Selling printables can be a profitable side-hustle. Maybe you already have some printable ideas, but you don’t know where to sell digital printables. In this post, you can find out about the best platforms for selling printables, including Etsy and Shopify, but also other options worth trying. You can check out two courses that teach you how to sell printables on Etsy and other sites, and you can download a free eGuide with the best selling printables!
Selling printables can be a great side business because you only need to put in a little bit of work upfront and then you can sell the item over and over again. It’s just like with selling digital downloads.
When you sell physical products, such as art prints or other items you can make money with as a digital artist, you have to take care of printing, packaging, and shipping. With digital products, you don’t have to worry about any of these!
There are several opportunities where to sell digital printables online and generate a profitable passive income. The most popular place to sell printables is probably Etsy. Even though it is worth selling printables on Etsy, there are other places besides Etsy that offer great potential, too. A site similar to Etsy – and at least with as much potential – is Creative Market.
SendOwl, Gumroad and Podia are platforms especially designed for selling digital goods. If you want more control over your printable selling business, you can build your own artist website.
Shopify is a popular platform for printable sellers, but you can also create a WordPress site and add an e-commerce plugin like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce and start selling through your own online store.
But, without further ado, let’s delve straight into the best ways to sell digital printables:
What are Printables?
Printables are files created by an artist or other creative that people can buy and print out themselves.
These days, printables are quite in demand. People use them for various purposes, like organizing, planning, website creation – or simply to enjoy if it’s for example artwork or inspirational quotes.
Here are some examples of printable ideas to sell:
Printable ideas to sell
- Artwork and photos
- Quotes (with or without artwork)
- Calendar planners
- Project planners (e.g. wedding planners)
- Meal, diet and fitness planners
- Coloring sheets (for kids and adults)
- Stickers
- Templates (e.g. diary and notebook templates)
- Checklists
- Worksheets and spreadsheets
- Stationery
- Grab Your Free Best Selling Printables eGuide
How to sell printables online
Selling digital printables is not as hard as you might think. You don’t need to be a creative genius to make a printable!
All you need is some basic text processing software like Word, Excel, Google Docs or Sheets. Special desktop publishing software isn’t required. But if you already have something like MS Publisher or Adobe InDesign, it can help make your printable creation easier!
A graphic program isn’t a must either, but it can definitely help if you want to create more intricate designs. Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are surely powerful tools to design your printables, but they are pretty costly.
Don’t worry, here are some free and more affordable options:
- Canva is a free tool to create all types of visuals. They offer a paid version that is still affordable but the free version already takes you a long way.
- Gimp is a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
- Inkscape is a free alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
- PicMonkey for $8 a month is a software similar to Canva.
- Procreate for $10 (one-time purchase) is a drawing and painting app for the iPhone and iPad.
- Affinity Designer is also a one-time purchase software ($50 for desktop, $20 for iPad) that is a more affordable alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
Then, what you absolutely need to make digital printables is a PDF creator.
You can create PDFs with MS Office or Open Office for free. But if you want your printables to be editable, so that people can for example tick checklists, you’ll need a special PDF maker. There are several free options and one of the best is PDF Escape.
Are Printables profitable?
In fact, printables are one of the most profitable digital downloads to sell. They are so popular for a number of reasons.
One reason is that people love custom-made products that are not available in every consumer store.
Then, digital printables are very easy to order online. You can browse through a lot of products before making your decision.
There is such a huge variety on the internet that you wouldn’t find in the physical world.
How much money can you make selling printables?
With that said, there is surely great potential in making money selling printables.
But how much money you can eventually make, totally depends on you! First of all, it depends on the popularity of the digital printables you are selling. Some printables are more popular than others.
That’s why I’ve put together the 60+ Best Selling Printables to help you choose the most profitable niches.
Another factor is your audience. Do you already have a large audience in place that is interested in buying your products? If you don’t have a customerbase yet, you will need to put a bit more work into promoting your products before selling becomes profitable for you.
Last but not least, it depends on the number of items you have on sale. The money artists make selling digital printables varies largely. There are sellers who make between $100 and $400 a month (which is already a nice passive income).
Becky, for example, who runs the site Mombeach.com, made $113.57 in one month selling printables. Another example is Julie from the Millennialboss.com, who earned $341.92 in a month from selling bachelorette party-themed tattoos and digital downloads.
Some of the best selling artists, however, make up to a couple of thousand dollars in a month, some up to $5,000 and more.
Learn selling digital printables
Did that spark your interest in getting started with digital printables? Before we get into where to sell digital printables, I want to suggest two courses to all those who wish to learn how to create printables.
Best courses on selling printables
This Skillshare course is taught by long-time illustrator and creator Shayna Sell. You will learn how to turn your original artwork into digital products to sell on Etsy (and other digital art selling platforms). You will see how to create a greeting card, get tips for selecting and designing art to sell, and how to use greeting card templates with Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. The course is adequate for beginners and includes 11 class projects to help get up and running quickly!
This Udemy course is a complete guide for beginners led by Dana Gore. Besides learning how to create digital printables using free apps, you will also learn how to find printable ideas to sell. Dana will show you where to find fonts and graphics for commercial use, and how to watermark your art to protect it from being stolen. Once you register for this course, you will get full lifetime access or your money back within the first 30 days, if you don’t like it!
Where to sell digital printables?
Once you have the perfect digital printables, it is time to decide where to sell them.
Some printable selling platforms are free, but all will require some type of payment. That could mean they will charge you a monthly subscription or transactions fees.
On the list, you’ll find options that you can add to your website and social media, but also platforms that allow you to create your own online store.
Read through them all, and in the end, pick the one that is best suited to your needs!
Best places to sell digital printables
I’m sure you noticed that both courses that I suggested above focus on how to sell printables on Etsy. (Of course, you can also apply the information to selling printables on platforms other than Etsy.)
This just goes to show that it’s definitely worth selling printables on Etsy!
Etsy is a very popular marketplace for art products of all types. Custom and handmade items are particularly in demand.
It’s super-easy – and free – to create an account, and selling on Etsy is very affordable. You’ll need to pay $0.20 for each item listed. The listing will be up for four months. Once someone purchases your product, you’ll be charged a transaction fee of 5% of the purchase price. If you use Etsy payments, they’ll also collect a 3.5% + $0.25 processing fee. But you can also choose other payment gateways.
Click here to get 40 Free Listings when you sign up for Etsy today!
Creative Market is a popular place to sell digital products of all types. There is a huge market for printables, too. Simply by searching for ‘printables’, you will see more than 50,000 products on offer!
Creative Market already has a large audience of art enthusiasts in place. For you, that means it will be easier to find potential customers and make money selling printables.
Detailed analytics and tracking tools will show you which of your products are selling well and for which you will still need to promote a bit more. You can set your own prices; commission rates are fair and based on your shop and product.
Printables are a profitable niche, so it’s definitely worth signing up for Creative Market today!
SendOwl is a provider that focuses exclusively on selling virtual products and services. You can host and deliver your digital offers through the platform.
However, you’ll need to have your own website in place (for example on Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, or WordPress). Or, you can sell via social media or email marketing tools.
Related: How To Make A Website For Digital Art – Best Website Builder For Artists
Nevertheless, selling digital printables with SendOwl is super-easy. All you need to do is add a Buy It Now/Add To Cart button to your blog posts or emails using the generated code. Plus, they have a whole lot of sales and marketing features as well as in-depth analytics – everything you need to start a digital online business!
SendOwl doesn’t charge any transaction fees, but you will have to subscribe to one of their monthly plans, the cheapest starting at $15. Before making your choice, you can start with the FREE 30-Day SendOwl Trial here!
Shopify is probably one of the most popular ecommerce platforms in the market. You can use it to sell physical products (including drop-shipping art prints), but you can also sell anything digital – from printables, to downloads, to subscriptions and memberships.
Shopify is easy to use and highly customizable. It allows you to create your own website and online store using the visual page builder. All you need to do is pick one of the ready-made templates and fill it with your own content. You can make your site look the way you want, so it matches your artist brand!
You will get powerful selling features, unlimited bandwidth and a custom domain name – even on their most affordable Basic plan.
Apart from that, you can integrate various payment options, run marketing campaigns, and send newsletters. To see if Shopify is the place where you want to sell digital printables, test Shopify FREE for 14 days here!
Gumroad is a selling platform for creatives of all types. Artists, writers, musicians, podcasters, and educators use Gumroad to sell digital products and services. You can sell digital printables, downloads, subscriptions, license keys, and pre-orders, and there’s the option to sell physical products, too.
Gumroad is similar to SendOwl in that you can get Buy Now buttons to embed in your own website, social media, or promotional emails.
Gumroad is one of the least expensive platforms on the list. The basic Gumroad plan is free but offers limited options only. If you want to use affiliate marketing tools, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan for $10 per month. On each plan, you’ll be charged a fee of 3.5% and 30 cents for each transaction.
Do you feel this is the place where to sell digital printables? Then get started with Gumroad for FREE here!
Podia caters to all things digital. It’s a profitable way to sell downloads, courses, webinars, memberships, and digital printables. In fact, Podia states that printables are one of the most popular digital downloads to sell on the platform.
As opposed to SendOwl and Grumroad, Podia allows you to create your own website and online store. The intuitive drag-and-drop builder allows you to customize everything to your personal liking, including website and store, landing and sales pages. A custom domain name and web hosting are included in the package.
Podia allows creators to sell unlimited digital downloads and doesn’t charge any transaction fees.
Pricing starts at $39 per month for the Mover plan. But before committing, you can start with a FREE 14-Day Trial of Podia here.
WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to sell both digital and physical products. The good news is that the plugin itself is completely free!
However, you need to have your own WordPress site that needs to be hosted somewhere. Hosting services are payable, but you can get hosting for as little as $2.49 a month. Recommended hosting providers (that are also endorsed by WordPress themselves) are Bluehost and Siteground.
Creating a website with WordPress is not as hard as you might think, even though you’ll need to invest a bit more time than when using one of the easier website builders. I have an entire tutorial on how to make an artist website with WordPress in 5 easy steps, and lots of other useful and free WordPress tutorials.
Installing WooCommerce is as simple as installing any other plugin. You can customize your store to match your personal brand and offer as many products as you wish.
I am using WooCommerce for my web store as well and I am absolutely happy with it. It was easy to set up and the shop pages look super-beautiful. You can see that it comes with an off-canvas search bar and different filter options.
You will also get lots other features for free, including coupons and discounts, upsells and cross-sells, shipping zones, tax rate calculation, and much much more.
I recommend WooCommerce for selling both digital and physical products. To learn more, check out my Ultimate Guide To Selling Art On WordPress – WooCommerce For Artists.
Easy Digital Downloads is a WordPress plugin just like WooCommerce. But as its name suggests, it is exclusively for digital products.
The plugin is straightforward to use and lets you customize the products pages to match your website design. You can use shortcodes to embed your digital products anywhere you wish, including your blog posts.
You can use Easy Digital Downloads for free, but then you can collect payments only via PayPal. If you wish to use other payment options, you will need to upgrade at least to the Personal Pass for $99 per year. The plan applies to one site and comes with all email marketing extensions.
To get access to more third-party extensions, you’ll need to upgrade to the Extended Pass for $199 per year (1 site, all email marketing and payment gateway extensions).
If you already have a WordPress site with a customer base in place, then why not try Easy Digital Downloads now?
- Grab Your Free Best Selling Printables eGuide
Do you still think it’s not possible to make money selling digital printables? Then check out Brandon Timothy’s passive income tutorial on how he made 70K+ selling printable wall art on Etsy!
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Thank you Angie for writing this wonderful and honest article about creating printables. You see i’m a 40-ish yr old mother who went back to school in graphic design and i’m finishing my course this december. I’m planning on being a freelancer but my plans were also to create digital items to sell in order to create a passive income. Thank you so much for laying it all out there in black & white, and it didn’t scare me away so that will still be in my futur plans.
Amanda, that sounds fantastic! I think selling digital printables and other downloadable files is always a good idea because it’s so low-maintenance. Once you’ve created your digital item, you can sell it over and over again and create a passive income. Go for it! I’m sure it’ll work just fine (: