Does It Pay?
Schemes / Etsy digital downloads / Full research

Etsy digital downloads

Also sold as “Etsy printables and templates”

VerdictPays a patient few

It pays a minority who make original, useful files for a niche they know: a few hundred dollars a month after a year, $1,000 or more for the best. Keeping $1,000 a month takes about 245 orders at $5 a file, or 76 at $15.

Researched 10 October 20265 tweets collected42 min readResearched, written and checked by AI agents. A person approved publication
On this page
  1. The claim
  2. What the scheme is
  3. The arithmetic
  4. Step 1: what Etsy takes from each sale
  5. Step 2: the price
  6. Step 3: the orders needed
  7. Step 4: the visits needed
  8. Step 5: how those volumes compare with what shops get
  9. Step 6: the costs
  10. What people who tried it report
  11. What the rules allow now
  12. Who makes money from it
  13. The upside
  14. What it takes to compete
  15. What we did not verify
  16. Sources
  17. Corrections

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” and the basis is given.

The claim

Our collection for this scheme holds only 5 tweets, from 3 accounts with about 11,000 to 12,000 followers each1. They were posted between August 2023 and April 2024, so the claims are about two and a half to just over three years old177. View counts are as collected. The tweets are examples of the claim. The page judges the scheme, not the people who tweeted.

“I wrote a full guide on building a 7 figure digital product brand on Etsy”

@anibaldinelli, 4 January 2024, 97,168 views1

“People earning more than $20,000 from ETSY Without quitting their 9to5”

@SarahhBurner, 7 February 2024, 18,177 views1

“I have earned in 7-8 figures just in few months by selling digital products on Etsy”

@SarahhBurner, 17 November 2023, 17,127 views1

“Digital products are the easiest products to sell on Etsy to make 30k+/month”

@anibaldinelli, 26 August 2023, 16,932 views1

“I have earned more than $5,000 from Etsy”

@heyyavaryy, 26 April 2024, 4,279 views1

Each tweet gives an income figure and nothing else. In the text of the five we found no price, number of sales, number of visits, fee, cost, hours or number of listings, and three of the figures (7 figures, $20,000 and $5,000) come with no period1. Four of the five offer a guide or a list of product ideas by direct message to people who like, repost or reply; three of those also ask for a follow, and one calls the guide free1. The other one, the “30k+/month” tweet, opens a thread1. We read the text only. We did not view the images or GIFs attached to four of the tweets, or the rest of the thread, so anything shown only there is unchecked.

Because the collection is so small, this page rests mainly on how the method is promoted and practised generally, not on these five tweets.

What the scheme is

Etsy is an online marketplace. A “digital download” is a file the buyer pays for and downloads straight away: a printable (a page to print at home, such as a planner, a party game or wall art), a spreadsheet, or a template (a file the buyer edits, such as an invitation or a budget sheet).

The seller makes the file once, writes a listing, and Etsy delivers the file to each buyer automatically. A listing can hold up to five files of 20MB each42. There is no stock and no shipping. The seller relies mainly on people searching Etsy and finding the listing.

The mechanism is real. Etsy had 86.5 million active buyers at the end of 202511. The questions are how many sales it takes, and how many shops get them.

The arithmetic

Step 1: what Etsy takes from each sale

Etsy’s fee policy, last updated 13 February 2026, charges a US seller three fees on an ordinary sale23:

  • a listing fee of $0.20, charged when the item is listed, every four months after that, and again each time a listing renews after a sale25
  • a transaction fee of 6.5% of the price2
  • a payment processing fee of 3% plus $0.25 per order in the United States3

Our sum: 6.5% + 3% = 9.5% of the price, plus $0.20 + $0.25 = $0.45 per one-item order. The basis for the $0.20 on each sale is this sentence in the policy: “If you list multiple quantities of the same item, the initial listing fee will be $0.20, and the listing will be automatically renewed at $0.20 after each of the items sells.”2 A digital file is listed with many copies available, so we apply it to each digital sale. Etsy’s text does not say so for digital listings in particular; that step is our reading2.

The fixed $0.45 matters a lot on a cheap file. These are our estimates for a US seller, one item per order, no ads:

Price of the fileEtsy’s feesSeller keepsEtsy’s share
$3.00$0.74$2.2624.5%
$4.64$0.89$3.7519.2%
$5.00$0.93$4.0718.5%
$10.00$1.40$8.6014.0%
$15.00$1.88$13.1212.5%

The figures are rounded to the cent. On a $5 file the four parts are $0.20 + $0.325 + $0.15 + $0.25 = $0.925, which leaves $4.075. A third-party page publishes the same result for a $5 file: fees of $0.93, with $4.07 kept76.

There is one more fee, and for a shop that does well it is not optional. Etsy places ads for sellers’ items on other sites, which it calls Offsite Ads. If a buyer clicks one and orders within 30 days, Etsy takes a further 15% of the order from shops that have never sold $10,000 in any 365-day period24. Those shops can opt out24. Once a shop has sold $10,000 in any 365 days, the rate is 12% and the shop is, in the help page’s words, “Automatically enrolled in Offsite Ads and required to participate for the lifetime of your shop”4. The policy adds that a shop that later falls below $10,000 is still charged the 12% “for the lifetime of your shop”2. The fee is capped at $100 per order5.

This matters for the sums below. A shop keeping $1,000 a month at $5 a file sells about $14,700 a year (our estimate: 245 orders × $5 × 12), so it crosses the $10,000 line in its first good year and can no longer opt out. On a $5 order that comes through an Offsite Ad it then keeps about $3.48, not $4.07 (our estimate: $4.075 less $0.60). A smaller shop at the 15% rate keeps about $3.33 (our estimate). We found no figure for the share of orders that come through Offsite Ads, so the tables below leave this fee out.

So the “high profit margins” in one of the tweets1 are true in one sense: there is no cost of goods. But on a file priced from $3 to $10 Etsy keeps 14% to 25%, not the 6.5% headline rate. A tool vendor’s page that puts the margin at 90 to 95% does not match these sums75.

Step 2: the price

Etsy publishes no price data for digital goods. The best we found is weak: a sample of 66 listings for the search “digital downloads”, published by a keyword tool (software that shows sellers what buyers search for) and updated 22 September 2026. It says: “The median is $4.64 and the average is $6.30”, and 89% of the listings were under $106. “Median” means the middle listing: half cost more and half less. The tool does not describe its method6.

Sellers’ own numbers are in the same range. One template shop reports an average price that rose from EUR 2.60 in its first year to EUR 6.92 in its fourth8. Another small shop averaged about EUR 3.30 an order9. A page promoting the method says simple printables sell for $1.50 to $530. Bundles and editable templates sell for more; the sample’s top price was $406.

We use about $5 as the typical price and show $10 and $15 beside it. The sample is of general listings. Specialist files can cost more: the budget-spreadsheet shop described under “The upside” has listings on sale from $1.95 to $26.95, with a middle price of about $5.55 on its first page67. So a narrow, useful product does not guarantee a high price, but it makes $10 to $15 possible.

Step 3: the orders needed

Orders needed = income wanted ÷ what the seller keeps per sale. These are our estimates from Steps 1 and 2, before tools, ads, tax and the seller’s time.

Income keptAt $4.64 a file (keeps $3.75)At $5 (keeps $4.07)At $10 (keeps $8.60)At $15 (keeps $13.12)
$1,000 a monthabout 267 orders a month (9 a day)about 245about 116about 76
$10,000 a monthabout 2,667 a month (89 a day)about 2,454about 1,163about 762
$30,000 a monthabout 8,000 a month (267 a day)about 7,360about 3,490about 2,290

The claims in the tweets1 work out like this (our estimates):

  • “more than $5,000”, with no period: about 1,230 orders at $5.
  • “more than $20,000”, with no period: about 4,900 orders at $5. If it means a year, that is about 13 orders a day.
  • “30k+/month”: about 7,360 orders a month at $5 if the figure is money kept, or 6,000 a month if it is sales. One shop we could measure sold at roughly this level in 2025: about $20,000 to $29,000 a month in sales, on our estimate from its public sales counter (see “The upside”)67. eRank, a research tool, places it in the top 0.1% of Etsy shops68. So the figure is reachable. What the evidence contradicts is the tweet’s word “easiest”.
  • “7 figures”: at least $1,000,000 in sales, which is about 215,500 sales at $4.64. The same shop has probably come close to or passed that in its lifetime, a little over four years (our estimate)68.
  • “7-8 figures just in few months”: seven figures needs at least 215,500 sales at $4.64, and eight figures at least 2.16 million. Spread over three months, that is roughly 2,400 to 24,000 sales a day. We found no shop near this pace.

Doubling the price to $10 more than halves the orders needed.

Step 4: the visits needed

“Conversion rate” is the share of visits that end in an order. Etsy does not publish an average. A tool company reports Etsy’s guideline as: “many shops see average conversion rates of between 1% and 5%, but this range is only a guideline”, and adds that a digital download will not convert at the same rate as other goods7. We read this in the tool company’s article, not on Etsy’s own page.

At 1% to 5%, 267 orders a month (enough to keep $1,000 at $4.64) needs about 5,300 to 26,700 visits a month, and 2,667 orders needs about 53,000 to 267,000 visits a month (our estimate).

Two sellers who published their own Etsy statistics fall inside that range. The template shop reports 3.66% in its fourth year, counting units sold against listing views8. The small shop reports 1.5% of visits9.

Step 5: how those volumes compare with what shops get

No source gives a sales distribution for digital shops alone. Etsy does not report digital goods as a category11. The nearest evidence covers all Etsy shops:

  • Most shops sell nothing in a given month. A tool vendor counted 3,168,606 Etsy shops in July 2026. Only 829,920 of them, 26.2%, had any recorded item sale in about 30 days10. So nearly three quarters of the count is dormant shops (open but not selling) of every kind. Across all shops, the one at the 90th percentile (ahead of nine in ten) sold 10 items, and the one at the 99th percentile sold 17910. A fairer comparison is with shops that sold something: among those, about 1 in 26 sold 179 items or more (our estimate: 1% of all shops is about 3.8% of the 26.2% that sold). The 245 to 267 orders a month needed to keep $1,000 at about $5 is above that mark, and $10,000 a month is about 14 to 15 times it (our estimate). Limits: the vendor does not describe its method, all categories are mixed, it counts items and not orders, and the page warns its counts are “not dollars, income, revenue, profit, historical monthly sales, or a forecast for a new seller”10. Digital shops may sell more units than physical ones. Two ordinary-looking digital shops later on this page sell about 93 and, at an assumed $5 a file, about 125 items a month, which would already be near the top few per cent on this scale (our estimate)832. Treat the comparison as a rough guide.
  • The average shop is small. Buyers spent $10,460.7 million on the Etsy marketplace in 2025, and it had 5.6 million active sellers at the end of the year11. Our estimate: about $1,868 per seller per year, or $156 a month, before fees. “Active seller” includes dormant shops, so this average is pulled down, and large shops pull it up. A shop keeping $10,000 a month would be selling roughly 75 to 80 times that average (our estimate: about $11,600 to $12,300 of sales a month from Step 3, against $156).
  • Lifetime sales. eRank shows a rank for each shop. From five shop pages we read: about 3,250 lifetime sales puts a shop in the top 3.9% of all Etsy shops, 7,061 in the top 2%, 18,137 in the top 0.7%, 34,036 in the top 0.3% and 99,276 in the top 0.1%69. eRank does not explain its method on these pages69. On this ladder, the roughly 4,900 orders behind “$20,000” in one year is more than about 97% of all Etsy shops have sold in their whole lives (our estimate).
  • For most sellers of any kind, Etsy is a supplement. In Etsy’s own survey of 2,402 sellers in October 2024, 29% said their creative business was their sole occupation, and it supplied 11% of household income on average14. The survey does not separate digital sellers14.

Some pages state a “median digital seller” income. One tool vendor says the median digital-download seller earns GBP 400 to 800 a month and that Etsy has about 8 million sellers75. It names no dataset, and the seller count contradicts Etsy’s filing of 5.6 million1175. We do not use such figures.

Step 6: the costs

Cash costs are low.

  • Etsy. $0.20 per listing every four months, whether or not anything sells25. Our estimate: 100 listings cost $60 a year before any sale. New shops may also be charged a one-time set-up fee. Etsy’s policy says a seller “may be required to pay” it, that it is non-refundable and that it may be waived “in certain circumstances or promotional periods”; its help page says the “cost varies by location”25. Etsy’s pages give no amount. It was about $15 in the US as reported by CNBC in 2024, and a tool company’s help page of April 2025 gives $15 to $29 depending on country2252.
  • Etsy Ads (ads inside Etsy, optional). The minimum is $1 a day and new sellers are capped at $25 a day55. Our estimate: $30 a month of ads needs 7 to 8 extra sales at $5 to pay for itself.
  • Research tools (optional). eRank costs $5.99, $9.99 or $29.99 a month and has a free tier53. EverBee’s Growth plan is $299 a year, shown as $24.99 a month54.
  • Design software. A seller told CNBC that Canva Pro costs $10 a month22. Canva’s own pricing page refused our tools.
  • A course (optional). The best-known printables course cost $247 according to a 2023 review; the sales page showed us no price2426.

The larger cost is time. A UK business writer estimates about three hours per listing and “roughly 80 to 120 listings” to reach GBP 500 a month, which is 240 to 360 hours of unpaid work first39. These are her own estimates with no data shown39.

What people who tried it report

Nobody publishes outcome statistics for digital sellers. What exists is first-person accounts. None of the income figures in this section has been checked against payment records by anyone we could find.

The most detailed monthly log. A Reddit seller posted 14 months of Etsy digital-product sales in May 2026: $0, $14, $31, $67, $89, $143, $201, $178, $267, $334, $412, $389, $501, $62332. The post says: “Total: ~$3,349 over 14 months. Average $239/month. I now have 34 products. The top 5 products make up about 70% of revenue. The other 29 barely sell.”32 The months as listed add up to $3,249, an average of $232; the poster’s total is $100 higher (our sum). The post does not say whether the figures are before or after Etsy’s fees32. The figures are also older than the post’s date suggests. In the comments a reader says a screenshot on the poster’s website dates the sales to 2023-24, and the poster replies that the figures were from “my previous months” and that the current month is about $600 to $65032. The post itself carries no screenshot, and we did not open the one on the poster’s site.

The only account with full costs. A seller of digital planners wrote up ten months on Indie Hackers in 202033. Etsy revenue was GBP 3,453.21 from 494 orders, and Etsy costs were GBP 1,146.55, about a third of that revenue (our division)33. Software cost GBP 502.25 and outsourced design about GBP 2,00033. The author wrote: “So in all honesty my first year was at a breakeven but a huge order from university for 1000 students put me in place of profit.”33 Of more than 135 designs, under 10 sold well33. This account is six years old, and the author offers paid help33.

Two shops that published their Etsy statistics.

  • A template shop published four years of numbers. Year one (2022): 10,975 views, 314 units, EUR 817.06, 48 products8. Year four (2025): “30,469 views, 1,116 sales, €7,717.03 in revenue, all-time highs”, with 132 products8. That is about 93 sales and EUR 643 a month in sales in its fourth year, before fees (our division). It grew every year. The shop also sells from its own site8.
  • A small shop selling icon packs reports: “my own shop has made EUR 372.78 from 113 orders since January 2025”9. That covers about 20 months to September 2026. Its owner sells a keyword tool and says he did little for six months9.

A tally of forum posts. A blogger counted two years of posts in Reddit’s passive income forum, 5,423 posts from August 2024 to June 202634. Eight were first-person reports of a repeatable monthly figure for Etsy digital products. The median was $917 a month and the range $0 to $3,00034. The compiler warns: “Every income figure above is a stranger’s unverified claim about their own earnings”34. People who post their numbers lean towards those with something to show.

Generic products against narrow ones. A widely read Reddit account says: “My first 8 products were generic. Meal planners, budget trackers, habit journals. Total sales in 3 months: 4 units, about $30.”35 The same poster says six narrow health and parenting products later brought $400 to $700 a month35. Three weeks later the poster announced a tool they had built for finding niches, so treat the account as close to marketing35. The post also asserts that 90% of digital products on Etsy make no sales, with no source; we do not use that figure35.

Sellers who teach the method describe uneven income too. Cody Berman, a co-founder of the best-known printables course, said in a 2020 interview that because he sells mainly seasonal printables his Etsy income is “somewhat sporadic. I’ve had $800 weeks and $50 weeks.”29 Another Reddit seller wrote: “When I launched my very first shop, I got just 1 sale in the first month” and says a sixth shop, two years on, made 180 sales in its first month36. That post does not say the shops are digital-only, and it mentions the poster’s own paid product36.

A pattern across these accounts. A few listings carry the shop: 5 of 34 products made about 70% of sales in one case32, and under 10 of 135 designs sold well in another33. The first months are close to zero323536. Sales take a year or more to reach a few hundred dollars a month832. One of the logs describes an earlier period than its date suggests, so it says little about conditions in 202632.

What the rules allow now

Most of Etsy’s live pages refused our tools. We read its policies in Internet Archive copies dated between January and September 2026, so a change since then would not have been seen.

What is allowed. Etsy’s Creativity Standards, last updated 10 June 2025, permit “Digital downloads of sellers’ original designs: Original content created by the seller, sold as a digital download.”40

What is not. The same page lists as not qualifying: “A bundle, collection, scan, or PDF of someone else’s work” and “AI prompt bundles”40. On our reading, that covers bought packs of ready-made files sold with “resell rights” (a licence that claims to let the buyer sell the files on). Etsy’s text does not use that term, so this is our reading40. It matters for anyone handed a list of ready-made products to copy.

AI-made files. Files made with AI tools from the seller’s own prompts are allowed, with a condition: “Sellers must disclose within their listing description if an item is created with the use of AI.”4041 Etsy says it will keep re-evaluating these policies, so the permission can change41.

Enforcement. Etsy’s 2024 Transparency Report says: “In 2024, we removed 22% more listings and suspended 1.5x more sellers for violating our Creativity Standards and Handmade Policy” than the year before, and that most actions were for alleged breaches of the intellectual property policy and the Creativity Standards44. The report gives no absolute numbers in its text and nothing about digital items in particular44. In July 2026 an Etsy spokesperson told WIRED that enforcing the AI and transparency standards is “complex, and we know we have a lot more work to do”43. Sellers in that article said the disclosure rule is not strictly enforced43. So the risk runs both ways: loose enforcement means competing with many AI-made listings, and tighter enforcement means removals.

How a shop can be lost. Etsy removes a listing when it receives an intellectual property complaint, and “terminates selling privileges of members who are subject to repeat or multiple notices of intellectual property infringement”45. This is the main risk for files that use characters, brand names, team logos or song lyrics. Etsy’s Seller Policy, updated 10 September 2026, says it finds listings with “a combination of automated systems, manual monitoring and flags”, that listing fees are not refunded, and that it can suspend or terminate an account and related accounts46. Opening a duplicate shop to get round a policy is forbidden46.

Held money. Etsy’s payments policy lets it delay deposits: “A deposit delay may be between 0 and 180 days.”47 It can also take refunds and chargebacks (payments the buyer’s bank reverses) back from the seller4647. One point in the seller’s favour: Etsy’s help page says “Sales of digital items are not held in reserve”, so the routine reserve on new sellers does not apply48. That sentence was on the live help page on 10 October 2026; an archived copy from August 2025 does not have it, so the wording appears to be recent48.

Design software licences. Many template shops build their files in Canva. Canva’s licence, as we read it, lets a seller use its free content in templates for sale, and adds: “If your Canva Design contains any Pro Content, you can’t use it for these purposes.”49 This is our reading of a licence and not legal advice. Canva’s help page on selling templates could not be opened.

Copyright in AI-made files. The US Copyright Office concluded in January 2025: “Copyright does not extend to purely AI-generated material, or material where there is insufficient human control over the expressive elements.”50 A seller of a purely AI-made design may therefore have little way to stop others copying it. This is the US position only.

Tax. Etsy issues Form 1099-K (a US tax form that reports the payments a seller received) to some US sellers2. The IRS says: “Whether or not you receive a Form 1099-K, you must still report any income on your tax return.”51 The IRS page gives the marketplace reporting threshold as more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions51. On sales tax, Etsy’s policy says that where local law requires VAT (a sales tax) on a digital item “delivered via automatic download”, Etsy collects and pays it and the seller “will not have to take any further action”2. All income figures on this page are before income tax.

Regulators. We found no regulator or court action about selling digital downloads on Etsy, or about a low-priced course on it. The nearest cases concern expensive “done-for-you” online stores, where a company is paid to set up and run a store for the buyer. They concern only the companies named in them:

  • In FTC v. Ascend Ecom, the US Federal Trade Commission’s complaint of September 2024 alleges that the company’s marketing moved in early 2024 to TikTok and Etsy stores, with the line “$6000 - $9000 Per Month With a 100% Passive Income Generating Etsy Store”, and alleges: “In truth, virtually none of Ascend’s clients earn the advertised income.”63 These are allegations in a complaint. In June 2025 the FTC announced a proposed order, agreed with the defendants, with a ban on selling business opportunities and “a total monetary judgment of $25 million, which is partially suspended”64. The court docket shows the judge granted it on 11 August 202578. The order was agreed, so the allegations were not tested at trial. We did not look for a public statement from the defendants and have none to show.
  • In the FTC’s case against Empire Holdings Group, which traded as Ecommerce Empire Builders, a court entered a settlement order on 8 May 2025 with a ban and a judgment of $9,786,124, partly suspended65. The FTC said the company “promised consumers profits of $10,000 each month, but the complaint charged that these profits never materialized”65. The FTC’s release says the defendants “agreed to a settlement order”, so here too nothing was tested at trial, and we have no statement from them to show65. That case was about general online stores, not Etsy65.

The FTC’s guidance for sellers of business opportunities says: “it’s illegal to make an earnings claim unless you have written materials on hand that back up what you’re saying.”66 We did not check whether that rule applies to ordinary Etsy courses.

Who makes money from it

Etsy. Etsy is paid on every listing and every sale, whether or not the seller profits25. In 2025 Etsy Inc. had revenue of $2,883.5 million and kept 24.2% of everything sold on its marketplaces, up from 22.3% in 202413. Its services revenue, mostly ads that sellers buy, grew 11.3% to $876.3 million13. Revenue, the 24.2% share and services revenue are for the whole company, including Depop, another marketplace Etsy owns, and, until June 2025, Reverb13. Over the same year, active sellers on the Etsy marketplace alone fell 1.5% to 5.6 million13. Etsy’s annual report attributes the fall in sellers to the set-up fee it introduced in 202411. Sales on the Etsy marketplace fell about 4% in 2025 and rose 7.5% year on year in the second quarter of 20261112.

Course sellers. The best-known course for this scheme is E-Printables from Gold City Ventures. In July 2022 CNBC reported that co-founder Julie Berninger’s own Etsy shop “brings in $1,000 per month”, and that the Etsy printables course was the company’s “most popular course by far, and in 2021, Gold City Ventures brought in $1 million revenue.”21 CNBC does not say it reviewed documents, and the company also sold other courses21. On those figures the company took about 80 times in a year what the founder’s shop did (our division).

The company’s site says she “earns over $1,000 per month in her Etsy shop, The Swag Elephant”23. The statement is undated and matches the figure CNBC printed in July 20222123. Etsy’s public sales counter for that shop, read in archived copies, showed 6,678 sales on 26 September 2024 and 6,984 on 1 January 2026, which is 306 sales in 462 days71. eRank showed 7,061 in October 2026, 77 more in about nine months69. A counter shows sales, not money. Of the 40 listings on the archived page, 38 cost $2 to $9, most of them $3 or $4, and two bundles cost $4071. At $3 to $4 a sale, 306 sales come to roughly $900 to $1,200 over those 15 months; at $9 a sale, about $2,800 (our estimate)71. That is roughly $60 to $190 a month on Etsy in that period (our estimate). The shop has been on Etsy since 2017 and may have sold faster in earlier years; the counter covers Etsy only71. We do not know which period the site’s statement describes, and we did not ask the company.

The course’s own page says: “We allow a 7-day refund period as long as you don’t proceed past Module 1.”24 It also says buyers who stay in its VIP membership (a paid members’ group) after 30 days “will be charged $29 per month until you reach 100 sales”, and “We cannot guarantee results or earnings from selling printables.”24 The site reports a running total: “Our students have earned over $3,385,881 selling printables on Etsy”, with no number of students, so no per-student figure can be worked out25. In a 2024 interview the co-founder said: “Our first launch in 2019 was a $70,000 weekend”, and of students: “Our goal is to have them make hundreds to $1,000 per month”31. That goal is far below the figures in the tweets.

Another Etsy coaching programme, The Ultimate Etsy Course from Dylan Jahraus, covers all Etsy selling and publishes no fixed price59. Its site says a team of “53+” has helped “7000+ Etsy sellers” since 2022, which is its own claim59. Its pricing page says prices start “at a couple hundred dollars monthly”59. Its refund page, updated 29 April 2025, says: “ALL TRAINING COURSE FEES PAID ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.”59 Its results guarantee, updated 7 January 2026, offers continued coaching “at no additional cost” if a client who completes and applies the 12-month programme sees no measurable improvement in traffic, conversion or revenue; it adds: “This guarantee does not include refunds”59. Its disclaimer says the earnings shown are not to be read as typical59.

At the low end, a Udemy course on Etsy digital products shows 6,254 students60. The site of a person who describes himself as an “Etsy Seller and Coach”, and says his earlier course is no longer available, sells “100 Etsy Digital Product Ideas (e-book) $12”61. So lists of product ideas, like the ones offered by direct message in the tweets, are also a product sold for a few dollars.

Tool companies and people who refer to them. Research tools charge a monthly subscription whether or not the shop sells5354. They also pay people who send them customers: EverBee and eRank each advertise a 30% commission for up to 12 months, and Alura 30% for six months565758. Our estimate: a referral to a $24.99-a-month plan pays the referrer about $7.50 a month. The Udemy course above offers Etsy’s 40 free listings through “the special link”, which is Etsy’s referral offer60.

The accounts in our collection. The four tweets that offer a guide or a list ask for some mix of a like, a repost, a reply and a follow, which grows an account’s reach1. None of the five tweets links to a paid product in its text1. We did not see what is sent by direct message afterwards. The profile of @heyyavaryy describes the account as helping people “create an audience online” and links to a Gumroad store (Gumroad is a site for selling digital files)62. The store lists 77 products; the nine we saw are priced from $10, with the buyer free to pay more, and include lists, prompts and workflows62. A search of the store for “Etsy” returns nothing62. The profiles of @anibaldinelli and @SarahhBurner showed no website link when read on 10 October 202677. We found no Etsy shop name or proof of income for any of the three accounts, and we did not look beyond their profiles and these tweets.

The upside

People do make real money at this. The best outcomes we found, with what stands behind each:

A shop whose sales count can be checked. TheWeeklyCrew sells budget spreadsheets for Excel and Google Sheets. It was created on 9 June 202268. Archived copies of its Etsy page show 24,837 sales in May 2023, 53,366 in January 2024, 92,694 in January 2025 and 146,882 in April 2026, with 27 to 48 listings67. Between January 2025 and April 2026 that is 54,188 sales in 457 days, about 119 a day (our division). eRank showed 158,207 sales on 9 October 2026 and puts the shop in the top 0.1% of Etsy sellers68. That is about 65 a day since April 2026, against about 100 a day over the shop’s whole life (our division)6768. The 40 listings on the archived page are on sale from $1.95 to $26.95, with a middle price of about $5.5567. Revenue is not public. At an assumed $5.50 to $8 a sale (our estimate):

  • 119 sales a day is roughly $240,000 to $350,000 a year, or $20,000 to $29,000 a month;
  • 65 a day is roughly $130,000 to $190,000 a year;
  • 158,207 lifetime sales is roughly $870,000 to $1.27 million, so the shop has probably come close to or passed seven figures in a little over four years.

We do not know whether it used ads or an outside audience, or how many people run it. The counts are Etsy’s own; the money is our guess.

The best case in the press. CNBC reported that Rachel Jimenez opened an Etsy shop in 2019, sells hundreds of printables, and “In 2021, she brought in nearly $160,000 in passive income from it.”15 Later CNBC pieces give more than $110,000 for 2022 and $77,000 for 20231617. The articles do not say CNBC reviewed documents, so these are her own figures. They are sales, not profit. In her own article she wrote of the building phase: “I would try to work six to eight hours a day developing and listing products.”18 She took the Gold City Ventures course in 201919. In 2023 she released a course of her own on a different subject, positive psychology17. Sales fell from 2021 to 2023; by 2024 she told CNBC she spent five to ten minutes a day on the shop17. Even the 2021 figure is about a sixth of the lowest “7 figure” claim.

An experienced seller’s second shop. CNBC reported that Emily Odio-Sutton’s print-on-demand Etsy shop (designs printed on goods by a supplier) brought in $220,300 in 2023, “according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It”22. Her second shop sells downloadable event templates and had “brought in $17,200 in sales so far in 2024” by late September22. That is about $1,900 a month (our division). The article does not say the digital figure was checked against documents. She was not a beginner, and she coaches for the same course company22.

A long-running printables shop. YourFrugalFriend opened in 2019. In an interview published on 19 October 2022, when the shop had 13,548 lifetime sales and 254 listings, its owner told a tool company: “I currently make $35k/year selling digital products passively in my Etsy shop.”38 That is her own 2022 figure. A later reading comes out lower. Etsy’s counter in archived copies shows 24,808 sales in January 2025 and 30,405 in January 2026, about 14.7 a day, from 307 to 373 listings70. The 36 listings on the first page of the January 2026 copy were on sale from $0.84 to $5.09, with a middle price of $1.69; a year earlier the middle price was about $2.2570. At $1.70 to $2.25 a sale, 14.7 a day is roughly $9,000 to $12,000 a year in sales (our estimate from first-page sale prices). eRank lists the shop in the top 0.3%69. So even this shop, with hundreds of listings after six years, is probably below $20,000 a year in sales at its recent prices.

A specialist with an audience. A licensed clinical social worker sells paperwork templates for therapists and reports over $10,000 a year37. eRank shows her shop with 3,248 lifetime sales from 13 listings72. She says: “Most of my sales are from my own audience — my Facebook groups and email list”37. She also warned: “I think it’s really easy to get sucked into marketing tactics and think you’ll make $100k off your Etsy shop”37.

A fresh shop run by an expert. Cody Berman, co-founder of the printables course and a seller since 2018, opened a new shop in August 2024. He reports: “I only made $185 in month 1, despite spending 5-10 hours on the shop each week.”28 He gives about $400 in month two and just over $900 in month three28. In an interview he says: “From mid-August to December 31st, I made $6,161 from this new Etsy shop”, after listing more than 350 products27. The shop is not named, so this cannot be checked, and the pages promote his course2728.

Other large shops, and a caution. Counters show CreativeJamCo (journals and printables) at about 84 sales a day from October 2024 to November 2025, with 2,296 to 4,261 listings, falling to about 35 a day in the eleven months to October 2026 (our division)73. HappyDownloads (planner stickers, on Etsy since 2014) sold about 30 a day in 202573. LILAxLOLA, a printable wall art shop, had 155,711 lifetime sales in May 2025 and 156,870 in October 2026: about two a day73. Together with TheWeeklyCrew’s slower 2026, these show that past success does not guarantee future sales.

What the top tenth and hundredth earn. No dollar figures exist. In the all-shop count above, the 90th percentile sold 10 items in about 30 days and the 99th sold 17910. The source says its counts must not be turned into dollars, so we do not10. On eRank’s ladder, shops with about 18,000 to 34,000 lifetime sales are in the top 0.3% to 0.7%, and the one such shop we could price sells perhaps $9,000 to $12,000 a year (our estimate)6970.

A realistic good result (our estimate). The basis is the accounts above. For a competent person who designs original files in a narrow subject and adds listings steadily at 5 to 10 hours a week: little or nothing for the first three to six months2832, and a few hundred dollars a month in sales by the end of the first year3239. $1,000 a month in the first two years is a good outcome; in the accounts above it came with an expert’s 350 listings or with prior experience2227. Far above that sit a very few shops. The highest income a digital seller reports for herself is about $13,000 a month in sales, for one year15. The highest we could estimate from a counter is about $20,000 to $29,000 a month, for a shop that has probably come close to or passed $1 million in lifetime sales after four years6768. We found nothing that supports eight figures, or seven figures “in a few months”.

What it takes to compete

A product that does a job. The strongest shops sell something functional or specialist: working budget spreadsheets67, clinical notes built for audits37, event sign-up sheets22. Generic planners and trackers sold almost nothing in one seller’s account35.

Knowledge of a niche, and often an audience. The therapist-template seller had professional knowledge and her own audience first37. The four-year template shop also sells from its own site8. The scheme as promoted relies on Etsy search alone; several of the better results did not.

Many listings, or one standout. The accounts run from 34 products to 5003269. A handful carry the shop3233. TheWeeklyCrew is the exception, with under 50 listings67.

Time before pay. Estimates and accounts point to 240 to 360 hours of work39, or six to eight hours a day in the building phase for the top press case18, before meaningful income. Most of the documented winners started between 2018 and 2022153868.

Original work. Etsy’s rules exclude other people’s bundles and require AI use to be disclosed40. Canva’s licence limits which elements can go into templates for sale49.

Little money. One seller put the start-up cost at under $4022. Tools run from nothing to about $30 a month5354. The money at risk is small. The thing a newcomer mostly stands to lose is time.

How to tell early which side you are on. These are our suggestions, based on the accounts above:

  • Before making anything, ask whether you can name a specific group of buyers and a problem your file solves for them. If the answer is “anyone who wants a planner”, you are in the generic group35.
  • After 20 to 30 listings and three months, look at Etsy’s own statistics. If visits are arriving and 1% to 5% of them buy, the product works and the task is more traffic7. If there are visits and no sales, the product or price is the problem. If there are no visits, the search wording or the niche is.
  • Check whether sales rise month on month, as in the 14-month log32. Flat near zero after six months of steady listing is a sign to change niche or stop.
  • Work out your hourly return honestly. A few hundred dollars a month after 300 hours is a hobby that pays for itself, not a salary39.
  • Be wary of any step that asks for money before you have a sale: a course, a monthly membership, a done-for-you shop2463.
  • If the shop does take off, remember the Offsite Ads rule: past $10,000 of sales in a year, the 12% fee on ad-driven orders is permanent24.

What we did not verify

  • The collection holds 5 tweets from 3 accounts. We did not view the images or GIFs attached to four of them, or the rest of the thread, so figures shown only there are unchecked.
  • We did not check whether the three accounts run Etsy shops, what their free guides or lists contain, or what is offered afterwards. We saw only the first nine of the 77 products in the Gumroad store linked from one profile. That profile’s text was read once on 10 October 2026; a second lookup the same day failed.
  • No distribution of sales or income for digital-download shops exists in public. The percentile comparisons use an all-category count and eRank’s rankings, and neither describes its method.
  • The typical price rests on one tool’s sample of 66 listings for one search phrase. The volume sums move a lot with price. No source gives the share of orders that come through Offsite Ads, so that fee is left out of the tables.
  • Etsy’s 1% to 5% conversion guideline was read in a tool company’s article, not on Etsy’s page. No digital-specific rate was found.
  • No income figure for a digital shop is confirmed by documents. CNBC states a document review only for one print-on-demand shop. Shop counters show sales counts, not money; every dollar figure we attach to a counter is our estimate from the sale prices on the first page of an archived shop page, which may not match what buyers paid.
  • Etsy’s live pages refused our tools. Policies and shop counters come from Internet Archive copies dated 2023 to September 2026, not from today. What changed in the Seller Policy update of 10 September 2026 was not checked.
  • Etsy’s pages give no amount for the set-up fee; the $15 and the $15 to $29 are from a news article and a tool company.
  • Fees were worked out for a US seller on one-item orders. Other countries’ processing fees, and orders with several items, were not worked through. Income tax, refunds and currency conversion are left out of all sums.
  • Canva’s prices and its help page on selling templates could not be opened. Our reading of its licence is not legal advice.
  • The current price of the E-Printables course, its number of students, and any typical-results figure were not found. The $1 million is for 2021 and for the whole company.
  • Several pages were read through a tool that summarises them (the IRS page, two blog reports of the $6,161 shop, the NBC copies of CNBC stories). Quotes from those are as the tool returned them.
  • The Reddit threads were read once through a mirror site (a copy of Reddit run by someone else) and could not be re-opened later the same day by any route we tried. The comments about the 14-month log’s dates come from that one reading32. The DollarSprout page showed two different dates on two readings37.
  • We did not ask Gold City Ventures, or anyone else named here, for comment before writing. The Swag Elephant estimate covers Etsy sales in one 15-month period only.
  • The reader service we used for several pages failed on later attempts. Internet Archive copies exist for the CNBC, FTC, Making Sense of Cents and Side Hustle Nation pages.
  • For the FTC cases we read one complaint and two press releases. For Ascend Ecom we also read the docket list on CourtListener, not the order itself. We did not check what was refunded, look for the defendants’ statements, or search non-US regulators.
  • No Etsy digital shop’s revenue is confirmed at seven figures. The largest we measured is our own estimate: about $240,000 to $350,000 a year in 2025, and about $870,000 to $1.27 million in its lifetime, from a sales counter and an assumed price.
  • Whether AI-made listings have reduced digital sellers’ sales was not measured by any source we read.

Sources

  1. Does It Pay collection of 5 tweets on this scheme, collected 2026-10-06. Read from the project file.
  2. Etsy, Fees & Payments Policy. https://web.archive.org/web/20260919164638/https://www.etsy.com/legal/fees/ . Last updated 2026-02-13; archived copy of 2026-09-19. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy; the live page refused us).
  3. Etsy Help, payment processing fees. https://web.archive.org/web/20260706201838/https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015628847 . Undated; archived 2026-07-06. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  4. Etsy Help, How Etsy’s Offsite Ads Work. https://web.archive.org/web/2026/https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000338367-How-Etsy-s-Offsite-Ads-Work . Undated; 2026 archived copy. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  5. Etsy Help, fees for selling on Etsy. https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014483627 . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  6. RankHero, keyword page “digital downloads”. https://www.rankhero.com/keywords/digital-downloads . Updated 2026-09-22. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai; direct fetch blocked).
  7. eRank, What is a good conversion rate on Etsy. https://help.erank.com/blog/what-is-a-good-conversion-rate-on-etsy/ . 2026-03-24. Secondary (reports Etsy’s guideline).
  8. Crafted Charts, years of Etsy shop data 2022 to 2025. https://craftedcharts.com/blogs/marketing/3-years-of-etsy-shop-data-2022-2025 . Updated 2026-08-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (seller’s own figures).
  9. AutoKeyworder, How to sell on Etsy. https://autokeyworder.com/blog/how-to-sell-on-etsy/ . 2026-09-17. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (seller’s own figures).
  10. InsightAgent, Average Etsy seller income. https://www.insightagent.app/guides/average-etsy-seller-income . 2026-07-21. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (tool vendor; method not described).
  11. Etsy, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1370637/000137063726000019/etsy-20251231.htm . Filed 2026-02-19. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  12. Etsy, Inc., Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1370637/000137063726000080/etsy-20260630.htm . Filed 2026-08-05. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  13. Etsy, Inc., fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. https://investors.etsy.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/218/etsy-inc-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2025-results . 2026-02-19. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  14. Etsy, Global Seller Census 2024 (Ipsos survey). https://storage.googleapis.com/etsy-extfiles-prod/2025_Q1_GLOBAL_Seller%20Census%202024.pdf . Survey 2024-10-01 to 2024-10-16; published early 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  15. CNBC Make It, side hustle selling printables. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/29/side-hustle-selling-printables-can-bring-in-thousands-a-month-in-passive-income.html . 2023-01-29, updated 2024-03-19. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  16. CNBC Make It, republished by NBC Boston, side hustle advice from two sellers. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/business/money-report/the-no-1-piece-of-side-hustle-advice-from-2-moms-who-make-thousands-in-passive-income/3138057/ . 2023-09-17. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  17. CNBC Make It, Rachel Jimenez’s income from Etsy in 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/31/rachel-jimenez-made-6-figures-from-etsy-her-blog-and-other-hustles.html . 2024-03-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  18. CNBC Make It, first-person article by Rachel Jimenez. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/27/millennial-mom-how-i-built-my-passive-income-etsy-side-hustle.html . 2024-11-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  19. CNBC Make It, balancing full-time work and a side hustle. https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/2022/06/02/how-to-balance-full-time-work-and-a-side-hustle-rachel-jimenez.html . 2022-06-02. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  20. Side Hustle Nation, Etsy printables. https://www.sidehustlenation.com/etsy-printables/ . Last updated 2022-02-17. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy). No longer cited in the text; kept so the numbering does not change.
  21. CNBC Make It, profile of Julie Berninger. https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/2022/07/12/entrepreneur-advice-from-mom-who-started-million-business-julie-berninger.html . 2022-07-12. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  22. CNBC Make It, republished by NBC Connecticut, profile of Emily Odio-Sutton. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/business/money-report/36-year-olds-etsy-side-hustle-brings-in-220000-a-year-and-costs-under-40-to-start-you-really-can-make-a-very-good-living/3395977/ . 2024-09-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  23. Gold City Ventures, home page. https://www.goldcityventures.com/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  24. Gold City Ventures, E-Printables course page. https://www.goldcityventures.com/e-printables-course . First published 2022-01-16. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  25. Gold City Ventures, student success page. https://goldcityventures.com/student-success/ . Undated (footer 2026). Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  26. Making Sense of Cents, Gold City Ventures review. https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2023/10/gold-city-ventures-review.html . 2023-10-20. Secondary (for the course price).
  27. Making Sense of Cents, $6,161 in four months with a new Etsy printables shop. https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2025/03/how-i-made-6161-in-just-4-months-with-a-new-etsy-printables-shop.html . 2025-03, updated 2026-09-28. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through a summarising tool).
  28. Believe in a Budget, guest post by Cody Berman. https://believeinabudget.com/?p=130247 . 2025-04-03. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  29. Making Sense of Cents, selling printables on Etsy. https://www.makingsenseofcents.com/2020/05/sell-on-etsy-printables.html . 2020-05, updated 2026-08-20. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through a summarising tool).
  30. Side Hustle Nation, Etsy digital products. https://www.sidehustlenation.com/etsy-digital-products/ . 2026-03-26. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  31. Course Method, interview with Julie Berninger. https://coursemethod.com/julie-berninger.html . 2024-03-25. Secondary (interview; founder’s own statements).
  32. Reddit, r/passive_income, 14 months of digital products on Etsy. https://www.reddit.com/r/passive_income/comments/1tdna9m/14_months_of_digital_products_on_etsy_real/ . 2026-05-15. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (once, through a Redlib mirror, a third-party copy of Reddit; reddit.com refused us and later attempts by other routes failed).
  33. Indie Hackers, ten months of digital planners. https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-made-7500-income-in-less-than-10-months-from-a-digital-planners-spending-less-than-2-hrs-a-week-792f3939a5 . 2020-09-17. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  34. Passive Piggie, two years of ideas tallied. https://passivepiggie.com/articles/two-years-of-ideas-tallied/ . 2026-08-14. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  35. Reddit, r/passive_income, two years of passive income ideas tracked. https://www.reddit.com/r/passive_income/comments/1s92wwq/i_tracked_every_passive_income_idea_i_tried_over/ . 2026-03-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through a Redlib mirror).
  36. Reddit, r/passive_income, two years on Etsy. https://www.reddit.com/r/passive_income/comments/1o9a5o2/im_2_years_on_etsy_heres_what_i_realized_to_get_a/ . 2025-10-17. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through a Redlib mirror).
  37. DollarSprout, how a social worker built a $10K Etsy shop selling digital templates. https://dollarsprout.com/how-a-social-worker-built-a-10k-etsy-shop-selling-digital-templates/ . 2024-12-02 (a second reading of the page showed 2025-04-01). Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  38. Alura, interview with the owner of YourFrugalFriend. https://www.alura.io/interview/yourfrugalfriend . Published 2022-10-19. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (direct fetch).
  39. Lilach Bullock, selling printables: the honest math. https://www.lilachbullock.com/selling-printables-passive-income-honest-math/ . 2026-06-26. Secondary (the author’s own estimates, no data shown).
  40. Etsy, Creativity Standards. https://web.archive.org/web/20260828105429/https://www.etsy.com/legal/creativity . Last updated 2025-06-10; archived 2026-08-28. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  41. Etsy Seller Handbook, article on AI and the Creativity Standards. https://web.archive.org/web/20260924215515/https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/1275449912004 . 2024-07-09; archived 2026-09-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  42. Etsy Help, How to Manage Your Digital Listings. https://web.archive.org/web/20260113214403/https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015628347-How-to-Manage-Your-Digital-Listings . Undated; archived 2026-01-13. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  43. WIRED, article on Etsy sellers and AI listings. https://web.archive.org/web/20261008060123/https://www.wired.com/story/etsy-is-in-its-flop-era-and-sellers-are-fleeing/ . 2026-07-21; archived 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  44. Etsy, 2024 Transparency Report. https://investors.etsy.com/_assets/_d7ee8700714b0f6cfcd5c437caf5f524/etsy/db/1016/9831/pdf/2024_Transparency_Report_Digital.pdf . Published 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  45. Etsy, Intellectual Property Policy. https://web.archive.org/web/20260924083452/https://www.etsy.com/legal/ip . Last updated 2023-06-15; archived 2026-09-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  46. Etsy, Seller Policy. https://web.archive.org/web/20260924185745/https://www.etsy.com/legal/sellers/ . Last updated 2026-09-10; archived 2026-09-24. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  47. Etsy, Etsy Payments Policy. https://web.archive.org/web/20260302072611/https://www.etsy.com/legal/etsy-payments/ . Last updated 2026-02-12; archived 2026-03-02. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  48. Etsy Help, payment account reserves. https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058722214 . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (live page through r.jina.ai). The sentence quoted is absent from the archived copy of 2025-08-29, https://web.archive.org/web/20250829041053/https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058722214 .
  49. Canva, Content License Agreement. https://web.archive.org/web/20260927103015/https://www.canva.com/policies/content-license-agreement/ . Revision date not captured; archived 2026-09-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  50. US Copyright Office, Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability. https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-2-Copyrightability-Report.pdf . 2025-01-29. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  51. IRS, Understanding your Form 1099-K. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/understanding-your-form-1099-k . Last reviewed 2026-06-28. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through a summarising tool).
  52. eRank Help, page on Etsy’s set-up fee. https://help.erank.com/?p=16332 . 2025-04-14. Secondary.
  53. eRank, plans. https://erank.com/plans . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  54. EverBee, pricing. https://www.everbee.io/pricing . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  55. Etsy Help, How to Set Up and Manage an Etsy Ads Campaign. https://web.archive.org/web/20260720054601/https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033701174-How-to-Set-Up-and-Manage-an-Etsy-Ads-Campaign . Undated; archived 2026-07-20. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copy).
  56. EverBee, affiliates. https://www.everbee.io/affiliates . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  57. eRank, affiliate programme. https://erank.com/affiliate . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  58. Alura, affiliate programme. https://www.alura.io/affiliate . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  59. Dylan Jahraus, The Ultimate Etsy Course. Refunds, https://dylanjahraus.com/refunds , last updated 2025-04-29; pricing, https://dylanjahraus.com/pricing , undated; results guarantee, https://dylanjahraus.com/results-guarantee , last updated 2026-01-07; disclaimer, https://dylanjahraus.com/disclaimer , undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  60. Udemy, course on selling digital products on Etsy. https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-start-selling-digital-products-on-etsy-seo-marketing-strategies/ . Last updated 7/2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  61. Brandon Timothy, site of an Etsy seller and coach. https://brandontimothy.com/ . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  62. Gumroad store linked from the profile of @heyyavaryy, with the profile text. https://clickupresource.gumroad.com ; store search for “etsy”, https://clickupresource.gumroad.com/products/search?query=etsy&user_id=3229154333658 . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (store by direct fetch; profile text once through api.fxtwitter.com, where a later lookup the same day returned an error).
  63. Federal Trade Commission, complaint in FTC v. Ascend Ecom. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2423023ascendecomcomplaint.pdf . Published 2024-09-25. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  64. Federal Trade Commission, press release on the Ascend Ecom order. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/06/ftc-case-leads-order-banning-ascend-ecom-its-owners-business-opportunity-marketing . 2025-06-23. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  65. Federal Trade Commission, press release on Ecommerce Empire Builders. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/05/ftc-action-ends-ecommerce-empire-builders-online-business-opportunity-scam . 2025-05-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  66. Federal Trade Commission, guidance on selling a work-at-home or other business opportunity. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/selling-work-home-or-other-business-opportunity-revised-rule-may-apply-you . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
  67. Etsy shop page of TheWeeklyCrew, archived copies. https://web.archive.org/web/20260417105819/https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheWeeklyCrew . 2026-04-17 (earlier copies 2023-05-13, 2024-01-07, 2025-01-15). Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copies).
  68. eRank, shop page for TheWeeklyCrew. https://members.erank.com/shop-info/TheWeeklyCrew . Updated 2026-10-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  69. eRank, shop pages: https://members.erank.com/shop-info/ShopSmartDigitals , https://members.erank.com/shop-info/GJVconsulting , https://members.erank.com/shop-info/TheSwagElephant , https://members.erank.com/shop-info/YourFrugalFriend , https://members.erank.com/shop-info/DarlingJadore . Updated 2026-10-09 and 2026-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (method not described).
  70. Etsy shop page of YourFrugalFriend, archived copies. https://web.archive.org/web/20260131185533/https://www.etsy.com/shop/YourFrugalFriend . 2026-01-31 (earlier copy 2025-01-15). Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copies).
  71. Etsy shop page of TheSwagElephant, archived copies. https://web.archive.org/web/20260101230949/https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheSwagElephant . 2026-01-01 (earlier copy 2024-09-26). Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copies).
  72. eRank, shop page for GJVconsulting. https://members.erank.com/shop-info/GJVconsulting . Read at source on 2026-10-10 (through r.jina.ai).
  73. Etsy shop pages, archived copies, with eRank pages of October 2026. CreativeJamCo: 2024-10-02, https://web.archive.org/web/20241002055000/https://www.etsy.com/shop/CreativeJamCo ; 2025-11-21, https://web.archive.org/web/20251121170117/https://www.etsy.com/shop/CreativeJamCo ; eRank, https://members.erank.com/shop-info/CreativeJamCo . HappyDownloads: 2025-01-15, https://web.archive.org/web/20250115072200/https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyDownloads ; 2026-01-01, https://web.archive.org/web/20260101212001/https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyDownloads . LILAxLOLA: 2025-05-22, https://web.archive.org/web/20250522074015/https://www.etsy.com/shop/LILAxLOLA ; eRank, https://members.erank.com/shop-info/LILAxLOLA . Read at source on 2026-10-10 (Internet Archive copies and eRank).
  74. Traverse Legal, seller’s guide to “Schedule A” cases. https://www.traverselegal.com/blog/your-amazon-or-paypal-account-was-frozen-by-a-trademark-lawsuit-a-sellers-guide-to-schedule-a-cases/ . Undated. Secondary (search summary only; page not opened). No longer cited in the text; kept so the numbering does not change.
  75. Listify AI, how much do Etsy sellers make. https://www.listifyai.net/blog/how-much-do-etsy-sellers-make-2026 . 2026-01-22. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (figures on it are unsourced).
  76. CartMango, Etsy for digital products. https://cartmango.com/etsy-for-digital-products/ . 2026-07-23. Secondary (publishes a similar fee table).
  77. FxTwitter copies of the collected tweets and of two profiles, used to confirm text, dates and profile links. Tweets: https://api.fxtwitter.com/status/1743006021553959346 , https://api.fxtwitter.com/status/1755245092829286464 , https://api.fxtwitter.com/status/1725545682461737042 , https://api.fxtwitter.com/status/1695520045957312768 , https://api.fxtwitter.com/status/1783893159107526950 . Profiles: https://api.fxtwitter.com/anibaldinelli , https://api.fxtwitter.com/SarahhBurner . Tweets dated 2023-08-26 to 2024-04-26. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (x.com refused us).
  78. CourtListener, docket of Federal Trade Commission v. Ascend Capventures Inc., No. 2:24-cv-07660 (C.D. Cal.). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69187556/federal-trade-commission-v-ascend-capventures-inc/ . Entry 117, dated 2025-08-11. Read at source on 2026-10-10 (docket list only).

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