Thank you, my Australian buyer

This blog was always meant to be more than just dividend income but I've yet to post anything other than that. Not because I haven't done anything but rather that the other methods of generating passive income are either not developed yet or haven't brought in enough money to be worth reporting.

Print On Demand falls into the latter category. I've been dabbling in it for almost a year but the total income it has brought in is.....wait for it.....

$3.29.

Yes, that's a whole $3.29. Thank you to my unknown Australian buyer! It is actually quite humbling to know that someone in a far away land is wearing a t-shirt with one of your designs on it.

Print On Demand (POD) is one of those areas that, if you go by Youtube videos, promises to be an easy, surefire way to generate passive income. Slap together some designs, upload them to Redbubble and the other POD sites and watch the money roll in.

It's not like that at all. Well, not for the majority. I'm sure there are people who are making reasonable money at the POD game, but it is unlikely to be passive. They are probably working their socks off, thinking of and creating designs, marketing them, spending several hours per day at their craft.

I have always had an interest in "unique" t-shirts. This probably harkens back to my teenage years when I was frustrated that I could not get a Dumbarton FC t-shirt. This was back in the day when it was quite difficult and expensive for companies to get branded gear made. I ended up scanning an image of the Dumbarton FC club badge and taking it to a print shop. Which is, of course, copyright infringement.

Things changed when Cafepress came to the web. It was then possible to create your own designs, upload them to Cafepress and get your designs put on lots of different products. It was expensive but it was brilliant! I did some products for the swing dance society I was a member of but I found that I was lacking in the skills to create interesting designs and so my interest waned.

My interest was rekindled when I started to look at ways of generating passive income. My wife had bought me several t-shirts from Redbubble and I thought to myself "I am going to give this another go". Now, I have storefronts on a couple of POD sites and have a collection of designs, mainly inspired by retro and geeky things. It's not making me rich but I have found it to be a very enjoyable outlet for the under-used artistic side of my personality.

You can see my designs at Redbubble - https://www.redbubble.com/people/WeeGemTees/shop and my Wee Gem Tees website, https://weegemtees.ca