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How to Sell Google Sheets on Etsy

Blog posts may contain affiliate links. If you choose to purchase a product, or service, through my affiliate link I may receive a small commission which helps me grow Babe on a Budget! My full affiliate disclosure policy can be found here.

I opened my first Etsy shop in April of 2020 with the intention of selling Google Sheets. After creating a couple of products that I was excited to share I went to Etsy to list them. The problem? I had no idea how to.

If you’ve ever tried to sell a digital product on Etsy you’ll know that Etsy requires you to upload a file when you list a digital product for sale-- but, I didn’t have a file, I only had the links to my Google Sheets.

Confused, I searched the internet for answers and while I found a couple of solutions they seemed overly complicated, and frankly a lot more work than I was willing to put into selling $5 spreadsheets.

After about a week of searching, I finally caved and purchased another seller’s Google Sheet to figure out how they did it.

While this solution may seem obvious to some, it certainly wasn't obvious to me.

While this solution may seem obvious to some,I can’t even tell you how many people have asked me how I’m selling Google Sheets on Etsy.

So I thought I’d make a post about it!

1. Create Your Google Sheet

Need some more ideas? Here’s a couple of the Google Sheets that I sell.

2. Create a Sharable Link

Once you’ve created your Google Sheet the next thing you need to do is create your sharable link.

  1. Click the ‘share’ button in the upper right hand corner of your Google Sheet.
  1. Once you click ‘share’ you’ll see a box that says “Get a Link” and what looks like a hyperlink that says “change to anyone with the link” click on that.
  1. To the right you’ll see a drop-down menu with the options “viewer”, “commenter”, “editor.” You’ll want to select “viewer” to ensure that your customers aren’t able to edit your master sheet.
  1. Then click “copy link”

3. Edit your Sharable Link

Next, you need to edit your link (trust me--this is a game-changer.)

  1. Once you’ve got your sharable link you’re going to want to paste it somewhere; you can paste it directly into the search bar, or open a second google/word doc and paste it there.
  2. Next, change the word ‘edit’ in the URL to ‘copy’:

Google Sheet URL Sample

Doing this will force your customers to make a copy of the Google Sheet that they’ll be able to edit and will prevent them from editing the master.

When I first started selling Google Sheets I wasn’t using this trick and, despite having very clear directions, I would get messages and emails almost weekly from people saying that they didn’t know how to edit their sheet.

Implementing this hack has not only saved me tons of time but it’s made my customer experience much smoother, as well.

4. Add your Sharable Link to a Document and Download as a PDF

One you’ve got your edited link you’re going to want to add that link to a google/word doc.

This is what will ultimately be sent to your customers when they make a purchase so you may want to add a thank you note, additional directions, or branding.

For reference, here’s what mine looks like:

PDF I Send to my Etsy Customers


Once you’ve done that download the document as a PDF and upload it to Etsy!

Happy selling!



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