Etsy Success POD Launch Your T-Shirt Business Coaching Book 927

Copyright © 2018 Monte Werle All rights reserved.
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Author: Monte Werle

Video Lessons: Jason Huesgen
Published By: Monte Werle
Thank you and enjoy!
Disclaimer: We make no promise, express or implied, that reading this book will increase sales for
any party. Read, learn, and use tools at your own risk. Points made in this book are the tips, tricks
and resources we use that have contributed to our own success.
Do not copy, share or send this book to anyone else as Monte Werle is the rights holder and the
only distributor of the book unless permission for such use is authorized in writing.
1
ETSY PRINTFUL SUCCESS LAUNCH YOUR T-SHIRT BUSINESS TODAY
NOTE
Before we get started, understand that this
book is set up just as I conduct coaching
sessions. We’ll start with the basics of
getting set up, cover some important details
that will help you separate yourself from the
herd, move into video lessons from the video
maestro himself, Jason Huesgen, and then I’ll
wrap up the book with some pro tips to help
you optimize your chance of success as you
set up and launch your new Etsy store.
2BY MONTE WERLE WITH JASON HUESGEN

Join Our Secret Etsy Printful Success Mastermind Group

Use the password: PRINTEDHUSTLE
https://www.facebook.com/groups/EtsyPrintOnDemandMastermind/
Scan QR Code For Quick Access

The number 1 secret to crushing it is getting
started.
Sign up for Printful right now. Don’t put this

off! They will be your Etsy fulfillment
partner. When you use this link you will
receive a follow-up making sure all your
personal questions are answered.
https://goo.gl/XQgtf4

Etsy Printful Success Guide
Most creative entrepreneurs interested in making their own merchandise aren’t in it for the glory of
taping bubble-wrap and boxes together after a flurry of orders comes through. To keep the
inspiration going and develop an audience with sustained interest in your products, you need to
focus on your design process and digital presence instead. The ultimate goal is to create an
identifiable brand that customers come looking for whether you’ve advertised to them or not. They
want your products because the quality of your designs and customer service have combined to
create brand loyalty. You want as many brand loyal customers as you can create. That’s the
foundation of lasting success in any business.
As merchandise fulfillment services like Printful become more common and easier to use with new
or existing Etsy stores, this presents an opportunity to maximize your profits by cutting out upfront
overhead and the necessity of performing tedious repetitive tasks such as uploading orders to a
third party manufacturer to fulfill and ship. Whether you’re new to either of these platforms or a
veteran of the design and drop-ship game, this guide will help you navigate your way through
keeping these two services merged successfully and using their combined features to increase
your Etsy traffic and sales.
Creating And Linking Accounts

Both Etsy and Printful offer free account creation so users can explore the wide range of
capabilities available to them before they formalize their storefronts and start selling to customers.
While Etsy does require you to note Printful as a production partner when creating listings, you
don’t have to list this information in your product descriptions or in your store profile. You have the
choice to keep Printful’s name private, and simply list them as a production partner that creates
Print on Demand products for you. This helps to prevent other sellers from just scraping your store
for information about your production partners instead of doing their own research.

Though they are integration affiliates, Printful and Etsy are separate business entities and as
such, their terms of use and fee structures differ. These terms can be changed by one or both
companies at any time they choose. When in doubt, always check the latest updates on each site
regularly so that you stay in compliance with any new changes they’ve made that might affect your
business, such as shipping times, methods of payment, etc.
If Printful changes the fulfillment time on a product from 5 business days to 7 business days and
you don’t change it on your listing, you’ll end up with a lot of unhappy customers and late shipping
dings on your Etsy store account, which you do not want. Be especially careful to keep your
shipping windows updated around holidays, when fulfillment times can stretch to 10 business days
or longer. As long as you fully inform your customers about required fulfillment windows in each
listing prior to purchase, they should not bug you about longer shipping times. Just don’t spring it
on them after a purchase. You will not only likely lose the sale, but may also permanently lose the
customer.
For Newcomers
Signing up with either Etsy or Printful is a free and straightforward process and both sites offer a
lot of information about account creation right up front. You do have to be signed up on each site
separately as there is no way to automate new account creation from one site to the other. For
organizational purposes, try to use the same email, name and personal information for both
accounts. This can help save time and many steps later on if you ever need to verify your
account information or find related documents.
For initial sign up, Printful asks for:

● Full Name
● Email
● Password
And Etsy asks for:

● First Name
● Email
● Password
● Optional use of existing Facebook or Google account.
In order to link your accounts successfully, follow the required steps for opening your shop before
trying to connect Printful with your Etsy account, otherwise you will receive an error message. If
you’re just trying to get the accounts up and running and aren’t ready to stock an entire store right
away, you can create the required first listing using generic information and delete it after you
have stocked your store with the listings you want to offer when you open.

For Existing Accounts
If you’ve already been listing with Etsy or have an existing Printful account, then linking the two is
even easier. Printful provides a link that opens to an access page for Etsy where you’ll need to
confirm that you are giving Printful permission to access and connect with your Etsy account. If
you have more than one Etsy account saved to your browser, make sure the page has brought up
the one you want to connect to Printful for fulfillment by checking the account before agreeing to
Printful’s request for access.
For example, if you have a Print on Demand Etsy store and another Etsy store selling vintage
items from your grandmother’s estate, obviously you don’t want to link your vintage store to a print
on demand fulfillment house. But don’t worry if you do accidentally link the wrong account. You
can cancel an Etsy account linked to Printful at any time by revoking permission in the event you
find you have merged the incorrect account.
Using Multiple Stores
While some Etsy store owners prefer to keep all their products under one brand, you may be
interested in using different shops to sell products that may not be thematically connected or
suitable for just one brand campaign. Printful smartly allows their users to connect multiple stores
to one account, a time-saver that can also help keep you better organized. Uploading and syncing
won’t require you to sign out and sign back into a different account so managing orders placed in
multiple stores is now a more streamlined process.

Ideation and Development

The heart and soul of your Etsy store starts with what’s inspiring and motivating you to make the
unique designs you want to share with the world. Ideally, you should spend most of your time
building and expanding your creative skills and harnessing your ideas into marketable products.
Restrictions and limitations hinder how quickly you turn ideas into realities, and those can be
self-made or externally imposed obstacles. Keeping abreast of industry basics and trends and
taking care of your work-life balance are essential steps for successful business owners in any
creative market.
Fostering Creativity
Balancing the time you spend focused on product design and promoting your store with the regular
demands of life can be challenging all on its own, but pushing yourself too hard can zap your energy
for inspiration, too, even when it’s time to sit down and get to work. Be honest with yourself about the
approach you’re taking to keeping the creative juices flowing. Pushing harder to get more done
doesn’t always result in great work, especially if you are starting to feel burned out. Try to make your
work routines and schedules fit into your lifestyle as naturally as possible so that when it’s time to
flesh out your next great idea, you’ll be able to enjoy the process for itself instead of stressing out
about the obligation to get so many things done in a very narrow time frame.
Knowing Your Audience
It’s very important to understand the market on Etsy because it is completely different than what
most of us are used to on Merch. I have sold five times more women’s shirts on Etsy than I
have on Merch.
I believe that’s because for a long time, Etsy was viewed as more of an “arts and crafts”
market that naturally appealed more to female rather than male shoppers. The majority of
sellers were female, too, although that is now changing as the opportunities Etsy represents
become more widely known in the ecommerce world.
When researching what sells on Etsy and what doesn’t, you will notice these differences. Most Etsy
items are bought by women, most reviews are left by women, and most shirt designs are aimed at
women or the holidays. This doesn’t mean you should never list a shirt targeted to a male audience
on Etsy. You certainly can sell shirts to men on Etsy but the more likely scenario is

that will be selling those men’s shirts to women who are buying them for their husbands,
boyfriends, fiancés, sons, and so on. Plan accordingly.
The chart below reveals that roughly 67% of Etsy buyers are females. That is over two-thirds of
the market. Perhaps a bit more surprising, 69% of Etsy buyers have no children, therefore onesies
and toddler shirts might not bring in as many sales as you thought. But you can still target the 31%
of the market that does have children.
50% of Etsy buyers are young adults ages 18 to 34, including everything from older teenagers to
aspiring young entrepreneurs. Keep these facts in mind when targeting certain niches, and that
will help you create merchandise that appeals to the demographic that shops on Etsy.
Stay aware of these demographic differences and let them guide you when you’re deciding how
to stock your Etsy store and which niches you want to target.
Licensing and Copyright
The ins and outs of intellectual property rights are so complicated and their interpretation so
potentially complex that both Printful and Etsy work under general guidelines that might
privately limit what sort of content can be sold on their sites even if it’s not technically breaking a
specific law or violating someone else’s IP rights.
Generally speaking, if you didn’t create an idea or character yourself or personally secure the
rights to use specific intellectual property commercially, you can’t use it for Printful products or for
an Etsy shop. Both Etsy and Printful take potential intellectual property violations very seriously,
and your account or accounts can be temporarily limited or shut down permanently if you’re

suspected of using protected designs, characters or quotes without the proper written permission
or licensing in place.
Don’t run the risk of losing your businesses forever by using someone else’s ideas or content.
It doesn’t matter if you “change” them or not. Theft is theft is theft and so-called “derivative”
works where the thief changes one small element and calls it his own are also considered IP
rights violations. Be smart. Come up with your own ideas in your own niches and you’ll be fine.
Photo Stock Sites and Public Domain Images
When you need images or just the right font to execute your creative ideas properly, third-party
sources such as stock photo, vector and font sites are a great way to bridge the gap between
making everything from scratch or using your own existing content to create your new and unique
design. How frequently you use such resources can help you determine if an ongoing membership
to the site or a single purchase will be best suited for your needs. Just be sure you purchase a
commercial license before using any such third-party assets to create your designs. Many
designers have been hit with huge fines and penalties when sites discovered they were using
purchased art and fonts commercially but had only paid for a personal license. Once again, be
smart and do the right thing. Do you want to risk a potential five or six-figure court judgment just to
save $50 to $100 now? Buy the commercial license and make sure that license covers the use of
the purchased asset on print on demand products that you intend to sell.
Printful and Etsy also both allow the use of images that reside in the public domain, but if you’re
not familiar with how that works, check with their customer service representatives about their
interpretation of the international IP laws and policies that cover your intended use of such assets.
Be aware that if you use a public domain image without changing it up, another person who used
the same image before you might try to have your listing removed even though they don’t really
own the rights to the image either. Always try to change up any images you source from the
public domain to avoid this sort of problem.

Pairing With the Right Products
No matter how great your design is, it might not look right on every kind of product or in different
sizes. Printful’s website offers a robust mockup generator so you can get a preview of how your
design works on a t-shirt or other merchandise products. Make sure the selected item’s base
color doesn’t conflict with the look and colors of your design is another important consideration.
Some designs look great on a black shirt but fade to nothing on light gray. Test your design on
every potential color before selecting which colors show the design off to its best advantage. This
can be a little difficult to judge properly without seeing the item in person, but if you’re really
concerned about making the right match, then stick with neutral base colors for the best customer
satisfaction.
Finally, remember not to overwhelm your customer with too many color choices. Too many
choices can confuse customers and slow down their decision-making. In many cases, this
confusion may cost you the sale when something else grabs the customer’s attention before
they complete the sale and they end up abandoning the cart.

Design Dimensions
Because Printful is able to take one file and fit it to several different types of merchandise, they
require the uploaded print file to meet certain standard specifications. These include:
● Maximum printing area:12X16 inches, which will be automatically scaled appropriately

for each product.
● DPI:Also known as digital pixels per inch. For optimal quality, your files must have a
minimum of 150 dpi.
● Allowed formats:The upload manager accepts file types ending in .png or .psd. Printful’s
upload manager will notaccept file types ending in .ai, .pdf, or .eps.
Be sure to set these dimensions correctly when creating your design file. You may find it helpful to
create a template file with the correct dimensions. Then every time you want to create a new
design, you just open the template, save it as a new design with an appropriate name, and the
correct dimensions will automatically be in place.
Sublimation shirts, or t-shirts with an all-over print, have different rules for the print files they
require. Because of how sensitive to error the printing process for these shirts can be when the file
is not properly formatted and applied, Printful offers in-depth instruction and shirt style templates
so that you can make the most accurate design for the chosen product. Other merchandise
categories may have all-over print options that may include additional details and templates.
Things to keep in mind for this printing style include:
● Allowed formats:For these shirts, Printful accepts .png or .psd with at least 150 dpi.
● Font files:If you create your designs in Illustrator, use your design software to convert
fonts used in the print file into outlines to prevent errors. This saves you the trouble of
having to include font files for each upload.
● Printing imperfections:Because this style of printing starts with a premade piece of
merchandise, like a shirt or a pillowcase, and prints the design directly onto the fabric as if it
were a sheet of paper, some imperfections near the creases, seams, and natural folds can
result in smudges or streaks. This occurs with all fabrics and designs manufactured in this
way, though excessive mistakes across large print sections are not common and should be
an issue submitted to Printful for resolution. Printful recommends using light-colored shirts
for sublimation printing to minimize the effect of these typical printing errors.
Product Categories and Their Variants

When working with Printful’s catalog of merchandise, it’s important to understand the difference
between a product’s category and its variant information. For example, “poster” is the name of a
category while the different measurements available, such as 10X10 or 12X12, are the variants.
When you’re managing your listings and the data each one needs on the backend, pay close
attention to the Variant IDs you’re assigning for each item. If there are mistakes with the listing’s
Variant IDs, customers will receive your design printed on the wrong item.
Product categories currently offered by Printful for Etsy integration:

● Clothing:shirts, all-over shirts, dresses, skirts, leggings, socks, and embroidered hats.
● Accessories:ceramic mugs, totes, bags, backpacks, towels, aprons, and phone cases.
● Decor:throw pillows, pillow cases, posters, canvas, photo prints and framed posters.
Popular Product Types
What makes the best seller list in your store can change from season to season and from one
design style to the next, but it’s safe to say that t-shirts, coffee mugs and pillows are timeless gift
choices suitable for a wide variety of recipients all year long. This doesn’t mean you can’t test your
design’s popularity on other types of products, of course, or come up with designs that work best
specifically for the chosen product style. A phone case with a design that looks like a phone booth
isn’t necessarily going to translate to other products and sell well, but it may be a popular choice
on its own. This can often be a creative way to feature a design or to increase related sales by
selling designs that match but are exclusively printed on different product types.
Getting a Listing Ready

Learning the secret to creating listings with attractive pictures, informative descriptions and
keywords that drive high-volume traffic to your store seems simple on the surface but can take
some testing, some trial and maybe a little bit of error before you get the knack of it. Remember
that before a listing can be fully public in your Etsy store, you may have to pay a listing fee. Promo
codes and referral rewards programs can help cut these fees down, so look around for savings
before you start spending.
From time to time, Etsy will run promotions that give new shop owners their first 40 listings free
when they open their account through an affiliate link, so be sure to look around for that promotion
before you sign up.

Printful: Step By Step
In Printful’s dashboard, select which Etsy account you want to use from the Stores tab. Under
Product Sync, choose Add to bring up product category and variant selection windows. Once
you’ve settled on the relevant details for your base product (size, color, etc.), you’ll be able to
upload the print file and make adjustments from there. Printful gives you different preview choices
as you work so you can have an idea of what the final result will look before publishing the listing.
From there, you’ll be shown mockup choices, the customer-facing preview of what your design will
look like on the final product. For shirts, this can vary from a photo showing a flat-front shirt or a
wrinkle-front style. It really comes down to a matter of taste depending on what kind “glamour or
lifestyle shot” you or your customers may prefer.
After that, Printful will show you Product Title and Description dialog boxes that may already have
information about the base product itself filled in. You can leave this or delete it and replace it
with your own information, but many users prefer to keep it and simply add information related to
the design details instead.
Pricing options put the power of profit in your hands, but be careful to not price your items too far
out of the average ranges for those items in stores similar to yours. Printful shows you the
breakdown of their price and the final retail price depending on the profit amount you select. For
shirts and other items that offer size selections, Printful’s prices may include incremental
increases for larger sizes.
Finishing Up For Etsy
After you’ve set the final retail price for your listing, Printful will be ready to send the information off
to Etsy as a draft. When the upload has finished processing, you can select the link provided there
to edit the listing on Etsy or find the draft via your Etsy shop manager. This is where you’ll select

how many preview photos the listing will provide and make final edits to the thumbnail customers
see in your store.
The title and description you set on Printful will copy over, of course, but taking a moment to make
sure you catch and correct typos or have included all the details you want is a step that can save
you from experiencing a variety of problems later. Prices, colors, variations and shipping
information will also transfer over but review all of that for accuracy, too, just in case. You can use
some of the keywords included in the title and description for ideas about which tags to include,
but try to think of special occasions or seasonal trends that might be related search terms for the
product and design you’re selling. All of those can help send additional traffic to your listings
through organic search.
Production Partner Requirements
Etsy also requires listings to note any partnership with a third party when it comes to
manufacturing and fulfilling orders through your store. This is very important because if you do not
specify that a production partner made the item for you, Etsy may consider this an attempt to
mislead its customers and may terminate your account. But also be careful to specify that YOU
and YOU ALONE created the design. This is also vitally important. Etsy is a marketplace for
creators and they don’t want people selling things they have not created or designed or make
themselves. They recently opened up their marketplace to accommodate print on demand
designers, but you must be sure to indicate you are the sole designer or once again, you can run
into issues with Etsy terminating your account.
Etsy is a place to sell hand made items, or at the very least, items personally designed by store
owners. Their philosophy is if you are selling things you did not personally design, then there are
other places to sell them like eBay or Amazon. If you do not create your own designs, then Etsy
may not be the best choice of platform to sell your work.
There is a place to input third party information as you create the listing. Once you create a profile
for each of your third party fulfillment partners, just select Printful from the dropdown menu as you
create the listing. Printful has two locations in the United States: Los Angeles, California and
Charlotte, North Carolina, and it doesn’t seem to matter which location you chose to satisfy these
requirements.
The description of the service is also up to you to word in your own way, but simply stating that
they are a print-on-demand fulfillment service should be all you need to say to complete that
section. Etsy also asks a few questions and provides preset multiple choice answers that cover
the different reasons why you might be using a production partner. As it relates to Printful, the
most suitable answers confirm you being the designer of your products and the business owner
while companies like Printful handle your fulfillment, including manufacturing and shipping the
products to customers after they have been ordered. That’s why the Printful-Etsy integration is
such a huge time saver. Instead of having to check your store every night and create csv files to
send to Printful, Printful’s integration automatically picks up those orders and fulfills them without you
having to do anything but pay for the order up front. As your store grows and you make more sales
each day, this could save you hours of time every evening, time you can relax and spend with your
family, read a good book, work on new designs, or even get to bed early for a change.

Managing Income and Expenses
Speaking of payments, now is a good time to discuss the potential income and necessary
expenses associated with running an Etsy store with a Printful integration. While both sites offer
free sign-up and do not require monthly membership fees (unless you sign up for the new
enhanced Etsy shop plans which I’ll discuss later), there are still costs associated with getting your
listings online and processing sales for the orders you receive. Because of the way these two sites
integrate with each other, there are two transactions taking place for each order. In essence, the
customer places and pays for their order through Etsy but then you must pay Printful before the
order can be fulfilled and shipped to your customer. It’s important to understand the distinction
even if transactions process seamlessly; the way a sale is billed with integrated services like these
can sometimes cause sellers understandable confusion.
Budgeting For Initial Costs
Because Printful charges you as soon as they pick up the sale from your Etsy account, the billing
information you enter must have a balance that can cover the cost of fulfillment. This is particularly
important for new sellers to know because Etsy holds funds for new merchants for three business
days after a sale to prevent potential fraud. So you may find yourself in the situation of having to
pay your Printful bill before you receive your Etsy funds. This situation continues for 90 days after
you have made your first sale. If you have cash flow management issues and want to get the
clock rolling as quickly as possible on the 90 days period, you might ask a relative or friend to
make a small purchase from your store as soon as you open. Etsy does not allow merchants to
make purchases from their own stores, so it has to be someone else who does this. Or, you might
just get lucky and have a customer place an order quickly. Just remember the 90 days does not
start ticking down until after your first order has been placed and paid for. So if it takes you a
month to get your first order, it will actually be 120 days until Etsy removes the three-day hold from
your funds.
Even after the three-day hold is removed, if you make sales on Friday or Saturday or on a
holiday, those funds will not be released until the next business day or even a day after that, so
you’ll always need a backup plan to pay for your items quickly so they can be delivered on time.
You don’t want to burn through your delivery window scratching around for a way to pay for the
merchandise your customer has ordered.
If there are any delays or issues with the customer’s payment to Etsy being transferred to you, this
will affect when you receive the profits from that sale but it doesn’t affect Printful’s side of the
transaction. They still require payment even if you have not yet been paid for the merchandise by
Etsy.
Etsy offers deposit schedules for daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly disbursements. Your
personal banking institution can take a few days to process the deposit, so plan your funds with a
little buffer because of this. For example, if you are owed $300.00 from Etsy and have selected
daily disbursements, they will send you the funds the next business day, but at 12:01 a.m., which
is technically TWO business days. For example, if you sell a shirt on Monday, and Etsy indicates it
will pay you on Tuesday, the payment will actually be issued at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday and
you will receive an email that the funds have been paid on Wednesday morning. Then it may take
another one to two business days for the deposit to show up in your bank account. You need to be
aware of all these time frames and plan your finances accordingly, especially if you are a new
seller dealing with the three-day deposit hold.
If you select the daily disbursement option, Etsy requires a minimum of $25.00 in funds be
available before they will make a deposit to your account. If less than $25.00 is owed to you, Etsy
will hold your funds for an additional business day before depositing them into your designated
bank account. If you do not make an additional sale that brings your available funds up to the
$25.00 minimum on the next business day, even though your funds due are still below the
minimum amount, Etsy will go ahead and deposit them the following business day.
Note that certain fees can vary according to where the seller is located. For example, European
customers have to pay the VAT, or Value Added Tax that helps to finance the European Union.
Depending on the kind of payment settings your store has, you may or may not incur certain
transaction fees, as well. For example, if you want to accept PayPal payments, Etsy charges

differently for that than they do for accepting payments on your behalf made with major credit
cards.
While Printful’s costs are built into the retail price of the item they charge you, Etsy’s fees can be
charged separately or per listing depending on the type of fees applicable to that order. I’ve
found that easiest is best when it comes to setting up your Etsy shop and since Etsy has a
secure payment plan with reasonable fees in place, it is easiest to go ahead and use that proven
system as your payment processor.
NOTE: On July 16, 2018, Etsy revamped its platform and raised its fees from 3.5% of each sale to
5%, and also started including shipping charges in their base fees. Although there was a huge
outcry when this happened, Etsy is still one of the easiest and most affordable places to sell things
online. It’s got a classy vibe that many other online marketplaces lack, so please don’t let this
small increase in fees discourage you.
Customer Service Issues, Shipping, Returns and Exchanges
When you are setting up your shop, you have to decide if you are going to accept returns and
exchanges and make sure your shop settings accurately reflect your return and exchange
policies. If you do decide to accept returns and exchanges, you must clearly lay out your
conditions for accepting a return in your store policies. It’s not a bad idea to restate these
conditions in each listing. Reminding people to consult the size chart and choose their size
carefully can truly cut down on complaints and returns due to size issues.
Even if you choose not to accept returns, Etsy requires you to have policies and procedures in
place to give satisfaction to customers who have valid complaints. These procedures and the
conditions under which you will accept a return or exchange should be thoroughly explained in
your shop policies, and also in your FAQs.
As a seller working with a print-on-demand service for product fulfillment, you’re vulnerable to the
mercies of fate when it comes to delayed shipping times, mistakes in fulfillment or broken products
as well as customers asking for returns or exchanges for various reasons. If you promise a certain
fulfillment date based on the third party manufacturer’s estimate of the time needed to make an
item and they miss their shipping window, then you will miss your shipping window as well and will
have to write the customer and explain the reason for the delay, and extend the shipping time on
the order.
For problems where the fault clearly lies with Etsy or Printful, they will correct the issues at their
own expense. However, both you and your customer may have to take several steps to prove fault
on their part. In the case of broken or damaged goods, Printful requires photographs of the item in
question before processing the claim and replacing the product or refunding the customer’s
payment. If a customer receives a size they didn’t order, the responsibility to make the order right
is with Printful—but if the customer ordered the wrong size themselves and wants to exchange the
item or get a refund, Printful will not cover that cost and it will be up to you as the shop owner to
decide how you want to handle the situation.
Because Etsy’s payment system offers integration with PayPal, too, it’s important to be aware of
PayPal’s policies regarding customer returns and chargebacks as that can influence how Etsy
itself processes claims and requests for refunds. In many cases, there is a limited window of
time to initiate a claim for refunds due to third-party errors. You can set Printful order fulfillment
to manual instead of automatic if you want to take extra care to review each order as you receive
it before releasing it to Printful for fulfillment. This takes more time but can help you catch
mistakes before they cost you additional time and money.
No matter what, encourage your customers to contact you first before they submit a claim for a
return or ship a product back to the return address on the label (by default, this is Printful’s
address but can be set to your own). To help avoid confusion and issues with your shipping and
return policies, make sure you list these clearly on your store’s page. Be sure to save all
messages related to an order issue and take notes to help you navigate the problem in case it
comes up again.
Your goal is to provide top-notch customer service, the kind that brings in rave reviews. You want
to offer your customers not only fresh, appealing merchandise but also a great shopping
experience. That’s how you turn occasional shoppers into loyal repeat customers who will check
out your store first when they’re shopping online.
Advertising And Analyzing Stats
One of the biggest advantages of using services like Etsy and Printful together is the controlled,
data-rich backend that reveals your overhead costs and saves you time and money. Unless you
happen to be a computer genius, there’s no way you can match the expertise of the professionals
who designed, programmed and keep humming the hugely complex websites that Etsy and
Printful maintain. But thanks to the detailed sales, traffic and advertising analytics they provide
store owners, you can leverage their expertise and the data they provide to help you make more
sales and earn more money with your Etsy store.
With all the various reports and trackers available to watch your sales and plot your growth,
nerding out over your numbers is even easier. Use the built-in website tools and the downloadable
spreadsheets that Etsy offers its sellers in order to maximize your understanding of just where
your money is being spent and where it’s being made.

While it’s easier to use spreadsheets and software for long-term tracking of your goals,
some simple but important formulas for every business owner to remember are:
● Net income:your revenues minusyour expenses.

● Break-Even Point:your fixed costs divided bythe average price per item, minusthe
average cost of goods sold.
● Profit margin:your net income divided byyour sales.
● Average price per item:your total revenue divided bythe number of items sold
● Average cost of goods sold:your total cost of goods sold divided by the number of items
sold
If you’re just getting started operating a business for the first time, try to keep your accounting
simple and straightforward to avoid getting bogged down and confused. While investing in robust
marketing campaigns and third-party promotions can boost sales, it won’t help if you don’t have a
handle on how to make the most of your budgets and projections. Once you have a good
understanding of how the flow of funds works between the two sites and what growth you can
sustain, you can upgrade how you reach your customers by adding exciting new products and
product categories to your brand’s line of goods.
Finally, success through Etsy and Printful integration for print-on-demand services isn’t difficult to
achieve, but it may take a little time and extra work before it all seems manageable in your own
store. It’s a lot to take in all at once. Use the seller forums and FAQs available on both sites and
never be afraid to reach out to Printful or Etsy customer service representatives if you ever need
help to resolve an issue. Tackling problems before they have a chance to grow exponentially more
difficult is the first step in keeping your revenue stream flowing seamlessly and lucratively.

Driving Traffic and Sales to Your Etsy Store

INTRODUCTION
Although the Etsy search is just one way for shoppers to find your stellar t-shirts, it's a popular
source of traffic for many thriving clothing shops. Because of the importance of the site's search
engine, you need to completely understand the best ways to gain relevancy in Etsy so that you
can make a substantial profit on your sales. Do you know how to create a title and tags that
generate lots of interest from shoppers? How about an extremely compelling description of your
t-shirts that will urge many shoppers to buy your product now? I’m about to provide a
comprehensive step-by-step guide to ranking high in Etsy search results so that you can
successfully launch your t-shirt business today!
1. RELEVANCY RANKING IN SEARCH RESULTS
How to be Relevant for the Etsy Search
There are many ways to be relevant in the search results, but the short version is that the exact
keyword phrase customers are searching for most often in your niche needs to be in your title
and tags for each listing in that niche. Here are some additional ways to gain relevancy and get
your listings to appear in more searches.
Most Common Factors in the Relevancy Search
Listing Publish/Renewal/Expiration Time: A listing that has been published or renewed in the last
hour will rank higher than older listings with the same exact phrase. On the other hand, if a listing
is about to expire, it's possible that product can rise in the search results so Etsy’s algorithm gives
it one last chance to sell.
Title Word Placement:When you move some of the phrases around in the title, your relevancy
ranking can be drastically impacted. The most important phrase should be at the beginning of the
title to attract customers.
Custom Variations Texts:In early 2017, Etsy announced that attributes and custom variation
texts will be searchable. For example, instead of just searching for a Halloween t-shirt, customers

may choose to search for a black Halloween t-shirt. However, the amount of weight that these
attributes are given in search results is unknown at this time.
Diverse Products:When there are many t-shirt shops with the same keyword phrase on multiple
items, Etsy has been known to limit the shop from having too many listings that rank on the first
page of the search results in order to give every shop owner a better chance of having success.
New Shops Priority:Although it's often hard to prove, new shops may receive a little help from
Etsy to rank higher in search results within the first few months of operation. Anecdotal
evidence from many sellers suggests this is so.
Factors that are NOT Relevant in the Relevancy Search
As of today, search relevancy is not determined by any of these factors:

● Product descriptions
● Quantity of listings
● Product materials
● Writing a phrase in a tag or title more than once
● Proper or improper punctuation in the shop's descriptions, title, tags, etc.
2. SELECTING GREAT KEYWORDS
When we talk about "keywords" in this detailed eBook, we are simply referring to the
common phrases that shoppers type into a search engine. So what's a great keyword?
Monte Werle Pro Tip:“When it comes to your titles, I would encourage you to consider a slight
restructure, as the first three words of your title have the most pull, so you'll want to front load
those heavy hitting phrases.”
Since Etsy does not release information about the most popular phrases, the only way to find out
relevant keywords for your t-shirt shop is to research what shoppers have searched for in the past.
While it's unlikely that you'll find all of the search terms associated with your specific t-shirts, you
can determine many relevant keywords. Simply start by inputting a couple of general descriptions
of your t-shirts into the Etsy search engine. The suggestions that pop up should give you an idea
of the most popular keyword phrases for the targeted t-shirt.

Taking into account important t-shirt characteristics like style, design, material, themes, and
occasions, you can continue to play with the recommended keywords from the search engine. A
technique you can use to broaden your search results is to write a keyword followed by only one
letter. That will being up a variety of popular searches related to your niche. During your search,
try not to pay much attention to similar keywords that other sellers have used as their phrases
may not be ones that are most often searched by shoppers.
Whenever you perform intensive research on certain keywords that are related to your t-shirts,
keep a record so that the phrases will be readily available for you to use on a similar listing that
you create down the road.
3. USING PROGRAMS TO GAIN RELEVANCY IN ETSY
Consider using programs like Marmalead or Etsy Rank to help your products rank higher in
customer searches. By comparing similar product listings on Etsy, these programs can help you
determine a competitive t-shirt price, create captivating titles, write appropriate tags, identify
common keyword phrases, and so much more. They also grade the quality of your tags. For
more about that, see Grading Your Listings on page 30. High grades mean your product is more
likely to be found in search, which in turn increases the potential for a sale.
For instance, after typing in a relevant t-shirt keyword phrase in the program’s search engine,
you will be presented with a number of different listings that have used the same phrase. These
listings will show all of the keywords that were used to create their titles and tags. Although you
should never copy another seller’s title or tags verbatim, you can discover many ideas that you
can use to create your own unique t-shirt listing.
Along with using these programs to brainstorm attractive keywords, these platforms are also great
for helping you to determine a competitive price for your awesome t-shirts. One way to ensure that
the price of your t-shirts are competitive is to find the two highest costs of similar items on the
program and then set a price that is the average of those costs if you can handle the margins.
While Etsy Rank doesn't have as many bells and whistles as Marmalead, it's a great free program if
you are on a budget. If you want a high quality, comprehensive program that will really help you
optimize your Etsy listings and increase your sales, consider paying $20 a month for Marmalead.
ETSY SHOP CHECKLIST
1. BANNER APPEARANCE
A great banner is unique, polished, and captivating. The banner should display the name of your
shop and some of your t-shirts if possible. To ensure that you attract shoppers immediately, you
should create a banner with a vivid background, an attention-grabbing theme, and eye-catching
colors. Check under “Settings - Info & Appearance” for information about the correct size required
for the banner.
After creating your shop’s banner, share the image with friends and ask them what they
think before uploading it on Etsy.
2. SHOP LOGO MATCHES BANNER
The best shops have a logo (Etsy calls this a shop icon) that matches the banner and quickly
captures shoppers' attention. Just remember that the logo should be a representation of you
and the quality of shirts that you are selling. Make sure that your logo truly "pops!" Etsy requires
the logo file to be 500 pixels by 500 pixels and no larger than 10 MB.
3. THE STORE HAS AN ABOUT SECTION
The "About" section is where you inform potential customers about yourself and your brand.
This is the perfect place to introduce yourself and describe your interests. As a phenomenal t-
shirt seller, you should also include a shop owner photo to make your profile more personable.
The overall goal of the About section and the profile picture is create a shop that is relatable to
the consumer, and to let people know you’re a real person so they can feel comfortable doing
business with you.
Not only does the About section showcase the inspiration for your shop and your unique talents,
it can also positively contribute to your relevancy ranking on Etsy when it's filled out completely.
Don't make the big mistake of leaving this section empty. The section may be one of the easiest
texts that you include in your shop because when it’s comes to writing, it’s relatively easy to talk

about what inspires you and the things you feel passionate about. Just write from your heart
and you’ll create an About section that draws customers like bees to honey.
4. MAKE SURE YOUR ETSY STORE HAS AT LEAST 50 DIFFERENT DESIGNS
In order to have excellent relevancy on Etsy, your shop should have at least 50 different t-shirt
designs. Keep in mind that listing variations of the items do not count toward the 50. In other
words, if you have a Christmas cat t-shirt and you also put the same design on a hoodie, mug,
towel and pillow, all of that still counts as only one design.
Many sellers report that once they reach the magic number of 200 different designs listed, sales
really start popping. Remember, this isn’t necessarily 200 listings, although that will certainly help
your sales due to your consistent activity on the site. This is 200 different designs. It will take
work and dedication to get there, but once you do, you should notice an almost immediate
increase in the consistency of your sales.
If you are selling t-shirts, one way to ensure that you have enough different designs to list in
your shop is to include niches like hockey, billiards, funny holiday, and ugly Christmas t-shirts.
Also, if you have a personal passion like playing bridge or collecting miniature doll house
furnishings, that’s a natural niche for you to include in your shop because you are already
passionate about the niche and knowledgeable about what people interested in the niche like
and find amusing or interesting.
5. PRICING (PRICES ARE UNIFORM AND AT ROUND OR HALF DOLLARS)
Many successful Etsy sellers believe that you should use round numbers to price items. Instead of
pricing a t-shirt at $19.99, consider rounding the price to $21.00 and then advertise a storewide
promotion where everything is 10 percent off. When shoppers see this sale, they are more likely to
buy your t-shirts. The best part is that you'll make the same amount of money as you did when
your t-shirts were $19.99.
Don’t be afraid to set higher prices on Etsy. Unlike on Merch, where pricing can be a race to the
bottom, Etsy buyers expect higher prices and higher quality. Printful takes care of providing the
higher quality merchandise, so it’s up to you to make sure you are being fairly compensated for
each sale.
Because you aren’t limited by a tier level or the number of shirts you can upload a day like you are on
Merch, there’s no need to price lower just to get sales required to tier up to the next level. Etsy is
viewed as a quality market, and buyers are willing to spend more on a t-shirt when they shop there.
My average price for a t-shirt in my Etsy shop is $20 to $25.00 and that doesn’t include
shipping.
Along with using round numbers to price your t-shirts and running great promotions, Etsy experts
recommend that shop owners should keep like items at a similar price. For example, if you are
selling different designs on the same types of t-shirts, price these items alike to keep your shop
uniform. The same is true if you were to sell many different designs on the same kind of
sweatshirts. The price of your sweatshirts should all be the same.
You can also add a handling fee of a dollar or so when you set up your shipping profiles in
your store, to help you cover any small incidental costs you may incur.
SALES AND DISCOUNTS
Etsy makes it incredibly easy to set up sales and discounts in your store. You can just put selected
items on sale, or run a store-wide sale in honor of a holiday or a shopping event like Black Friday.
You can offer discount coupon codes to specific customers to help with customer service recovery
or store-wide, or offer them on specific merchandise only. For example, after Christmas, you may
want to put all your Christmas merchandise on sale for 15% off.
To set up a discount, start at the Etsy shop manager page and then click on the “Marketing” tab
on the left hand side of the screen. On the next screen, select the “Sales and Coupons” tab. If you
want to set up a new sale such as a 10 percent off promotion, click on the orange “New Offer”
button on the upper right hand side of the screen. Once the new box pops up, click on “Run a
Sale.” Simply follow the remaining prompts to create the sale. Etsy will ask you which listings you
want to include in the sale. You can select specific listings or run the sale on everything in your
store.
You can also require a minimum order total to qualify for the sale, such as $30 or whatever amount
you choose. Or you can require customers to buy at least two items to get the discount,

although this isn’t nearly as popular with customers as an overall discount sale..
The final steps are to set a start and end date for your sale, determine your terms and conditions,
and create a name for your discount. Press the “Create” button when you have finished filling out
all the information for your sale. The sale will either start instantly, or you can schedule it to start
on another date and time.
Another smart way to use discounts to trigger sales is to include a personalized, time-limited
discount code in your response whenever a customer asks you a question. That extra 10 to 15%
off coupled with the fact that the discount is only good for one week is often enough to get a
customer on the fence to pull the trigger and buy your product.
Many shoppers will be attracted to your store if you offer a sale that includes free domestic
shipping to customers who spend a certain amount of money or higher. Just remember not
to apply free shipping to international orders because you actually want to make a profit on
your sales, right?
6. ITEMS SECTION (SEO SECTION TITLES)
A great way to improve SEO is to properly utilize the "items section" in your shop. For example, if
you are selling clothing, use this section to categorize the items with titles such as hoodies, shirts,
tanks, and anything else that you are selling. Because the item section carries so much SEO
weight, the tabs should accurately reflect what shoppers are putting into search boxes.
7. WRITING YOUR TITLES
The Importance of Awesome Titles
A captivating title should never be underestimated since its main goal is to prompt customers to
click on your items. The title should always be created before writing the tags.
Creating the Title Specific Guidelines
Word Placement:Your most important keywords should be at the beginning of your title.
Secondary keywords should come after the main keyword phrase. In many cases, the first few
words of a title is all that shoppers see when they shop, so ensuring that important phrases are
at the beginning of your title could make the difference in whether a customer is enticed to click
through to your t-shirt or not.

Avoid Filler Language:I categorize any words that do not entice a buyer to click on your product
as filler content. If you feel that you must add these words, place them toward the end of the title.
Additionally, avoid keyword stuffing.There is really no reason to include similar phrases over and
over again in a title. Not only does keyword stuffing makes a title look unprofessional, Google may
view your t-shirt listing as spam if you do this.
Break Up Phrases:In order to create a cleaner and more professional-looking title that is easier
for shoppers to read, break up keyword phrases by adding useful punctuation like forward
slashes, vertical bars, or hyphens. The vertical bars will appear by holding down shift and then
pressing the backslash key. SEO will not be affected when you incorporate any of these cool
features in your title.
Length Matters:In general, the title of a t-shirt listing should be short and sweet. Titles that are
extremely long are not particularly favored by Google.
Capitalize Each Word:The first letter of each word in a title should always be capitalized. No
excuses.
Place the Title in Details:The title of the item should also be placed in the "details" or
“description” section of your listing so that people can find the shirt easily from a simple Google
search.
8. CREATING THE TAGS
The Importance of Useful Tags
When you properly create useful tags, your t-shirt listings will be relevant for many different
searches. As you create your tags, remember that the ultimate goal of excellent SEO is to
rank high your listings high in a variety of searches.
Specific Guidelines for Creating Great Tags
Include Main Keyword Phrase:If you want to have relevancy in Etsy, you need to place the
main keyword phrase in both the title and the tags. Don't forget that the words within the phrase
must be in the exact same order as the title.
Watch the Character Count:Make sure that the words in your tag are 20 characters or less
including spaces per Etsy's guidelines. An easy way to quickly check your tag length is to type it in
MS Word, and then select Word Count under Tools in the top menu. That brings up a dialog box
that shows you the letter count both with and without spaces. Check your tag on the space
with spaces. Once you get the tag to 20 spaces or less, copy and paste it over to Etsy.
If you are having trouble fitting a long phrase on a tag, consider using the singular version of a
word. For instance, instead of using "black soccer t-shirts," which is too long by one character,
write "black soccer t-shirt” which is exactly 20 characters with spaces. For SEO purposes, the
singular form will generate the same results as the plural form.
Avoid Using Your Shop Name:Unless you have multiple shops or someone else also has your
shop name, you don't need to include your exact shop name on your tags. If no one else has the
exact name of your brand, Etsy will automatically direct potential customers to your shop.
However, you may want to consider using alternative versions of your shop name in a couple
of tags. In general though, it's a wise idea to not waste too many of your tags on the name of
your brand as many potential customers don't even know your shop exists. Spend time
creating tags with popular phrases that the average consumer might type while searching for
products on Google.
Grading Your Listing:
There are numerous sites out there that will determine the quality of your Etsy listing and give it
a grade, with A+ being the best and F being the worst. Getting an A rank is important because
the quality of your listing determines the likelihood of that listing being found by customers
searching for that type of product within your particular niche. If your listings are ranked C or D,
your shop will more than likely get left in the dust and your shirts or products will never be found.
There are a few factors that affect what makes an A+ listing. The first are your title and tags. Do
you use majority of the 140 characters? Do your Tags match your title EXACTLY? Do you have
any photos? (Printful automatically gives you Mockups). These all play into the whether or not you
earn a grade A listing.
As I mentioned on page 24, I use Marmalead and Etsy Rank to grade my listings in addition to
all the other data I gather with these programs.
https://www.marmalead.com- this does cost $19.99 per month but is considered by many Etsy
sellers to be absolutely essential to their continued success.
If you don’t want to commit to spending that much money per month until you have a chance to
see how your Etsy store is going to perform, we suggest using Etsy Rank, which is free. Of

course, like most free tools, it doesn’t have as many features as the paid tool, but it does
offer enough to get you started.
https://www.etsyrank.com
Etsy Rank is a very good option to Marmalead, It is simple to use and connects straight to your
Etsy shop just like Marmalead does to grade all of your listings. Once you learn what issues you
have with your listings and revise them to increase their grades, your views, sales and stats will
all improve.
Both sites are excellent choices and can provide relevant insight into your Etsy store’s
performance and chance for sales success
9. WRITING THE DESCRIPTION
Importance of an Enticing Description
While Etsy does not use the description to rank products on their site, most popular search
engines like Google will read the description text for relevancy. As a result, you need to create
a description that reads naturally, includes some alternative key words, and provides the
potential buyer with many product details.
Writing the Product Description Specific Guidelines
Use Some Title Words:Some of the words in your title should be in the product description, but
the phrase should not be repeated verbatim.
Leverage Synonyms:Instead of repeating many of the words in your title and tags, ensure that
you stay on Google’s good side by incorporating related words and synonyms in your t-shirt
descriptions. These synonyms will ultimately increase your rank in search results.
Write Specific Details:The product description should be thoroughly written as though there are
no photos posted. In other words, make sure that you include as many details as possible in the
description including the product's measurements, features, and other related details. The first few
lines of the text are particularly important as this is the part of the description that will appear on
Google. Those key lines must be extremely interesting so that potential customers will feel
compelled to click on the link.
Include An Inside Link:There is some ranking value associated with placing a link inside the
product description. The link can take the customer to a similar t-shirt or a related section in your
shop. To avoid confusing the customer, try not to add too many links in the text. Internal
hyperlinks that lead to another page in your store are clickable, but just be aware that if you try to
put an outside link in an Etsy listing, it will not be clickable. And some types of external links are
expressly forbidden by the Etsy Terms of Service. For example, you are not allowed to link to your
blog anywhere in your Etsy store.
Create Unique Content:For the best ranking on Google, the content that you create for the
product description should be completely unique. The text should only mention important
details about your product that are not found anywhere else in your listing.
10. CRAFTING GREAT ATTRIBUTES AND VARIATIONS
In early 2017, Etsy announced that certain attributes may be searchable on their site. These
item-specific attributes may include size, length, supplies, color, occasion, and more. We do not
know exactly how much the attributes and variations will affect your rank, but you can still try to
incorporate these features into your listing as necessary. Even though using a specific attribute
like “holiday” will not guarantee that your t-shirt will rank better in search results, if the shopper
filters items by occasion when trying to find a jazzy holiday t-shirt, your product could appear in
the search results. As with the titles and the tags, it’s extremely difficult to make all of your t-shirts
appear in every single search result just by using attributes and variations. As a result, try a
strategic approach when including attributes in your t-shirt listings.
11. ADVERTISING ON ETSY
Etsy Ads can be a true game changer for Etsy sellers. They are cheap, they work, and they
are SUPER easy to set up. You can have ads running in under one minute.
Unlike Facebook ads, and even Amazon ads, I have found that Etsy ads are a good investment.
They actually bring you sales instead of just sucking down your money and giving you no
results like so many online advertisements do. You simply set your daily budget, select which
shirts you want to advertise, set the maximum cost per click (CPC) you are willing to pay and
you will be running ads. You do not have to worry about writing manual keywords. Etsy puts the
ads in the right place and the magic happens.
HOW TO SET UP PROMOTED LISTINGS FOR 10¢ COST PER CLICK
Running ads set to 10¢ cost per click on Etsy is one of the best ways to help you quickly
drive sales to your t-shirt shop.
To set up promoted listings, start at the shop manager page and click on the Manage button on
the far right hand corner of the screen. When the box appears, set your daily budget to $5. Next
click on "advanced settings" at the bottom on the box. In the next box, scroll to the bottom and
set your max cost per click to 10¢.
Now you may want to start out slowly with a budget of just a dollar or two a day until you see how
it’s going to go. That said, I advertise ALL my shirts on Etsy. I normally have my ad budget set at
$10.00 a day spread over a few hundred listings. At first I was confused and thought the budget
had to be $10.00 a day PER shirt. But it is $10.00 a day across ALL items you have selected to be
advertised. Therefore you are putting more shirts in front of more people without paying the
ridiculous cost of Facebook ads.
Even better, with Etsy ads, you only pay when someone clicks, which is much like AMS Ads
(Amazon Marketing Services). You might get 100,000 impressions ( or views) but if you get zero
clicks you will not be charged a penny.
HOLIDAYS SELL WELL
Etsy Buyers LOVE holidays, even more so than Amazon shoppers. ETSY reported 87 million
dollars in sales in Q4 of 2016!
Now I know we aren’t all of Etsy, and that there are huge shops that sell things in totally different
categories than we do, but we can still all get a piece of that BIG pie. Christmas sales were
through the roof on Etsy for me, and it makes Etsy that much more addictive as a platform. People
naturally want to put in more work where they are finding success.
Both Thanksgiving shirts and Christmas shirts have sold very well for me, but don’t overlook other
holidays like Halloween, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and The
Fourth of July. And remember, when it comes to holidays, it’s smart to upload early and make
sure you are running ads on all your holiday shirts. First in the marketplace often gets the first
sales, and you definitely want to start building your holiday momentum now before your
competitors can get the jump on you.
MONITORING YOUR PROGRESS

Did you follow the guidelines and recommendations in this checklist perfectly? Are you seeing any
results from your changes? Here are some recommended methods to monitor your progress.
Wait for results patiently: As a general rule, any changes you make to your listings may take a few
days to produce results. Most keyword phrases are not something shoppers necessarily search
for each day, so it’s unlikely that you will instantly see an increased relevancy from clicks.
Review your Etsy shop stats: If you want to know if your t-shirt listing is generating new traffic,
refer to your Etsy shop stats. While you shouldn't necessarily expect to see listings with your new
keyword phrases being clicked on each day, you should notice an overall increase in the number
of shoppers checking out your t-shirt shop.
Check relevancy on large search engines: Monitor your relevancy on large search engines like
Google, but don't beat yourself up if your t-shirt listing is only on page 17 or page 32.
After a few weeks of monitoring your listings, you should notice more search hits and perhaps also
a gradual improvement in your Google search placement. If this isn’t the case, don’t be afraid to
play with your current keyword phrases again to actually help your listings rank in search results in
the future.
Stay Active
There’s no official confirmation of what I am about to discuss, only testimonies from many different
Etsy sellers. One of the best ways to keep your store active and keep those sales rolling in is to
continue adding new listings to your store and keep revising and tweaking your active listings to
try and improve customer engagement. If you do this, your sales will naturally increase because
more people will see your store.
Why? Because every time you add a new listing to your store, Etsy gives it a little traffic boost.
Having more eyes on your store helps you make more sales.
If you don’t regularly add new listings to your store, you will find your traffic gradually dries up.
Shoppers are always looking for new items and if they see the same listings every time they stop
by your store, eventually they’ll get bored and stop visiting. And then you will have lost a customer
you spent a lot of time, effort and money to get in the first place.
HOW LONG BEFORE MY PRODUCTS START SELLING?
For a variety of reason, shirts on Amazon can take two to three weeks to fully integrate into both
the Amazon and Google search algorithms before they start selling. Others may not sell for two to

three months and then suddenly experience a rush of sales and then stop selling again.
Occasionally, if you’re riding a hot trend, you may sell an Amazon shirt within hours of listing it, but
that is rare.
By contrast, and especially if you are running ads, making sales of new products on Etsy can
almost be instant. While it’s not the norm, I have had several shirts sell within an hour of being
listed on Etsy. Etsy’s algorithm isn’t like what we are used to on Merch by Amazon where sales of
small individual sellers are may be throttled for lengthy periods simply to help Amazon manage its
over-burdened production capacity.
It’s completely different on Etsy. When you list a new item there, Etsy gives it a little boost and
places toward the top of the search results for a brief period. During this time, anyone searching
for the keywords in your titles and tags will see your shirt earlier in the results rather than buried
on page 27. These boosted products get found sooner and are more likely to sell. And every time
you publish an item (pay the $0.20 fee) again, it gets bumped right back to the top of the results
again, so unlike some competitor sites, Etsy actually rewards the efforts of its sellers rather than
squelching them.
Your First Sale and Beyond
So you finally sold something. Congrats! Is it time to sit back, do flips, and cash in the money,
right? Well, not just yet as there is still a few things left to do. If you have set up your Printful to
Etsy integration then you are in good shape as far as your order being processed correctly and
automatically. If not, then you have to process your orders manually.
As we mentioned earlier in this book, make sure you have already set up a bank account or credit
card to handle your orders because Printful charges you immediately after the order is placed
when you have the Printful-Etsy integration enabled, so make sure you have the budget available
to cover the cost of your orders until Etsy releases your sales funds.
So what should you do now? Starting the moment you make your first sale or even your
100th sale, the clock starts ticking on providing a great 5-star customer service experience for
your customers that will hopefully get you a great review.
Soon after receiving your order, consider sending the customer a message thanking them for their
business and telling them their order will be processed soon and that you will inform them when it
ships. You can do this in Etsy by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the
order.

Messaging the customer after an order placed is a huge advantage that I guarantee most sellers
are not taking advantage of. In our society today, when we place an order online, we usually think
that a computer takes over and does the rest. There’s no human touch at all. Sending a personal
message right after receiving an order shows the customer that a real person actually is taking
care of them. This resonates greatly with consumers and gives you a good start down the path
toward a great review.
Your next message to the customer should be when the order ships out. Etsy does send out a
message when Printful ships the order but when you send a message to the customer with their
estimated date range of delivery, that again shows the customer a real and caring person is
taking care of them every step of the way.
Send a final message to the customer a day or two after the latest delivery date. This message
should be personal, you just checking in with them to make sure their order arrived safely and
the customer is happy. This again shows that a real and caring person has handled their order
from start to finish. This is also a perfect time to seal the deal for a repeat customer by giving
them a special coupon code if they return to your store and purchase something. You may also
add a message requesting feedback or a review at this time.
By doing those three steps, you exponentially increase your chances of getting a 5 star customer
review.
Note: Etsy does not consider messages associated with the purchase of an order as spam.
However, it is considered spam to message people when they just like or favorite one of your
items, so only message customers who have actually purchased one of your products to keep
your account in good standing.
Customer Service Issues
Running a business, you will inevitably run into customer service issues or customer
complaints. Even when you are faced with these issues, you can still turn them into a positive
experience for the customer and ultimately a 5 star review. If you handle the problem well, you
may even turn your unhappy customer into a repeat customer.
First, to reduce the possibility of having disgruntled customers, make sure your policies are
clear, concise and leave nothing to the imagination.
Anytime you do receive a message from a customer, make sure you respond as promptly
as possible. This not only provides good customer service but also shows both Etsy and the
customer that you are running a professional business.
At all times, make sure you are professional and polite. Yes, that means even be professional and
polite to difficult customers that may be trying to take advantage of you. The reason this is so
important is that Etsy keeps a record of all conversations between you and a customer and how
you handle each situation affects the permanent metrics and searchability of your store.
Etsy will also show a tendency to side with sellers on cases with difficult buyers if you have a
history of providing good customer service. This policy is called Etsy Seller Protection. You can
find out more about the eligibility requirements for the Etsy Seller Protection program under House
Rules on the Etsy platform.
You cannot make all customers happy but you can make sure that you provide great customer
service at all times. I have had to turn down a customer's request before and because of the way I
handled the situation it turned into another order from them. I have also had a customer that had
a series of issues and again because of the timeliness of my response and the personal attention
I gave the matter, I was able to turn a problem situation into a detailed 5 star review from the
customer who has also ordered more items from my store since then.
You cannot foresee or prevent issues in any business, but what you can control is how you handle
and respond to the customer service situations as they arise.
RECENT ETSY CHANGES
On July 16 of 2018, Etsy announced some important changes to its services. These changes are
designed to keep the platform growing robustly well into the next decade and beyond.
They raised the percentage they deduct from each sale from 3.5% to 5%, and for the first time,
they are deducting the percentage from shipping costs as well. They found it necessary to do this
because some sellers were gaming the system by charging artificially low prices for their
merchandise but then jacking up their shipping prices to make up their profit on the back end of
the transaction. Etsy’s new policy will force all sellers to price both their merchandise and their
shipping properly.
While the Etsy Standard free store plan will remain as it always has been, Etsy announced two
store plans: Etsy Plus and Etsy Premium.

Etsy Plus has already launched. priced at $10.00 a month until January of 2019, at which point it
will be raised to its normal price of $20.00 a month. It offers sellers who want to take their shops to
the next level a comprehensive set of tools to help them reach their goals. In addition to receiving
credits for 15 listings and $5.00 in advertising credit, you’ll be able to better customize the
appearance of your shop by choosing from a variety of banner sizes. The package also includes
discounts on printed business cards and customized packaging materials like boxes and wrapping
paper, and discounted domain names. There is also a feature that allows you to alert interested
shoppers when items that were out of stock when they wished to purchase have been restocked.
If you really want to make your shop look as professional as possible and increase your sales, I
highly recommend signing up for this package.
At some point in 2019, Etsy will launch a third seller package called Etsy Premium. No details
about the benefits or pricing of this package have yet been released.
To make changes to your subscription plan, go to Shop Manager > Settings > Your Subscription,
and select the package you want. Your 30-day subscription cycle begins on the day you
subscribe so be aware of this if you are used to paying your Etsy fees at the end of the month.

VIDEOS
https://goo.gl/KYrcWM
How to add a product on Printful, push to Etsy and

publish to your store.
This video walks you through the steps to successfully create a product on Printful and then
push the listing through to listing where you will activate it and make it available for sale.

https://goo.gl/HYrrcL
ETSY MOCKUPS AND BEST PHOTO PRACTICES

Good photos can make all the difference on Etsy. When you have great mockups that allow
customers to clearly see and examine your product, you are more likely to make sales. In this
video, we show you some great places to find mockups for your products, and how to make your
own mockups. We also explain our take on Etsy's best practices concerning photos in the
current shop algorithm.
Note: Make your mockups either 500x500 pixels or use the new standard, 500x750 pixels.
Just make sure your photos are centered to show your products off to the best advantage.
https://goo.gl/LjxtmN
Quick tutorial on how to start a sale or create a coupon for

your Etsy store.
Sales are one of the best ways to drive traffic and sales on Etsy. In this video, we’ll
walk you through the creation of these important tools.

https://goo.gl/gyJadz
What to do after every sale to increase customer

satisfaction and possibly get a 5 star review.
We teach you best practices for providing superior customer service to keep your
customers coming back again and again to buy from you.

https://goo.gl/sybrjR
Private Video For Etsy Promoted Listings

In this video, we provide additional critical information for determining which listings you
should promote within your store, and how to create the proper promotions.

https://goo.gl/GgBrvB
Quick tutorial about how to begin a great 5 star customer experience.

Customer service is one of your best tools to retain customers, build brand loyalty and handle some
of the most common customer service problems.

https://goo.gl/UYMZ9a
Mass editing on Etsy and Vela

I prefer Vela as it is a free tool and has so many options. Remember these tools can edit
many listings at once. We explain this in the video but only showed you the detailed
features using one shirt.

https://goo.gl/qymjvW
How to avoid shipping issues and when issues occur how

to handle them and still provide 5 star customer service.
We talked about customer service issues before but in this video, we specifically
discuss customer service problems related to shipping issues.

https://goo.gl/Fckrc2
Supercharge your Etsy store with 2 ways NO ONE is

talking about
In this video, we discuss two power plays that can help you supercharge your Etsy store sales.

https://goo.gl/5ccnJj
Manspector YouTube Channel

Hi, I am Jason...the face behind the voice in the tutorials. Excited to announce my new channel
"Manspector" which is all about Rants, Raves, Reviews and Randomness. Join us as we
review every POD tool we can get our hand on, take on our business challenges, have fun with
our weird news, or rant with us as the world becomes crazier. You never know what we will
say, talk about or review next, so come check us out! Manspector on Youtube!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. I received an order but it isn’t showing up on Printful yet, what did I do wrong?
A. It can take up to 15 minutes for an order to be received by Printful. If it has been longer
than 15 minutes, and the order is still not showing up on your dashboard, make sure the
product sold is synced on Printful. If it is not, click on your store name on Printful and click
on the “Sync” button.
Q. A customer contacted me about never receiving the shirt, what do I do?

A. Check the tracking information on the Printful side of things. If it says delivered,
provide them the tracking information, and ask them to contact the postal service.
Q. Should I list every design on every style of T Shirt?

A. No, you should NOT post every single design on 10+ different products. Select the ones
that are most appropriate for the design, the season and the niche and only list those.
Q. Printful charged my credit card $15.00 for a product, but I haven’t been paid yet, is this
correct?
A. Yes, this is correct. Etsy will pay you within 3 days of your order (Sometimes longer or
shorter depending on payout settings), and you will receive the cost of the shirt plus the
shipping fee minus the Etsy fees. So if you sold a shirt for $30.00 on Etsy plus $5.00 for
shipping, Etsy will send you $35.00 minus their fees. Depending on how you price your
shirts and which base shirt you chose for your product, you could see up to $19 in profit for
each shirt sale.
Q. Why do I have to pay $0.20 for each listing?

A. Etsy charges $0.20 per listing because they do not make money on each shirt sold like
Amazon does with Merch. They earn revenue by charging $0.20 per listing plus a
small transaction fee of 5% on each sale.
Q. Is there a limit on how many designs I can upload per day?

A. The only limit on how much you can upload to Etsy is you yourself. If you can upload 500
designs per day, Etsy will allow it. Just keep in mind the listing fees can add up after a few
hundred uploads if you haven’t sold any shirts yet. Also remember that if you use a VA or
employee to help you upload, that person’s name and job description of what they do in
your shop must be included in the information you provide to Etsy. Failure to do so may
result in termination of your account, so don’t overlook this important step.
Q. A customer is asking for a discount if they purchase multiple items. Is that allowed?
A. Yes, you are allowed to run coupons, sales, and discounts in your Etsy store whenever
you’d like. Just make sure your discounts are not so large and to numerous as to take you
out of profit. Remember, the goal is to stay profitable.
Q. Can I upload all my Merch Designs onto Etsy?

A. Yes. An easy way to do this is to make it a habit to upload the designs on Merch and Etsy
at the same time.
Q. How can I learn what sells on Etsy? I don’t see any rankings.
A. Use the search function and look for shops with tons of reviews. Analyze these shops
and see what type of designs people are purchasing, and what style. Also check the Etsy
blog and the emails they send to customers and sellers for insights into what type of
products are trending and becoming hot sellers.
Q. How should I set my daily budget on Etsy Ads?

A. That depends on your particular finances. But Etsy ads are very profitable and produce a
great ROI (ROI= Return on Investment). So start small and if you see an increase in your
sales and profit, you’ll know it’s time to bump up the budget, plus you’ll have the
confidence of knowing your increased sales will easily cover the increased ad cost and still
bring you a healthy profit.
Q. What should my maximum Cost Per Click be? (CPC)

A. I normally set my max cost per click at $0.11-$0.16 per click. This allows me to beat
anyone who is bidding at $0.09 to $0.15 per click but doesn’t blow through my daily budget
too fast. Note: Most times the average CPC is much lower than $0.18
Q. What makes your store successful?

A. Make sure you have everything filled out properly. The About Me page, the Return Policy,
the Store Information, your profile picture, and shop banner. All these contribute to a feeling
of customer confidence that you are a seller who can be trusted. Also, be sure to sort all

your shirts into different categories. This will help customers find what they are looking
for in your store.
Q. Are reviews important on Etsy?

A. Yes, reviews are very important on Etsy and make your shop look more official. The more
reviews your shop has, the more confident new buyers will feel about shopping with you.
Q. I’m going on vacation for two weeks, how do I manage my Etsy shop while I’m gone?
A. Simply set your store in Vacation Mode, and when you return home turn off vacation mode.
If you really feel like you can’t afford or don’t want to put your store in Vacation Mode, either
bring a laptop, iPad, or smartphone with you to manage your store while you’re on holiday.
Or, you can hire a VA to oversee your shop while you are gone. But make sure the
person is someone you trust, and also make sure to add their name to your list of helpers
in your store to stay in compliance with Etsy Terms of Service.
Q. Can I really make money on Etsy?

A. Jason and I are addicted to Etsy because of the sales we are capturing.
Q. I want to promote my Etsy store outside of Etsy, what can I do?

A. Share links to your store on your personal Facebook page for friends and family, start a
Facebook page for your shop, use Pinterest. Pinterest is an EXCELLENT way to market
your Etsy store, especially when you start building a following.
You have now made your first sale, made sure it was processed correctly and have provided great
customer service. You are officially on your way to your very own ‘ETSY SUCCESS” story.
Make sure to be diligent with your story and do not let your store sit idle. Your sales will DIE if you
do.
This e-book can guide you in your journey to further success with Etsy so keep it close and refer
to it often if you get bogged down and have “Etsy Block”.
We hope you get many, many orders and that your store becomes a great success in the near
future.

NOTES

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Etsy Success POD Launch Your T-Shirt Business Coaching Book 927

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Author: Monte Werle

2BY MONTE WERLE WITH JASON HUESGEN

Join Our Secret Etsy Printful Success Mastermind Group

Scan QR Code For Quick Access

Sign up for Printful right now. Don’t put this

4BY MONTE WERLE WITH JASON HUESGEN

Etsy Printful Success Guide

Creating And Linking Accounts

5BY MONTE WERLE WITH JASON HUESGEN

For initial sign up, Printful asks for:

And Etsy asks for:

6BY MONTE WERLE WITH JASON HUESGEN

For Existing Accounts

Using Multiple Stores

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Ideation and Development

Knowing Your Audience

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Licensing and Copyright

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Photo Stock Sites and Public Domain Images

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Pairing With the Right Products

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● Maximum printing area:12X16 inches, which will be automatically scaled appropriately

Product Categories and Their Variants

Product categories currently offered by Printful for Etsy integration:

Popular Product Types

Getting a Listing Ready

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Printful: Step By Step

Finishing Up For Etsy

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Production Partner Requirements

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Managing Income and Expenses

Budgeting For Initial Costs

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Customer Service Issues, Shipping, Returns and Exchanges

Advertising And Analyzing Stats

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● Net income:your revenues minusyour expenses.

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Driving Traffic and Sales to Your Etsy Store

1. RELEVANCY RANKING IN SEARCH RESULTS

How to be Relevant for the Etsy Search

Most Common Factors in the Relevancy Search

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Factors that are NOT Relevant in the Relevancy Search

As of today, search relevancy is not determined by any of these factors:

2. SELECTING GREAT KEYWORDS

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3. USING PROGRAMS TO GAIN RELEVANCY IN ETSY

ETSY SHOP CHECKLIST

2. SHOP LOGO MATCHES BANNER

3. THE STORE HAS AN ABOUT SECTION

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4. MAKE SURE YOUR ETSY STORE HAS AT LEAST 50 DIFFERENT DESIGNS

5. PRICING (PRICES ARE UNIFORM AND AT ROUND OR HALF DOLLARS)

SALES AND DISCOUNTS

27BY MONTE WERLE WITH JASON HUESGEN

6. ITEMS SECTION (SEO SECTION TITLES)