Looking for yet another enjoyable way to make extra money online? Selling digital products on Etsy is another great way to add to your monthly income. You must have an interest in graphic design and a desire to create, but you don’t need to be an expert at it. What’s more is that once you’ve created your designs, there is no limit to how many times you can sell them – you’ll be able to generate passive income!
Why Sell on Etsy?
Unlike many other businesses and side hustles, the cost of selling digital products on Etsy is very low. The sale transaction fee is 5% and Etsy takes a $0.20 listing fee for each design. Additionally, there are many low-cost graphic design tools such as Canva to help you design amazing prints to post on Etsy.
Every day, thousands of potential customers are looking for designs for their events. Popular digital products on Etsy include baby shower invitations, cool t-shirts for an engagement party, dorm room posters and much more. People don’t want to spend endless amounts of time creating their own designs. Additionally, many love the process of browsing through different designs and choosing one that best suits their needs. The Etsy digital products market is huge for a reason – thousands of people want and need unique designs!
Etsy printables are drawings and template designs that customers purchase, download and print. Once you create the design, Etsy will take care of the other steps. Etsy will take care of processing payments and will handle shipping logistics. Etsy charges a $0.20 fee for each listing and takes a 5% cut per sale. Taxes vary depending on your country and region.
Although you may need to take some time to find the best digital product to sell on Etsy, come up with different design ideas and practice drawing and designing, after some practice, almost anyone can create beautiful designs.
How Does Selling Digital Products on Etsy Work?
How do you get started with designing and selling printables on Etsy? While there are many different tools, Canva is a great way to get started. Canva comes with both a free and premium (Pro) version and hundreds of pre-made designs to choose from. The Pro version allows you to do many more things than the free version including image resizing and accessing many Pro design elements and images.
Although there are many different designs, you should ensure that you are modifying the designs to make them your own. The Pro version is worth upgrading to as the non-pro account will keep a watermark on the Pro designs.
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How Do I Sell Digital Art on Etsy?
First, sign up on Canva and create some attractive, original and interesting designs within the niche that you want to target. Afterwards, create an Etsy Seller account. Sign up using your email and password and create a merchant account. Fill in your currency, country and language and check the box for either full-time or part-time depending on how much time you plan on spending as a seller – is this a full-time business for you, or is it part-time?
After completing the Etsy sign-up process, get ready to sell your products. Choose your Etsy store name, fill in your payment details and add a test product ($0.20 listing fee per item) to open your store.
Next, determine what products you’ll sell. Browse online to find the best selling digital products on Etsy. To help you get started, here is a great article about the top 30 most popular products. Once you find a niche you want to target, look at designs for inspiration. Create your own original designs on Canva, export the designs and market your designs on Etsy.
Does Selling Digital Products on Etsy Work?
How does one make profit with their digital designs on Etsy? You’ll need to create original designs and open your store, but you’ll also need to market your business. To successfully sell digital products online, people need to find your products!
Advertise your Digital Products
Once your Etsy platform is up and running, think about how to advertise your products. In my opinion, the best method right now is Pinterest. As opposed to other platforms like Facebook and Instagram ads, Pinterest is a fantastic way to advertise for free. Many niches including home improvement, education and parenting can be targeted on Pinterest. Why? The primary demographic of users on this platform is young to middle-aged women.
How do you advertise on Pinterest? Get started by opening a Pinterest for Business account. After signing up, create boards and post your own original designs. You can create your own Pinterest pins on Canva. Select from thousands of Pinterest pin templates to choose from so you don’t have to start from scratch. Additionally, with Canva Pro, you can save templates so you cut down on design time and can spend more time on your business designs!
After you’ve created the pin, add the link to your shop within the text description. Add relevant tags, and post to your board. To generate more traffic, you can run ads, but in my opinion, the best way to drive traffic for little to no cost is joining relevant Pinterest boards.
Join Relevant Pinterest Boards
How does one go about joining relevant Pinterest boards? First of all, search for boards in your niche using relevant keywords. For example, you can search for ‘Baby Shower Ideas’ if your designs are within this niche. Click on a board to view it. Then, check to see if it’s possible to request to join the board by seeing if there are any other contributors. This is indicated by seeing if there is a number button below the title of the blog, indicating the number of contributors. Additionally, the board owner typically puts instructions for requesting to join a board in their description.
Be sure to post several times a week, but don’t post more than 3- 4 times a week – no spamming! You’re building a reputable brand and don’t want to harm your reputation by overloading boards with unnecessary and unhelpful content.
Is Selling Digital Products on Etsy Worth It?
Is selling digital art on Etsy worth the time and effort? The simple answer is yes, if you enjoy graphic design and are committed to seeing your business grow. You’ll need to have excellent time management skills and the willingness to put in a little bit of work every day to create your designs, decide on marketing and advertising, build your website, run ads, and more. With determination and patience, once you learn how to sell printables on Etsy, you can add this to your list of ways to make money online.
It can take at least several months to determine the best digital items to sell on Etsy, create designs and market your products before making any income. However, if you are able to target a profitable niche and create a solid customer base, you’ll be able to create a great new income stream that you can run from the comfort of your own home. Keep in mind that it’s important to research the best selling digital products on Etsy so you have an idea of what will actually sell. There is a lot of upfront work involved with selling digital prints, but the time put into your business will be worth it! Selling digital prints on Etsy is a fun way to get creative while making some extra cash – you can’t get much better than a side hustle that’s both fun and lucrative!
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Janita is a frugal living expert and owner of Frugal Fun Finance. With over five years of personal experience finding and trying out the best ways to make and save more money, she's eager to share her knowledge. Janita's strategies have helped her save thousands of dollars for funding investments and traveling to over 20 countries.
Janita completed training in personal finance at The University of Western Ontario and McGill University, two prestigious Canadian universities. Her expertise has been shared on GoBankingRates, Yahoo Finance, and NASDAQ.com.
