Based on my experience of making $197,847 in 3 years
Making money online is an enticing proposition.
While in the past people might have started an Etsy shop because they were skilled in a particular craft or had access to vintage goods, I’m now seeing more and more people who want to open shops without necessarily knowing what they want to sell.
They are keen to explore selling digital products on Etsy, but without much of a clue where to even start.
So I wrote an ebook to take budding entrepreneurs through the steps one by one to make the whole process less intimidating and overwhelming.
I get so frustrated with all the nay-sayers on Reddit. I’ve had a decent amount of success with Etsy in the past 3 years (revenue screenshots are here) and while, yes, it’s competitive, I still fully believe it’s possible to be successful on there as a new shop.
So with that in mind, when starting a shop from scratch, these are the steps I recommend following:
- Pick your product and niche
- Research your competitors
- Design your products
- Price your products
- Prepare your shop
- List your products
- Promote your shop (with Etsy Ads) — optional
You can get my free New Etsy Shop Checklist with these steps and subtasks on Gumroad, so you can print the list and have the satisfaction of checking them off as you go :)
Let’s quickly go through each of these, but for more specific advice you can pick up my Make Money Selling Digital Products on Etsy ebook which is currently 50% off because I just launched it — yay! 🎉
1. Pick your product and niche
This is incredibly important. I can’t say that enough. People who dive in head first without doing any research are likely to be disappointed.
I won’t go into market research techniques here, but basically you are looking for products that are in demand and have reasonable competition levels. You can do this using Etsy’s Markplace Insights tool or a 3rd party tool like eRank*.
You are also looking for products that align with your skills and passions, as it’s very likely you’ll need to make a lot of products to succeed in selling digital products.
Narrowing down your focus to niches and subniches helps you break through the competition and establish yourself as an expert in that space.
2. Research your competitors
So you do market research to help you choose a product and niche. But after that, you should do more research, this time focusing more closely on products.
A digital whiteboard is a good way to do this. You gather examples from your competitors and find common patterns. You look at what they are doing well and where there is room for improvement. This includes examining their images, titles, descriptions and customer reviews.
3. Design your products
After doing competitor research you should have a good idea of how you can add value to the market with your products.
While I can’t go through each product and how to design it here, I can help you pick out good tools to help make the process easier. The most popular tools would probably be Canva and Photoshop/Photopea. There are others that are more appropriate for specific types of products, but Canva and Photoshop are solid choices not only for creating your products but also for creating your (very important) listing photos.
4. Price your products
It’s a common dilemma for new shops. Do you price on the higher side or lower side? There are pros and cons of each, but it can be easier to get your first reviews and sales if your prices are on the lower side at the beginning.
5. Prepare your shop
Filling out all parts of your shop is important for building trust with customers and the Etsy algorithm. This includes sections like Policies and your About section.
6. List your products
This is more work than most people realise. Most important is the thumbnail and ensuring it’s designed in a way that attract clicks. Also important are the title and tags, which help people to find your products through keywords.
7. Promote your shop (with Etsy Ads)
New shops can grow faster using Etsy Ads, but it does have to be at the right time and in the right way. A little patience is needed as I generally don’t recommend ads before your first sale or review.
I know a lot of people use social media, but I have done very little of that so it is not included in my ebook. I guess this should come as a relief for anyone who had been dreading trying to build an audience on social media! It is definitely possible to be successful without it.
Well, that was just a brief summary of steps for new sellers, but if you want to learn more, you can get my brand new Make Money Selling Digital Products on Etsy ebook on Gumroad. It should be an easy read but it’s packed full of advice based on my experience as a 6-figure seller.
* This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to sign up through my link I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I only have affiliate links for tools I have personally used and found helpful.