How to sell downloadable files on etsy

Hello Tammie Thank you for your comment. Yes, you will need to wrap all your files into zip files — each less than 20mb in size. For example I have a listing which is 3 prints, but as I need to provide 6 files for each print, they are too big to store on Etsy. I hope this helps Trina. Hi Trina, your information is invaluable—thank you! Do you explain how to do this somewhere, or know where I can find this information? Hello MaryKay Yes, just set up your Dropbox folder and then from the menu inside the folder create a sharable link.

Next you will need to create a PDF and add a button with the link to your Dropbox folder. Then when you create your listing, instead of adding the print to the download, just add the PDF to download. Name it something obvious, such as — Open up for your download link. Then you are done. I hope that helps Trina. Yes, you will need to add information on personal use in both the description and on your files.

So for a digital print, it is better to include all the 5 sizes with that one-time purchase or make it so the customer has a drop-down option to choose? Also, with the latter, is adding a higher price tag with the larger image not recommended? Hi I would only use that option if you were using printed and shipped.

But for digital, you will need to justify the price. Also you will have loads of questions about sizes and potential refunds if they purchase the wrong size. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Skip to content 97 Shares. Grab the free Ebook today Learn how to get your art online and where to sell it Tools to get started selling digital online prints today Learn how which file sizes to sell so you can go hands-off right away Discovery why I get a 5-star review every time.

Finding the perfect gift on Etsy is easy — but let us look at why selling printables on Etsy is the ideal way to get started.

They send the files for you — Once you have made your perfect printable, upload it to your Etsy listing, and Etsy will send these files to you customer.

Cheap to get started — Starting an Etsy shop on Etsy is also relatively inexpensive to get started. Etsy charge 0. They have an excellent reputation for a wide variety of products. Which leads me to my next point. There are lots of tutorials online, and you can get your shop up and running in minutes. In recent years Etsy has gone a long way to make things more transparent for sellers and told them how to get found in search.

Make it once — sell it often. Take the first steps and see what you can achieve. Open a shop Get started by opening your first shop on Etsy. If you want to start off with free listings — use this link, and we both receive 40 free listings. So you can get started on Etsy for free. Decide on your Etsy shop name — This part is where most people click off and go and watch the tv. This post is all about deciding on your Etsy shop name.

You can delete the item later and once you are ready for your real products. Just get it as far as you can. Add photos to your products on Etsy — There is no perfect way to add product images to your shop. I would say make them light and bright. Try to use all ten image spaces if it is relevant. Keep the customer in mind. Market your products using Pinterest. This is an easy way to drive traffic to your shop from off Etsy and create your own customers.

Getting it right on Etsy! Get your digital copy of the Etsy Creative Planner — with everything you need to get started today Includes a full Calendar which you can print out Each planner includes links to my most valuable posts on getting started on Etsy Even if you have an Etsy shop already — this planner will organize your thoughts so you can create a map to success Bonuses include Tags pdf and much more.

Bundle products together — my best seller is three prints, which I put together one day. You realize so much its almost tough to argue with you not that I really would want to…HaHa.

Great stuff, just excellent! Rabindranath Tagore Poems in Hindi. There is no search feature in Etsy for just digital products so you can front load some success by picking a category that is part of the top level searches. This is a really good way to make money. I never use Etsy and today learned something new.

Thank you for sharing this. Hi, Thanks for sharing this blog with us, your blog contains very important information for us, I appreciate your work and effort.

I will be more than happy to explain how it works with Dropbox. You go to dropbox, upload the digital good, when the file has uploaded, create a link, and then share the link with the buyer. The buyer will click on the link and it takes them to a screen to download the file. Hi Nancy! My problem is that Etsy is not accepting my Dropbox link.

I must be leaving out a step? I have a page planner that I am trying to get uploaded. I get some sort of an error message that it has to be so many characters. Hoping you can help with this, thank you! You would need to include a document in JPG format that has the link on it for people to copy and paste. I hope this helps. Thank you for this article. I want to sell my art work on Etsy, and offer the digital download. My jpegs, which are just one unknown size, have been printed at several vendors in multiple sizes.

Sometimes I need to adjust the placement to get the whole piece in, and sometimes I just give up and take what I can get. I hope I am making sense and not rambling. Is there an app that you use? I currently use Adobe Photoshop to create and size my digital prints. In order to secure that your print will not get cutoff is making sure you are sizing it correctly. I am proficient with sizing images for print, but it is tedious to resize each and every digital image in my shop.

Time is money, as they say. Your blog was helpful. Good job. Nancy, I love that you are focused on women entrepreneurs! We have the mindset and I am so grateful for you sharing the skills. Thank you for a great blog. I am looking forward to starting a business on Etsy selling my artwork via digital downloads.

I appreciate all the great advice and look forward to reading more. I am glad that you enjoyed the post and find it useful. Thank you so much for the comment and good luck. I am about to publish my listings of printable art on Etsy. I have tried Keka and some archive app from app store on; none of them was able to reduce the file size significantly.

Great question! Unfortunately, their is no way to add a file on Etsy that is over 20MB. What I do is sign up for Google Dropbox, upload the file their, and create a downloadable link. I then upload a message on Etsy download section, saying use this link to download your purchase. It takes them to Google Dropbox where they can automatically download the file. This has been the alternative way to get the customer the file.

Nancy, thank you for your guidance,. Or do I have to go back in once the payment is confirmed and add the link? So the customer first would need to pay for your product. Then you would insert the link into a PDF Format where they can copy the dropbox url and paste on their web browser to have access to the download.

Brilliant article Nancy! Hey Nancy. I am totally new to Etsy and digital downloads, not too good on computers either but i am interested in selling my art but have no clue how to put my name across the front of the image to stop theft and for it not to appear on the downloaded image if it sells.

You can create a mockup using Canva. You can add a watermark to your mockup. Just to show you how powerful this method is, here are a few sellers who only sell digitally and do an incredible job:. Our sister company Book Bolt can actually be used to create these files, as well as create puzzle interiors.

Book Bolt also offers some free templates that you can customize yourself! For this tutorial, we are going to focus on creating an interior file for Kindle Direct Publishing that we can sell on Etsy. They are constantly looking for new interiors to put their covers on, so not only is this a great way to sell a digital product on Etsy, but over time, this turns into a lucrative business of repeat buyers!

To start creating this from scratch, make sure you have a Book Bolt account, and then head over to the Book Bolt Designer. Use the drop-down menu to select Interior and not cover , a trim size we recommend 6X9 as this is one of the most popular sizes to sell on Etsy , and a page count we recommend Select Bleed and then click on Submit.

The left side of the page and the right side of the page are both interior files. Whatever you put on these 2 pages will then replicate over the amount of pages you have selected when setting this up. Spend a bit of time creating something that looks great and is unique here!

You are creating what you will be selling on Etsy, so making sure you are proud of your product is important. This will then download your file as a 6X9 PDF that has pages and this is a file that is ready to upload to Etsy for sale as a digital file! You can then download this PDF to your computer and you are ready to upload it to Etsy.

That is the first method to creating something that will sell. Going along with the theme of creating digital downloads that can either be used on KDP Kindle Direct Publishing or Printables that you can offer for sale on Etsy, another great method of creating these is editing templates that Book Bolt also provides. Going to the Book Bolt homepage , under the resources tab, you can get to the interior wizard.

If you have an account, there are over templates that you can use, and if you do not, there are still many you can use for free! You have this Journal page, and you want to create a unique Etsy digital download.

So first, download a 6X9 version of this with just 1 page. To edit this completely free, we are going to use Google Slides. Google Slides is basically Power Point but free from Google. Go to Google Slides from this link. From here, click on Go to Google Slides and click on the start a new presentation button that is Blank.

Click Apply, and it will now be in the right dimensions. From here, click the boxes that say to add a title and delete everything from the page. We are now ready to import our PDF page. However, Google Slides will not allow us to import a PDF, so we need to first convert it to an image. Simply upload your PDF file that you downloaded, convert it and then download it again to your computer. We now have the PNG file, but it is not transparent which we need to do if we are going to edit this with Google Slides.

Take the file you just downloaded, and use this tool here to create the transparent PNG. Find yourself some graphics or patterns that you can add to the background or to the file you are creating. We like to use openclipart. This will open up many options on the right side menu.

The adjustments tab will then allow you to make this background transparent until you can see the page underneath it! Just like that, you have a modified cat template which you can use to sell on Etsy as a digital file! To replicate this across multiple pages, simply select the page on the left, copy it, and paste it, which will add a new page.

When you are finally done, go to file, download, and make sure to download it as a PDF! You can then package these up and sell them as digital downloads on Etsy for use on KDP, or as a printable for someone. These can either be sold to KDP sellers on Etsy, or you can sell them as printables that customers on Etsy can buy and print out for their kids. Now, if you have ever tried to create a puzzle from scratch in a design program, this can take AGES. This is why we recommend using a software to do this, and Book Bolt also includes a tool for these type of templates that we can create and then sell on Etsy.

You will want to log in to your Book Bolt account and from the dropdown on the left hand side, go to create, select PuzzleWiz and log in. This is fairly straight forward, but you select your size, number of pages, difficult, and click on download.

You can read more about that here:. Basically, you end up creating a bunch of different niche files, and these can then be bundled together and sold on Etsy as digital files!

Now that we have some files that we can list on Etsy as digital downloads, we have to figure out HOW to sell these things. Remember, anyone can list something for sale, but that does not mean anyone will actually BUY it. The way we do that, is to figure out what keywords and tags that we will need to use during the listing process by using…. If you do not have an account, make sure to get one at the very top of this page, or click on the pricing tab here.

All accounts have a 3-day free trial and you will need this in order to optimize your products correctly to make sure they are seen by the right audience. When you first log in to the tool, you will be presented with the dashboard that looks like this:.

While we recommend getting your current shop attached to the software as soon as you can, this article is about listing digital products.

The search function in Sale Samurai is broken down into 2 different tabs. You are literally selling them the art file as a jpg or pdf. This type of product covers a wide range of things, but quotes and watercolor art tend to do well. People love planners, especially when the planner sheets can be printed and reused over and over again.

So, consider making a daily planner sheet or even a monthly calendar. Coloring pages have made a huge comeback in recent years, especially for adults. Moms find these especially useful when looking for activities for their children. So exactly how much do printables on Etsy sell for? The best way to determine which price is right for your product is to compare it to your competitors and simply try different price points.

With Etsy, you can run sales on items. So consider pricing your printable on the higher end and see how it performs. If sales are slow, run a sale and see if it increases your purchases. This will allow you to be able to upload a digital file that will be delivered to your customer after purchase. To help market my products, I like to leverage Etsy ads.