Gold City Ventures Review E-Printables Side Hustle Course: My Honest Thoughts From Taking the Course Twice

Thinking about starting an Etsy shop? This Gold City Ventures review shares valuable insights and tips for those considering investing in the course. If you’re considering starting an Etsy shop and wondering if the E-Printables Side Hustle Course by Gold City Ventures is the right fit, I’d love to share my experience.

As someone diving into digital products this year and selling specifically on Etsy, I hope this Gold City Ventures course review gives you helpful insights and tips to confidently launch your Etsy shop.

First, a little transparency: I’m an affiliate for this side hustle course, so if you decide to purchase it using my links, I’ll get a small commission that helps support my family.

Why Etsy?

There are (3) main reasons I wanted to create digital products on Etsy.

1. Passive Income Potential: Assuming products are in demand, once your digital products are listed, they can generate income with minimal ongoing effort.
2. Flexibility and Creativity: Digital products allow for experimentation with different designs, formats, and themes. If a particular product doesn’t sell well, you can tweak it or pivot your ideas without major expenses, minus your time commitment of course.
3. Global Reach: Etsy provides a platform that connects you to a worldwide audience with millions of customers. This means your digital products, whether printables, graphics, or e-books, can reach more people.

The beauty of Etsy is that it comes with a built-in audience of buyers. Unlike running a digital shop where you constantly have to drive traffic to your site, Etsy does a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

By focusing on SEO and creating high-demand products, reach a wide audience of ready-to-buy customers.

Why it took me so long to get started

Passive income has always been a big part of my online business. In 2023, I considered launching my Etsy shop when I purchased the E-Printables Side Hustle Course. I took what I learned from the course and published my first product, a “first day of school” printable on Etsy.

First mistake.

Following the Fall seasonal trend, I created a product I wasn’t passionate about. It took me hours to design, and I made no sales.

Then, life got busy, and I quickly lost motivation to keep publishing new products. I stopped pursuing Etsy and let the course sit idle.

My biggest mistake was not setting goals for my Etsy shop and not being passionate about the products I created.

Fast-forward to 2024, when I restarted the course, I focused on niches I was passionate about (and really good at): travel planning and podcasting.

Executing new ideas using my real-life experience and tapping into my expertise has made product creation 10x easier and much more fun.

So, my advice is to find niches you’re passionate about + do the keyword research :).

Helpful Tip: Align your printables with your passions and expertise.

Gold City Ventures Course Pros

This Etsy course is designed for new sellers with little to no experience. It offers step-by-step instructions on creating printables and setting up your Etsy shop.

The over-the-shoulder video tutorials, which range from 5 to 20 minutes, teach you how to set up your Etsy business from scratch. The accompanying written summaries are handy for skimming and quick reference.

Plus, there are over 30+ templates, so you can start making sales faster.

If you’re unsure what products to create, they even give you a list with plenty of options.

In this Etsy course, you will learn how to:

– make printables on Etsy

– create stand out listing images

– use keyword research to create discoverable product listings

– Optimize your shop and much more!

This course covers a lot of information, emphasizing a ‘launch and tweak’ approach that’s manageable for all skill levels — launch your shop and improve as you go.

Also, the data-focused curriculum includes essential like trends, seasonality, keyword research, and other valuable skills for establishing your online presence.

One of the things I appreciate about the course is the variety of tutorials offered for design platforms like Canva and Corjl. These tutorials cover everything from basic design principles to advanced techniques, making it easy for beginners and experienced designers to create professional-looking products and promotional graphics like mockups.

Although my biggest mental hurdle was the fear of not being a “natural” graphic designer, I learned that you don’t have to be. What matters most is not giving up. Continue putting in the reps and your skills will grow with consistent action.

Since I was already familiar with Canva, creating digital products on there has been simple and easy. I even picked up new shortcuts and hacks to speed up and improve my designs.

Next, an entire course section is dedicated to designing legally so you don’t get sued or break any laws.

Another big revelation is that you do not need to finish the course to launch your shop. I got my shops up and running the second time by completing 30% of the course. Since then, I’ve been slowly going over the remaining modules. Now that my shop(s) are launched, I regularly log in and review specific modules when I feel stuck or have an issue.

Another aspect I love is that this course is primarily video-based, allowing you to see how to do everything— although sometimes I have the audio playing in the background as I’m washing dishes or driving to the grocery store.

Since the Gold City Ventures course is self-paced, I suggest giving yourself four weeks to complete the curriculum. Remember, you can launch your shop a lot earlier.

Beyond that, lately I’ve been using the course like a quickstart reference guide, going there with a specific goal in mind. It’s funny how watching a lesson multiple times can bring out new ideas you may have missed.

Overall, this Etsy course is well-structured, straight to the point, and packed with actionable advice through instructional over-the-shoulder tutorials. It prepares you to start your Etsy journey and be ready to take the next step.

Printables Course Cons

As I mentioned, I purchased the course a few years ago, and at the time, I would run into roadblocks that the course did not cover. However, since retaking the course, Gold City Ventures has filled in the gaps by adding additional content and new done-for-you templates, making the course comprehensive and even more actionable.

I (really) appreciate that the Gold City Ventures team continues to update the course, offering greater lifetime value to their students.

If you are looking for a course that just dishes out information, keep searching. Gold City Ventures is all about taking action, even if it’s messy starting out.

This means you’ll need to invest time and effort into product creation. So, carve out time to review the course materials and implement what you learn.

In the near future, I would love to see more details on marketing your Etsy shop on platforms like Pinterest, for example, and would appreciate a set of grab-and-go templates to go along with it.

With the advancement of AI, I would like to see how Etsy sellers are using tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to improve their listings or brainstorm product ideas, as well as how to use third-party keyword research tools like EverBee to mine competitor data.

Taking the E-Printables Side Hustle Course will not make you rich overnight. But Gold City Ventures co-founders Julie and Cody break down what you need to know to build a profitable Etsy side hustle.

The Results: How the Course Helped Me (So Far)

I believe in investing in resources that help you reach your goals. I cannot imagine how much time it would have taken me to figure everything out on my own.

Since launching my (2) Etsy shops, I’ve been getting consistent views on my listings, which is very encouraging. By the way, I’m getting these views without actively promoting my shop or products. Etsy is working overtime on my behalf so we can both get paid!

Speaking of getting paid, I’m not expecting sales right away. I understand that I need to give the Etsy algorithm time to work and increase my number of listings. After I do the work, the money will come.

Although I haven’t made any sales yet (it’s been a month at the time of writing this) I know it’s only a matter of time.

Fact: Many new Etsy sellers quit too soon, so my goal is to stay persistent.

With that said, I aim to have 20 listings for each shop by the end of Q2 2025 and generate my first sale. Knowing my potential pitfalls, I’m giving myself a long enough runway and setting tangible goals I can measure and stick to.

Since taking the course, I’ve also found my groove: a production workflow and process that allows me to release new products regularly without being overwhelmed or disorganized.

Something new is always in the works!

I recommend this course if you’re eager to create digital products and sell them successfully on Etsy.

It’s packed with valuable content and can be a great stepping stone on your Etsy journey. Once you start taking the course, gain experience points by opening your shop and see what works for you.

Selling digital products on Etsy can be a profitable side hustle. With the course’s structured guidance, many students have turned their creative ideas into successful businesses. If they can do it, I know we can too!

Enroll in the course today if you are serious about launching a profitable Etsy shop.

Have more questions about the course? Get answers to frequently asked questions by watching this video here.

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