5 Mistakes I Made Selling Digital Products on Etsy

There are countless mistakes I made selling digital products on Etsy. I eventually made over $100,000 selling printables. I want to share my mistakes, regrets and struggles so that you can hopefully find your way to success making passive income on Etsy.

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What mistakes did I make selling digital products on Etsy?

The first year my shop was open I wasted a ton of time just trying to figure out almost every little aspect of creating an Etsy shop. I used the trail and error method. I kept making mistakes after mistakes hoping that something would eventually stick, and I would be profitable.

Instead of seeking out help or advice from successful Etsy sellers or joining one of their workshops, I attempted to figure IT ALL out on my own. In that first year, I made so many mistakes from focusing too much on a brand identity to almost putting no effort in listing photos and descriptions.

I’m sharing my mistakes with anyone who wants to start an Etsy Shop or who are in the beginning stages of selling who unlike me wants to avoid making timely errors that will interfere with becoming profitable. Here is my list.

Wasting Too Much Time Creating a Brand

One of the most time consuming mistakes I made was just trying to create a brand that I believed was perfect, and kept tweaking things that didn’t matter like perfecting the logo.

The customer doesn’t truly care about how professional your logo looks, the coloring you choose or the name you call your Etsy Store. Customers want good reviews and good products.

Here’s a great example of how wasteful it was to change my original logo. Looking at it now, I think the. original was better.

Does the customer care about custom artwork on your logo? No. Unless you are selling logo templates.

Does it matter how well branded you are on your Etsy shop? No. Unless your selling branding templates.

Do you need to delay opening your Etsy shop because you cannot think of the perfect shop name? No. You can always change your name down the road. It just needs to be something simple and easy to spell.

Underpricing & Overpricing Products

This is one of the most difficult topics for me personally. Creating something from nothing takes a ton of time. From research, to development to ultimately creating the listing hours of effort goes into creating just one product. So how do we price it fairly? The hard lesson is that most of the time we don’t.

At first you will want to underprice your products just so that they will sell against the competition. Then, when your sales pick up you will want to price it fairly so that your time and effort gets accounted for in the pricing.

This is the hardest part about digital products. Although it may take hours to make, most customers want to pay for something that is not physical at a low price since they may still have to have it printed or front some other costs themselves.

Research your market. What is the average price. Stay competitive with your competition but don’t undervalue your hard work. Stay in the middle. You may discourage potential buyers by being both too high or too low.

The key is to realize most digital products sell best at an incredibly low price and if that is the case for your product too remember with a high amount of orders you will still see good profit.

Having Too Many Categories with No Focus

I opened my shop with so much excitement that I just wanted to enter into every category. I wanted to do weddings, gender reveal parties, bridal showers, graduations, and honestly every event you could think of I wanted to create a digital product for it all.

Finding your niche is key when you are in the beginning stages of starting your business. I go more into that on my post How I Made Over $100,000 Selling Printables on Etsy. I go over what is a niche and why it is KEY to a successful Etsy shop. Go check it here.

Poor Listing Descriptions

Providing a thorough and clear listing description for your items will help your customers understand EXACTLY what they are purchasing. The details matter and you don’t want to confuse potential buyers because it is not clear what they should expect when purchasing through your shop.

For digital products it is really important to break EVERYTHING down to simple terms and include all the information they might need such as file formats, dimensions. and product restrictions.

Below are some examples from my shop where I really started breaking it down in detail. You will be overwhelmed by messages from potential customers just asking simple questions if you do not lay it all out ahead of time. Let the buying process be informative and easy for them

Poor Listing Images

Invest in products or digital products that would help improve the look of your listings. When I first started my Etsy shop I tried to DIY everything myself. The look of the listing suffered for it. After a year of poor image quality, I decided to invest in frame mockups.

These are the improved versions of some of my original listings. It’s important to invest into your Etsy business even just $100 on some basic templates or mockups that can really make an impact on your products and how they are viewed. by your potential costumers.

Once I enhanced my listing to better promote my products I saw a huge increase in traffic to my listings. It’s hard to put money into something you are not sure is going to be profitable BUT if you aspire to be this is one of the best steps forward.

BONUS TIP: Go to Etsy. Search printable planners. What listings do you like? What would you click on? Take notes about what makes that listing stand out. Repeat those steps again but this time search: printable baby shower cards, printable

What is my biggest advice from having learned selling digital products on Etsy the hard way?

Find shops that you admire. Take the time to look at their photos, listing description and products. Ask yourself these questions:

• What makes that shop stand out to you?
• What makes the shopping experience at their store so enticing?
• How do you compare to them and what will put you a step ahead?