Are you wondering how to sell PDFs on Etsy?
Well, you’re on the right page!
I’m always excited to teach you new and practical ways to make more money, and now I’ve found another!
I am also really into Etsy these days as I’m helping my sister grow her Etsy account. Here are some pictures of her store. While researching and testing what is effective for her account, I thought it would be helpful to share the details here with you so that you can also benefit and grow on Etsy!!
Imagine learning how to sell PDF files on Etsy from the comfort of your home!
Even if you have a 9 to 5 job, at least this side hustle can be done without leaving the house!
If you’re an avid traveler (like I am!), you’ll find learning how to sell PDFs on Etsy will help fund your travels around the world!
You may be thinking …but Aisha, do I need to be very artistic?
Well, the good news is no!
What you need is the determination to succeed and the consistency of putting in hard work to grow this side hustle!
Without further ado, let’s hop into this article and see what you need to do to sell PDFs on Etsy 😉
6 Steps To Selling PDFs on Etsy
- Get Your Mindset Right
- Conduct Your Research
- Create Your PDFs
- Open Your Etsy Shop
- Publish Your Listings
- Market Your Etsy Shop
Affiliate Link Disclosure
Some of the links included below are affiliate links where we may earn a commission if you click on them but at NO EXTRA cost to you. I hope you find the information below helpful!
Note: If you are super busy and you want to start making money selling on Etsy fast, you can check out this and this Etsy course. It will help step up your Etsy game and start earning within 3 months!
Alternatively, you can also check out this free Etsy Ebook that will share a list of best-selling products by month and teach you how to capitalize on seasonal trends to make sales.
How To Sell PDFs On Etsy – An Easy Guide To Follow
1. Create PDFs
Although selling PDFs on Etsy sounds simple, don’t slack off on the creation part!
You want to design PDFs that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also give high value to the buyers.
This will keep your buyers coming back to your shop and give raving reviews!
There are 3 methods to create your PDFs.
I’ll run through each method with you so you have more information at your fingertips and can make the best decision for yourself!
1. Pay Someone To Design For You
Perhaps you work a 9 to 5 job, and you prefer to outsource the work to someone else for now.
It may take some time for your investment to pay off. But if you can afford this method, why not? You could focus on the marketing efforts instead of designing.
There are a few platforms where you can hire experts to help you create your PDFs:
1. Fiverr
2. Upwork
3. PeoplePerHour
4. Printify Experts Program
2. Use Pre-Made Templates
Zero designing skills?
Not a problem!
You can utilize many platforms that offer pre-made templates with commercial licensing, which allows you to modify the templates and sell these PDFs on Etsy.
Some platforms are free, while others require subscription costs to utilize these templates.
But be sure to read through the terms and conditions, as some platforms may have other restrictions and conditions.
3. Create Your Own Designs
Perhaps you wish to let your creativity flow through your PDFs! That’s great too.
There are many platforms which are excellent to help you create PDFs from scratch:
Creating your own designs may take more time and effort. But it could help you stand out against the other sellers with your unique designs instead of using templates.
It’s a great idea to include your brand logo in your designs. It discourages theft, and your customers know which seller they purchased from on Etsy.
It could even lead to more sales!
To help you get started, I have curated a list of platforms and tools you may find useful to create PDFs:
List Of Tools to Create Your PDF Designs
Unsplash is an excellent platform that offers free high-quality stock photographs with a commercial license. The photos can be sold after modification.
Pexels also offers high-quality stock photographs that do not require attribution. The photos can be sold after modification.
Shutterstock is another platform to source stock photos with subscription plans starting from USD 29 per month.
However, it can be quite expensive if you’re in the early days of your side hustle.
Adobe Stock is a platform that offers photos, videos, illustrations, audio, vectors, and more. You can choose to either subscribe or purchase credit packs.
This platform is more worth it for those who have subscribed to other Adobe services, which start from USD 29 per month.
Envato Elements is home to millions of creative assets – photos, videos, fonts, graphics, and templates. Its plans start from USD 16.50 per month.
Creative Market is a world of design at your fingertips, where you can access millions of resources such as templates, fonts, graphics, icons, and more. Its plans start from USD 9.95 per month.
Canva is one of my favorite tools for graphic design! It’s easy to navigate with lots of graphic elements, stock photos, and templates for USD 12.99 per month.
If you’ve just started your Etsy side hustle, the free version of Canva is pretty powerful too!
Not a fan of Canva? Check out PicMonkey, an alternative tool for graphic design.
Adobe Creative Cloud has many apps to help you create stunning PDFs. Some of its apps may have a rather steep learning curve.
However, it is quite expensive if you’re looking for more affordable options.
Its individual plans start at USD 9.99 per month, while its Creative Cloud All Apps plan starts at USD 59.99 per month.
Inkscape is a great online alternative to Adobe Illustrator, which is free!
Gimp is a great online open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop, which is free! However, it does have a steep learning curve, similar to Adobe Photoshop.
Coolors help you generate harmonious color palettes for your PDFs!
Flaticon is a great platform with lots of icons available! While the free version needs to give attribution to the authors, you can avoid this by going premium for USD 12.99 per month.
Corjl is an online editing platform that provides editable templates at different subscription prices. It is quite convenient as it integrates with Etsy.
Affinity is a new alternative to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Its professional graphic design software is compatible with Mac, iPad, and Windows.
Instead of a monthly subscription, you pay a one-off payment of USD 69.99 for each Affinity tool or receive a universal license for USD 164.99.
While many tools are available at your fingertips, my favorite tool to create PDFs is Canva!
How To Use Canva
Let’s say you wish to create a weekly planner on Canva! Once you’ve keyed in the phrase “weekly planner”, you’ll see tons of templates available!
The templates with a little crown on the bottom right are available if you use the Canva Pro version.
In this case, I’ve chosen the “Brown Pastel Illustrative Cute Weekly Planner”, which is the top left option!
As I can’t sell the template without modifying it, I’m going to switch things up. In this case, I’m going for a more nautical-themed weekly planner.
After selecting elements on the left side, I typed in “nautical” to get a range of elements and graphics that I wanted to use for my nautical-themed weekly planner.
I’ve also changed the overall colors of the template from brown to blue. Isn’t it cute?
While creating your PDFs, consider what are some designs or themes that your target audience might like.
If you need some theme ideas for your PDFs, I have a few for you!
1. Nature: Flowers, plants, trees, mountains, waterfalls, etc.
2. Food: Pots and pans, whisks, bread, olives, fruit, etc.
3. Nautical: Ships, anchors, waves, seashells, surfboards, etc.
4. Celebration: Fireworks, fairy lights, wine glasses, party hats, balloons, etc.
5. Autumn: Leaves, pumpkins, acorns, haystacks, apples, etc.
Once you’re happy with your design, click “Share” on the top right and scroll a little until you see the “Download” option.
Choose the PDF option and ta-da! You can download your first printable!
Once you’re happy with your PDF products, it’s time to check your spelling and grammar. This is applicable, especially for your PDFs that act as guides or itineraries.
If you’re creating your PDF on Microsoft Word or Google Docs, these programs have their own grammar checkers.
Although Canva does not have a grammar checker, you can use the free Grammarly extension that is available on different web browsers.
After all, there’s nothing like a grammar mistake that could turn someone off O_O
Don’t forget to print them out for a test run (or print haha) because you want to see your product on paper.
Take note if anything looks off – the font looks too small, bad color scheme, or whether it looks cluttered.
Does it look good?
Are there any alignments that need tweaking?
If your digital products are meant to be printed out before use, try punching holes in the paper to check if you’ve left sufficient room to punch holes without compromising on the design.
Why Is It Worth Selling PDFs On Etsy?
1. Lots Of Traffic And Demand!
More than 90 million active buyers are shopping on Etsy in 2024. As a well-established platform, it provides high traffic for Etsy sellers.
A quick search on “Coloring Pages PDF” on Etsy yielded more than 79,000 results!
I know what you’re thinking! You’re probably thinking, “But Aisha, that’s so much competition!”
But this Etsy search also tells us there is a demand for coloring pages in PDF versions!
You might discover a gap in the niche you wish to dive into during your market research. That is your chance to address the gap in the Etsy market for PDFs!
There are plenty of PDFs you can create. Here’s a list to give you a peep into what’s possible (and more!):
1. Planners (meals, workout, daily, etc.)
2. Checklists (weddings, traveling, moving out, organization, etc.)
3. Calendars
4. Invitations
5. Restaurant Printables (Menus, Welcome Signs, etc.)
6. Coloring Pages
7. Sewing Patterns
8. Sudoku
2. Generate Passive Income With Less Work
Besides, selling PDFs on Etsy is a great way to generate passive income. You will work on creating your products and upload them to Etsy.
You don’t even need to create the exact design again! The product can be sold multiple times, while you work on creating new designs or marketing your Etsy shop.
Selling PDFs also means you don’t need to concern yourself with shipping, physical product storage, and returns, which means fewer costs! *dances around the room*
And you never know, selling on Etsy might bring you new career opportunities in the future 🙂
3. It’s Beginner Friendly
If you’re a beginner to Etsy, fret not! You don’t need experience to start this side hustle.
It’s easy to navigate on Etsy to set up your first shop and start selling downloads on Etsy.
Aside from that, PDF is also a pretty common format that everyone knows and will look the same on any device.
As long as you are willing to put in the effort and be consistent with what you do, this side hustle could turn lucrative!
4. Monetize Your Passions
Let’s say you are a fitness trainer, but you’re wondering how you can monetize your passion for fitness by selling PDFs on Etsy.
As a fitness trainer, you can consider creating a fitness planner!
You would know exactly what someone should record in their fitness planner to stay on top of their goals.
It could be the weight of the dumbbells, the name of the exercise, and the number of reps for each workout.
As you have experience as a fitness trainer, you can create an excellent fitness planner that will help many people achieve their fitness goals!
There are so many more examples, but this is just one of them! Whether you’re a blogger, wedding planner, or an artist, you can monetize your passion by selling PDFs.
Now that I’ve talked about why it is worth selling PDFs on Etsy, let’s talk about a few more things you need to know on how to sell PDFs on Etsy!
How To Sell PDFs On Etsy
STEP 1. Build A Resilient Mindset
Before you start selling PDFs, let’s talk about mindset first.
You may be anxious thinking about starting something new.
What if I fail?
There are so many people better at this than I ever will be!
Will I even succeed?
First, applaud yourself for wanting to start something out of your comfort zone! It is not easy to take the first step to start a side hustle.
Now let’s talk about your concerns!
Everyone starts their side hustle as a beginner, not knowing what to do. Some may see sales skyrocket very quickly, while others may take a while before they see results.
Newsflash! Everyone started somewhere as a newbie.
Chances are everyone has failed at something along the way, but no one likes to talk about their failures.
It’s perfectly okay to fail. It’s part of life to fail.
In the event you do fail, learn from your failures. Think about what went wrong and grow from your mistakes so you don’t repeat them.
Don’t be too concerned with others’ success on Etsy, selling digital downloads every day.
Instead, focus on bringing value to the buyers through your PDFs. Focus on improving your Etsy shop and designs, and you’ll eventually see lots of money rolling in.
If you would like to learn more about overcoming mindset issues, I have a course that will teach you how to break through your limiting thoughts and achieve the life you’ve always wanted!
STEP 2. Conduct Your Research
It’s time to begin your journey as a seller on Etsy!
But market research comes first, especially if you’re uncertain about what PDFs to sell.
Without any market research, you won’t know which gaps in the market you can address! You might end up in an extremely competitive niche, which isn’t ideal.
Discovering your niche will help you narrow down who is your target audience. Are you targeting students? Teachers? Busy parents? Bloggers?
When you’ve decided who your target audience is, you can focus on creating PDFs that will bring value to them the most.
You will also tailor your marketing toward them, which saves you time, resources, and effort!
Also, consider whether you wish to sell seasonal or evergreen digital products. Evergreen digital products will have a constant demand throughout the year, compared to seasonal products.
For example, you will see a spike in demand for Christmas or New Year-related digital products toward the end of the year.
There are lots of tools to utilize during your market research. These include Etsy search, Google Trends, and social media.
Once you’ve had a few ideas on what you’re interested in selling, go ahead and type the items into the Etsy search bar!
Take note of the auto-populated keywords in the search bar because this gives you a clue about what people are looking for within your niche.
Let’s say you’re interested in selling printable calendars on Etsy. Of course, you need to scope out the market on Etsy!
I typed “printable calendars” in the Etsy search bar, and these are some of the results.
Look at the printable calendars offered by other Etsy sellers. There are some things you can take note of during your market research:
1. What do you like about these listings?
2. What don’t you like about these listings?
3. How much are these printable calendars?
4. What is lacking in these printable calendars? (colors, designs, etc.)
5. Why are these listings selling or not selling well?
6. Is there anything in particular that buyers commented about during reviews? What did they like or wish to see more of?
7. What images did they utilize for their listings?
8. What did the competitors write in the descriptions for the listings?
9. Is customization available?
Find a way to make your printable calendars more valuable. It could mean including a monthly planner and to-do list, which justifies charging more.
If you already have an audience on your social media platform, that’s another great way to do market research!
You could conduct a few polls and Q&As to figure out what your audience is looking for in the products you plan to sell on Etsy shop.
Once you’ve launched your Etsy shop, let your audience know through your social media platform and boom! More money is on the way 😉
While market research is great, remember it’s not an excuse to copy exactly what everyone else is doing! It’s not cool 🙁
Once you have done your valuable research, you should have a few ideas on what kinds of PDFs you want to sell on Etsy!
Now you’ve done your research, it’s time for you to put in the hard work and create your PDFs based on the guide above!
STEP 3. Open Your Etsy Shop
Woohoo! It’s time to set up your Etsy shop!
You need to have an Etsy account as a customer before you can open your Etsy shop, which you can do after logging in.
You can only set up your shop on your desktop, but you can manage your shop on the app once your shop is open.
After you’ve filled in the required information for your Etsy shop, it’s time to choose your shop name.
You can change your shop name later if you like. Your shop name should reflect the niche or the products you intend to sell.
Consider setting up a complete Etsy shop, as a complete and visually pleasing Etsy shop is vital, especially when you’re just starting!
It will increase potential buyers’ confidence in you, as your shop will seem more professional compared to millions of others.
Spend some time creating your Shop banner and working on your About Section, Shop Policies, and Shop Announcements. These will form the first impression of potential buyers.
STEP 4. Publish Your Listings
After setting up your shop for success, it’s time to price and publish your listings (aka hard work!!) on Etsy!
It is a good idea to check out what are the prices your competitors are pricing their products. Not too low, not too high!
Etsy also charges USD 0.20 per listing, which renews every 4 months. There is also a transaction fee of 6.5% per transaction!
If you charge too low compared to your competitors, you might end up making very little from your digital products when you worked so hard on them O_O
Consider the time it took to create your digital products, the expenses of paid tools, and the fees to sell on Etsy before determining the prices of your digital products.
You can post up to 10 photos and 1 video per listing, which should be high quality and aesthetically pleasing. This will build trust in potential customers.
There are lots of design software available to help you create awesome listing photos! One of my favorite ones is Canva!
Many templates are available on Canva (especially Canva Pro) for you to select from. You can also access premium content such as images, videos, and graphics!
To be more brand cohesive, some Etsy sellers will use the same font and colors for all listing images in their shop.
Image Listing Ideas For Digital Products:
1. The PDF in use (whether it’s printed or on your device)
2. Include information about the PDF (colors, size, number of pages, etc.)
3. Mockups (the PDF on a screen)
4. The process of editing the PDF
Video Listing Ideas For Digital Products:
1. Scrolling down your PDF on the device
2. Quick overview of the digital product (number of pages, different sections, etc.)
3. The PDF in use (whether it’s printed or on your device)
- Listing Titles And Descriptions
SEO works wonders for your digital products on Etsy! Incorporate long-tail keywords in your listing titles and descriptions for your digital products!
Make sure your keywords sound natural throughout the listing title and description. The keywords could affect the rankings of your listings on Etsy 🙂
Your listing description should be simple to understand. Use lists to highlight important details while keeping it easy to read.
Here is a list of details (but not limited to!) you can include in your listing description for your PDFs:
1. How to download the PDFs
2. What is included in your PDFs
3. How many pages are in your PDFs
4. The different variations (+ links!) of the PDFs
5. Is it A4 or A5 (or something else) size?
6. How does this product solve your buyer’s problem?
Once you’ve published your listings, it’s time to link your bank account to Etsy so you can get paid 😉
STEP 5. Market Your Etsy Shop
You’ve listed your products on Etsy! You’re done!
Right?
If you wish to build a lucrative side hustle, you have to put in more work too!
Marketing your Etsy shop on other social media platforms can help drive more traffic to your Etsy shop, which means more opportunities for sales!
Here are some examples of how you can utilize different social media platforms to generate traffic to your Etsy shop:
Start a blog related to the niche of your products and write SEO content. Include links to your Etsy shop for more sales 😉
Use a Pinterest business account to promote your blog! Pinterest will help drive traffic to your blog, which also directs traffic to your Etsy shop!
More traffic for your blog, more traffic for your Etsy shop! It’s a win-win if you ask me.
Start either a Business or Creators type of Instagram account. Share tips on how to use your digital products and some awesome reviews from your customers!
Post TikTok videos related to your Etsy products – benefits, how to use the products, and customer reviews!
You can also consider starting an email list through your social media and encourage your readers to sign up with a freebie.
Use your email list to nurture your readers with useful and valuable content, preferably related to your products.
Then, you can slowly introduce your products on Etsy to your readers via the email list. Feel free to send them alerts on any upcoming sales you have!
Don’t be shy to offer them some coupon codes exclusive to your email list 😉
Marketing outside of Etsy sounds like a lot of work (and it is!), but it could make a world of difference for your Etsy sales.
STEP 6. Continue Learning
To continue to grow your Etsy business, you should continue learning all you can.
There is so much information at your fingertips! You have lots of free resources, such as YouTube videos and blogs that give you tips on navigating Etsy as a seller.
If you are looking for more in-depth information, there are plenty of Etsy courses available for you.
Here are some issues a new Etsy seller may face:
How To Maximize Selling PDFs On Etsy
Congratulations, you’ve figured out how to sell downloadable files on Etsy!
But I want to help you maximize your profit from selling PDFs on Etsy, so I’ve come up with a few more tips for you on how to sell files on Etsy!
1. Select A Profitable Niche
To choose a profitable niche in the Etsy market, this is where your market research comes in handy!
Utilize tools such as Etsy search bar and Google Trends to help you research what digital products are profitable in your niche.
But you know what’s better than a profitable item?
It’s an item that is profitable AND something you’re passionate about!
Let’s say you’re a fitness trainer! You can consider selling PDFs related to fitness, such as fitness planners!
You can head over to Etsy and utilize its search bar! Not only is it free (if it’s free, it’s for me!), but it also tells you what keywords buyers are searching for on Etsy.
2. Do Your Keyword Research
For example, I keyed in “fitness planner” in the Etsy search bar, and you see how Etsy autocompletes the keyword.
Etsy is telling me these are some long tail keywords that buyers may be searching on Etsy:
- Fitness planner stickers
- Fitness planner digital
- Fitness planner printable, weight loss tracker, workout planner
- Fitness planner printable
If you’re interested in selling fitness planners, you might want to consider some of the ideas above to improve your current idea or add to your Etsy shop too!
As these are keywords that buyers are searching for on Etsy, you can use these auto-completed keywords as part of your listing’s title.
If you are looking to up your keyword research game, some of my favorite paid tools for keyword research are Keysearch and Sale Samurai!
3. Utilize Etsy Ads
Utilizing Etsy ads is optional, but it could be the next step to help you maximize selling PDFs on Etsy.
Nevertheless, some sellers did not find Etsy ads useful. It does depend on the type of PDFs you are selling.
Instead of hopping onto the train for Etsy ads, it’s best you do some research and decide whether it’s necessary for you to invest in Etsy ads.
There are also a few online courses available that will teach you how to utilize Etsy ads better. YouTube is also a great way to learn these tips without breaking the bank.
4. Marketing Your Products
Aside from Etsy ads, you should market your products on other social media platforms too, such as:
- Blogging in the same niche as your products
- Starting a Pinterest business account to drive traffic to your blog, which in turn drives traffic to your Etsy shop
- Utilize Instagram and TikTok to share about your products. This includes tips, behind-the-scenes, customer reviews, and more!
5. Provide Excellent Customer Service
You’ve learned how to sell PDFs on Etsy, but you also want to provide the best experience for your customers in case they run into any problems.
Although digital products are intangible, customers may still face problems with digital products.
Provide excellent customer service at all times because happy customers = happy reviews!
Here are some tips on how to provide excellent customer service:
- Responding to your customers as quickly as you can, within 24 hours is a great start. You can list your response times on your Etsy shop.
- Keep your answers simple to understand.
- Always be polite, even when dealing with tough customers!
- Provide clear instructions on how to access the files.
- Utilize the templates of pre-written responses for the most popular or expected questions from customers.
6. Sell Your Products In Bundles
Be sure that it is cheaper overall to purchase your digital products in a bundle, compared to purchasing each digital product on its own.
FAQs On How To Sell PDFs On Etsy
Can You Sell PDF Downloads On Etsy?
Can you sell PDF downloads on Etsy?
Yes, you can sell PDF downloads on Etsy! How to sell digital downloads? I’m glad you asked!
1. Build a resilient mindset
2. Conduct your market research
3. Create your PDFs
4. Open your Etsy shop
5. Publish your listings
6. Market your Etsy shop
7. Never stop learning!
How Much Does It Cost To Sell PDFs On Etsy?
So, how much does it cost to sell PDFs on Etsy?
Etsy charges a flat fee of USD 0.20 per listing. All listings need to be renewed every 4 months, regardless of the amount of sales you made during the 4 months.
You can either manually renew your listings or choose to have an automatic renewal for the listing.
Aside from the listing fee, Etsy also charges a transaction fee of 6.5% per sale upon the final price.
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How Much Can You Earn Selling Digital Downloads On Etsy?
The million-dollar question: how much can you earn selling digital downloads on Etsy?
In general, many successful sellers have earned several thousand dollars per month from digital selling on Etsy.
But it isn’t uncommon for Etsy sellers starting out to make $10 to $100 per week.
The amount you earn from Etsy selling digital downloads very much depends on many factors. These include the following (and more!) factors:
1. The level of competition for your niche
2. The prices of your digital downloads
3. The demand for your digital downloads
4. The amount of effort you put into your products and marketing
5. The number of listings in your Etsy shop
How Do Customers Receive Digital Downloads On Etsy?
So, how do customers receive digital downloads on Etsy?
1. Instant Downloads
Once your payment is confirmed, your ready-made files are available to download!
If you used your credit card or PayPal to pay on Etsy, please wait for a few minutes before receiving your download link.
2. Made-To-Order Downloads
After payment, you will receive the links to download your files via email once the seller has completed them to your specifications.
Keep in mind the delivery window of your made-to-order files will depend on your discussion with the seller.
You can also access all of your digital purchases from your account. Head over to “Purchases and Reviews” and select “Download Files” next to your order.
If you purchased your digital files as a guest, you will receive a link to download your files via email.
Best Selling Digital Products On Etsy
Here is a list of the best-selling digital products on Etsy!
1. Labels (Bottles, Jars, Soaps etc.)
2. Planners (Meal, Fitness, Budget etc.)
3. Printables (Restaurants, Birthdays, Weddings, Other Events, etc.)
4. Learning Material For Children
5. Coloring Pages
6. Calendars
7. Thank You Cards
8. Business Cards
9. Patterns For Sewing & Crocheting
10. Etsy Shop Assets (Shop Banners, Logos, etc.)
11. Workbooks (Self Improvement etc.)
12. Digital Art Prints
Honestly, selling PDFs on Etsy is a wonderful side hustle to begin with!
I commend you for taking the first step to begin your new journey with Etsy, it can be intimidating to start something new.
Once you figure out how to sell PDFs on Etsy, you’ll be so glad you tried!
The costs of selling downloads on Etsy are low, and you don’t have to keep stock in your house as it’s all digital.
If you’re looking for more ideas, you can consider selling printable art on Etsy!
Either way, I’m so excited to see you dip your toes into the Etsy digital download business and watch the money start rolling in!
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