637: $1000 a Week Selling Digital Products

0:00:05 A thousand bucks a week selling digital products, what’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here, welcome
0:00:10 to The Side Hustle Show because your nine to five may make you a living, but your five
0:00:11 to nine makes you alive.
0:00:16 And whether you’re looking for a completely new side hustle or to layer on an extra income
0:00:19 stream to what you’re already working on, you’re in the right place.
0:00:23 Today, we’re catching up with a long time listener, a long time friend of the show who
0:00:28 over the last couple of years has been building up an Etsy shop selling printable files, other
0:00:35 digital products to the tune of four grand a month from the flooringgirl.com Debbie Gartner.
0:00:36 Welcome back to The Side Hustle Show.
0:00:37 Thank you.
0:00:38 It’s so good to be back.
0:00:40 It’s been about five years.
0:00:41 I can’t believe it’s been five years.
0:00:42 I know.
0:00:44 So we’re long overdue to catch up.
0:00:49 And in the case of the Etsy business, this is not an overnight success, you know, upload
0:00:53 something and the passive income starts flowing in.
0:00:58 But it is a business where you can consistently add digital inventory.
0:01:00 And those efforts really do start to compound over time.
0:01:02 And today we’re going three rounds with Debbie.
0:01:07 Round one is building that Etsy business from the ground up, the kind of products you’re
0:01:10 selling, how she’s making them, the marketing best practices that go into it.
0:01:14 Round two is donate a business idea, stick around for that, see what she’s got in store
0:01:15 for us.
0:01:19 And round three is the triple threat, a marketing tactic that’s working right now is a new or
0:01:24 new to her tool that she’s loving right now and her favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:01:30 But let’s kick it off with round one and the inspiration to start playing around with.
0:01:35 I mean, this has kind of been somewhat of a popular side hustle, the dream of selling
0:01:37 digital products and making money in your sleep.
0:01:43 Is this originally in the flooring girl, you know, home decor type of space?
0:01:45 Like what kind of printables do you come up with?
0:01:50 So that was my original plan, but that plan did not work out that well, to be honest.
0:01:52 So I just had to pivot.
0:01:57 It seems like pivoting is the story of my life as it is for every entrepreneur.
0:01:59 And I’m sure you’re familiar with that.
0:02:04 I think when I met you, Nick, I was $135,000 in debt.
0:02:09 And then after I was on the show, my older cousin heard me and then she thought I was
0:02:12 like really famous or something because I was on your show.
0:02:13 Love it.
0:02:14 Love it.
0:02:15 And then she started running.
0:02:17 My parents were like, what are you talking about?
0:02:22 And she kept explaining how wonderful I was and how wonderful the show was.
0:02:25 But honestly, it gave me a lot of inspiration.
0:02:31 And from there, I was determined to get out of debt by the next Thanksgiving.
0:02:32 And I actually exceeded that.
0:02:37 I got there by bestial day, so July 14.
0:02:41 And then I paid off my mortgage, which is another $305,000.
0:02:45 I fixed up stuff in my home, everything that was broken.
0:02:48 And started my retirement fund again, blah, blah, blah.
0:02:52 But life is not always a simple straight line, right?
0:02:53 No.
0:02:55 In fact, probably rarely is.
0:02:56 Right.
0:02:57 Exactly.
0:03:04 So then two years later, I went to the doctor for a routine colonoscopy.
0:03:06 And then they whisked me off to the ER.
0:03:08 So that was a lot of fun.
0:03:14 And it turned out, unbeknownst to me, even though I was feeling fine, I had dangerously
0:03:20 high blood pressure, where they said I narrowly avoided having a stroke or a heart attack.
0:03:21 Yeah.
0:03:22 So it was pretty scary.
0:03:24 It was just getting my health back.
0:03:25 And I did whatever I could.
0:03:29 I changed my eating habits, all that sort of stuff.
0:03:32 And to make a long story short, I got better.
0:03:35 And also, at the same time, improved my autoimmune disease.
0:03:40 So it was a narrow escape with a good outcome, I guess you could say.
0:03:41 Yeah.
0:03:42 I’m happy to hear you’re on the mend.
0:03:43 Thank you.
0:03:44 Thanks.
0:03:45 Yeah.
0:03:46 So it’s been a couple of years.
0:03:51 And then I decided to really turn over a new leaf and really, really focus on things
0:03:53 I really enjoyed.
0:03:55 So I was no longer worried about the money.
0:03:57 I just wanted to do things I liked.
0:04:03 So I’ve been blogging, but I kind of honestly, I don’t like writing and I just got sick of
0:04:04 blogging.
0:04:07 So I did Etsy as like a creative outlet.
0:04:12 I had no idea that I would like it so much, but it was actually a lot of fun.
0:04:17 So that’s what I’ve been doing and focusing my time on because I feel like I’m helping
0:04:18 people.
0:04:19 Yeah.
0:04:20 The floating girl has been around forever, this site.
0:04:23 You’re like, you get sick about talking about, you know, whatever the seasonal paint
0:04:24 colors are.
0:04:25 Right.
0:04:26 Right.
0:04:28 I’ve been doing it since 2010.
0:04:30 So it was a long time, right?
0:04:31 Yeah.
0:04:33 I was then kind of trying to improve my health.
0:04:35 I was stressed, blah, blah, blah.
0:04:38 So I then created a whole bunch of health tracker.
0:04:40 I did a blood pressure chart.
0:04:42 I mean, I sell it for like a dollar or something.
0:04:48 It’s not like a big money maker, but I felt like I was helping people and I was helping
0:04:54 me at the same time drive my blood pressure down and eating healthier foods and avoiding
0:04:56 things with more cholesterol and stuff like that.
0:04:59 So I made several things like that.
0:05:00 Okay.
0:05:04 Well, what’s going on in my life right now, you know, starting with a kind of a scratch-your-own-itch
0:05:05 approach?
0:05:06 Exactly.
0:05:07 Exactly.
0:05:11 So what I was doing was failing, but I knew that Etsy had a big opportunity.
0:05:16 So you know, just like with blogging, you start with, what do you know?
0:05:17 What do you like?
0:05:19 And how can you leverage that?
0:05:24 So the simplest thing, like a blood pressure, one page, you know, tracker is all I did.
0:05:26 I did other things like that.
0:05:33 And then I started getting into games because I’ve always loved games.
0:05:39 So I created a July 4th trivia game just because I had a blog post on my website that was for
0:05:42 July 4th fireworks, you know, in my county.
0:05:44 So I did that.
0:05:47 And of course, it was, I don’t know, November.
0:05:48 So it wasn’t very relevant.
0:05:49 Oh, okay.
0:05:51 You got to skate where the puck is going, right?
0:05:52 Okay.
0:05:54 Come July, there’s going to be some demand for this.
0:05:55 Okay.
0:05:56 Exactly.
0:06:01 So then I said, okay, I made it done, but it proves to me that there’s an opportunity
0:06:02 here.
0:06:04 So now let me do another trivia game.
0:06:07 So I did a trivia game for Thanksgiving.
0:06:12 And then I said, okay, well, there’s Hanukkah and there’s Christmas and you just keep going
0:06:13 through all the different holidays.
0:06:14 I would do that.
0:06:16 I would do different games.
0:06:19 And I just had fun with that because it was really interesting.
0:06:21 I just enjoyed it.
0:06:24 There was the solar eclipse this year.
0:06:27 So I did several solar eclipse games.
0:06:34 So whatever is kind of of the moment or coming up, let’s call it two to three months in advance,
0:06:35 I would do it.
0:06:39 And then I would just keep doing different things I was interested in or that I wanted
0:06:42 to learn more about.
0:06:44 And that’s kind of how I did it.
0:06:49 At some point, I had this realization that when I was younger, like in high school, I
0:06:54 had this conversation with one of my friends in math class, like what do you want to do
0:06:55 when you grow up?
0:06:58 And I told them I wanted to be a puzzle master.
0:06:59 Okay.
0:07:00 Okay.
0:07:05 You know, like Will Schwartz does, except at that point in time, Will Schwartz, I didn’t
0:07:06 know who he was.
0:07:10 He wasn’t anyone famous, but I’m like, I want to do something like that.
0:07:11 But there’s no such job.
0:07:15 So I just went to college and had a regular job.
0:07:21 Yeah, like a virtual escape room coordinator or that’s a really interesting one.
0:07:26 I had a similar net because now you’re making money doing that, like taking it back to high
0:07:27 school.
0:07:31 I had, you know, my job shadow day would have been junior or senior year was going down
0:07:36 to like the sports broadcast office for Channel 5 in Seattle.
0:07:39 And I was like, yeah, it’s super irrelevant to what I’m doing today.
0:07:44 And then my buddy was like, you’re kind of in media, you know, that seems actually pretty
0:07:45 relevant.
0:07:49 So I was like, oh, it’s kind of this weird full circle moment of, yeah, I guess it’s
0:07:51 kind of in this broadcast media in a way.
0:07:52 Exactly.
0:07:56 There’s so many things I’ve done in my life in different jobs, different courses I took
0:08:04 in college or high school or just, you know, continuing ed courses or hobbies or anything.
0:08:07 And so then I just kept going through my brain like, what do I like?
0:08:08 What am I interested in?
0:08:13 And then I would try to understand is there a need for whatever that is, do a little bit
0:08:19 of keyword research, try some stuff out, some of it worked, some of it didn’t then do more
0:08:22 of what works like rinse and repeat.
0:08:23 And that’s basically what it is.
0:08:28 So I’m picturing like trivial game, like trivial pursuit where I’ve got a bunch of these cards,
0:08:32 I got these, you know, card, you know, question cards that people are cutting out at home is
0:08:36 just like a big list, like tell me just like a little bit of the structure of what the
0:08:37 product looks like.
0:08:38 Exactly.
0:08:43 So you can’t use trivial pursuit because that’s a trademark, but you can take games
0:08:48 like that or something else and call them something else and make sure you don’t use
0:08:51 the trade colors of them or anything like that.
0:08:54 But yes, that’s exactly the idea.
0:08:59 And what happens is when you make some products, Essie recommends other products that are
0:09:04 like this and you kind of can’t help but notice other games.
0:09:08 So as I start creating more games, I see more games that are available.
0:09:12 And then I try those and then some work, some don’t.
0:09:16 And then whichever ones of those work, I make more of those.
0:09:18 And then I get more suggestions.
0:09:24 And then it gets my brain going because I am not naturally a creative person, like not
0:09:25 at all.
0:09:26 I don’t know.
0:09:27 I’ll give yourself some credit.
0:09:29 You’ve been creating content on the internet for 14 years here.
0:09:32 Well, you get better at it.
0:09:34 So the point is you don’t need to be creative.
0:09:36 My mom would always say, you’re so creative.
0:09:37 I’d say, no, I’m not.
0:09:42 Really honestly, I’m good at creative problem solving, but I’m not a creative person.
0:09:47 But it doesn’t matter because you can just learn it because as you do it, you become
0:09:48 more creative.
0:09:51 You know, just like I did not know anything about flooring, but you learn it.
0:09:53 And then I became good at home decor.
0:10:00 So you just, as your interest level increases, your curiosity does too.
0:10:02 And then so does your knowledge.
0:10:03 They all work together.
0:10:07 And then ideas, they just come to you.
0:10:09 It’s like, I don’t even try anymore.
0:10:13 I can, I mean, you’ve seen one of my things where I wrote, like, I have a thousand and
0:10:17 fourteen ideas of things I can create on Etsy.
0:10:20 This is on the upcoming product to-do list.
0:10:21 Yeah.
0:10:24 Like if there was only more hours in the day, here’s what I would get done.
0:10:25 Exactly.
0:10:29 And my list, I was afraid when I started, I would quickly run out of ideas.
0:10:31 I didn’t even know what to do in the first place, right?
0:10:32 Yeah.
0:10:38 I would log keyword, upcoming article list and video list kind of looks like it’s like,
0:10:41 because we’re adding more all the time, like adding more faster than we create this stuff.
0:10:42 Exactly.
0:10:43 And that’s what happens.
0:10:47 It’s the same thing that happened with my blog post, like a customer would say something
0:10:49 to me or ask me a question.
0:10:54 And not only would I answer it, but then I’d say, oh, that’s a blog post idea.
0:10:57 And then I would write it down, do it.
0:11:02 And my experience has been the more ideas I do, the more I come up with.
0:11:06 So my to-do list never gets shorter.
0:11:08 I think that’s the mark of a creative person.
0:11:09 Yeah.
0:11:10 Give yourself some credit.
0:11:11 Thanks.
0:11:15 So starting, you know, 4th of July, Trivia game, and now I kind of have a template that
0:11:19 I can, you know, maybe this got a little bit of traction so I can pivot that to all the
0:11:25 other major holidays and events and create the same product, kind of like Monopoly has-
0:11:26 Exactly.
0:11:29 Every different city has their own Monopoly type of game or something like that.
0:11:32 And it’s, well, you didn’t have to start completely from scratch because you had some templates
0:11:33 built out.
0:11:34 Exactly.
0:11:36 And you just keep reusing the templates.
0:11:43 And then you just come up with other ideas, use the same template so it makes it faster.
0:11:45 And not only that, you just get better.
0:11:48 And I try to do things I already know about.
0:11:52 I also use AI to help me, and we can talk about that later.
0:11:57 But I pick topics that I like and have an interest in.
0:11:59 And because of that, I can do them quickly.
0:12:05 So now I can pretty much get each game done in like, let’s call it 30 minutes.
0:12:07 And then I can list it in 30 minutes.
0:12:09 That’s not how it started.
0:12:11 But after you get the hang of it, you do that.
0:12:14 And then you say, oh, here’s another game.
0:12:18 And then you adapt the original template for the second game.
0:12:22 And then you can keep going down and down and you can change the topics.
0:12:30 Like you can do a trivia game about this hobby, or this sport, or this food, or these types
0:12:34 of books, or these types of TV shows, or whatever it is.
0:12:35 Yeah.
0:12:36 Or this football team.
0:12:37 Or yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:12:41 You can see how that would be even a cool gift for somebody who’s a Washington Huskies fan
0:12:42 or something.
0:12:44 And you’re like, hey, do you remember this play against this team, or do you remember
0:12:45 this key player?
0:12:46 Yeah.
0:12:48 I think it would be, once you start going down that rabbit hole, it could be pretty
0:12:49 endless.
0:12:50 Yes.
0:12:54 And Debbie, in just a moment, including her favorite Etsy keyword research tools, how
0:12:59 AI can help you accelerate your product creation, how she prices these digital products, and
0:13:04 a whole lot more right after this.
0:13:08 Being an entrepreneur and being able to work remotely definitely has its perks.
0:13:13 I’ve recorded podcasts everywhere from Vietnam to Italy, drafted newsletters from Japan,
0:13:17 hosted mastermind meetings from Spain, ended up being the middle of the night to get to
0:13:21 the US business hours, and outlined courses in Mexico.
0:13:25 The common thread of all of these trips, though, is Airbnb.
0:13:29 We love being able to get exactly what we’re looking for in a place to stay and have a
0:13:34 more local experience than staying in some giant hotel chain.
0:13:35 And you know me.
0:13:38 I’m always thinking about the next side hustle idea, the next income stream, right?
0:13:43 And one that’s at the top of the list is hosting our place on Airbnb while we’re traveling.
0:13:45 That way, the house doesn’t have to sit empty.
0:13:49 We could use the income to help pay for the trip, and we’ve heard from several successful
0:13:51 Airbnb hosts on the show.
0:13:56 And what’s interesting is a lot of them started with almost that exact strategy, running their
0:14:00 place or even a spare room while they’re out of town.
0:14:04 Taking inspiration from that, you might have an Airbnb right under your nose.
0:14:07 In fact, your home might be worth more than you think.
0:14:17 You can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host to find out how much your home is worth.
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0:15:33 To get it started, did it start with keyword research?
0:15:38 Had you come up with the idea to do a game aside from the high school math, I want to
0:15:39 be a puzzle master.
0:15:40 I always want to get it to gaming.
0:15:41 I don’t know, honestly.
0:15:43 I probably read it somewhere.
0:15:44 I probably saw one.
0:15:45 Oh, no, no, no.
0:15:48 It was because of July 4th, as I said.
0:15:54 And then I said, I know a lot of July 4th trivia because I’ve been to, I don’t know, Mount
0:15:58 Vernon and where a bunch of presidents lived.
0:16:02 And I was like, oh, you know, which president died on July 4th?
0:16:03 And I just started stuff like that.
0:16:05 Is this where AI comes into play?
0:16:09 And then you get a fact check, I suppose, like, did that actually happen?
0:16:11 Right, right, exactly.
0:16:17 So then after I started selling more, then my next question is, how do I do this more
0:16:18 efficiently?
0:16:25 That’s when I tried AI and using it on chatGPT, which is free or Claude AI or different ones
0:16:26 like that.
0:16:27 It doesn’t really matter.
0:16:31 And then I would, I purposely pick things I know.
0:16:37 So if I’m doing something about the presidents, I would know and I would, you know, anything
0:16:42 I’m not sure about either is off the list or I may say, is that true?
0:16:49 And then just Google the information because AI can definitely give you the wrong information.
0:16:55 So like, I would not do a holiday like Diwali or watch, I’ll end up doing it, but I don’t
0:16:57 know anything about Diwali.
0:17:02 So I’d be having to research every single question to make sure it’s correct.
0:17:07 I mean, the worst thing you can do is have a question with a wrong answer and I have
0:17:09 and you will get a bad review.
0:17:14 So I pick stuff generally that I know or that I mostly know.
0:17:18 And then while I’m doing it, I have fun doing it.
0:17:22 And then I learned some new facts as well, like the eclipse.
0:17:23 I love the eclipse.
0:17:26 I’ve been planning to go there since 2017.
0:17:32 And then when it was coming up, I was like, Oh, I’m going to go because I can drive somewhere
0:17:34 upstate New York and go and see it.
0:17:37 And then, Oh, let me make it more fun for me.
0:17:40 I’ll create a trivia game for that.
0:17:41 And it makes the whole event more exciting.
0:17:42 Nice.
0:17:43 And then, okay.
0:17:44 Yeah, that makes sense.
0:17:48 Are there any tools that you like on the keyword research side to try and figure out?
0:17:52 Well, it’s still quite a bit of effort to create this thing, especially the first few things.
0:17:55 I want to make sure there’s some level of demand there.
0:17:56 Exactly.
0:18:01 So that is so important and is one of the big misses that many people make.
0:18:03 So I highly recommend doing that.
0:18:05 I use two keyword tools.
0:18:08 I’m not very original in this, but they are very practical.
0:18:12 So I use E-rank and I use Insight Factory.
0:18:19 And then very importantly, I care about market research, which is, are people actually buying
0:18:20 it?
0:18:24 So not just searching for it, but actually have user buyer demand.
0:18:29 And I can find that out on both Insight Factory and E-rank.
0:18:32 So it’s real actionable data.
0:18:36 If I’m poking around in those tools, are there any metrics that I’m looking for in
0:18:40 terms of, I don’t know, they give you volume, do they give you buyer, you know, estimated
0:18:42 sales volume, competitiveness, anything like that?
0:18:48 In general, you always want that people are buying stuff and that there’s low competition
0:18:51 or else medium and medium, but you don’t want to have high competition.
0:18:54 That’s the biggest mistake most people make.
0:19:01 They’ll do something very generic like a planner or a calendar, which is fine to do, but you
0:19:04 need everything to be more specific.
0:19:10 But for me, I really focus on the sales data, which is sales.
0:19:13 I know that sounds so stupid when I say it, but that is what it is.
0:19:20 So you can’t go by revenue because the keyword research tools are not accurate at all on the
0:19:27 revenue because it takes the original list price and not the actual sale price or the
0:19:28 discounted price.
0:19:33 But that’s not what anyone buys it at, so you need to use the sales and then you look
0:19:37 at how basically the velocity, how many you’re selling per week or per month or that sort
0:19:38 of thing.
0:19:39 Okay.
0:19:41 So sales meaning like number of transactions.
0:19:42 Yes.
0:19:43 Thank you.
0:19:44 Thank you for clarifying.
0:19:45 Yes.
0:19:46 And then sales velocity.
0:19:47 Okay.
0:19:49 I imagine for some of the seasonal stuff, it might look like nothing is moving, but is
0:19:53 there a way to go back into, well, last November, this is what happened?
0:19:54 Yes.
0:19:59 So you can go back and do that or you can just use your logic in your head.
0:20:05 Like if it’s for Halloween, that’s basically going to sell in September and October.
0:20:06 So just do the math.
0:20:07 Okay.
0:20:08 Cool.
0:20:09 Yeah.
0:20:10 Either way or do division.
0:20:11 How long has the product been around for?
0:20:12 How many days?
0:20:15 You know, use a calculator if you need to, but that’s what I do.
0:20:16 Yes.
0:20:17 Okay.
0:20:20 I’m assuming Canva to like build these out, but I really don’t know.
0:20:21 Yes.
0:20:24 It depends on the product, but I mainly use Canva.
0:20:27 I also do some spreadsheets because I love spreadsheets.
0:20:28 So you could do that.
0:20:32 I see some people doing some things on Word as well.
0:20:37 Anything that has artistic elements of any sort I do in Canva.
0:20:38 I’m not a designer.
0:20:40 I can’t do anything advanced.
0:20:41 I just do simple stuff.
0:20:42 Yeah.
0:20:45 Speaking of spreadsheets, I came across this business last month.
0:20:47 It was called Spreadsheets Crafter.
0:20:51 And I don’t know if they sell on Etsy or not, but they sell a buttload through their site
0:20:57 and they’re driving their own traffic from TikTok, from Instagram, and it’s like $35
0:21:02 pay period budgeting template and things kind of in that budgeting, you know, personal finance
0:21:04 type of space, just printing money.
0:21:06 No cost of goods, no cost of delivery.
0:21:08 You could discount it to whatever you want.
0:21:09 It’s still incremental.
0:21:11 It just was really interesting.
0:21:16 And like, are you pretty much relying on Etsy search and discovery or are you able to drive
0:21:20 your own outside traffic to some of the stuff through your own social media, through the
0:21:23 site, through influencer partnerships, anything like that?
0:21:25 So there are two ways to approach it.
0:21:31 So first of all, let me talk about Etsy for one second because I consider that phase one.
0:21:38 But with Etsy, you honestly do not need any, any, no source of traffic whatsoever.
0:21:43 Once you learn how to do Etsy and Etsy SEO, you just put the product on there and it can
0:21:45 sell over and over.
0:21:48 I do not use any form of social media.
0:21:53 I don’t even use generally email, but we’ve got to come back to email in a second.
0:21:57 I don’t send any traffic from my website or any website.
0:22:00 I do nothing, nothing for marketing.
0:22:05 And yes, I have tried and no, I general, I don’t think it’s a very good use of time.
0:22:06 Fair enough.
0:22:11 Going back, I forgot to clarify on the like e-rank or insight factory.
0:22:14 I think you mentioned, hey, look at the sales, look at the sales velocity.
0:22:18 Is there a minimum metric there like, oh, I want to make sure it’s moving 10 transactions
0:22:20 per week or something like that?
0:22:24 In general, if you feel it’s worth your time, then you do it.
0:22:29 So let me go back to what you said before, which is there’s no cost of goods or anything
0:22:33 like that and there’s no work once you need to do it.
0:22:39 Like I don’t need to make any of this stuff or so anything or package it or send it or
0:22:40 pay for postage.
0:22:43 So the margins are pretty high.
0:22:49 The margins, you can easily on digital products make 70% margin versus on something like print
0:22:53 on demand, which is, you know, a different story.
0:22:57 But those people are usually only making 10% margin if they are lucky.
0:22:58 Sure.
0:22:59 Yeah.
0:23:01 It’s physical product, shipping involved, all sorts of stuff.
0:23:02 Right.
0:23:05 And you have transaction fees and PayPal fees and like all that sort of stuff.
0:23:07 So 70% is a good amount.
0:23:12 And honestly, if you were selling it on your own site, you would still have some of those,
0:23:17 you know, fees fees for whatever program you’re using, plus you’re going to have PayPal fees,
0:23:18 that sort of thing.
0:23:19 So you can’t get around.
0:23:21 You’re like, you can never have 100%.
0:23:24 But then you have to think, okay, is that worth my time to make it?
0:23:30 Most of these products I can make pretty quickly, like I can maybe spend an hour on it and then
0:23:31 be done.
0:23:36 That’s the combination of making it and listing it and all the listing images and everything
0:23:37 like that.
0:23:39 So then you have to say, what is it worth it?
0:23:45 Like what could I price it at and then guesstimate in your head or on a calculator.
0:23:48 I just do it in my head, like how much you can make, right?
0:23:54 So for me, I try to, at a minimum, look at something that I think could sell at least
0:23:55 once a week.
0:23:56 Yeah.
0:24:01 And sometimes I find that I end up making much more than I expect to, sometimes a little
0:24:02 bit less.
0:24:07 They kind of average out, but that is what I use as a benchmark.
0:24:13 If I’m a new beginner, I just want to try to make a few sales, and then I want to keep
0:24:15 stretching the bar and make more and more.
0:24:16 Yeah.
0:24:20 And that’s the stage that I’m in, like that thrill of that first, making money in your
0:24:22 sleep kind of passive income type of thing.
0:24:26 I put something out on the internet, somebody bought it, some stranger searched for this
0:24:27 thing and they bought my thing.
0:24:32 And that’s a really exciting moment and probably quite addicting where he’s like, well, shoot,
0:24:36 how do I do more of that and keep leveling up and keep creating more of those products?
0:24:38 That’s a typical price point for something like this.
0:24:46 What depends what you’re selling, but I sell most of my items between like $1.49 to $10.
0:24:52 So a lot of them may be in the $3 to $5 range, but that’s kind of the range of what I do.
0:24:56 So they’re really quick and simple to do and rinse and repeat.
0:25:01 And as you said before, you can take the same idea and then just swap out some stuff for
0:25:06 a different holiday or a different occasion like a birthday or something like that.
0:25:07 So it gets much quicker.
0:25:08 Yeah, totally.
0:25:12 And some of the stuff, they think about not necessarily who you’re competing with on
0:25:13 Etsy, which is certainly a factor.
0:25:17 But at the low price point, a simple blood pressure tracker, you compete with people
0:25:19 just making their own spreadsheet for free.
0:25:22 It’s like, well, it can’t be that expensive because it’s super simple to make.
0:25:26 Whereas a more complex trivia game, of course, is going to command a higher price point.
0:25:31 Did you ever go and shop these to a Hasbro or anything like, did you want to license
0:25:37 this IP that I created and turn this into something that’s on the shelves at Target?
0:25:40 Well, that’s another idea, but I haven’t even gone there.
0:25:43 I am looking for simple in my life now.
0:25:49 So since I had that blood pressure scare, simple, I do simple everything.
0:25:53 People do escape rooms, and that’s a great example of a more complex game.
0:25:56 And I have been meaning to do that, but I generally don’t do that.
0:26:01 What I will do is take several simple games and bundle them together.
0:26:08 So instead of selling one game, I may be selling five games or 10 games and do it that way.
0:26:14 And then I also will sometimes take the same games and put those in bundles of other products
0:26:16 because they can apply to anything.
0:26:17 Got it.
0:26:18 Got it.
0:26:19 Yeah.
0:26:21 And it increases the average order value and perceived value.
0:26:22 It makes sense.
0:26:23 Exactly.
0:26:26 So I often think about my business in layers.
0:26:30 So you know how in the winter you’re supposed to wear layers to stay warmer?
0:26:33 I think about the same thing about insulating my business.
0:26:36 So it makes it harder for that money to erode.
0:26:42 So I have been working on a lot of things the last year or so to improve my average job
0:26:43 size.
0:26:47 That’s what I call it from the flooring business, but whatever you want to call it, you get
0:26:48 the idea, right?
0:26:49 Yeah, yeah.
0:26:56 I trade people up to a higher price item or get people to buy two items or get people
0:26:58 to buy three items.
0:26:59 That is what I’m doing.
0:27:04 Etsy just came out with a new feature about a week or so ago where you can bundle three
0:27:06 items together as well.
0:27:07 Oh, cool.
0:27:08 So that’s one way I do it.
0:27:13 Another way I do it is in the listing images, you might want to get the matching item.
0:27:19 So if I was doing something for Halloween, let’s just say, then I might have 10 different
0:27:20 Halloween games.
0:27:26 I could take one and be like, “You might also like these,” or I could take one and say,
0:27:29 “Or you could get a better value by buying all 10.”
0:27:32 There are different ways to do it, and you try different ways.
0:27:36 No, I think that’s really smart to try and increase that order size because, again, it’s
0:27:40 like, well, it doesn’t cost you anything extra to include one extra link in the delivery
0:27:41 email or something.
0:27:42 Right.
0:27:43 That makes a lot of sense.
0:27:48 But I should note here, we’re not mentioning the name of the store for the sake of copycats,
0:27:52 similar to some of the other Etsy-related episodes that we’ve done in the past.
0:27:57 Stuff can be relatively easy to duplicate and rip off, so we want to protect Debbie
0:27:58 Sy.
0:27:59 Go find your own niche, people.
0:28:00 I think it’s the moral of the story there.
0:28:01 But you like games.
0:28:02 You like spreadsheets.
0:28:05 Any other product categories that people should have on their radar?
0:28:12 I probably do about 10 or 15 different things, and that is the part of the key of diversification
0:28:16 because you want to have sales going every month of the year, year-round.
0:28:19 I don’t want to just do well for one holiday or whatever.
0:28:25 So I do things like hand prints, like hand print art for little kids, like toddlers.
0:28:26 It’s really cute.
0:28:28 I do some spreadsheets.
0:28:33 I do canva templates, some for businesses, some for regular people.
0:28:35 I do photo collages.
0:28:37 I do fillable trackers.
0:28:40 Where people would upload their own pictures and you turn it into a collage?
0:28:42 They turn it into a collage.
0:28:43 It’s DIY.
0:28:45 I don’t get involved in anything.
0:28:48 But yes, I’ll create a template of blank frames.
0:28:54 It could be a number or a letter or whatever, and then you can upload your own pictures
0:28:58 in there or so you could do something for pets.
0:29:00 I haven’t really done that, but I do that.
0:29:01 You could do that sort of thing.
0:29:03 Oh, but you know what I saw?
0:29:08 So in Canva Pro, they have all these photo effects on, I forget what even the, which
0:29:14 part of the menu or this is, but I turn your image into a hand-drawn animation or I will
0:29:18 turn this into kind of like an anime-looking thing or I will cartoonify it.
0:29:21 It’s like, I guarantee there are people on Fiverr selling this as a service.
0:29:25 You upload this file and five minutes later, they have sent you the thing.
0:29:26 It’s like no work required.
0:29:31 You’d already paid for your Canva Pro license, and now you’re just selling this thing over
0:29:32 and over again.
0:29:34 So another business idea for you.
0:29:35 Yeah.
0:29:36 No, that’s great.
0:29:39 It’s like I started very, very simple.
0:29:44 I started with printables, you know, one or two pages and my design skills were not that
0:29:49 good and my head would explode if I was trying to learn too much.
0:29:50 So I didn’t.
0:29:52 So I just did easy stuff.
0:29:55 And then after three or four months, I then do something else.
0:29:59 And then a month later, I learned something else.
0:30:05 And by taking this little baby steps, I just keep improving my skills and broadening the
0:30:09 breadth of what I do, but you have to take baby steps.
0:30:10 Yeah, absolutely.
0:30:15 And do you have to do anything with Etsy ads or primarily relying on just organic Etsy
0:30:16 search?
0:30:17 Right.
0:30:18 Pretty much organic search.
0:30:26 So I did not use any Etsy ads until after 18 months, maybe 19th or 20th month, but only
0:30:29 on like a couple of items and only a little bit.
0:30:31 So you can do this organically.
0:30:35 So let me just tell you what I ended up getting.
0:30:41 So it does take some time, but I hit $750 in month six.
0:30:47 And then about my one year mark, slightly later, maybe like 12 and a half months or something,
0:30:50 I was at $1,000 a month.
0:30:54 And then I think around 18 months, I was at 2,000.
0:30:57 And then a month or two later, it was 3,000.
0:31:00 And now I’m over 4,000 per month.
0:31:04 So it’s kind of like I’m picturing that chart that’s kind of starting to accelerate a little
0:31:05 bit.
0:31:06 Yeah, forward.
0:31:07 Yes, exactly.
0:31:11 And this is not the only thing I do or not the only way I make money.
0:31:16 So if I was spending even more time on it, I could probably do much better.
0:31:17 But it’s just, it’s fun.
0:31:18 It’s cathartic.
0:31:23 Like I said, I had to get over the whole blood pressure thing.
0:31:25 And I was like, I want to do stuff I enjoy.
0:31:28 It turned out I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
0:31:33 It taps into my creative side, even though I’m not very creative.
0:31:36 My design skills have gotten much better over time.
0:31:37 Well, I’m excited for you.
0:31:41 And this is the mark of a good episode for me when I hang up and like, I should totally
0:31:42 go do that.
0:31:46 Like, you know, it’s just, I know it’s the result of a lot of consistent effort and being
0:31:49 really intentional and targeting the right keywords and everything.
0:31:52 But, you know, when you start to see those results, you start to see that flywheel spin
0:31:53 in.
0:31:54 Oh, you know, it gets exciting there.
0:31:59 And so I want to point out Debbie’s got you a free start your Etsy shop challenge that
0:32:01 will link up in the show notes for this episode.
0:32:06 It’ll be side hustle nation dot com slash Debbie to since this is her second appearance.
0:32:11 Debbie to again, that’s your free start your Etsy shop challenge, which will link up for
0:32:13 you and encourage you to go check that out.
0:32:18 We’ll be right back with rounds two and three with Debbie right after this.
0:32:22 We’re at our local street fair last month and my kids are like magnets to any of these
0:32:26 vendor booths that have a prize wheel or a bowl of candy.
0:32:30 And one of those booths happens to be one of the big name brand wireless carriers.
0:32:35 So the woman asks me as the kids are collecting their little trinket prize, are you a customer
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0:32:40 And I have to say, no, I’m actually on Mitt mobile and have been for a long time.
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0:35:09 All right, we’re back with Debbie from TheFloringGirl.com.
0:35:10 Round two is donate a business idea.
0:35:13 This is something that you might start yourself if you had more time.
0:35:15 This is something that ought to exist in the world.
0:35:19 This is something you think listeners could start if they were so inclined.
0:35:24 What I would do, and I’ve been meaning to do forever, and you will laugh at this because
0:35:28 it’s very original, I would love to do a podcast, okay?
0:35:36 So I really got started making money online while listening to you and Pat Flynn and some
0:35:37 others.
0:35:40 It gave me the motivation when I was at my low point.
0:35:43 So I always had wanted to do something like that.
0:35:44 What would your show be about?
0:35:49 It would probably be about making money online or entrepreneurship or something like that.
0:35:57 I actually, this is so sad, I actually started one, so I recorded I think four episodes and
0:36:01 I had a plan to do it, but then life got haywire.
0:36:06 So I was having a conversation the other day with one of my good friends who I had coached
0:36:10 and taught SEO many, many years ago, and she’s doing really, really great.
0:36:14 But she just asked us on this phone call, this momentum group we have, “Do you guys
0:36:17 think it still makes sense to blog?
0:36:19 Can you still make good money blogging?”
0:36:25 And all of us paused, and we all said, “Yes, but…”
0:36:27 “Yes, but…”
0:36:29 “Yeah, but it depends.”
0:36:35 And so my answer was clearly you can make money online blogging because I have made
0:36:36 a lot of it, right?
0:36:40 I know plenty of other people that have, and I know it’s more challenging.
0:36:47 But if I think about where things are now versus where they were in 2016, which is when
0:36:53 I kind of had this whole have to start over sort of thing, there have been so many more
0:36:59 things that have become so much more popular or have become very popular.
0:37:05 Whether it’s podcasting or YouTube would be something I would recommend to other people,
0:37:10 but not for me, because I hate being – I’m sorry, I made an exception for you, but I
0:37:15 almost never go on video because I just – I hate it.
0:37:18 I hate seeing myself on the left-hand side.
0:37:22 I’m trying to look at you and not at me, but it’s too distracting.
0:37:25 See, the secret is I’m off in my notes.
0:37:26 I’m off in another tab.
0:37:31 I don’t see the video until – and even then, I don’t really watch it by video person.
0:37:33 She puts it all up on YouTube, so I’m sure there’s times I forget.
0:37:35 I’m like picking my nose or something.
0:37:36 I don’t know.
0:37:38 No, I totally know what you mean.
0:37:44 But I started doing some live meetings where I could be behind my slides, and that worked
0:37:46 really well because I wasn’t distracted.
0:37:52 I wasn’t looking at myself and wondering about my hair or anything like that.
0:37:55 So I think that those are great opportunities for people.
0:37:57 If you feel comfortable doing it, do it.
0:38:00 But then I said, “It depends on what you like doing.
0:38:07 But now, I’m getting really jazzed up by Etsy because it’s visual and creative in
0:38:14 a different way than I’ve done for the last, I don’t know, eight or 10 or 15 years.”
0:38:16 It’s just that’s what interests me right now.
0:38:18 So I think it depends.
0:38:21 What medium do you feel comfortable in?
0:38:22 Is it writing?
0:38:26 Is it doing creative products or digital products?
0:38:27 Or is it doing YouTube?
0:38:29 Or is it doing podcasting?
0:38:33 Whatever energizes you is what you should do.
0:38:38 I mean, you hear all those people, what brings you joy, all that sort of stuff.
0:38:43 But I think it’s true because you’re going to keep doing it.
0:38:48 You can’t just choose something because it’s going to make you money.
0:38:53 You have to choose something because you like it, and it happens to make you money.
0:38:54 That’s how I see it.
0:38:55 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:38:56 All right.
0:38:57 Well, you heard it here first.
0:39:01 The upcoming Debbie Gartner show is coming to a podcast player near you.
0:39:03 We’re looking forward to checking that out.
0:39:07 I think, I mean, it’s probably similar to these Etsy products.
0:39:12 It’s trying to find that niche that resonates with the right target audience, the right
0:39:13 listeners.
0:39:17 Obviously, it’s more crowded today than it was in 2013 when the sign-off show started,
0:39:21 but there were already lots of entrepreneurship podcasts at that time.
0:39:27 I think why the show worked and worked is very relative in terms of the download chart in
0:39:33 the first few years, but it was you niche down into that side hustle specific type of
0:39:34 space.
0:39:35 I don’t know.
0:39:36 For some reason, that resonated.
0:39:42 Obviously, there’s some survivorship bias to that, but it’s a very difficult platform
0:39:45 to try and grow from scratch.
0:39:50 But the people who tune in are there with you for the long haul.
0:39:52 They’re often completionists, I kind of call it.
0:39:55 If you start an episode, you’re likely to listen to the end where it’s like you look
0:39:58 at the drop-off on YouTube videos, like, “How many people?
0:40:00 I lose half the people in 30 seconds.”
0:40:01 That’s considered good.
0:40:05 You’re like, “Dang, the attention span is crazy.”
0:40:10 But the relationships that you can build and try to climb what I call the listener pyramid
0:40:16 from strangers at the bottom to listeners, to subscribers, to fans, and with every piece
0:40:20 of content that you create, try and elevate people on that pyramid.
0:40:24 Unfortunately, the biggest section, the base of the pyramid is strangers, people who don’t
0:40:25 know you exist.
0:40:28 There’s a lot to play on that discovery side.
0:40:30 YouTube is a part of that.
0:40:34 You have a little bit of an existing audience through the email list, who I’m sure would
0:40:37 love to tune into you and just hear, “What am I working on?”
0:40:44 I enjoy checking out your emails and saying, “Well, what’s the latest and what’s working?
0:40:45 What’s not working?
0:40:46 What kind of challenges are going on?”
0:40:47 Right.
0:40:51 One of the fundamental things I learned in marketing a long, long time ago is build
0:40:55 unbreakable bonds with your audience.
0:40:58 So the question is, how will you do that?
0:41:04 As an example on Etsy, which I’m now doing, and I just told you I enjoy, a lot of people
0:41:09 will come in and buy a product, and then you never hear from them again, right?
0:41:15 But when you have an email list, which really honestly needs to be phase two, then you can
0:41:18 keep connecting with them over and over again, right?
0:41:24 I have an email list from my blog about making money online, and I used to publish all my
0:41:31 income reports, and people became very interested in that, and I have some of the same subscribers.
0:41:37 Actually, some of them came from your show in 2019, and they remind me.
0:41:39 I’ve been with you since that podcast with Nick.
0:41:40 Sure, sure.
0:41:44 I didn’t know who the heck you were, but I liked what you had to say, so I’m sure that
0:41:49 happens with other people, but you have to build that audience and keep connecting with
0:41:50 them.
0:41:53 So on Etsy, that is now my next step.
0:41:59 I’m trying to create an audience from there on some of the topics that they are already
0:42:02 interested in, and I am too, and build an email.
0:42:04 So I started that on July 9th.
0:42:08 Does Etsy give you the customer information, like you’re able to remark and say, “Hey,
0:42:12 we came out with a new product that is semi-related to what you already bought.
0:42:13 Come check it out.”
0:42:14 Exactly.
0:42:15 That’s the key.
0:42:17 You need to narrow it down to one topic.
0:42:24 So if you’re a shop like I am, where you may have a multitude of things for different
0:42:29 types of people or different types of needs, you can’t just do a random email list.
0:42:34 So I started one on games because I don’t even know how many games I have, but I know
0:42:41 I have more than 250, so I might have close to 300, so I’m starting a list on that.
0:42:49 I started that almost three months ago, I think 85 days ago, and I am at, as of yesterday,
0:42:53 I was at 275 people on there.
0:42:58 People joining through their transactions, they get added to that database, they get
0:42:59 added to that list.
0:43:00 Yeah, exactly.
0:43:07 So you can’t just automatically add them to your list, that’s against Etsy’s terms,
0:43:11 but you can have them opt into something and get them on that way.
0:43:13 So I’m experimenting with that.
0:43:19 It does seem to be driving some more sales, but it’s honestly a little bit soon to really
0:43:24 tell, but I can see there’s a share and save link, and I can see the sales going through
0:43:29 there and it’s going up and up, but I really want to wait until the end of the year to
0:43:33 really analyze the impact on that.
0:43:39 And then from there, I will probably at some point create a Shopify store that’s my own,
0:43:42 and I can market in both places.
0:43:48 What’s the opt-in, or how do you incentivize people to get on the list after making a purchase?
0:43:53 You give them a free something that’s related to the something that they already bought.
0:44:00 So when I looked at my data, I don’t know, a month and a half ago or something, among
0:44:06 the people that were seeing that, because I didn’t put the, like if I was doing games,
0:44:11 I would not put that in hand prints, it just makes no sense, right?
0:44:16 So if I looked at the games, 8.5% were opting in.
0:44:17 That’s pretty strong.
0:44:20 Yeah, I was pretty happy with that, considering that they’re loyal to Etsy and they don’t
0:44:22 know who that guy I am, right?
0:44:23 Right, yeah.
0:44:24 Okay.
0:44:27 So you can’t add them automatically, but you got to give them some reason to, and it’s,
0:44:30 I feel like it used to be more common with Amazon, I don’t know if they’ve cracked down
0:44:33 on it or they’re just like, the packaging has changed, but you used to see those like
0:44:39 product slips, register your product or you don’t get a free bonus and it’s like, well,
0:44:43 I know exactly how you, I know exactly what gave your plan, or you try to give me onto
0:44:47 your list so you could hopefully wean yourself off of Amazon and you said, maybe, well, that’s
0:44:52 phase three is, you know, phase one, Etsy, phase two, email is phase three, maybe it’s
0:44:53 your own store.
0:44:56 We can start to drive your own demand and traffic.
0:44:57 Exactly.
0:45:03 That’s my plan and that was my initial plan when I joined Etsy and I was going to get
0:45:07 them onto my home décor email list, but it didn’t work.
0:45:12 But that doesn’t mean the idea doesn’t work because the idea does work.
0:45:15 It just, that idea did not work for me.
0:45:16 Fair.
0:45:17 All right.
0:45:18 So we got a little bit sidetracked in a good way.
0:45:22 So if they are around, round two was the donate a business idea that was to start a podcast,
0:45:27 somewhat of a, like a difficult thing to turn into a business, but can be a really powerful
0:45:28 relationship builder.
0:45:31 It can be, you know, maybe a content marketing channel for some underlying business because
0:45:37 it was years to be totally truthful, like before the direct revenue from the sponsorships
0:45:41 in my case turned into what would be close to a full-time income from the show.
0:45:43 But I’m still very bullish on podcasting.
0:45:45 I think there’s a lot of upside.
0:45:48 It’s, you know, really powerful and fun place to play.
0:45:53 Obviously, you know, it’s been 600 episodes, still love doing it and have no plans to go
0:45:54 anywhere.
0:45:55 So that’s round two.
0:45:56 Round three is our triple threat.
0:45:59 The first part of this is a marketing tactic that’s working now.
0:46:02 It doesn’t have to be Etsy related, but what have you got for us here?
0:46:03 Okay.
0:46:07 I’m trying to do things that are simple and easy for me.
0:46:13 So I try to find things that enhance and improve the productivity of what I’m doing.
0:46:19 And so for that, I’ve been using a lot of AI and trying to really think about the prompts
0:46:22 that work to help me generate the games that I create.
0:46:29 So I use chat GPT, I use Claude AI, and I use Gemini as well.
0:46:33 I’m hoping soon to get into mid-journey as well.
0:46:36 So I just, I don’t do tools for tool sake.
0:46:42 I do tools that enable me to do what I’m already doing better or faster.
0:46:43 So those are the things I’m using.
0:46:44 Okay.
0:46:47 So we can put those down on the tools front.
0:46:52 And then what kind of prompts are you feeling like asking for product ideas?
0:46:56 You know, we talked earlier about like asking them to help you come up with the trivia
0:46:58 questions in that example, but anything else?
0:46:59 Right.
0:47:06 So AI is not good for telling you how important or relevant stuff is, but they’re good for
0:47:12 once you’ve determined that to then feed into the input of what you want to create.
0:47:20 So I may say, you know, give me 20 questions and answers about XYZ, whatever XYZ is, I may
0:47:26 also be more specific and be, you know, more targeted, like for kids or for teachers or
0:47:31 for senior adults, whatever the different thing is.
0:47:33 So I do that.
0:47:38 And then I just try to refine those more and more to get more specific.
0:47:41 And I’ll just rinse and repeat and do that.
0:47:42 All right.
0:47:47 I will add those as our recommended tools to check out if you’re not already using those
0:47:51 and you’ve been playing around more and more myself, like with different prompts to try
0:47:53 and prime it in the right way.
0:47:57 And what’s really interesting is, I mean, it probably knows who you are.
0:48:00 It probably knows some interesting things about you because I can prime it like, “Hey,
0:48:04 you are Nick Loper from Side Hospitalation, and you need to accomplish this goal.”
0:48:08 And it’s just, and it kind of starts to do it in your tone.
0:48:09 It’s really interesting.
0:48:15 Anything on the marketing tactic, either driving traffic, driving sales, anything there that
0:48:16 we should know about?
0:48:21 So instead of just finding new customers, it’s how do you get the customers to be more
0:48:25 and more loyal and buy more things from you?
0:48:31 So instead of trying to drive as many people as I can to my email list, I want to get the
0:48:38 highest quality people on my email list, regardless of what the email list is.
0:48:46 So on Etsy, there are some people as an example that say, “Oh, often here to get 20% off your
0:48:47 next sale.”
0:48:50 And you can do that, but those people are not loyal.
0:48:52 They’re just shoppers, right?
0:48:55 They’re not loyal customers to you.
0:49:01 So I’m going after people that have already bought something, and then I’m trying to keep
0:49:06 in touch with my people, so they want to buy more and more.
0:49:09 And I try to also do loyalty discounts.
0:49:16 So if someone buys a product from me, then they may get a discount off of the next product
0:49:17 from me.
0:49:23 So for example, I do a lot of challenges, and I’ve teamed up with my good friend Sasha,
0:49:28 and we do a bunch of, we’re now doing Etsy challenges, but I’ve done challenges of various
0:49:31 sorts, whether it’s SEO or blogging, it doesn’t really matter.
0:49:32 Oh, that’s great.
0:49:36 But you do like 30 things in 30 days or something like that, right?
0:49:40 It just keeps you going, and it motivates you as a group.
0:49:46 So we will take something like that, and then the first time it may cost $49, but the second
0:49:50 time you get a $20 discount, so it’s only $29.
0:49:53 I want to reward the people that have rewarded me.
0:49:54 I like that.
0:49:56 I think that’s really important to remember.
0:50:01 It’s so much easier and less expensive to sell something extra to somebody who already
0:50:08 knows and trusts you than to convert a new subscriber, customer, visitor, viewer, totally
0:50:09 from scratch.
0:50:12 That’s probably an important reminder for me, it’s like, “Oh, how do we get more paid
0:50:13 views?
0:50:14 How do we get more?”
0:50:15 It’s like, “Well, there’s already this existing audience.
0:50:16 How do we better serve them?”
0:50:18 I think that’s an important reminder for sure.
0:50:19 Yeah.
0:50:20 Yeah.
0:50:21 What do they need?
0:50:22 What do they want?
0:50:23 What resonates well with them?
0:50:29 How can you use their ideas to create new podcast episodes for you, and how can I use
0:50:32 that to generate new product ideas?
0:50:33 Yeah.
0:50:34 I like this loyalty discount.
0:50:37 I’m sure there’s a way to filter the email.
0:50:39 It’s everybody who’s stuck around for more than a year.
0:50:42 Could you send them some, “Hey, thanks so much for being part of this community for
0:50:43 over a year.”
0:50:44 Oh, yeah.
0:50:46 Here’s some special deal, something I have.
0:50:47 That’s a great idea.
0:50:48 That’s a great idea.
0:50:50 That’s one way to do it.
0:50:53 Another way to do it is, I use Active Campaign.
0:50:57 I’m not sure if you’re still using that or not, but everything that people bought for
0:50:58 me is tagged.
0:50:59 Yeah.
0:51:00 Yeah.
0:51:01 So I know what everyone bought.
0:51:06 So I will sometimes do emails that only go to people that bought this product or that
0:51:07 product.
0:51:11 That’s one thing I don’t like about Etsy, is you can’t control that.
0:51:12 Etsy owns the customer.
0:51:13 Yeah.
0:51:15 Amazon owns the customer.
0:51:16 You don’t.
0:51:20 So you want to create those unbreakable bonds with your customer.
0:51:23 That’s why I ultimately want to get them off of Etsy.
0:51:30 I will still use Etsy as my prime way to get things out there, because they have such
0:51:34 a huge audience and bigger than I will ever be able to build.
0:51:41 But they can bring in a steady pipeline of email subscribers to me to keep building.
0:51:42 Totally.
0:51:47 So then I don’t have to worry about things like Google algorithm changing or Pinterest
0:51:50 algorithm changing or Instagram, like whatever it is.
0:51:52 It doesn’t really matter.
0:51:56 They are loyal to me, and that is what I want.
0:51:57 Totally.
0:52:02 That’s the ultimate way to protect yourself against algorithm changes, whatever update
0:52:03 that may happen.
0:52:08 You run into trouble there, but if you have some level of loyalty and a database of customers
0:52:11 that you can communicate with directly, you’re in a much safer place.
0:52:12 That’s right.
0:52:13 It was interesting.
0:52:18 My yoga studio just sent me this because I had just turned a year of being a member
0:52:19 there.
0:52:20 It was a lucky birthday.
0:52:22 You’ve been a member for a year now.
0:52:25 Your membership is now 10% off, and it was unexpected.
0:52:26 It was really kind of surprising.
0:52:31 I don’t know if they filtered that by who was actually going to classes because I imagine
0:52:34 if you trigger that to somebody who hadn’t been going, they might be like, “Oh, shoot.
0:52:37 I should probably cancel that,” but in my case, they’re like, “Oh, I’ve been using it.”
0:52:38 I was like, “Oh, wow.
0:52:39 I didn’t…”
0:52:40 Now I’m talking about it.
0:52:44 It was kind of an unexpected thing, and sure enough, it hit the statement that was 10%
0:52:45 off.
0:52:47 So in those loyalty discounts, I think that’s a really interesting one.
0:52:48 Let’s wrap it up here.
0:52:50 This is your favorite book from the last 12 months.
0:52:51 Okay.
0:52:56 So I don’t read books anymore, but I’ll choose one that I would like to read, and I think
0:53:00 will help a lot of people, which is, I heard, do you know Mo Raca?
0:53:01 Yeah, I know that name.
0:53:03 He’s like a TV celebrity or something.
0:53:04 I don’t really know.
0:53:10 But he has, I heard him talking on the radio about, what is it, rocked o’ generions.
0:53:17 So it’s basically people that got started or got restarted or pivoted in their life when
0:53:19 they were older.
0:53:25 Older in his mind was like ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s.
0:53:27 They might have started new businesses.
0:53:33 They might have started new hobbies that had an impact, and I think it’s so inspiring.
0:53:38 And I meet so many people that need to restart their life.
0:53:39 I myself did.
0:53:44 I had to do it once in my 30s and once in my 40s, and it’s hard.
0:53:48 So the older you get, the harder it is, you get set in your ways.
0:53:54 But I love the idea that you can really start anything at any time, as long as you have
0:53:56 the passion and the drive to do it.
0:54:01 All right, rocked o’ generions, late in life, debuts, comebacks, and triumphs.
0:54:03 We’ll link that up in the show notes.
0:54:08 I mean, you probably see the thing like, oh, Ray Kroc started when he was however old.
0:54:10 Colonel Sanders started when he was however old.
0:54:14 These people who, in our mind, like, well, you’ve got to be in your 20s to start a thing
0:54:15 successful.
0:54:17 It’s like, well, you’re never too late to do this stuff.
0:54:18 Yes, there it is.
0:54:22 And not only that, I think that when you do it when you’re a little bit older, you have
0:54:27 your own experiences that can actually make you more successful.
0:54:32 So a lot of people that I know that have been successful, even online, have been older.
0:54:38 They have been in their 40s, 50s, 60s, that sort of thing, because they have experience
0:54:40 that they bring from somewhere else.
0:54:42 It all translates there.
0:54:43 Very, very good.
0:54:44 Debbie, it’s been awesome.
0:54:47 We should do it more frequently than every five years.
0:54:48 It’s been awesome to have you back.
0:54:50 The flooringirl.com is where you can find her.
0:54:57 Check out the Start Your Etsy Shop Challenge, which we’ll link up in the show notes, sidehustlelation.com/debbie2,
0:54:59 or just follow the link in the episode description.
0:55:00 It’ll get you over there.
0:55:04 If you like this printables model, we’ve got another episode on the printables business
0:55:09 that is 449 in your archives, and if you want more Debbie in your life, you can check out
0:55:11 our original episode from 2019.
0:55:12 That’s number 362.
0:55:14 You can scroll down a little bit to find that one.
0:55:15 We’re talking SEO.
0:55:16 We’re talking Pinterest.
0:55:17 We’re talking affiliate income.
0:55:20 All for the flooringirl site in that one.
0:55:24 If you haven’t got yours yet, I want to invite you to grab your own personalized side hustle
0:55:25 show playlist at hustle.show.
0:55:29 All you got to do is answer a few short multiple choice questions.
0:55:30 You do it on your phone.
0:55:33 It’s going to ask you about your side hustle interests and goals, and then it’s going to
0:55:38 recommend eight to 10 episodes to add to your device and what to listen to next.
0:55:40 Hustle.show, for that, that is it for me.
0:55:42 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:55:46 If you find in value in the show, the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend, fire
0:55:49 off that text message, “Hey, let’s crank up that Etsy shop.”
0:55:52 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen, and I’ll catch you in the
0:55:54 next edition of the side hustle show.