Julie Berninger has an Etsy shop called The Swag Elephant, where she sells printables, templates, and designs.
She’s the only Etsy guru I’ve reviewed so far whose shop is publicly known and still active.
Wild, I know.
She’s been featured in Forbes, MarketWatch, and CNBC. (Ehh. Probably paid mentions.)
Julie also blogs at Millennial Boss, used to host a financial independence podcast called Fire Drill, and currently hosts Crickets to Cha-Chings, a podcast for Etsy sellers.
She’s teamed up with Cody Berman to teach others how to profit from Etsy printables.
Read on for Gold City Ventures reviews.
Cody walks the talk too, running PintoPrintables, where he sells seasonal items to help people celebrate the holidays. And yes, his store is alive and kicking on Etsy.
Seriously, give these two a round of applause.
The fact that they’re both still doing this out in the open is the most legit thing I’ve seen in this space.
But yeah.
Printables are just what they sound like: files you make on your computer that can be uploaded to Etsy and downloaded by the customer after purchase.
Whether it’s a $7 bachelorette party scavenger hunt or a $5 set of mommy milestone wine bottle labels, there’s a printable for literally anything you can dream up.
In Cody and Julie’s world, Etsy + printables = the holy grail of passive income.
You create something once, list it on Etsy, and countless people can buy it, 24/7, with almost no action from you.
Julie once took six months off to move cross country and her Etsy shop still brought in over $10,000. All she did during that time was answer a customer question or two.
And Cody will never forget his first printable sales.
He was skiing in Tahoe when his phone kept going ka-ching, ka-ching – yes, the Etsy app actually makes that sound for new sales.
By lunchtime at the lodge, he’d made over $100 from Valentine’s Day gift sales.
That was the day Cody joined the church of Etsy, and he’s been preaching ever since.
Of course, once your printables are flying off the Etsy shelves, you can level up and launch your own Shopify store – if you’re feeling froggy.
But Julie knows what you’re thinking:
- “I’m not tech-savvy.”
- “I’m not super creative.”
- “And I don’t have much money.”
Let her squash that bug right now – those are all myths. Anyone can do this with free tools like Canva.
Also, no, you’re not too late, and you’ll never run out of ideas – thanks to their framework.
Damn, man.
I was almost a believer, until this happened: Julie revealed she only makes like $1,000 a month selling printables.
Talk about a gut punch.
Why would I buy a course to learn a side hustle where the instructor is barely scraping by?
I appreciate her honesty, but I’d rather do something where the bar is set at $50k a month. Even if I only manage 10% of that, my bills are covered. Y’know?
Julie and Cody paint this dreamy picture of freedom and travel and more time with loved ones – but let’s be real. It’s Gold City Ventures funding that lifestyle, not $713 a month in printable sales.
If you’d like to chip in, their E-Printables Course is $197 upfront, plus $29 a month for the community access.
There was one Reddit complaint saying they wouldn’t recommend it – you can find the same info for free online, and the real passive income seems to come from their $30-a-month VIP Facebook group.
As for me?
I like them, I love their transparency, and I even dig the offer.
But the model? Yeah, not so much.
A “Went Small, Went Home” sticker would be the perfect printable to sum this opportunity up.