I earn $9,500 a month selling printables I make on Canva. Here's how I scaled my Etsy store while on maternity leave.

• Rachel Jimenez makes $9,500 a month on average selling printable planners and seasonal templates.
• She comes up with ideas for digital products by using Facebook groups and Google Trends.

I was listening to the "FIRE Drill" podcast one day in 2019, and the host mentioned she was launching two courses about blogging and setting up an Etsy store to sell printables. I'd always wanted to start a blog, but selling printables sounded interesting too. So after some deliberation, I decided to invest in both courses.

Two months later, I started my blog, Money Hacking Mama. Shortly after that, I began selling digital products like planners, games, and marketing templates.

I was working full time as the director of alumni engagement at a university and going to school to study positive psychology, and I had a baby, so I did this side hustle for fun in my spare time, usually while I was getting ready for work. Eventually, work got busy, so blogging and running my Etsy store went on the back burner.

When I refocused on my Etsy store a few years later, I grew my average sales to about $9,500 a month. Here's how I did it.

While I was on maternity leave with my 2nd child, I decided to go all in on my side hustle

I was struggling with postpartum depression and felt lost. I remembered having big goals and dreams in the past — like wanting to have my own business, increase my income, and be my own boss — and I was upset with myself for abandoning them.

I also felt overwhelmed. It had taken a lot of time and work to start my blog and build a social-media following, and none of my actions were leading to profits.

My Etsy store, however, was consistently bringing in about $50 a month, even though I'd basically ignored it for a year. I became determined to grow it into something sustainable, and I left my job at the university in June 2021.

With an understanding of how powerful my thoughts were, I shifted from 'I'm not good enough' to 'I can figure this out'

With this new growth mindset, I focused on learning and testing new ideas and decided I wouldn't give up until I figured it out.

When I saw someone doing well with online marketing or an Etsy store, instead of being jealous I'd ask myself, "What can I learn from them?" Then I'd study their strategies, devour any podcasts or blog posts they created, and put their tips and recommendations to the test. For example, I've noticed that some sellers mark their product up from their competitors to increase the perceived value and then mark it down substantially — like by 70% — so the buyer gets the sense they're getting a better deal.

When something didn't work for me, I'd try to get helpful data out of my failures. I'd look at the data in my shop and ask myself questions like, "Is this a marketing problem or a product problem?" I'd know it was a marketing problem if my product had a high conversion rate but wasn't getting many views. On the other hand, if my product was getting a lot of views but had low conversions, I'd know something was probably off with the product or pricing.

As I consistently learned and tested, my sales went from about $42 a month in June 2020 to $691 in July and then up to $4,511 in August. By December 2020, my sales were up to $14,842.

Customers value digital products because they can be reused

A digital product can be a PDF, a JPEG image, or even an Excel spreadsheet that you make once and profit from forever. When a customer buys the product, it's shipped via email, so earning money is fast, easy, and passive.

I use Canva to design most of my digital products and my listing images. I've seen other creators use Keynote, PowerPoint, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Some creators become experts in software like Notion, OneNote, or Excel and then successfully sell templates for people to use.

Once you create your item, you have to create the listing images to post on Etsy. I make new graphics to depict the product in a clear, concise, and appealing way that captures the user's attention. You can have the best product in the world, but if your target customer scrolls past it because the listing image is bad, your store won't thrive. A good listing image should be professional and use colors and fonts that are easy to see and read.

Customer-first thinking shifted my creative process

Now, rather than making what I want, I ask myself, "What do customers want and need?" I learned that there are clues all around me if I pay attention in Facebook groups and online forums, notice what's trending in stores, and use free tools like Google Trends and Pinterest Trends. Paid tools like eRank are helpful to see what people are searching for and which problems they're looking for solutions to.

Once I started using my skills to help others solve problems and fulfill their needs, sales started to come in. I've helped busy parents make holidays more magical with scavenger hunts. I've helped employers make virtual holiday parties fun with virtual games. I've helped business owners market their businesses with flyer templates. I've even helped couples turn up the romance with date ideas.

You'll thrive on Etsy if you manage your time and mindset and focus on continual learning

The number of Etsy sellers has grown significantly, but the number of customers is also growing. Tomorrow's best-selling item may relate to a trend or product that hasn't been created yet.

It took me more than nine months to make my first 100 sales on Etsy. Now I can make that many sales in as little as a day. But I would never have been able to say that if I'd given up when my sales were small and I was still learning.