Making downloadables for Etsy is a great way to earn money without having to spend a lot of time and effort on every order, but how do you make these items that you could sell?
I’ve been selling digital products for a few years and my Etsy shop Writer Lifestyle makes sales every day. Etsy has really been a game-changer for me and that’s why I want to share what I know with you.
So in this post, we’re going to talk about how to make digital items to sell on Etsy depending on what you want to sell.
Making digital downloads for Etsy doesn’t have to be hard
If you’re not familiar with digital products, creating one might seem daunting, but it really doesn’t have to be difficult. You don’t even need to be particularly techy and you can probably use software or apps that you already know how to use.
Can you create a PDF file? Then you know how to create a digital product. You don’t even need any new software, you could use Google Docs on your browser and save your file as a PDF and then upload that to your listing on Etsy. Simple.
Of course, there are always new things to learn, but why not get started with what you already know and then increase your skills?
What kinds of digital products do you want to create?
There’s a huge variety of different digital products that you could sell on Etsy. There’s printable digital art and there are SVG files that can be used in other people’s digital products or cricut creations. You can sell ebooks and video tutorials or printable wedding invitations and party games.
I have a few printable book club games in my Etsy shop but mainly I specialise in educational digital products. For me, that means ebooks, workbooks, worksheets and video workshops. Some of them are PDFs, some are obviously videos and some are accessible on Google Docs or Google Sheets.
Before you can decide what format your products are going to be, you need to know what you’re actually capable of creating and sharing.
What skills do you have that you could use for downloadable Etsy products?
If you’re an artist, it makes perfect sense that you would want to sell digital art. It could be anything from printable wall art to fonts, depending on what you like to create.
You definitely don’t need to have a degree or a job related to the things you’re selling. If you’re really invested in a particular hobby, you have what it takes to create products related to it. Practical skills like gardening or homemaking also lend themselves wonderfully to digital products.
Imagine what you would find useful yourself. For example, I have some Notion templates in my shop that I personally use all the time for my own business. (I still sell them on Writer Lifestyle but I need to open a new shop in the business niche soon.) You could create checklists, step-by-step tutorials or other resources.
I know it’s 2024 so there are so many business bros suggesting that you should just ask AI to create content that you could package as a digital product and call it a day but I can’t condone that at all. If you want to get traction for your digital Etsy shop, you need happy customers. Your customers are NOT going to be happy with your regurgitated AI garbage.
Do you want to sell made-to-order digital products on Etsy?
Nowadays it’s actually possible to sell made-to-order digital downloads on Etsy. What this means is that your customer makes a purchase and they’ll have to wait until you fulfil this order before they can download their purchase.
If your product needs personalisation, made-to-order is probably the best choice for you. You’ll just need to be upfront about how long it’s going to take you to fulfil the order so that your customers will be happy with you.
You could also sell editable digital products
If you’d like to offer the option of personalisation without any extra work on your part, you could sell Canva templates or make your product editable on Corjl. I don’t personally have experience with the latter, but it’s very popular with people who make downloadable invitations.
Canva templates are really easy to share and to edit, and a Canva account doesn’t cost anything. Just remember that if you’ve got Canva Pro, you can only use pro elements in your products if you download your product and sell it that way. If you’re selling templates, you can only use free elements.
I’m going to write a more in-depth post on how to use Canva to create your digital products, but I’ll just quickly show you that when you click “Share”, you can find the “Template link” button and thus create a link that allows your customer to access a copy of your template.
Do bear in mind that if you choose “Public view link” instead, they’ll only be able to see your file instead of actually being able to use it on Canva! But that’s fine if you only want them to be able to see it and download it.
Examples of Canva templates you could sell on Etsy:
- ebook templates
- Instagram story or post templates
- printable game templates
- workbook or worksheet templates
- printable wedding place card templates
- checklist templates
Here are a few ideas for how to make digital items to sell on Etsy
Even if you’re not going to sell personalised or editable products, you have so many options for creating your digital products. Here are some examples and ideas.
Digital art
I’m not an artist or a designer so I’m not very familiar with what people use to create their art, but if selling digital art interests you, you probably already have the answer to that!
What’s most important is that the file types you offer match with what people want to use your art for. If you want to sell printable art, don’t list 300x300px JPG files! Be very clear about what kinds of files are included in your listing and how they can or should be used.
Mockups are very important if your art is supposed to be used for something whether it’s wall art, cricut designs or invitations. People need to be able to visualise how they can use your product. That said, you might want to throw in a few extra mentions that it is a DIGITAL product and not a physical one! Etsy mentions that automatically but some people just don’t read and you want to spare yourself that headache.
Ebooks
Creating ebooks doesn’t need to be complicated and just a few pages could be exactly what your customer needs.
You can definitely use Canva to create ebooks, but I’ve found that it’s kind of fiddly when it comes to working with big blocks of text. Whenever I need to create an ebook that isn’t writing prompts, I either use Google Docs, Reedsy or Affinity Publisher.
I think Google Docs is the best for shorter books because you don’t necessarily need a lot of formatting, but if you want to create something lengthier like my How to Write a Novel ebook, then Reedsy might be a better choice. All the formatting is done automatically and you can download your book as a PDF, MOBI or EPUB.
Affinity Publisher is something I rarely use anymore but it’s perfect for when you want to have full control over every aspect of your ebook. It does take a lot of learning because it has so much functionality, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you already have experience in software like it.
Worksheets
I’ve used Affinity Publisher for my worksheets in the past but nowadays I tend to stick to Canva. I design my worksheet on Canva and then I either upload it to Etsy like that, or if I want to make the PDF editable, I use Sejda to create the text fields. There are other free sites that help you make editable PDFs but Sejda is the best one I’ve found.
If you have Adobe Acrobat, you can use that to make your PDFs editable straight away, but if you don’t need it for anything else, you might not want to pay for it.
When creating worksheets, it’s important to have enough space for the answers, whether you want to sell digital or printable worksheets. I use the rectangle tool on Canva to create the answer field and you can either use colours or just leave the worksheet black-and-white.
Here’s an example page from one of my workbooks:
Workbooks
You can create your workbooks the same way you create worksheets, but you could also use Google Docs for it. That way your customer can easily access the workbook on any device without losing their answers.
Here’s a mockup of my bestselling From Vibes to Plot workbook:
When you want to sell something that lives on a different platform like Google Docs, you need to have a way to provide the access link to the buyers. I have a few templates that I use where I already have all the important information and then I just insert the link there before exporting it as a PDF. Then I simply upload the PDF to my Etsy listing and the customer will get their access link when they purchase.
It’s easy to create those templates for yourself but you could also get my FREE digital product Canva templates including the access link template. You also get a worksheet template and a simple ebook template. Did I say “template” enough times yet?
It’s important to give your customers all the information they need to access your products. Have the information in multiple places regardless of the fact that not everyone will read it! I get people every week asking me where their products are even though the answers are right there in front of their noses.
When you sell something that’s on Google Docs, you also need to remember to create a share link that allows viewing access to anyone with the link – that way they can see the Doc and then make a copy of it to their own Google Drive. You should have the instructions for how to do this on the very first page even though at least one in ten people will disregard them and request edit access anyway.
Templates
We already talked about Canva templates, but templates could mean many different things. Sometimes people will use “template” as a shorthand for any kind of digital product.
For example, I sell novel outline templates on Google Docs but also Notion templates. Both of those options are free and relatively easy to create. Then there are stuff like website templates that require a lot more skill, as do templates for sales platforms like ThriveCart and Kajabi.
(By the way, if you make ThriveCart sales pages templates, hit me up! I hate designing so I’d gladly outsource this to someone else.)
It depends on the template whether you would provide an external link or some kind of a ZIP folder instead. Whatever you’re going to do, remember to include instructions and make them more detailed than you think is necessary. Not everyone is good at tech and they shouldn’t be googling for answers that you should provide for them.
Excel sheets or Google Sheets
You can upload Excel files straight to your listing, but if you want to sell a Google Sheet, you’ll need to do the same thing as with Google Docs and create a share link that you can then insert in a downloadable PDF document.
All these sheets can go from very simple to more complex. For example, my Google Sheets plot planner isn’t exactly complicated, but anything with calculations and formulas can take a lot more skill to create. Those things can be such a lifesaver for people who don’t know how to create them by themselves. I just used my bookkeeping sheet literally a minute ago and I’d be completely lost without it.
As always, remember to include instructions so that people will understand how to use your product. Also make it obvious in the listing what people are getting and how to use it, because a confused buyer is a no-buyer.
Videos
If you want to sell videos on Etsy, you need to host them on a different platform and then provide your buyer with the access link.
There are loads of options out there for video hosting including private Youtube links and Vimeo, but personally I use Loom because I also use it to capture my screen when I present my slides.
If you want to create a how-to video tutorial, I’d recommend making each step its own video. That way your customer can easily find what they need if they need to re-watch your tutorial or if they only need help with specific steps. Just remember to label each link properly in the access link document so that the videos are easy to find.
How to sell digital products on Etsy step-by-step
Hopefully this blog post has given you ideas for where to start creating digital products for Etsy, but what if you need more help?
I’m currently creating a course called Earning with Educational Etsy Products (or EEEP if you’re feeling lazy) where you learn all about how to make money on Etsy by teaching what you know. It’s no guesswork – the course is based on everything I’ve learned as an Etsy seller who makes multiple sales every day.
You’re obviously interested in selling digital products on Etsy so I’d love to see you enroll in the course. You can learn a lot more from it than just by reading blog posts, plus there’s an option where I personally help you create your products. Check it out today.