When you create a passive income through print on demand, you want to be able to show your potential customers what your products look like. You could order your product(s) yourself and photograph them, but that comes with a massive cost and you will need storage space to keep them. Instead, you can use free mockups to show what your product looks like.
What is print on demand?
Print on demand, sometimes called POD, is where you can sell your own custom designs on different types of products.
Instead of ordering lots of items in various colours and sizes and holding on to stock (with a big financial outlay, these items are printed on demand from third-party providers.
The ‘on demand’ bit means that when an item sells it triggers an order from your supplier, who take care of everything else for you.
What are mockups?
Mockups are just as they sound – they are your design mocked up onto a product to show how it will look once printed.
This is one of the free mockups in my Etsy store.
Creating free mockups is a cost effective way to show how your products look.
Create Mockups with Freepik
Freepik free mockups have really impressed me for a number of reasons.
Amongst their huge stash of stock photos, you will quickly find their mockup collection, neatly organized into its most popular categories: Apparel, digital devices, social media, and packaging that are all intended for personal or commercial use.
However, searching for something more specific, including free templates, is easily dealt with, thanks to its powerful search optimization.
Once downloaded, a PSD and JPG file will be provided for you to open up in Photoshop and start your mockup journey. Only basic knowledge of the industry standard software is required, dropping your design into the allocated layer. You will then be free to make any changes you desire.
Additionally, you can try out Freepik’s new 3D Mockup Baker, a free-to-use Photoshop plugin that will bring your designs into the third dimension!
Premium members will benefit from access to premium mockup templates, priority support, and no need for attribution.
Create free mockups with Printful
Printful is one of my favourite print on demand companies for many reasons, but a major one is that whilst creating your product they will also create free mockups for you to use in your listings.
You are able to choose from a wide variety of mockups, including lifestyle shots, flatlays, items on hangers and many more.
These will automatically get imported into your store of choice.
Use Canva to create mockups
I love Canva, which I describe as a drag and drop editor for images and videos.
On the left hand menu navigate to photos and search for mockup.
If you do not have a Canva pro account then you will be limited to the mockups that do not have the crown attached to the botton right hand side.
You can also narrow down your search by looking for specific mockups.
Top tip – if you can’t find a free version of what you are after by searching for ‘mockups’ then you can also search for ‘blanks’.
Then upload your design that you have created, with a transparent background, and place it onto the correct area in the photo.
Now you have a totally free mockup to use in your listings.
Paid mockup ideas
Check out Creative Fabrica for awesome mockups!
If you can’t quite find what you are after then you can purchase mockups from Creative Market.
I used these mockups from Creative Market for my prints on Etsy.
Get started
I know what you are thinking – where do you get started? How do you create designs? How do you choose a supplier? Where do you list your items for sale?
The good news is that I have covered all of these topics and more with my print on demand series:
