5 Ways How To Make Printables To Sell (& Where To Sell Them!)

Our guide will show you exactly how to start selling your own printable products online using 5 simple steps.

If you want to make money online then learning how to make printables to sell should be your first stop in brainstorming.

There has never been a better time to start an online printable business. This utilizes your creative side to make money fast and can generate passive income for years.

You can create printables on free programs like Canva. And selling printables on Etsy is a great way to make money.

But you have options and things you need to do before you rush into selling digital downloads!

You’ll need to create your business, design your printables, and reach customers- and we can show you how.

So let’s take a look at some of the most important steps involved in learning how to make printables to make side hustle money now!

What Are Printables?

If you want to become a successful e-commerce entrepreneur, then it’s important to seriously consider making your own printables.

Printables are items that people buy so they can print them out at home to use and have access to them whenever they need them.

There are many different types of printables that people will be looking for online. Some of the best printables that sell best are planners, calendars, to-do lists, and even worksheets.

You can find one-of-a-kind wedding invitations, photo cards for baby showers, cute calendars with your favorite quotes on them, and much more! The possibilities are endless!

We highly recommend checking out the FREE E-Printables workshop if you are truly motivated to start making money selling printables. 

3 Top Sellers For Printables

When it comes to selling printables, you want to know what will sell best and be a guarantee to make you money.

We did some searching and found a few top hits that you should consider, and are great examples of what you can make.

1. Wedding Stationery

Whether you’re a graphic designer or simply know how to use Photoshop, wedding invitations are an excellent printable to sell.

You can offer custom work where customers send you their color scheme and font preferences and charge extra for this service.

Wedding items for printables would include invitations, save the dates, wedding decorations like collages or posters, signage, games, ice breakers, party favors, gift tags, to-do lists, and more.

2. Digital Planners and Organizers

An additional example of printables that sell well online is a binder insert kit.

You could create inserts for monthly calendars, weekly planners, and note pages to keep track of family life. Or binder sheets for recipes, photo albums, and plain paperwork organizers.

We sell ones for meal planning, budgeting, debt payoff planner, and more.

A great example of a printable binder kit is our very own Savvy Mama Budget Binder!

3. Kids’ Worksheets

Kids’ worksheets are huge because of 2 things:

1. Kids need entertainment!
2. Kids need to practice skills!

You can create worksheets for either category, and parents and teachers everywhere will thank you!

Create printables like word searches, math facts, or other subjects you remember from school. Or you can create game sheets like treasure hunts and coloring pages to keep them busy for hours!

It’s pretty inexpensive to create printables for kids which means you can charge a reasonable amount for them.

And just because they’re for kids doesn’t mean adults wouldn’t like them too!

5 Steps On How To Make Printables To Sell

1. Prep Your Business & Get Help To Start

Create a brand- your business name, a logo, and establish your internet presence.

The first step when it comes to creating your brand is picking a name for your company. It could be something simple like “Fancy Prints BY *name*” or “*name* Printable Designs.”

This part is important as you don’t want o get set on a business name that’s already taken! You’ll also want the name of the business to kind of tell people what you’re selling too.

Next, decide on colors that represent your brand which can be used in all of your creations, and get your logo created. Again, plagiarism is a no-go so make sure it’s original and speaks for your brand.

Lastly, get established online in some way- you’ll need emails for your business, maybe a Facebook page for social media work, and maybe even a website.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the nitty-gritty details? You should think about taking an online course with Gold City Ventures to get help.

They’ll show you how to launch your business and every step you’ll take along the way, plus give you ideas and the tools you need to create your printables.

They have a free printables workshop you can test out, but their course is very helpful d changed how I made printables.

See more about the course in my honest Gold City Ventures Review!

2. Pick Your Printables

Choosing the types of printables you want to create is usually based on two factors: what you like to create and what will make money.

You can check to see what people sell on Etsy and compare it with your own ideas, just to get a feel for your own products as well as what competition you’ll have in sales.

If you want to make a lot of money, you need to know what’s popular (like the list above) and you need to know what sorts of designs you’re capable of making.

You can outsource designing services, as some sticker businesses do, but it is an upfront cost that may be a bit much when you’re just starting your business.

If you like creating flowers and animals, you may be the most interested in selling printables like wedding stationery, kids’ coloring sheets, or gift/birthday cards.

If you like creating templates with nice borders but little in extra design, then to-do lists, organizing stationary, or similar products may be the digital products for you.

3. Design Your Sheets

The best way to start designing your printables is by choosing a layout. Think about all the products you want to create, what their dimensions will be and how many sheets are included in each file.

You can save time by adjusting the size of your templates within the software before you get started, but keep in mind it may be difficult to modify sizes up or down once you start.

Size is another factor to think about when designing your printables. This is because each type of paper has a different size limit.

When choosing a color scheme for your printables, think about what colors are associated with your brand’s message.

For example, if you’re selling printables on Etsy and sell pretty, floral-inspired items, it would make sense to pick pastels like pink and purple.

Or you can have blank printables that you can create copies of and add custom colors to.

4. Print ’em Out

Once you’ve designed them, make sure they work!

We would urge you to test out your printables before trying to make sales. If you sell printables on Etsy that don’t actually print well, you’ll probably have some unhappy customers!

This is so that you can see how they come out, and make sure it’s what you wanted. You can do this by printing them out yourself on your home printer.

5. Price Your Products

The price of your printables should reflect the time and effort that went into making them.

First, you’ll need to research what other companies are charging for the same product.

Once you’ve decided what price your printables should be selling for, it’s important to justify your pricing in this section by explaining why your items are different.

4 Places To Make Your Printables

Now, you must be wondering how exactly you can make all of these digital products- easy!

There are some free and paid programs you can use to make designs.

We have a few recommendations for you to consider:

1. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Or Excel

Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are the most common types of files people use for creating printables.

They’re great to distribute online because many people have these programs already installed on their computers.

You can use Word and Excel to primarily create templates as digital printables- they can easily use some small designs for borders, but you can easily make and alter tables with ease.

2. Canva

A new program on the block for graphic design is Canva and it’s easy to use to create a printable to sell on Etsy.

It’s a great tool to use when creating printables because there are so many layouts available.

They also have an asset library of thousands of images that can be used in your own designs.

There’s a free version, which has more limited options, but you can splurge for the Canva Pro to get more templates and designs- quicker creations mean less work for you!

3. Google Docs or Sheets

Google Docs and Sheets both can be used for free if you already have a Google account!

Just like Microsoft, you can use them to create any sort of docs, though the structure is the most friendly for template printables.

It’s also great because you can access your designs easily by phone, and edit them on it, whereas other programs aren’t as easy to use on mobile.

4. Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop

Illustrator and Photoshop are both great tools for creating custom printables, and many graphic design businesses rely on them for their own work.

The biggest drawback is that these are programs you have to pay for, but you have a lot more versatility in what you can create- you can draw and make things with less rigid structure.

They’re made for artists so they have a lot more capability, but it also means the software may need a lot of technical know-how so you utilize it properly.

But don’t let that discourage you from trying out some new things!

If you don’t know how to use Adobe programs, YouTube is great and you can learn a lot of design skills for different programs.

6 Places To Sell Your Printables

Now that you have your business formed and digital products ready to sell, you need to know where you can sell them to earn passive income.

There are many ways to get involved- you can sell on Etsy, create fun items for sale on social media accounts, or offer the files to download on your own site.

You could even do all three and more!

1. Etsy

If you want an easy way to sell digital downloads, selling printables on Etsy is your best option.

Creating an Etsy store gives you the mass potential to reach customers all around the world. The online marketplace is huge and is one of the best ways to find a large customer base.

If you’re considering selling printables on Etsy or any other popular handmade items, there are some things to keep in mind.

Etsy has competition for printables, so it’s important to create listings that stand out and an attractive Etsy shop. Make sure all of your listings have a good description and include a high-quality picture or two.

You may also want to have a watermark on your designs so people don’t steal your images, or even just copy them to print for free!

Read the free E-Printables ebook to learn how to start making money on Etsy today! 

2. Fiverr

Fiverr is a place where people can buy and sell services for as little as $5.

Selling printables on Fiverr is a great place to start if you need some extra cash because people are always looking for custom work for their events and businesses.

The best part about it is that there are so many different types of printable templates available, including invitations, photo collages, and more!

You can put your printables up for sale at Fiverr by clicking on the “Create A Gig” button in the top left corner of your screen.

You’ll then need to select the type of services you want to offer, enter your price per gig, upload an image preview of your work, and write a detailed description of what you have to offer.

3. Shopify

If you want to sell printables online without creating a whole website, then use a Shopify store to sell digital downloads to customers.

Shopify is a great place for selling your items, and we should know! We set up our printable shop and have had a great time using it.

We highly recommend Million Dollar Shop. This is the course we took that helped us learn how to make tens of thousands of dollars each month selling our digital printables on Shopify. 

4. Your Own Website

If you want to have complete control over your sales page, then creating your own website is the best option.

It’s also more convenient for customers because they won’t need to sign up and make an account in order to buy from you!

The downsides of selling on your own website are that it can be time-consuming to set up your site and consumers may not find you as easily if they don’t know about you or you don’t have proper marketing.

Not sure how to get get a website up and running? Try using BlueHost to create your website for only $2.95 per month!

5. Social Media

You can sell printables to a large pool of people on Facebook Marketplace is a great place because it can connect you to millions of people just like Etsy!

If you already have an account, then it might be a good idea to sell your printables directly from there!

There are always customers interested in what you’re posting on your business page. and they may not even need to leave the platform in order to buy from you.

6. Amazon

If you have printables that customers can download and print at home, then you should definitely try to sell them on Amazon!

People usually sell e-books on Amazon because it’s a good way for potential customers.

One type of printable we haven’t talked about yet is e-books- mostly because it’s a little out there, but can also sell well.

Binder inserts are the closest example we’ve used because you’re giving people all the sheets they need to create their own planner, journal, or whatever organizer they need.

Marketing Your Printables

You could make amazing printables, but if no one knows about them that won’t do you much good!

An Etsy shop can pull in a lot of people- they have a huge customer base, but you shouldn’t rely on just that to sell your digital products.

To make sales and earn more passive income, people need to find you online and have an easy time buying from you.

There are a number of ways to market yourself and your items and start gaining customers.

Pinterest

Pinterest is great because you can make boards full of your favorite products and it’ll help bring customers to your items!

This platform will be especially useful to get your products viewed with people pining them on their own boards and sending them to friends.

Facebook

Creating a Facebook page for your business account can help people find you, buy directly from you, as well as interact and ask questions.

It also doesn’t hurt that people can easily find reviews and even see images from other users.

Blog

Blogging is another way to get more attention for your printables. If you start a blog, then people will be able to find your items from the search engine results.

You can also include links in each blog post that take potential customers directly to where they can buy from you!

Emails

Emails are a great way to reach people who are interested in what you have to offer once they’ve already purchased from you.

To ensure people come back for more, set up an email list so that your customers get notified when new products are released and when you have sales going on!

We ourselves use ConvertKit to send out our Shopify sales- it is simple to use and makes email marketing very easy.

Final Thoughts

So, have you got good ideas for your printables shop now?

Creating printables and selling digital downloads on Etsy is a fun way to make money and have consistent passive income.

If you want a convenient, low-cost option for your store, then selling printables on Etsy might be the best choice for you.

Remember: there are many different types of printable items out there so it’s important to consider what sorts will sell well in order to succeed at e-commerce entrepreneurship!

You can also try using social media or blogging as two other ways of marketing yourself and reaching new customers that may not have found you otherwise!