Long time, no talk. I've been a bit busy with my new side hustle, selling digital products on Etsy. (I wrote about it a couple of times on ActiveRain when I started).
Now, before I go any further, let me caveat this by saying, I'm not naturally creative or crafty. I also don't sell (or make) and physical products, so there is no busy work making stuff over and over again, no nventory, no purchase of materials or and no shipping. I couldn't deal with any of that stuff. I would drive me crazy.
As many of you know, I'm a long time blogger (started on ActiveRain in 2010, started my own Wordpress website in 2011). And, I've done very well with that.
I was looking for another income stream, or side hustle, and Etsy sounded pretty interesting as it tapped into my creative creative, without me having to be super creative (as I'm not). It was nice because it's high profit margin and gave me the flexibility to pick it up and put it down when I wanted to.
You know, business is always changing and sometimes I'm busy and sometimes I have more free time. Creating digital products is simple. You just make a product once, upload it to Etsy and then it sells over and over (without additional work).
I was also looking for a way to diversify my income since it fluctuates month to month. And, it has really helped.
I started my shop on July 24, 2022. I made my 1st sales 3 weeks later. I wrote about on ActiveRain a couple of times, and I know most of you thought I was crazy.
I've now been doing this for almost 2.5 years.
I spend $0 on materials and now maybe $40/month on tools (I didn't start spending on these until I was more than 6 months in.)
My profit margins have been around 70%.
It took time, and my time was limited, but gradually I made more and more. By about 6 months, I was earning $500/month and by my 1-year mark, I was making $1,000 a month.
Things continued to accelerate, and I was having fun at the same time and I gradually got better and better. Starting in May this year, I had 6 months in a row earning $4K or more a month.
Last month (November), I had my best month ever at $6,300. December is going well so far, and I should earn at least $5,000.
If you have an interest in this as a side hustle, you are welcome to join my FREE Start Your Etsy shop challenge here.
You may be wondering what the heck I make (and believe me this used to be a mystery to me, too...I didn't get it).
I just make small digital products. Most are 1 to 3 pages. That's it.
You can create trackers (for almost everything), spreadsheets, games (for virtually every holiday, flyers (for almost anything), templates, handprint crafts (for toddlers, coloring pages, calendars, documents for businesses (any type).
In fact, there are a bunch of people creating real estate materials on there (e.g. flyers, market report templates, pop by gift tags, listing presentation templates, newsletters, I mean almost anything and everything.
All you need to do is pick a topic or interest or hobby or business that you know and enjoy and create products for people like you.
I'm amazed at the breadth of products I see out there. It's incredible.
Again, as I've said, you are welcome to join my FREE Start Your Etsy Shop Challenge here.
You are also welcome to listen to my podcast on Nick Loper's Side Hustle Nation here.
I never imagined that I would earn so much on Etsy, or even that I, a non-creative person, could do this.
Now is a good time to start as you can get a head start on it during the downtime at the end of year.
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