Yes, you can make money with printables. I know because I have been selling educational printables for several years. Printables is a term that we toss about and it includes a lot of different items.
What are Printables
Basically printables is anything that can be printed. You can print it at home, send it to an online printing service or take it to your local business that offers printing services.
It can be planners, journals, wall art, stickers, stationery, graphics, gift tags, calendars, cards, trackers, checklists, etc. In my case it was papers, page borders, math worksheets and math activities. There are so many different items that sometimes a new entrepreneur gets overwhelmed trying to decide how to narrow a focus.
And then there are digital products which are also popular which include planners, stickers and journals which can be used on iPads, phones or other tablets.
Products are most commonly delivered as a PDF for printing. Digital products are also delivered as a PDF and uploaded into a note-taking app such as GoodNotes or Notability.
Why Would Someone Buy Printables
Printables have a lot of benefits to the user. We all have goals that we want to accomplish. Some of us want to be more organized, some want to become healthier and others want to relax with coloring pages. We all have our reasons and they vary with the audience.
They are Convenient
- You can download then and if the printed copy gets damaged, just print another.
- You can store the original file on your computer or upload to a cloud storage system (like dropbox).
- Once purchased, you have it forever. You can reuse as much as you like.
Printables are Customizable
- You can easily print out only the pages you need.
- If you buy a year long calendar, print out one month (or week) at a time and place in a binder.
- PDF’s can be edited if you want to make changes.
- You can have them bound if it is something you want to keep forever. I have used discs but you can have it spiral bound either online or at a printing business. I had my family genealogy bound for the family.
Printables Increase Productivity
- You can organize your work with printables
- You can manage your daily or weekly schedule with printables
- You can manage your grocery shopping and meal planning.
- You can create new habits or eliminate old ones with habit trackers.
- You can keep track of finances, books to read, car maintenance, etc—all with printables.
Where Do You Find Printables to Sell
You can create them yourself. You can use PowerPoint, Photoshop, Affinity or even Canva to create templates to use. If you are selling to an end user for personal use, then you will deliver your product in a PDF form.
You can get free PLR products and templates to use in creating your own printable. PLR providers offer templates and written articles to get you started. You can find bundles all year around which for a nominal fee (and sometimes free) you can download thousands of dollars of products. You rebrand and edit those products and create something entirely new.
Where to Get Templates
You can buy templates. Buy PLR products so you can resell the products. If you buy templates make sure that you have the right to resell the products and read the license carefully. Once you get started and have some sales, you can start looking for templates that inspire you. Try to get in on launch prices or use coupons to save money.
I know Sue of Createful Journals has some wonderful templates for a low price which can inspire a whole product line. Stephanie from Wildflower Digitals has a section called deals and steals of products you can access for a very low price from friends.
How to Get Started Selling Printables
The easiest way to get started is to make a printable to sell. What you make should benefit someone. It should be packed with information, solve a problem, be useful to someone, be pretty, promoted and priced correctly.
Think about the types of things that you are passionate about. Is it walking? Make a step tracker. Is it Dieting? Make a meal planner. Is it holidays? Make greeting cards. Whatever your passion and skill, there is something that you can create to sell to others.
Where to Sell
When I began selling educational materials, I posted them to teaching sites like Teachers Notebook and Teacher Pay Teachers. I expanded as different companies became available and as the market grew. I experimented with digital products and added other resources to my product line. If you are a homeschool mom, educational materials are always popular.
ETSY and Shopify are options if you want to sell your products to end users. ETSY is probably the easiest and least expensive option and it is simple to post your products. I know recently that ETSY announced a fee increase but fees are still low compared with other options. It costs \$.20 – yes, that’s 20 cents- to list an item on ETSY and that is for 4 months.
Of course, selling on your own website is also an option if you have the tech skill and/or time to learn. I believe that anything can be learned if you are persistent. Starting a shop on ETSY allows you to gain experience on type of products to sell, packaging and promoting products, writing descriptions and to a lesser extent setting prices. You can also use that experience to develop an audience and create a list of customers who can then be directed to your website.
You can also use search to see the types of products that are selling and gain some ideas if you need to focus on a product or niche.
Get 40 Free ETSY Listings When You Open a Shop
By clicking the link above you can get 40 free ETSY listings when you open your shop with that link. I’d love to see you get started creating products and take that first step.
If you need help with products, check out the sampler freebie to get some basics to get started. Try a one page product like a checklist, shopping list or habit tracker. You can use the coloring border page and put a to do list on it, or add a habit tracker so customers can color and track a habit. Use the digital paper to create stationery and add a weekly goal list to the center.
A one page product is inexpensive, and can drive traffic to your shop. If you are looking for ideas for products, download the list and see what interests you. In future posts, we will talk about promoting your products. If you have any questions, please drop a comment below or email me at hello@creativeplr.com