Whether you are an artist, business owner, printable enthusiast or just down right curious, printable products are something you need to take a look at! As the name suggests, they are digital products sold online to customers who are then able to print them from the comfort of their own home and I absolutely love them. Easy to create, so versatile, available to print over and over as needed and best of all for you, a great source of passive income. Here are my four simple steps to selling printables online, I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Choose a Printable to Create
The first step to selling printables online is of course coming up with your first product. Grab a pen and paper and start jotting down ideas. Don’t be precious about this process. I often find my best ideas come about when I stop trying to control my creative flow.
If you are an existing business it will help you greatly to know your customer well. If you are able to figure out what they’re problems are you can then decide on a product that will help them. Take a personal trainer for example. They might choose to create a printable workout plan for the clients they work with who struggle to stick to a regular workout routine by themselves. Alternatively a business coach may look to create a business or goal planner to help motivate and inspire their clients.
Brainstorm the possibilities and begin with the idea you feel most confident in.
Create Your Printable
Using a platform such as Canva, create a high quality printable that will live up to your customers expectations. Gone are the days of using word documents. There are so many platforms available now full of templates to help you create something wonderful.
To give an example, let’s say you are looking to create an A4 sized “To Do List” printable using your own piece of artwork, like the one I have listed in my Etsy shop shown below. You would take the following steps in your Canva account:
- Open an A4 Document template
- Upload the artwork from your computer
- Drag and drop the artwork on to the page, resizing until you are happy
- Add the text “to-do list”, adjusting the font, size and colour until you are happy
- Add lines from the templates section on the left hand side
- Download your finished design
It is really that simple.
Set Up Your Listing
I’m going to focus on Etsy here as this is my chosen platform for selling digital products. Spend some time researching your options to make sure you choose the best platform for your own business. You can always transition later as you grow.
It doesn’t take long to get your shop set up, but it will help to spend a moment on things like a business logo and banner, if you don’t have these already, as they will make your business look more professional. You will not be surprised that I recommend Canva for these as well.
When setting up your product listing on Etsy take some time to consider your title, description and tags. Write these with your customer in mind; what will they be searching for to find your product? Images should be of high quality too, as this is how you will first draw in your customer. Make sure to be very clear with your listing and tell your customer exactly what they will be receiving. Not only will this attract the right people, it will also ensure that you have confidence in your product knowing that the customer knows exactly what they can expect when they click that “buy” button.
Tell Your Audience
While platforms such as Etsy do have their own customer base it is so important to talk about your product with your audience. Importantly, don’t just mention it once. Tell your future customers when you are in the process of creating your digital product in order to build excitement, when it is complete so they can go and buy, and then on a regular basis following your launch to remind them. Use the social media of your choice that you are most familiar with.
If you’ve found this post helpful, I’ve launched a brand new course this week; How to Make Money Selling Printables on Etsy. It covers all of the steps we’ve discussed here but in so much more detail and with visual guides and examples too. It is priced at £27. I’m so excited for you to see it!
