5 Etsy Side Hustles For Passive Income In 2024

If you’re aiming to increase your earnings while engaged in a demanding job, you should consider strategies that focus on working smarter rather than harder. Passive income, unlike active engagement through job promotions or roles like consulting or coaching, allows you to earn more with minimal ongoing effort. Passive income streams do not require continuous presence or active delivery of services or products. Instead, you can establish a system and automate it, ensuring it generates income continuously—whether you are asleep, on holiday, engaged in your primary job, or busy with other responsibilities.

Many searching for side hustles or passive income opportunities have repeatedly come across Etsy as a top recommendation. Etsy offers a platform where you can profit from your creativity. Established nearly two decades ago, it serves as a marketplace for creators to sell handcrafted items, vintage goods, and unique craft and art products, including home décor, jewelry, custom prints, and event-specific supplies like wedding or party essentials and personalized gifts.

Using Etsy is straightforward—the process of setting up a seller account and profile is quick and easy, offering a user-friendly experience with minimal stress. Importantly, you don’t need to be traditionally creative to succeed on Etsy. Even non-creatives can generate income by selling their expertise through customizable templates and how-to guides.  

1. Art Patterns And Templates

Out of many items, Etsy is perhaps most well-known for the plethora of art products available. Many customers come to the platform in search of art kits, patterns, and templates, for hobbies and to grow their own businesses.

While art kits may not be the most passive idea since this will require preparation and sorting on your part to fulfill every order, you can still sell art patterns, tutorials, and templates digitally, with instructions. This only requires one-time creation, while the orders flow in.

2. How-To Guides

If you have years of experience in an industry, you can leverage this expertise to build passive income on Etsy. For example, if you have worked within construction, you could create how-to guides on various aspects of the construction industry, tips for launching a career within construction, and even checklists.

3. Printable Art

This is one of the easiest ways to earn passive income on Etsy. Printable art, which customers can download and use for wall art or greeting cards is currently trending high on Etsy.

4. Recipe Collections

Love cooking or baking? You can turn this hobby into passive income by sharing your juicy kitchen secrets in PDF recipe collections or mini e-books and selling these as digital products on Etsy.

5. Photography

If you're an avid photographer, you might want to consider selling your photographs as digital downloads that customers can print for display in their homes and offices. Your high-quality prints can be sold in various formats and sizes for convenience.

Checklists, planners, and how-to guides sell well on Etsy due to high demand

GETTY

These ideas allow you to tap into various markets and niches, explore your interests, and make your experience and skills work for you, while working full-time.