Setting up a shop on Etsy is really easy. In fact, I highly recommend that you create an Etsy shop for your Canva templates. Etsy drives a lot of traffic to shop without me having to lift a finger. If you have high-quality templates and if you regularly add new templates (every month) to your shop, then Etsy will do the heavy lifting of bringing traffic to your shop.
How to Sell Canva Templates: The Steps
These are the steps to selling Canva templates.
- Sign up for Canva
- Decide which products to sell
- Design the Canva templates to sell
- Prepare a PDF with your Canva template link (deliverable)
- Create product images
- Decide on a price
- List the templates on your shops for selling
- Promote your Canva templates
Note that this section deals with selling your Canva templates on your own platform or on third-party marketplaces. I’ll talk about contributing your templates to the Canva template library in a separate section below.
Step 1: Sign up for Canva
Sign up for a Canva account. It is free 🙂
A Canva Pro account is beneficial for you as a designer, but not necessary to sell templates. A brand kit is a Canva Pro feature. So, even though I do not need a Canva Pro account to create templates and sell them, it makes the design process more efficient and saves tons of time.
If you’re not ready to commit to Canva Pro yet, try out a Canva Pro trial for free for 45 days using this link, or click the button below.
Step 2: Decide which products you’ll sell in your shop
Figure out what kind of products you wish to sell in your shop. Different people come to this differently.
Perhaps you’re a photographer who teaches photography on their website, and you have an existing audience comprised of other photographers. You may ask yourself what kind of products do photographers need? Social media graphics? Social media banners? Photography portfolios and photo albums? Services booklet or pricing sheets? Client onboarding documents?
Or perhaps you’re a blogger who caters to foodies and cooks. Maybe you want to create recipe cards, recipe books, meal planners, grocery planners, cookbooks, social media graphics, etc.
This way of coming up with a product line is helpful when you already have an existing audience. But, if you do not have an audience already, or if you’re setting up your shop on third-party marketplaces such as Etsy, for example, then you could also just go to Etsy and see what kind of digital templates people are selling. Do some research on this, and create a list of product types you’d like to design and sell on your Canva template shop.
Step 3: Create Canva templates to sell
Canva has a lot of pre-made templates that you can take inspiration from. However, it’s one thing to take inspiration from and another to copy something or take a template and make some adjustments.
If you cannot come up with your own designs, then please, forget selling templates for now, and instead, focus on learning and honing your design skills.
However, the thing with pre-made templates is that they’re already on Canva. So, why would someone pay you to purchase a similar template?
Your designs need to be sufficiently different, and of better quality, if you want people to pay you.
So, be careful where you draw your inspiration from.
Step 4: Prepare a PDF with your Canva template link
When you create a design in Canva, you share it with your buyers as a template.
Once you’re done designing, you’ll need to do the following:
- Get the sharable template link from the design.
- Create a PDF that will contain the sharable template link.
- Add the shareable template link to your PDF.
- Once done, and you’ve created a product, you’ll set this PDF as the deliverable so that when someone buys a product, they receive this PDF. Once they have the PDF, they can then access your design.
Here are the steps:
Get the shareable Canva template link
In the design window that you’re creating to sell, click on the share button, and then at the bottom of the dropdown that appears, click the three dots.
In the next drop-down window, find and click the tab that says “Template link.”
This will open another section and it has a button that says “Create template link.” Click that link.
This will create the template link. In the next drop-down window, you should see the template link. This is the link you’ll be sharing with your buyers.
Create a PDF document with the template link.
Just like you’d create any design on Canva, you start with a blank US letter-size document. Add some text to this document such as your logo, your business info, etc.
You can also say something like: Thank you for your purchase. Here’s your Canva template link. And then whatever else you want to share with your buyers.
The document should have the template link that you copied earlier from the design (you can either insert the entire link or hyperlink it.)
When done, save the document as a PDF. This will be the PDF that people will receive when they purchase your template. All eCommerce platforms have a designated area for what people will receive when they make a purchase. For digital products, you should see some kind of download file option. Make sure to add your PDF there.
For example, on WooCommerce, when you select “Virtual” and “Downloadable” products, it gives you the option to select a file. That’s where you select the PDF you just created with the template link in it. And on the front end, when someone makes a purchase, they get an email with this PDF.
When they open the PDF, they can click the link, and it takes them to their own Canva account and creates an exact replica (copy) of your Canva design. But since it’s a copy of the design, they can make adjustments on their end, without messing up your master design.
Here’s a video if you need some help with this getting the template link and creating a PDF.
Step 5: Create product images
Your buyers do not see the actual product, and so, to make sure your products are desirable to your potential customers, create stunning product images.
Step 6: Decide on your product price
Having the right pricing is important. Since there is no “established” pricing guide, you’ll need to do some homework and decide for yourself the best and optimal price for your products.
In terms of “doing the homework”, check some of the Canva product prices out there that are similar to the products that you’re creating. You can do this by visiting other Canva sellers’ shops. Creative Market and Etsy — two of the biggest Canva template marketplaces — are good places to start.
Step 7: List your Canva templates for selling
Now that you have everything you need, start listing your products in your shops.
If you haven’t created a shop yet, go ahead and set up those shops, then start listing the items.
How to add your products on WooCommerce
Adding a product in WooCommerce is simple enough, just like adding a post or a page, with some additional fields for product images, price, inventory, etc. Here’s a quick rundown:
Go to WordPress Dashboard > Products > Add New.
Add your titles and descriptions. WooCommerce has two separate description boxes—a short description you typically see next to the product, and a long description that allows you to add more details of your product.
You also have two different places, within the WordPress product editor page, where you can add images. One of them is the “product image”, which is the main product image that shows up on the Shop page, as well as the first (larger) image that people see on the single product page. The other section is the “product gallery”, which is where you can add additional photos.
Towards the middle of the product editor, you’ll see the section where you can do all the fun stuff, like, setting the price, adding the actual downloadable product (the PDF deliverable), etc. Let’s take a closer look!
(Follow the images!)
Choose “simple product”, and check both virtual and downloadable.
Make sure to choose “Simple Product”, and then check both “Virtual” and “Downloadable”.
Under the “General” tab, set your price, and add the files your buyers will be able to download upon purchase.
You can also set a download limit and expiry if you want to. If you do not want to set any limits, just leave those blank.
Set inventory if you want.
Under the “Inventory” tab, you can set up how many products you’re selling. These are digital products, so, technically, you do not need to set a limit or have inventory. It is totally up to you whether or not you want to set a limit to how many of these products you’ll sell.
Also, since they’re all digital, downloadable products, there is no reason to allow backorders.
I also make sure to check “Sold individually”. Nobody needs multiple copies of the same digital product by mistake. It may cause confusion if someone accidentally chose more than one product; then you’ll need to deal with refunds and you don’t want to waste time with that.
You’ll also see places for adding product images. One of them is the main product image that shows on the shop page. The gallery is where you add additional images. Potential buyers will be able to see them on the single product page. These additional photos are meant to give the potential buyers a better understanding of what they can expect from the product.
Add product images.
There are more options inside a product page, but they’re not necessary to start selling a product. If you want to learn more about some of these features, please refer to the WooCommerce setup tutorial for digital products.
Once you have added your product and you have clicked “Publish”, your item will be available for others to purchase.
Please DO check out the post I linked above, as it has more in-depth information for WooCommerce setup and best practices for selling digital and downloadable products, specifically! That post also goes over setting up payment options for PayPal and Stripe.
List your Canva templates on Etsy
Etsy is one of the easiest platforms to set up your shop on and start selling digital products, including Canva templates.
Aside from having a simple user interface that makes setting up shop and listing products super easy, Etsy also comes with its own set of tools to drive more traffic and get more sales. Its algorithm rewards sellers with high-quality products and great customer service. Etsy also comes with its native ads system that’s easy to set up and start promoting products.
What’s more, Etsy takes only a 5% cut of the sales which is much lower than many other third-party marketplaces.
List your Canva templates on Creative Market
Another platform is Creative Market. It’s a marketplace specifically for selling digital products, and many a Canva template seller —has found an audience there. Creative Market’s algorithm seems to be on the side of the sellers. you can get a lot of sales on that platform with minimal to no promotional efforts on end.
The downside, if you can call it that, is that setting up a shop on Creative Market has to go through a vetting process. You have to apply to be a creator first. An actual human will review your application and decide whether or not your products are good enough for their platform.
Step 8: Promote your products
Now it’s time to sell the products!
Etsy and Creative Market tend to drive a fair bit of internal traffic my way, so I barely need to do any promotions on my end.
Etsy even has its own promotion methods where they advertise your products for a daily ad budget that you can set up on your end.
As you may know, getting traction on Pinterest requires creating amazeballs Pin graphics. Make sure to create beautiful Pin graphics that other Pinterest users will be tempted to click on. Hook them with great visuals from start to finish, until a potential customer converts to a buying customer.
Regularly pin your products. Try to aim for at least 3/4 Pins per week, but more is better. Don’t spam though. Rotate out the products you pin on any week.
Aside from Pinterest, you may also promote your products on any other social media platform you use, as well as your email list, if you have one. Let your subscribers know when a new product is out, a few of them will likely convert.
Some Things to Pay Attention to
This wraps up everything you need to know about how to make money selling Canva templates. In this final section, I want to bring your attention to a couple of important things that you need to be mindful of.
Pricing your products
Pricing is super important when it comes to selling your Canva templates. If your products are pricier than comparable templates out there, then you’ll likely lose some customers. If your prices are too cheap, then some customers may be doubtful of the product quality.
Depending on what your products are, make sure to do some research and find out a pricing range for these products. Try to keep your pricing around that range.
Writing product descriptions
This is where you get to describe what the product is. Give as many details as possible:
What’s the product? (An eBook? A pricing sheet? Social Media templates?)
Who it is for?
What the product can be used for?
What’s in the product?
How to use this product?
Etc.
Think about all the questions and inquiries a buyer may have and give that information within your product description.
About product licensing
It is good practice to have a product license document. You can either create a document, or, if you’re selling on your website, you can create a section or a page with the license details.
Some platforms like Creative Market or Design Bundles come with their own license, so you need not worry about creating your own when you sell on those platforms. But if you’re selling on your own website, you may want to specify your own set of licenses.
Personally, I like Creative Market’s licensing terms and have crafted my own that’s similar to theirs. Of course, I have used my own verbiage to write down the terms. But essentially, the terms are very similar. If you’re unsure of what kind of license to use for your products, do give Creative Market license terms a read.
And that’s it!
How to Sell Templates on Canva (as a Canva Creator)
I cannot discuss the details of this program since it is run by Canva. But these are some of the key points you need to know:
- First thing first, you must apply to be a Canva Creator.
- They have strict rules, and if you’re approved to become a creator for Canva, then I suggest you pay careful attention to these rules or your templates won’t be approved.
- All templates must go through an approval process (even if you’re an approved creator) and this can take time. Sometimes the process is pretty fast and other times it’s really, really slow.
- You do not actually “sell” your templates on Canva. You cannot set your own prices either. You simply submit your templates, and if Canva approves them, then you earn a royalty based on how many people use your template. The royalty depends on Canva and we don’t know a whole lot about how it is calculated.
How much can you earn as a Canva Creator?
It depends on how many templates you design, how many get approved, and a bunch of other factors. Obviously, the more templates you have, the more money you’ll make.
It is hard for me to say how much you can make because the program is always changing. When I first joined a few years ago, right after they launched the beta program, I was making well over a thousand bucks per month with just a handful of templates.
But with time, even though I created more templates and more people were using my templates, my earnings dropped. That’s part of the reason why I prefer selling on my own shops because I know exactly how much I’m earning from where.
Also, I make way more money from my shops than from the Canva Creator program. And if you want to learn the ins and outs of selling Canva templates on your own shops, then I highly recommend you sign up for my online course — Side Income With Canva Templates.
To be or not to be… a Canva Creator
There’s no harm in joining the program, is there?
Personally, and it really is my personal opinion, I prefer selling Canva templates on my own shops for the reasons I mentioned above. But that’s me. Again, there’s no harm in joining, so why not try it out? If you do not like it, then there’s that.
Is this the right time for you to start selling Canva templates?
So, you’ve learned the basics of selling Canva templates. But are you serious about this new business? Are you ready to create your Canva-template side hustle at this time? If you want to maximize your Canva template side hustle,
Frequently Asked Questions
How much can I really make selling Canva templates?
Depending on how many products you're selling, where you're selling, how you're promoting, how consistently you create new products, how much they cost, and most importantly, the quality of your Canva templates, you can make anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month.
Can I use Canva elements, fonts, or images (free or pro) on my templates?
Yep, you can! But just as a good practice, I prefer to use only free elements and free fonts in my templates. That way, even if a buyer doesn't have Canva pro, they're still able to use the templates with a free Canva account. If you use pro elements, the buyer will be able to use them, but they won't be able to download the design without upgrading to Canva Pro—creating additional cost on their end.
Is it legal to sell Canva templates?
Absolutely! Just make sure that the templates you're selling are, in fact, designed by you, and not an edited version of someone else's template, or any of Canva's templates from their template library/marketplace.
What other legal matters should I be aware of?
The same as running any business. I can't give those advice here because business rules and legal matters vary from state to state and then country to country. Do you need to pay taxes? Find out income thresholds to see if you need to. Do you need to collect sales taxes? Find out if digital goods are tax collectible or not from your local government website. Do you need to register as a business or can you pay taxes as self-employed? Those are also things you have to find out from your local government.
Who buys Canva templates?
Anyone who has a business or uses social media is a potential customer. Some examples would be: bloggers, coaches and consultants, educators, course creators, small business owners, freelancers, writers, authors, local shops and restaurants, and more.
Does Canva own my designs or do I?
You do! When you sell a template, depending on the license terms you set forth, your buyers will have rights to use your templates as per your terms. But you're the owner of your designs.
Do I have to be a graphic designer to sell Canva templates?
You need to be able to design beautiful and functional templates. Some people come from a graphic design background, others teach themselves. A graphic design background isn't necessary to sell Canva templates, but a love for good design and willingness to learn is a must.
Can I still make money selling Canva templates in 2024?
More and more people are starting a business, becoming freelancers, or at least starting a side hustle. That means they need to build a brand, grow an audience, and establish social media presence. Also, with education moving into the online realm, even educators are finding themselves needing documents and graphics that they may not have the skills to create. Canva is easy to learn and use, so anyone can take a pre-made template, and customize it to meet their needs. If anything, the Canva template market is only just beginning! This is your chance to cash in on this new opportunity!
Comments
Post a Comment