Travelling Australia after the birth of our first child was the logical thing for us to do. Why? Because time is precious and we wanted to. Not much else to it. So we had to do the ground work and make sure everything was prepared to keep everyone safe and ensure an enjoyable experience. But as someone who has travelled for over 12 months we get the struggle everyone bumps into eventually, the ugly green monster called ‘no income’ sits in the back of our mind trying to stop our adventures. Or in some cases, standing in our way before we have even started! Well, I have a few tips for you to set yourself up so you can tell said ‘ugly green monster’ to rack off. By no means is this a financial advice page but a few tips and tricks to get a few extra $$ to make your travel dreams a reality. And regardless of your plans, passive income is always a bonus.
Making a shop and selling items on Etsy/Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Big companies are a looming financial opportunity, Use them people! It’s easy, I have helped my technophobe mother create accounts on these and she breezed through it. Here is what you do, create a free account on one of these sites. If you search highest sales on Etsy or Amazon you will see a list of things that pop up with some of the highest sales including:
– Clothing (t-shirts, hoodies etc.)
– Jewelry
– Homeware items
– Art prints
-Personalized gifts etc.
Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many projects though, the idea is to unload stresses not add to yours. How do you do that? Well…..
Choosing what to sell and picking items that work
So we have set up your account. Next on the agenda is creating something to sell. My advice is setting up a sales and delivery system that requires this much effort -> ZERO. We want to be looking at oceans and mountains not screens after all. Pick an item that people can have multiple of e.g. t shirts, mugs, tea towels. (There are no limits to mugs. I’m a nurse trust me you should see a tearoom in a hospital).
Picking a design for your Etsy/Amazon/Kindle Direst Publishing
If you are designing something for a e.g. mug or tea towel you can certainly do this through a word doc, here is how you do it:
– type a catchy phrase
– add a cool font
– use ‘snip tool’ to screen shot the image
– save the file as a pdf
– use this to upload to your sales site when ready
or,
Jump onto a site called ‘Canva’, sign up for free and you can design all kinds of things easily. This is personally my choice of sites. I have made all kinds of designs for free including designs for mugs, signs, journals, books, tea towels, jewelry etc. Here is what you do once you have created your free Canva account:
– select ‘create a new design’
– add text, colour, graphics for your design (you can even upload your own artwork)
-once happy select ‘File’ and ‘Download’
– Save file as a PDF
– Upload file to your distribution site that’s been linked to your chosen sales site
How do I sell my products?
Once you have decided what you would like to sell. You need to find a company that will support this. There are an abundance of print on demand sites you can use like ‘Printify’ or ‘CustomHappy’. There are many many more you just need to find the right one for you. Do your due diligence, check to see how their systems are run and if they align with how much time you are willing to invest. Once you are happy with sales structures, you can use sites to complete orders without any product handling. Printify and many other companies can actually be linked to your Amazon or Etsy account and fufill and deliver orders without any further involvement from you. Kindle direct publishing has a similar set up where once you have uploaded your product to the site, that’s all the work you will do. They will sort out filling orders and distributing them.
Helping your product sell on Etsy and Amazon!
At one point or another you have gone onto these sites and realised there are an abundance of sites selling products and panicked. Don’t stress that’s why you pick items that people can have multiple of. Remember there are over 7 billion people on earth. Amazon alone estimated sales for 2020 were over 500 billion (USD). Crazy money! If you advertise your products to people well enough it will sell. Here are some tips on helping this to happen:
– High quality/engaging photos of sales items
– Competitive pricing
– Good customer reviews- meaning work with companies that prioritise customer satisfaction and are reliable
– Offer deals where you can
– And as I said earlier, choose items to sell that people can have multiple of .
– Have options, buyers like to have a choice of listings..
