---
title: 'The Secret to Your First Digital Product Sale in 5 Days'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=AUTQR6Wo4vw'
video_id: 'AUTQR6Wo4vw'
date: 2026-07-23
duration_sec: 2753
channel: 'Side Hustle Nation'
---

# The Secret to Your First Digital Product Sale in 5 Days

> Source: [The Secret to Your First Digital Product Sale in 5 Days](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AUTQR6Wo4vw)

## Summary

Chelsea, a former teacher, shares how she made her first digital product sale within 5 days by selling a spring cleaning checklist on Etsy. She emphasizes the importance of niching down, using keyword research tools to find high-demand, low-competition products, and creating compelling listing images. The episode covers her journey from zero audience to a thriving printables business, including strategies for product creation, bundling, and expanding to platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers.

### Key Points

- **First Sale in 5 Days** [00:02] — Chelsea made her first sale of a spring cleaning checklist PDF within 5 days of listing, with no prior audience.
- **Riches in the Niches** [01:12] — The more specific a product is (e.g., ADHD spring cleaning checklist), the higher the chance of selling.
- **Pricing Strategy** [01:53] — Digital printables typically sell for $1.50 to $5, targeting impulse buys. Editable files can command higher prices.
- **Product Research Process** [03:34] — Use Etsy's search bar and keyword research tools like eRank and Everbee to find high-search, low-competition keywords.
- **Keyword Research Tools** [06:45] — eRank shows historical data and trends; Everbee provides real-time data from the last 7 days.
- **Metrics for Success** [08:05] — Look for a click return rate (CRT) in the hundreds and competition under 20,000 listings. Sweet spot search volume: 4,000–6,000.
- **Seasonal Products and Autopilot** [10:08] — After the first year, seasonal products sell on autopilot. Chelsea has created over 700 products, focusing on games and sports printables.
- **Adding Value with Bundles** [16:44] — Bundling related items (e.g., adding signage to fundraising templates) increases perceived value and allows higher pricing.
- **Importance of Listing Images** [24:34] — The main listing image is crucial for clicks. Use zoomed-in shots and callout bubbles to intrigue without giving away the full product.
- **Expanding to Teachers Pay Teachers** [27:31] — Chelsea repurposes seasonal and morale-boosting products for teachers, generating about 25% of her revenue from TPT.
- **Tools of the Trade** [36:24] — Canva is the backbone for design. Profit Tree is a newer tool that combines metrics from eRank, Everbee, and Insight Factory.
- **AI's Role in Printables** [37:20] — AI helps with brainstorming and design ideas but won't replace the need for attractive, ready-made products.
- **Advice for Beginners** [41:11] — Don't overthink or compare your journey. Start before you feel ready and follow the demand, not your personal preferences.

### Conclusion

Digital printables offer a low-risk, high-margin business model that can generate passive income. Success comes from niching down, using data-driven research, and creating compelling listings. Start small, follow demand, and scale over time.

## Transcript

passive digital products and she made her first sale after just 5 days starting with no audience. That's how you find the things that are in demand. that's when I really started to see success. Low risk, high margin sales.
The trick is finding those low competition niches where you can stand >> That the riches are in the niches. So, the more niche that you can get with chance that you would have that it's going to sell. Stick around to learn
process, her favorite marketplaces to sell on, and subtle strategies you can use to drive more sales. What was the product? It was a spring cleaning >> Spring cleaning checklist. Um just a PDF designed in Canva,
designed in Word, whatever, you know, uploaded to Etsy? Yes, so it was just like a one-page um PDF that I designed and created within Canva. This was uh this was 4 or 5 years ago. Do you think now it would have to be
more niche, like spring cleaning checklist for two-bedroom apartment in the northeast? Or like do you do you think it'd have to be more specific or is like there's still opportunity there?
there. Um a lot of time, like what we talk about with Gold City Ventures and students, is that the riches are in the niches. So, the more niche that you can get with something that you create, the higher uh chance that you would have
definitely like I can think of things that are trending today when it comes to be like an ADHD spring cleaning checklist and you're targeting a more specific audience with it. Okay. Spring cleaning checklist for,
you know, for kids, to get the kids to help out around. Okay, but first sale within 5 days. What is a printable cost or like something like this, a simple one-page file? Typically, they range anywhere from it
could be a $1.50 to $5 tends to be like the sweet spot, and then depending on like any things that you add to it, like if you wanted it to be something that's fillable where they're like typing information and then printing it out,
that increases your dollar value for it. But, uh typically between that $1.50 and $5 range. Okay, which is just targeting this kind of impulse buy price point. Cuz my first hunch is like
what at a certain point people just start going to chat GPT and checklist." And it's like it's got to be compelling enough and well-designed on my fridge and I'm going to check it off as I go." And if it's if it's $2,
sure, like it's worth it to to have that form pre-formatted for me. Yes, absolutely. Definitely a a time-saver. For the editable files, is that also Canva? Like that that gets a little more complex for me.
So, you can create them using Canva and um you use it you basically would create would give to your customers so that then also there's ways that you can do it using like Adobe.
Um so that when they download their product, they're using the Adobe free type in their information, and hit print. Okay. Okay. What what led you to spring cleaning
checklist as an opportunity? And this is just one example and you know, for the sake of preventing copycats, Chelsea's store name is going to be going to little bit about this product research process or niche
research process. What goes into it before you ever set, you know, pen to paper or keyboard to mouse here in in the design process? So, a lot of it is looking to see what the what is in demand, meaning what are
people actively searching for. And a lot of times you can find that information just searching on Etsy itself to see the types of products that people are in. Um from there you can take that
information and apply it to using like keyword research tools to see what keywords you can pair with like your ideas that you have to create a product. And once you validate that, you know, there's demand for this product and that
for. And especially like with Gold City Ventures, we target um high search but low competition keywords. That's when you kind of find definitely something that I want to look into and I want to make." So then you
"This is what I'm going to create and this is what I'm going to list." Yeah. mean, those are unicorns. High search, low competition. Sure, that sounds great. Like Are you still finding those? Do they still exist? Yeah, they really
do still exist. And a lot of times, um you know, when you're doing it and you you're doing the keyword research and you're trying to find it, sometimes you stumble across the unicorns, right? So you may not have been thinking you
wanted to make the the clean spring cleaning checklist, but it's there. The you say, "Okay, then I'm going to focus and I'm going to make this." So lots of opportunities are still there to find. Yeah. So if I'm starting out in, you
know, maybe I have a niche in mind and you know, you mentioned you you can find some of these potential keywords just looking on Etsy themselves. So you know, podcasting or podcast
production or you know, podcast sponsorship or something like that, and it starts to, you know, I've used the auto complete to kind of get a gauge of there? Yes. So as you're typing into that
search query, typically on Etsy that drop-down box happens and it will start people are actively searching for. So even if I did a broad keyword such as podcast, it's going to complete with like the next couple phrases um
searching for and then that's another way that you can find things that are in And that won't necessarily give you the search volume, but it does show you some some percentage of the population is looking for that. Yes.
indicator that you might have something there. And you can look at the products They don't give you the ratings per product, do you though? It's like by the store. Like the shop overall has a, you know, five-star rating and thousands of
product level? Yes. So, Etsy recently has made updates and changes from back from when I first started, but you can go to a specific product now and the reviews are now tailored to show you specifically for
everything for the overall shop. So, that also helps to give you, uh, a or not there's demand for it. Cool. Cool. Cool. Any other tools that you like on the research process? Yes. So, I like using eRank. Um, that
helps me see like historical data and trends over the last 12 months. I also like to use Everbee. Um, it's an extension that you add on to your browser that will show you data in real time within like the last 7 days. So,
that really helps when you're trying to hop on to like a more recent trend or see what is trending. Um, that's a really good one to use. I also like with trends, um,
like I sell seasonal products, so seeing what those up and coming trends may be. Okay. Trying to look forward versus looking back. Cuz going to tell you, well, what got searched the last 30, 60, 90 days or
something, but you kind of want Well, 4th of July is coming up. Are you know, I understanding that? Yes. you wouldn't get like the snapshot data in real time for that upcoming season,
historically what happened the year prior and then there's other things that you can use to help you uh kind of predict what is going to be or how it's going to be that season. Got it. Is there a minimum search volume
um look good here or look good to you? Okay, so when I am looking on eRank for example, um it is showing me the CRT or
the click return rate and basically you want that number to be roughly in the hundreds meaning that um you know if someone is clicking on it or they're seeing it they're clicking it. So you want that to be high. Then
when you're looking at overall like competition, you typically want to be in competition, you typically want to be in a range of less than 20,000 because then competing with 20,000 sellers on Etsy which I know sounds like a lot, it
small percentage compared to the amount of sellers that are on Etsy. It's really small. So it's actually like, "Oh my gosh, there's not that many and I can see that there's a demand for this because people are clicking on it
and purchasing and that sort of thing. So those are two of the metrics that I Okay. And then anything on the search volume side? already. Typically less than 20 would indicate to
looking for that which does not necessarily mean that you cannot make harder especially if you're looking at a specific keyword to rank for it. But if you can find a sweet sweet spot in between like 4,000 and 6,000, that
typically is that kind of like light bulb going off like this is something to hop into especially if you see that your competitors are >> Yeah. I remember Cody saying even if
there are 50 searches a month, but if I can capture 20% of that search volume because there's no competition, then why wouldn't I make that product? Cuz it's 50 bucks a month, 100 bucks a month. You know, it was just like, "Okay, stack
those up and and and go to town." That's definitely obviously the higher volume, the better. Yes.
So, you transition into making seasonal products and once they're I guess that makes sense for a new shop. Like this is up-and-coming. I can make you can kind holiday or the next season is and and start to make some sales there
hopefully and then kind of once you've done a whole year of cycle, now you kind of you have the full shop built out. Yes. And then it kind of just runs itself on autopilot. I would say after my first year being into it, that was
about it was here comes all these holidays and seasons again and yes, I could add additional things to keep up with trends and stuff, but a lot of the things that I had poured my time into creating, they were just selling over
and over if not more than what they had already sold that previous season or already sold that previous season or year. history, some proof behind it a little bit and as well as the shop has some
social proof and metrics to say, "Yeah, now we can we can keep going." Do you continue to add more product like what's the product's um products have you created up to this point?
point? I'm well into like 700. Um I obviously a know, I was putting things up to see what was working, what was not working, so I wind up drafting things. So, I have a ton, but then as you go through it,
you know, you learn to scale back on working on what works versus what works. obviously going to sell cuz sometimes you might have this really good idea and the data's showing you like, "Yes, you should do this." but it can just depend
sometimes, so it's kind of just being flexible with it. Yeah, I think that could probably be the frustrating part to pour some uh time and effort and energy into creating the thing and just having it
creating the thing and just having it not ever drive any results even after research. Oh, there was a 5,000 search volume and less than 20,000 competition and still nobody ever found the thing. But if you don't do that and you just
create stuff willy-nilly like your odds are even lower. Yes, and I will say too when I first started out I kind of had this mindset of like need to pay attention to the research. I
cuz obviously I like it someone else is going to like it and it kind of took getting into the understanding of no, if you follow the data you follow the that are in demand and those are the things that people are looking for. So
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one-page checklist type of product? Are you doing art, thank you cards, fill-in-the-blank forms? I mean, to to be able to create 700 products, there is a creative piece inside your brain that
intimidating like, "Oh, wait, I got one idea." And then, you know, maybe that next. But, it's like or, you know, we met somebody who was doing like trivia and I guess okay, once you have the template, you can use it. But, like, you
talk to me about this you know, any categories that you like process. Overall, I like seasonal, but I tend to Overall, I like seasonal, but I tend to focus a lot of my um creation in games,
cuz those do really well. And then I also dabble in because my my kids play sports, so I have a lot of sports printables in terms of like organization, like thinking like team mom, or, you know, you need that
concession stand snack sign-up kind of list type things like that. So, for me, what I attempted to do with a lot of these is I would have these broad ideas, "Okay, if I want to create something
what types of printable products would somebody be buying for that?" And then I might write out a list of every single type of thing, and then, you know, go what can I create? What is in demand? What do people need?"
Okay. And I suppose you could use AI to help brainstorm that list, too, and kind of cross-reference some of the keyword research tools. Yes. You can. Sometimes, um
it can help streamline the process of what you're doing, or um give you a little bit more of ideas to like dive into. Or, if I have a product idea that I see that's in demand, and I see that other, you know,
sellers have, too, what's something that I can add to my product to add value, so more than what those other sellers have? And sometimes AI is really helpful with giving you those kinds of ideas. What would be an example of a of a like
you're doing? Okay, so I have made in the past like fundraising templates, and during the holidays, um I'm thinking like Christmas time, schools do like candy cane grams, where, you know, the kids get to give a
candy gram to their friend, and that sort of thing. So, I had this product, type the information, or they could write on it when the kids bought it, but then I was trying to figure out, "Okay, well, what's something that I could add
well, what's something that I could add that my uh competitors might not also have?" And one of the things was signage. So, posters typically are know that a fundraiser is going on. So, I included that in mind in addition to
um cards that the kids would fill out and give um to their classmates or the people in the school or whatever. So, then that helped my product to take off more because now it's this all-in-one
have to buy cards and now I have to buy this poster, too. Got it. Got it. And I imagine you command a higher price point because now it's a now it's a bundle or the the perceived value is much higher. Like I
wanted this one thing, but uh you know, the ultimate goal, like putting yourself ultimate goal is raise money for the school or whatever it is. It's like, okay, what are the other things they're going to need to realize that goal? Yes,
absolutely. And that definitely bundling things together as you start to get into it, that's another way to increase, you know, your value or your average sale. Is it a thing on Etsy to get the customer's email or contact
information to be able to promote the next product that the you know, the the 4th of July trivia game, but now it's you know, Halloween or just is there
something like a remarketing element to the people who engage with your shop? Sort of. So, Etsy does capture like your buyer's information and then they have those things and they will automatically send out to your previous buyers,
especially if they follow like your shop, anytime you post new listings or that sort of thing. But as far as and then you as the seller reaching out to them to let them know, Etsy typically
doesn't like for you to do that cuz they do a lot of that on your behalf. Okay, so Etsy's doing that marketing. We've heard from other sellers where they'll include some kind of lead magnet, opt-in bonus where you
because they're trying to sell in some cases the same or similar products through their own shop and you could see where that might be a gray area with Etsy. Like, "Ah, you know, we really we really like to make our sales commission
on this and and not have you go to the buyer direct." But that may be part of a kind of a toehold strategy where it's marketplace and the millions of buyers to get in front of this target audience
compelling email magnet for my newsletter or whatever it may be, maybe I can start to build an audience or or build a list that way. Yes. And it also like another way that you could go about it, you know, without directly taking
their email address, when you create your PDF that's being delivered to them with your printable, you might include that page that says, you know, sign up for my newsletter to get 15% off your next purchase. So, then they're clicking
that way and they're signing up on their own and then now you have them a part of like your email list and then you can send them those updates. Got it. Got it. Okay, so you can include some kind of self self-promotion in in
sense. >> Yes. Yes. Okay. I guess you can discount it as much if it Oh, 15% sure. The my incremental cost is nothing. Like if you know, it's a digital file. Like sure.
Um Do you run like shop-wide sales or your the people who opted in, but anything else like a concerted sales effort or like, "Hey, it's a
something? Yes. So, usually um I've done like sales each month um So, like just like you said like, "Oh, it's St. Patrick's Day and we're
offering this much off of St. Patrick's Day." Or it might be this much off of for the whole shop um discount. But one of the one things that we've had success with that we do is we will offer throughout the entire shop,
if you purchase three products, you receive 25% off. And most uh sellers in our community, they run this and they run it year-round um just like as an shop, they may have come there for one thing, but then they see that they can
get three for 25% off. Sometimes they're like, "Hey, I'm going to buy more." So, have. Okay. Yeah, I like that. You see that on other other shops like physical product shops will be like, well, to get free
shipping, you got to buy $75 and you know, conveniently every product is $69. Right. No, I'm sorry. >> to get that one extra thing. >> Um very good. I had a question about the
product creation process. Like, were you Did you have a background in design or were you doing any of this stuff before? Not really. I was a classroom teacher, elementary. Um I would create assignments, but not to
assignment, it was like, you know, a Word document where I'm typing in questions that I need my students to answer or I might have created a very nice visual PowerPoint if I was being observed that day by my principal. But,
nothing like in-depth or very intricate or anything like that. Were you able to use any of that stuff that you'd previously created to kind of was useful to me as a teacher, maybe other school teachers would find this
valuable. I'll I'll put it up for sale. Surprisingly, no. So, the district that Surprisingly, no. So, the district that I taught in, they were very strict about implement it into your classroom, it belongs to them and not to you.
>> That's our IP now. Really? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, it it was a little tough with me having the teacher background and I'm like, oh, I could do this or I can't really use any of the things that I've already done. So, it's kind of like
wasn't too big of a deal. Yeah. My other question is there's a template for just about anything you could want but I imagine everybody's using the same or
similar tools and like do they is there a a great averaging of the the all kind of meets in the middle? Like to what extent do you can you use the what extent do you can you use the templates or do you have to kind of
that you know, maybe borrows from the best practices, but still has your your own your own unique flavor? The templates that are already existing in Canva, you cannot use those templates to recreate and make new templates. You
little bit of inspiration. You're not going to want to copy directly from what they have, but a lot of times you'll find more success just creating things on your own and then repurposing it each time as a template.
>> Okay. Got it. Okay. So, Etsy does some promotion on your behalf. Um, initially you're relying on the organic search traffic research search and discoverability on Etsy.
best practices do you follow when it trying to make it stand out against the potentially other 20,000 sellers with something really similar offering? So, one of the best practices that I do
is really focusing on my listing image, specifically the main listing image. So, that image is what attracts buyers to your product because Etsy, you know, it's a search engine, but it's a visual
you know, the keyword that they're looking for or whatever product that they're looking for, but what gets people to click on your product is what they see. So, you want to make sure that first image is so show-stopping that
out." and they stop scrolling, you know, it stops the scrolling you get the click. So, I put a lot of emphasis on those main listing images to make sure that they're show-stopping. What works well here? Cuz if I have a
one-page spring cleaning checklist and I show the product, and my initial fear is like, well, somebody's just going to copy that buy the thing anymore. So, with that there are ways that you
can finagle your listing images. So, you might have your spring cleaning checklist and you might zoom it in so you can't see the entire thing, and then then maybe you have like a callout bubble of like some of the features, but
not too many cuz you don't want it to be too distracting. But, kind of you what your product is so that someone couldn't just come and say, "Ooh, let me purchasing the product." Yeah, this is a fine line between
Yeah, this is a fine line between giving away the secret sauce, but think of it like like this is your YouTube thumbnail like for your for your product, right? It's got to insight some level of curiosity, but also sell the
next click. Like get somebody to look into the product description and then you get more details for what it's all about. Yes, exactly. And then you're you're allowed to have a ton of different images like up to eight
or something plus a video. Do you do you have to fill all that in or is like if dude, how many images can I create for a one-page little digital product? You them. So, when I first started out you got 10 spots. So, you had your 10 spots
and you had your one for your video. Um, and it could be tricky at those times to fill all 10 cuz that was what was recommended. But, within like the 20. So, you have a lot of room to showcase
your product and kind of talk about the features of your product versus just pictures of your product. Like you can break down the features cuz a lot of times people don't read your product description. They're scrolling in your
questions that they have. Yeah. >> Um so you can utilize all that space for use all of them. You just want to make sure whatever number you decide to use, buyers would have, but they are not going to go to your description to read
going to go to your description to read to make the sale. those as more of descriptive text rather than relying on somebody to read read >> Yes. The other interesting thing that you've
done is syndicating some of your products that would be a good fit over to another digital products platform that's Teachers Pay Teachers. And I don't know if you have to have educator credentials to sell on this
site, but these are resources for teachers to use in the classroom. And created outside of the school district. It's not their intellectual property, but other assets that could benefit teachers. And talk to me a little bit
teachers. And talk to me a little bit about that um you know, extra leg of the the revenue stool here. Yes. So once I found success on Etsy, I obviously because I used it in my classroom, but I was curious with since
a lot of my products were seasonal, were these things that I could put on over there? Would it lend itself to that audience? So I kind of started experimenting with some of them in terms of say that I have a game set up for um
4th of July, is that something that could sell in the classroom? Is that a game that a teacher would one day sit there and say, "Hmm, what's something I could do with my class?" Cuz like for me, I used to get to school at 6:00 and
some days we just didn't really have a whole lot to do and I'm like, I need an typing and searching and trying to find something. So, then it's like, oh, you know what? Like Mother's Day is coming up. I need a handprint art activity.
That's something that could sell that's not necessarily educational per se, but it's something that a teacher would look for. So, I started trying to draw the parallels between what are some of these more fun, less stress,
less academic activities that I know that teachers might need and I started found like, oh, these actually do sell over there. Um another thing that I started thinking about is like school morale, right? So, you have like your
PTAs, you have PTO, you have like a sunshine committee and sometimes they're creating things or they need things to capture information about like this teacher student body or not student body, but the teacher body in terms of
things. So, that when they do those they're able to buy you little treats and that sort of things. That's something that they're looking for and you wouldn't necessarily think of that
right away, but um those are the kinds of things that I kept testing out and already had, all I had to do was shift it over to Teachers Pay Teachers, apply it towards that audience and I landed sales that way, too.
Okay, that makes sense. Then then we get those sheets from the year. Oh, my favorite thing, you know, I love to shop at Target and Amazon and you're going to give me a gift card, these are the things I like.
play we called it Michelleton's favorite things so that they would know what I like, we knew you like Milk Duds and I'm like, how did you know? How did you guess? Okay, perfect. Is is there a separate
product research keyword research process to that dedicated platform or it's like, look, Etsy is kind of the behemoth here and I assume you know, a translation if it has a lot of search volume over here, I imagine people are
looking for similar stuff on TPT. Yes. So, they can kind of run parallel side by side, but also with Teacher Pay Teacher, what I like about it is their search bar literally captures what people are looking for in real time. So,
you don't really necessarily need external um keyword research or anything bar and it's going to auto-populate what everyone's searching for in that moment literally take that information and create from it.
create from it. Okay, got it. And similar pricing like the expectation is these are going to be sub $10 products. Yes. with Teacher Pay Teacher, too, you got to kind of put on your your hat and your
mindset of cuz again, I said $1.50 to $5 earlier. sometimes teachers are willing to pay a lot more for things because it's something that they don't have to do, they don't have to create. So, you're
little bit more on Teacher Pay Teachers, but also sometimes, you know, teachers, they're overworked, underpaid. So, they're looking for potentially not know, like a decent price that they would be willing to buy. So, keeping
those factors in mind. Yeah, this is Yeah, it's an interesting where yeah, make it uh make it affordable, make it kind of that convenience and time-saving pitch versus you know,
trying to rake somebody over the coals with the with the high price. Yes. It's very much a volume game um at these, you know, low price points. It's like I'm going to need to make a lot of sales to get to my income goals, and I'm
the products that I create cuz I don't know what is going to be a hit there. Are there other platforms? Like so, Etsy's big one, Teachers Pay Teachers is a is a chunk of the pie. Like what piece of the revenue pie do you estimate it
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>> Yeah. Um but, you know, it just kind of depends on what your focus is with that cuz I have friends that do both and it's 50/50. I've had friends that are specifically just Teachers Pay Teachers and Etsy is kind of like their
side hustle of their side hustle. So, they might have 75 and then 25. So, it just kind of varies and depends on what path you kind of pursue and go down. platforms that are getting into the digital
product space? Like, do you see Amazon coming into this world? Yeah. I've seen with Amazon, they have a lot of the the KDP and the um POD like the print on demand kind of
space with printables. And a lot of people, what they will then do, so like if you say you're selling on Etsy these printables, then you go to Amazon and you create like, you know, the packet that someone could buy and they could
As far as like digital downloads, I want to say it was a couple years ago Amazon >> have to you'd have to print it out and ship it to the person. Okay. Either that Well, yeah. For that, you would have to do that, yes. Um they used to have a
platform with Amazon that was supposed to rival Teachers Pay Teachers where you could get these educa- educational products or activities and stuff, but it kind of flopped over there. The beauty of like a printable or a download is,
with Amazon, you know, it's more physical or the more tangible things kind of exist separately, but you could make them coexist. Does that make sense? Yeah.
mentioned eRank, mentioned EverBee, you Insight Factory. Anything else that helps you run this business on a on a very part-time or hands-off basis? Uh Canva, 1,000% the backbone of everything. There's a
newer um tool that just kind of is starting to gain a little bit of traction called Profit Tree, which it kind of just encompasses all three. Like I use eRank, Everbee, and Insight Factory for different metrics, and
Profit Tree kind of combines all those metrics together. So, I've been like dabbling with that and seeing like how can this, you know, impact my business? does everything, that would be beautiful, so I don't have to have
>> Yeah, simplify. Simplify the uh the monthly payroll there. Yes. Have you seen the impact of AI with, you know, if I want to just saying, "Well, look, why don't I either create this product myself or
draw some app?" I don't know. I'm curious what if you put on your bring out your crystal ball and see where you see the future of printables going. see the future of printables going. Um so, I do see AI, you know, helping
with the production of printables. I don't think it necessarily will take over. The average person is not necessarily going to, let's say, Chat GPT for instance and being like, "I need the spring cleaning checklist." They're
not. They a lot of times want that thing that's already created for them and it is attractive. Um with Chat GPT, they might not even know what to type in for their search query to even get it, or they spend a so much time,
you know, trying to redo their prompt to try to get it exactly what they need it, and it kind of takes a lot of understanding of how that works. So, because it can help you and you have that understanding of how it can like
that understanding of how it can like uh increase your product output, I don't think that as we get into the future that it's going going something that is going to become inferior to the printable production itself.
the brainstorming, you're using it to help physically, well not physically, but digitally create the the things? Yeah, so a lot of times too, like again, I I do not have a graphic design background. I
sometimes. Like I can have an idea in my head, but sometimes I can't get it out on paper. So, you can ask, you know, you're giving these prompts to try to help you create it and it literally can give you, okay, these colors go well
together. You want to try to use fonts that look like this and basically give trying to create and then you open up Canva and you're doing what it's asking your head, but you couldn't get out yourself. If that makes sense.
>> Okay. Got it. Got it. helping Gold City Ventures students. You're running the shop. What's What's a day in the life of a of a printables
I've kind of grown my shop now to be pretty hands-off, pretty like super to work on it if I don't feel like working on it. Um so that I can take my time and focus it in other areas of whatever it is that I'm working on.
Um in addition to like, you know, Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers, I've started dabbling in the print on demand space. So, I like that I have the time to learn a different ballgame over there. But learn those kinds of things and I have
this thing running on autopilot that I don't necessarily have to worry about. community helping students and coaching them and making sure that they succeed the same way that I succeeded um as far as getting sales and being successful
with it. Yeah, do you like the print on demand world? Do you think that's where the the future of the shop is? What I love about printables is because you don't have to have inventory. So
then what I like about print on demand is you also don't have to have, you know, the physical inventory on you. But, I'm just so hesitant because, you know, you've got a third-party fulfilling those things for you. And I'm
it's right?" Right? Cuz if I created what it's supposed to look like, buyer buys it, it gets sent to them, but what if it's not hesitancies with that. And I know there's thousands of people that have
huge success with print on demand. So, I'm getting there, but it's like baby do it. Yeah, I mean, that's another one. It's super fun. It's like very creative to come up with these designs, but also a
volume game of throwing a lot of digital spaghetti at the wall to see which ones which ones hit. But, it's cool. If you were starting over, or maybe you were advising a new digital product seller, like, what mistakes or what
journey? Um if I just start, a lot of people, you know, they take the time, they do the they're comparing things. Don't do that.
your future self will thank you for later. Like, that would be my biggest piece of advice. And then, my other piece of advice, don't compare your journey to everyone else's. Like, your journey is yours to walk alone, and it
may go slow, it may go fast, but you're working at your own pace, and success is to get there. Yeah, I imagine this is one where putting in the time building out the initial design, and then hopefully it's
initial design, and then hopefully it's a repeatable template that can you can products out of the same thing, or or even more. We had one one woman in print on demand who was like, "Oh, yeah, I would go crazy." Uh you know, I was I
it was like a T-shirt with a clever saying for teachers or for nurses. But know, police officers and doctors and every profession you can think of. I'll make the same shirt following the same
template for that. And I imagine kind of a similar space here. you're just in the print on demand. You got the coaching going on. Um actively adding new products or where you want to take this thing?
up. Like I said, you've mentioned before, I have three kids. I'm super But my youngest, he's about to go to kindergarten in the fall. So I'm excited because that's going to give me lots of time during the day to get things done.
So I'm ready to like dive back in and just really build like I did when I Yeah, you start to stack these up and jump up to the next income tier. I hope so. I'm excited for for what comes next there. Side Hustle Nation dot com slash
there. Side Hustle Nation dot com slash GCV for Gold City Ventures is my direct referral link for their Etsy printables program. There is a launch going on at the moment with I think some special bonuses and extra cost to you this week
or at the time of publication. Side Hustle Nation dot com slash GCV GCV for that for Gold City Ventures. Of course, we'll link that up in the show notes as well. Chelsea, this has been awesome. Appreciate you coming by sharing your
insights here. Let's wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation. Start before you feel ready. Whatever, you know, side hustle you're ready to hop into or you feel that you're ready
start. Just start. There's only one known cure for imposter syndrome and that is doing the work. So a couple takeaways for me before we wrap. Chelsea mentioned this, you follow the demand. Like don't create
the thing that you want to create. Follow the thing that the people want. instead of the other way around. And you know, the question comes up, well, can this be a full-time thing? Obviously, yes. I mean, if you can make a thousand
dollars, but maybe it is more realistic as an incremental income stream to a that you're already working on. Maybe you could sell your digital sawdust in some way, the byproducts of what you're already using or creating for your your
main work, or you could be a fun gamified side project trying to stack up these little mini digital assets. Okay, and celebrating the milestones along the Could I get to 100 bucks a month? Could I erase my you know, car insurance?
Could I erase my cell phone bill? Could I do all these things with with you know, quote unquote passive income? So, very exciting business model, one that appeals to me. If you're wondering what to listen to next, you want more digital
sure to check out the greatest hits episode with with Rachel, which should be I think the next one down in your feed, where we had a little time travel her very recently. And also, we had Cody from Gold City Ventures on last year in
episode 6 65 talking about how he took a brand new shop to a thousand dollars a month in just four months in response to some haters. So, you got like, "Oh, in 2018 or whatever. Let's see you do it today." It's like, "Challenge accepted."
I love it. Anyways, big thanks to Chelsea for sharing her insight. Big this content free for everyone. sidehustlenation.com/deals is where to go to find all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
That is it for me. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you find a value in the share it with a friend. So, fire off that text message. Somebody needs to hear this this business idea, this business model. Until next time, let's
go out there and make something happen, and I'll catch you in the next edition and I'll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show. Hustle on.