[Music]
hey guys Ryan here thank you for joining
me for another video today I want to
give you five important things you
should know before starting to sell
print-on-demand on Etsy and it honestly
doesn't really just apply to
print-on-demand it's pretty much just
selling on Etsy in general now I
primarily sold print on demand through
Etsy I did it for about a year and a
half and I did it pretty darn
successfully I'll show you my stats at
the end of the presentation but just to
give you a little preview my best single
day I did over 4,500 dollars in sales on
Etsy I'll give you a little bit of the
back story in this video but I'm also
gonna tease at the full story which I'll
probably tell you sometime let's just
say in the next few weeks so if you want
to drop a subscribe you know you'll be
notified when I do drop that full video
but anyways this video is going to teach
you a lot about one of the as much as I
may not like to admit it one of the
emerging and constantly growing markets
online that we can't afford to ignore so
let me go jump on my computer and we'll
get started
I'm excited to dive into this one real
quick though if you're not subscribed
yet consider hitting that big red button
I'm gonna be dropping a red bubble
tagging guide as well and just yesterday
I dropped a design tutorial for how to
build those really popular vintage retro
sunset style designs that dominate the
top of pretty much every niche also I've
got a really good interview lined up
should drop next week but it's gonna
we're gonna deep dive into red bubble
and how to be successful alright real
quick before we start for the new
viewers my name is Ryan Hogue I've sold
over 1.7 million dollars on Amazon to
date if you want to follow the links in
the description I've got a free eight
day print-on-demand mini course it'll
help you get started selling on Etsy
using printful I've got a
print-on-demand Facebook community it's
been growing rapidly lots of great
discussion every day love to have you
it's free to join also I publish income
reports if you subscribe to my email
list or my channel you'll be notified
when I drop my monthly income reports
you can follow my success as a Amazon
FBA seller merch KDP print-on-demand
even my youtube revenue I try to be
transparent about everything last but
not least I wrote a full print-on-demand
course it's currently almost
70 lectures I'm constantly adding to it
and keeping it up to date so I'm sure
it'll be over 70 lectures before we know
it you can check that out link in the
description if you're interested all
right into the top five the first I
couldn't not put this as number one that
you need to know about Etsy if you're
planning on selling on Etsy account
suspensions this one applies
specifically to print-on-demand
Etsy sellers however I've also been
suspended for selling a handmade product
that for literally no reason they just
knocked me off the platform and
unfortunately when you get kicked off
the platform there's two actually two
things that can happen there's actual
suspensions where they mean to suspend
you and then there's what I meant to
talk about here and this is in regards
to the common print-on-demand seller
which I'm assuming as most of you guys
watching if you integrate printful or
print off' i or any number of the print
on demand companies with your Etsy
account it is very common to get an
automated suspension from the platform a
lot of people give up right then in
there a lot of other people messaged me
and asked hey what like how do I get my
account back and that's cool you know
Etsy does not pay me to do support for
them but I mean I get it you know I do
make myself accessible and a lot of
people reach out so you can get your
account back if it's the automated
suspension all you have to do is email
support at Etsy calm now they also used
to have a phone support line that was
very accessible a lot of companies under
the guise of kovat they say oh you know
we can't monitor the phone line because
of kovat and it's like in reality they
never monitored the phone line but now
they've got an excuse not to Etsy
actually used to the reason I'm not
giving you their phone phone number
right now is because I'm pretty sure
they're still not monitoring it so it
wouldn't help but if you email them at
support at Etsy com they should be able
to get you your account back again this
happens all the time the last I heard
somebody said it took 5 days to get
their account back but I asked them to
follow up with me so that I could pass
that along to you guys so if you get
your account suspended and you just got
started
don't freak out you're OK number two
accounts suspended again is this a typo
unfortunately no it's not so I
was thriving on Etsy and unfortunately
my account was suspended so I was
suspended for intellectual property
complaints I don't want to say
violations because they weren't actually
violations they were just complaints
there's a difference
trust me there's actually violating
someone's intellectual property rights
and then there's just the fact that and
this isn't unique to just Etsy so I need
to just make that known up front one of
the biggest downsides to print-on-demand
in general is that these platforms they
don't hire like a team of lawyers to
police debates between sellers all day
right it's pretty much algorithmic or
it's based on proactive people reporting
other listings now the bigger you get on
Etsy the more people are going to be
gunning for you I'm not saying that's
all that happened to me real quick I'll
just actually say what I did wrong on
mmm enough listings i went and i
included trademarked words maybe not
words but like it could have been like
maybe i say some NBA team or some MLB
team or you know what i mean cuz on
amazon if you do that on the backend
keywords or even though if you advertise
on those keywords it's fine and i didn't
really I learned the hard way basically
that you can't do that on Etsy you know
each platform is unique so now you know
so don't make the same mistake I did
your Etsy tags if you it's not that you
get in trouble the way that you would on
Amazon merch where you submit something
and it gets rejected on Etsy it leaves
the door open so that if somebody
reports your your product and you have
that in your tags it's just an instant
strike against your account now the
reason I put this screenshot
specifically is that this listing didn't
have anything wrong with it the design
the tags the title bullets nothing
alright nothing was wrong with it so it
almost nullifies what I just told you
because it's like it's almost like
you're making yourself a bigger target
if you put the put like an MLB team's
name in your tags you know what I mean
in this case though I didn't do anything
wrong normally when somebody files a
intellectual property claim against you
they have to at least like cite some
records some copyright record or some
trademark record in this case the dude
didn't cite and
thing he didn't cite anything all he
said was my buddy listed this for sale
on represent calm first it's all he said
is a complete joke
I mean seriously it wasn't the same
design I mean similar but come on I
didn't rip this guy off is all you need
to know and it didn't matter
ette cease automated systems still
struck my account down so I mean this is
one of those it's just it's a downside
of print-on-demand it shouldn't
completely deter you from selling
print-on-demand just know about it
and I publicly talked about this well
this actually this thumbnail that I
pulled from one of my older videos this
wasn't me getting kicked off at sea this
was a seven-figure Etsy seller top 100
shop now they didn't give me permission
to disclose their whole story but they
did a consulting call with me which by
the way you can do link in the
description if you need any help or you
can reach out and try to get free help
on Facebook but I prefer the consulting
route but this person booked a call with
me told me their whole business model I
mean they were not selling print on
demand they were selling jewelry top 100
Etsy shop doing like multi 7 figures and
they were kicked off the platform
not because of IP infringement but
because of some other stupid thing that
Etsy does and I couldn't not throw this
one in there because I have to laugh at
it I'm sure you've all seen Etsy shops
that are just like blatantly infringing
on extremely well-known brands like the
Dallas Cowboys Philadelphia Phillies
Michael Jordan
so yeah this shop was eventually closed
but the dude did like 2,000 sales in
like two months I remember he was on you
know the other side he's on the other
side of the world for me but I'm sure he
made a killing in the money that he was
able to get paid out by just blatantly
infringing on people's intellectual
property not just people's but like
billion dollar brands and just because
you saw him get away with it please do
not think that it's a good idea for you
to try to I was just I couldn't I had to
just kind of put a video out ranting
because I was kind of upset but I'm over
it now at least I hope I am I don't know
all right number three double state tax
yes if you pay close attention at C's
very good at like hiding the transaction
fees that are charged when you get a
sale but they charge state tax and
printful also charges state tax now
when I made a YouTube video about this I
did a deep dive about as deep of a dive
as I can do without becoming like an
accountant alright that specializes in
how state taxes work in the United
States which is a little bit crazy there
was a change to it in like I think 2018
and it's it's a mess I'm not gonna make
this video about that but Etsy in these
42 states and printful in those 37 as of
me recording this video they will charge
state tax and a lot there's a lot of
intersection there all right for
instance Colorado Colorado all right
California California so when you see
the intersection that means that they're
both gonna charge and here's the thing
Etsy will charge it to your customer
keep it and remit it we never touched
that money printful we'll take it out of
the transaction so that's gonna come out
as an additional percentage of the
transaction fee if you're selling
print-on-demand on Etsy through printful
here's the thing if you don't sell
through printful and you think you're
gonna get away with it then you're
committing tax fraud so it's still it's
not a good thing right it's better to
just say okay this is what's happening
what's the alternative please look into
the alternative I promise you this is
much easier than remitting whatever tax
you owe to all 50 states at the end of
the year unless you're brilliant and you
can do that easily and if you can please
let me know I'll let everybody else know
through my channel but just know that
that's a thing also I made a video about
this the top comment I had to pin this
from printful I always laugh when people
say like oh yeah we recommend contacting
a tax professional you know it's
basically like saying hey like this is a
touchy subject that we probably don't
really understand so consult a tax
professional I'm sure you have $500,000
laying around for some accountants time
to ask them what you should be doing and
in the first hour that's probably gonna
cost you 250 bucks they'll just ask you
to explain your business model and in
the second hour they're gonna do
research but they'll bill you for that
and then the third or fourth hour
they'll just tell you what I already
know which you can figure out if you
just google it so yeah um trust me just
pay the extra and look the other way
don't let it bother you this is part of
doing business right number four Etsy
ads Etsy ads
man it used to be called Etsy promoted
listings they switched it to Etsy ads
from promoted listings when they did
that they did it overnight now they told
sellers it was coming but they didn't
tell you when it happened
my old Etsy strategy and this is a
thumbnail of a video I had to drop this
was not a clickbait video this video
truly was urgent like I saved a bunch
people a bunch of money because I mean
it happened to me someone messaged me
and told me about it now I was like dude
thank you so much for letting me know I
assumed Etsy was gonna let us know and
they didn't but overnight Etsy switched
it so that we used to be able to control
our cost per click bids I mean that's a
very common thing for people that
advertise online whether it's through
Google Amazon at see wherever Etsy
removed that overnight and as a result
so my strategy was I would bid extremely
low to advertise all my listings and I
would put really high daily budgets
because if I could spend my whole daily
budget on really low bids that was a
good thing you know I'm assuming I'm
gonna convert enough clicks to generate
and run out of profit which I was then
overnight all of a sudden I lose control
of my clicks and it's if I was
generating clicks at eight cents a click
all of a sudden I'm paying 70 cents for
that because Etsy's algorithm says I
don't even know I mean honestly what is
their algorithm doing if I was getting
clicks at eight cents and now all of a
sudden I'm getting clicks at 75 cents
it's a joke I'm just being gouged that
happened to overnight and then after
about four or five days I went in there
and was like oh crap you know cuz
believe it or not I am a busy guy I'm
not like checking my Etsy advertising
statements every single day and yeah it
cost me like I think my budget was like
65 70 bucks a day so times that buy four
or five and yeah I mean I I was losing
money so it sucked but and they did that
overnight without notifying people I
mean they can't undo that and they've
since evolved their advertising again
you know again from promoted listings to
Etsy ads they keep changing the name
they created this Etsy off site ads and
they let people use it for free or
benefit from it for free for a while and
then as of May 4th 2020 you're not
charged a fee for any order sorry before
May 4th 2020 you weren't
charged a fee for orders that resulted
in offsite ads after that though you'll
be charged for orders that are
attributed to off-site ads now I mean
I'm not an expert I don't work at Etsy
but just know that like Etsy ranks
really well organically in Google but
here's the thing now if I'd see it like
imagine if your Etsy listing was gonna
be the top spot on Google and now it's
pushed down just a little bit because
there's a sponsored link to the same
product except now when someone clicks
it if they end up buying you know you're
gonna have to pay for that ad for that
click you know what I mean if they don't
end up buying at least that order fee is
not gonna or that that fee is not gonna
get passed on to you um you know I have
mixed emotions about this it's good and
bad I mean here's the thing
what changed when they introduced this
well you used to be able to pixel your
own Etsy listings and run Facebook ads
to them you can well I don't know if it
was your pixel actually or it might have
just been like Etsy giving you your own
data I didn't run that many but I did
run maybe like a hundred dollars worth
of Facebook ads to certain Etsy listings
that were performing really well of mine
and I don't remember cuz I was a while
ago but I do know that like you could
get the data I don't remember if it was
my Facebook pixel I'm assuming they
probably didn't make us put our own
pixel there because most people would be
a little bit confused by the technical
side of that but either way you used to
have more control more insights if you
wanted to run Facebook advertising
campaigns to Etsy
whereas now they've just lumped it in
with Etsy off-site ads along with Google
shopping so that's just a change that I
guess they thought was worth making
alright number five this isn't as
pessimistic a lot of this stuff has a
pessimistic slant because Etsy's earned
it um real quick while it's on my mind
like somebody somebody like a year and a
half or two years ago sent me a link to
actually probably wasn't even that long
ago it's probably recent but I get
convicted I've got so much going on but
I couldn't find the link I really wanted
to share with you guys somebody made a
whole website dedicated to the ways Etsy
is breaking the law and it's not like a
like a short website it's a website you
have to scroll and they're just
documenting so many ways that Etsy as a
company is breaking various laws as it
pertains to doing business in
certain states nationally yeah it was
it's crazy I couldn't find the link but
I know it's out there I tried google
searching it I tried DuckDuckGo
searching it in case it was being
suppressed I couldn't find it but I'm
sure that website still exists anyways
if you want it yeah if you find it by
the way drop a comment if I see it I'll
pin it
number five Etsy's customers are vocal
unlike Amazon where you don't really get
a lot of like buyer to seller messaging
well actually Amazon had to turn that
off because I think there was just too
much spam going on a lot of bots were
constantly messaging us sellers so they
turned that off but Etsy on the other
hand they did not so it's not buyers
necessarily it's potential buyers
potential buyers will reach out to you
they don't hesitate you will spend a lot
more time doing customer service or not
even customer service like I said
potential customer service on Etsy
compared to any other platform man like
Etsy by far had more people that wanted
or needed my time and attention and
whatnot via the Etsy messaging system
and I mean again it must increase
conversion rate if you actually respond
and are nice and can accommodate their
requests but I mean that's something
that should be stated I've had people
you know in my courses telling me man
Etsy customers they really do reach out
to you they're not afraid to hit that
chat button and yeah it's just you know
it is what it is it's part of the Etsy
culture I guess alright and then last
but not least real quick since I just
dogged on Etsy for however long this is
where I would be like twelve thirteen
fourteen minutes in just wanted to let
you know that like you know behind my
head here you know selling on Etsy for
year and a half or so did quite a bit of
sales this is only through printful by
the way so I also sold their print if I
even though the vast majority of my
sales were fulfilled by printful um you
know I cracked like 30k profit minus
Etsy fees so maybe not 30k I don't know
I I go through this in my income reports
by the way you can always go back in
time on my website or my youtube channel
to see like the month-to-month breakdown
you can also see my best month on Etsy
which was in August of 2018 on my best
day that you see there I did four
thousand four hundred fifty three
dollars and that was only through
printful so again there was also some
print if I sales just letting you know
but yeah I mean and this is a story I'm
gonna elaborate on in a separate
video probably even tell you the Nisha I
think I I think I said I would tell you
the niche so when I dropped that video
I'm expecting a lot of views and likes
and you know that you know the drill
come on guys anyways thank you so much
for watching this video till the end if
you liked it all that I ask is let the
YouTube algorithm know hit the like
button hit that thumbs up and if you're
not subscribed if you don't mind
subscribing you know I mean you can
always unsubscribe later if you don't
like my content but you know it means
the world to me to see that subscriber
count' go up it's an indicator that you
know you guys are liking my videos that
they're well-received so anyways thank
you for watching and I'll see you guys
at the next one
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you