Business Ideas

How to Sell on Merch by Amazon: Merch by Amazon Gimp Tutorial

November 20, 2018 by Dean Soto Leave a Comment

Gimp is a free Open source software that allows you to create amazing Merch by Amazon designs pretty easily. It takes a little getting used to at first so here is a Merch by Amazon Gimp Tutorial to get you started in the right direction. Just follow the directions and you should be good to go with getting your first shirt up!

If you haven't already downloaded the software make sure to follow the directions in my previous post and also download all of the Merch by Amazon templates that are shown in that tutorial.

All Parts in the How to Sell on Merch By Amazon Series

☐ 1. Open GIMP software

Open the GIMP software.

☐ 2. Open Amazon Shirt template

Press Ctrl+O. A file selection dialog box will appear. Select the Amazon Shirt template that you've previously downloaded from Merch by Amazon. Click on the “Open” button.

Note: We use this template because it already has the presets specified by Amazon for the image files of the designs that we'll be uploading.

When the template is opened, press Ctrl+X to remove the existing layer.

☐ 3. Add layer

To add the design you've made to this template, click on “File” then “Open as Layers”. A file selection dialog box will appear.

Select the image file of the design you want to put on a shirt and click on the “Open” button.

Resize and reposition the design across the canvas.

☐ 4. Export image

Once you're satisfied, you can now export the template as an image. Click on “File” and then click on “Export”.

Rename the file and make sure that the file extension is PNG. Save it where you can easily retrieve it. Click on the “Export” button. Another dialog box will appear.

Make sure to tick the checkbox that says “Save background color”. Click on the “Export” button.

Wait for the export process to finish.

Your design is now ready to be uploaded in Merch by Amazon! I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy Merch by Amazon Gimp Tutorial

How to Sell on Merch by Amazon: Using Word Swag for Amazon Merch

November 20, 2018 by Dean Soto Leave a Comment

I'm about to show you one of the fastest and easiest ways to create amazing text-based T-shirt designs for Merch by Amazon. When you use Word Swag for Amazon Merch that you create it is literally just typing in the saying you want, choosing a design, and exporting a photo to use on a shirt.

The Word Swag app itself is a couple of bucks and only works on the iPhone and Android phones for now, but man… it is so easy to make shirts with it.

Here's how you do it.

All Parts in the How to Sell on Merch By Amazon Series

☐ 1. Open WordSwag application

On your mobile phone, open the WordSwag app. Tap on the photos icon to create a canvas.

☐ 2. Create transparent canvas

Tap on “Transparent Background” to create a canvas with a transparent background.

WordSwag will ask you to confirm if you want your image to be saved with a transparent background. Tap on “Okay!”.

☐ 3. Edit text

Double tap on where it says to change the text.

Type in the text you want in your design. Tap on “Save & Close”.

☐ 4. Choose text style

There's a wide variety of text styles to choose from. Just swipe and select a style from the bottom tray to preview your text in the desired style.

☐ 5. Save your design

Once you've selected a style, tap on “Save” on the upper right corner of your screen.

Tap on “OK”.

☐ 6. Transfer image to computer

To transfer your image to your computer, you can do connect your mobile phone to your computer and transfer the files.

You can also email the image to yourself. Upon saving, tap on “Share”.

Tap on the Gmail option.

Send the email to your own email address.

And bam… that's how you use Word Swag for Amazon Merch creation. Now get out there and start making a ton of T-shirts!

How to Sell on Merch By Amazon: Using Picmonkey for T-Shirt Designs

November 20, 2018 by Dean Soto Leave a Comment

Picmonkey is a paid software that helps you to easily create designs to sell on Merch by Amazon. It's online and there's nothing to download so that makes it very easy to use. however, as mentioned before… it is not free so that kind of stinks. But ultimately if you are going to design shirts that have graphics on them, it's super fast and easy to use.

Not to worry though, I share how to use Gimp to create free designs for your shirt.

Without further ado… here's how you use picmonkey to sell on Merch by Amazon.

All Parts in the How to Sell on Merch By Amazon Series

☐ 1. Navigate to PicMonkey website

Go to your browser's address bar and type in http://www.picmonkey.com

☐ 2. Create canvas

Click on “Design” at the top of the screen.

On the side bar menu, click on “Canvas Color”.

Tick the “Transparent Canvas” checkbox. Click on the “Apply” button.

☐ 3. Add and edit overlay

If you want to add an image to your design, click on the butterfly icon on the side bar menu.

Click on the “Add your own” button if you retrieved the image you want to use from another site. A file selection dialog box will appear.

You can also use PicMonkey's wide array of overlays available.

Locate the image file and click on the “Open” button.

Upon adding the image, you can resize it and reposition it across the canvas.

☐ 4. Add and edit text

To add text, click on the text icon on the side bar menu.

Select a font face and click on the “Add Text” button.

Note: You can only use font faces that do not have i crown icon beside it. Font faces with the crown icon are only available to Premium users.

Type in the text that you'd like in your design. You can resize it, reposition it, and even change its color.

☐ 5. Save design

Once you're already satisfied with your design, click on “Save” on the upper part of the screen.

Rename your file and change the dimensions to 600×600 pixels. Click on the “Save to my computer” button.

Click on the “Save” button.

Bam… You have successfully created a shirt design using PicMonkey! Pretty easy huh?

How to Sell on Merch by Amazon Part 5: Design with Gimp for Merch by Amazon

November 17, 2018 by Dean Soto Leave a Comment

This is the next part of the design portion of this series. Here we will take the images we got from our previous design and finish the design with Gimp for Merch by Amazon.

All Parts in the How to Sell on Merch By Amazon Series

☐ 1. Create a new canvas

Note: On this checklist, you will know of few basic tools inside GIMP that are useful in designing shirts in Merch by Amazon. A continuous study whether watching YouTube videos, tutorials and browses are necessary to learn navigating GIMP further and effectively.

Also, you should have GIMP installed in your computer. If you don't have it yet, please proceed and complete checklist 9.03 to get instructions on how to install it to your desktop.

Open GIMP on your desktop.

Once pulled up, click “File” menu.

Choose and click on “New” in the submenu.

A dialog box will appear to set up the canvass.

On the “Image Size”, make sure you are creating a square canvass. For now, we will use 640×640.

On the Fill section, choose “Transparency” so you can create a design with transparent background.

Click “OK”.

☐ 2. Upload the image for editing

Click “File” then select “Open a Layer”.

Select the image then click on the “Open” button.

Your image is now successfully uploaded on the canvass.

☐ 3. Navigate through editing tools in GIMP

Scale your image by clicking on the scale icon in your tool box located on the left side of your screen. Adjust the scale as you desire. Once good, click on the “Scale” button.

Move your scaled image to your desired location by clicking on the “Drag” icon.

Change the color of the image/s matching best the color of the shirt you're designing.

Note: For this example, we are designing a black shirt so we will choose white as the color of the image.

Click on the “Fill” icon to recolor.

Choose a color by choosing any of the tabs (whichever is easier for you to choose color from). Then, click OK.

Hover mouse and click on parts of the image where you want the color to apply.

You also have the option to add another layer if your design needs different images. Click on “File” then “Open a Layer”.

Select the file you want to add then click “Open”.

Scale the additional image by clicking the “Scale” icon. Once done, click “Scale” on the pop-up box.

Move the additional image to your desired location by clicking the “Drag” icon.

Re-color the image as you desire by following the same steps stated above specific to re-coloring.

You also have the option to flip images on your canvass. Click on the “Flip” icon then click the image you want to flip.

You also have the option to add text on your design. Click on the “Text” icon to insert text. Start typing the text. Once done, choose your preferred font size, font color and font style.

Move the text to your desired location though the use of the “Drag” icon.

You also have the option to rotate image to present variations on your design. Click on the “Rotate” icon in your tool box.

Once clicked, a dialog box will appear. Control the rotation bar until you get the right view of your image. Click the “Rotate” button once done.

Utilize different editing tools in your tool box as necessary until your design in mind is achieved.

☐ 4. Save your edited design

After your preferred design is achieved, save the design in your computer.

Note: We want to make sure that we are saving the design exactly as what we edited. Note that the normal saving process when we use MS Office or other tools does not work with GIMP as we need to “Export” the image to save it.

Click “File” then choose “Export”.

A dialog box will appear so you can set up exporting process. Create a file name then put “.png” as extension then choose your desired directory where the image will be saved.

Choose “PNG image” as the file type.

Once everything is set up, click the “Export” button,

You will be prompted to another dialog box entitled “Export Image as PNG”. Make sure that the “Save background color” is checked so the image will retain it's background transparency.

Once checked, click “Export”

You have successfully saved your design. You have reached the end of the checklist for this specific process.

Boom! That's it. It's a super fun and easy way to design with Gimp for Merch by Amazon. You can do this with anything your heart desires. Next I'll show you some other ways to get quick designs for Merch by Amazon

How to Sell on Merch by Amazon Part 4: Design for Merch by Amazon

November 17, 2018 by Dean Soto Leave a Comment

This is going to be the first part of learning how to design for Merch by Amazon even if you have no design skills at all (I know I don't). This is how you can use Google images and Gimp to come up with some creative designs.

In this article we will first come up with the idea and then in the next article we'll develop the design even further.

All Parts in the How to Sell on Merch By Amazon Series

☐ 1. Determine the design you want to do

Designing inside Merch By Amazon is really fun. It involves your creativity and there's really no limitations as to what design it should be (avoid designs idea of course which are foul, indecent and the like).

First, you need to decide what design you want to put and images that should be in it. It is very important as you will be searching for different images over the net and combine them using different tools (will be discussed in separate processes).

☐ 2. Option 1: Google Images

Go to www.google.com, click on “Images”

Key in your search string and click on the search icon or press “Enter” on the keyboard.

Once results, we want to avoid conflicts in the future specific to copyright and trademark. Filter results by click on the “Search Tools” button.

A submenu will appear. Choose and click on “Usage Rights” button. Then, click on “Labeled for reuse and modification”. By clicking this, you will be presented results you can use and edit freely.

Go through results and click on the images you desire to get.

Note: It is preferable to already get an image with a transparent background as that would make the word easier considering the next processes.

Save the image/s in your desired directory.

☐ 3. Option 2: Pixabay

Go to www.pixabay.com

Key in your search string inside the search box and hit “Enter”.

Filter the results by Color to show images with transparent background. Click on Color and choose transparent.

Go through the results until you get your desired image/s. Click on “Free Download”. A submenu will appear. Choose the most appropriate size and type of file you want to download. Click on “Download”. Once downloaded, save the image/s to your desired directory.

☐ 4. Get different images to complete your designs

There are cases wherein the design requires different images. Hence, follow the same process in getting images, both in Google Images and Pixabay (step 2 and 3 of this specific process).

That's how easy it is to come up with ideas. In the next article we'll use what we found here to complete our design.

How to Sell on Merch by Amazon Part 3: How to start Merch by Amazon with Some Free Tools

November 17, 2018 by Dean Soto Leave a Comment

If you are looking to sell t-shirts on Merch by Amazon then there are some tools that everyone needs in order to get going. Here's how to start Merch by Amazon by getting you familiar with some easy and free tools to make your Merch experience a breeze.

All Parts in the How to Sell on Merch By Amazon Series

☐ 1. Download GIMP

Go to Google and search “Gimp download”

Click on GIMP – Downloads.

Determine whether you're using it for Mac or Windows before proceeding.

Note: In this case we will download GIMP for Windows

☐ 2. Sign in at Merch by Amazon

Next, open a tab and search “merch by amazon”

Once you get to the Merch by Amazon page, click on Sign in

Click on Resources at the upper right hand.

Click Tools

Click on T-shirt templates

And download the appropriate template for you.

Note: Since we have GIMP installed, we will download Gimp template.

☐ 3. Optional: Download 7-zip

The template file will be in zip format. If you don't have a software to unzip the file, search for “7 zip download” on Google.

Choose the appropriate version for your computer.

☐ 4. Extract the template

Right click on the file. Choose 7-zip or Winzip whichever you have. Extract the files.

And you will have the template that you will need in order to start making some shirts. 🙂