If you’re wondering how to make money selling products on Etsy, here’s exactly how I got started with my latest Etsy shop that brought in over 1,300 orders—and how you can, too.

The truth is, I started selling stickers on Etsy totally by accident in early 2020. One day, I was recording a tutorial about how to promote your Etsy shop using SEO. As part of the video, I used a keyword research tool to show how to find good keywords worth targeting—and then I stumbled onto something kind of wild.

I saw there was a huge demand for Instagram stickers—like, around 6,000 searches a month. That’s a lot. But when I looked at the shops selling this type of product, the competition was super low and the options were honestly pretty limited. Right then I thought, wait… I think I’m on to something.

It felt like the perfect opportunity to make money with a digital product. I already had experience selling jewelry on Etsy, and I knew I didn’t want to deal with shipping again. Digital stickers? Dream product. No inventory, no post office runs, and tons of demand.

With barely any competition and thousands of people searching for it, I couldn’t ignore it—so I opened up a shop and got to work.

And here is a screenshot of my Etsy shop:

Urban Mamaz Etsy Shop

My Etsy Shop

Sales Came So Quickly!

Just one week after publishing my first pack of stickers, I got my first sale—and I was so excited! I had worked really hard on it and started uploading a new sticker pack almost every day. Within my first four months of selling, I hit over 340 sales. Here’s a screenshot:

orders Etsy

Etsy

How Did I Know What Products to Create?

I used a keyword research tool to figure out exactly what people were searching for. I started by typing in “Instagram stickers” and “Instagram highlight covers”, and within seconds, I had a full list of the specific types of stickers people were actively looking for. So I used that list as my starting point.

Check this out:

ahrefs keyword research

ahrefs keyword research

What Are Instagram Highlight Covers and Stickers, Anyway?

Instagram highlight covers (or highlight icons) are image files you use to customize the covers of your Instagram story highlights—the little circles that sit right under your bio. They can be PNGs with transparent backgrounds or regular JPEGs, and you can upload as many as you want.

Normally, if you don’t set a custom cover, Instagram just shows a random frame from one of the stories in that highlight—which usually looks messy. So people started looking for aesthetic, branded covers to make their profiles look clean and cohesive.

Instagram stickers, on the other hand, are PNG files people add to their Instagram stories to make them more personalized and unique. They’re like little design elements—think doodles, handwritten words, cute icons—that users can drag onto their stories to match their vibe or brand.

Honestly, I didn’t think anyone would actually pay for this stuff. But they do. And it works.

What Helped Me Boost Sales?

I did a few key things that really helped increase my sales.

First, I invested time in my product cover images. I knew they had to be attractive, feminine, dreamy, aesthetic, and eye-catching—so I created multiple cover images for each listing to make them stand out.

I also made sure every product had a detailed description and used up all the available tags. Then I optimized my entire Etsy shop for SEO. How? By using every single keyword I found during my research—placing them in titles, product descriptions, tags, shop sections, my About page… literally everywhere I could.

On top of that, I always responded quickly to customer messages, and maybe the most important move—I started promoting my shop outside of Etsy. If you need more tips on how to boost sales, I wrote an amazing article exactly about that – read what are the tips that doubled my Etsy sales here.

How Did I Promote My Shop?

If you’ve been selling on Etsy for a while, you already know that just publishing products and waiting for someone to find them doesn’t work. You need to actively market your shop.

In addition to regularly posting new products (which also helps because Etsy favors fresh listings), I focused heavily on driving traffic through .

My strategy was super simple: every time I published a new product, the first thing I did was pin all the product images to my account. I created a separate account just for my shop. Then I designed extra pins with different layouts and posted those too.

I pinned daily, created boards using the keywords from my research, and made sure every board and pin was SEO-friendly. I optimized everything—titles, descriptions, board names—and over time, it worked.

Within a few months, my efforts helped bring in over 30K visitors to my shop—and yep, that boost in traffic definitely translated to more sales. Want to learn more about my strategy? Check my guide here.

Was It Just the 2020 Luck?

2020 was a weird and unique time. We were in the middle of a global pandemic, people were stuck at home, and online shopping was booming. A lot of brands—even small shops—had their best year ever. So yes, timing played a big role. Demand was high, competition was low, and digital products were flying off the (virtual) shelves.

But let me be clear—the point here isn’t about convincing you to start selling Instagram stickers. You totally can if you want, but the bigger takeaway here is the strategy. It’s about learning how to spot trends early, figure out what people are actually searching for using the keyword research tools, and use that info to create products that sell. Whether it’s stickers, templates, or something completely different, this same method still works today—you can easily copy it to your own products niche. I use this strategy and SEO for years, and this it a great tool that helps me understand my audience.

What Was Next?

A couple of months after I started promoting my shop, I stopped creating new products and moved on to my next project. Etsy isn’t my core business, but it was such a fun experience—and now I get to share it with my readers.

That little Etsy shop actually helped me build my freebie library, where I now share planners, printables, and other downloads that continue to grow my email list. And through that list, I share my best tips and strategies for making money online—whether it’s through an Etsy shop or by starting your own blog (Check out my income report on how I made over $23k in a single month).

If you want more insights like this, real-life examples, and success stories from other Etsy sellers, make sure to subscribe to my email list.

Want to give Instagram stickers or highlight covers a try—or just make a few cute designs for your own IG account? Here’s a quick guide I put together for you:

How to Make Instagram Highlight Covers on Canva?

Want to design your own covers—or even sell them? I used Adobe Photoshop to create my own stickers, but for anyone just starting out, Canva is a much easier and more beginner-friendly option.

I even made a quick video tutorial showing how to create Instagram highlight covers using Canva—it’s simple, fun, and you don’t need any design experience.

Canva is a free app that works on both mobile and desktop, so you can create from anywhere.

Follow these steps and watch the video to learn how to make your own Instagram highlight covers:

Download Canva to your mobile or click here to enter Canva website.

Choose the option of creating your own design to start a blank page by clicking “Create a design” and then “Custom size”.

Make sure the size of the page you created is at list 600px X 600px to assure high-quality cover. If the cover will be too small it may look pixelated. If the file is too large, Instagram will optimize its size when you upload the file to their system.

Create a circle by adding a circle element from the elements category.

Add custom text, stickers, or elements.

Make sure to watch the video on how to make Instagram highlight covers using Canva

More Instagram Highlight Covers Ideas

There are so many beautiful Instagram highlight cover ideas! Here is a list of a few ideas that you can make:

Floral Instagram highlight covers

Tropical Instagram story covers

Solid color Instagram highlight covers

Illustrated Instagram highlight covers (you can use ready to use illustrated stickers on Canva)

Text Instagram highlights – Category titles (handwritten font or capital letters)

Marble Instagram highlight covers (add a marble background image to your cover)

Black or white Instagram highlight covers

Lettering Instagram highlight covers (you can add one letter to each highlight cover and create a set of highlights that will display your name or a message).

More Instagram Highlight Makers Worth Checking

Besides Canva, Adobe and Procreate, there are many other apps and websites which you can use to make your own Instagram highlight covers. I have gathered a list of options that are definitely worth checking!

Instagram Highlight Makers

Crello

Pic Monkey

Place It

How to Upload Instagram Highlight Covers to Your Profile?

Now that your Instagram highlight covers are ready, it is time to add them to your highlights! So exciting!

Follow these steps to upload your Instagram highlight covers:

Transfer your highlights to your mobile gallery (you can do that by sending them to your email).

Open your Instagram file, click add highlight, located under the bio section in your profile.

Click “Edit Highlight”.

Click “Edit Cover”.

Click on the image icon located at the beginning of the list.

Select the cover that you created from your camera roll/image gallery.

Click Save!

Final Thoughts,

Selling Instagram stickers and highlight covers on Etsy was never part of my “big plan”—but it turned into an unexpectedly fun and profitable little side hustle. The real win? I learned how to spot trends, test ideas fast, and use keyword research to create products people actually want.

You don’t need to be a graphic designer, and you don’t need to go all in. But if you’re curious about selling digital products or growing your income online, this is a great way to start.

If you want more behind-the-scenes tips, real examples, and step-by-step strategies like this, make sure you’re on my email list. I share the good stuff there. 😉

Now go make something awesome—and maybe even turn it into cash.