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Etsy invoice template for Product quality

you may have heard of the amazing potential for passive income that comes with selling digital products online but beyond the initial idea and excitement of selling digital products often comes a lot of tech overwhelm and stress especially if you're new to it all i want to simplify the process of creating and listing your etsy digital products so that you can feel completely confident opening up shop i'm talking digital file types sizing resolution programs all the things so definitely stick around if you want to learn how to sell digital products on etsy [Music] welcome back to the channel friends if we haven't met yet i'm kate i'm a wife mom etsy seller and business coach and i'm here to help you start and scale your online business so that you can make a full-time income doing what you love i've been on etsy now for seven years and i can say from first-hand experience that there are so many different areas of selling on etsy especially if you're trying to tackle digital products that are just super overwhelming and confusing in the beginning so i really want to come alongside you and help explain things in a way that's easy to understand and that will bring you success in today's video i'm going to be covering everything from the industry standard for sizing and resolution of digital products to the different file types and which types of digital products each file extension is best suited for as well as the different programs that you can use from beginner level to expert level when you're starting to create your digital products i'm also going to walk you through actually listing your digital product on your etsy shop so make sure to watch all the way to the end to get all the juicy info that is in this video i might also have an amazing free download for you in just a minute so just saying okay so the first thing we're going to dive into is explaining the different file types because you're going to need to know which types of files and file extensions to actually offer to the buyer on your listing but before i get into the different file types it's important to know what the industry standard for resolution is so resolution is the quality of your image or your file that you're offering and the industry standard for a really high quality resolution is 300 ppi or dpi so that's pixels per inch or dots per inch either way you don't want it to be anything under 300 300 is the minimum industry standard for really quality products so the first thing you need to understand is that there is a difference between what's called a raster file and a vector file so let's talk about raster first raster files work on a pixel grid which means that there is a certain number of pixels in the image and each little pixel is assigned a color which then when you zoom out and you see the full picture it creates whatever image you're going for but if you zoom in you can actually see the color of each separate pixel this is really great for images that are really complicated in coloring or shadowing but it can cause a little bit of trouble if you're trying to scale it to a really large size because the more you scale it larger the more quality it loses and the more distorted and pixelated it appears because of this people tend to use raster files more for photographic images or images that have a lot of intense complicated coloring it's not as great with sharp edges or curved lines that are in non-photographic icons so some of the most commonly used file types for raster files would be png jpeg tiff gif and psd we'll go over each of those in more depth in just a minute but now we're going to talk about vector files vector files work on a mathematical point based system which means they can be scaled to any size without losing the quality they're not as good as raster files for photographs but they're actually better for non-photographic images like icons or graphic elements or anything that would need to be scaled even to a really large size like a billboard this also makes vector files great for cutting images if people are going to be cutting using a laser cutter or a silhouette or a cricut they're going to need a size that they can scale up or down how they want some of the most commonly used vector file types would be pdf svg eps and ai okay let's talk about jpeg first so this is the file extension jpg this is probably the most commonly used raster file type on etsy because it's raster and it's great with coloring and it has those pixels that we talked about people love jpegs for photographs or anything to do with a photographic image one of the best things about a jpeg is that you can compress it to a really small file size to save space but like i mentioned before it's not going to be easily scalable and it's not going to be great for any kind of icon that has sharp edges or curves okay next is png a png is also a raster image but the difference is that pngs can actually have a transparent background whereas jpegs cannot have a transparent background so a png would be used for any kind of icon or digital element that might need to be layered on top of a different background or on top of a photograph or something that's going on top as a layer it is generally a larger file size than a jpeg so you just need to keep that in mind when you're creating your files okay third on our list is a pdf a pdf is actually a vector document file that allows for multi-page documents pdfs are generally really high quality good file types for scaling for offering documents such as contracts or anything with multiple pages that you're going to need to give to your buyer even though pdfs are vector files they can contain raster images so pdf files are really versatile they can be opened by virtually any operating system which makes it really easy for any buyer anywhere to use it's great for printing and great for any type of printable like a calendar or planners or an ebook something with multiple pages that would need to be printed now because pdfs are generally higher quality files they are going to have a larger file size which means that they may exceed that maximum 20 megabyte limit that etsy puts on the file listings a lot of times what etsy sellers will do if they want to offer a pdf file but it's too large is they'll either use dropbox or google drive to upload the file to and then they'll give the buyer a link to that dropbox folder or google drive folder for them to be able to download okay next let's talk about svg files svg is a vector file which of course like we talked about means that it can be scaled as large as you want without losing any quality and this is what makes it really great for cutting projects so like i mentioned before if people are looking for something to cut on their cricut machine or their silhouette machine or even a laser cutter svg is going to be the first type of file type that they're looking for now i'm about to throw in three additional pro tips for things that you definitely need to consider when you're working with digital files but before we get into that i want to tell you about the amazing freebie that i mentioned before so we've actually just released this it's brand new it's a digital product starter guide for beginners who are learning about offering digital products and you just want kind of a guidebook to walk you through everything that we've been talking about the different file types the different resolution and sizing options the programs that you can use everything that you need to know to start creating and selling digital products on etsy it has some really great ideas for digital products if you don't even really know yet what you want to offer as well as just those really important details to keep track of and explanations of each of the different programs that you could use to start off the starter guide is completely free to download i just want to help you guys out on your journey i know how confusing and overwhelming it can be so this is just a great free resource that you can just download and instantly get to walk you along the journey if you want to grab that freebie there's a link in the description box below so definitely click on that and hop over to get your free starter guide all right let's get into these three pro tips and then we're going to actually walk through creating the listing so tip number one is that when you're deciding on what file types to offer you need to consider your buyer and what type of product you have because they may be taking this to a printing company that only prints in pdfs or only prints jpegs so take that into consideration and think about maybe even offering them a few different files in one listing so if you decide to offer them a pdf and a jpeg and maybe even a png as well they can use what they need and they don't have to buy several different listings it's all there in the one listing and that allows you to actually up the price on your listing because you're offering them more pro tip number two is to use zip files so like i mentioned before on your etsy listing you're gonna be able to upload up to five files per listing with a maximum file size of 20 megabytes per file if you have really large files or you want to offer more than that a lot of etsy sellers will offer it in a zip folder which means you're going to compress everything into a zipped folder and then once the buyer gets that folder they can actually unzip it to have access to all of those files so that's one way if you have two large files or too many files that you want to offer in one listing you can use a zip folder and tip number three is to think about what size you need for your product depending on what it is so there are certain types of products that are offered at industry standard sizes so for instance you might be thinking about a wall art print so that could maybe be offered in an 8 by 10 or a 16 by 20. then if you're offering invitations or stationery or cards those would most likely be a 4x6 or a 5x7 so you just need to do a little bit of research and look at similar well selling listings in your niche and see what other sellers are offering what sizes they're offering their products at to get a clue of what sizes are in demand for that type of product okay so we're here at the computer and i'm going to walk you through some of the most important things to consider when you're actually listing your product on your etsy shop so we're here on the etsy shop we're going to add a new listing i'm going to just point out the main digital product differences from a physical product listing so i'm just going to skip most of this and just show you what you need to know for digital products so right here where it says type you have physical or digital you're definitely going to want to select digital this will give you the ability to upload those five files that i was talking about if you select physical you won't have an option for that so definitely need to select digital this is also important for your star sellers so if you're wanting to become a star seller part of the way that that is calculated is if you have offered on-time shipping so of course with a digital product there's no shipping if you select physical and then you don't ship it obviously because it's a digital product it's going to hurt your star seller rating so select digital there and then down here we're going to look at the upload area so here where it says digital files you can click here to upload a file you can have up to five files and each file is a maximum of 20 megabytes like we talked about so you just want to make sure that you check that before you start uploading your files like i mentioned before if your files are too large you can always use a zip folder to offer more or you can use that dropbox or google drive folder like we talked about before but i do want to hit on this section where it says add a note for buyers so if you click that you can actually add a note that will show up on the buyers digital downloads page so once they purchase your file they go to what's called a digital downloads page and this little note right here will show up so you could just put a little thank you note or you could put instructions for how they're supposed to use their item whatever you think that the buyer would need to know i think that's a really cool little option to be able to just add that note right there and then it also mentions right here the etsy intellectual property policy so it's really important for digital files to make sure that you're not using anything that's copyrighted or that could get you a strike against your shop ing to this policy so it's linked right here i would suggest you go if you're not super familiar with copyright issues go and read what the policy is just to make sure that you're not violating that even by accident so a couple extra things just to note here so one important thing is that the buyer will see the file names exactly as you have typed them out and saved them there's no way to change the file name for the buyer so they're going to see whatever you've saved it as so i would suggest that you make sure your file names are appropriate and professional and have to do with what the file actually is you also can't offer variations for digital product listings like you can for physical products so if you have variations you're going to have to list them each as a separate listing now you might be offering something sort of customized or personalized or the buyer will tell you maybe it's a birthday card so they tell you the name of the child and the age or something that you're going to have to plug in to personalize it for them a little bit so obviously they can't have this as an instant download it's going to take you whatever time you need to plug that in and then send them the final file so for any kind of custom product a great thing to do since you do have to upload at least one file to the listing for them to instantly download is to use a placeholder file so a placeholder file could be just an image that you upload that says something like thank you for purchasing your final product will be to you in a few days or whatever your time frame is or it could be instructions if there's anything the buyer needs to know or do on their behalf it could be just an image with instructions that you want to give them or it could just be an example image it could just be a picture with an example of what they've ordered so it doesn't really matter what that is it's basically just acting as a placeholder until you can send them their final purchased file all right so now you might be wondering well this is great but how do i actually create these products what programs are out there and what's the difference between all of them so i'm just going to hit on some of the most commonly used programs and software there's a ton of options out there but these are probably the most commonly used ones some are paid some are free but we're going to talk about the difference in which one you might want to start with so adobe is kind of the industry standard for both vector and raster files so for vector files you would most likely use adobe illustrator and for raster files you would most likely use adobe photoshop now both of these are paid you can get one or the other separately or you can get them both included with the adobe suite as a whole purchase so it's up to you but either way it's going to be paid i'm going to mention some free programs that are very similar to these in just a minute so stick around for that so there is some overlap between illustrator and photoshop but in general if you're looking for mostly vector images you're going to go with illustrator this is better for illustrating icons and graphic designs and logos and things like that whereas photoshop is better for editing and viewing actual photographs of course like i mentioned it's not super cut and dry there is some overlap and some people use both but that's the general idea for adobe photoshop in illustrator all right next up you have the ever popular canva which i'm sure if you've done any research you've seen people using canva this is probably the most popular easy for beginners software that you can use canva is offered free so you can definitely use it for free if you want to but there's also a paid pro version which gives you a lot more access to their stock images to their graphics and templates and just a ton of access to a lot of different things so the paid version of canvas starts at 10 a month which i think is a steal for what you get it's very intuitive very user friendly great for beginners now there's also a similar program called picmonkey and this is a paid program with a free trial picmonkey like canva has different plans and you can choose they're all paid at different prices but you can choose what you need and different file types come with the different plans now i mentioned when we were talking about adobe illustrator in photoshop that those are paid but there's kind of some free counterparts to those that are very similar so the free program that is comparable to adobe illustrator is called inkscape this is great for vector files just like illustrator is but it's completely free to use it may just have a little bit of a learning curve to it and similarly the free counterpart to photoshop is called so is for raster images so if you're using anything like a jpeg or a png anything raster based you're going to want to go with if you want a free version of something similar to photoshop next is one of my favorites which is called place it i love place it for beginners it's super easy to use because they offer templates and a starting point so you're not having to create from scratch placeit is also paid with a free trial so you can try it out before you sign up next i want to mention affinity designer which is also really popular in the world of illustrations for both vector and raster it's really neat because it offers both but it is a little bit more on the advanced side and lastly i want to mention procreate so procreate is an app for an ipad so it does require an ipad you can use an apple pencil with procreate so it's great for sketching and drawing and illustrating like i mentioned before there are a ton of other programs there may be something that i didn't mention that you've heard of and that's totally fine i just wanted to hit on some of the most commonly used programs when creating digital products i have the links for all of the programs that i mentioned in the description box below so make sure to check those out if there's one that you want to look up you can compare and contrast do your research a little bit and figure out which one would work best for you don't forget to download that free digital product starter guide especially if you're a beginner and you just need kind of a road map for where to start how to offer these products it has all the information you need click on the link in the description box below and you can just grab it instantly for free if you found this video helpful please do give it a like that really helps our channel and consider subscribing to the channel we release new videos every week about entrepreneurship selling on etsy digital products all of the things so you definitely don't want to miss any of our new videos if you're interested in digital products and you want to know what my exact process would be for starting a brand new shop this year then you can click or tap on the square on the screen right now and it'll take you over to that video where i walk you through exactly step by step what i would do if i was opening a new digital product shop on etsy bye friends