How Any Student Athlete Can Make NIL Money
The American student athlete is incredibly well-positioned for print-on-demand (POD) success.
This business model is fueled by good branding — something a college athlete has already developed. It’s just a matter of monetizing things.
Athletes live in a dynamic world. Every game, training session, all become marketable within moments through the simplicity and speed of POD.
100% Free Startup
Risk-free opportunities are rare these days. But with Printify, there’s no commitment, fees, or up-front investments. Our only business is helping your business succeed.
Simple (Fast) Online Setup
This streamlined platform allows anyone to create a store and design products in seconds. It’s so user-friendly, anyone with a bit of enthusiasm can build their own sports empire.
Predictable Cash Flow
The world of college sports continually demands points, narratives, and challenges. The data continues to prove it - people pay for the merchandise of a winner, warrior, or workhorse.
What is Print on Demand?
Print on demand is the concept of creating an online store in simplicity. Everything is electronic – so it doesn’t cost money to exist. But, whenever a customer purchases something from your online store, that customer’s funds are used to create and ship their order.
As a student athlete, you’re in a great position to attract customers. Stadiums, arenas, and television screens all pack eyeballs into places where you can advertise.
Why Should a Student Athlete Team Up With Printify?
In short, because this is a business model tailored to your specific situation. While studying sportists might not have full bank accounts, they do have something even more valuable: a developing, personal brand.
Fortunately for you, branding is (arguably) the single greatest fuel for the POD business model. With that crucial foundation rock solid, things become much easier.
Once again, print on demand is a risk-free business model. This means that any student athlete can tap into serious wealth generation – even if they’re college broke.
- Established Brand: A student athlete has a unique angle for POD success: their brand is already developed, or at least well on the path towards development. With Printify in your corner, there is a limitless capacity to build and profit.
- The Missing Piece: As print on demand pays for itself, the only necessity is making sales. Athletes have the ability to go viral from a single play, action, or moment - on or off the field. All these situations can be monetized.
- Assisted Startup: We don’t want your money. We want you to succeed. Printify acts as your main cheerleader - rooting you on and trying to help at every step of the way. We have a dedicated staff of merchant support standing by 24/7.
Student Special Offer
Through this exclusive deal, any student is eligible for $20 off their first order. For access and a discount code, register your student status with Student Beans.
Become a Student Athlete Entrepreneur!
How a Student Athlete Can Make Money With Printify - In 5 Steps
Starting up or running a business with Printify is simple (and easy). Furthermore, it takes only minutes to set up a shop, create a few products, and start selling.
- Remember, we help every step of the way - (24/7)
1. Pick Your Product(s)
This one’s all you. Printify hosts a catalog of over 400 products. These include top-selling items like t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, accessories, all the way to more niche items like posters and lamps.
- Print-Provider Network: These are the companies that produce blank products. You should choose providers based on factors like location (shorter/cheaper shipping), product or material selection, rating (% of problems, reprints, and errors), fulfillment, time, price, etc.
2. Add a Design
Start customizing chosen products using our Mockup Generator to apply your designs. You’re encouraged to create and come up with the best ideas for your fans. Browse through size, color, and other aspects to create the perfect merchandise for your brand.
- Having any problems? Feel free to try out our Shutterstock Integration. You can access their digital library of millions of high quality images. Find one you like and use several simple editing tools (my favorite is the background isolator) to tweak things to perfection. You only have to pay for using Shutterstock if your final product sells: pay-as-you-sell.
3. Sample the Sample
The easiest way to have a perfect idea of how a final product turns out is to see it in person, wear it or hold it in your hands. Ordering samples ensures that the quality of products within an order matches every expectation.
4. List to an Online Platform/Marketplace
How will customers find/buy your merchandise? After creating some product(s), it’s an easy move to integrate those products into the massive online traffic streams on entities like eBay, Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Wix, PrestaShop, BigCommerce, etc. However, if you require an even more personalized selection, we do have the Printify API.
- If you have any questions, please see this handy integration guide.
Focus on Your Game (Brand)
With the logistical backend of business 100% covered, you can keep your head on school, sports, or whatever you’ll be spending your profits on.
From there, things become almost entirely passive. After all, it’s our business to keep your operation flowing smoothly. Furthermore, it’s easy to track sales and monitor delivery processes.
Sales Strategies for the Student Athlete
While every game, tournament, victory, and even defeat all serve as advertising for your brand, it’s worth pursuing some of these tactics to boost sales.
- Stay Current: Remember that any moment can spur a sellable product (or line). Trends, sayings, and fads can all result in profitable spikes. Using time effectively is just as important in business as it is in sports.
- Customer Communication: Good customer service makes a big difference. When people feel heard, they’re more likely to buy again. This process also serves to troubleshoot problems, as those visiting your store have more accurate expectations.
- Social Media: As you are the brand, it’s a good idea to reach out regularly through various channels to strengthen connections with your following. Keep in mind that these are all potential opportunities to reach people that might be interested in ordering products. Avoid making drastic or insensitive posts that may alienate certain demographics.
- Target a Niche: Who are your fans? It pays to target a specific group, rather than broad-appeal items. Get into the heads of those that adore you; think about their motivations, wants, and needs.
How to Get More Sales as a Student Athlete
This is the beauty of the POD system; it’s super-fast, easy, and user-friendly to set up. There’s no wasting time and money on equipment, premises, and stocks of merchandise that haven’t been sold yet.
The many benefits of this business model are all designed to make your life easier. Any student athlete can set up their own POD business in only three simple steps.
1. Plan Ahead
Do your research and start slam-dunking ideas. Come up with the best merchandise and design that best suits your brand. Think of your target audience and what products they might enjoy best. Come up with different options to highlight your name, image, and likeness.
2. Start Creating
Get on Printify and start creating your products. The user-friendly Mockup Generator lets you easily add, edit and customize your draft picks. Start generating your own collection of fan merchandise. From t-shirts and hoodies to caps and accessories. Appeal to all client bases with your brand.
3. Let it Flow
Enjoy the simplicity and convenience of owning a POD business. Focus on your training while money runs into your account. We have the entire logistical backend of business covered.
Become a Boss Today!
How to Get More Sales as a Student Athlete
In order to successfully commercialize name, image, and likeness rights, you need to sell merchandise. Now, sports performances are wonderful advertising in their own right.
However, there are other ways to reach, connect with, and then further expand in attracting customers. One phenomenal way to do this is by creating engaging content that draws customers in:
- Create surveys
- Ask questions
- Blog about your life as a student athlete
- Post audio content, podcasts, interviews, testimonials, etc.
- Fly pictures with aesthetic or visual appeal
- Air videos of highlights, games, training sessions, or other big moments
Plan a Content Schedule
Customers like being able to depend on merch makers. So, when producing content, consider doing so in a predictable, timely fashion. It’s a great method for building trust.
Start Posting
Even if you’re unfamiliar with this streaming, posting, etc, just get started. Practice makes perfect, over time. Give yourself the time you need to find the right tone, voice, etc.
Engage With the Audience
After publishing content, it’s a good (but time-consuming) idea to engage with people who comment and share your posts. This helps build a loyal fan base while spreading the word.
Social media can bring huge benefits if you position yourself as an influencer and engage with the fans. These activities can lead to successful campaigns, which is a great way to get money for using your name, image, and likeness.
How a Student Athlete Can Use Shutterstock
This is (arguably) the best part about working with Printify: how easy/fast it is to create new products – even if you’re unfamiliar with design software.
Shutterstock is a digital library containing millions of high-quality images (and more). But while using other people’s property is never free, our system uses a pay-as-you-sell approach.
So, you only have to pay for images on products that actually sell. In this way, Shutterstock works with you, instead of making you the customer.
Several user-friendly editing tools enable you to crop images, isolate backgrounds, change colors, and many other options.
- Supercharge your Designs: Integrate your collection of sports-themed photos, images, designs with Shutterstock content for unmatchable, attractive combinations
- More Shutterstock Information: Here’s an article detailing many Shutterstock specifics
A Pre-Built White-Label Business
For a student athlete with a well-established following (100k+) and deeply established branding, we’re pleased to present our creators’ program. In short, it’s possible to brand out an entire store in seconds.
Again, to qualify for this offering, a student athlete must have at least 100k followers through any social media platform (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, etc.)
Here’s how it works:
- Sign Up: Fill in a quick, two-step form to submit an application. We’ll reach out once we receive this form.
- Detail your Vision: Describe the ideas, hopes, and expectations you have for your store. What do you want the brand to look like, represent, and mean?
- Let it Work: We handle all the design, merchandising, and setup – giving you a fully customized, integrated online operation.
Student Athlete Print-On-Demand FAQ
While we’re always happy to help with any questions, feel free to check out some of these more common queries and troubleshoot.
How much does it cost to print and sell merchandise for the student athlete?
Starting a business with Printify is one of the best, least expensive ways to start capitalizing the student athlete xperience. Furthermore, you can save an extra 20% on production costs Printify Premium.
Are there minimum or maximum order sizes?
No. Many customers buy orders of a single item. This means that solo orders are no problem. On the flip side, if you sell 1000 items, we’ll make sure that you get your stuff.
Does Printify merchandise require special care?
Different items are created from different materials. This means that there will be significant variation in care. The good thing is that each item has a section describing the best way to keep things clean and shiny.
Where is Printify merchandise created (printed)?
We have a massive network of different providers all around the globe. They each create different items – and several providers have multiple locations. This means you have options. Pick the best provider, with the best products, in the best location for your customers.
- Here’s a full list of print providers. You can also see more detailed information for each product within that item’s product description page.
How long does it take to design and print new merchandise?
Designing a new product can take under a minute. It all depends on the artistic inclinations of the entrepreneur. Then, production time and shipping can all vary relative to many different logistical factors. The good news here is we have a detailed real-time update page for print providers and shipping. You can use this information to make informed decisions as to who you choose to work with.
What are the Best Brands to work with?
This depends on which product you work with. Printify prides itself on working exclusively with high-performing partners. To make sure that you and all your customers are 100% satisfied, we continuously provide a print provider rating – this can be found near their name by the “start designing” button.
- Here’s a full list of our print providers
What is the base color of the books?
The base color of the printing surfaces is white, so if you use a .png file with transparent layers, the white color will show through. Make sure that you take this into account when designing your custom journals and custom notebooks.
NIL Rights and the Student Athlete
In the not-so-distant past, college athletes were legally prohibited from getting paid. The reasoning behind this decision was that student athletes were considered amateurs – not compensated professionals. This would (in theory) encourage them to focus on their studies: students first, athletes second.
Despite this ruling, numerous scandals, controversies, and other press-worthy moments have popped up where a student athlete accepted some form of compensation (money, favors, services, products, coach incentives, etc.). It’s hard to pass up offers of free stuff.
The Rules for Who?
Currently, the student athlete can capitalize on their (college-assisted) brand. And, while laws do differ between different college campuses (states), several general guidelines have been agreed upon and released.
- College athletes can engage in NIL activities that are consistent with the law of the state where the school is located.
- Colleges and universities are responsible for determining whether those activities are consistent with state law.
- Student-athletes who attend a school in a state without a NIL law can engage in this type of activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image, and likeness.
- College athletes can use a professional services provider for NIL activities.
- Student-athletes should report Nil activities consistent with state law or school and conference requirements to their school.
As with many other things, each state can pass different laws regarding NIL. So, things will get complicated as differing jurisdictions collide.
Making That Student Athlete Money
To avoid legal trouble, there are several clear-cut methods for the student athlete to profit from their use of their NIL: promotion and marketing. These could manifest as, but are not limited to, topics like:
- Print-on-demand merchandising
- Autograph signings
- Product endorsements
- Monetizing social media
- Teaching courses or lessons
- Advertising campaigns
- Etc.
Do Not Do This
A student athlete may not receive payment by joining a program, school, university, coach, etc. Additionally, the student athlete may not be directly rewarded relative to athletic accomplishments (blocks, points, etc.)
Game On With Printify!
Don’t stay in the bleachers while others profit from your hard work. Become a boss, exercise your NIL rights, and start earning today with print on demand.