Passive income with Etsy

I think most of you know what Etsy is but for those who don't know, I give you a short explanation.
Etsy is a worldwide online marketplace, where people gather to make, sell and buy items. Originally the platform was focused on handmade or vintage items. Lately, they opened a 'digital' section which includes lots of things such as online planners, digital wallpapers, digital (A.I.) art, AI-generated coloring books, ...

Yes, you can make passive income with Etsy's digital division. You only have to create a piece once and you can keep on re-selling it. This is the main aim of generating passive income: create once and sell multiple times.
Etsy is ideal for this purpose, especially the 'digital' section of Etsy. Once you have created a single digital item (and listed it), you can sell it infinitely.
Digital art is easy to create, there are thousands of sellers trying to sell the same kind of articles, ... which means that there is big competition driving the prices down.
The result of this downwards spiral of prices is that you will have to sell many items to makes a decent passive income.
If you have already a fair amount of digital products in your shop and you want to increase your revenue (and profit), I suggest you to read why you need bundles in your Etsy shop.

It is fairly easy (and free) to set up your personal shop. And then you're ready to start selling.
But you first need to have a product to sell. And here it is where it starts getting difficult. There are thousands of sellers selling the same product, so you have to niche down until you find something you are familiar with. And then ... start creating!
Listing your artwork or other items is also easy and can be done in a few minutes.
But ... as mentioned before, there are thousands of people selling the same product, so it means that you can't ask much per item. And Etsy also takes some commission on every listed (and sold) item. This commission depends on which continent you live in and can add up to 25 or 30% of your price. So all together this means that the profit per sold item is not very high.
If you're looking for ideas for your Etsy digital shop, have a look at 60 ideas for your Etsy digital shop.
I opened my digital (AI) art Etsy shop in june 2023 and I can say I am becomming an experienced seller by now. If you have a new shop or are thinking of opening one, check Etsy Tips and Tricks for some golden tips.
If you want some more advice, please contact me.

As a general tip, I would say you have at least 50 items before you open your shop. After opening your shop, be sure to list new items in a consistent way (1-2 items per week), especially if you are selling digital products.
As always: quality above quantity! Make sure your products stand out, take good pictures (use all the 9 spots to show your product), write a good description, take time, and be sure to add 13 tags for your item (these tags are extremely important for SEO). A more detailed guide on Etsy's search algorithm and on how to get your listing ranked higher, can be found here: Expert SEO tips to get noticed on Etsy

Don't listen to the hundreds of Youtubers who tell you what you have to sell. They only show products from established sellers. And indeed, these can sell a lot.
Also, be aware that it can take 3 to 4 weeks before your listing gets picked up by the Etsy algorithm and shown to the public. So, it is not that product A sells well now, that it will sell well in 3 weeks. These YouTubers make it look so easy and only show you the exceptions.

To be honest, one listing takes me at least 45 minutes. This goes from creating it in Midjourney (which also looks much easier on Youtube than in real, especially for me who only wants to deliver a qualitative product), retouching and upscaling it, listing it, writing a description, ...
I do everything myself and for the moment, I have around 100 items in my shop. So, you can do the calculations: it took me 75 hours to get where I am now. This means this is not really passive income as I had to do lots of action.
But after some months/years, it can become a source of passive income.

To be honest, I don't think so. But there are some shops which make a nice income out of it, but these shops have already been open for years and have often several people working for them and me, I do everything by myself.
But it can give you a nice extra income per month (which is the purpose of passive income) and I like creating the listings. I would say, if you like creating things, just start your Etsy shop and see where it goes. Be committed and I am sure you can make some hundreds of dollars per month (or even more)

The target for this year I have in mind for my Etsy-shop is creating 200 listing and making around 200$ profit per month. I'm sure I can reach this. And I also like creating the 'art', for me it is relaxing and it feels good that other people also appreciate what I do (by buying it).
But as mentionned before, I will not get rich of it but it is a nice piece of passive income.