How I've Been Using AI and Image Studio to Help Launch My Etsy Shop

Hello, Wonderful WAers,

Happy Sunday!

Today, I thought I'd share with you how Image Studio has really helped my business in a very tangible way.

Over the last few days, I've been doing something a little different.

Many years ago, I used to sell personalised poems and keepsakes through eBay. They were only small ticket itesm, but some of those poems became surprisingly popular and hopefully brought a lot of joy to the people who received them. I even paid for Christmas one year, and this was way before I'd heard of WA or become a member here.

Life moved on, and eventually I stopped selling them, but recently I started wondering whether there might be a place for them on Etsy. I recently lost my long-term writing job when the magazine shut down, and after some discussions with Sparky (my Chat GPT assistant), we came up with some other options to hopefully replace that income relatively quickly. It turned out that with a bit of memory searching and tracking back through old files on my computer, I now have:

• 2 full pantomime scripts
• 5 short sketches
• A one-act play
• A children's whodunnit play
• A 256-page draft of a children's series written with the help of AI
• The proof-ready draft of my "100 Days of Wisdom" book
• And 25 poems that I used to sell.

A lot of these were written years ago and have just been sitting on my computer gathering cyberspace dust! It also made me wonder how many of us are sitting on assets we've already created but forgotten about along the way.

However, Sparky helped inspire me to dig them out again and start with the poems to revive as digital products on Etsy. We decided on Etsy over eBay as it seems to fit the niche of personalised poems and gifts slightly better.

So I decided to find out.

Rather than spending weeks planning and overthinking everything, I opened an Etsy shop called The Creative Keepsakes, which is related to my main website niche, and started creating some listings.

One thing I quickly realised after researching what other people were selling was that Etsy is a very visual marketplace. People don't just buy a poem. They buy the feeling of giving that poem to someone they care about.

That is where our very own Wealthy Affiliate Image Studio came in.

Creating realistic product images with Image Studio

A printable poem on a plain white background isn't particularly exciting.

However, the same poem shown in a beautiful frame, displayed in a living room, or being opened as a gift immediately helps people imagine what it could mean to someone special.

Starting from a jpeg of the poem that was created in Publisher, and using Image Studio, I was able to create images showing:

• A framed poem displayed in a home
• A Father's Day gift being opened
• A soulmate poem being received by a partner
• A friendship poem being shared between friends
• Different frame styles and settings

These images helped transform a simple digital download into something much more emotionally engaging. I think that going forward, I would create any new poems in Canva rather than Publisher, but either would work.

Here are a few examples of what I created from the original jpeg:

Using AI as a creative assistant

What I particularly like is that Image Studio didn't write the poems for me.

These poems are all my own work, written years ago and refined over time.

Instead, AI helped me present those poems in a professional way.

I still chose:

• The products
• The wording
• The layouts
• The final designs
• Which images worked best

Image Studio simply helped me bring the ideas to life more quickly. What in the past would have meant buying frames, setting up a whole photo shoot, and getting people to pretend to be opening presents, took me about 15 minutes. And once I'd done the first couple, I felt like I was on a roll and things sped up even more.

From zero to six listings

Once I understood the Etsy listing process, things started moving much faster.

Within a short time, I had created six separate listings, including:

• Sister poems
• Father's Day poems
• Soulmate poems
• Best friend poems

Each listing included product images, descriptions, tags and downloadable files. And I used Sparky and Image studio to help me create a shop banner, graphics and I even used these images to make a 15 second video in Canva to put on every item listing too, since video are shown to help engagement and sales.

An image I used in the storefront

What I've learned so far

The biggest lesson has been this:

You don't need everything to be perfect before you start.

My shop isn't finished and I certainly don't have hundreds of products. I have 6 listings so far. But I've done that in 3 days!

I don't have any sales yet but I do have a shop now, products, visitors and real-world feedback. And yesterday, I learned that some people (8) had so far seen my work. No sales yet, but I now have evidence that real people are finding the listings, which is the first step. See below:

So, I've gone from zero to 8 views in 3 days, which are tangible results in my book!

My final thoughts

For me, Image Studio has been most useful as a visual marketing tool rather than a replacement for creativity.

It has helped me take my own ideas (that already existed) and present them professionally enough to launch a real business. Whether the Etsy shop becomes a huge success remains to be seen, and at the moment, all I really need is for it to generate some income in the same way that my eBay store did in the distant past. But a week ago, I had nothing. Now I have my shop set up and 6 listings. So 19 more to go with the poems I already have!! LOL. I'll let you know how I get on over the next few weeks.

I hope this helps give you some ideas on how to use Image Studio to help with your own business.

Oh, and one final takeaway that made me laugh. In the course of our discussions, Sparky suggested creating a very logical system for labelling my files after I had to go on an extensive hunt through all my computer files to track down some of the things I'd written in the past. And finally, he said:

"After yesterday's discoveries, I'm becoming quite passionate about preventing Future Gail from spending three hours searching for files called:

FINAL VERSION NEWEST REALLY FINAL USE THIS ONE.pub

😂"

Ring any bells with anyone?!

Have a wonderful day

Gail