I’ll be honest with you. Six months ago, if someone had told me I’d be able to earn money selling colouring books online, I’d have laughed. Me? The person who can barely draw a stick figure?
But here’s the thing about 2025 that’s absolutely brilliant: you don’t need to be artistic to create beautiful, sellable art anymore. AI has completely changed the game, and I’m not just talking about fancy tech stuff that’s over your head. I’m talking about tools so simple that I created my first colouring book page during my lunch break.
If you’re looking for a way to add some extra income to your life without the hassle of complicated business models or showing your face online, this might just be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
Why I Wish I’d Discovered This Income Stream Sooner
Let me paint you a picture. You know that feeling when you’ve finished all your work for the day but still have hours left on the clock? Or those weekends when you’re scrolling through social media, thinking “I should be doing something more productive with this time”?
That was me for months. I knew I wanted more financial security, but every side hustle I looked into seemed to require skills I didn’t have or time I couldn’t commit to consistently.
The reality is that most of us need multiple income streams these days. Your job might be secure now, but wouldn’t it feel amazing to know you had money coming in from something completely separate? Something that worked whether you were at your desk, on holiday, or even sleeping?
When I discovered how to sell colouring books on Etsy using AI, everything clicked. This wasn’t just another get-rich-quick scheme. It was a genuine way to create something people actually wanted to buy, using skills I already had (like typing prompts and following simple steps).
What Makes Colouring Books Such a Brilliant Side Hustle
There’s something almost magical about discovering a business model that ticks every box you didn’t even know you had. When I first started researching this, I was sceptical. Surely something this straightforward couldn’t actually work? But the more I dug into it, the more I realised I’d stumbled onto something genuinely special.
The Market is Huge (Adults + Kids + Homeschoolers)
Here’s something that might surprise you: colouring isn’t just for children anymore. Adult colouring books have exploded in popularity as a form of stress relief. Think about it. When was the last time you saw someone on the train mindlessly scrolling their phone versus someone quietly colouring in a book? There’s been a massive shift toward activities that actually calm the mind rather than overstimulate it.
Parents working from home need quiet activities for their kids during video calls. Homeschooling families are constantly looking for new educational materials that don’t feel like traditional schoolwork. Elderly people use them for cognitive stimulation. Therapists incorporate them into treatment plans.
I’ve sold colouring pages to busy mums, stressed university students, elderly people in care homes, and even therapists who use them in their practice. The market is genuinely enormous, and it’s not going anywhere.
Zero Inventory or Shipping Hassles
This is where it gets really good. When you sell colouring books on Etsy as digital downloads, you’re not printing anything yourself. You’re not packaging orders or queueing at the post office. You’re not dealing with damaged items or lost parcels. You’re not calculating shipping costs or worrying about international postage rates.
Your customers buy the file, download it instantly, and print it themselves at home. You wake up to sales notifications without having lifted a finger after uploading the product.
You create it once, and it can sell forever. That’s proper passive income right there.
Complete Anonymity if You Want It
Maybe you’re like me and prefer to keep your side hustle private. Perhaps you work in a conservative industry where side businesses are frowned upon. Or maybe you just value your privacy and don’t want your personal life mixed up with your business ventures.
With digital colouring books, you can operate under a business name or pen name. No one at work needs to know what you’re up to. Your face never appears anywhere. Your real name doesn’t have to be attached to anything. It’s completely anonymous if that’s how you prefer it.
Why AI Changes Everything for Colouring Book Creation
I remember sitting in an art class at school, watching classmates effortlessly sketch beautiful drawings whilst I struggled to make my attempt look like anything recognisable. For years, I believed creativity was something you either had or you didn’t. AI has completely shattered that limiting belief.
No Artistic Skills Required
I cannot stress this enough: you do not need to be able to draw. At all. I’m talking about people who struggle to draw a decent circle with a compass. People whose stick figures look wonky. People who’ve never picked up a pencil for anything other than writing shopping lists.
AI image generators like ChatGPT’s DALL-E, Midjourney, or even free options can create professional-quality line art in seconds. The kind of artwork that would take a skilled illustrator hours to complete can be generated faster than you can make a cup of tea.
You just need to know how to write a good prompt. And honestly? That’s much easier than learning to draw.
Speed of Creation vs Traditional Methods
A traditional artist might spend hours or even days creating a single colouring page. They need to sketch, refine, ink, scan, and digitally clean up their work. With AI, I can generate ten different options in about fifteen minutes. Once you’ve got your prompts figured out, you can batch create content incredibly quickly.
This means you can build up a substantial catalogue of products in your spare time, even if you only have twenty-minute windows here and there. I’ve created entire themed collections during lunch breaks.
Consistent Quality Every Time
One of the biggest advantages of AI is consistency. Every image comes out crisp, clean, and professional-looking. You’re not having off days where your drawing skills aren’t up to scratch. You’re not dealing with smudged ink or wobbly lines that you’d need to redraw.
The quality remains high whether it’s your first creation or your hundredth. This means your customers get the same professional standard every time they purchase from you.
Step-by-Step: How to Create Your First Colouring Book
Right, let’s get practical. I’m going to walk you through exactly how I created my first colouring book page, from the initial idea to having a product ready to sell. This took me about an hour when I was starting out, but now I can do it in about fifteen minutes.
Choosing Your AI Image Generator
You’ve got several options here, and you don’t need to spend a fortune to get started. I tested a few of them.
ChatGPT Plus (around £16/month): Includes DALL-E image generation. This is what I started with because the conversational interface made it easy to refine my requests. You can literally chat with it about what you want, and it understands context brilliantly.
Midjourney (around £8/month): Produces incredibly detailed images with an almost artistic flair. There’s a bit more of a learning curve, but the results are often stunning.
Free options: Bing Image Creator and others offer limited free generations to test the waters. Perfect if you want to try before you commit to any paid subscriptions. I haven’t tried any free ones but I know other people have used them.
I started with ChatGPT because I was already using it for other things, and the conversational interface made it easy to tweak my requests until I got exactly what I wanted.
Writing Prompts That Work
This is where the magic happens, and it’s honestly much simpler than you might think. For colouring books, you want to request “black and white line art” or “colouring book style.” The AI needs to understand that you want clean outlines without any shading or colour.
Here are some prompts that work brilliantly:
- “Create a black and white line drawing of a cute puppy playing in a garden, suitable for a children’s colouring book”
- “Generate a detailed mandala pattern in black and white line art style for adult colouring”
- “Design a simple line art illustration of woodland animals having a tea party for a colouring page”
The key is being specific about the style (line art, black and white) and the audience (children’s, adult, simple, detailed). Don’t be afraid to be very descriptive about what you want.
To give you a better idea of what’s possible, here are some examples of pages I’ve created using these exact techniques. Note these items are not my shop items, they are just examples:
For Adults: I generated an intricate botanical illustration featuring intertwining roses, peonies, and eucalyptus leaves using the prompt “Create a detailed black and white line art illustration of vintage botanical garden scene with climbing roses, large peonies, and delicate eucalyptus branches, suitable for adult colouring book, intricate details, no shading.” This became one of my best-sellers at £3 per download.
For Children (but elevated): Rather than basic cartoon animals, I created “Draw a whimsical fairy village scene with mushroom houses, tiny doors, winding pathways, and garden details, black and white line art suitable for children aged 8-12, detailed but not overwhelming.” It appeals to both children and adults who enjoy fantasy themes.
Seasonal Bestseller: For Christmas, “Design an elegant Victorian Christmas scene with ornate fireplace, detailed stockings, wrapped presents with elaborate bows, garland with intricate leaves, black and white line art for adult colouring” has brought in consistent sales from October through January.
The difference between these and basic colouring pages is in the prompt detail and the target audience. Adults want complexity and beauty. Children want engaging scenes they can imagine themselves in. Both want something that feels special, not like something knocked together in two minutes.
Converting Images to Print-Ready Files
Once you’ve got your AI-generated image, you’ll need to make sure it’s the right format and resolution for printing. This sounds technical, but it’s honestly quite straightforward once you know what you’re doing.
Most customers expect PDF format for easy printing, high resolution (300 DPI minimum), and standard paper sizes (A4 in the UK). You can use free tools like Canva to adjust sizing and convert formats.
Don’t let the technical stuff put you off. I watched one YouTube tutorial and figured out everything I needed to know in about ten minutes.
Setting Up Your Etsy Shop for Success
When I first looked at Etsy, I was intimidated. All these professional-looking shops with hundreds of products and thousands of sales. How could I possibly compete? The truth is, everyone starts somewhere, and Etsy actually makes it quite easy for beginners.
Shop Setup Essentials
Setting up an Etsy shop is surprisingly straightforward, and they’ve made the process much more beginner-friendly over the years. You’ll need a shop name (this can be your business name, not your personal name), a simple banner and logo (AI can help with these too!), shop policies (Etsy provides templates), and payment setup.
The whole process takes about an hour, and Etsy walks you through each step with helpful explanations. They’ve got a vested interest in your success, so they make it as easy as possible.
Writing Descriptions That Sell
Your product descriptions are your sales team. They need to work whilst you’re sleeping, convincing strangers to buy from you based purely on what you’ve written.
I use this format that’s worked consistently well:
What it is: “Printable colouring page featuring adorable farm animals” What’s included: “1 PDF file, A4 size, high resolution” Who it’s for: “Perfect for children aged 4-8 or anyone who loves cute animals” How to use it: “Simply download, print at home, and start colouring!”
Always mention that it’s an instant download and explain how printing works. You’d be surprised how many people aren’t familiar with digital downloads.
Pricing Your Digital Products
This is where many people get stuck, and I understand why. Price too high and no one buys. Price too low and you’re working for pennies. I learned this through trial and error.
Start conservatively. I price individual colouring pages between £1-3, depending on complexity. Simple designs for children go toward the lower end, detailed mandala-style pages for adults can command higher prices. Bundles of 5-10 pages can sell for £5-15. Bundles are more popular than individual pages, and to be honest I don’t find that individual pages sell very well. Unless it is something really specific and niche.
You can always increase prices later as you get reviews and build confidence. It’s much easier to raise prices than to lower them.
What Actually Sells: Themes and Niches That Work
After selling colouring pages, I’ve noticed clear patterns in what people actually buy versus what I thought they’d want. Understanding this can save you months of creating products that don’t sell.
Evergreen Themes for Steady Sales
Some themes never go out of style, and these should form the backbone of your product range.
Animals are absolute gold: cats, dogs, farm animals, woodland creatures. I can’t stress enough how well these sell. People love animals, children love animals, adults find them relaxing to colour.
Nature themes work beautifully: flowers, trees, landscapes, butterflies. There’s something inherently calming about nature scenes that appeals to the adult colouring market.
Mandalas and patterns are always popular with adults looking for meditative colouring experiences. They’re also relatively straightforward to create with AI.
Fantasy elements like unicorns, dragons, and fairy houses appeal to both children and adults who enjoy escapist themes.
These provide a steady baseline of sales throughout the year, the reliable income that keeps your shop ticking over.
Seasonal Opportunities
This is where you can really boost your income, and the key is planning ahead. I learned this the hard way by missing Christmas completely in my first year.
Christmas is the huge sales opportunity that runs from October onwards. People are looking for activities to keep children occupied during holidays, gifts for grandparents, and festive crafts for family time.
Easter brings spring animals, decorated eggs, flower scenes, and garden themes. The timing is perfect because people are emerging from winter and craving bright, cheerful activities.
Halloween appeals to both children and adults with pumpkins, friendly ghosts, autumn leaves, and spooky-but-not-scary themes. I have to admit to being a bit of a halloween hater, but you can’t deny that it makes money.
Back to school creates demand for educational themes, alphabet pages, number recognition, and anything that makes learning feel fun rather than like work.
I plan my seasonal content about two months in advance to catch the early shoppers who are organised enough to plan ahead.
Finding Untapped Niches
The real money often lies in the combinations that others might have missed. This is where you can charge premium prices because you’re serving a specific need that isn’t being met elsewhere.
Therapy-focused themes work brilliantly: anxiety relief patterns, mindfulness designs, affirmation pages. Mental health awareness has increased demand for these specialised products.
Educational combinations like times tables disguised as maze puzzles, alphabet pages with specific themes, or geography colouring pages that teach whilst entertaining.
Specific interests like vintage cars, knitting pattern borders, specific dog breeds, or hobby-related themes. Dog owners who love Golden Retrievers will pay more for breed-specific designs than generic dog pictures.
The more specific you get, the less competition you’ll face, and the more you can charge.
Common Mistakes That Kill Your Sales (And How to Avoid Them)
I’ve made every mistake in the book, so you don’t have to. These are the things that will kill your sales before you even get started, and they’re all completely avoidable once you know about them.
Mistake 1: Making images too complex for children or too simple for adults. A five-year-old gets frustrated with intricate details, whilst an adult finds simple shapes boring. Know your audience and match the complexity accordingly.
Mistake 2: Poor file quality that looks terrible when printed. Always test your images by printing them at home before listing them. If they don’t look good on your printer, they won’t look good on your customers’ printers either.
Mistake 3: Terrible SEO that means no one can find your products. Use all 13 tags Etsy gives you, and include keywords people actually search for. Think like a customer, not like a creator.
Mistake 4: Inconsistent shop branding that makes you look unprofessional. Your shop should look cohesive and trustworthy, even if you’re just starting out. This doesn’t mean expensive, just consistent.
Mistake 5: Giving up too quickly when sales don’t happen immediately. It often takes a few weeks to gain traction, especially if you’re new to Etsy. The algorithm needs time to understand your products and show them to the right people.
Scaling Beyond Your First Sale
Once you’ve made your first few sales (and trust me, that first notification is absolutely addictive), you can start thinking bigger. This is where the business model really starts to show its potential.
Create bundles: Group related pages together for higher-value sales. Instead of selling individual animal pages for £2 each, create a “Farm Animals Collection” with ten pages for £15.
Expand themes: If cats sell well, try dogs, then farm animals, then woodland creatures. Follow the breadcrumb trail of what your customers actually buy.
Seasonal planning: Map out the whole year’s seasonal opportunities and create content in advance. This takes the pressure off and ensures you’re never scrambling for ideas.
Customer feedback: Pay attention to reviews and requests for specific themes. Your customers will literally tell you what they want to buy next.
I started with individual pages selling for around £2 each and now sell themed bundles that bring in £15-30 per sale. The progression feels natural when you’re following what your customers actually want rather than what you think they should want.
The beautiful thing about this business model is that it scales with the time you put in. If you’ve got twenty minutes, you can create one page. If you’ve got a free weekend, you can build an entire themed collection that could earn money for years to come.
What started as a way to make a bit of extra money has genuinely changed how I think about work and income. Yes, I still have my day job, but knowing I’ve got this running in the background gives me a confidence I didn’t have before. It’s opened my eyes to possibilities I never considered.
You don’t need to be artistic. You don’t need thousands of pounds to invest. You don’t need to show your face or reveal your identity. You just need to start.
One final thought: whilst AI makes creating colouring books incredibly accessible, please don’t use it as an excuse to flood the market with poor-quality, rushed work. The customers buying these pages are often parents looking for activities for their children, or adults seeking genuine stress relief. They deserve products that are well-designed, properly formatted, and carefully checked before sale.
Use AI as a powerful tool to create quality content, not as a shortcut to create mediocre products. The difference between a successful long-term business and a quick cash grab often comes down to the care you put into every single page you create.
What’s the first colouring book theme you’re going to create? Drop a comment below and let’s brainstorm some prompts together!
