PNG Library

Hey y’all,

I went ahead and began work on my Patreon png page. It’s basically a library of all the png designs and components that I use! I have so many PNGs to upload, but there are already almost 20 PNGs available, and several are accessible without a Patreon subscription.

The subscription available isn’t expensive either. For $5 a month, you can access every PNG in my Patreon library, and that library is only growing. Within a few months, there will be hundreds of PNGs available, and, someday, there will be thousands!

I’m still uploading my full designs to Etsy right now, but I am considering uploading those designs by way of print-on-demand mugs rather than listing them as PNGs. And putting the PNGs on Patreon is a better deal for both you and me.

If you are also looking to sell digital uploads, I would recommend checking out Patreon or something similar. Etsy is fantastic for selling finished items, but the profit margin on digital items can be quickly eaten up by Etsy listing fees. Some people sell digital products on Etsy and do very well, but it’s not the only option available.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

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Etsy Goals

Good morning!

I’ve begun selling digital png images in my Etsy shop. These can be used as any clipart image and for sublimation onto t-shirts and other products.

Last night, I watched a video that suggested that Etsy owners sit down and make listing goals for themselves rather than focus on anything else. How many listings do you want to have by the end of the month? The end of Summer? The end of the year? Focusing on quantity begets quality. Not everything will be good, but some things will be hits.

So, what are my goals for my shop? I thought about it. As of me writing this, I have nearly 100 listings on Etsy. (I think half or more of those aren’t that great, but that’s the point) By the end of 2023, I’d like to have at least 500 active listings. And that actually means creating a lot more, because listings will expire, and I’m not going to renew something if I don’t think it’s quality. Anyway, that works out to about 8 new listings a week. And probably more 12-15 listings/week with the whole expiration concept. That’s a lot, but I think I can do it.

One cool thing about digital items is that I can use them multiple times. I can have the regular png image, then I can put it on a mug (because I have decided to continue selling mugs), and I can include the image in a larger “bundle.” In fact, I could use the image in multiple png bundles. So that’s 3+ listings from a single file. I get to do the work once, and I can sell all these listings many times.

Here’s one of the listings I created today:

Expanding to Patreon? Or stay here?

Good evening,

I’ve been posting a lot of PNG images on Etsy. Some are full designs, but some are just background images. Ideally, I’d give these images away for free, but listing them on Etsy is a few cents a month. Because of that, I can’t justify making them completely free, but I really don’t feel good about charging even a quarter for an image that wouldn’t even be a complete design for anything.

With that in mind, I had a brainstorm today. I could post those free images on here and point people to the full designs on Etsy, or I could expand to Patreon, and I could offer free content and a monthly subscription where subscribers could then access all my PNG designs (that I could upload for free).

I think the Patreon subscription idea would be a better deal for anyone interested. A PNG design on Etsy is $2. So, for a few dollars a month, you’ll be able to access a lot of designs instead of buying just a few.

I can list files either way, but what’s y’all’s opinion? Should I continue with Etsy alone, or should I expand to Patreon?

“Delegating” for Cheap/Free

Good evening!

I own an Etsy shop. I sell many products, including png designs and POD (print on demand) items.

When I first began doing this, I didn’t know about the multitude of free tools out there to do some of the digital work for me. I was using the free Paint program on my computer to remove backgrounds and edit photos, and I was doing WAY too much work.

I knew I could pay someone for these services, but I don’t have the funds to allocate to that, and, luckily, I’ve found ways to not pay.

If you’re having similar issues, here are a few of the resources I use, and this will hopefully inspire you to look out for more neat tools to do work for you, because I guarantee that this list isn’t exhaustive.

Remove backgrounds from photos (good to convert jpg files to png files) – remove.bg

Edit pictures (similar to Photoshop) – www.photopea.com

Convert pictures to a higher resolution – https://clideo.com/dpi-converter

Find copyright-free photos – Pixabay

Research Etsy SEO – erank.com

Find POD mockup pictures for products – placeit.net (This one wants you to subscribe to their site to download images… but I’ve been screenshotting the webpage and cropping what I want… I’m probably not supposed to do that… and I use this site so often that I need to subscribe anyway and get the free watermark out of my photos.)

I also know that there are sites that will use AI to write blog posts, transcribe, and create pictures, but I don’t actually have experience using those.

With all of these, I’ve found that YouTube has been a major help – especially with Photopea. Anytime I can’t figure out how to do something, I just go to YouTube, and I’ve always been able to find a tutorial video.

As I said, this isn’t an exhaustive list, so definitely keep looking. I know there has to be more; I just haven’t come across them yet. I hope this helps you on your journey!

Etsy PNG

Hey y’all,

I just had a brain blast! It’s similar to the “selling digital products” on Etsy idea, but I’m thinking it would be even more desirable to list png files for sale. A png image has a transparent background, so they’re perfect for print on demand (POD) items.

POD is becoming quite popular lately, and people are in need of designs. While there are definitely sites on the internet that will remove backgrounds for you (so you can put the foreground on a shirt, mug, etc.,) I know for sure that there are many people that either don’t know about these sites or that just want to save time by buying a ready-made png file.

While digital files would indeed solve my problem of not wanting to hawk unnecessary items, offering png images (or possibly a combo of both jpg and png) would be more desirable to a customer. Plus, I would make more sales from the designs rather than finished products, because I might sell a design to a POD shop owner, and I would get the sale whether the finished product sold or not.

This sounds like a win-win-win to me. I don’t have to search for products or sell them, the customer gets an integral tool to use, and I get more sales. Plus, I’ve already made a lot of designs that I’ve placed on shirts and other items, so I don’t have to make a whole bunch of new stuff. I just need to put the designs on Etsy rather than the products themselves, and that will be simple enough.

I already have a few images for download in my Etsy shop, but I just listed a new design with this png idea in mind: