Do you wish to discover ways to make a semi-passive earnings by promoting printables on Etsy? Are you questioning if a brand new Etsy printables store can earn money? Promoting digital merchandise is an effective way to earn cash on-line with out worrying about stock, delivery, or buyer returns. With the precise technique, you possibly can create merchandise…
Do you wish to discover ways to make a semi-passive earnings by promoting printables on Etsy?
Are you questioning if a new Etsy printables store can earn money?
Promoting digital merchandise is an effective way to earn cash on-line with out worrying about stock, delivery, or buyer returns. With the precise technique, you possibly can create merchandise as soon as and promote them again and again—incomes earnings even whilst you sleep!
At present, I’m excited to share an interview with Cody, a profitable Etsy vendor who has turned printables right into a thriving enterprise. He’s been featured right here on Making Sense of Cents earlier than and yow will discover that article right here – How I Make Cash Promoting Printables On Etsy. At present, he’s again as a result of he just lately began a brand-new Etsy printables store to point out that it’s attainable to nonetheless earn money in 2025.
In simply 4 months, his new store that he just lately began hit $1,000 in month-to-month income (in about 4 months, he made $6,161 from this brand-new Etsy store), proving that it’s nonetheless attainable to begin and develop a profitable Etsy enterprise at this time.
On this interview, Cody shares:
- The technique he used to develop his new Etsy store from $0 to $2,500 per week
- Essentially the most worthwhile varieties of printables to promote
- How a lot effort and time is de facto wanted to make this work
- The step-by-step strategy of promoting printables
- How one can earn money even if you happen to’re new and haven’t any tech abilities
- The largest errors new sellers make and how one can keep away from them
For those who’ve ever considered beginning an Etsy store however weren’t certain the place to start, this interview is filled with insights that can assist you take step one!
I additionally advocate signing up for the Earn Cash Promoting Printables free coaching. You’ll be taught printable concepts, how one can get began on Etsy, and how one can truly make gross sales. Moreover, you possibly can join Cody’s free e-book, which shares his secret record of best-selling merchandise month by month.
How I Made $6,161 in Simply 4 Months With a New Etsy Printables Store
This interview is for you if you wish to discover ways to begin an Etsy printables enterprise proper now.
1. Please give us a bit background on your self and the way you bought began promoting on Etsy.
I first began promoting printables on Etsy in 2018 after attempting nearly each facet hustle possible (cleansing boats, delivering Uber Eats on a motorcycle, freelance writing, constructing web sites, and so on).
The issue with most facet hustles is that they’re “lively”, that means that you just don’t receives a commission except you’re actively engaged on them.
Promoting printables was totally different. I might create and record a digital product in my store, and somebody might purchase it at any time, it doesn’t matter what I used to be doing.
I keep in mind waking as much as gross sales and listening to the “cha-ching” sound from Etsy on my cellphone whereas I used to be on the gymnasium or within the automotive.
After that began occurring extra regularly, I rapidly dumped nearly all of my “lively” facet hustles and went all in on attempting to make extra passive earnings.
Some months after I opened my store, round Valentine’s Day, I had my first large break and revamped $718 in every week. I critically couldn’t consider it. It felt like pretend cash.
I used to be promoting issues like love coupons, love playing cards, and different Valentine’s printables.


The craziest half?
I used to be on trip that week and barely touched my store.
These had been all printables that I had listed in December and January.
This one week in February fully modified how I considered money and time.
2. Are you able to inform me all about your new Etsy store experiment? How do you discover new printable concepts to promote? How a lot time do you spend in your new store every week? What are your long-term plans with this store?
As I discussed above, I opened my first Etsy store in 2018. In web years, that seems like ages in the past, and apparently, I’m not the one one who thinks so.
Somebody commented on a video of mine and stated “You simply received fortunate you began again in 2018. You may by no means repeat your success on Etsy at this time”.
Problem accepted.
Fueled with “I’m gonna present him” power, I opened a model new Etsy store in mid-August of 2024 to see how rapidly I might attain $1,000/month in gross sales.
My technique was easy: Create a bunch of base templates, after which use key phrase analysis to make as many in-demand variations of that base template as attainable.
For instance, I would create a “thanks card” template, after which from that template, create a instructor thanks card, soccer coach thanks card, grandfather thanks card, marriage ceremony thanks card… you get the concept.
The explanation why I selected this “template” method was as a result of it allowed me to create and record merchandise as rapidly as attainable. I might create a brand-new product (together with the design itself, itemizing photos, description, tags, and so on.) inside a matter of 15 to twenty minutes.
Every week in the course of the problem, I most likely spent a complete of 5-10 hours on my store.
Now, I solely spend a few hours per week on my store.
For the reason that store has achieved so effectively and requires little upkeep, I’m going to proceed to run it and add to my product suite. Who is aware of, I would even do one other problem!
3. How a lot cash have you ever made along with your new Etsy store?
The objective of the brand new Etsy store experiment was to see how rapidly I might attain $1,000/month in income.
I hit that objective in 116 days.
That’s not the perfect a part of the story although…
Only one week after hitting my objective, my gross sales exploded, and I revamped $2,500 in income in 7 days. I actually couldn’t consider it. This was simply 4.5 months after I opened my store.


From mid-August to December thirty first, I made $6,161 from this new Etsy store.
4. What are your bills along with your new printables store?
Since these are digital merchandise (I don’t promote bodily merchandise or print-on-demand), the bills are fairly minimal.
I spend $22/month on software program between Canva Professional and eRank Professional.
It prices $0.20 to record a product and Etsy takes 6.5% of every product sale.
I pay a further $0.50 for every editable product sale since I take advantage of a program known as Corjl.
Through the holidays, I additionally spend cash on advertisements to extend visitors to my seasonal merchandise.
On common, digital merchandise have 80%+ revenue margins, which is far increased than promoting print-on-demand or bodily merchandise on Etsy.
5. So, what’s a printable? Why do folks purchase printables?
A printable is a digital file {that a} buyer buys after which both prints or makes use of on their laptop. On this interview, I’m utilizing “printable” and “digital product” interchangeably, though you wouldn’t truly print one thing like a social media template.
Some printable examples embrace thanks playing cards, reward tags, marriage ceremony invites, labels, digital planners, wall artwork, calendars, budgeting spreadsheets, Instagram templates, media kits, printable video games, junk journals… the record goes on and on.
For those who look across the room you’re in whilst you’re studying this, you’ll doubtless see a printable or two!
As I’m typing this, I see wall artwork subsequent to me, a planner on my desk, a journal on the espresso desk, and a calendar on the fridge.
Individuals purchase printables as a result of it’s quite a bit simpler to pay $5 than to go and create the printables themselves. Whilst a printable vendor myself I’m nonetheless shopping for printables on a regular basis.
To make one other analogy to drive this level house… everybody can cook dinner meals at house, so why do eating places and take-out even exist? The reply is comfort.
6. Why promote printables on Etsy? What do you want about promoting on Etsy versus immediately on a weblog or web site?
Etsy is the perfect market by far for brand spanking new printable sellers.
You don’t want an e mail record. You don’t want an enormous social media presence. You don’t want an internet site. You don’t must promote.
For those who perceive key phrase analysis and search engine marketing, Etsy will ship patrons to the doorstep.
As of this writing, there are over 90 million patrons on Etsy, and that quantity is rising yr over yr. Etsy is spending tens of millions in promoting (you might need seen their Tremendous Bowl business final yr) to get new patrons onto the platform.
Some folks complain in regards to the 6.5% payment that Etsy takes from every sale, however I’m truly a fan. Etsy is utilizing that cash to present us sellers extra potential prospects. I’ll gladly give Etsy $0.65 once I make $10 in change for locating patrons for my digital merchandise.
You might promote printables immediately in your web site, or on a platform like Shopify, however you then’re accountable for driving visitors and prospects.
To not say that this isn’t a superb transfer for some, however this often solely is sensible in case you have an enormous e mail record, a large social media following, or another technique to entice prospects.
7. How worthwhile is promoting printables on Etsy? How a lot cash can an individual make promoting printables on-line?
When it comes to profitability, promoting printables on Etsy is difficult to beat.
Many sellers I do know personally have 80%+ revenue margins, with some as excessive as 95%.
Essentially the most “costly” a part of this facet hustle is your time. I don’t wish to painting this as a get-rich-quick scheme.
It should take a little bit of time to be taught graphic design, key phrase analysis, advertising, and so on.
However the good half is that upon getting a store stuffed with handsome, well-researched merchandise, they’ll proceed to promote for months and years to come back!
The sum of money you make fully will depend on the quantity of effort you’re prepared to place in.
We had one pupil, Rachel, who earned over $150,000 on the facet promoting printables on Etsy.
We had one other pupil, Sasha, change her full-time earnings as an accountant.
We now have some college students who’re joyful making $600/month promoting digital merchandise and utilizing that cash to cowl a few of their month-to-month payments.
8. Can a printables store be passive earnings? How a lot ongoing work is required to take care of and develop a printables store?
I wish to say that promoting printables on Etsy is 95% passive earnings.
When somebody buys a printable out of your store, Etsy will routinely ship them the digital file. There’s nothing that that you must do in your finish to finish the transaction.
The 5% the place it’s “lively” is responding to buyer questions, that are often resolved inside a few minutes.
I’ve a complete bunch of “fast replies” a.ok.a. saved responses to frequent questions for my store in order that I can reply to patrons throughout the Etsy App in just some clicks.
For ongoing work, when you get to a income degree you’re snug with, you can “coast” for some time and maintain issues 95% passive with out seeing a lot of a drop in gross sales.
Nevertheless, if you need your earnings to develop, you’ll wish to maintain including new merchandise to your store each time attainable.
Utilizing the “template” methodology I discussed above, including a brand new product may solely take 15-20 minutes. In my new Etsy store, I attempt to add ~10 new merchandise per week.
9. What are a few of the best-selling printables on Etsy? Are sure niches extra worthwhile than others?
The riches are within the niches. The most effective-selling printables on Etsy are these with good search quantity, however low competitors. I wish to name these “unicorns”.
The place most individuals go incorrect is that they create generic merchandise (e.g. thanks playing cards, birthday invites, plain calendars).
The issue with that is that each Etsy vendor and their mom are promoting these generic merchandise. As an alternative of promoting only a “thanks card”, take into account promoting a “faculty bus driver thanks card” or a “pediatrician thanks card”.
As you area of interest down, not solely are you competing towards fewer folks, however you’re additionally making a printable that’s extra according to what the customer is looking for!
Think about a purchaser goes to Etsy, sorts in “faculty bus driver thanks card” after which sees two playing cards subsequent to one another. One is a plain thanks card that claims “Thank You!” and the opposite is a thanks card with clip artwork of a college bus that claims “Thanks for being the perfect bus driver!”.
Which do you suppose they’re going to choose?
The one which’s extra according to what they had been looking for, in fact.
This is why niching down is so essential.
To provide you an actual instance from my Etsy store, I created this printable for a “Medical Faculty Commencement Social gathering”.


It’s a lot simpler to face out with this product than with a generic “Commencement Social gathering” printable.
The reality is, there’s no definitive record of bestselling printables or a sure sort of printable that’s assured to make you cash. If there was, all people could be promoting them, and you then’d be competing with all people, which is precisely what I counsel not to do.
The “secret” to making a living on Etsy is to area of interest down and create precisely what the shopper is searching for. There’s a purpose why the phrase “The riches are within the niches” exists!
10. Can an entire newbie make a printable? Is it arduous to make a printable if an individual has no tech abilities?
I’ve been promoting printables for six+ years at this level, and it’s embarrassing to confess, however I’d nonetheless solely take into account myself a 5/10 (perhaps 6) graphic designer.
However hey, that was adequate for me to make over $6,000 in 4.5 months with my brand-new store.
An important a part of promoting printables is key phrase analysis, not graphic design.
We’ve seen college students with zero graphic design or tech backgrounds make gross sales inside every week of opening their store (some throughout the first day or two).
In fact, printables gained’t promote if they give the impression of being completely horrible, however you actually don’t need to be a graphic design whiz to make this facet hustle work.
There are a couple of niches the place graphic design issues much more than others corresponding to weddings and wall artwork, however for the overwhelming majority of printables, it simply has to look “adequate”.
11. How does an individual get views and visitors to their printables? Is there loads of competitors?
I sound like a damaged report right here, however the reply is key phrase analysis.
For those who create niched-down merchandise which have good search quantity, and low competitors, you’ll entice patrons.
There may be loads of competitors for generic merchandise.
There may be a lot much less competitors for well-researched, particular merchandise.
The secret is discovering these merchandise and creating as a lot of them as attainable.
Because the variety of merchandise in your store continues to develop, so will your views, clicks, and gross sales.
You may enterprise out and drive visitors on locations like Pinterest, however I’d put this extra within the “superior” class. It’s not essential to make gross sales.
12. Are you able to give me a step-by-step course of for promoting printables?
This may very well be a complete weblog submit in and of itself, however I’ll attempt to break down the steps as merely as attainable:
- Generate a listing of printable concepts. You are able to do this utilizing Etsy, Chat GPT, Google, Pinterest, and even simply your individual mind energy. Attempt to write down as many concepts as attainable.
- Run that record of printable concepts by way of a key phrase analysis software. I like to make use of eRank or Everbee. The purpose of this step is to determine which merchandise have good search quantity and low competitors.
- Design the “successful” merchandise you discovered from step 2. I take advantage of Canva to create my designs. After you undergo this train as soon as, you’ll have a bunch of “templates” that you should use in future designs.
- Listing the designs on Etsy. You’ll wish to be sure to optimize your itemizing photos, title, tags, and outline to present your product the perfect likelihood of success.
- Repeat steps 1 by way of 4. You’ll get quicker each time you come to step 5. I promise.
I used this actual course of to record over 350 digital merchandise in my store in simply over 4 months.
That may sound insane, however keep in mind, by utilizing the “template” methodology that I described above, I can create and record a brand new product in 15-20 minutes.
13. Inform me in regards to the printable templates you present to your college students. How do these work and are these a great way to begin an Etsy store that you would be able to truly earn money with? Did you utilize any of those templates along with your new printables store?
In our E-Printables Course, we offer 15+ Canva templates to assist college students get merchandise listed as rapidly as attainable. We additionally give out a further 5 product templates every month in our VIP Membership.
We all know how irritating it may be to spend hours in your first design, so these templates function a form of shortcut. As an alternative of designing from scratch, you begin with an already-completed printable design and make a couple of tweaks to customise it.
All of our templates are well-researched and particularly chosen as merchandise we see with loads of gross sales potential. Some college students have made gross sales inside a day of itemizing their personalized templates!
One other beauty of templates (which I additionally talked about above), is that one template might simply flip into 10+ merchandise.
A present card holder might turn out to be a nurse reward card holder, a instructor reward card holder, a Valentine reward card holder, a Christmas reward card holder… you get the concept.
One of many fundamental causes I see folks fail with this facet hustle is as a result of they by no means even begin.
The quicker you may get that first product listed (which is drastically lowered by utilizing templates), the extra doubtless you might be to succeed. I’m an enormous believer in momentum.
We additionally provide templates for itemizing photos and product descriptions to simplify the method.
For my new Etsy store, I didn’t use any templates from the E-Printables Course as a result of I assumed that will be dishonest.
All the things for my new store was designed from scratch to show that anybody could make this facet hustle work (not only a man with entry to an enormous template library).
14. Are you able to inform me in regards to the course that you just train? How does your course assist somebody begin a printables enterprise?
The E-Printables Course is the A to Z for promoting printables on Etsy.
We cowl thought technology, designing merchandise, itemizing merchandise, establishing your Etsy store, product advertising, key phrase analysis, search engine marketing, creating editable printables, coping with prospects, seasonal developments, copyright/emblems, and all the pieces in between.
You may see all the modules and classes on the course web page right here.
E-Printables is self-paced, so you possibly can work by way of it as rapidly or as slowly as you want.
We now have over-the-shoulder tutorials educating you precisely how one can design printables (and use templates to make a number of design variations).
Plus, you’ll be taught to make use of the actual key phrase analysis and search engine marketing methods that I take advantage of to drive visitors to my outlets.
For those who observe the teachings so as, you’ll have an Etsy store and a number of listings posted by the point you end the course.
We’ve helped 1000’s of scholars begin their Etsy outlets and we’re seeing new sellers make gross sales quicker than ever earlier than.
This pupil win occurred final week:


You too may very well be simply 15 hours away from making your first sale on Etsy.
The cool half about this facet hustle is that we see profitable sellers from all totally different walks of life… a busy mother of two attempting to complement her earnings, a school child trying to make some additional money, or a retiree who desires a artistic outlet.
It doesn’t matter who you might be, or what your background is, this facet hustle is for everybody.
We don’t simply assist folks begin promoting printables on Etsy although, we additionally assist these with present outlets take them to the subsequent degree.
Along with the E-Printables course, we even have a VIP Membership (30-day free trial obtainable upon course buy) which incorporates:
- 50+ bonus classes on superior Etsy methods
- Entry to our VIP Group the place our specialists reply your questions every day
- 5 further product templates every month
- A non-public podcast and video library
- Challenges and prize giveaways
- Store audits, Q&A periods, and member meetups
And extra. There’s quite a bit in there.
If I needed to break it down as merely as attainable, the E-Printables helps you arrange a profitable Etsy store, and the VIP Membership helps take that store to the subsequent degree.
For those who’ve made it to the top of this interview and suppose this facet hustle is likely to be for you, I’d like to see you in our group!
Are you interested by promoting printables on Etsy? What printables would you promote?
Advisable studying: