by - Emily McDermott sells spreadsheet templates on Etsy for Google Sheets and Excel.
- According to McDermott, people don’t need to be experts in Excel to get started with this easy side.
- She breaks down five steps beginners should take to promote their Etsy shops.
In less than two years, I made CA$280,600 or about $210,000 on Etsy selling spreadsheet templates for Google Sheets and Excel.
I’m not a spreadsheet expert by any means, but I do know how to find digital products that are in demand and will help people save time on something that would normally take them much longer to do.
I haven’t seen many people talking about this, so I thought I’d share my best tips for starting a new passive income stream for yourself – the digital products they’re really good at.
1. I use eRank to find low competition, high demand keywords on Etsy
If you’re opening a new store or your store hasn’t done much sales yet, the fastest way to get traction is to make something that a lot of people are looking for, but not a lot of people are selling. yet
ERank is also extremely affordable compared to some other Etsy keyword tools. The most important feature that eRank includes is the “keyword tool”; this is an easy search function that you type in a keyword (the name of the
product you want to make) and learn the level of search volume and competition, as well as find other similar keywords that buyers are searching for. This tool is great for quickly analyzing a wide variety of keywords on Etsy.
The “keyword tool” is almost entirely what I use eRank for. It’s a strategic way to quickly identify the products you can make that are both in demand and not very competitive.
The other feature I use is at the bottom of the page “keyword tool”. You will see a list of the top 100 listings on Etsy for the keyword you are searching for.
I like to sort these lists by daily views, so I can see how much traffic the top lists for this keyword are getting each day. This helps a lot to confirm the level of demand for this keyword.
2. Once I have these keywords, I make more than one listing per keyword
Instead of trying to sell just one “bookkeeping template”, for example, I would list several variations of one.
This has two purposes. The first is to test which one sells best. The second is that when someone searches for “bookkeeping template,” they will see many of my listings – not just one of mine hidden among many others made by other sellers.
3. I keep all templates simple and focus on saving people time
You don’t have to make anything complicated for people to buy it, trust me. People are looking for a spreadsheet made for them because they want to save time on something that would take them longer to do themselves.
People also don’t want to be intimidated by tons of graphics and places to enter their information. They want to buy it and get something out of it in minutes.
4. I know that people want to buy a solution that they do not want to make themselves
If you look on Etsy, you’ll see that spreadsheets sell for a higher price, from $4 to $40, compared to printable PDF templates that sometimes sell for $1. It would take a lot more time and skill for customers to make a spreadsheet, so they are more likely to pay a premium for it.
5. I focused on a niche and built an email list around it
If you focus on a niche, such as bookkeeping or wedding planning, you can send customers back to your store the next time they need a template.
I focused on a niche and sent everyone a link to join my email list to order. It took me a while to see this value, but a few months in I emailed my list and made $800 that day.
You can get Convertkit for free when you have less than 1,000 people on your list, and this is what I used to get started.
Here are some ideas for spreadsheet templates you can sell on Etsy:
- Wedding planners
- Bookkeeping templates
- Habits trackers
- Cleaning checklists
- Free personal budget templates,
- Tracked debt payment
- Life planners
- Investment trackers
You can sell a spreadsheet version of almost anything that is currently selling as a printable that you think would be faster and even better in spreadsheet form.
I know making a spreadsheet can seem intimidating, but there’s a lot you can learn for free. I’ve used a lot of free tutorials on making graphs, customizing templates, etc.
If I had let my fear get in my way, I would not have earned a 6 figure income. My income grew when I went from selling $3 printables to $20 spreadsheets. And I was just selling batches of simple templates that I had already created.
If you are currently selling or thinking about selling printables, adding some spreadsheets to your income is a great way.
