Heather Johnson’s a top 1% Etsy and print on demand (POD) seller. She sounds like she’s from North Dakota. Uff da! And like she works at Denny’s and smokes a pack of Newports a day.
I mean that in a good way. I like listening to her talk.
Heather sells Print On Demand Academy 3.0 for $497. It teaches you how to reach $10,000+ with an Etsy POD business.
She also sells Bestseller Insider Membership for $49.99 per month. It’s designed to help Etsy-preneurs become top sellers.
Read on for my Heather x Studio review.
First, why Etsy? Aren’t they super strict about what sellers can and can’t do?
Yes, but so is every other platform, Heather says. Amazon, Teespring, Redbubble, what have you. Their house, their rules. Right?
With Etsy, as long as you’re upholding their creativity standards, you’ll be fine. Translation: don’t copy other people’s shit.
Think you can handle that? Good.
Then you wanna be on Etsy because they have so much free traffic, Heather explains. And once you understand their algorithm, it’s quite easy to scale listings organically.
Unlike Amazon and Shopify, Etsy gives new sellers a fighting chance. You can actually make sales without running ads. This means you need less money to start, your risk is lower, and your profit margins are higher.
That should have you pumped up like a gym bro on arm day.
Not that there won’t be some expenses.
Here’s what you can expect:
- $15 to $25 to set up an Etsy account
- $0.20 listing fee per item
- 6.5% transaction fee on every sale
- If you offer free shipping, you have to cover that
- $100 to $200 per month for software and tools
- Ad spend, if you decide to go that route
- Plus whatever your POD company takes per sale
It seems like you’re getting whittled down to nothing, but you can still net 20-40% of every sale.
How soon before you’re profitable? Plan on three to six months, Heather says.
I appreciate the honesty. Patience pays off, right? You gotta let the cookies cool before you pop ’em in your mouth.
What tools will you need to get started?
At a bare minimum, Heather recommends:
- EverBee (~$20/mo), a Google Chrome extension for researching the best products to sell on Etsy.
- Kittl ($24/mo), a POD-focused design and photo manipulation software.
Yes, there are a lot of other options, some free, but those are her faves.
Also, it wouldn’t hurt to hire a bookkeeper and a lawyer so you don’t screw anything up.
What are some good niches to go into?
Heather suggests you take a look at the following:
- Sports fandom: There are 83 million sports fans in the U.S. alone. In order of popularity, you have: football, basketball, baseball, then soccer. Jump on what’s hot. WNBA, for instance. Just be careful you don’t infringe on any copyright.
- Birthdays: Everybody’s got one. Every single year. And there are so many sub-niches you can explore. For example, milestone birthdays: 13, 16, 18, 21, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. Right? And so many different ways to play each one.
- Space lover: You can thank Elon for this. Think ‘Occupy Mars’ t-shirt. Think ‘To The Moon’ coffee cup. Or rocket ship figurines. Or an ‘Ask me about my space stocks’ hat.
- Budgeting and finance: This could be templates, spreadsheets, journals, investing calendars, digital or physical planners, a hat that says ‘EBITDA,’ a candle that says ‘Only Bad Bitches Work In Finance’ – you get the idea.
Damn. Heather’s free information is better than most courses. Her paid stuff’s gotta be fire.
But still.
Trying to design, list, optimize, market, sell, and handle customer service for hundreds of items? Bro. My brain would spark like metal in a microwave.
Q&A
Q: Do you know Heather’s net worth?
A: I don’t even know my own net worth. The only thing I know for sure? Is I like sleeping in a freezing-cold room under layers and layers of blankets.
Q: What’s her Etsy shop name?
A: Not sure she’s still active on Etsy. One of her landing pages says “prior six-figure Etsy earner.”
Q: Those who can’t do, teach, huh?
A: Generally, yes. But in the case of lil’ miss HeatherXStudio, she definitely did. Then I guess once she saw how profitable courses were, she was like, fuck these candles.
Q: Should we let Reddit decide if she’s legit?
A: If you want someone to stomp on your hopes and dreams, sure. Otherwise, no. Reddit thinks everything’s impossible – and if it costs money, it’s a scam. It’s like your boomer dad refusing to pay $75 for an oil change when he can easily waste a whole Saturday, throw out his back, ruin his clothes, and do it his goddamn self.
Q: So you’re saying I should buy Print On Demand Academy 3.0?
A: Not necessarily. I’m just saying don’t let someone named relentless_banana on a forum decide your future. Heather’s got a YouTube channel and a free Etsy Crash Course you can binge. After that, trust your gut.
Q: That’s fair. And, say I pass. Got an alternative for me?
A: Sell feet pics on OnlyFans or do what I do. Here’s a video on it.