costs under $40 to start" (September 2024), via NBC Connecticut
- CNBC Make It, "36-year-old's Etsy side hustle brings in $26,000 a month, takes 10 hours a week, and paid off her student loan debt," via NBC DFW
- DollarSprout, "From Higher Ed to Etsy Power Seller: How Emily Odio-Sutton Built a $560K POD Business"
- Doug Show podcast, "$500K in 2 Years: Etsy Print on Demand, Emily Odio-Sutton" (DS550)
