Podcast Episode 18: 8 Things You Can Sell on Etsy That You Don’t Have to Make With Your Hands

Welcome back to this week’s show, friends! How is your December going so far? It’s been a pretty intense week over here! I turned the big 4.0. on Tuesday which was wild because I still just feel like a wise-ish 30 year old. But it was good! We also now officially have EVERY podcast up on Youtube in case you’d prefer to watch my crazy antics. Hahahaha!  (I’ll link the channel in the shownotes for you!) And TODAY we shipped the very last of our holiday Etsy orders. Woohoo!!! So I am breathing a sigh of relief—and saying a little prayer that everything arrives in one piece! LOL!

On the last episode-- which was this year’s holiday survival guide for Etsy—I mentioned that we put our shop on vacation mode early this year and I’m pretty thrilled with that decision right about now. Hahaha! Yeah, I’m a big advocate for deciding in advance how much you want to work—what you goals are--- what your family needs—and letting that be good enough!

For so many years, I just let the business and the orders drive me rather than me driving the business. And it worked well for a while! We made a lot of money and really built the business up—but if you function that way forever, it’s a recipe for burn out. Been there, done that, got the tshirt…. Not planning a return trip. LOL!

So for now I’m going to focus on this coaching business and podcast and figuring out how to serve you guys better—and I’m REALLY looking for to it. By the way—I just love it when you guys reach out to me and let me know what questions you have or ask if you’d be a good fit for coaching, or just provide feedback! So please receive this as your open invitation to shoot me any email at [email protected] or DM me on Instagram. I’m over at @HowtoSellYourStuff

And with that--- let’s get into this week’s topic! One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from you guys is about what to sell on Etsy (especially that would fall more into the digital space or NOT crafty space hahaha) so I figured if that many of you are curious--- let’s just make it an episode!

So today is allllll about product ideas that you can sell on Etsy that you don’t actually have to make with your hands! And in a few weeks, I’m going to do another episode on what I think the biggest Etsy trends are going to be for 2022—so, if you haven’t already, subscribe to the podcast so you can see when the new episode drops each week!

You know what--- this also gives me an idea! If you know of an expert or a super cool Etsy shop that you’d love for me to interview on the podcast--- will you please DM or email me about them? I’m getting SO excited about next year and all of the AMAZING guests we have lined up. Like, this show is going to be such a blast you guys, I can’t even stand it! So PLEASE—if there’s someone you think I should invite on the show, I want to know about them! 😊

Ok squirrel moment over--- but that was good stuff.

Here we go with our list of non-handmade Etsy products!

1) Vintage items- 20 years or older

• Find them at garage or estate sales, thrift stores, good will, flea markets, ebay, your garage

When I did just a basic search today for the most shopped vintage items it showed that these were the trends:

Vintage Rings, Vintage sweatshirt, Vintage Jewelry, Vintage Christmas ornaments, Vintage Christmas, Vintage Nike crewneck, Vintage Nike sweatshirt, Vintage crewneck, Vintage sweater.

So those will do well for the month of December and it will likely shift a bit at the end of the month moving into January. But you can be certain that the vintage niche will continue to be a good one next year! You just have find out where you can get the best stuff where you live!

2) Apparel:

Some people do this themselves at home with a screen printing or embroidery machine—but you can also use a product partner that does it for you!

So for the purpose of this episode that is all about hands-free products--- you would create the design yourself using design software if you have it OR something simple like Canva.com (I have a link for them down in the shownotes if you’re not familiar! It’s so user friendly—you’ll love it!)

Then you partner with a company like Printful which is my favorite (I’ll link them in the shownotes too!) and they have all the apparel plus some décor and other homegoods that you can put the design on! You create an account with them, and you can upload your design onto the apparel right on their website so you can place it just right. It’s pretty user friendly so don’t worry about the tech! Think of it like uploading your photos for printing at Walgreens or something! It’s not much more complicated than that, in my opinion!)

Then you integrate Printful to your Etsy shop (again, easier than it may sound!) and whenever an order comes through—it’s sent straight to Printful for you! They make it to the specifications you’ve already set up plus the color and sizing your customer chooses—and they ship it for you!

The hardest part about this is not being in control of the process once the order comes in. So make sure you’re watching what the current turn around times are and marking your listings accordingly!

But I love Printful because they have those ultra soft Bella and Canvas tshirts (I’m a sucker for high quality!). My sister and I have a shopify store called Sweet Southern Goods that sells Texas/southern related tshirts and we’ve been delighted with Printful. It’s super convenient!

3) POD Jewelry:

This works exactly like apparel—and actually—Printful even has some jewelry options if you wanted to offer apparel and jewelry.

OR you can look into the company ShineOn. They can link right to your Etsy shop and every time you get a sale, they will make and ship the jewelry for you. 

The key to this is picking your niche. The part of the product you design is the piece of card stock that the jewelry is packaged against--- so you need to create a beautiful design with a written message that would be specific to someone like a step mom or godmother, or aunt, or piano teacher--- whatever your niche is. Get specific and if your design and message is attractive to the shoppers for that niche, you could sell a TON of these and do nothing beyond creating the digital design of the card and setting up the shop.

Here’s a fun Tiktok that will show you how this works—and this gal gives TONS of tips about this. I literally found ShineOn because of her: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM87B19Gt/

4) Printables:

1. Coloring pages (kids or adults)
2. Décor: pieces to be framed or hung like a poster
3. Event printables: think baby or wedding shower—signs for the gift table, dessert table, etc
   • Lego story!
4. Sunday school activities
5. Birthday activities
6. Writing practice for preschool or kinder
7. Cursive practice
8. Calligraphy training
9. Homeschool worksheets

5) Digital Files: the world is your oyster here….

1. Tutorials—you could provide pdfs and or videos that teach something.
2. Patterns for sewing, knitting, crochet, etc
3. Cards or stationary
4. Invitations
5. Planner pages
6. Fonts
7. Presets for Adobe lightroom (or some other photo editor)
8. Stock photos
9. Mockups (explain)
10. Templates for resumes
11. Personalized kitchen/recipe pages
12. Journaling prompts (for parenting, marriage, faith, weight loss, anything you can think of!)

 If you can design it, you can sell it here!

6) Consulting Services:

You could get totally creative here, but I specifically saw people offering Etsy shop reviews where you literally order the service through Etsy, they go in and review your shop and then give you a PDF full of ideas.

7) Supplies: for anything!

Ideas would include scrapbooking, baking, crafting, bullet journaling, gift wrapping, teacher gifts, etc

I did some quick research on Etsy and the most searched terms for supplies were: Supplies for crafts, Supplies for small business, Supplies for jewelry making, Supplies for resin art, Supplies for journaling, Supplies for pottery, and supply box.

8) Stickers: Such a trend right now!

I don’t have resources to suggest for you on this yet in terms of how to get them made, but I wanted to include them because people are ordering them like crazy! So if it sounds like it might be a good fit for you, do some research and find a great printing company! (And if you know of one you’d like to recommend, shoot me a note! I’d love your suggestions!)

Alrighty my loves! I think that’s a good chunk for today. I can’t wait to hear from you—and seriously—we gotta buckle our seatbelts for the goodness I’ve got coming for you next year.

And Hey---Would you please do me a favor?? If this podcast has been helpful to you, would you take a moment and rate and review the show for me wherever you love to listen? This is how I am able to attract some top quality guests, sponsors, and most importantly—more lovely people like you. I would be SO very grateful! It would feel like Christmas came early or a welcome to your 40s birthday hug! Hahahaha!

You guys are so awesome! I love you to pieces! Have an awesome week until next time!

EPISODE DETAILS

Looking for Etsy shop ideas? If you’re not sure what products to sell on Etsy or curious about the NOT handmade side of Etsy—this episode is for you! Today I am sharing 8 different product ideas that you don’t have to make with your hands! Tune in for lots of product inspiration.

**“How to Sell Your Stuff on Etsy” is not affiliated with or endorsed by Etsy.com

STUFF I MENTIONED:

Find me on Instagram and TikTok @HowtoSellYourStuff

Email me at [email protected]

Podcast Episode #3: Will using Etsy’s vacation mode hurt my shop? https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/blog/podcast-episode-3-will-using-etsy-s-vacation-mode-hurt-my-shop

Canva: https://partner.canva.com/c/2545784/647168/10068

Printful: www.printful.com

ShineOn: https://shineon.com/

ShineOn TikTok Inspiration: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM87B19Gt/

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FREE ETSY MASTERCLASS: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/masterclass

FREE PDF DOWNLOAD: “4 Strategies I Used to Grow My Etsy Shop from $25 to $6000k/month”: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/site/4-strategies-opt-in

Grab my eCourse “Listings that Sell” and learn how to skyrocket your Etsy business:

https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/offers/Xo52uqVF

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HOW TO SELL YOUR STUFF WEBSITE: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/

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HOW TO SELL YOUR STUFF SHOWNOTES: https://www.howtosellyourstuff.com/blog/8-things-you-can-sell-on-etsy-that-arent-handmade 

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