How To People Make Game Templates On Etsy

Store owners across Etsy who offering digital downloads in their shop are selling everything from sewing patterns to party printables to beautifully designed resumé templates. Offering digital downloads is i way you lot tin add more listings to your shop and exercise your creativity. Plus, shoppers who purchase a digital download can have new art hanging in their home in minutes or starting time a new sewing project that day.

Selling digital downloads can also be a low-maintenance mode to stay in touch with your creative and entrepreneurial passions. They let you run an Etsy shop without having to worry about headaches like aircraft. Claudine Hellmuth sells printable souvenir box templates that she illustrates and designs. When she first started selling digital downloads on Etsy in 2011, Claudine was self-employed and had more fourth dimension to devote to creating new digital designs and marketing her shop. She recently went back to a full-time job as a graphic designer, but her Etsy shop remains a source of income on the side. "Information technology'due south such a great way to create passive income!" Claudine says. "Y'all don't take to store or ship your product and you can sell the same item multiple times."

Whether you're thinking about starting a new shop or but want to effort something new, these tips will help y'all get started selling digital items.

Getting started

Listing a digital download on Etsy is just like creating a listing for a physical product. When you create your list, you can now list it in 2 unlike means–equally an instant download or made-to-social club.

"Instant download" ways you'll upload the file when you create the listing and your customers will receive it immediately when they brand a buy. Yous can upload sound, image, or text files to your listing.

"Made to order" ways that afterward a buyer purchases the item, they'll receive an e-mail confirming the purchase but won't immediately receive the item. The society volition show up as an open lodge in your Orders & Shipping page so you can go along track of it as y'all work on the customization. When you've finished customizing the digital download, you lot can complete the order by uploading the digital file or files. See all the steps of listing a digital item.

Although no special skills are required to list a digital download on Etsy, a proficient working noesis of pattern programs like Adobe Illustrator will make creating files easier.

Think that a large role of running a business organisation on Etsy is learning and adapting your shop over time. Claudine recommends experimenting with selling digital downloads by starting with a few designs. "You lot don't have to look to accept hundreds of designs to open up your shop," she says. "List a few designs, see what your customers respond to and and then brand more of whatever category is selling well."

Tips for success

If you're already familiar with the process of listing and selling on Etsy, listing your first digital item should feel familiar. But, there are some nuances to know nearly when photographing and pricing digital items, and shoppers might have different client service expectations.

Photographing

In addition to stylized photos of a completed projection, Sarah Norwood of store Ohhh Lulu includes a fifth photo to explicitly state that the listing is for a downloadable sewing pattern.

Peachy photography is essential for whatsoever listing on Etsy, only photographing digital items and ensuring that shoppers empathise exactly what they're buying poses sure challenges. Sarah Norwood sells manus-sewn lingerie and digital download lingerie patterns in her shops Ohhh Lulu and Ohhh Lulu Sews. Sarah includes photos in her listings that communicate the artful of her brand and bear witness shoppers what they can create with her patterns. "I always try to create a mood with my photos," Sarah says. "So even if it'due south simply a film of the blueprint itself, I endeavor to requite information technology a romantic feeling or way information technology in such a way that people can really picture themselves using information technology."

Adding a stylized photo of the pattern itself has dramatically cut down on the number of confused customers Sarah encounters who think they're purchasing the finished item and non a blueprint. Emphasizing in your titles and tags that the item is a digital download can too help.

Simple props similar a vase of flowers and clean marble and wood surfaces are essential to a dwelling house photo setup. Photo from Etsy shop Mimi Design Prints.

Put the same care into photographing your digital download items as would a physical item. Gear up a frame for fine art prints with a few props and photograph it with natural low-cal. Complete a DIY projection to show shoppers what they tin can make with your patterns. Photos like this will help shoppers imagine what they'll create with your downloadable products.

Customer Service

A subtle imprint across the lesser on her listing images lets shoppers know that Claudine'southward production is a printable kit.

Digital products will save y'all storage space and trips to the postal service function, but they can sometimes require extra customer service endeavor. As a pattern seller, Sarah has found that her advice with pattern customers is much more in-depth than the questions she gets from shoppers who buy lingerie from her. "Sometimes customers demand more stride-by-step didactics, peculiarly if they're new to sewing," she says. "And so I might not spend a lot of time with order management, merely I spend a lot of fourth dimension helping people remotely." Sarah uses her blog to share more in-depth details and how-to'south with her customers. Creating these resources allows her to respond with a link for more info instead of repeatedly answering the same questions via Messages.

Claudine has too plant that shoppers sometimes need some additional resources to make the almost of their digital downloads purchase. On her YouTube aqueduct, she shares videos that prove exactly how to put together her printable, 3D gift boxes.

The questions and comments you receive from customers are a great opportunity to remember well-nigh how you tin can improve your pattern or download to make things clearer for time to come customers—saving you lot time and improving your customers' overall experience.

When y'all start selling digital downloads, you might also discover yourself answering customer's technical questions. "You'd be surprised how many people do not know how to download and open a PDF or are unsure how to change their printer settings from portrait to mural," Claudine says. She includes step-past-pace directions in the e-mail buyers receive with their files.

It may also exist helpful to go familiar with the printing process and colour modes your customers might be using. You can ship your designs to a few popular printers to see how they plough out—that style you lot tin can brand an informed recommendation to your customers and help them troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

Pricing

How practice you place a value on a digital detail? That question tin can be hard to answer if you're just getting started selling downloads. Beginning past thinking almost how much you would accuse for the particular if you were printing it, packaging it and mailing information technology. And be sure to consider how much time you put into each design and what you would consider a reasonable turn a profit. Then, add together on expenses like Etsy fees to settle on a final price.

Another business organisation is that selling digital downloads might take away from sale of your other products on Etsy, just Sarah says information technology'south unwarranted. "I was nervous to beginning selling sewing patterns considering I didn't want to take abroad from my lingerie sales, but I found that it'southward two different markets," she says. "The people who want to make their ain lingerie are not the same people who are going to buy made-to-order lingerie."

Offering digital downloads tin can aid you add together more listings to your store, reach different audiences and explore new sales channels. Information technology might besides salve y'all some time, and so yous can focus on creating new products and designs.

Exist sure to subscribe to our seller email list for important updates nigh your Etsy store, new features, and personalized tips to aid grow your business.