Gold City Ventures Review: Is E-Printables Worth It? (2024)

So, you’re thinking of starting an Etsy printables shop, huh?

I don’t blame ya.

An Etsy printables side hustle can be a great way for busy people to create a new passive income source.

Create a printable once, then let it sell on autopilot. 

Well, it’s actually easier said than done. And that’s where this Gold City Ventures review comes in.

The Gold City Ventures E-Printables Side Hustle course (yeah, I know, it’s a mouthful), is one of the most popular Etsy printables courses on the market.

After taking the course, I gotta say I’m impressed. BUUUT it’s certainly not for everyone. 

In this Gold City Ventures course review, we’ll cover:

#1.) A super-secret peek inside the program to see what it’s actually like.
#2.) My brutally honest opinion of the course.
#3.) Who it’s for, and who should skip it.

The decision to invest in a training program can be nerve-wracking. I’ve been there.

Nobody wants to make the wrong decision, and I hope that this little research project of mine helps you choose the right path.

Alrighty, let’s jump in! 

Psst! If you’re still unsure after watching me pick apart the course, check out this free Etsy printables workshop by Julie and Cody to test out the waters. Even if you decide not to skip the full program, this info will help you start.

👀 This is a Level 3 review. Read more about our in-depth course review process.

TL;DR – Is Gold City Ventures legit? 

The E-Printables Side Hustle course teaches you everything you need to know to start earning passive income selling printables on Etsy. They have thousands of students and loads of success stories.

That said, do you need E-Printables to launch a successful store? Not at all. 

Most people who have actually taken the course (myself included) believe that it’s a worthwhile investment. But it’s by no means a requirement.

If your bank account is struggling, there’s no shame in spending extra time to Frankenstein a plan together using random Youtube videos and blog posts.

I was once a bootstrapper myself, and if you have the patience to learn by trial and error, more power to you. 

That said, if you can afford it, you’ll save yourself time and headaches. 

By following their proven system, you’ll start making sales much faster, which you can use to recoup your costs.

You’re essentially paying for a shortcut. And as someone who never seems to have enough time in the day, I’m all for shortcuts. 

That said, before making any rash decisions, check out my sneak peek video below to get a clearer idea of what the program is actually like. 

If, after reading the review, you decide the course is right for you, scroll to the bottom of this page to get a special sign-up bonus.

Alrighty then! On to the nitty-gritties!

Gold City Ventures Review: A Sneak Peek Into the Course

Alrighty, now for a behind-the-scenes look at the course itself…

I’ve sprinkled screenshots throughout this guide to give you an inside look at the course. But for an even better idea of what to expect, check out this video review:

Note: If you get asked to join a waitlist, it usually lasts for just a couple days. But one trick to get around it is to use this link and watch the video. After watching for a few minutes, a button should pop up that lets you purchase at a $50 discount.

What’s included in the course

If you skipped the video above, here’s a recap of everything that’s included.

In this section, I’ll give an objective overview of everything, trying to keep my opinions out of it. Later in the review, I’ll share my likes and dislikes.

#1.) The E-Printables Side Hustle main course

The main E-Printables course is what will get you from zero to a fully operational store bringing in sales. 

It covers everything from graphic design for beginners, how to figure out what to make, tutorials on how to make things, templates, how to set up and optimize your shop, how to use keyword research to find golden opportunities, etc.

Most lessons have a video — usually between 5 and 20 minutes long — and many also include extra resources and tips. 

The videos are fun and engaging, where you can see them talking as they share their secrets on screen.

This small touch is quite refreshing after taking many other courses that are just dry PowerPoint presentations.

#2.) The VIP Membership Vault (Bonus)

This is an entire bonus course that has over 100 extra lessons covering advanced topics like:

• Behind-the-scenes competitor analysis on 8 real shops to reverse engineer their success.
• Interviews demo-ing advanced software and tools with the founders of each tool.
• Advanced keyword research strategies (so you’re not just guessing what printables to make).
• Advanced product tips and ideas (e.g. Business-to-business selling strategies, starting an email list to take customers off Etsy, etc).
• Advanced graphic design classes.
• In-depth Pinterest and Tik-Tok marketing.
• Mindset for scaling your business.
• Advanced monetization tactics.
• 15+ interviews and workshops with guest experts.

You’re meant to slowly start working through this material after your store is set up. 

If you try to consume all the advanced stuff before taking any action, it’s like drinking from a firehose.

In addition to the advanced training, the VIP vault also includes:

• New free templates every month. Tweak these and add them to your store each month for even more sales. You can even request templates for them to make in the future.
• Expert support in VIP Facebook group. More on that in a sec.
• Live Q&A calls. Weekly opportunities to ask questions to Julie, Cody, and Sasha (a graphic designer and printables pro with 10,000+ sales).

When you buy E-Printables, you get 30 days of free access to the VIP Membership. 

After that, it’s $29 a month if you’d like to continue. If you take advantage of all the templates and live help, this is kind of a no-brainer. And once you hit 100 sales, they give you free access for life (plus a cool prize in the mail) — how’s that for motivation? 

That said, you don’t need the VIP membership to succeed. Everything you need to get off the ground is in the main E-Printables course. 

The VIP vault is just for those who want to take things to the next level. 

#3.) VIP Facebook Group (Bonus)

You also get 30 days of free access to the VIP Facebook group. 

As you can see, this is a pretty lively group…

If you ever run into a stumbling block, just post your question in the group, and Cody, Julie, and your fellow students will get you sorted out.

They also run live calls for even more personalized help with your business. You can either send in your questions beforehand or ask them directly on the call. 

And if you want a second set of expert eyes on any of your designs, you can submit them for review to the graphic design office hours.

Apart from getting help, this is also an awesome place to go for inspiration. 

There are lots of students who share their wins. So if you ever need an extra boost of motivation, you can find it here.

What the Gold City Ventures E-Printables course is NOT

Purchasing the E-Printables course and consuming all the course material will not magically give you passive income out of thin air. 

You have to put in the work.

If you’ve never designed anything in your life, there will be a learning curve — there’s no way around it. 

But if you stick with it and follow their blueprint step-by-step, you’ll be an Etsy printables master before you know it. 

E-Printables is not a magic pill.

Just like starting any new business, creating passive income with printables requires hustle, consistency, and commitment.

E-Printables Side Hustle Review: Pros and Cons

My E-Printables Course Complaints

Here’s what I thought was kinda meh about the course. 

❌ Itty bitty screenshares. In many screenshare videos, the window looks super zoomed out (I imagine they’re recording on a giant monitor). 

This means if you’re watching on a smaller screen — like I am with my 13” MacBook — you have to squint to see some of the stuff they’re showing. 

❌ Limited VIP membership. The 1-month VIP membership access is a bonus that comes along with the course, so I’m not sure if it’s fair to count this as a con. 

But since it includes advanced material, it would be more helpful if you could activate the VIP trial (or at least the advanced trainings) after you finish the main course and have your store up and running. 

To be fair, they make up for this by offering free VIP membership after you reach the “100 sales club”. 

❌ Potential for saturation. This isn’t a complaint against the course itself, but it’s important to consider market saturation for printables as a whole. 

That said, after watching their keyword research module, you’ll realize there are TONS of ways to niche down to have essentially zero competition. 

❌ Strict refund policy. They offer a 7-day refund policy if you change your mind — as long as you haven’t gone past Module 1 and peeked into their juiciest secrets.

I suppose this is fair (and better than some other printable courses that have zero refund policy), but it means you have to decide right away if you like it.

As you can see, I’m getting kind of nit-picky here, but they are all things to keep in mind.

What I DID like

✅ It works. The most important “pro” (and probably the only one you care about) is that the strategies they teach actually work. Just look at these success stories and see for yourself. 

✅ No experience needed. They take you step-by-step through the process of designing beautiful printables and even provide free templates to build off of. 

That means graphic design experience is not required to build a profitable business. In the process of building your business, you’ll automatically sharpen your design skills. 

✅ Small time commitment. Unlike most online businesses (*ahem* blogging *ahem*), this is a side hustle you can actually start with a few hours of spare time each week — perfect for busy people. 

That said, as with anything — the more you put in, the more you get out. 

✅ Non-creative people welcome. They give you printable ideas and show you exactly how to find more winning ideas (with low competition). 

So if you’re creativity-challenged like me, you don’t have to come up with ideas out of thin air. 

✅ They use hard data. You don’t just try random ideas and pray that they work. They show you how to dig into analytics and trends to uncover ideas with proven high-sales data. 

✅ Free and paid strategies. They give options for every level and budget — whether you’re bootstrapping with all free tools, or you want to speed up the process with powerful paid options. 

✅ Theory + examples. They don’t just share how to “theoretically” build an Etsy business and then send you to the wolves. They created a bunch of specific real-life example videos so you can see exactly what it looks like in practice. 

✅ Covers huge pitfalls. There are some legal aspects to this business that can get you in trouble if you don’t know the rules. E-Printables teaches how to do things by the book from the get-go to avoid headaches.

And one last pro for the entire printable business model in general…

A “side effect” of building an Etsy store is that you master lucrative skills you could use to boost your income even further.

You could:

• Offer freelance graphic design work.
• Become an Etsy keyword research virtual assistant for bigger stores.
• Use your product research, keyword research, and marketing skills to create and promote a digital product outside of Etsy.

Plus, once your Etsy store takes off, you could even parlay it into consulting and sharing your expertise with Etsy noobies.

You’re only limited by your imagination 😉

Gold City Ventures course review recap: Is it really right for you?

This course is NOT right for everyone. Plain and simple.

It is not for you if…

• You’ve never used a computer before.
• You hate graphic design.
• You only want to do graphic design (you’ll probably spend equal amounts of time on keyword research and marketing).
• You expect your shop to magically create itself without any effort. 

On the other hand, if you are willing to follow every step of the course to a T (even if it stretches your abilities and makes you slightly uncomfortable), then it will almost certainly help you earn more from Etsy, and start earning faster. 

Overall, you get out what you put in. And if you go all-in with E-Printables, you maximize your odds of success.

If you’re still on the fence on whether starting an Etsy printables side hustle is the right path for you, I recommend dipping your toes in the water with this free printables workshop.

This will give you some gold nuggets and point you in the right direction. From there, you’ll be better equipped to decide on your next steps. 

E-Printables vs. competitors: Is this the best printables course?

There are a few other competing Etsy printables courses on the market, but none of them come close to E-Printables in terms of detail and level of support. 

For example, one competing course called Printables By Number focuses on how to add a printables income stream to an already existing business (like a blog), but it doesn’t focus on starting an Etsy printables business. 

There are also Etsy courses on Udemy. These tend to focus on just one piece of the puzzle — like setting up your Etsy shop, or how to improve your graphic design skills — but they fail to tie everything together. 

These Udemy courses are cheaper, but it’s kinda like comparing a skateboard to a Ferrari. 

Most Udemy courses have had only a handful of students, and the content hasn’t been updated in years.

Compare that to E-printables, which has had 15,000+ students, has tons of success stories, and is updated regularly.

E-Printables is the only course I’ve found that wraps EVERYTHING up into a nice package and holds your hands from start to finish.

And since they are constantly interacting with VIP members, they have current data on what’s actually working today (and what isn’t). 

Is there a Gold City Ventures coupon code?

There is currently no coupon code for Gold City Ventures E-Printables course. However, there is a trick to get $50 off. If you watch this video, they offer a limited-time discount. 

Where can I sign up?

I hope you found this review helpful. 

It took a good chunk of time to dissect and put together, so if you did find it helpful and want to say, “Thanks, Mitch!”— I’d be thrilled if you purchased using my affiliate link button below (at no extra charge to you). 

This helps keep the site running, and a portion will be donated to GiveWell charities (maximum impact fund). 

(For the discount, watch the video for 5-10 minutes and click the button that pops up at the bottom.)