Home › Product research › Mugs & drinkware

Selling Mugs on Etsy with Print on Demand

Gifts and daily routine. Mugs are bought as a gift or for the desk; humour and trade themes work better than fashion.

ZEUS measures 1 product in this category against the supplier catalog, so the numbers below are read from the source, not estimated. That matters because most of what goes wrong with a print-on-demand listing is decided before the design exists.

What the print area actually is

Art rules that apply here

• HORIZONTAL, wrap-around design: the area is far wider than it is tall.
• Text has to read at about 9 cm with the mug turned: avoid compositions that only work when seen whole at a glance.
• Sublimation: a full-bleed background is possible (unlike fabric), and the white in your design is the white of the ceramic.
• Keep the handle area clear.

Common mistakes

• Reusing the vertical t-shirt design
• Small text that cannot be read on a shelf

SEO for this product

The SEO method is the same for every product: a clear title that carries the phrase buyers search for — the product once and its key traits, ideally under 15 words — plus all thirteen tags and the attributes. What changes is the product noun you rank for and the buying angle you write to.

Product nouns that work here: mug, tumbler, coffee cup