Your Essential Guide To Selling Digital Downloads On Etsy (2023)

Selling digital downloads on Etsy has become increasingly popular especially with the power of social media and creating products digitally.

Digital goods and products are on the rise, and according to this interesting survey, US adults are spending an average of $120 to $130 USD dollars per month on digital goods.

That means if consumers are investing money into digital products, it might be a good idea to start considering selling your own digital products. An easy, profitable way is to get started on Etsy.

This step-by-step, thorough guide will teach you exactly how to sell digital downloads on Etsy, and which resources are the most helpful for creating your own Etsy digital downloads.

Let’s dive right in!

Table Of Contents

What are digital downloads?

Digital downloads are products created in a digital format and are purchased on an online platform. For example, a digital download can be a printable fitness planner.

Let’s say someone was searching for a digital fitness planner that they could print out at home. All they have to do is make a purchase online and print it out from their own home.

Digital downloads are usually cheaper, faster, and more convenient than buying a physical product. Though, it really depends on a person’s preference in terms of what they want to buy and their budget.

How much can you make selling digital downloads on Etsy?

The range of how much you can make selling digital downloads on Etsy can vary. I’ve seen some big Etsy sellers make 6-figures making digital products on Etsy, and others who make a few hundred USD every year.

It really depends on what kind of product you’re selling and how high in-demand your Etsy digital downloads are.

HOW TO CREATE DIGITAL DOWNLOADS TO SELL ON ETSY

If you want to learn how to create digital downloads to sell on Etsy, here are two really popular products you will NEED to have in your toolkit!

1. Canva

Canva is a really popular website that many people use to create digital designs and products. Personally, I use Canva to create digital downloads for Etsy, as well as graphic designs for my blog posts.

Canva does have a pro subscription option called Canva Pro, which includes more graphics and pictures you can use.

But honestly, you could just use the free option and that’s enough!

It’s so easy to use a template size that Canva provides. Pictured below is the size of a flyer if you want to create flyers to print out for a campaign.

2. PicMonkey

Another very popular digital website is Picmonkey. It’s basically like Canva, but Picmonkey is also a photo editing website. So it has the dual feature of graphic design and photo editing combined.

If you would like to edit your Etsy listing photos, I highly recommend Picmonkey to do the job for you.

They even have the size options for you to create your Etsy photos (as pictured below):

HOW TO SELL DIGITAL DOWNLOADS ON ETSY (STEP-BY-STEP)

Now that you know which digital websites to create your digital products on Etsy, let’s jump into how to set your Etsy shop for success to sell those digital downloads!

TIP 1: Choose a profitable niche

Probably the most important tip you need to know before setting up your shop is choosing a profitable niche on Etsy. If your niche on Etsy doesn’t have any demand or no one’s really searching for it, then it’s more difficult to make sales.

You want to see what people are looking for. And how do you do that?

First of all, list 3-5 categories of digital products that you would want to create. If you want to find out the most trendy, popular digital products on Etsy right now, here are the 12 digital products that people are looking for.

After you’ve listed and brainstormed a few digital product niches you want to create, search up on Etsy to see if people are actually looking it up.

For example, let’s say you chose “homeschool printables” and searched it up in the Etsy search bar. You can clearly see that this is a high-in-demand product that many potential buyers are looking up.

You can see that many people are looking up digital products related to this niche such as “homeschool printables preschool”, “homeschool printables 6th grade”, ” homeschool printables kindergarten”.

So let’s say you do decide to focus on creating homeschool printables. You can start brainstorming a list of products to create (I would suggest listing 10 digital products you can design). You could create a homeschool printable for preschoolers, a math printable worksheet for 6th graders, a homeschool workbook for 6th grade English, etc.

There are so many different things you can create, but you need to make sure that people are actually searching up these products on Etsy!

TIP 2: Open your Etsy shop

Once you’ve chosen one digital niche that you can focus on, it’s time to open your Etsy shop! I know how overwhelming it can be to start a business or a side hustle, especially if you’re starting from scratch.

I honestly wish that someone gave me practical steps to open an Etsy shop because it would have saved me a lot of time.

I decided to create one myself because I figured, what if there are people like me that also feel overwhelmed opening an Etsy shop?

That’s why I created this step-by-step Etsy checklist that can eliminate any stress or overwhelm that you have.

You can literally open your shop in less than an hour following this checklist.

Open up your Etsy shop in less than one hour!

Grab this FREE step-by-step Etsy Checklist and start your business today!

TIP 3: List your digital products

After you’ve opened your Etsy shop, now it’s time to list your digital products.

I’m going to be honest – the most tedious part about listing your digital products is probably creating the digital product itself.

But once you get into a flow and start to feel more comfortable with using Etsy’s platform, it’ll eventually become second nature to you when it comes to listing digital products.

When it comes to typing out the tags, descriptions, and titles for your Etsy digital downloads, I would recommend choosing 2-3 primary keywords and then 2-3 secondary keywords.

For example, let’s say you are creating digital fitness planner. This is how I would list out my keywords.

Primary keywords: digital fitness planners, fitness planner printables, printable fitness planner

Secondary keywords: fitness planner for women, digital fitness journal, digital fitness tracker

Try to include these keywords in your description to help with ranking and your SEO score on Etsy.

I would highly recommend creating a template for your Etsy descriptions and just replace the keywords each time you create a different listing.

I would also challenge you to create 7 different listings every single day after you open your Etsy shop.

This will help Etsy to know what products you are creating, which will help you rank more easily on its search pages.

TIP 4: Promote your digital downloads

Once you open your shop, it’s time to start promoting your digital downloads! 🙂

There are several ways you can do this.

The first way, which is the one I’d HIGHLY recommend doing, is to tell your friends and family about your new Etsy shop! Why?

Because this is the EASIEST and FASTEST way to get sales.

The second way is to use Etsy’s ads and test out which of your digital listings do the best in terms of getting clicks from potential shoppers.

The third way is to promote on Pinterest. Etsy makes it really easy to promote your listings on Pinterest!

Think of this as free opportunities to promote your listings on a different platform that’s super easy and quick to do.

The fourth way is to promote on your personal social media accounts whether that’s Instagram or Facebook.

If you have a following and feel comfortable sharing your Etsy shop with people you know, then go for it 🙂

Okay, now that I’ve told you the steps to create and open your Etsy store to sell your digital downloads, we’re going to move on how to actually get sales!

TIPS TO MAKE SALES ON ETSY

TIP 1: Create digital products people are looking for

You want to make sure you’re actually creating digital products that people want. You want to make sure that your niche or products are actually marketable and in-demand.

Sure, there are seasonal products that sell better during the holidays or during a time of the year, but overall, you want to make sure your niche is somewhat competitive.

If a niche is competitive, you know that people are interested and searching these digital products on Etsy.

After three months, I hit 100 sales on my Etsy shop by focusing on a certain niche. Find out what I did to hit 100 Etsy sales in this post.

TIP 2: Run a sale on your shop

Another effective way to boost your digital downloads on Etsy is to run a sale for at least 3-5 days. Buyers on Etsy are more drawn to shops that have occasional sales.

When you first open your Etsy store, I would recommend a discount of 25-50% off your digital products. This will bring more clicks and visitors to your store.

You might think that you’re not really making a profit, but I think that’s the misconception a lot of people have when starting an Etsy shop.

Your goal with your Etsy shop isn’t to make as much money as possible, but to gain credibility and a few sales to start off with. This will help you increase your ranking, SEO, and visibility on its platform.

TIP 3: Use primary keywords in your title, description, and tags

I mentioned earlier in this post of how to use primary keywords after doing market researching.

Each time you list a product, you need to fill out your title, description, and tags for that specific listing.

BIG TIP: Do not skip over your tags! Even though tags are optional are Etsy, do not see them as optional! Tags help Etsy to identify what kind of product you are selling and which keywords you want to rank for.

Let’s say you are selling digital preschool wall art. I’ll break it down for you in terms of what your title, description, and tags could look like (so you get a better idea).

Digital product: Preschool Wall Art
Primary keywords: digital preschool decor, digital preschool wall art, preschool poster, preschool room decor, kid room decor
Title (what it could be): Preschool Room Decor, Preschool Wall Art, Digital Preschool Decor, Preschool Poster Printable, Kid Room Decor
Description: Check out this colorful, fun preschool poster that you could easily hang in your classroom! Want to add to your preschool wall art collection? This is perfect for your room!
Tags: preschool decor, preschool wall art, preschool room decor, preschool poster, kid decor

I hope the example above really gives you a better, more thorough idea of using primary keywords.

The more you create and publish listings, the easier it will be to understand the process of using keywords! 🙂

TIP 4: Ask family and friends for reviews

I’ve mentioned that the goal of starting an Etsy shop is to gain credibility, not necessarily profit. The profit will come, but in the beginning, you really want to focus on getting reviews.

The thing with Etsy’s user interface is that the first thing buyers will see are a shop’s reviews.

Etsy doesn’t show how many sales a shop has unless you click on the shop’s username and next to its profile, the number of sales will be shown.

Below is an example.

So if that’s the case, this shows that what could separate an Etsy shop from another is the number of reviews it has.

That’s why you NEED to build your credibility.

The best way to do is to have your friends and family review a product they bought from your shop. Remember: one review is better than none!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is selling digital downloads on Etsy worth it?

Definitely! Is it an easy process? No.

But if you have a digital product that is priced right and sells well on Etsy, the amount of time you spent creating the product will pay off in the long run.

What is the best file type for selling digital downloads on Etsy?Can you copyright digital downloads on Etsy?

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this guide to selling digital downloads on Etsy helpful!

I know starting an Etsy shop can feel really overwhelming. Take it one step at a time and give yourself grace when you don’t see any growth.

Building and growing your own digital Etsy business will take time! You got this 🙂

Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to get back to you!

Is It Worth It To Sell On Etsy? (Here Are The Pros and Cons)

5 Super Easy Ways To Increase Your Etsy Sales

How To Get Your First 100 Etsy Sales!

How Much Does It Cost To Sell On Etsy? (A Transparent Guide)

Your Essential Guide To Selling Digital Downloads On Etsy (2023)

What are digital downloads?

How much can you make selling digital downloads on Etsy?