A budget spreadsheet is relevant to everyone and are always in demand, but more so in January when people resolve to sort out their finances after the holiday season.
There is great opportunity with this particular passive income stream as there is a variety of spreadsheets that can be created – Googlesheets or Excel, paycheck budget or annual accounts and then there are niches to explore. Spreadsheets aimed at specific groups of people will sell for a higher price. By targeting a specific group, the customer has no doubt that your product is the one for them. How many people are creating a budget spreadsheet for side hustlers? or maybe co-parents that are sharing financial responsibility? or for senior citizens who need to track their investments? The possibilities are endless!
Is there a demand for Budget Spreadsheets?
Erank shows that there are an average of 7260 searches on Etsy in the USA every month for the term Budget Spreadsheet. Google searches are at an average of 14,773 per month for the period January 2023-January 2024.
The click through rate on this keyword phrase on Etsy is showing at 100%
On the first page of an Etsy search for Budget Spreadsheet, 33 out of 64 are showing a bestseller tag, meaning those listings are selling. My own bestseller tagged items are selling every day.
Selling Points for A Budget Spreadsheet
When promoting your templates for sale, consider what will persuade your customer to buy:
- Auto calculating sheets
- Graphs which are auto generating
- Step by step instructions included
- Customer support
- Niche spreadsheets such as co-parenting budgets
- Debt repayment tracking
- Printability
How to Create A Budget Spreadsheet
Create your spreadsheet with Excel as it has the highest functionality. Many of your customers will have the Microsoft Office suite, so will be happy to buy.
Layout your spreadsheet on paper to see what you need to include then start to build your spreadsheet and add the auto calculations and graphs.
To sell the spreadsheet on Etsy, you are selling the actual spreadsheet which will automatically download everytime a buyer purchases.
If you wish to offer a Googlesheets option, you can convert the file, then use the share template option in Googlesheets so that your original template remains untouched.
Niches With High Potential
I have used Erank and the Etsy search bar (the bar at the top of the Etsy homepage) to research what long tail keywords have a high search level AND low levels of competition. As of January 2024 these are:
- Budget Spreadsheet Excel
- Monthly Budget Spreadsheet
- Budget Spreadsheet
- Paycheck Budget Spreadsheet
- Wedding Budget Spreadsheet
- Bookkeeping Spreadsheet
- Business Spreadsheet
For this particular product, check out the competition on Etsy to make sure your product is as aesthetically pleasing. A point to set you apart from competitors may be a step by step instruction sheet. To find popular niches, consider the time of year, a Christmas Prep spreadsheet would be popular around September and a Wedding Budget Spreadsheet would be popular after Valentine’s Day. A Baby Budget Planner would also be popular around the end of January, ready for the booming birth month of September. Holiday Budget Planners for those huge holidays to the Florida Parks could be popular all year round and consider peak holiday seasons – spring break in the US and July and August in the UK. Don’t restrict yourself to your home country – a digital empire is worldwide!
Profitability
Etsy can be a cutthroat marketplace, particularly with the onset of AI generated products. Taking the search term of Budget Spreadsheet, 33 out of 64 listings have a Bestseller tag, therefore are selling regularly. (searched 12th January 2024)
The average price of the 33 bestsellers on the page is £5.78
The lowest price item is £1.03
The highest price item is £21.26
Selling on Etsy does incur fees which are deducted from your payouts. Current Etsy fees can be found here.
Next Steps
- Set up an Etsy seller account
- Research a high search, low competition long tail keyword using the Etsy search bar and the first page search results (scroll down to the bottom see what keywords people are searching)
- Decide on a Niche Spreadsheet based on your keyword research
- Design Your Spreadsheet
- List your Item on Etsy