How to Sell Canva Templates on Etsy: Earning While Having Fun
If you are creative and inventive, this is your sign to stop wasting your day sitting around and keeping your creations to yourself.
Instead, share your talents with the world and make passive income while having fun and relaxing in the comfort of your home.
All you have to do is learn how to sell Canva templates on Etsy.
Isn’t it a tempting offer? It’s quite easy, too. Just design several digital downloads once, and sell them over and over again.
Whether you’re an amateur or experienced graphic designer, through generating Canva designs, the possibilities to express your originality are endless.
Too ideal to even be real.
That said, a lot of thought goes into the process: what types of templates to design, what sells best in the market, the ideal place to sell your creations, and so on.
Considering both Canva and Etsy as options is already a step in the right direction. All you need now is a bit more guidance.
What Is a Canva Template?
It may be old news, but if you’re still new to graphic designing, you probably never heard of Canva templates.
So, before you decide to selling them, it would be a good idea to get to know what a Canva template actually is. Put simply, it is a pre-created design offered as a base for any user to edit.
It means that once downloaded, you can use the frame and play around with colors, elements, and fonts to repurpose the design into various digital formats.
How to Make Canva Templates That You Can Sell
So how exactly do you go about designing, formatting, and selling Canva templates? Follow these steps:
1. Do Your Research and Find Your Niche
Before starting your design, you need to know how marketable the product you wish to create is.
You should ask yourself, “Are there enough people interested in buying what I am trying to offer?
To get the answer, you must do market research and product validation. Don’t worry; it is not as complicated or technical as it sounds.
First, decide on the kind of templates you wish to create and form a product list. There is an excellent variety of design options to pick from.
You can choose to create templates for social media or blog graphics and design Instagram stories, Facebook posts, media kits, brochures, posters, Pinterest pin graphics, YouTube thumbnails or banners, and the list goes on.
If that isn’t your strongest suit, you can also go for more professional or academic options like eBooks, infographics, presentations, and resumes.
Once decided, head over to Etsy, go to the search bar, and type in the keywords that match the template types in the product list you prepared.
Look for the most frequently purchased and searched phrases by customers.
Doing so will validate your product choice, as you will now have an idea of how well your product might perform against other template types.
2. Create a Brand for Yourself
Often an overlooked step, creating a unique brand is crucial for a successful business.
It is important to narrow down your target to the specific audience you wish to sell these templates to so that you can find the right branding for your shop.
Meaning, for your brand to attract the ideal customer, it has to represent them as much as it represents you.
From the right logo to the chosen style and color palette, everything matters when it comes to appealing to the right audience.
You would not design a professional resume template the same way you design a three-year-old’s birthday party poster.
3. Plan Out the Canva Templates
Now is when the fun really begins! Once you have figured out exactly what you feel like selling and what type of templates you want to create, it’s time to start designing.
You might want to look at a few templates available on Canva for inspiration to get an insight into what is currently popular.
However, this, by all means, does not infer copying the art, as it would count as plagiarism. So do check them out, but do not start designing on a pre-made template.
It goes against Canva’s terms of use to alter and modify original templates to sell them as your own work.
To avoid copyright infringement, start by opening up a completely blank page, choosing the right dimensions for your design project, and adding elements and clipart from Canva images.
That said, we highly recommend that you sign up for CanvaPro.
What Are the Benefit of Signing Up for CanvaPro?
Although the free Canva version is excellent for getting you into the craft of template customization, it might not be enough when your main goal is to make it a business.
You get free images and graphics, but not only are they limited, but when downloaded will also have the Canva watermark on them.
Also, even if you can purchase the design you create individually for 1$, it just makes more sense cost- and time-wise to sign up for a Canva Pro license.
This way, for 119$ a year, you can design an unlimited number of templates with way more opportunities to showcase your artistic talents. You even get a 30-day free trial to kick off the experience.
Once upgraded to a Canva Pro account, you will gain exclusive benefits.
Enhance your basic-looking templates with all the additional elements you can access, like premium frames, vignette filters, audio, videos, and graphics.
Additionally, editing features like the magic resize and background remover tools will give you more control over the dimensions and background of the product you are trying to design.
Plus, the Brand Kit feature offers you the chance to design icons. With a professional and personalized brand logo, match your art to your business’ identity.
4. Save Your Canva Template as a PDF Deliverable
It may seem like a step not worth mentioning, but it is very crucial to save your templates the right way.
Here are a few considerations to keep in mind before exporting your product:
Check the Template Size
Make sure the template size matches the functionality intended for the product. For instance, YouTube banner templates should have the right dimensions to fit.
Double-Check the File Format
The correct file type should allow users to access a copy of the template, which can be edited.
That said, the original template should remain intact, so you must ensure it won’t be affected by any changes your customers wish to make.
A PDF format will allow you to do so with ease. All you need to do is then add a shareable Canva link in the PDF file you saved.
It will be the deliverable you send your customers when they purchase your template.
Now you are ready to open your own Etsy shop to sell your Canva templates!
Why Sell Your Canva Templates on Etsy?
Etsy is the perfect online market platform for independent artists to sell their products and attract a huge pool of customers.
The options are endless. You can find literally any product you can think of on this platform.
This platform stands out from other online shops because the sellers completely make everything you see for sale.
These products include toys, jewelry, home goods, digital art, furniture, shopping clothes, crafts, and more.
Even better, after signing up for an Etsy account, you automatically get 40 listings for free. Plus, each additional listing will cost you $0.2.
How to Sell Canva Templates on Etsy
To succeed in selling the templates you created on Etsy, here are the steps you need to take:
1. Open a Shop on Etsy
The process of opening a business shop on Etsy is simple too.
Here's what you need to do:
Sign up using your email and open a seller account.
Follow the prompts and guidelines to fill in all your personal details, including your bank account.
That's it! Get ready to list your first product and officially open your Etsy shop.
2. List Your Deliverable on Etsy
Listings are essential if you want to increase your chances of being discovered by customers and appearing in search results on Etsy.
To get started, it would be wise to have at least 10 listings.
3. Enhance Your Listings With Mockups and Thumbnails
Properly preparing your Canva templates for selling will require a few more steps.
Namely, you would want to work on enhancing your products’ look and making them more appealing to customers.
A great way to bring life and personality into your product is to replace standard images with mockups.
Not only does it give the product a more professional finish, but through various navigation visuals, it also allows the customer to have a rough idea of how the Canva template looks and can be used.
Don’t worry; it's nothing too complicated. You can design the mockup on Canva as well.
The first thing your customer sees is the thumbnail which usually is the first image or mockup you upload for a listing.
Change or edit it to your liking, then add a title, optional product attributes, listing description, PDF files, and your chosen pricing.
With that, you have successfully uploaded your listings and opened your shop!
4. Boost Sales With Etsy SEO
With everything set and ready, all that's left to do is to optimize all your chances of getting discovered.
Luckily, these features come built in with third-party online platforms like Etsy. From your end, it is enough just to learn how to utilize them to your best advantage.
It will require incorporating keywords and phrases into the listing title and description as well as in the texts within the uploaded images or mockups.
You really want the words you chose to be relevant to your product and be exactly the phrases you expect your customers will type when searching for Canva templates.
The more work you put into SEO researching, the wider the audience you get the chance to target.
If you are still new and looking for additional resources to gain more visibility and customer engagement for your shop, you can purchase Etsy ads.
It may not be for everyone, but it can still give you a head start at getting better search ranking.
5. Advertise on Social Media
To build a huge online user base, you don't need to wait for them to come to your shop.
Instead, head to the most interactive social media platforms and fetch customers yourself.
Although the SEO marketing platform of Etsy is more than enough to drive good traffic to your shop and boost your sales, you can go the extra mile and promote your product on different social media apps and websites.
A good example would be marketing your Canva templates on Pinterest. For this to work, you need to consistently promote your shop using high-quality pin graphics for each designed template.
The good news, you can also create beautiful pins on Canva. To attract a huge audience naturally, regularly rotate which product you are pinning to avoid spam-like sharing of the same link.
Once you get the hang of it, you can experiment with other platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and YouTube.
Any social media website works as long as you put in the effort to always be consistent and committed to providing quality content.
Read also: How to Improve Sales on Etsy
Start Selling Your Canva Templates on Your Etsy Shop!
Now that you've learned how to sell Canva templates on Etsy, you are good to go!
Its the perfect side hustle for anyone creative who wants an easy and seamless way to turn their passion into a business opportunity.
So, get ready to start earning money while doing something fun. Your journey starts now.
Sign up for Canva Pro and start designing professional products to sell on your Etsy shop.
If you haven’t got a shop or seller’s account yet, what are you waiting for? Here is your sign. Head over to Etsy and start your business with 40 free listings.
Join the beautiful community and start showcasing your stunning digital work.
Good luck!
