The best POD courses of 2023

Passive income seems like something magical. Who doesn’t want to receive hundreds or thousandths of dollars each month besides their regular paycheck? Or… maybe even better, who wouldn’t love to have a passive income and quit their regular job?

There are examples of people who have been able to create a 6 figure passive income stream. Many of them have started with Print on Demand or Dropshipping. One of those guys is entrepreneur Ryan Hogue, who also shares his income reports publicly. Earning over 20K each month might be something not everyone can achieve in a short time frame, but hey, working towards 2K each month isn’t that bad either right? Every dollar passive income gives you more and more time and freedom to grow.

You might also want to check out our interview with Pixelcozy owner George Manousakis or check out his valuable tips and tricks when you want to start with Print on Demand.

In this article we cover a few free Print on Demand and Dropshipping courses you can follow to help you get started or to take the next steps and expand your POD empire. We’ll start with a few definitions first, so you can decide what attracts you more.

What courses for Print on Demand and dropshipping do you recommend? Leave us a message!

What is Print on Demand?

You might have heard of companies like Teepublic, Redbubble, Society6, Merch on Amazon or Spreadshirt. One thing they all have in common is that they are platforms that let you upload designs which are printed on merchandise without you having to hold any inventory.

The only thing you need to worry about with print on demand is that you create and upload designs that will sell. No worries about buying an X amount of t-shirts in different colours and sizes. No worries about where to leave all those boxes in your garage and no hassle with handling the orders, packaging and shipping. Not to mention on how to handle returns.

Since they are the selling platform, they do the marketing and promotion. You will earn a provision per sold product that has your design on it. Use our Print on Demand earnings calculator to check out potential earnings.

What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a common fulfilment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells on stock. The store purchases the products from a third-party supplier who ships it directly to the customer. The store owner never touches the products it sells.

With dropshipping it is your shop and you are responsible for promoting and selling the products. It can be a lot of work, but if you have unique designs or a large following on social media.

Now that your familiar with the definitions and to make it a bit more complicated: There’s also a version where you can dropship print on demand products. It’s quite simple though, for example: You have a webshop where you sell t-shirts, when someone orders a t-shirt the order is send automatically to your on-demand printing company (Printful or Printify for example) which ships the ordered product to your customer.

Free Courses

Besides premium courses we have also found a few free gems that are definitely worth checking out.

FREE Shopify Course by POD Frenzy

This free Shopify course is created by POD-Frenzy owner George Manousakis who we mentioned earlier in the article. Even though the course seems to be focussed on Shopify, it also contains a lot of valuable information for anyone who wants to start with print on demand on other platforms or who wants to know more about niche research, designing, marketing or choosing a printing provider.

Topics that are covered in this course:

FREE Print On Demand Mini-Course by Ryan Hogue

Ryan Hogue offers an 8-day mini course that is delivered to you via e-mail. You will receive one lesson each day. The course includes actionable tutorials on how to start with your own print on demand business.

Topics that are covered in this course:

FREE course on starting your Print on Demand Business

This free course “How to start a Print on Demand Business” is offered by printing provider Printful. This course is perfect for beginners who wants to take the first steps into the world of print on demand dropshipping using a printing provider. You will learn how print on demand works, how to find a niche for your store and how to setup a store and optimize it.

FREE course on How to Manage your Print on Demand Business

This free course “ How to Manage your Print on Demand Business” is offered by printing provider Printful. It’s a valuable course and it covers topics like how to define and communicate your brand clearly. But also topics like pricing strategies, expanding with multi-channel selling, advertising and how to value your customers.

Premium Courses

The premium courses often contain more content or more in depth information.

Course about Print on Demand for Artists

Artist and illustrator Monja Wessel has created the Print on Demand for Artists course. This course is created with artists in mind that want to learn more about Print on Demand and create an (additional) income stream. This is a great course for those who would like know more about the types of print on demand.

Course about Creating Print on Demand Designs

This premium course “Ryans’s Method: POD Design” is $49. It’s a course from Ryan Hogue that covers a lot of important and interesting topics related to creating designs for Print on Demand.

We recommend this course to anyone that is just starting with creating print on demand designs themselves. It would be such a waste of time and effort if the designs you are creating are off topic or contain mistakes that can lead to takedown notices and losing your Etsy or Merch account for example.

Course about Niche Research

Niche research is very important when it comes to print on demand. You’ll find that many niches are saturated, so it’s important to be able to find subniches or new niches (based on trending topics, actualities etc.) to create demand for your products and get those sales rolling in! This is where the POD Niche Research Course comes in. It’s also from Ryan Hogue and it’s $49.

You’ll learn the two Golden Rules and other concepts as they are introduced by Ryan. You will get full research tutorials that are based only on free tools and free search methods.
The most popular paid niche research tools are also covered and last but not least you’ll be able on how to identify best-selling trends.

Course to grow on Amazon Merch

Ever wondered how people get from the lowest Amazon Merch Tiers to the higher Tiers? As we all know Merch by Amazon is one of the most popular ways to sell print on demand products. If you are able to sell a few dozen designs every day, earnings will roll in daily. If you’re curious on how to price your designs, use our print on demand earnings calculator.

Anyway, The course “Ryan’s Method: Amazon Merch” from Ryan Hogue is $497 and contains 7 modules and one bonus module about automation. The course contains the following modules that contains a lot more sub-topics. We highly recommend this one. And if $497 seems a lot of money, the only thing you’ll need to remember is that all you have to do is to sell 100 products on Merch by Amazon!

Course about Dropshipping Print on Demand

This course “Dropshipped Print on Demand” from Ryan Hogue could be a great addition to the earlier mentioned free courses. This course is $997 and covers absolutely everything you need to know to start your own print on demand business and be ready for anything that might cross your path.