Selling guideBeta
How to sell what you design
It’s called print on demand: nothing is made until someone orders it, so there’s no stock to buy and what you risk is your time. Here’s what works now, in five minutes.
It’s a small businessnot passive income. Listings, photos and orders take real hours every week.
Plan in monthsnot weeks. Early sales are slow for almost everyone.
What winsoriginal designs, a narrow audience, and traffic you bring yourself.
Pick a buyer, then a design
- Design for someone specific — an ICU nurse, a padel player, a dog dad, a mum of twins, your hometown.
- Check before you draw. Find 10+ listings in that niche that already sell, and make sure people search for it.
- Launch 3–5 designs and give them 30 days. Drop what’s silent; make more of what moves.
- Keep 3–5 related niches under one roof so the shop feels like one shop.
Designs that sell
- Identity — a job, hobby, sport or family role. People buy a sign that they belong.
- Personalised gifts — names, dates, pet names. Emotional, and hard to copy.
- Pets, local pride, niche humour — a joke only cat owners get beats a joke for everyone.
- Seasons — Mother’s and Father’s Day, graduations, weddings, back to school and the winter holidays. List 6–10 weeks early.
[Job] + an inside joke[Role] est. [year][Hobby] club badge[Town] + a local referenceMake it print well
- 300 DPI at the finished size, 150 at the very least on clothing. Inches × DPI = pixels.
- Start big, in the product’s shape. Upscaling later can’t invent detail.
- One or two elements, strong contrast, readable as a thumbnail on a phone. Tiny text and thin lines disappear.
- Order a sample before you list. Photograph it — it’s your best listing photo.
Price for every fee
- Price = product + shipping + fees + ads + a buffer for remakes. Then add your profit.
- Etsy (US): a listing fee (charged again each time an item sells), a transaction fee on the item and shipping, and payment processing, plus more on a sale Offsite Ads brought in. When you price a listing we show each one from Etsy's current rates.
- Don’t race to the bottom. People buying for their niche pay for relevance.
Where to sell
- Etsy is the best first shop for original designs. Name who makes your items (Etsy calls them a production partner) and say when AI helped.
- Add a second channel once the first works. Marketplace rules and fees change without warning.
- Shopify and Amazon are coming soon. Join the waitlist and we’ll email you when each one opens.
- Bring your own traffic — Pinterest for wall art, short video for identity and humour, and email, the one channel you own.
Stay out of trouble
- No brands, teams, schools, bands, films or games — and no characters, lyrics or famous faces.
- Search every phrase in the USPTO trademark database before you use it.
- AI doesn’t move the blame. If it looks like someone else’s work, you’re responsible.
- Keep your drafts and source files — they’re your evidence if a listing is ever questioned.
Skip these
- Hundreds of quick AI designs — marketplaces now flag low-effort volume.
- Bought templates and clip art — they aren’t your design, and Etsy expects them to be.
- Fan art and trending brands — takedowns, then bans.
- “Funny tee for everyone” — the most crowded shelf there is.
- Cheapest always wins — a bad print costs a review, and reviews drive visibility.
- One marketplace — one policy change can end your sales overnight.
Getting paid
How you get paid
Your buyer pays Etsy, Etsy pays you, and your card pays us for each order we make.
- Your buyer pays Etsy your price at checkout.
- Etsy pays you, minus Etsy’s fees.
- Your card pays Pablit for making and shipping the order, plus our fee.
- Pablit makes the item and ships it to your buyer.
Who pays me?
Etsy does. Your buyer pays Etsy at checkout, and Etsy pays you through Etsy Payments, into your bank on your deposit schedule. Your sales money never passes through Pablit.
How Etsy deposits your money (Etsy Help)
Etsy Payments and Shop Finances Live Q&A · Etsy’s videoWhy does Pablit have my card?
Because the money from a sale goes to you, not to us. When someone buys, we make the item and ship it to your buyer, and your card pays for that order: what it cost to make and ship, plus our fee. We only ever charge it for orders. Connecting and listing through Pablit are free.
When is my card charged, and how much?
Only when someone buys, once we’ve started making their order. For a larger order, or several at once, we may first put a hold on your card for the amount. The amount is what that order really cost to make and ship (with any sales tax or embroidery setup fee), plus our fee, so it can differ a little from the estimate you saw when you listed it. We email you the amount every time.
What do I keep?
Your price, minus Etsy’s fees, minus our charge. Before you send a listing we show an estimate of what you’ll keep, and Your listings shows it for each one. Etsy sets its own fees; the selling guide explains them.
Do I pay Pablit if nothing sells?
No. Nothing is charged until someone buys. Etsy charges its own listing fee when a listing goes live.
What if my card is declined?
We email you and may try the card again. Until it’s paid we may hold new orders, so update your card in Billing.
Learn from Etsy
Short videos from Etsy Success, Etsy’s own channel for sellers.
- How to Optimize Your Etsy Listings for More Sales · Etsy’s videoPhotos, titles, tags and descriptions that get found and bought.
- “EtSEO” Live Listing Critique Panel · Etsy’s videoReal listings, reviewed live by Etsy’s team.
- Etsy Payments and Shop Finances Live Q&A · Etsy’s videoDeposits, fees and your payment account, answered by Etsy.
- How to Become a Star Seller on Etsy (and Actually Keep It) · Etsy’s videoWhat Etsy rewards once orders start: replies, shipping on time, reviews.
- What’s New in Shop Manager: Tools to Save Time and Reach More Buyers · Etsy’s videoA tour of the place you publish and run your shop.
Not sure which model to use? Read the AI guide.
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