And I didn’t stop there on my journey to passive income. Read to the end to see what my best month looked like.
In 2020, I was on maternity leave and feeling lost.
I had always had big goals, and I dreamed of making passive income, but it hadn’t happened for me yet.
As the days passed, I dreaded returning to work.
I just wanted to spend more time with my sweet baby.
The Turning Point
I had always been a dabbler. (Are you like that too?)
I would start a business, create a website, or launch a new Instagram account and give a new idea a try. However, I wouldn’t see quick success, so I’d get discouraged and give up.
However, in 2020, after studying positive psychology, I realized not having a growth mindset and giving up too soon was probably part of the problem.
I was also constantly spreading myself too thin.
So, this time, I really decided to get serious.
Just One Thing
Because I had a lot on my plate, I knew I had to get hyper-focused to be successful. So, I assessed all the income from my various side hustles.
To my surprise, my Etsy store that I had set up months before was generating passive income with only a few digital products, even though I had ignored it entirely for months.
Focusing on Learning
Earlier, I had bought a course to help me learn about Etsy. However, I didn’t complete it and had ignored it along with my Etsy store for months.
However, when I went back into the course, some people that had bought the course when I did, were doing amazingly well!
So, with the mindset of “If they can do it, so can I,” I started devouring all the course content.
Then, I learned as much as possible about selling digital products on Etsy.
If they can do it, so can I.
Getting to $4,500 in passive income a month
Once I dug deep into the content of the course I bought (keep reading because I share some of my best tips below), things started to click for me.
I learned how to do market research, I learned how to find products that had a good chance of selling, and I learned the exact strategies for getting my products seen by my target customers.
As I started creating and testing new products, I had one that finally hit.
It was a simple $8 product I made in Microsoft Word that took me less than an hour to make.
In July of 2020, in less than two weeks, it brought in a total of $691.43.
Let me tell you, the sound of notifications on your phone alerting you that you’ve made money while you’re relaxing by the lake with your family is indescribable. I will never forget the excitement I felt.
That month, I finally felt that I had cracked the code, so I leveraged what I knew and had learned with that first product and made more.
I leveraged what I knew and had learned with that first product and made more.
By August 2020, with just a few additional listings, my Etsy store brought in $4,511.35.
Etsy and Passive Income Digital Products
Before I took the E-Printables Course, I didn’t even know you could sell digital products on Etsy. I bought the course on a whim in addition to a blogging course by the same instructors because the Etsy course sounded interesting and easy.
Let me tell you; it was easy.
Why?
Etsy is a powerful website that brings millions of people to its platform daily. Creating a blog or digital products on your own is possible, but then you have to fight with the Google algorithm or pay for ads to get traffic. As a newbie to digital marketing with no advertising budget, selling on Etsy was a game-changer.
What’s also amazing is that when you post a digital product on Etsy, there is an automatic trigger that sends your digital product straight to your customer upon purchase, making the process of making money passive.
Getting Started
If you’re ready to make passive income, I’ve got some amazing resources for you.
I created a free Ultimate Passive Income Startup Checklist because I know that two of the biggest challenges people struggle with when it comes to making passive income are not knowing where to start and feeling overwhelmed. This checklist will solve both of those problems for you and will help you create your first passive income product in as little as a day.
And if you’re interested in learning more about Etsy, I recommend this free workshop. My friends Cody and Julie from Gold City Ventures created this to help aspiring e-printables entrepreneurs. Oh, and if you want to learn more about the Etsy course I took, you can see my full review of it here.
Now here comes the good part…
My words of advice if you want to create passive income on Etsy
Here are my top words of advice if you’re thinking about starting an Etsy store (the things I wish someone had told me when I first started out):
- Do market research. You may think you have the best idea in the world, but don’t waste your valuable time creating a product that you don’t have data on. The best way to do market research is to look at trends, keyword search volumes, and the competitive landscape. When you find an idea with high search volume and low competition, don’t walk; run to get that product created and posted!
- Focus on learning. All too often, we want instant gratification so much that we don’t put in the time required to see the results. Learn to find joy in learning and care more about the process than the end result. If you focus on the process and learning long enough, eventually, it will click, and you will be successful, but the most important thing is that you keep learning and never give up.
- Be a big fish in a small pond. When I first started selling products on Etsy, I created products in niches where the demand was high, but so was the competition. The result was that my products were rarely seen, and they rarely sold. I found success when I looked for smaller niches that had considerably less competition. This allowed my products to show up organically in search and allowed me to make considerably more sales.
- Listen to your customers. Once my shop was doing well, I would have customers and prospects reach out with questions and product requests. These were worth their weight in gold! Rather than ignoring them, I use what they said to improve my products and create new ones. I’ll tell you, some of these have become my best sellers. Listening to your customers is a powerful growth hack.
- Don’t take anything personally. Etsy allows customers to leave reviews. Sometimes, a customer will leave a bad review. Try not to take this personally. Instead, use the experience to learn a valuable lesson. Also, remember customers can update their reviews. So, a bad review isn’t permanent and can allow you the opportunity to really make someone’s day.
Anything is possible
Passive income is possible, and it’s easier and cheaper than you think, especially when you leverage traffic and tools from websites like Etsy. In my best month, I made over $17,000 selling digital products passively on Etsy. Remember, that never would’ve happened if I gave up when I was only making $42 a month.
Still here?
Nice, you’re my kind of people. If you liked this article, you’ll love The Ultimate Passive Income Startup Checklist. This is an in-depth guide that will help you learn exactly how to create a passive income product TODAY!
The friendly agreement
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P.S. This post contains an affiliate link to the Gold City Ventures E-Printables Course. This is the course that allowed me to make enough income passively to quit my full-time job. If you purchase through my link, I’ll get a small commission. But you may just change your life (and you’ll get a $50 discount plus my exclusive guide: Getting the Edge: Growth Hacks from a 6-figure Etsy Store).
