Expand Summary
The author describes a journey of building a successful Etsy shop that now generates over $1000 per month with only 15 minutes of daily work.
Abstract
The author shares their experience of starting an Etsy shop selling digital products, detailing the transition from an initial investment of significant time and effort to a more passive income model. Beginning in late August 2023, the author dedicated many hours to create listings, eventually reducing the workload to an average of 15 minutes per day by October. This shift was possible due to the accumulation of listings and the establishment of efficient processes for customer service and order management. Despite the reduced time spent, the shop’s profitability increased, peaking at over $1200 in December. The author emphasizes the importance of initial hard work, setting realistic expectations, and the potential for Etsy shops to become semi-passive income streams with the right strategies.
Opinions
- The author believes that Etsy can be a lucrative platform for selling digital products with the right approach.
- They value the importance of initial hard work, suggesting it lays the foundation for future success.
- The author expresses that maintaining a high level of customer service is crucial, even when aiming for minimal daily work.
- They indicate that Etsy success is a long-term game and not to expect immediate returns on effort.
- The author sees the potential for Etsy shops to become semi-passive sources of income over time.
- They advocate for the use of templates and efficient processes to streamline shop management.
- The author suggests that focusing on creating many listings early on can lead to reduced workload and sustained profits later.
- They emphasize the importance of community and support for Etsy sellers by offering a free course and community access.
If I told you that you could earn $1000 per month by spending only 15 minutes a day, would you believe me? Today, I am here to show you that this is possible. I will also share with you the important things I focus on when I work.
But it wasn’t always like this. Let’s go back in time.
It was late August of 2023. I decided to start selling again on Etsy. Etsy is like a smaller version of Amazon and you can sell anything you can imagine.
I started a new Etsy shop selling digital products, mainly printable wall art, in the niche of sports.
I opened my shop on the 22nd of August and until the end of the month, I managed to upload 40 listings to my shop. In those first 10 days, I spent a lot of hours daily to get my shop running. I spent 5 or 6 hours each day. And this hard work got me 9 orders and I made $31.
In September, I continued with the hard work. I spent 4 to 5 hours daily creating listings and I had around 200 listings at the end of the month. This work got me over $400.
Things changed in October. I didn’t work as much in my shop as I did in my first 40 days. However, I managed to reach 361 listings at the end of the month. I used to create new listings almost daily at the beginning of my shop, but at this point, I was creating listings once or twice a week.
Let’s say I worked an average of 2 or 3 hours a day. My work decreased but my profit didn’t. I made almost $900. Which is doubled compared to last month.
Let’s go to November. In November everything changed. At the end of the month, I had only 404 listings. As you can see, I didn’t create a lot this month. I created only 43 listings. I worked a maximum of 1 hour per day on average. But I got almost $1200 in profit.
Let’s go to December. At the end of the month, I had 445 listings. I worked 3 or 4 hours a week. But my profit still increased a bit. I made over $1200. Which is fantastic for the amount of work I’ve put in.
In January, I started working 15 minutes a day on average. This is 7,5 hours a month. I only made 12 listings this month. I’m going to be completely honest with you.
My profit this month dropped. A lot. I only made over $700. But In the next months, things did get back to over $1000 profit.
Now let me show you what I do every day on Etsy.
Each day, I wake up. I make my bed and then I check the Etsy Seller app on my phone to see what happened while I was sleeping. I look at the amount of sales and revenue I got, which literally takes 2 seconds.
Then I pray to have 0 messages but this rarely happens. If I get messages, it means I have to respond to them, which means more work for me. Usually, I have 2 to 5 messages. Most of them, are quick to respond to, but some of them are from customers who didn’t manage to download their files. Which means I have to send them the files.
Thankfully I uploaded all of my designs to a Google Drive and all I have to do is to find the design and send the customer a link to download it. That’s it.
But very often, I get messages in a language I don’t speak and the Etsy Seller app, doesn’t have an option to translate the message. It has it on the desktop version but not on the mobile version.
So I have to copy their message, go to Google Translate, paste their message, write my answer in English, translate it to their language, copy the text, and respond to them. It depends each day, but let’s say on average I spend 5 minutes on the app each morning.
For the rest of the day, I treat the Etsy Seller app like a social media app. When I get a notification that I made a sale, I used to check which listing sold every time, but now I rarely check my orders.
When I get a notification that someone messaged me, unfortunately, I do have to open the app and respond to them. I do get another 2–5 messages throughout the day, at least nowadays, and just like the mornings let’s say it takes me another 5 minutes of work to respond to them.
When I get the notification that someone left a review, I send them this message, which I copy-paste from the previous review I received and just change the name of the buyer.
I usually get 1 to 3 reviews per day. And it doesn’t even take me a minute to complete it.
Ok, we have 11 minutes in total. Where am I spending the other 4?
Nowhere. I just call it a day.
I don’t do anything else on a daily basis. I stack all those remaining 4 minutes to create and upload a couple of listings once or twice a month.
The creation part is really quick now because I have a template for all the types of my listings. And the uploading part is really quick.
Also, I set daily sales, once per month. I go and do them all in one sitting, which takes me 5 minutes.
15 minutes a day is the average number I got. Some days I don’t even spend 5 minutes working. If I create a couple of listings, I might spend 45 minutes that day. Other days I don’t even spend a minute on Etsy if it’s not a busy day.
I know that 15 minutes a day of work sounds awesome, but the bad thing about it is that it is separated throughout the day. I don’t spend 15 minutes at once and call it a day. I could actually do that and respond to all of my messages and reviews once a day.
All in the morning, and then ignore every message I get until the next morning. But If I do that, I’ll probably lose some potential sales and also get some bad reviews for not responding quickly enough.
Don’t expect to get the same results if you work 15 minutes a day from the start. I worked hard at the start, I created many listings and then month by month I decreased the hours I was working.
Etsy is for the long run. Don’t expect your high efforts to pay off quickly. Remember in the first 10 days, I made $31 and worked between 50 to 60 hours. But this early investment allowed me to barely work today and have a good profit.
But why don’t I work harder to make even more money? This was my secret goal before even opening this shop. I didn’t want this to be a main project for me. I created the shop, so I could leave it to do the work on its own. I want to focus my time on helping you make money on Etsy.
I made a FREE Etsy Course (3+ Hours) covering everything to help you reach $1000 per month, and you can get it by joining the Free Community I made specifically for Etsy Sellers like you.
There are other gifts inside of the community, like the Star Seller Planner and you can talk about Etsy with other Etsy Sellers who have the same interests as you do.
See you inside,
Thanos.