[TML] 2025 wasn't perfect. But it taught me a lot.
/ 6 min read / By Bank K. / Email Archive
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Hello,

Before 2026 starts running at full speed, I want to slow things down for a moment.

I want to share you the real story of my 2025.

Not the “everything worked” version. The useful one.

What worked in 2025

Print on Demand on Amazon (FBM + Ads)

At the beginning of 2025, I made a decision that felt uncomfortable.

I stopped using FBA.

For years, FBA caused me more stress than profit. The problems kept stacking up:

  • Suppliers couldn’t submit FBA products fast enough
  • Amazon kept increasing FBA fees
  • Many products didn’t sell fast
  • Storage fees quietly ate profit

It felt like I was always fixing problems instead of growing.

So I simplified.

I went fully FBM and let PODtomatic upload new products regularly.

At first, this felt harder. Amazon is more crowded now. Organic traffic isn’t what it used to be.

Sales slowed down.

Instead of quitting, I leaned into Amazon Ads.

Here’s the mental shift that changed everything for me:

On Amazon, you don’t pay to show ads. You pay only when someone clicks.

  • No click → no cost
  • Click → real buying intent

So I built a very boring system:

  • One campaign per niche
  • Many small campaigns instead of a few big ones
  • Simple setup
  • No daily micromanaging

I let them run.

Most days, Amazon spends very little. In Q4, clicks increase and spending goes up, so I check more often. In slow months like January, once a week is enough.

Low stress. Low time. Very “me”.

I shared this method on the PODtomatic blog. A few people actually tried it. During Q4, some of them messaged me and said:

“This works.”

If that was you — I’m really happy you took action.

Shopify + Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads is a very different game.

On Amazon:

  • Set $100/day
  • It might spend $10

On Facebook:

  • Set $100/day
  • It WILL spend $100 😅

Even if no one buys.

That’s what makes Facebook harder.

But it’s also what makes it powerful.

If you find a winner, you can scale fast.

My approach stayed the same:

  • Test many products
  • Kill losers quickly
  • Push winners harder

2025 wasn’t like the golden years before 2023. Those days were special.

But 2025 was better than 2024.

That matters.

It tells me the system still works. It just needs better testing and more patience.

So I’ll keep doing it.

Improving PODtomatic

This is the part I care about the most.

In 2025, I focused less on promotion and more on making PODtomatic actually perform better.

We made some important changes:

  • Added Walmart integration
  • Added Shopify integration
  • Reduced uploads for products that don’t sell
  • Increased uploads for products that do sell

And yes… coffee mugs are still the best seller in 2025.

The numbers tell the story.

  • 2024: 4,995 orders (~$124,875)
  • 2025: 7,941 orders (~$198,525)

That growth happened even though:

  • I didn’t promote much
  • Some users left

I wanted to improve the engine before stepping on the gas.

If you stayed with me during that time — thank you. I really appreciate it.

What didn’t work (yet)

Making money from videos

I really wanted this to work.

I posted:

  • One short video
  • Every day
  • For about two months

I tried YouTube. I tried Facebook.

The honest result?

Not much happened.

No meaningful income yet.

Still, I’m not giving up. I don’t think video is the problem. I think the problem is the lack of a good system behind it.

Building too much and marketing too little

AI made building very easy in 2025.

So I built many tools to solve my own problems:

  • CSV2Invoice
  • LzyPost
  • BlogneticAI
  • And several smaller micro tools

The mistake wasn’t building them.

The mistake was staying in builder mode for too long.

I kept thinking: “Just one more feature.”

Instead of asking: “How do I get more users?”

Some of these tools did well. But they could have done much better with more focus on marketing.

Lesson learned.

The system I trust most

The system I like the most from 2025 is Amazon Ads combined with PODtomatic.

It doesn’t give me the highest profit.

But it gives me the best return on time.

Once it’s running:

  • PODtomatic uploads products
  • Amazon Ads bring buyers
  • CustomCat fulfills orders

Most of it runs without me touching it.

That’s my kind of business.

What’s next in 2026

Here’s what I’m focusing on next year:

  • Keep adding and optimizing Amazon Ads (there are still many niches untouched)
  • Keep promoting Shopify products with Facebook Ads (this is still one of my strongest skills)
  • Switch from Build Mode → Marketing Mode — Fewer new tools. More promotion. More feedback.
  • Write more on the TML blog — Less hiding behind code. More sharing what actually works.

One last note

2025 didn’t make me faster.

It made me clearer.

Clear about what I should keep doing. Clear about what I should stop pretending matters.

I’m carrying that clarity into 2026.

If this email helped you pause and think for a moment, then it did its job.

We’ll keep building. Slowly. On purpose.

Talk soon,

Bank K.

PS. If you’re feeling like 2025 was messy, slow, or unclear — that’s normal. Clarity usually shows up after the work, not before it.