When you’re pregnant, having a baby shower isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you think about your wardrobe. But the need to replace your regular clothes with something a little more comfortable and warmer definitely arises. And what better way to express your growing baby bump than with an adorable T-shirt? If you’re looking to make some extra cash, why not consider selling your own designs on Etsy? You can start small, selling simple pregnancy motifs on t-shirts and expand your offerings once you’ve gained some confidence.
A Quick How-to Guide For Newbies
If this is your first time selling your designs on Etsy, wading through the complicated world of payment processors and Etsy’s cut-throat fees can feel overwhelming. Luckily, we’ve got your back. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to make money on Etsy selling pregnancy T-shirts.
To get started, visit Etsy’s Get Started page to create an Etsy account. Then, log in and click on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen. From there, you can select Settings. On the left, you’ll see a list of your active sellers—these are the people who have expressed interest in your product and are currently shopping it. Find a product you feel comfortable with and click on the Start button.
When you first launch Etsy, you’ll see a lot of pop-up ads. Don’t worry, these are normal, you can ignore them or click on the X to close them. Now you’re on the Etsy homepage, which will look similar to this:
On the right side of the homepage, you’ll see the Categories—these are the broad groups of products people are searching for on Etsy. The advantage of having a broad category is that you have the chance to offer a variety of products within it. Take a look at the Categories for organic cotton and regenerative water products for examples.
Above the Categories, you’ll see the Marketplace (formerly Known as the Etsy Shop). This is where you can find all of Etsy’s active sellers, as well as new listings that pop up daily. If you click on the green Explore button at the top, you can see all of the products currently for sale on the site. If you’re looking for a specific product, simply scroll through the listings or search by pressing the Enter key on your keyboard.
Keep Your Products Consistent
When Etsy first launched, it was a bit of a wild west as far as product offerings are concerned. For the most part, people just wanted to create a shop and get it over with. So, a lot of mom and dad shops popped up selling only baby stuff like clothes and accessories. While this was great for retailers at the time, it wasn’t exactly what the average person seeking to make money on Etsy wanted to buy. Therefore, many of these shops have either shut down or changed their product line to something more user-friendly.
If you’re just getting started, it’s a good idea to take a look at what other Etsy shops are doing and adopt a similar strategy. For instance, if you notice TheOrganicBabyShop’s clothing line is very popular, maybe you can produce similar items yourself. But, first, try to make something different. You could create cute printable stickers for mums-to-be or offer a nice selection of essential oils to be diffused during pregnancy. The possibilities are endless!
Sell Your Designs For Fun And Profit
Above the Marketplace, you’ll see the search bar. If you put in a search term, you’ll see a variety of products related to your search. For example, if you search for “pregnancy” you’ll see a variety of products designed for or related to pregnancy. If you click on one of these results, you can see the product and its prices. Don’t forget, you’re responsible for setting your own price. But, you can find products with discounts offered by the merchant.
If you’d like to make money from home, why not consider designing some cute tees for sale on Etsy? You can design something simple like a happy or sad face in a few minutes and set a price for each one. Maybe you can even create a theme like “babies” or “pregnancy” and see how many tees you can sell under those themes. You can take your pick from a variety of designs or create your own. If you get really creative, you can even do watercolor tattoos on the front of the t-shirt for an extra charge.
Once you’ve got some money in your account, you can take a little voyage to Amazon’s website to see what other products you can find for sale there. (Hint: You can use the same login details you used to log in to Etsy.) If you find a product you like, simply click on the Buy button to go to Amazon’s site. From there, you can decide whether or not to buy the product. (Hint: You can also use your affiliate account to promote products you find on Amazon through Etsy.) Once you make a purchase, you can track it through your affiliate account.
Expand Your Offerings
If you decide you want to continue selling on Etsy, the best thing to do is to use your money to grow your business. One way to do this is to buy more products. Another way is to design more unique products or create new product lines. The sky is the limit!
One of the biggest concerns people have when getting started is how to make sure their products are consistent and of high quality. Designing a T-shirt can be easy, but making sure the print is clear and the colors are vibrant is a whole different ballgame. There are a few tools you can use to make sure your products are of a very high quality. For example, if you use a services like Printful or ShirtsOnSweatshirts.com, you can choose from a variety of beautiful and vibrant prints. And, if you need to make sure your print is exact, you can also upload a digital picture of the completed product to ShirtsOnSweatshirts.com. (Hint: They’ll even print it for you if they don’t have the exact design in their inventory.)
With these tools, creating a unique product with vibrant colors and a crisp print becomes much easier. But, as you grow your business, make sure you keep your prices low so you can maintain a good profit margin. And don’t forget—designing a t-shirt isn’t as hard as you’d think. It can very quickly become a fun and profitable side business.