When it comes to being a print-on-demand seller, there are a few things that can really make or break your shop and enable you to either have success or not make any sales. And a big one of these is actually going to be your mockups. So, this is a huge opportunity that we have as sellers to capture people's attention really fast and be able to convert clicks into actual sales. But this is an area where I see so many people going so wrong. So, in today's video, I'm going to share with you some of my best tips for having mockups that actually convert and sharing with you some of the biggest mistakes I see people making that are really holding them in their shops back. I'm also going to share with you the tool that I use, as well as how to create a really stunning mockup in not a lot of time because at the end of the day, print on demand really is a numbers game. So, if we can be getting more listings out, making our mockups faster, that's going

to enable us to get more products in front of more people, leading to even more sales, so we don't want to be spending 10, 20, 30 minutes just making one mockup when we can do 10 of them in that same amount of time. So one of the first biggest mistakes that I see so many people using all over Etsy is a really simple fix. So on Printify or Printful, when you create a product on there, it is going to automatically autogenerate you some mockups. Which when you first think about it, that might seem like a good idea because it's saving you time, it's autod doing that you're not going to have to buy any more mockups not going to have to spend extra time that can maybe help you get some extra listings up, but that is a huge mistake. So not only do those not look original when you put them because so many other people are also using those same mockups just because they're really easy, they also don't look very flattering.

whatsoever. The models are kind of just standing there, really stiff. They look very autom made. This doesn't look like a real person wearing an item you created. We want to make sure that our shirts and our products are going to look as good as possible. They're going to look natural, they're going to look good. We want our customers to be able to imagine themselves in this, and I really don't want to imagine myself just kind of standing there stiff wearing a t-shirt that doesn't do anything for me. So one of the biggest and simplest changes you can do is by creating some other kind of mockup. Now, there are tons of different places to get mockups, but I'm going to share with you the place that I have been getting my mockups for years. The site that I love to use is actually called playet, and they are sponsoring today's video. So, playet not only has a bunch of design tools, but they basically give you access to thousands and thousands of different mockups for really any kind of print on

demand product that you could be selling. So they have mockups for totes, t-shirts, sweatshirts, journals, hats, mugs, and really everything in between. But I absolutely love all of their apparel mockups. So this is my go-to for looking for t-shirt mockups. They have so many different kinds. And I'm going to take you through step by step how to actually go about looking for one and creating one a little bit later in this video. But for now, just know that you can find some really amazing mockups that are going to elevate your listing and is just going to get more people to click on it by using something from a site like Playet, as opposed to just using those autogenerated mockups. Now another huge mistake I see so many people making that has a really easy fix is simply using mockups of people that doesn't necessarily align with the demographic that you are selling an item to. So a really straightforward example of something like this is if you are selling maybe a Father's Day t-shirt.

you're gearing it towards the Father's Day season, or just towards dads in general, so maybe this is like a dad in fishing t-shirt. And then, instead of putting that on someone who maybe looks like they could be a dad or a father, or in an environment that maybe looks more masculine, you are putting it maybe on a younger, more like teen man, so that age doesn't really line up. Or even worse, maybe you are putting it on a child, child, or a woman. So that's just a very straightforward example. So whenever I am creating my mockups, I always have some go-to ones that I pick from. But if something is maybe an earlier mom shirt, I'm definitely going to look for something that is going to fit that design. So that is a really easy fix. There is definitely a ton of crossover, and you can use a lot of the same mockups for different designs, but make sure that you're never making the mistake of putting a design on a specific model or mockup that just

really has nothing to do with that niche that you are targeting. Now, this next tip isn't necessarily a huge mistake, but I think this is a missed opportunity that a lot of people are not doing, and that is not using mockups with actual people in them. So, I have seen in my own business that a lot of times the mockups with a person in the photo tend to convert better and just look a lot more natural than just a flat lay shirt. Now, don't get me wrong, I do have a lot of flat lay listings on my Etsy shops, but I really have been switching almost all of my new listings to only feature models in them. So, if you haven't experimented with actual people in your mockups, I would start adding that. However, there are a few things that you definitely want to avoid when you are having models in these mockups. Now, the first one is I never really like to show people's faces in the mockups. First of all, I think that kind of just detracts from the design that you want people to be spending all

of their attention looking at. So a lot of times on playet, I will find a beautiful mockup with a model in it, and typically it's going to show their face. However, I am usually just going to crop it around the neck level. Sometimes I even show the smile or the chin and just focus the majority of the mockup on kind of the T-shirt area of the photo. So this also works really well if you have maybe a vertical picture of a model wearing a t-shirt, but you really want to crop it horizontally for Etsy. You can just take that Etsy area and kind of only focus on that middle section of the photo. Now another thing people do when they are using models in their mockups that is somewhat of a mistake is they are making the mockup way too far back. So sometimes there is a background with a lot of really cool stuff in it. Maybe there are seasonal elements or just some really nice decor, but if the model is standing really far back, sometimes it becomes a little bit hard to see everything on

that product. So, I like to kind of crop the image so that the T-shirt takes up the majority of the image, but you can still see that they are in a LIF style shot with maybe some things in the background. So, I don't want to zoom it in too far where you can only see the design. I want people to know that this is a person standing in a natural environment, but I don't want the design to be so small that they are distracted by the background. So, it's kind of finding that balance between those two things. Now, another huge mistake I see so many people making is that they are paying for all of their mockups alak cart. So, that means every single time they want a new mockup, they are going and searching maybe a place like Etsy or another website, and they are buying each individual mockup. Now, I personally like to change up my mockups. I have a bunch that I rotate through using, but I don't love to pay for those each individually. So, I think that it's a lot

better investment if you pay for some kind of subscription service for your mockups. So, for example, something like Placeit is a monthly service that I pay for. But just for that monthly cost, I get access to thousands of different mockups for all of their product types. This helps me avoid paying a few dollars to get mug mockups, and then get some for blankets, and then also get one for sweatshirts and t-shirts. That can really add up if you keep buying all of those. However, if you do get some kind of subscription, you can use all of those mockups and then always switch them out too without having to worry about buying something that isn't really going to convert for your store. So, if you've been buying each of your individual mockups, I definitely would give out some kind of subscription like Placeit a try. I will link them down below. You could even try your first month, experiment with how some of those mockups work, and then see if that's something you want to

keep moving forward. Now, another big mistake I see a ton of people making when it comes to their mockups is they are not making the design size on their mockup the same as the actual product when it is printed. So, when you upload your product to a place like Printify, you have some control in how big that design is going to show up. Now, personally, I like to have the design take up a lot of that space. I want things to be big and bold so people can see them when they are scrolling through. However, a lot of times, people are making their design that big and then on their mockup, the design is a lot smaller, or vice versa. Maybe their design is actually pretty small on the final printed piece from Printify, but then on their mockup, they are making it look a lot bigger than it actually is. Now, even though we are not taking literal pictures of the physical product that's going to be printed with print on demand, we want to represent as accurately as possible what this product is going to

look like when it's in the customer's hands. Now, I personally do not offer returns in my shop unless there is a problem. Then, of course, I'm going to fix that for my customer, but I want to avoid anything that could lead people to feel like they were shown something that misrepresented what the product actually looks like because that could lead to people asking for legitimate requests that I am going to have to honor. I am always going to double-check kind of the sizing and placement on Printify and then make sure that kind of matches up with the mockup that I create. Another thing is maybe the size is right, but sometimes people place their mockup designs in kind of a weird way. So maybe on Printify the design came all the way up here to the collar, but then when they create their mockups, they maybe center the design so it looks a lot lower than it's going to. Just try your best to match those as closely as possible. Now, this doesn't have to mean you are exactly 100% needing the exact exact.

same size if you can eyeball it and it look looks really good to your eyes. It looks very very similar then you should be golden, and people shouldn't be complaining about that. Now another huge Miss opportunity that so many people aren't taking with their mockups is the ability to use seasonal mockups for seasonal type designs. Now if you look on Etsy all over those top pages during some of the biggest holidays, the top selling products usually have some kind of seasonal mockup. So whether that is maybe like a hot chocolate that they're holding or a Christmas tree in the back background, maybe there are some spooky Halloween decorations, but a lot of times those top selling designs are themed around that specific holiday. So I think it's always really important to take advantage of creating holiday-themed mockups whenever we have the opportunity. So that's really cool with something like Placeit, they have all sorts of holiday-inspired mockups that you can use. And again, if you have something that's a subscription, you can easily just use those holiday-themed mockups.

without having to buy them every single year and pay for them one by one. When your seasonal designs start getting created, you can simply start using some of those seasonal mockups now. A huge mistake that I see so many people making that is leading to them not getting sales for their mockups is not using some kind of program that is going to auto-format their designs on their mockups. So a lot of people use Canva to create their mockups, which I have definitely used at points. But one of the big drawbacks for using a place like Canva is a lot of times it leaves your images looking like they're kind of just sitting on top of the image. They aren't really formed to the contours in the wrinkles in the shirt. However, if you use a place like Placeit, they are going to auto-format every design to the mockup when you upload it. So you are going to simply drag and drop your design, and then it is going to make sure that it looks right depending on how the person

is turned. If there are wrinkles in the clothing, it is going to account for that, and it's going to account for the opacity that your design should be. So, a lot of times on Canva, people just slap the design right on there, and it looks very vibrant, but then when these designs are actually printed, the ink becomes kind of a little bit more dull as it sinks into the clothing. On Placeit, they are going to automatically adjust that, make the designs look a little bit more realistic, so that gives our customers an even better idea of what this is actually going to look like, and it definitely doesn't look fake. This looks like a real person is wearing that. Now, another huge mistake that I see a lot of listings making is that they are selling one style of shirt; however, they create a mockup with a different style of shirt. Now, on Placeit, they have tons of different styles, but you definitely need to pay attention to what your actual shirt looks like on a place like Printify. So, maybe you're selling a bell

canvas 300 in1. So that's going to have like a crew neck collar. It's going to have some short sleeves. And then you get on place it and then you pick something that maybe you don't notice, but has kind of more of like a slouchy distressed fit. Or it maybe even has a v-neck. So sometimes you are going to pick that as your main mockup photo. And then a customer gets the item and it's a completely different shirt. And so they're not going to be happy that you misrepresented that. Now I definitely don't think that you have to have the exact, exact same style shirt. So on playet, I am going to use a mockup that looks very, very close to this bellet in canvas 3001. Even if it isn't the exact same brand, I want to make sure that it's going to look virtually the same. And that has worked really well for me. You just want to make sure that you are getting as close as possible. So pay attention to things like the sleeve cut.

so there are sleeves that maybe go more down here, or sometimes women's t-shirts, they have like more of a capped sleeve. So you never want to choose something that is going to look drastically different than your actual product. So just pay a little bit of attention to that when you are picking the mockups you're going to use. Now another huge mistake mistake that I see so many people making is just spending way too long actually formatting and creating their mockups. So I'm going to head over to Placeit and just show you how fast I actually go about creating my mockups. So I'm logged into Placeit here, and what I'm going to do first is I am going to go over to the mockup section and just go to T-shirts because that is what I am uploading a design for today. Now there are definitely a bunch of categories that you can sort by. You can sort by the T-shirt type. You can sort by men's shirts, women's shirts, just the garment only so more like a flat lay or with a

person in them. You can even sort by all sorts of holidays. So today, I'm going to look for a really good t-shirt that has a woman in it that I can kind of crop to be a really nice mockup. So let's take a look at these here until I find one that I really like. All right, so this one looks really good. So I am going to go ahead and click on that. Now, this is where we can change the color of the T-shirt. So right now it's defaulting to a white color, but I really want to put this on more of like a sand color design. So I'm just going to switch the T-shirt here, and then we are going to start actually uploading our design. Now, this is super simple. All you're going to do is either drag and drop it, or click here and select the file that you want to upload. All right, so I have uploaded my artwork here, and it's going to start auto-formatting that. But a lot of times, I'm just going to adjust this and kind.

of make sure that it's going to look like how I placed this on my product in Printify. So, I'm going to move it a little bit here until I'm really happy with that. Now, when I'm happy with that, I am going to go over to the top right-hand corner and click download. Now, once that is done downloading, I'm going to go over here to the crop settings, and then we are going to adjust the crop to be the correct size for an Etsy thumbnail. Now, the size that I typically am going to crop these two, and you can just jot this down so you remember it, is going to be a width of 2700 pixels and then a height of 225 pixels. Now, then we can kind of adjust the photo to be able to fill that complete space, and then when we're happy, we are just going to click download that, and then our mockup is completely ready to use. It was that simple, just took a couple of minutes to make a really stunning mockup. Place it really is a phenomenal.

tool for print and sellers today. I only really highlighted their mockup features, but they truly do have some amazing design features that you could use as a print-on-demand seller. They even have some video mockups that I would love to get into in a future video too, 'cause that is a really fantastic tool as well. I'm going to link all of their information down below if you do want to create an account with them. Now, if you want to see some of the mockups that are most used in my print-on-demand business, I'm going to link this video here where I reveal all of those. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you in my next video.

The 9 Mock-Up Hacks That Made Me Thousands: Ultimate Beginners Guide to Print on Demand Mockups

The 9 Mock-Up Hacks That Made Me Thousands: Ultimate Beginners Guide to Print on Demand Mockups