Is this year the year you start a side hustle from home? Selling printables on Etsy can be a creative and fun way to turn your creative passions into a profitable side hustle! It’s something I’ve done, as well as many of my friends and peers.
Selling Printables on Etsy: What are Printables?
Printables stands for printable prints. They come in the form of a digital file that you can download and print at home, at work or a print shop.
Printables can be anything from wall art, printable worksheets, gift tags and quotes to printable planners, to-do lists, checklists and you can even make your own printable calendar. Best of all, selling printables on Etsy can be a fun and rewarding experience.
Well, printables are digital products that customers can download and print at home. Some popular printables include planners, stickers, coloring pages, art prints, games and invitations. Honestly, though, the list is endless, especially as they’re becoming more and more popular every day.
Printables are typically created and sold in the form of a PDF or JPG file and can be used for a variety of purposes. Here are some of the most popular printables:
- Planners and organizers: daily, weekly, and monthly planners, goal-setting and habit tracking sheets
- Art prints: digital version of your own art or curated collection of vintage illustrations.
- Invitations and party decor: custom invitations and party decor for events like weddings, baby showers, and birthdays.
- Educational resources: printable worksheets, flashcards, and activity sheets.
- Recipes, Coupons, and Gift Certificates
- Coloring pages and activity sheets for kids
- And of course … STICKERS! (my personal fave!) I teach you how to make and sell printed or printable stickers in this course. Many of my own students have taken this course and have super positive Gold City Ventures reviews. They say that Julie and Cody really know their stuff when it comes to making and selling printables.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE E-PRINTABLES COURSE
Printables can be a great option for customers who want a physical product, such as a planner, but don’t want to wait for shipping or pay shipping costs. They can also be an affordable option for sellers as they are easy and inexpensive to make and sell.
Printables can be easily customized and personalized to fit most customers’ needs and this makes them a sought-after choice for those looking for unique, one-of-a-kind products.
And what’s great about Etsy is that it’s a go-to destination that everyone already knows about for unique, one-of-a-kind products. This is what makes it the perfect platform and marketplace to get started selling your printable creations!
What Printables Can you Make?
First up, you need to discover what kind of printables are in demand and what people are searching for and want to buy.
My friends Julie and Cody teach alllll about this, as well as making and selling printables in this course.
Some popular categories of printables include:
- Planners, trackers and organizers: these help people to keep their lives organized and they can include daily, weekly, and monthly planners, habit trackers as well as goal-setting and tracking sheets.
- Art prints: this could be a digital version of your own art or a curated collection of vintage illustrations, art prints are a great way to add some personality to a room. the demand for these is so/so as there is a lot of competition.
- Invitations, games and party decor: you could create custom invitations, printable games and party decor for events like weddings, birthdays, hens nights, baby showers, and more!
- Educational resources: Parents and teachers LOVE printables! Think worksheets, flashcards, schedules and activity sheets for starters.
Why are Printables so Fabulous?
Not only do printables satisfy people’s love of getting organised, but they are also last-minute lifesavers.
Having a 1st birthday party but need some signs to spruce up the food table? Find a printable.
Forgot the teacher gift at the end of the school year? Find a printable and frame it!
When you have access to a printer, they are immediate gifts, props, organising tools, without shipping costs. You name it; the opportunities are endless.
Printables are also an environmentally-conscious option by cutting out things like factory processing and delivery. And when you get your printables published on Etsy, you can also get them in front of 250 million monthly Pinterest users with two-thirds of those users being women and eight out of 10 mothers in the USA being on Pinterest. Woah!
Related: grow your Pinterest with this course!
Is Selling Printables on Etsy for me?
Printables are perfectly suited to someone looking to make some extra money on the side, particularly people looking for passive income.
The benefit of creating printables to sell is that you only have to create it once to sell it multiple times. There’s no need to worry about not having an email list or social media following either; you can drive some decent traffic to your Etsy store by using Pinterest and adopting some SEO tactics.
But people are giving printables away for free. How can I make money from it?
Yes, some printables are free, but there are various reasons people do this, including to build their email list or to give something back to their audience or customers. But don’t let this hold you back, you can still make money from selling printables. The most important things to remember are:
- There are SO MANY people in the world. There will always be people to buy your product if they find it valuable.
- Keep your printable professional and better than the rest.
- You may not have an email list or social following to sell to, so why not grow one! Start a Facebook Group or start building an email list. Build trust with these people, and they will eventually buy from you.
- Make people more comfortable when they’re buying by offering a money-back guarantee.
Is the Printables Market Saturated?
Let’s address the elephant in the room … is there room for YOUR printable shop on Etsy or have you missed the boat?
The printables market is big and growing all the time and if you’re planning to create basic printables that thousands of other sellers are already selling then YES, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll stand out on Etsy. Competition is high and you need something to differentiate YOUR shop and your products these days. But, that’s entirely possible!
One way to stand out with a printables shop is to find a niche within the printables or digital product market and go deep in creating products specifically for that niche. Of course, it needs to be a niche where people want and need printables.
Make sure you’re creating printables with your customer’s needs in mind, keep the quality high and offer excellent customer service. Essentially, make life easy for your customer at every turn.
To ensure your customers see your shop as professional, make sure you have consistent branding from the visual look of your shop and products to how you treat your potential customers. Reply to any requests and messages quickly, lay out your shop so that customers can find what they need easily, create offers that are enticing and always be looking for ways you can improve your customer’s experience.
How to Sell Printables on Etsy
Now you’ve settled on the types of printables you want to sell, it’s time to create your Etsy shop! Setting up an Etsy shop is pretty simple and in just an hour you can be up and running. Here are the basic steps to setting up an Etsy shop:
Create an account
You’ll need to sign up for an Etsy account, which is free. Click here to get started with your Etsy shop.
Choose a shop name
Ensure your shop name is unique but also reflects your brand and/or the kind of products you’ll be selling.
Set up how you’ll get paid!
Next, add a method of payment so you can receive payment when you sell your products.
Create your first product listing
When you’ve created your first printable, you can add a listing in your Etsy shop – fun! In this listing, include high-quality images of your product showcasing it well – as well as a detailed description that gives your prospective customer all the info they need in order to make a decision before buying.
Get promoting!
Now your shop is up and running, you’ll be spending most of your time as a new business owner in marketing mode. Just because you’ve opened your shop, doesn’t mean the customers will roll in from day one.
Where to Promote your Etsy Shop
With the right marketing and promotion strategy and SEO, you’ll be attracting loyal customers. Again, Julie and Cody have you covered here in their course. CLICK HERE to check it out.
You might promote your shop by:
- using social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest
- joining online communities, Facebook groups and community sales groups for printables sellers
- collaborating with other printables creators
- using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to get more people to find your Etsy listings when they search for printables on Google
- running targeted advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Tiktok Ads and Instagram Ads
- collaborating with influencers or bloggers in your niche to get your printables in front of their audience
- creating and sharing content such as blog posts, product videos, tutorials, and customer testimonials
- using email marketing to keep in touch with your customer base and let them know about new products, sales, and promotions
- participating in person at local art fairs, craft fairs, and other events to show off your products and meet potential customers
The benefits of selling printables on Etsy
One of the best things about selling printables on Etsy is that printable can be easy and fast to create, list in your shop and deliver to customers. No manufacturing or shipping costs!
Once you’ve created your printable, you can list it in your Etsy shop very quickly and customers can buy and download it straight away – magic!
For a more passive income, you can sell set printables that don’t need to be personalized or customized by you. Alternatively, you could potentially charge more by selling customizable printables, such as invitations, and these can be a great way to stand out from the crowd.
So, is selling printables on Etsy for you? It can be a super fun way to turn your creativity into a lucrative side hustle.
Make sure to check out this selling printables course and let me know if you already sell printables!
When you decide on selling printables on Etsy , you have nothing to lose. You haven’t created a run of one thousand printables, you’ve just created one.
Most of all, the process of learning how to make printables and sell printables on Etsy will be an enriching learning experience which, in the end, will leave you with new skills in design, marketing and SEO.
What are you waiting for!
Read next:
- Becoming a Top Etsy Printables Seller
- Canva Stickers for Planners: How to Start Making Them!
- Everything You Need To Know About Stickers For Journals!
- Making and Selling Printables with Gold City Ventures
- How to Make Printables in Canva
- Selling Printables on Etsy – the Easy Way
- How to Make Printable Planner Stickers FREE Guide
- FREE CLASS: The Stickers That Sell
- How I Started Making Planner Stickers
- 4 Reasons To Make Your Own Planner Stickers (and how to do it)
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This article on selling printables on Etsy was originally published on July 4th 2020 and update in Jan 2023.
