How I made $100 on Etsy with NO inventory

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Hi, My name is Stacey Russell and I am the owner of Bless my Budget. I am a full-time stay at home mom with 5 boys and I know what it’s like to want to contribute to the family finance. Heck, at one point I would have just been happy making enough money to purchase a gallon of milk and a box of cereal for my boys! Yes, being a stay at home mom is very rewarding in itself, but let’s just face it, finances are stressful.  Paying bills isn’t always easy on one income. And the larger your family gets, the larger your finances will be.  I wanted to be able to say HEY look I have money for milk!! Secretly I wanted to make enough to pay our mortgage, but at the time, milk would due. Baby steps, baby steps…

 

Throughout my life, I have tried different ways of making money from home. Today I want to share with you how I used Etsy as a side hustle and was able to make $100 my first month with NO inventory. Yup zero inventory.

Would you believe me if I also told you it cost me zero dollars up front to do it?  Yes, Zero dollars! It’s true! I will show you how.

Why do I want to share this with you?

1. Because I am a stay at home mom, and I know what it’s like to want to make money from home.
2. I know what it’s like to NEED extra money. As your family grows living on one income is tough!
3. I really want you to be able to buy a gallon of milk for your kids! With your own money or whatever you secretly desire. 🙂

 

First off, Why sell on Etsy?

• Etsy will do all the promoting for you and bring in all the traffic.
• Traffic = Customers, Customers = Money for milk.
• Setting up a shop is free and cost nothing upfront
• They take care of all the payments for you and send your money right to your bank account.
• You can sell digital products that can be AUTOMATICALLY downloaded by your customers!!

Do you see where I am going with this? Just hear me out.

Digital products require no inventory. None, zero, your living room will not be full of boxes.  Your craft room, well you won’t really need one.  And you don’t have to be a computer wiz or a graphic artist . Keep reading, I will show you how to accomplish this!

So what are digital products?

Digital products are items that your customer can download and print. They can use the item to create their own projects like party decor, invitations, t-shirts, wall art and so much more!

I started off creating printable bottle cap images and ventured into creating printable invitations, party items and even a printable t-shirt iron on. The possibilities are endless! I opened my 2nd Etsy shop at the end of June 2014.  In July I had 31 orders and made over $100. In the month of Aug., I had 94 orders and made over $400!

SCREENSHOTS FROM MY ETSY SHOP

 

Here are a couple pictures of digital items I personally created and sold!

All banners, signs, invitations, cupcake toppers, cupcake wrappers and bottle wrappers you see in the images were printed out and put together!

    

Is there really a market for this?

Yes! I am not currently selling items on Etsy right now, I wanted to focus my time on my blog.  However, you can go directly to ETSY and type in the search bar” Digital Download”. Do some browsing around and see for yourself!

 

How can you create your own digital items?

It’s pretty simple. You can use one of these free programs to start out. Canva or PicMonkey. Once you get your feet wet and start making some money you can upgrade to the paid accounts.

Go in and play around with the programs a little to see which you like best. Personally, I like Canva best. But, I know lots of others who love PicMonkey too! You can find lots of wonderful tutorials online to help you with this.

Both programs have free clip art that you can use to start out or you can purchase clipart at a decent price. However, you want to make sure the clipart you are purchasing is commercial use clipart. Commercial use means, you can use the clipart on items that you are creating to sell for a profit. You can not sell the clip art by itself, you must use it to create something like an invitation or a t-shirt iron on.

Here are some of my favorite clipart sites that offer commercial use clip art.

http://www.colorfulclipart.com/

http://digiwebstudio.com/store/

http://dollargraphicsdepot.com/

 

Once you have created your digital item, you can upload it to Etsy and sale that one file as many times as you want! No inventory, no shipping, and no mess! Pretty cool huh?

 

Examples of digital items you can create and sell:

• Printable Party Decor (like hats and cupcake wrappers)
• Printable Invitations
• Printable Baby Shower Games
• Printable Baby Shower Cake toppers
• Printable Baby Shower Invitations
• Printable Wedding Signs
• Printable Wedding Banners
• Printable Iron Ons for T-Shirts
• Printable Bottle Cap images (for making hair bows and necklaces)
• Printable sayings for home decor
• Printable Planners
• Printable Stickers

and so much more!!

From my experience, the shops that do the best are centered around one specific category of items. For example:

Instead of focusing on all the digital products you can create, narrow it down. Focus your shop on Printable Party Décor or Printable Party Décor for Kids or Printable invitations for your upcoming event.

How do you open an Etsy shop?

Go directly to Etsy.com. In the top right-hand corner you will see; Sell on Etsy, Register and Sign in.

Click “Sell on Etsy”. Etsy will need a little information from you to get you started. They will ask for normal things like your name, address, and phone number. To set up your direct deposit account; they will ask for a bank account number. They will only use your bank account to directly transfer your funds.

You will need to think of a name for your shop. Choose wisely. You will want your name to be something professional that represents you and the products you will be selling.  If your goal is to turn this into a real business, your whole brand will be positioned around your name.

If you’re looking to make money fairly quickly, I believe that Etsy is the way to start. Search around Etsy to get a few ideas and get your creative juices flowing. When you get ready to open your shop, make sure you have at least 10 of your best designs ready for your customers! Once you get your Etsy shop going, I recommend creating a blog around your Etsy brand and bringing your Etsy traffic to your blog!  When you’re ready, here is a link on how to create a blog when you’re on a budget.

Interested in learning more about how to create digital products to sell? Leave a comment below with your questions or feel free to contact me directly.