Richie Rich's Diary

Angel81 said:

You are doing so amazing with it which is really great, you are an inspiration, I have followed this thread since the start and I really wish I could get into doing this as well. I love creating things and desperately need money.

- Do you need much money to startup? (I'm guessing some of it is paper, ink, envelopes)
- Where do you find images to use that allow resale?
- How easy is this for someone that has never done anything like this before?

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I will answer you in detail but I’m really busy atm sorry, I’ll definitely reply

Angel81 said:

You are doing so amazing with it which is really great, you are an inspiration, I have followed this thread since the start and I really wish I could get into doing this as well. I love creating things and desperately need money.

- Do you need much money to startup? (I'm guessing some of it is paper, ink, envelopes)
- Where do you find images to use that allow resale?
- How easy is this for someone that has never done anything like this before?

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@Jon you could probably do something with this info on here (on your sites) I think this post will help people on here make money. There’s lots of people doing online selling and I think it’s a growing market (that could change and that’s fine, nothing lasts forever) and if you want to work for yourself and make good money, you really can Start selling framed and unframed prints…

You need to be able to use Photoshop or GIMP or something like that, I’ve heard about Canva too, not sure if it’s free, I pay for Photoshop, it’s £20 a month. I’m not advanced in Photoshop or anything, I just know the basics, copying and pasting, changing colours, etc.

Make sure the prints are good. I don’t even like most of my prints or my store actually. But I’ve been learning as I go and that’s why I’m excited to open another store on Etsy because I’m going to do everything that I’m about to tell you and if my current store has done so well, I don’t see why the next one won’t either. You don’t need to be a designer.

Ok so open your Etsy store Pick a name, make a logo, Adobe has a new free logos site which is pretty decent, but yeah sort out a logo somehow haha. Add a privacy policy to your store because you need to have one. You can find help with that on Etsy or copy someone else’s and reword it. Go through all of the settings on Etsy and set it to how you want it. For “Returns Settings” you HAVE to put that you accept returns, but then you can say that you don’t accept returns on personalised items and it’s fine, you’ll see.

So as you might know, it’s been quite stressful running the store, especially at this very moment I’ve been printing the prints myself, I’ve had about 10 printers in 18 months (seriously), gone through so many issues with paper and other stuff, ordering envelopes, boxes, etc… not knowing how to package them best, so on my next store I’m going to be using a site called Dot To Dot Printing.


They will print the prints, any size you want. They will post/ship them for you. They will frame them if you want to sell frames. Here’s some things I’ve noticed…

My prices on my new store will have to be higher, because I’m paying the drop shipping company.

I sell A4 prints now, and profit margin is good. I don’t have the exact figures, but I’d say it’s at least a 60% for definite. When I use the drop shipping company. It’s going to cost £7.50 for them to print and post it, unframed, to the UK. If the customer was outside of the UK, it would be £19.50. My prints at the moment are £10-12 each to buy. So on an A4 print with the drop shipping company to a customer in the UK, plus Etsy will take a small fee, I’m only going to make £2-4, but firstly you don’t need to sell personalised prints, you can sell pre-made prints which you can buy so if people like the prints they will buy them and those £2 and £4 will add up and you won’t be doing much work. I think I’m rambling now. Basically people want bigger sizes and that’s where I will hopefully make more money, and people want frames which I’ve never been able to offer. I had a set of three prints on my store of eucalyptus leaves unframed for £10 and I deleted them pretty quickly, but I sold about 3 of them and I paid about £15 online for the design online, I could probably still be getting the odd sale from them but I didn’t think they matched my shop’s family prints theme that I’ve got going on What I’m saying is you could easily do that right now yourself, and once it’s set up, if the designs are good and your shop is good and you provide a good service, the money will come in and all you will be doing is finding new designs, checking your orders and replying to customers, and promoting your store if you want to, stuff that I haven’t been able to do because I’m always working on orders, personalising them, printing them, posting them, etc.

The International Shipping cost is high with the drop shipping company, but I’m just going to aim this new shop at the UK for now, it’s big enough And depending on what prints you sell and how high you can charge for them, maybe you will be able to charge £12 shipping to Non-UK customers and still get sales.

So yeah, more sizes, better quality prints, frames. The other thing I forgot to mention was that my sister’s friend does this now selling modern art prints, and she sells from an A5 print up to an A1 framed print for £80+ and there is a decent profit on that. I know she gets sales too. I’ve picked up little bits here and there from her.

Someone here mentioned Creative Fabrica for buying clipart and stuff, but I prefer Creative Market, but they’re both good.

Here is an example of something you could buy and sell on Etsy. This example is a bit expensive, but I’m just showing you one that I think is good and would be easy too.


You can buy these premade posters for $60 (extended commercial use license). Also buy nice frame mock-up images to make your listings look great. You can get free mock ups but I would say buy some better ones. And that’s it! The drop shipping company connects to your store and handles the order.

Sites like Creative Market have lots of great designs that you can buy and use to sell prints, or you can find free stuff online too, just make sure the designs are good. You could even find a designer that you like and buy their stuff (the designers will bring out new designs a lot because that’s what they’re selling online, clipart) and this way your shop will have a theme because the designs will have been made by the same person.

Here’s another example of something to buy…


You could make these personalised star map posters. The ideas are endless, but you’ve just got to work out what sells well for you.

You could do all of this and not use the drop shipping company like I haven’t so far, but I want to make things simpler for me, and I think this could be more profitable and less work for me, so I’d say go with the drop shipping company, I know I’m gonna…

When I joined this site I was doing loads of different things. Mystery shopping apps, driving all over the place for a fiver, doing surveys for 10p, ADULT SEX CHAT MESSAGING , Neevo, etc. Etsy is a bandwagon I’m glad I jumped on and I’m sharing this to help others do it too because there’s enough to go around

Go for it and good luck!

Flipping hell I think I was typing for an hour, I’m crazy

unicornrider said:

@rich110991 you are one of my favourite Shedders, I have really enjoyed following your story. I also like how you have shared how hard it is too. You are an inspiration.

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Aw thank you so much that’s so nice of you to say

Sherliarty said:

@rich110991 good luck with your new etsy shop. It's been fun reading about your journey to this point, the ups and downs, and the success. I am really pleased for you and I think your insights will really help other shedders who are looking to start their own business. Thanks for sharing and being so open.

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Thank you!!!!

Is anyone considering it?

Annie Beau said:

I would..useless at design though.. Not so much the putting a design together.. I've got a few prints around the house that I've had from creative Fabrica and switched a few elements around on. But for me the issues would be creating something there isnt already millions of on etsy. I see lots of these prints and mugs with very similar designs such as the ones of families with 4 or 5 people.. And the seller offers things like for each person choose from all these hairstyles and all these jumpers. Then which boots. Then which hat. Then finally put their names on. And for all that faffing about (which would take me en entire day) they're charging seven quid. F** that!
Also despite having a bit of knowledge about keywords I never seem to have much luck on etsy and ebay. I used to sell pre owned clothing but it's a struggle getting a decent price.. Then I see other sellers selling stuff left right and centre (for example Andrew who used to be on here a lot.. God knows how he even sold half the stuff he managed to shift.). So the platform for selling would be my main issue I think.
Cheers for sharing all this info tho.. Especially at such a busy time. This is the very fabric of TMS.. love it.
I've been absolutely in the s**t over the last few years and if it hadn't been for the things I see on this board I'm fairly sure I would have gone under by now.
This is one of the best threads ever!

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Fair enough but for example there’s lots of people selling welly boot family prints, and I still get sales.

I’ve avoided the pictures you’re talking about, with people on with different hairstyles and stuff, for the same reason, it would be too much hassle, but they are popular and would sell - I don’t think they would take a full day, but it would still be annoying

Not sure why you would rule out selling non-personalised prints though? That’s why I mentioned the bathroom prints I sold that just had leaves on, all I had to do was print them and made about £8 from them each time. It would be something that you could set up without spending too much money, and just see if you get a sale? Once the listings are done you could sit back and chill that’s my plan anyway!

I wouldn’t worry about the keywords too much either, it’s quite easy to put a listing up on Etsy and you can pay to advertise it if you’re not getting sales straight away.

amyjay said:

I'm doing personalised animal family prints of animals which I do as digital downloads.

I've sold around 10 so far (at the moment, it's one every couple days). I have around 15 different sets of animals animals with baby and adult of each set available. E.g. adult penguin and baby penguin and then the people tell me names and order they want the people in.


I'm selling for £4 and it takes me less than 5 minutes to create and send by email.

I've created each animal set as the example as 2 parents and 2 kids so a lot of the time, I just need to edit the names and leave the animals in the same position.

Im probably not going to go into printing any time soon as I work full time and don't have the time for printing and posting but I'm happy to build up the number of digital downloads I have.

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Awesome!!

jungkook said:

Hi Rich,

This sounds amazing and I have been thinking about doing this - do you think this would work with photographs I have taken myself i.e. landscape, sunsets, etc.

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Hi mate,

I’m not sure about that to be honest, I haven’t seen anyone on Etsy selling that kind of thing, but maybe?