Print-on-Demand Account Safety: Avoiding Bans and Terminations

Checking trademarks before creating designs is crucial for print-on-demand success, ensuring account safety and long-term sustainability.

### Top 9 Reasons Print-on-Demand Sellers Get Banned on Amazon and Etsy
* 🏷 "Always check trademarks before creating new designs to avoid **infringement**. Even **common phrases** can be trademarked."
* 🖼 Avoid using copyrighted images, even in a transformative way, as it can still **violate intellectual property rights**.
* 🚫 "Do not create designs that profit off tragedy or promote hate speech, as platforms like Amazon and Etsy have **strict policies against such content**."
* 📝 "Be aware of **prohibited items** on platforms like Etsy, and consider using manufacturing partners with **pre-approved items** to avoid issues."
* 🎨 "Avoid downloading full design packs, as they may contain **stolen designs** that can lead to **account termination**."
* 🔍 "Do not keyword spam in titles and descriptions, as it can **mislead customers and trigger platform penalties**."
* 🏷 "On Amazon Merch, avoid misleading claims in titles and descriptions, such as '**glow-in-the-dark**' or '**3D**', that can't be guaranteed by the platform."
* 📊 "High levels of buyer complaints, slow response times, and **failure to address issues** can also lead to **account bans**."
* 🔗 "For more help in selecting **safe and profitable niches**, the creator offers a free '**cross-niching workshop**' as a resource."

so you've started your first print-on-demand shop, and you've wanted to make some designs and products and upload them. But now you feel paralyzed because of all the horror stories you've heard about people making their accounts and almost immediately getting banned or terminated from places like Amazon or Etsy. Now this is something to be very aware of, but there are plenty of things that you can do to make sure this never happens to you. So in today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you the nine top reasons that new sellers and even more experienced sellers are losing their accounts and getting banned from the platforms that they've built a business on. Now we want to be creating print-on-demand businesses that are here today and can be sustainable for long-term success years in the future. So we never want to cut any corners or do anything that is going to jeopardize the status of our accounts. So if you follow most of these different principles, you are going to have a really good chance that you are not going to have any

problems with your print-on-demand account, and you'll be able to grow that into a real business. So let's not waste any more time and just jump right into it. Now, the absolute first, most important thing that you need to be taking from this video, even if you disregard everything else, is you have to be checking trademarks every time you create a new design. Now, the easiest and most simple way to do this, if you are selling in the US, is going to be going to uspto.gov. And there, you can do a word mark or phrase search and type in whatever you were thinking of putting on your apparel or phrases that you might put in your description or titles. Now, it's really easy to kind of think that okay, the phrases that we know are really common, maybe slogans or things that brands have associated with them, we know to stay away from those. But there are actually a ton of different words and phrases that seem pretty common that have actually been trademarked. So a lot of times, you will figure out that something that you wanted to sell does

in fact have a trademark on it, and you should stay far away from that. Now, the other area that I see a lot of people making a mistake is they check the trademark for the phrase or the design that's maybe going on their t-shirt or sweatshirt, but they start filling in their title and description with a bunch of other maybe associated phrases or things related to that, and they're not checking a lot of those. So even if you have a trademarked phrase only in your title, it's not on your product that can actually still get you in trouble. So I always recommend checking all of your keyword phrases that you are going to be putting in this listing just to be safe. I know this can take extra time, but dedicating those extra 5 minutes or so to looking up trademarks really can save you so much headache in the long run because if you've built up a business that's making you multiple thousands of dollars every single month, and then all of a sudden your account gets terminated, you have

lost all that work so putting in the extra time. Every single listing is definitely one of the biggest things that is going to keep you safe. Now, this next thing I see so many sellers doing on Etsy, even new sellers, and a lot of times they are getting away with it for a little bit of time, but it almost always comes back to bite them in the end, and they can end up being banned or losing their accounts. And that is using copyrighted images or items. Now, while trademark has to do more with phrases, copyright can have to do with things like characters or mascots or logos or images that are associated with companies or brands that have IP that they have spent a lot of time and money getting people to recognize. Now, I know probably a lot of you are saying, Okay, I know I can't put Mickey Mouse or I can't put Marvel characters on my designs because that would be trying to profit off of the intellectual property of those companies. However, I see a lot of new sellers getting a little bit confused and thinking that if they use

these characters may be transformatively, or they are just nodding to them that they are able to get away from this. So I see this a lot with new sellers wanting to create something like a Disney-inspired shop. Now, this is a very gray area, but I definitely recommend staying away from it 'cause even if you are just nodding to these movies or these characters, you are trying to make money off of the name recognition that Disney has spent years and years trying to cultivate. And same thing with any other movie or franchise. Even if you try to maybe do mashups of something like a Marvel and Game of Thrones character, you kind of put them together in a design. While it's not specifically one of those properties, you are trying to again capitalize on the name recognition and their intellectual property. So stay away from any characters that you have not created yourself or that seem very close to anything that is already out there and is not your intellectual property. Now, the next thing that I see many people getting tripped up on is one that

doesn't necessarily have to do with trademark or copyright, but putting certain things on your designs and apparel can get you banned from all these platforms. And a lot of times, not able to make other accounts down the road. And that is creating design that profit off tragedy or that are promoting hate or hate speech. Now on Amazon, they are very strict and you cannot have anything that is profiting off a tragedy. So while this seems really straightforward, typically we don't want to make designs that have to do with anything that is a tragic event. However, there is a little bit of gray area where I see some sellers getting confused. If there is a humanitarian crisis, if there is something like a natural disaster, if there is something that happens in a specific city or town, I see a lot of sellers trying to make things that say stuff like I stand with the victims of blank or I support blank. Now, because those events are tragedies, even though you are showing your support, you are still trying to profit off of a terrible thing happening. So Amazon does not

tolerate that whatsoever. If this has ever happened to you, you probably had good intentions initially, but it's best to stay away from anything that is a crisis or a trick, tragedy, even if you feel like you are offering some support. Now on Etsy, they say they do not tolerate anything that promotes hate. Now, this is a little bit more vague, but I typically try to stay away from anything that is really divisive, and especially anything that has to do with hate. Some people find that the things that people are passionate about and that they do hate can be very profitable because people are passionate about this, but I never want to risk it, and I never want to promote anything that could be hurting other people. So just always give your design ideas a second thought and make sure that this couldn't ever be classified as something like hate. Now, the next thing that I see some sellers not even aware of is you can get in trouble, especially on Etsy, for selling specific items that are not allowed. Now, there are a bunch of terms that you can

read over if you are an Etsy seller, and I highly actually recommend checking out those terms to see what you're agreeing for. That's going to give you a lot more info on what you should and shouldn't be doing on Etsy. And same thing on Amazon, read the terms of your agreement and make sure you have a really good understanding of what you can do on the platform. But there are a number of prohibited items, and Etsy even has a prohibited item page that you can read through. And sometimes new sellers just don't even know what items are allowed or not. Now, I think one of the best ways that you can kind of not worry about this whatsoever is syncing your shop with a manufacturing partner that has kind of done all of that guesswork for you. So I personally have been using for years Printify. You guys have heard me talk about them a million times, but they have a huge catalog of over 800 different items that you can sell on Etsy, and all of those have been vetted and approved to link with your Etsy shop.

and not get you in trouble. So every single time you want to sell a new item, you don't have to worry about if this is something that is actually going to be allowed to be sold on Etsy or not. Now, if you've never used Printify before, I just can't recommend them enough. They have really good prices on their items wholesale, they have really quick turnaround, and really good quality. I actually have a full tutorial of how to sync your Etsy shop with them if you've never done that before, and I'll link all their information down below in the description if you do want to check them out. But whenever you want to sell a new item, if you aren't getting it off a reputable manufacturing partner like Printify, I definitely suggest taking a look at that Etsy prohibited list to make sure that you aren't crossing the line with something that you shouldn't actually be selling. Now, the next way that I see a lot of new sellers getting into some big trouble without even really realizing it is by downloading

design packs. Now, I am a huge proponent of taking a lot of shortcuts when it does come to design. I love to use elements from places. I love to use templates from design Suites like KD to make designing a lot easier. I personally have a subscription to Creative Fabrica, and I will download a lot of assets and fonts and different things to use on my items. But where I see a lot of people getting into trouble is by downloading whole design packs. Now, these are things like 100 t-shirts about fishing, and you can just download the whole pack, upload them to your items, and put them on your Etsy shop or your Amazon shop. And even on Etsy, you can buy things like this, like 25 or 50 pre-made t-shirt designs in a certain category, and you can just download those and use them on your items. However, a lot of times, there is no way to verify that these are free and clear to use. Now, sometimes on Etsy and Creative Fabrica even, they will say that they created these items. You have the full commercial

use license to use these, but sometimes these have actually been stolen from other sellers. Now, hopefully, this has never happened to you. It's happened to me a number of times where I will be scrolling Etsy, and I will just see some of my designs lumped in with a bunch of other ones and being sold as a commercial license t-shirt pack for people to use. But I know those are almost all probably stolen designs. So sometimes people will purchase these packs, they'll think are in the clear, they'll upload them to their shops, and then they'll get slapped with something for stealing people's designs. Now, sometimes you can kind of explain to the seller or to the platform you're selling on that you didn't know, you'll take these down, but sometimes it's a little bit too late. So if you've ever downloaded a full design pack, I would second guess actually using those. Now, using elements I think is totally fine, especially if you're using them in a transformative way, but if you're just trying to save a little bit of time, just

download downloading these pre-made packets. I would not be doing that. It's just too risky. Now, the next big thing that I see a lot of people losing their accounts over is by keyword spamming in their titles and descriptions on Amazon or Etsy. Now, both of these platforms, they don't like it when you try to game the system. They want you to accurately describe what you are selling so that they can match this item with the customer who is actually looking to buy it. However, there are some people that try to keyword spam and kind of figure out what terms have the most weight and put them all over their item. So, for example, if someone was creating a Father's Day gift that had to do with fishing and Father's Day, I would only put best fishing Father's Day gift one time. But some people might throw that everywhere and just fill their description and title with something like best Father's Day gift, best Father's Day gift, best Father's Day gift. And sometimes they keyword spam with things that don't even have to do with

the actual item they are selling, just to try to capitalize off of trending searches. Now, Etsy and Amazon really don't like it when you do this, because they want their shoppers to have the best experience possible. So, if you are trying to confuse the algorithm, one, it doesn't always work, and two, it can kind of mislead the customer. And they can end up searching for something, and then the search function is going to take them to items that don't exactly match what they are looking for. So, if you are doing anything that seems spammy or like you are trying to just kind of game the system, it's going to put up a red flag for these platforms. And they are either going to give you a warning, or they're going to terminate your account. And same thing with if you are creating a ton of items in a short period of time that all have the same information. So, say that they have the same title, the same description, you're just copying the item and uploading over and over again with no changes. A lot of times, this can flag

something for those platforms as well, and they can think you're being a little bit spammy and delete your account. Now, this next thing has to do specifically if you are selling on Amazon Merch, but it's something to be aware of on Etsy as well because Amazon has made this a rule for a reason. Now, Amazon does not want you to put anything in your title or description that could mislead the customer in any way about the item that you are selling. So, for example, you can't put descriptive items about things that they can't guarantee to actually be true. So, for example, you can't put that this is a sparkly woman's top, even if you use kind of lettering that looks a little bit like it has glitter in it, because Amazon does not have the capability to actually add anything like glitter or sparkles to their design. They don't want someone to accidentally buy that item and not realize it's just printed on sparkles. It's not an actually sparkly top, and then be upset and want to return it. So, you can't put something like that.

same thing with glow-in-the-dark. You aren't able to sell glow-in-the-dark items on Amazon, so they don't want you to put glow-in-the-dark in your title or something like 3D. A lot of times people will try to create 3D looking designs. They'll put that in their title, but Amazon doesn't want people to get confused and think that the letters are maybe raised or something. So anything that you might put that could confuse a customer and get them to be upset, want to return that item, they want you to stay far away from. And the other thing that they do not want you to put in your titles or descriptions is that any of the proceeds are going to be donated, maybe to a charity or a certain cause. Amazon has no way to guarantee to their customers that you are going to be following through on your word on that. So they just prefer that you do not put that in your titles and descriptions because they aren't verifying that you are doing what you are saying.

later on a customer could have spent money in your account and see that that is not actually going to the charity. Maybe you said you were donating to so they just do not allow that flat out now right along with that the next thing that can really get you in serious trouble and get you banned from both of these platforms forever is going to be a high amount of buyer complaints. Now this can come from a variety of reasons and you don't ever have to be scared of getting a few complaints requests for returns here and there that is totally normal you should expect a small percentage of all of your sales to end in a maybe refund request or for customers to have questions or concerns about the items they got that's unavoidable even for people who have been doing print on demand for years however if you are making say 500 sales in a month and then and maybe 400 of those have problems with them you're getting refund requests then that is going to really set off estd to investigate maybe what is going on there.

they want to have a good reputation for their site. So it's a problem for them when a seller has a lot of problems with their customers. Now, another problem could be just not communicating with customers in a quick enough manner. Etsy really likes if you can get that 24-hour turnaround on responding to your messages. But if you are taking weeks to respond respond to messages, people are having complaints and you are not addressing them or just flat out ignoring them. That can lead to you actually losing your account. So you need to make sure that you are quickly communicating with customers. You are addressing all concerns when people bring up things about your items and say there is something that someone points out that is a mistake. Maybe you didn't realize you spelled something wrong on a shirt or the printing is off in a certain area because of something you did on your end. You need to quickly address that, make new designs for those items, and reup those because that can be really detrimental. Cuz people are going to keep ordering that item and having

that same exact problem. So, anything you can do to address concerns quickly and effectively is going to make sure that you are going to be able to keep your account safe. Now, I know that picking niches and phrases that are trademark-free, that are popular enough to actually get sales, is really, really tricky. But I actually have a free resource for you guys. It is my cross-niching Workshop. It's going to help you figure out what to actually sell that's going to keep your account safe and actually help you make sales. So, I will have all the information to sign up for that free Workshop down below. If you do register, I'll send you all of the information about how to watch that straight to your inbox, as well as some other goodies that I put together for you. And if you want to get more ideas about what kind of products are safe and really awesome for new sellers to sell, I highly recommend checking out this video next. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you in my next video.

Don't Sell Print on Demand Without Watching THIS First! How to Never Get Banned on Etsy or Amazon

Hannah Ebeling

Ensuring the Long-Term Success of Your Print-On-Demand Business

Checking trademarks for every design is crucial to avoid getting banned from platforms like Amazon or Etsy.

Many sellers make the mistake of only checking the trademark for the main design, but it's important to also check all the related phrases and keywords in the listing.

Dedicating a few extra minutes to look up trademarks can save a lot of headache in the long run and protect the future of your business.

The Risks of Using Copyrighted Images on Etsy

Using copyrighted images or items on Etsy can lead to being banned or losing an account, even if used in a transformative way.

It's risky to create designs inspired by well-known franchises or to use recognizable characters, as it capitalizes on the name recognition of established intellectual properties.

Additionally, creating designs that profit from tragedy or promote hate speech can result in being banned from e-commerce platforms like Amazon.

The Importance of Following Guidelines for Etsy Sellers

Selling items that promote hate or division is not tolerated on Etsy, and sellers should avoid such products.

It's crucial for sellers to be aware of and follow the platform's terms and agreements to avoid getting into trouble.

Syncing a shop with a manufacturing partner like Printify can help ensure that the items being sold are allowed on Etsy and meet the guidelines.

The Risks of Using Full Design Packs and Keyword Spamming

Using full design packs can be risky as they may contain stolen designs, leading to potential consequences for the user.

Keyword spamming in product titles and descriptions on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Etsy can result in account suspension, as these platforms prioritize accurate and genuine product representation.

It is safer to use individual design elements in a transformative way rather than relying on pre-made design packs, and to avoid overloading product listings with irrelevant keywords.

Best Practices for Selling on Etsy and Amazon

Trying to manipulate search algorithms can lead to account termination on Etsy and Amazon.

Creating multiple items with the same information in a short period is considered spammy and can result in account deletion.

Both platforms prohibit misleading titles and descriptions, such as claiming items have certain features that they cannot guarantee, or promising that proceeds will be donated to charity.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls as an Online Seller

Customers misinterpreting donation claims can lead to loss of trust and account suspension on e-commerce platforms.

A high volume of buyer complaints, slow response times, and poor communication can also result in a banned seller account.

Quickly addressing customer concerns and ensuring trademark-free product niches are crucial for maintaining account security and driving sales as a new seller.