6 Things to Sell on Etsy If You’re Not Crafty
Many people are looking for “side-hustles” or additional ways to earn income outside of a traditional 9-5 job. Side hustles can be great because they can be completed whenever you have extra time. Another reason that people love side hustles is that you can be your own boss. One of the most popular ways to earn extra income is to turn your hobby into income by selling things you have made. Before the internet, you’d need to travel to craft markets and other marketplaces to sell your wares. However, with the rise of Etsy, everyone can sell (nearly) anything online from the comfort of their own home. While Etsy is often synonymous with jewelry and upcycled jeans, it’s possible to make money with Etsy even if you’re not crafty.
If you’re looking to get into the Etsy game and sell your unique goods online, you might be wondering what non-craft items you might sell in your Etsy store. Your options are endless – here are a few ideas to get you started. ~Amy from Early Morning Money
In this article, Amy from Early Morning Money highlights some ways to make money on Etsy even if you weren’t born with the crafty gene. One of the easiest ways to make money on Etsy is to sell “printables”, or templates that someone could download and print. Unlike jewelry, where you need to continually make new items to sell, a printable only needs to be created once and then can be sold many times. This is the true “passive income” gold that many side-hustlers are after. Similar to printables, you could develop website templates or logos for people’s websites. Some of these potential sales avenues may overlap with Fiverr, so you may want to test which marketplace has the most buyers and where you can get the most money for your services.
Digital Nomad House Sitters and the Global COVID-19 Pandemic
If you regularly read these roundup posts, you’ll recognize Shannon and Sergio from Screw The Average. They are digital nomads who live on $7,000 a year by perpetually house-sitting. This nomadic lifestyle involves lots of travel and they carry all of their possessions around with them in a single backpack. With no home-base to fall back on, they’ve had a very interesting pandemic experience, which they share in this article.
In normal times we live a pretty unique life as digital nomads and full time house sitters. However, now that life as most of the world knows it has changed because of COVID-19, our lifestyle is being put to the test. ~Screw the Average
Shannon and Sergio start by acknowledging that they have been pretty lucky during the pandemic. They’ve both stayed healthy and have had places to stay. The article details some of their flights and travel during the pandemic. Shannon was in Ireland when the pandemic broke out. There were rumors of the US potentially closing its borders and she had to fly home on a flight full of people worried about getting back home while they still could. Their first few long term house sitting gigs were not cancelled and that got them through the first several months of the pandemic. However, as the summer dragged on, more and more people were cancelling their plans and staying home. Currently, Shannon and Sergio have been able to find places to stay. They attribute their good fortune to lots of 5-star reviews and the efforts they go through to demonstrate they are excellent house sitters.
10 Things to Buy at Dollar Stores (and 5 Things to Avoid)
As the name implies, dollar stores sell (many) items for a buck. While the shopping experience inside of a dollar store may not be as nice as shopping in a traditional store, they can be a great way to save money. If you haven’t been to a dollar store in a while, it can be hard to figure out where the best values are. Should you buy an item that’s much cheaper than you could buy it in another store? That depends on how long you want it to last. In this article, Wendi at The Budgeting Couple breaks down what to buy at dollar stores and what to avoid.
In dollar stores, you can find almost anything you want. The quality of what you get at the dollar store is the same or very similar to what you would get anywhere else. ~Wendi at The Budgeting Couple
It’s no secret that dollar store items are not high quality. (How else could they sell them for a dollar?) Therefore, dollar stores are great places to buy things that are disposable. Think gift wrap. You’re only going to use it for about 30 seconds as you tear the paper off of the package. Similarly, most greeting cards get thrown away (or recycled) shortly after they are opened. Name-brand cards sometimes cost as much as $5, whereas you can sometimes get them as cheaply for 50 cents each at dollar stores. Wendi explains that this same reasoning can be applied to what you should avoid buying at dollar stores. Electronic items frequently break shortly after they’re purchased. For the full list of dollar store do’s and don’ts, check out the article.