Selling Printables Online To Make Money: The Ultimate Guide

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Selling Printables Online is a Great Way to Make Money From Home

If you’re looking to make money from home or start a side hustle, then selling printables online is one of the easiest businesses to get started with a very little upfront cost.

What’s great about selling digital printables is that once you create a printable, you can sell it over and over again with very little effort. So you can eventually start to earn passive income selling your designs online.

Yes, you really can make money while you sleep!

Of course, you’re going to have to put in the effort up front to create an inventory of printables you offer for sale as well as set up shop.

But once you’ve got that done, there is very little more you need to do but to promote your products to get as many eyes on them to make the most money from your efforts.

So if you think this is an online business idea you’d like to start, read on to learn everything you need to know to get started.

What are digital printables?

Printables are basically digital files that are created using graphic design software and a little creativity.

They are one of the most popular digital products to sell online and can include journals, meal planners, bill pay calendars, and much more.

Digital printables are typically sold as PDF files and delivered electronically when sold. The buyer then prints out the file at home to use.

How much can you make selling printables online?

That’s the million-dollar question most people have when looking into selling printables online. And the answer is that it depends.

You can make a few extra hundred dollars a month or you can earn 7 figures a year selling printables online like Sara Titus does selling printables on Shopify.

The amount of money you make is truly up to you and how much effort you put into creating, marketing, and promoting your best-selling printables.

So if you are ready to put in the work, you can earn really good money starting a printables business.

Why sell digital printables online?

Besides the fact that you can make money selling printables, there are many other reasons it’s a great choice to get started in online selling and e-commerce.

Selling Printables is a great passive income stream
Printables are fast and easy to make
People love printables to help them solve a problem
It has a low upfront cost to start a business
You can work from just about anywhere
Printables are a great way to promote your blog or website

Selling Printables is a Great Passive Income Stream

Creating printables is not only a legit online job that anyone can do, it’s also a great way to make passive income. With the recent rise of DIY projects, and working from home, and homeschooling, this has become even more popular.

Just imagine creating something once and you can re-sell it over and over again with little effort and yes, even make sales while you sleep.

Printables are Easy and Fast to Make

Printables are one of the easiest things to make and sell for money compared to other digital products. All you need to know is how to use some sort of graphic design software and you can create multiple printables in little time.

And with the use of readily available printable templates or building block templates, you can create printables with great ease.

People love using printables to solve a problem

There are many people who love using printables to solve a problem. Sometimes they may just want to change how their home looks, other times they may want a way to save new recipe ideas for dinner.

Printables can also help people stay organized, focus on getting something done in a fashionable order, or plan projects, and increase productivity.

Low Up-Front Cost To Start A Printables Business

Digital printables are also cost-effective and convenient to sell online because they don’t require any physical storage space.

Besides the fact that you don’t need to store anything, the tools needed to create printables are minimal and can be low cost or even free assuming you already have a computer and access to the internet.

You can work from anywhere

You can work from just about anywhere you choose. You can create printables at home, on the beach, or in a local cafe. All you need is a laptop, wifi or a hotspot, and you are good to go.

Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom looking to supplement your family’s income, a teen who what’s to earn money or want to be able to travel while building an online business, selling printables is a great option.

“As a stay at home mom, I had a hard time finding the right opportunity to make money. I came across selling printables online and instantly loved it. It is easy to start, there is no inventory to keep track of, and you can work whenever you want.”

Promote your Blog or Website

Besides selling printables in a third-party shop, digital printables are a great way to promote a business, product, or service. They can be used as promotional material, gifts for customers to grow your email list, and of course, products for an online shop on your website or blog.

Selling digital printables online is an excellent choice for people who are looking for a way to grow their business online even if you don’t have the time or know-how to do it themselves.

It’s also a great solution for those who want to supplement their blogging income and make some extra money on the side without much effort.

Selling Printables Online To Make Money: The Ultimate Guide

How to make printables to sell

The first step to making your own printables and selling them is coming up with an idea. You need to be able to generate the content for the things you want people to be able to download, such as lists, recipes, DIYs, etc.

The idea for a printable can come from anything; it could be something you find on Pinterest that inspires you, or maybe you have a specific need for a printable and know that others would benefit too.

The most important thing to consider when creating printables is that they solve a problem because most people buy printables to help them achieve something.

It could be to get organized, stay on top of their weight loss or financial goals, or manage their money better among many other things.

There are three main ways to fill your printables shop to start making money selling digital downloads.

Design printables using graphic software

Sell done-for-you printables that come with a commercial use license

Hire someone to design printables for you

Let’s take a closer look at each of these options to start selling printables online.

Create Printables to Sell With Graphic Desing Software

The first and probably most popular way to create a printables shop is to design the printables yourself.

Graphic design software is an essential tool for print designers. The software allows you to create professional documents, presentations, logos, charts, and more.

If you’ve never used graphic design software, there is a learning curve to get started but you can find plenty of free tutorials online with a simple Google or YouTube search.

One of the easiest programs to use to create printables is Canva which you can use for free. They do have a paid plan as well but the free version has everything you need to get started. They even have printable templates you can use to get inspiration from.

Graphic design software also allows you to convert your designs to different formats like JPG, PNG, or the most popular format for digital printables, PDF format as well as others with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Some of the most popular design software for printables include…

Photoshop

Canva

Pic Monkey

Illustrator

PowerPoint

Among many others.

If you are serious about creating a printables business you’ll definitely want to learn how to create printables yourself, but this isn’t the only way to acquire printables to sell online.

Learn how to design and create printables in Canva

Here are a few other options to help you fill your printables shop if you aren’t great at design, don’t quite know how to design printables just yet, or just don’t have the time to create a bunch of printables to list for sale online.

Purchase PLR Printables With Commercial Use Rights

Another option to fill your printables offerings is to purchase PLR (Private Label Rights) printables. These come with a commercial use license that allows you to list and sell the printables.

A lot of beginners like this option since you buy the files and can do what you want with them. You can sell them as is.

You can use parts of the PLR printables to create multiple other products to sell in your shop such as combining related printables to create printable planners.

Or you can take parts of a PLR printable and use them as building blocks to create other totally different printables.

This is a great way to supplement your designs and fill your shop with inventory quickly since they are inexpensive considering you can use just one PRL Printable to create multiple products that you can sell for profit over and over again.

There are many places to purchase PLR printables online. Here’s a list of some popular sites that you can check out if this option interest you.

Digital Dynasty

Simply Couture Designs

PLR Beach

You can also find many more PLR printables sellers by doing a simple Google search.

Hire someone to create printables to sell

Lastly, you can hire someone to create printables for you. The price to have printables created depends on where you source your printable designs.

The upfront cost might be a turn-off at first, but when you consider the fact that you can sell the same design hundreds or thousands of times, it could be a great option to get started selling printables online.

With that being said, there are many places to hire graphic designers to create printables for you. The first place to look is on an online marketplace such as Etsy.

This site has a directory of vendors who specialize in printables. Most of these designers also sell printables on Etsy and offer their design services as a supplemental income stream.

You can also find designers on freelance sites like Upwork.com or Fiverr.com and you can also search for designers on Facebook or LinkedIn.

What kind of printables can I sell?

You can sell a variety of printables on your website. Here are some printable ideas to sell online.

planners

calendars

journals

recipe cards

goal trackers

thank you cards

wall art

bill pay calendars

DIY printables

and so much more!!

Where to sell printables online

There are many places where you can sell your printables online from marketplaces that have pre-build shops to selling on social and everything in between. Some of these sites offer more than others, so it is important to research the different options before you make a decision.

Sell printables third-party e-commerce sites

Third-party e-commerce sites can help you sell downloadable printables more effectively. These sites offer the ability to list your products and sell them on a number of platforms, such as Etsy, BigCommerce, and Shopify.

You can even sell printables on Amazon which as you know is one of the largest eCommerce marketplaces online.

Many third-party selling platforms such as Etsy also have a huge following of people who love to buy printables so it can be easier to market your products.

If you’re looking to increase your exposure to new markets, this is one of many ways to do so but they do come with limitations. One of the biggest downsides of selling in an Etsy shop, for instance, is that you can’t collect email addresses which can really help you make more sales by marketing new listings to your former customers.

Then there are other third-party sellers like Shopify who allow you to collect emails with a newsletter signup form but this requires you to subscript to an ESP (email service provider) such as Mail Chimp or Convert Kit.

Sell Printables Hosted on a platform

A hosted platform where you can sell printables is definitely a great option since they have more flexibility than a third-party site.

A few examples of these types of platforms are Teachable, Thinkific, and Podia. What makes these great is that it gives you the flexibility to do more with your shop like sell courses or create memberships which can definitely help you increase or create recurring income.

Teachable and Thinkific also let you send one-off emails through the platform but I believe it is limited to just people who buy from you.

Podia is a powerful all-in-one platform that provides multiple ways to sell, serve, collect email addresses, and market to your customers which is a must if you want to earn more selling printables without having to subscribe to multiple services.

With Podia, you can sell printables in an online shop as well as courses. You can create multiple coupon codes to promote your products or create printable memberships to earn recurring income.

You can collect emails by creating newsletter signup forms and they also allow you to send emails or create marketing campaigns right from their site without having to subscribe to an ESP like ConverKit.

Plus they have a live chat feature that you can use to answer customer questions and comments easily, sell webinars and coaching if you chose since they integrate with both Zoom and YouTube live.

To see what a printables shop built in Podia looks like, you can check out my shop, Digital Dynasty for inspiration.

You can take Podia for a test drive with their 14-day trial here.

Sell printables on your blog or website

Printables are a popular trend on blogs and websites. They are great for engaging your audience and showcasing your creativity and authority in their niche.

Many blogs use printables as opt-ins to get their target audience on their email list so they can continue to market to them, and for good reason…people love printables!!

Which makes selling printable on a blog a no-brainer. The other benefit of selling printables on your blog is that you don’t have limitations as to what you can do.

To create a printables shop on your blog, your going to need to create a shop page to list & sell digital products.

It also requires a payment processor and delivery system to fulfill your orders. Most of these services charge a minimal monthly fee between $10 -$20 a month on average.

Send Owl is one of the most popular software to use to deliver your digital goods and process payments for many bloggers who sell printables on their blogs.

They also have a very good shopping cart that you can customize and allows you to create upsells to earn ever more money from each sale and many other features depending on the plan you’re on.

A few other popular options are GumRoad and Easy Digital Downloads.

Selling Printables Conclusion

As you can see, there are many options to start selling printables to earn money. There is no right or wrong way to get a shop set up. All the options listed in this article are great, you just need to think about what’s going to offer you the most flexibility to grow or expand into other digital products if you choose to do so.

The only mistake you can make is not getting started. To help you out, you can download this free Day Planner that comes with commercial rights so you can get your first listing up as soon as today!