S1. Ep8 - Automating AI Art via Etsy

Katie: Welcome to the AI Automations for Business Podcasts. We're your hosts, Katie and Null, and we'll be discussing how you can use AI for your business along with the latest news, updates and automations to help you stay ahead of the curve, allowing you to grow and scale your business more efficiently. Please be sure to subscribe

Noel: and I hope you enjoy this episode.

Katie: Hello, thank you so much for listening to this week's podcast episode. I've got Noel here.

Noel: Hi, Noel. Oh, glad to be back again. Yes.

Katie: So as we are recording this, which is the start of April 2025, I'm not joking, for the last week, Noel has done nothing, but chew my ear off about AI updates. Honestly, guys, it's been a lot. You've been excited, haven't you?

Noel: Yeah, there's been a lot of really, really good updates. I know we're going to touch on just one today, but there's been so many. Start to keep up with.

Katie: So as you know, by the title of this podcast, we are going to be talking about the Open AI Update, which was all about images. And Noel has had a lot of fun playing around with the stickers.

Noel: Too much fun. I've lost so much time.

Katie: I mean, I think everyone who knows Noel has had stickers sent to them.

Noel: Yeah. I've had people requesting stickers going, here's an image. Could you do me a sticker with this image, please? I know, it's gone crazy.

Katie: And then sometimes, like, you've not even asked for them, but you look at your WhatsApp and no sent you a sticker. That's what's happened to me. Yeah.

Noel: So say you've been having fun.

Katie: Is it understatement?

Noel: Definitely. Yeah, yeah. It's a really cool tool. Yeah.

Katie: So do you want to tell our

Noel: lovely listener

Katie: about it?

Noel: So you always know when Open AI have got a good announcement to make because they roll out the CEO. Sam Altman as part of the video to, you know, introduce this feature. And I thought, it's going to be a good one. Yeah.

Katie: You knew that straight away when you were like, oh, Sam Hortman doing the update. And you were like, it's going to be a good one. It's going to be a good one. I don't know what it is, but it's going to be a good one. Yeah.

Noel: But essentially what they've done is they've allowed you to create images within the 4-0 model within ChatGBT. So if you've currently got a plus or a pro account, you can just go in there and say, hey, get me an image of whatever, whatever you like, hit enter, and it'll go away and then use that brand new image model that they've released and, you know, create those images. But what everyone seems to be using it for, and what they demoed was you could give it an image of somebody, you know, or an object, and then go right, turn it into a cartoon.

Katie: Mm-hmm.

Noel: The outputs are incredible. They're so, so really good. Like, if you say I were based on the Simpsons, it would do that spot on every time. it would look just like a proper character.

Katie: Yeah, I would say this is the best AI images that I've seen being produced.

Noel: Yes. I think some of the photorealistic is still a little bit behind some of the models.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: When it comes to like...

Katie: The cartoon vision,

Noel: I mean.

Katie: Yeah, they're really cool.

Noel: Yeah. Any illustration type, they beat everybody. But yeah, I think they're just that little tiny bit behind when it comes to photorealistic.

Katie: Yeah, I agree with you. The illustrations are brilliant, but the photos are not good. So I am in the process of updating my podcast. I'm just changing the name, so I want new podcast art. And I asked Chachupiti to, you know, come up with some new cover artwork for me. And I, you know, gave it some photos. And the photo actually ended up using on. the podcast art doesn't even look like me. I'm like, how can you mess this up? I've literally given you. I think I gave it five photos of me and the photo it produced. I mean, it does look like a human, but it does not look anything like me.

Noel: Not even if you squint.

Katie: No, not even if you squint. It looks like a completely different person.

Noel: There's this

Katie: person running Katie's podcast. Don't know. I've never seen it before in my life.

Noel: Yeah, I think there's a lot of other better image models for doing that sort of stuff that are already out there. So I think they're definitely behind. Yeah, it won't take them long to catch up, I don't think.

Katie: So what would you say are the better platforms for like the photorealistic images?

Noel: There's a few. So I use a platform called replicate.com and that gives me access to all kinds of different image models. But I usually find that the flux models are usually really good for photorealism.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: And on the replicate platform, you can do what you did with chat GPT and upload a load of images of yourself. And then it will actually, you know, it will create images that look like you. And that's a better job. But yeah, I did make one error with doing that because you can give it like a trigger name for when you're creating them with influx. So I just use my name as no. For that, that's fine. I'm not going to use that anywhere else in a normal sentence. And then every image that came out was Christmas related.

Katie: Brilliant. And that is your favourite thing, Noel, isn't it? Christmas.

Noel: No. Not even bored, then.

Katie: For those of you who do not know this piece of information, and not many people will know this, is because Noel has a Christmassy name, it makes him dislike the festive season a little bit because his name is everywhere, and he always gets asked the same question. It must be your birthday soon. And he's like, no, I'm born in May. But I have worked on him over the last 15 years. And he's a bit more jollier around the festive period now, everyone.

Noel: Yeah, I do get there. Well, I suppose should we go into how we can automate this sort of stuff? Yes.

Katie: So obviously, we've been talking about these really cool. illustrations, not so much the photo, but we want to know what we can actually do with them as a business, because we don't want to do things that are just, you know, on and, you know, things that we can send to our business friends, which is all great and a barrel of laughs, but what can we actually do with them as a business?

Noel: Yeah. So just to be really clear to start off with the new open AI image model isn't, yet available on the API, so we can't fully automate that just yet. You can semi-autimate it. You could download the images and put them in Google Drive and then use it that way. But there are other tools like replicate.com that allow you access to all of these different image tools and things like that. So there's lots that can be done. And I thought I'd talk about one that I, this is probably the first automation I built myself without any sort of assistance or YouTube tutorial. and that was to create like a digital content on Etsy. So I was creating digital art using a online AI tool and then automatically creating all of the listings and publishing everything and then also linking that into print on demand. So it's really, really powerful how that sort of stuff works.

Katie: So what you're saying, Noel, is what you can do is open up an Etsy shop using AI automations.

Noel: Yes.

Katie: So you could use these. illustrations to sell on Etsy?

Noel: Yes.

Katie: So are you actually able to do that, even though you haven't created the image, have created or Open AI, have created the images, you're able to sell them on Etsy?

Noel: Yeah, it all kind of depends on the license of the image generator. So some of them, they do have like special licenses and say it can't be used for commercial use and things like that. But most of the main ones are all open source. you can use them wherever you like.

Katie: Okay, so the best thing to do is just double check.

Noel: Yes.

Katie: Before you're using a platform to generate these images that you are legally allowed to resell them on.

Noel: Yes, definitely, yeah. And I know Etsy was kind of, they tried to crack down on AI's content and things up, but yeah, it's just so vast. I don't think they really got round to it.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: So, yeah, I wouldn't say that you would be penalized for using AI content. It's kind of just make it, you know, maybe make it aware, put it in the description kind of thing that this is AI content. Yeah.

Katie: Why were Etsy clamping down on AI generated images with their particular reason?

Noel: I just think they were just getting like a massive influx of the shops just springing up and selling all kinds of digital images. And there was like, hold on a minute we need to you know reel this back you know i guess they're kind of a more like the crafty sort of side

Katie: yeah crafty handmade but i do feel like though in probably in the last five years Etsy has completely changed because obviously so many people are on their selling digital products and planners and printables and things like that so yeah yeah i feel like the landscape of Etsy has changed dramatically in the last five years

Noel: yes and the one thing i i've i've originally created a online store that was selling digital art, long before I knew about automations. And basically, you know, you would go off to a platform, create the image. And then I just got really frustrated because then I'd have to fill out all of these forms. So, well, this is the description. This is, you know, the title. And that's going to be... Oh, yeah.

Katie: There's a look to fill out, isn't there? When you're setting up a shop on Etsy.

Noel: There's so much. And then you got all the tags. So you got 13 tags to populate. It just became a right nightmare. And then then I spotted on make.com that they had a module for Etsy. And I was like, oh, this, this could sound good, you know.

Katie: Yeah.

Noel: And what I was doing then was creating the images and saving them into a database or a spreadsheet, whatever. And I would then feed that through an AI and then say, look, this is the image I've created. Can you create the title? And I want the title to be specific for Etsy and things like that. So to include keyword rich and you know to be you know easily searchable yeah things that and then that would automatically do all that you would do the descriptions do all the tags and then all I had to then do is just link that data into the Etsy module and then just run it and it was done it was so much easier

Katie: I made

Noel: you say doing it manually yes you could you could do like a list in every you know probably every two minutes for end to end why running it yeah yeah was it take about 10 minutes normally

Katie: yeah at least at least yeah Yeah.

Noel: If you've got a lot of products to sell, it's a nightmare. Yeah. Okay.

Katie: So we're going to use these images to set up a Etsy shop and you can either sell them as like the illustrations, like as a poster or as stickers.

Noel: Mm-hmm.

Katie: And you're going to run all the setup with the listings through AI, correct?

Noel: Correct, yes. Yeah. That's going to do all the thinking for all. all of the text within your shop or for that listing. Everything else is kind of moving data around between Etsy and wherever you're storing the data and things out. I think the only thing you really need to do manually is probably upload the downloadable image, if it is a downloadable thing that you're selling. But you can also link it into Printify and things out. So you could have the Printify module in Make.com, and then once you've set up your product within Printify, you can then, you know, it can then automatically create those physical product listings as well. So you're not, you're not just restricted to selling the digital image as a download. You know, you can sell, you can put that on a mug if you want. You know, it's so easy to do. Yep.

Katie: And you wouldn't have to be like, okay, I've got an order come in. Now I have to go to, say, Printify and then order it. it would automatically do that and then send it directly to the customer?

Noel: Yeah, so the way that the, so there is an integration with Etsy and Printify already, but that's more for the order fulfillment. But what we do in the automation is for the product creation.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: So once that's done and then linked into Etsy, it just then runs on automatic anyway. So yeah. Yeah, really, really quick.

Katie: So can you tell us what tours you used? to set up that automation for Etsy, so like step by step.

Noel: So the first tool I use is obviously Make.com, but that's got all the Printify and Etsy modules that are already there, already pre-built, ready to go. And I also used a tool called Airtable. So it's a bit like Google Sheets. And that was there just to store the information. And then I was using Rapplicate.com for the images. and then open AI just to do the, you know, to do all the hard work, to do all the listing information. Okay.

Katie: So make.com replicate, air table and open AI.

Noel: Yes.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: Yeah. Yeah.

Katie: And then once it was in Etsy, Etsy and Printify already talk to one another. Yes.

Noel: Yes. So yeah, within the flow, you would create the Etsy listing. You would create the physical products in Printify. And then once all of that automation is done, then there's that direct link for your sales and, you know, delivery and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah.

Katie: So actually, once you've set up that list in, you don't really have to do anything. Nothing.

Noel: You're done.

Katie: Why?

Noel: You can go on to the next one. Yeah.

Katie: So even when you get orders in, you know it's already been fulfilled.

Noel: Yes.

Katie: Because Etsy and Printify, you already talk to one another. So there's nothing to do on your end. So you're not, you know, having to create the mugs or print out the stickers yourself.

Noel: It's all done. Yeah. All fulfilled, given straight to the customer. And the way Etsy works with its pricing is it can take the, so when you've gone through the automation side and you've created the product using the automation, it would then feed back the pricing structure into Etsy. So if you're in the US and you order from a UK store, then you know that the dollar amount is correct as well as the delivery charge as well. So all of that's all sort of that for you. So you don't really have to do anything.

Katie: Wow. Amazing.

Noel: Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah.

Katie: And how did you get on? Because no, you used to sell digital art, didn't you, on Etsy? And how did you find you got on selling it?

Noel: So I got on all right to start off with. Obviously, I didn't. I wasn't marketing any of it at all. So that's, you know. So you were only on Etsy,

Katie: you weren't promoting it anywhere else?

Noel: No, no, no. I wanted to, but then I just didn't have the time to. But even so, just doing that, you know, I was making probably, well, for the digital side, I was selling those for a couple of dollars each and, you know, I'd easily make $50 a month.

Katie: Okay.

Noel: So, you know, with a bit of time and effort to market and, you know, and do that sort of stuff, then, you know, you can, you know, easily scale.

Katie: Yeah, because I know with Etsy, they like it. when you keep adding products to your shop.

Noel: Yes.

Katie: That's one of the big things, isn't it? Making sure your shop is kept updated.

Noel: Yes, definitely, yeah. Yeah. And the other cool thing about this is if you don't like Etsy or you don't really like the fees that you're going to get charged and how the platform works, you know, you could easily integrate this automation into things like Shopify or WooCommerce or anything that you can just chop and change those out.

Katie: If you're willing to do the promotion yourself. Yeah. Yes.

Noel: Yeah. Or if you're more familiar, yeah, definitely.

Katie: Okay. Brilliant. Amazing. So that was a really awesome update, I think.

Noel: Yeah, definitely, yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the API for the Open AI image generation. Yeah, I'll use that all the time then.

Katie: Okay. Oh, gosh. Watch out. Everyone's WhatsApp.

Noel: So if you know, also got your WhatsApp,

Katie: watch out.

Noel: That'll be stickers galore.

Katie: Brilliant. Well, I would love, you know, if you're going to try. creating your own illustrations or stickers or just go and have fun and let us know how you get on come over within our free LinkedIn group it's AI Automations for Business everyone is very welcome to join so yeah feel free to come in put your illustrations and your stickers in there and yeah let's let's see what you manage to create and thank you so so much for listening if you loved this episode we would really appreciate if you left a review or leave a comment for us over in the LinkedIn group and we will catch you next time.