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If you're selling online or out of a storefront, you already know the challenge. You're hoping people find your listing, or
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you're waiting for them to walk in.
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Whatnot lipsthat this is the live shopping platform that's exploding right now. On Whatnot, you go live and you sell directly to real people in real time. They see what you've got, they ask questions, and they buy. And what's crazy is Whatnot buyers spend more than an hour a day in the app. So whether it's beauty products, collectibles, thrift store finds, electronics, even cookies, sellers are building real thriving businesses on Whatnot.
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I've seen the rankings, I've seen the
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revenue numbers, and the number of sellers making over a million dollars on Whatnot has doubled in the last year. Now's the time to give it a try for yourself. For a limited time, Whatnot will match your first $150 sold in the first month. Visit whatnot.com sell to start selling. That's w h a t n o t.com sell whatnot.com sell a thousand bucks
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a month with Passive Digital Products A guest early on on the side Hustle show, he gave me this line. He said, why am I more excited to make $5 passively than I am to make $5,000 actively? And whether or not that is true in your case, it is a line that stuck with me. It's this allure of creating something, once some type of asset, that's not directly tied to your time and being able to get paid for that because that $5 thing can scale where perhaps the $5,000 thing is a little more challenging. To do that, stick around in today's episode to learn how one mom has cracked the code of selling simple digital products online on autopilot. For the most part. My guest is a former teacher, a mom of three, and a digital products coach from Gold City Ventures. Chelsea Shelton. Welcome to the side Hustle Show.
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C
Thanks for having me.
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B
You bet. This one will be a lot of fun because I guess the the hard part about digital products is this speculative period of you're putting in the time to create the thing only to have nobody want it. But you had a really interesting experience of I actually made my first sale just five days after posting my first product, which is kind of like this cool moment of validation. Like, oh, this is real.
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C
Yes, it was very exciting. Kind of unexpected a little bit, but exciting nonetheless.
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B
What was the product?
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C
It was a spring cleaning checklist.
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B
So Spring cleaning checklist. Just a PDF designed in canva designed in Word or whatever you know, uploaded to Etsy.
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C
Yeah. So it was just like a one page PDF that I designed and created within Canva.
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B
This was four or five years ago. Do you think now it would have to be more niche like spring cleaning checklist for two bedroom apartment in the Northeast. Or like you think you'd have to be more specific or is like there's still opportunity there?
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C
There's definitely still opportunity there. A lot of time like what we talk about with Gold City Ventures and students is that the riches are in the niches. So the more niche that you can get with something that you create, the higher chance that you would have that it's going to sell. Definitely. Like I can think of things that trend today when it comes to like a spring cleaning checklist would be like an ADHD spring cleaning checklist and you're targeting a more specific audience with it.
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B
Okay, Spring cleaning checklist for. For kids to get the kids to help out around. Okay. But first sale within five days. What is a printable cost or like something like this, a simple one page file.
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C
Typically they range anywhere from it could be a $50 to $5. Tends to be like the sweet spot. And then depending on like any things that you add to it. Like if you wanted it to be something that's editable that they can change or fillable where they're like typing information and then printing it out that increases your dollar value for it. But typically between that $5 range.
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B
Okay. Which is just targeting this kind of impulse buy price point. Because my first hunch is like, well, at a certain point people just start going to ChatGPT and say give me a screen cleaning checklist. And it's like it's got to be compelling enough and well designed enough where it's like no, I'm going to print this out, I'm going to put it on my fridge and I'm going to check it off as I go. If it's $2, sure. Like it's worth it to have that pre formatted for me.
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C
Yes, absolutely. Definitely a time saver for the editable files.
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B
Is that also Canva like that? That gets a little more complex for me.
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C
So you can create them using Canva and you basically would create like a template link for that that you would give to your customer so that they're able to make those edits. And then also there's ways that you can do it using like Adobe so that when they download their product they're using the Adobe free version so that they can just hop in, type in their information, and hit print.
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B
Got it, Got it. What led you to Spring Cleaning Checklist as an opportunity? And this is just one example. And, you know, for the sake of preventing copycats, Chelsea's store name is going to remain private here. But talk to me a little bit about this product research process or niche research process, what goes into it before you ever set pen to paper or keyboard to mouse here in the design process.
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C
So a lot of it is looking to see what is in demand, meaning what are people actively searching for? And a lot of times you can find that information just searching on Etsy itself to see the types of products that people are looking into or that they're interested, interested in. From there, you can take that information and apply it to using, like, keyword research tools to see what keywords you can pair with, like, your ideas that you have to create a product. And once you validate that there's demand for this product and that it's something that's being searched for, and especially like with Gold City Ventures, we target high search but low competition keywords. That's when you kind of find the sweet spot of, okay, this is definitely something that I want to look into and I want to make. So then you jump into the creation process of like, this is what I'm going to create and this is what I'm going to list.
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B
I mean, those are unicorns. High search, low competition. Sure, that sounds great. Are you still finding those? They still exist.
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C
Yeah, they really do still exist. And a lot of times when you're doing it and you say you have an idea for something and you're doing the keyword research and you're trying to find it, sometimes you stumble across the unicorns. Right. So you may not have been thinking you wanted to make the spring cleaning checklist, but it's there, the demand's there. So then you pivot and you say, okay, then I'm going to focus and I'm going to make this. So lots of opportunities are still there to find.
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B
So if I'm starting out in, you know, maybe I have a niche in mind. And you can find some of these potential keywords just looking on Etsy themselves. So maybe if I punch in podcasting or podcast production or podcast sponsorship or something like that, and it starts to, you know, use the auto complete to kind of get a gauge of what kind of products might be out there.
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C
Yes. So as you're typing into that search query, typically on Etsy, that dropdown box happens and it'll Start showing you some of the things that people are actively searching for. So even if I did a broad keyword such as podcast, it's going to complete with like the next couple phrases of things that people are actually searching for. And then that's another way that you can find things that are in demand.
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B
And that won't necessarily give you the search volume, but it does show you some percentage of the population is looking for that.
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C
And that typically is like your first indicator that you might have something there.
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B
You could look at the products that show up and how many they don't give you the ratings per product. Do you though it's like by the store. Like the shop overall has a, you know, five star rating and thousands of reviews. But do you get anything on the product level?
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C
Yes. So Etsy recently has made updates and changes from back from when I first started, but you can go to a specific product now and the reviews are now tailored to show you specifically for that product versus you seen everything for the overall shop. So that also helps to give you a little bit more indication as to whether or not there's demand for it.
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B
Okay. Any other tools that you like on the research process?
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C
Yes, so I like using Erank. That helps me see like historical data and trends over the last 12 months. I also like to use ever be. It's an extension that you add on to your browser that will show you data in real time within like the last seven days. So that really helps when you're trying to hop onto like a more recent trend or see what is trending. That's a really good one to use. I also like using Insight Factory. It's very good with trends especially like I sell seasonal products so seeing what those up and coming trends may be.
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B
Okay, trying to look forward versus looking back. All the other keyword research tools are going to tell you well what got searched the last 30, 60, 90 days or something. But well, 4th of July is coming up there may not be the best for that. Am I understanding that?
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C
Yes, you wouldn't get like the snapshot data in real time for that upcoming season, but you would be able to see historically what happened the year prior. And then there's other things that you can use to help you kind of predict what is going to be or how it's going to be that season.
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B
Got it. Is there a minimum search volume or like what kind of metrics look good to you?
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C
So when I am looking on Erank for example, it is showing me the CRT or the click return rate and basically you want that number to be roughly in the hundreds, meaning that, you know, if someone is seeing it, they're clicking it. So you want that to be high. Then when you're looking at overall competition, you typically want to be in a range of less than 20,000, because then you know that even though you're competing with 20,000 sellers on Etsy, which I know sounds like a lot, it really isn't. Like it's. That's a very small percentage compared to the amount of sellers that are on Etsy. Oh, man, it's really small. So it's actually like, oh, my gosh, there's not that many people I have to compete with with this. And I can see that there's a demand for this because people are clicking on it and they're, you know, following through and purchasing and that sort of thing. So those are two of the metrics that I look at.
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B
Okay. And then anything on the search volume side or. Sorry, if you. If you mentioned that already, typically less
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C
than 20 will indicate to you that not very many people are looking for that, which does not necessarily mean that you cannot make sales on it. But it's a little bit hard, especially if you're looking at a specific keyword to rank for it. But if you can find the sweet spot in between like 4,000 and 6,000, that typically is that kind of like light bulb going off. Like, this is something to hop into, especially if you see that your competitors are low.
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B
I remember Cody saying, even if there are 50 searches a month, but if I can capture 20% of that search volume because there's no competition, then why wouldn't I make that product? Because it's going to make 50 bucks a month, 100 bucks a month. You know, it was just like, okay, stack those up and go to town.
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C
Yeah.
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B
But obviously the higher volume the better.
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C
Yes, definitely.
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B
So you transition into making seasonal products. And once they're. I guess that kind of makes sense for a new shop. Like this is up and coming. I can make. You can kind of forward look to whatever the next holiday or the next season is and start to make some sales there, hopefully. And then kind of once you've done a whole year cycle, you have the full shop built out.
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C
Yes. And then it kind of just runs itself on autopilot. I would say after my first year being into it, that was one of the things that I really enjoyed about it was here comes all these holidays and seasons again. And yes, I could add additional things to keep up with trends and such, but a lot of the things that I had poured my time into creating, they were just selling over and over, if not more than what they had already sold that previous season or year.
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B
Yeah, now, now it's got some sales history, some proof behind it a little bit. And as well as the shop has some social proof and metrics to say, yeah, now we can keep going. Do you continue to add more product? Like what's the product portfolio? How many products have you created?
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C
Up to this point, I'm well into like 700. Obviously a lot of when I first started out, you know, I was putting things up to see what was working, what was not working. So I wound up drafting things so I have a ton. But then as you go through it, you know, you learn to scale back on working on what works versus what works. And not everything that you make is obviously going to sell because sometimes you might have this really good idea and the data showing you like, yes, you should do this, but it can just depend on a lot of different variables sometimes. So just being flexible with it.
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B
Yeah, I think that could probably be the frustrating part. To pour some time and effort and energy into creating the thing and just having it not ever drive any results. Even after following all the best practices in the research. Oh, There was a 5,000 search volume and less than 20,000 competition and still nobody ever found the thing. But if you don't do that and you just create stuff willy nilly, like your odds are even lower.
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C
And I will say too, when I first started out, I kind of had this mindset of like, oh, I'll just make what I like. I don't need to pay attention to the research. I don't need to pay attention to the data because obviously I like it. Someone else is going to like it. And it kind of took getting into the understanding of no, if you follow the data, you follow the trends. That's how you find the things that are in demand and those are the things that people are looking for. So then once I shifted my mindset with that, that's when I really started to see success.
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If you want to learn more about
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the product research process, check out the Etsy printables course from Gold City Ventures. They really go in depth on this because they don't want you wasting your time making stuff that nobody wants. Side hustlenation.com GCV is my direct referral link. GCV for Gold City Ventures. That's where you can support the show and I think get some special launch week bonuses at no extra cost to you. I've got more with Chelsea in just a moment, including some product categories she likes, how she makes her listings stand out in the creative way Etsy shop
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owners increase their average order value.
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All that and more coming up right after this.
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A
In the next 60 seconds, 23 entrepreneurs are going to find their next team member on Indeed. I'm excited to partner with Indeed for this episode, because when you need to find amazing candidates fast, you need the powerful matching technology and unmatched reach of our sponsor Indeed. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites and get the help you need fast. Plus, Indeed's sponsored jobs help you stand out and hire even faster. It'll make your post jump to the top of the page for your relevant candidates, and the proof is in the results. Sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed get 45% more applications. That's why for my next hire, I'm using Indeed. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed side Hustle show. Listeners will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@inn Indeed.com Sidehustleshow just go to indeed.com Sidehustleshow right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Sidehustleshow terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. Look, payday is awesome, but when you're the one running the payroll, like calculating
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the taxes and the deductions, trying to
- [14:30]
A
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B
Do you like the simple one page checklist, type of product. Are you doing art? Thank you cards. Fill in the blank forms. I mean, to be able to create 700 products, there is a creative piece inside your brain that has flipped, which might be intimidating. Like, okay, I got one idea. And then, you know, maybe that leads to the next, to the next, to the next. It's like. Or, you know, we met somebody who was doing like trivia games for different holidays. It's like. And I guess, okay, once you have the template, you could use it. But like, talk to me about categories that you like or, you know, this product creation process.
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C
Overall, I like seasonal, but I tend to focus a lot of my creation in games because those do really well. And then I also dabble in because my, my kids play sports. So I have a lot of sports printables in terms of like, organization, like thinking like team mom or, you know, you need that concession stand, snack sign up kind of list. So for me, what I attempted to do with a lot of these is I would have these broad ideas and then I would just try to think like, okay, if I want to create something, say for like softball, what types of printable products would somebody be buying for that? And then I might write out a list of every single type of thing. And then, you know, go from there to see like, okay, well, what can I create? What is in demand? What do people need?
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B
Okay, and I suppose you could use AI to help brainstorm that list too and kind of cross reference some of the keyword research tools.
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C
You can. Sometimes it can help streamline the process of what you're doing or give you a little bit more of ideas to like dive into. Or if I have a product idea that I see that's in demand and I see that other sellers have too, what's something that I can add to my product to add value? So now that I have something a little bit more than what those other sellers have, and sometimes AI is really helpful with giving you those kinds of ideas.
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B
What would be an example of like a little extra, a little value add that you're doing?
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C
Okay, so I have made in the past, like fundraising templates and during the holidays thinking like Christmas time schools do like candy cane grants where, you know, kids get to give a dollar and they get to send a little candy gram to their friend and that sort of thing. So I had this product, it was editable so that people could type the information or they could write on it when the kids bought it. But, but then I was trying to figure out, okay, well, what's something that I could add that my competitors might not also have. And one of the things was signage. So posters typically are posted around the school letting people know that a fundraiser is going on. So I included that in mind in addition to having the cards that the kids would fill out and give to their classmates or the people in the school or whatever. So then that helped my product to take off more because now it's this old all in one kit or this all in one package versus I have to buy cards and now I have to buy this poster too.
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B
I imagine you command a higher price point because now it's. So now it's a bundle or the perceived value is much higher. Like I wanted this one thing, but you know, the ultimate goal, like putting yourself in the mindset of the buyer, the ultimate goal is raise money for the school or whatever it is. Okay, what are the other things they're going to need to realize that goal?
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C
Yes, absolutely. And that definitely bundling things together as you start to get into it, that's another way to increase your value or your average sale.
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B
Is it a thing on Etsy to get the customer's email or contact information to be able to promote the next product that you come out with, like, hey, you bought the Fourth of July trivia game, but now it's Halloween. Or is there something like a remarketing element to the people who engage with your shop?
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C
Sort of. So Etsy does capture like your buyer's information and then they have those things and they will automatically send out to your previous buyers, especially if they follow like your shop and anytime you post new listings or something goes on sale, that sort of thing. But as far as capturing like say their email address and then you as the seller reaching out to them to let them know. Etsy typically doesn't like for you to do that because they do a lot of that on your behalf.
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B
Okay. Etsy is doing that marketing we've heard from other sellers where they'll include some kind of lead magnet opt in bonus where, you know, the idea is because they're trying to sell in some cases the same or similar products through their own shop. And I could see where that might be a gray area with Etsy. Like, ah, you know, we'd rather we really like to make our sales commission on this and not have you go to the buyer direct. But that may be part of a toehold strategy where it's like, I'm going to use the Etsy marketplace and the millions of buyers to get in front of this target audience that I'm trying to reach. And if I have a compelling email lead magnet for my newsletter or whatever it may be, maybe I could start to build an audience or build a list that way.
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C
And it also like another way that you could go about it, you know, without directly taking their email address. When you create your PDF that's being delivered to them with your printable, you might include that page that says, you know, sign up for my newsletter to get 15% off your next purchase. So then they're clicking that way and they're signing up on their own. And then now you have them a part of like your email list and then you can send them those updates.
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B
Got it, Got it. Okay. So you can include some kind of self promotion in the file delivery. That makes sense.
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C
Yes.
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B
And then I guess you can discount it as much. Oh, 15%. Sure. My incremental cost is nothing, you know, it's a digital file like.
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C
Sure, yes.
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B
You want 20% off? Great. I'll send you a coupon. Do you run like shop wide sales or anything? I guess you could send out to your, the people who've opted in, but anything else, like a concerted sales effort or like, hey, it's a limited time St Patrick's Day sale or something?
- [21:05]
C
Yes. So usually I've done like sales each month just depending on what the season is. So like just like you said, like, oh, it's St. Patrick's Day and we're offering this much off of St. Patrick's Day, or it might be this much off of the whole shop discount. But one of the things that we've had success with that we do is we will offer throughout the entire shop, if you purchase three products, you receive 25 off. And most sellers in our community, they run this and they run it year round, just like as an extra thing that when people are in your shop, they may have come there for one thing, but then they see that they can get three for 25% off. Sometimes they're like, hey, I'm gonna buy more. So it's just a nice little strategy to have.
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B
Okay, yeah, I like that. And you see that on other shops, like physical product shops will be like, well, to get free shipping, you gotta buy $75. And you know, conveniently every product is 69. Like I'm so close.
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C
Right. Gotta get that one extra thing.
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B
Very good. I had a question about the product creation process. Like were you, did you have a background in design or were you doing any of this stuff before?
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C
Not really. I was a classroom teacher, elementary I would create assignments, but not to this scale. Like, when I'm creating an assignment, it was like, you know, a Word document where I'm typing in questions that I need my students to answer. Or I might have created a very nice visual PowerPoint if I was being observed that day by my principal. Possible, but nothing like in depth or very intricate or anything like that.
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B
Were you able to use any of that stuff that you'd previously created to kind of seed the shop? Like, oh, if I. If this was useful to me as a teacher, maybe other school teachers would find this valuable. I'll put it up for sale.
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C
Surprisingly, no. So the district that I taught in, they were very strict about once you create something and you implement it into your classroom, it belongs to. To them and not you.
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A
Really?
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B
Okay.
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C
Yeah, yeah. So it. It was a little tough with that because, you know, especially with me having the teacher background, and I'm like, oh, I could do this or I could do that. And it's like, well, I can't really use any of the things that I've already done. So it's kind of like I had to start over with that. But it wasn't too big of a deal.
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B
Yeah. My other question is, there's a template for just about anything you could want inside of Canva, but I imagine everybody's using the same or similar tools. Like, is there a great averaging of the products? Like, it all kind of meets in the middle. To what extent do you. Can you use the templates, or do you have to kind of go off on your own and create something that, you know, maybe borrows from the best practices, but still has your own unique
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C
flavor templates that are already existing in Canva. You cannot use those templates to recreate and make new templates. You can obviously use them for a little bit of inspiration. You're not going to want to copy directly from what they have, but a lot of times you'll find more success just creating things on your own and then repurposing it each time as a template.
- [24:03]
B
Got it. So Etsy does some promotion on your behalf. Initially, you're relying on the organic search, traffic research search and discoverability on Etsy. What kind of best practices do you follow when it comes to setting up that listing and trying to make it stand out against the potentially other 20,000 sellers with something, a really similar offering.
- [24:25]
C
So one of the best practices that I do is really focusing on my listing image, specifically the main listing image. So that image is what attracts buyers to your product. Because Etsy you know, it's a search engine, but it's a visual search engine. So people will type in, you know, the keyword that they're looking for or whatever product that they're looking for. But what gets people to click on your product is what they see. So you want to make sure that first image is so show stopping, that they're like, oh, I have to check this out and they stop the scroll and you get the click. So I put a lot of emphasis on those main listing images to make sure that they're show stopping what works well here.
- [25:04]
B
Because if I have a one page spring cleaning checklist and I show the product, my initial fear is like, well, somebody's just going to copy that down and they don't need to buy the thing anymore.
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C
So with that there are ways that you can finagle your listing images. So you might have your spring cleaning checklist and you might zoom it in so you can't see the entire thing. And then you might rotate it a little bit and then maybe you have like a call out bubble of like some of the features but not too many because you don't want it to be too distracting. But kind of you maneuver them around to cover some of what your product is so that someone couldn't just come and say, oh, let me write down all these things instead of purchasing the product.
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B
Yeah, this is a fine line between giving away the secret sauce. Think of it like, like this is your YouTube thumbnail, like for your, for your product.
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C
Right.
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B
It's got to incite some level of curiosity. But also sell the next click. Like get somebody to look into the product description and then they get more details for what it's all about.
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C
Exactly.
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B
And then you're, you're allowed to have a ton of different images, like up to 8 or something plus a video. Do you have to fill all that in or is like, dude, how many images can I create for a one page little digital product?
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C
You actually, you don't have to use all of them. So when I first started out, you got 10 spots. So you had your 10 spots and you had your one for your video. And it could be tricky at those times to fill all 10 because that was what was recommended. But within like the last year or so, Etsy, now they give you 20. So you have a lot of room to showcase your product and kind of talk about the features of your product versus just repetitively putting like the same pictures of your product. Like you can break down the features because a lot of times you people don't read your product description. They're scrolling in your pictures to see if it's answering those questions that they have. So you can utilize all that space for that, but you don't necessarily have to use all of them. You just want to make sure whatever number you decide to use, you are hitting on questions that your buyers would have, but they are not going to go to your description to read to make the sale.
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B
Got it. Okay. Using those as more of descriptive text rather than relying on somebody to read read the fine print.
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C
Yes.
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B
The other interesting thing that you've done is syndicating some of your products that would be a good fit over to another digital products platform that's teachers pay teachers.
- [27:19]
C
Yes.
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B
And I don't know if you have to have educator credentials to sell on this site, but this is resources for teachers to use in the classroom. And this would be ones that you apparently created outside of the school district. That's not their intellectual property, but other assets that could benefit teachers. And talk to me a little bit about, about that extra leg of the. The revenue stool here.
- [27:41]
C
Yes. So once I found success on Etsy, I was aware of teachers pay teachers, obviously, because I used it in my classroom. But I was curious with, since a lot of my products were seasonal, were these things that I could put on teachers pay teachers, Would they sell over there? Would it lend itself to that audience? So I kind of started experimenting with some of them in terms of, say, that I have a game set up for. For 4th of July is a terrible example. But 4th of July, is that something that could sell in the classroom? Is that a game that a teacher would one day sit there and say, hmm, what's something I could do with my class? Because, like, for me, I used to get to school at 6 o' clock and some days we just didn't really have a whole lot to do. And I'm like, I need an activity for today. So, you know, you're typing and searching and trying to find something. So then it's like, oh, you know what, Like Mother's Day is coming up. I need a handprint art activity that's something that could sell. That's not necessarily educational per se, but it's something that a teacher would look for. So I started trying to draw the parallels between what are some of these more fun, less stress, less academic activities that I know that teachers might need. And I started putting those over there. And then I found like, oh, these actually do sell over there. Another thing that I started thinking about is like school morale, right so you have like your pta, you have pto, you have like a sunshine committee. And sometimes they're creating things or they need things to capture information about, but the teacher body in terms of like we want to know your favorite things so that when they do those special days, they're able to buy you little treats and that sort of things. That's something that sells very well on teachers pay teachers because that's something that they're looking for. And you wouldn't necessarily think of that right away, but those are the kinds of things that I kept testing out. And then I found a lot of the things that I already had. All I had to do was shift it over to teachers pay teachers, apply it towards that audience and I landed sales that way too.
- [29:33]
B
Okay, that makes sense. And we get those sheets from the kids teachers at the start of every year. Oh, my favorite thing. You know, I love to shop at Target and Amazon and Starbucks. It's kind of like if you're gonna get me a gift card, these are the places to go.
- [29:45]
C
Absolutely. I actually with my students I used to play, we called it Ms. Shelton's favorite thing so that they would know what I liked. So that when it came they were like, we knew you liked milk goods. And I'm like, how did you know?
- [29:57]
B
How did you guess? Okay, perfect. Is there a separate product research, keyword research process to that dedicated platform or it's like, look, Etsy is kind of the behemoth here and I assume there's a direct translation if it has a lot of search volume over here. I imagine people are looking for similar stuff on tpt.
- [30:16]
C
Yes. So they can kind of run parallel side by side. But also with teacher pay teacher, what I like about it is their search bar literally captures what people are looking for in real time. So you don't really necessarily need external keyword research or anything like that. You could type in the search bar and it's going to auto populate what everyone's searching for in that moment or what was popular. So you can literally take that information and create from it.
- [30:40]
B
Okay, got it. And similar pricing, like the expectation is these are going to be sub ten dollar products for sure.
- [30:47]
C
And with teacher pay teacher too, you have to kind of put on your, your hat and your mindset of. Because again I said $1.50 to $5 earlier. Sometimes teachers are willing to pay a lot more for things because it's convenient for them. Right. It's something that they don't have to do, they don't have to create so you're able to play with that price point a little bit more on teachers pay teachers but also sometimes, you know, teachers, they're overworked, underpaid, so they're looking for potentially not like bottom of the barrel price but you know, like a decent price that they would be willing to buy. So keeping those factors in mind.
- [31:18]
B
Yeah, this is, yeah, it's an interesting one. It's all out of pocket in that case where make it affordable, make it kind of that convenience and time saving pitch versus, you know, trying to rake somebody over the coals with a high price. Yes, very much a volume game at these low price points. It's like I'm going to need to make a lot of sales to get to my income goals and I'm going to have to cast a wide net with the products that I create because I don't know what is going to be a hit there. Are there other platforms like so Etsy is a big one. Teachers pay teachers is a, is a chunk of the pie. Like what piece of the revenue pie do you estimate it at?
- [31:51]
A
Chelsea's response plus what the future holds
- [31:54]
B
for her printables business. Coming up right after this.
- [31:58]
A
When you're running a business, you know that every missed call is a missed opportunity. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q U O. The smarter way to run your business communications. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G2 with over 3,000 reviews. And it's built for how modern teams work. That's why more than 90,000 businesses, from solo operators to growing teams, all rely on Quo to stay connected. Quo works right from an app on your phone or computer. That means no more juggling multiple phones or taking work calls on your personal line. Your entire team can handle calls and texts from one shared number, kind of like a shared inbox. So everyone is up to speed. While Quo's built in AI automatically logs calls, generates summaries and highlights next steps so nothing gets lost. It can even answer the phone for you and qualify leads when you're not around. Make this the year where no opportunity and no customer slips away. Try quo for free. Plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.comsidehustle that's quoq u o.comsidehustle quo no missed calls, no missed customers. The thing that wears me out as a business owner is rarely the work itself. It's the decision fatigue that surrounds the work. How to reply to this message?
- [33:17]
B
Is this person going to Make a
- [33:18]
A
good guess what's the right tool for the job if you want to sell products online? Let me take some of the decision fatigue off your plate. There's a reason why millions of businesses, including dozens of side hustle show guests all choose our partner Shopify. This is the one decision that makes all future decisions easier. Right? For example, you no longer have to start from scratch in designing your storefront. You can just pick from one of the proven templates and customize it to match your brand's style. And you can quickly generate product descriptions, use their built in AI to enhance your product photography, and even fire up email and social media campaigns to drive traffic and sales. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com sidehustle go to shopify.com sidehustlE that's shopify.com sidehustLLE
- [34:13]
C
but it's probably like a fourth. So I have like 3/4 in Etsy and then 1/4 on teachers, pay teachers. But you know, it just kind of depends on what your focus is with that. Because I have friends that do both and it's 50, 50. I've had friends that are specifically just teachers, pay teachers and Etsy is kind of like their side hustle of their side hustle. So they might have 75 and then 25. So it just kind of varies and depends on what path you kind of pursue and go down.
- [34:40]
B
Are there other platforms that are getting into the digital product space? Like do you see Amazon coming into this world?
- [34:47]
C
I've seen with Amazon they have a lot of the, the KDP and the pod, like the print on demand kind of space with printables and a lot of people what they will then do. So like if you say you're selling on Etsy, these printables, then you go to Amazon and you create like you know, the packet that someone could buy and they could get that from Amazon,
- [35:07]
B
but then you would have to print it out and ship it to the person.
- [35:11]
C
Yes. For that you would have to do that. Yes. They used to have a platform with Amazon that was supposed to rival teacher pay teachers, where you could get these educational products or activities and stuff, but it kind of flopped over there.
- [35:24]
B
Okay.
- [35:25]
C
The beauty of like a printable or a download is you know, you get it instantly, whereas with Amazon, you know, it's more physical or the more tangible things that you're getting over there. So they kind of exist separately, but you could make them coexist yeah.
- [35:38]
B
On the tools and tech side, you mentioned Erank, you mentioned Everbee, you mentioned Insight Factory. Anything else that helps you run this business on a, on a very part time or hands off basis.
- [35:49]
C
Canva 1000% is the backbone of everything. There's a newer tool that was starting to gain a little bit of traction called Profit Tree, which it kind of just encompasses all three. Like I use Erank, Everbee, an Insight Factory for different metrics and Profit Tree kind of combines all those metrics together. Okay. So I've been like dabbling with that and seeing like how can this impact my business? Because obviously if I can get a tool that does everything that would be beautiful. So I don't have to have three.
- [36:18]
B
Yeah, simplify, simplify the monthly payroll there.
- [36:21]
A
Have you seen the impact of AI
- [36:22]
B
see more and more people just saying, well, look, why don't I either create this product myself or I'm curious. Bring out your crystal ball and see where you see the future of printables going.
- [36:31]
C
So I do see AI helping with the production of printables. I don't think it necessarily will take over. The average person is not necessarily going to, let's say ChatGPT for instance, and being like, I need the spring cleaning checklist. They're not. They a lot of times want that thing that's already created for them and is attractive. With ChatGPT, they might not even know what to type in for their search query to even get it. Or they spend so much time trying to redo their prompt to try to get it exactly what they needed. And it kind of takes a lot of understanding of how that works. So while as a seller, it works great because it can help you and you have that understanding of how it can increase your product output. I don't think that as we get into the future that it's going to become something that is going to become inferior to the printable production itself.
- [37:22]
B
Outside of the ideation and the brainstorming, you're using it to help physically. Well, not physically, but digitally create the things.
- [37:29]
C
Yeah. So a lot of times too, like, again, I, I do not have a graphic design background. I struggle visually sometimes. Like I can have an idea in my head, but sometimes I can't get it out on paper. So you can ask, you know, you're giving these prompts to try to help you create it and it literally can give you, okay, these colors go well together. You want to try to use fonts that look like this and basically give you the steps to create what you're trying to create and then you open up canva and you're doing what it's asking you to do and you've created what was in your head but you couldn't get out yourself.
- [38:00]
B
Okay.
- [38:01]
C
If that makes sense.
- [38:01]
B
Got it, Got it. Where's your time going today? You're helping Gold City Ventures students you run in the shop. What's. What's a day in the life of a, of a principals entrepreneur?
- [38:11]
C
I've kind of grown my shop now to be pretty, hands off pretty, like super passive, which is great because I don't have to work on it if I don't feel like working on it so that I can take my time and focus it in other areas of whatever it is that I'm working on. In addition to like, you know, Etsy and teachers, pay teachers, I've started dabbling in the print on demand space. So I like that I have the time to learn because it's, you know, it's a little bit of a different ball game over there, but learn those kinds of things. And I have this thing running on autopilot that I don't necessarily have to worry about. And then I'm also, you know, within our community, helping students and coaching them and making sure that they succeed the same way that I succeeded as far as getting sales and being successful with it.
- [38:51]
B
Yeah. Do you like the print on demand world? You think that's where the future of the shop is?
- [38:56]
C
What I love about printables is because you don't have to have inventory. So then what I like about print on demand is you also don't have to have, you know, the physical inventory on you. But I'm just so hesitant because, you know, you've got a third party fulfilling those things for you.
- [39:12]
B
Yeah.
- [39:13]
C
And I'm just like. But how do I know that it's right? Right. Because if I created what it's supposed to look like, buyer buys it, it gets sent to them. But what if it's not the same? So like, those are my hesitancies with that. And I know there's thousands of people that have huge success with Print on Demand. So I'm getting there. But it's like baby steps. I need to just rip the band aid off and do it.
- [39:33]
B
Yeah. I mean, that's another one. It's super fun. It's like very creative to come up with these designs, but also a volume game of throwing a lot of digital spaghetti at the wall to see which ones, which ones hit. But yeah, it's cool if you were starting over. Or maybe you were advising a new digital product seller. Like what mistakes? Or what would you do differently if you were starting over to try and accelerate this journey?
- [39:55]
C
Just start. A lot of people, you know, they take the time, they do the research, they're looking into this, they're comparing things. Don't do that. Just start. Start today. Do today what your future self will thank you for later. Like that would be my biggest piece of advice. And then my other piece of advice, don't compare your journey to everyone else else's. Like your journey is yours to walk alone and it may go slow, it may go fast, but you're working at your own pace and success is there for you at the end. You just gotta get there.
- [40:22]
B
Yeah. Imagine this is one where you're front loading the work, you're putting in the time, building out the initial design and then hopefully it's a repeatable template that you can make four or five products out of the same thing or even more. We had one woman in Print on Demand who was like, I was doing professions and so it was like a T shirt with a clever saying for teachers or for nurses. But then it would go down. The pilots of police officers and doctors and whatever else, every profession she could think of. I'll make the same shirt following the same template for that. And I imagine kind of a similar space here. But what's next for you? Where you mentioned the Print on Demand, you got the coaching going on, actively adding new products or where do you want to take this thing?
- [41:01]
C
I'm actually getting ready to rev back up. Like you mentioned before, I have three kids. I'm super busy with their activities and stuff. But my youngest, he's about to go to kindergarten in the fall.
- [41:10]
B
He's nice. Nice.
- [41:12]
C
So I'm excited because that's going to give me lots of time during the day to get things done. So I'm ready to like dive back in and just really build like I did when I first started.
- [41:23]
B
Yeah, you start to stack these up and jump up to the next income tier. I hope so. I'm excited for what comes next there. Sidehustlenation.com GCV for Gold City Ventures is my direct referral link for their Etsy Printables program. There's a launch going on at the moment with I think some special bonuses at no extra cost to you this week or at the time of publication. Side hustlenation.com GCV for that for Gold City Ventures, of course. We'll link that up in the show. Notes as well. Chelsea, this has been awesome. Appreciate you coming by, sharing your insights here. Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
- [42:03]
C
Start before you feel ready. Whatever you know, side hustle you're ready to hop into or you feel that you're ready even if you don't feel ready, just start.
- [42:12]
B
Just start. There's only one known cure for imposter syndrome and that is doing the work. So a couple takeaways for me before we wrap. Chelsea mentioned this.
- [42:21]
A
You follow the demand, like don't create
- [42:23]
B
the thing that you want to create. Follow the thing that the people want or build the thing that the people want instead of the other way around. And you know, the question comes up, well, can this be a full time thing?
- [42:33]
A
Obviously, yes.
- [42:34]
B
I mean, if you can make a thousand dollars, you can make $10,000. But maybe it is more realistic as an incremental income stream to a business that you're already working on. Maybe you could sell your digital sawdust in some way, the byproducts of what you're already using or creating for your main work. Or you can be a fun, gamified side project trying to stack up these little mini digital assets. Okay. And celebrating the milestones along the way. Could I get to 50 bucks a month? Could I get to 100 bucks a month? Could I erase my car insurance? Could I erase my cell phone bill? Could I do all these things with quote unquote passive income? So very exciting business model. One that appeals to me. If you're wondering what to listen to next, you want more digital product inspiration in your life, make sure to check out the greatest Hits episode with Rachel. It should be, I think, the next one down in your feed where we had a little time travel segment at the end. We caught up with her very recently and also we had Cody from Gold City Ventures on last year in episode 665 talking about how he took a brand new shop to $1,000 a month in just four months in response to some haters. So you got like, oh, sure, it was great for you. You started in 2018 or whatever. Let's see you do it today. Challenge accepted. I love it. Big thanks to Chelsea for sharing her insight. Big thanks to our sponsors for helping make this content free for everyone. Signedhustlenation.com deals is where to go to find all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place. That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you're finding value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share with a friend. So fire off that text message. Somebody needs to hear this. This business idea, this business model. Until next time, let's go out there and make something happen. And I'll catch you in the next edition of the Side Hustle show. Hustle on.