Looking for a way to generate passive income online? Consider creating and selling digital printables online. Below, you’ll learn everything there is to know about making printables to sell online.
What are printables?
The printables are exactly what they sound like; documents that consumers can print and use. Today, people need help organizing, planning, and more, and they’re buying printables to make these tasks easier. Examples of printables you can make include:
- calendar planners
- Project planners (i.e. DIY home repairs or business social media planning)
- meal planners
- financial planners
- Diet and/or fitness planners
- Trackers (i.e. weight loss, debt payment, etc.)
- Coloring sheets (for children and adults)
- stickers
- Journals
- checklists
- Worksheets
- Spreadsheets
- workbooks
- Templates
If you create lists or create your system for organizing projects, ideas, and to-dos, chances are you can create a printable one and sell it online.
How to make printables to sell
Three things that make selling printables a great home business idea or addition to your existing business are:
- You don’t have to be an expert in graphic or desktop design to create them.
- The tools you need to create and sell your printables are affordable, and many of them are free.
- It is a passive income option in the sense that you create it once and earn money over and over again.
The tools and resources you’ll need will depend in part on what you plan to build, but here’s a list of common necessities:
- WORD PROCESSOR (i.e. Word or Google Docs)
- SPREADSHEET(ie Excel or Google Sheets) A spreadsheet is an easy way to make checklists and other items that are listed in rows or columns.
- DESKTOP DESIGN SOFTWARE This is not required, but if you already have one like MS Publisher or Adobe InDesign, it can make printable creation easy if you need more intricate design and formatting not offered through word processing software.
- PDF CREATOR, You can usually save documents as PDF or you can find free PDF creators online. If you want your printable to be fillable online, you can use PDFescape to create the fill boxes in your PDF.
- GRAPHICSThere are many free and low-cost graphic resources, but make sure they are licensed for commercial use before using them.
- GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARECanva is a great resource for creating printables yourself, or logos and other graphics you may need. Another option is PicMonkey.
- CUTTING MACHINE SOFTWAREThis is particularly useful if you are creating die-cut stickers or printables and want to add registration marks so your customers can easily use your cutting machine to cut them. If you’re not doing something that needs to be cut, you don’t need it.
Creating your printable
If you’re not a graphic-savvy person, research how others design their printables to get ideas on how to format your printable. Good places to find sample printables are Pinterest, Google Images, and/or Etsy.
You don’t want to copy what everyone else is doing, but looking at other printables can help you understand how people use color, font, and layout to make your printables attractive and useful.
Here are other steps on how to make printables to sell:
- Make a list of printable ideas. You’re unlikely to make a living from a single print unless you’re a fancy planner. It’s faster and easier to make single-page printables that you can sell individually or as a set. If possible, make them related. For example, you can have a keto diet menu planner, a keto-friendly snack list, a food tracker, and a weight loss tracker.
- Draw your design idea on a piece of paper. This can help you get your idea off the ground and make adjustments quickly.
- Decide on your color scheme, logo, and other branding features. Keep it related to your company and company name, if you’re adding to your existing company. Your business name should be included on your printable so your customers can easily find you and buy from you again.
- Design your printable. Plan the size of your printable ahead of time. If you’re using a spreadsheet for 8 X 11 printing, make sure you stay within the columns and rows for that size. If you’re designing a planner, you may want to make a variety of sizes to fit the most common planners, such as A-5 (5.8 x 8.3), Classic (5.5 x 8.5), and Personal ( 4.25×6.75). If you’re designing for a specific planner, like Filofax or Happy Planner, check the sizes to make sure you’re creating something that will fit.
- Test print your printable to make sure it appears correctly on the printed page. If you’re creating something that people will punch holes in to put in a planner, make sure you’ve left enough room for the holes without cutting into the design.
- Put a price on your printable. You may need to try different prices to find the ideal price that will generate a lot of sales. You can get an idea of the starting price from what others charge for a similar product. You’ll also need to factor in overhead costs like Etsy membership or web hosting fees. One benefit of digital printables is that once created, they can be sold over and over again with no more work or materials, so your overhead is low.
Sell your printable online
The quickest and easiest way to start selling your printables is to create an Etsy shop, a go-to site for many types of printables.
Other online options to sell your printable include Fiverr and Creative Market.
If you want more control over your printable business, you can create your online store. Shopify is a popular resource for printable business owners, but there are other eCommerce options you can use to create an affordable online store.
Finally, you can create your website to sell your printable. This gives you the most control over your business, but requires a bit more technical knowledge of how to build. You can create a WordPress site and add an eCommerce plugin, or use a template and eCommerce options provided through a web host.
Marketing your business printable
Even if your printable is on a popular site like Etsy, you’ll still need to market your product. Consumers have many options for downloading and printing resources. Here are some tips to help you stand out:
- If you have an existing business, reach out to your current customers or clients via email and social media to let them know about your printable.
- Give away a free printable as a lead generator or content upgrade for your email list signup. This allows you to sell paid printables to the list.
- Research and use keywords to help search engines and your sales platform (ie Etsy) rank better for your product.
- Write and distribute articles related to your printable and have your bio lead to your sales page or lead magnet.
- Start a blog or YouTube channel related to your printable topic.
- Run Facebook ads targeting the most likely buyer for your printable.
