Pinterest Pin Design: Anatomy of the Perfect Pinterest Pin

April 28, 2022 by Simplifying DIY Design Leave a Comment

Are you struggling with establishing a Pinterest pin design? Between the updates with Idea pins and the push for fresh pins, creating the perfect pin design isn’t as easy as it once was. Fortunately, designing pins can be quick, easy, and fun with the right Pinterest design tips!

This is a guest post by Domitille of Mademoiselle Social. See the end of the article for more information about her, her company, and how you can create the perfect Pinterest pin design!

Let’s see how you can create a click-worthy Pinterest pin design and get more people to click on them by breaking down the anatomy of the perfect Pinterest pin.

HOW DO YOU CREATE A PIN FOR PINTEREST?

Before we dive in, let’s take a look at the different methods you can use to create a Pinterest pin.

As of May 2022, there are three ways you can create a pin for Pinterest.

Pinterest’s native pin design maker
Design software like Canva
Tailwind Create

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Creating high-converting Pinterest pins is possible once you know what Pinterest wants. Here's the anatomy of the perfect Pinterest pin design for 2022!

HOW DO YOU MAKE A PIN DESIGN ON PINTEREST?

To design a Pinterest pin with the native pin maker, you’ll click on ‘Create’ from the top menu bar then ‘Create Pin’. Once you’re in the native pin maker, you can add an image and then start adding text.

It’s fair to say that the graphic design options for the native pin maker are limited and not super easy to use.

Once you’ve designed your Pinterest pin and added your title and description, choose a board, click ‘Save’, and voilà you published your Pinterest pin design!

HOW DO YOU MAKE A PINTEREST PIN ON CANVA?

The second option to create a click-worthy Pinterest pin design is to use a design program like Canva. You can also use PicMonkey, Snappa, or any other graphic design software that you like, it works the same.

Canva provides templates for Pinterest pins that you can use and customize for your brand or you can start from scratch.

Create a new design
Upload an image
Add your text
Download to your computer

In order to upload it on Pinterest, you can either use the native pin maker that we talked about above or upload it to a scheduler like Tailwind.

With the native pin maker, you would upload the created images in the pin maker, add the title, description, and URL. Choose your board and click on ‘Save.’

It’s also where you upload your pins in “bulk” by clicking the ‘+’ in the top left corner. This is a HUGE time-saver for content creators that design multiple pins at a time.

With Tailwind*, you can upload the Pinterest pin design to Tailwind, add the title and description, choose your board and schedule it in your queue!

*If you’re new to the term Tailwind, it’s an automatic scheduler used by a lot of Pinterest users to schedule their pins ahead of time and have them automatically published on Pinterest.

HOW DO YOU MAKE A PINTEREST PIN USING TAILWIND?

The last option I want to talk about with you when it comes to making pins for Pinterest is to use Tailwind’s native pin maker: Tailwind Create! It’s like your very own Pinterest pin generator software.

With Tailwind Create, you can design plenty of pins straight in Tailwind.

Click on create, choose your designs, add your branding, and your text and choose a picture. Tailwind does the rest by creating multiple Pin designs for you.

You can choose your favorites and add them to your queue to be published or adjust them to your liking.

Canva and Tailwind are great options if you need some Pinterest pin design ideas since you can use templates and find inspiration right in the software.

Now that we saw three ways you could be making your pins for Pinterest, let’s review the different types of pins you can encounter on the platform before we go into how to design your Pinterest pins for clicks and traffic.

THE TWO TYPES OF PINTEREST PINS YOU CAN USE

Currently, you can create two different formats of Pinterest pins.

Standard pins: Been around since Pinterest first started
Idea pins: Rolled out last year (2021)

The difference between these two types of pins is that the standard Pinterest pin links outside of Pinterest (traffic to your website) and the Idea pins do NOT.

Both of these types of pins can be either static images or videos. And to add more confusion to the matter, you can also create Carousel pins which are still considered standard pins.

For Idea pins, they can be designed with multiple images but we call them “pages” and therefore, they’re not considered a Carousel pin.

SIDE NOTE: If you need help making sense of all these formats and learning how to use them in your Pinterest strategy, you can get my Pin Cheatsheet!

Luckily for us though, all the different Pinterest pins that I listed require somewhat of the same design tips to make sure we’re creating click-worthy and scroll-stopping Pinterest pin designs!

Let’s take a look at what makes a good pin on Pinterest!

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PIN ON PINTEREST?

If you’re wondering how to make an attractive Pinterest pin, this is where you want to pay attention! A Pinterest pin design that converts usually follows three main elements!

The right format and size for your images
Beautiful imagery and design
Keyworded text

Let’s look at the anatomy of a perfect Pinterest pin design!

WHAT PINTEREST PIN SIZE SHOULD YOU USE?

Yes, the size of your pins does matter. Your Pinterest pin should always be a vertical design.

Pinterest recommends a ⅔ ratio when it comes to creating your Pinterest pins. It means that it could be 600px x 900px or 1000px x 1500px for example.

If we’re talking about creating Idea pins, then Pinterest recommends the following ratio: 1080px x 1920px (they’re very similar to the size of Instagram Stories)

Keep in mind that even if Pinterest recommends using the vertical format, you could also experiment with the square ratio of 600px x 600px to see if your audience answers better to that format.

I would keep it to a minimum, though, because a vertical Pinterest pin design is easier to read for users on the mobile app.

CHOOSE BEAUTIFUL IMAGERY FOR YOUR BACKGROUND AND TASTEFUL DESIGN

Pinterest is a visual search engine so the images you choose to illustrate your pin do matter as much as the overall design of the Pinterest pins!

The pictures you choose should always be of high quality and related to the content of the Pinterest pins.

Pinterest can “find objects” on your image and associate it with keywords. If you choose a picture of a dog when your Pinterest pin is about a chocolate cake recipe, Pinterest won’t have much trust in your pin and won’t distribute it very much.

When it comes to the choice of your font, we want to make sure that you’re using fonts that are easy to read. Keep in mind that 80% of Pinterest users are on mobile devices!

If they can’t read your text, they won’t click on your pins. It’s that simple!

Handwritten fonts are beautiful but they should be used in moderation. Readability over cuteness, that’s what you’re shooting for!

The design of your pins in itself should highlight the most important part of your title, the piece of information that will make your audience think “yes, that’s exactly what I want to know, let me click on THAT pin!”

You want to make sure that your text pops up on your image so it’s easy to read and users know instantly what your pin is about. You can play around with different sizes of text and different fonts, underlining some part of the text that is important or using a different color like we did above.

The sky is the limit when it comes to creating your Pinterest pin design as long as you keep it easy to read!

The last design element we want to add is your branding!

BRANDING YOUR PINTEREST PIN DESIGN

It can be a simple logo or your website address as well as your branding colors. We simply want to make sure that we’re letting the users know where this pin is coming from. It’ll help with brand recognition and authority on the platform.

When it comes to your brand color, some businesses are very particular about their colors and won’t create Pinterest pins using other colors. But, it’s important to try things out.

Aim to create some Pinterest templates with your brand colors and some others using different colors.

The light blue/green (image 7) as well as the light orange (image 8) aren’t part of our brand.

You never know what will work best with your audience and that would be too bad to miss on a click because someone is not attracted to the colors you chose for your brand. (Yes, this happens!)

OPTIMIZE YOUR PINTEREST PIN DESIGN FOR SEO

We’re finishing our anatomy of the perfect Pinterest pin design with a key part: your keywords!

As we said earlier, Pinterest can read your image so they can extract keywords that help them categorize your content.

We want to make sure that these keywords are also appearing on the text of our pins! That’s where you can play with the size or the color of your text and make sure you’re highlighting those keywords for the users and for Pinterest!

And last but not least, make sure you’re using “calls to action” on your Pinterest pin design as well.

A call to action (or CTA) will help people take that next step! Tell them to “visit your website”, “read more on the blog”, or “download the free resource.”

The other part of your SEO will happen not on the design of your pins but in the title and the description that you will need to fill in before you publish it.

This is another important place where keywords should appear. Don’t keyword stuff, try to write two to three coherent sentences using keywords and describing what users can expect to find when they click on the pins.

WRAP UP

To summarize the perfect anatomy of a Pinterest pin design, you’ll need:

To create a vertical ⅔ ratio Pinterest pin
Use high-quality and relevant images for your background
Make sure your text is easy to read
Use a hierarchy to highlight the important information
Add your branding
Close with a strong call to action

Follow these Pinterest pin design tips and you’re on your way to creating some Pinterest magic!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Domitille is the founder of Mademoiselle Social. She helps service providers, online course creators and digital product owners create a sustainable and automatized marketing strategy to increase traffic to their offers and website using Pinterest as a top-of-funnel.

Get access to the Pin Cheatsheet & 50+ calls to action to create high-converting Pins on Pinterest & get clicks with my FREE Pinterest Pin Cheatsheet!

WANT TO REMEMBER THIS LATER? SAVE IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇

Gift Guide Template: How to Leverage Holidays to Grow Your List

October 27, 2021 by Simplifying DIY Design 5 Comments

How to Leverage Holidays to Grow Your List, Plus Free Gift Guide Template.

Quarter four is the best time to grow your business. Why? Because people have a ton of problems that they need solving.

They are overwhelmed, they are stressed to the max, they are looking to start fresh with the new year.

In this article, we will show you how to take advantage of growth opportunities this time of year, to grow your list and income!

How to Leverage Holidays to Grow Your List

Leading up to the Holidays, many people are desperately looking for ways to save money on traveling home for the holidays or decorating their home for the holidays.

Some are looking for that perfect recipe or gift to get for their loved ones. Others need ideas for ways to make more money for Christmas shopping.

You just need to know your reader. Know their pain point, and get creative with how to sell them the solution.

Because that’s the whole point of knowing what your reader is struggling with, so that it gives you the perfect opportunity to help them.

Solve their problem. Meet them on their level and fill that need.

Doing so will not only help your reader and help you establish a relationship with them but it will actually help you grow your business and set you up for a killer start to the new year.

Using a gift guide to solve problems

A gift guide is a perfect way to leverage holidays for business growth. In almost every niche, people are looking for gifts for the holiday season and they are likely pretty stressed out about it.

For many shoppers, having to buy gifts for others is an unpleasant task.

It’s not even the money aspect of it, it’s thinking about what to get them and then just hoping they like it.

My husband is the worst. He’s one of those “don’t get me anything, I don’t want anything, I have you” Sure, it’s “sweet”. But I usually respond with “You know damn well I’m gonna get you something anyway so you might as well tell me what you want!” Then he starts hitting me with like 3-4 different $400 items, and I’m just like, “forget it.” SO, if someone gave me a list of things that would be thoughtful and awesome to get him, I’d be all over it. On the flip side, I’d love a guide that has a bunch of stuff that I want to send to him because I’m just as bad when it comes to picking out gifts for myself or even my kids (they are too little to make their own lists).” – Kara F.,

So why not make this easier for your readers, and create a gift guide for them?

And of course, make all of your recommendations affiliate links so that you earn a commission when your readers buy what you recommend.

It’s a win-win for everyone!

To make this easy for you, we offer two Holiday template bundles. Check out The Holiday Gift Guide Bundle and the Holiday Template Toolkit.

In addition to these awesome Holiday gift guide template bundles, we also have a FREE gift guide template to give you today! Keep reading!

How to use a gift guide to solve problems

It’s important when promoting anything (from freebie to product or affiliate offer) that you hit your audience’s pain points and deliver the solution.

This is that pain point that they hear and they say “ohhh, that’s me!! I totally feel like that, I hate that!!”

Like when you say to the stay-at-home-mom,

“I know you are exhausted. You are trying SO hard and you feel like you are just not good enough. You want to be a good mom, and you are a good mom but I know you feel like the worst mom in the world some days. I get it, I’ve been there, and I hear you.”

Or when you say to the blogger,

“I know you are spinning your wheels. You are putting in o much time and effort and making so many sacrifices and you are just not getting it. You aren’t seeing the results you want to see and it feels like everyone else is reaching success except you. I know you’re frustrated, I know you want to throw your hands up, I know you’re burnt out.”

We use copy like this to draw awareness to a problem and to connect with the reader.

Now, can you tailor this to the Holiday season? Sure!

For example,

“The holidays are coming. I know you are spending your days cooking, cleaning, budgeting for gifts, preparing for (and entertaining) guests and doing ALL the things without a single break. You’re busy, you’re tired, and you need a break. I’m going to give you that break.”

Growing your list

Use your gift guide as a content upgrade.

Promote it on social media, share it in relevant Facebook groups, set up a paid ad promotion.

Get eyes on it, and do it approximately 1-2 months before the actual holiday (depending on your audience).

Set up a simple squeeze page (you can do this really easily with Elementor Page Builder Plugin (free) and write a post promoting it. Make at least 2-3 pins and social media images for your other platforms.

Need more help? Use our FREE social media templates available in our Design Library to get your creative juices flowin’!

The bottom line is that this should be a free download to get people on your list, not just a blog post.

Blog posts are great for traffic and should absolutely still be part of your strategy but offering a printable, more detailed version for someone to have handy in the gift-buying season can be a huge help.

AND boost your email list!

If those people are on your list, then you have them after the season is over and you can start nurturing them and turning them into raving fans.

Growing your income

A huge benefit of a gift guide is that it is an opportunity to grow your income. People sign up for gift guides because you have done the work for them when it comes to thinking of the perfect gift.

They are strapped for time and they are wanting a quick way to buy a gift. This means they will be more likely to click that affiliate link.

Now, most affiliate programs are okay to put into a PDF but Amazon is not. So, we generally recommend when designing your gift guide, make a page on your blog with the links to those products.

Hot tip: On the last page of your gift guide, include the link for that page. It’s a little loophole that will help you stay in Amazon’s good graces while still letting your earn affiliate income.

Not only are you solving your reader’s problems, but you are retaining them on your list for future growth and also opening up the possibility for a nice Christmas bonus in affiliate or personal product income.

Another way to increase your income (and do so in an automated and passive way!) from a Holiday Gift Guide is by creating a Holiday or seasonal product that you can offer as a tripwire!

Want to learn about product creation? Grab our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit!

Now for creating a gift guide

Here’s what you need:

1. Canva
2. Our gift guide template, which you can access for free by joining our Design Library!

The template will save you a ton of time – it’s already designed.

You just have to simply make a copy and then change the colors, fonts, and add in images of the products you want to promote in your gift guide.

Add descriptions of your products and any links and you are done. Save it as a PDF and start promoting.

If you are wanting to start your design from scratch, you will need to design:

A cover
A page with all the products and numbers for each product with a short description
2-3 pages of longer descriptions of each of those products
The URL/clickable link page to your holiday affiliate links page on your site

Get it designed, get it out there, and start growing your business so you can ROCK the next year!

Also, if you’re needing extra help with design, grab our FREE Product Design Planner here!!

GET YOUR FREE EDITABLE GIFT GUIDE TEMPLATE NOW

Just fill out the form here and get access to the FREE gift guide template, along with all of our other Canva templates, tutorials, and other design tools. PS If you are already signed up for access to our free library, just click here to enter your password 🙂

This template is available in our FREE Design Library! Fill out the form below to get access!

When you sign up to our email list you'll get instant access to this canva template, PLUS you'll get access to all of our tutorials and tools in our design library as well!

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Easy Seasonal Opt-Ins That Will Grow Your Email List Fast

October 25, 2021 by Simplifying DIY Design 3 Comments

The holidays are here!

Are you and your blog ready for this? Ok, you may not be ready – but it is a must-have that your blog is ready because we all know that the fourth quarter matters!

Now, I’m not going to lie to you. Quarter four is when most bloggers get blogger-burnout. You are tired – you have been busting your a$$ all year on this blog.

Maybe you aren’t seeing the results that you thought you would by now. Holidays are stressful, you are tired and frustrated and alas; burnt out.

In fact, I know a lot of bloggers that take the entire month of December off. My goal for next year is to do the same because guys, blogger burnout is very real and it sucks. My other goal is to re-read the absolute best book I’ve found about planning out your year – The 12 Week Year.

HOLIDAY TIP: Save yourself some valuable time by repurposing your blog content while you’re spending time with your family and enjoying that much needed time off from your blog!

It’s no wonder that people are so jaded by the end of the year!

But if you plan right, quarter four can be a game changer for your blog. This is the time of year that people have problems that need solving. They are stressed and looking for answers, and they are motivated to make changes for the new year.

Not only will seasonal posts bring you tons of extra traffic, but the perfectly-timed seasonal opt-in can boost your email list and get you started off to a hot start for the new year.

Here are 3 seasonal lead magnets that will be sure to grow your email list:

#1. Planners

Planners are a great opt-in! Think of the most common resolutions: lose weight, get more organized, save money. Planners hit all of those points because most have meal planning sections, and budget sections in addition to the monthly and weekly planner layout. You can also personalize this to your own niche by adding sections that your audience won’t be able to resist.

Planners also make great paid products, so another option is to pull out certain pages are your lead magnet and sell the planner as a tripwire. Unsure what a tripwire is or how it makes you money? Check out this article.

Not sure where the heck to start with making a planner? I just ran a workshop on designing a planner and you can check out the entire video replay in our design library under “Tutorials”.

We also have a planner design worksheet in the resources section to help you get off to the right start! You can get access to our library at the end of this post 🙌

#2. Challenges

Again, consider the most common resolutions people generally make. You can even poll your facebook group or email list to find out what resolutions they are thinking about. Design a challenge that is related to your niche to attract your target audience!

In the health niche? Come up with a 5-Day Health Living or 5-Day Weight Loss Challenge. You will naturally attract those looking to live a healthier lifestyle. In addition, you will help people and grow your list all at the same time!

#3 Gift Guides

A gift guide is a perfect opportunity to leverage the holidays. Not only can you make a PDF style gift guide and use it as an opt-in, you can also use the opportunity to sell your own products or affiliate products. Growing your list, making money, and helping your audience be more organized for their holiday shopping? Win-win-win.

Side note: We actually have an editable gift guide template in our resource library already designed for you! Just pop in your products, add descriptions and you’re done!

Worried about the Amazon “no links in a PDF” rule? Make a page on your blog and include all your Amazon links there with numbers that correspond to the gift guide. Add a section or page of your gift guide that says something along the lines of, “Want the links for these products? Visit www.yourblog.com/linksforholiday to check it out!” (BTW- I included that page in the gift guide template 😊)

That way, the link will go to your website and not Amazon. Plus, you are still getting them excited about the product in your gift guide without violating Amazon’s TOS. Most other affiliates are okay to put the link right in your PDF guide.

I’m totally serious when I tell you that the fourth quarter is a huge opportunity.

Not only when it comes to traffic but also when it comes to income and growing your list. Never forget that the money is in the list, it’s SO important.

Plus, if you plan this out ahead of time, you can set yourself up for some awesome passive income while you put your feet up and take December off. Blogging can be a rollercoaster. It can absolutely send you through all the emotions in just one day.

Blogger burnout is no joke and I don’t want you to give up.

Pick one of these opt-ins and start making it happen! You would be surprised at the energy boost a successful opt-in can give you!

GET YOUR PLANNER REPLAY NOW AND WATCH AS I DESIGN A PLANNER IN CANVA FROM START TO FINISH

Just fill out the form to get access to our design resource library and check out the tutorials section. Not only will you get our planner replay, but you will also be able to access all our free templates, tutorials, and resources.

This tutorial is available in our FREE Design Library!! Fill out the form below to get access!

Get instant access to this tutorial PLUS all of our templates and tools as well for FREE when you sign up for our email list!

Some of the links in this article may be affiliate links. I don’t promote products I don’t use and love and truly believe will benefit you as my reader.

A Step by Step Guide to Starting a Blog That Actually Makes Money

October 14, 2021 by Simplifying DIY Design Leave a Comment

How to start a blog that actually makes money. Also, find a more detailed guide on how to start a blog and make money here.

A Step by Step Guide to Starting a Blog That Actually Makes Money

1. Pick a niche and choose a name

The first step of starting a blog is to decide what you want to blog about!

Think about your passions, think about your talents. Think about the things you know how to do that others struggle with (or that you used to have no idea how to do, but are now really good at it!). What can you teach others? What are you good at?

Once you’ve decided on your topic, you will need to choose a name.

What subtopics will you discuss? If you are a fitness blogger you might want to talk about exercise routines, healthy recipes, and weight loss.

Take each of those subtopics and brainstorm a list of all the words that come to your mind when you think of that topic. Then combine them in different ways until you find a name you love.

2. Your domain name

Once you’ve landed on a name, you will need to purchase the domain name. Let me stop for a minute…

You WANT your blog to be self-hosted. If this is your hobby and you never want to make any money then feel free to use a free blog.

But if you want this to be your business and you want this blog to generate an income for you then you absolutely, 100% need this to be a self-hosted WordPress site.

That does NOT mean that it has to cost an arm and a leg. It’s super cheap, and buying a domain name is very inexpensive as well (our next step will discuss this further)

There are about a million sites you can buy your domain from, I personally recommend Siteground if you are on a budget, and BigScoots if you want to go pro.

3. set up your hosting

Don’t be nervous if you don’t know these terms. Think of your domain name as your house- this is where your business lives. Now think of the “host” as your address where your house is located. You do not have to be super tech-savvy to set this up, I promise.

Self-hosted basically means that your blog is www.yourblogname.com instead of www.yourblogname.wordpress.com.

This means that you own your site, and more importantly; you can monetize your site however you want. When WordPress owns your site (via the free WordPress.com blogs) you won’t be able to use ads or other forms of monetization.

I highly recommend using Siteground. They are extremely affordable, starting at just $3.95/month (cheaper than almost all other hosts) and the service is outstanding. They are helpful and quick to answer questions and walk you through whatever help you need.

Choose a plan (the $3.95/month is fine for someone just starting out) and go through the process of adding your domain name.. I’ll include a video tutorial after the next step.

4. install WordPress

Again, this is super easy! When I first started, I paid almost $200 to have someone set this up for me. Don’t be like me! Turns out, it’s as easy as clicking a button!

Once you have your host account set up, log in to your C-panel. Scroll down until you see “Autoinstallers” and click on WordPress (also under “WordPress tools”). Click on “install now” and fill out the form with the domain that you want to install WordPress on. After you’ve filled out the form, click install!

It might take a minute or two, but once it’s installed you will receive your WordPress login and password. Easy right?

If you’re a visual learner like me, watch the video tutorial below!

5. making it pretty

Does your site need to be professional-looking? Yes! Do you need to obsess of every tiny detail to make it perfect right now, before you have any content? No!!!

I actually see this a lot! I know you want a pretty site. The best path is to either find a free theme you like or purchase a low cost pre-made theme like from Restored316 or 17th Avenue Designs. I love 17th Avenue because its pretty and super easy to set up with the instructions provided.

Free themes are difficult to set up to look like the demo and there aren’t usually any instructions, so you end up spending weeks of your time and hiring someone to do it anyway.

As for a logo? Make one yourself in Canva or hire someone on Fiverr to do it for $5!

The key s to make it as easy to navigate and organized as possible. Anyone looking at your site should know how to find whatever they are looking for!

Now step away until you are making enough money to hire a designer!

6. install some plugins

Plugins are things you install in WordPress that essentially just make your life easier. They also do things like help grow your blog or protect it from being hacked. Here are the plugins that I consider essential:

1. Yoast SEO- this helps you optimize every post for SEO, which is what helps your site be found in google searches (increases traffic)

2. Google XML sitemap- helps google bots find you and indexes your site (increases traffic)

3. Jetpack- automatically posts new blog articles to all social media accounts (aka, saves me a TON of time)

4. Lockdown WP Admin- so, WordPress sites get hacked a lot. That’s because every site has the same login URL: yourblogname.com/wp-admin and all the spam bots have figured that out. This plugin lets you change that url to whatever you want so the bots can’t even get on your login page- works fantastic!

5. Shareaholic- social media share buttons, helps people easily share your articles!

6. WP Super cache- Caches your website so it loads faster and runs smoother

7. (Advanced) Thrive Landing Pages- Eventually, you want to invest in some landing page plugin, I like thrive. I bought the one-time purchase (most landing pages require monthly fees) so it saves me money in the long run and it’s easy to use.

It’s also easy to design in case you are worried about lack of graphic design ability! You don’t need this right away but it’s something to think about!

If you are really struggling with understanding WordPress, here’s a FREE class to help you learn how to work it a little bit better!

7. start writing

Another thing I hear a lot is “How many posts do I need to go live?”

Um, ONE. You need one post to go live. When you are just starting out, no one is going to see your blog anyway and that’s ok! You should still hit that publish button.

Here’s why: it takes a LONG time for google to see your site. It takes a long time to build up search engine optimization (which is what makes your site show up when someone googles your topic). If you wait until you have 20 posts written, your just making that process even longer.

I would, however, work on writing 10-15 pillar posts before you start promoting your site. Pillar content is the really good, really informative (usually pretty long) posts that solve your reader’s problem.

But to do that, you must know your reader (or Avatar, as it’s referred to in the blogging world)

8. know your avatar

I avoided doing this for so long and I’m not sure why. I guess I thought it was silly and didn’t see why it would help. DO NOT BE LIKE ME! An avatar is the ideal person that you give a name and background story to.

You go into almost creepy detail about their life. Their age, marital status, if they have kids, what they want out of life, what they are afraid of, what their problems are, what makes them excited, what they would pay anything for.

Mine is named Melissa and everything I do, and everything I write is for her. When you do this, not only does it make coming up with content (and products) easier, but it also naturally attracts your target audience.

Those are “your people” and they are the ones that will stick around. They will trust you and eventually buy your products or things you recommend because they know that you can help solve their problems!

Knowing your avatar’s pain points is the KEY to pillar content. These are the things they are really struggling with, things that they feel like no one can solve for them or that no one understands; but YOU do, and YOU can solve those problems. When they find that post, they will instantly be connected to you.

9. create graphics for your post

This is by far the biggest mistake new bloggers make. There are NO graphics on their posts. Not only do you need to have a graphic but it needs to be Pinterest pretty. Go on Pinterest, look at the pretty pins that make you want to click. What do they have in common?

They are long, not horizontal
They have beautiful (but not corny) photos, usually accented with warm colors
They have a white overlay that includes the post headline
That headline is enticing and shows the reader that you have a solution to a problem
They also have an awesome description that is packed full of keywords and related keywords (you may or may not notice that but it’s definitely why the pin popped up when you typed in whatever you searched for!)

The biggest mistake I made early on is thinking that I could use my own pictures. I’m not a photographer, my pictures are terrible.

After I invested a tiny bit (like $1 per photo) in good stock images, my traffic went from 1,000 visitors monthly to over 30k in just 3 months. Make sure you get quality templates for your blog and social media like these!

10. use social media the right way

have a love/hate relationship with social media. This such a huge waste of time but you need it in order to get traffic.

Problem is, it’s really low on my list of ROI (return on investment) it takes a lot of time to build up, time I could be spending doing more important things like writing emails, setting up opt-in freebies, creating products (aka stuff that will make me money and grow my business).

However, if no one sees those things, then it’s a lost effort. So alas, social media is a necessary evil.

The trick is knowing where to put your energy and how to use it the smart way. Honestly, I have most of my social media on autopilot.

I use Tailwind to pin my own content and others’ content on Pinterest.

I also have an account with SmarterQueue and I’m in love with it. How it works is you add content to your feed and it posts it automatically to your Facebook page, Facebook group, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc, on a recurring basis. I never even touch my Facebook page unless I’m asking a question or sharing a meme to increase engagement. It has increased my page views quite a bit and I’ve only used it for about a month!

11. build an email list

Your email list is the driving force of your blog. It’s what will make you the most money, it’s what will convert your readers to fans, it’s what you will likely spend most of your time doing.

It’s your place to get to know your readers, learn what they want, learn how you can help them, connect on a personal level, and provide them with awesome one on one resources and information.

Your email list will likely bring in approximately 80% of your income as a blogger so it’s important to spend a lot of time building your list and nurturing your list.

I’m not kidding when I say that almost nothing else matters in blogging except that email list!

So, if you are going to invest ANY money in your blog- I want it to be on a great email company. This does NOT have to cost an arm and a leg.

I highly recommend ConvertKit because it is the BEST and has all the awesome features like atomization, tagging and segmenting. You need these features to have an awesome email strategy. Please don’t skimp on this, it’s really important!

“Ok, but how do you actually make money with a blog?”

If I have a penny for every time I have been asked that! It’s a valid question, I honestly started a blog thinking I could pop up a couple of ads and call it a day.

I would write posts and people would come and I’d be making a full-time income.

Well, it’s not as easy as that! It’s not that it’s hard but it takes strategy, it takes time and it takes work. Unlike a brick-and-mortar business, it doesn’t take a major financial investment, but it definitely takes a major time investment.

Here’s how bloggers make money:

1. Affiliate Marketing – do you have a product that you use and love? Something that has made your life a thousand times easier and that you know will help your reader too? Basically, you sign up to be an affiliate with them- you tell your reader about it- if they click and buy (or sign up) you get a commission.

It doesn’t cost your reader any extra money. It doesn’t involve you spending time or money to create a product. It’s pretty easy actually and it’s so much less risky than building a product especially if you are just starting out!

2. Ads – There are tons of ad companies out there, most bloggers start with Google Adsense. These are the banner ads and the sidebar ads you see on most blogs.

When someone clicks one you get money (no, you can’t click on them yourself or have your friends or family do it– google is way too smart for that!). Ads are great because it’s totally passive income- you literally have to do nothing, but it takes a lot of traffic to make decent money.

3. Sponsored posts/campaigns- You can either contact a company directly or you can sign up for influencer sites like SoFluential or IZEA. You can apply to be an influencer and different opportunities will be emailed to you. Basically you are paid to write a post either on your blog or on social media. Some people like this and some people don’t.

I only work with companies I truly believe in and I will not sell out my opinion for a dollar. I have backed out of sponsorship opportunities when asked to change my opinion or the facts in my post.

On the other hand, if you do find something you believe in (like my post for the Disabled Veterans Association) it can be an awesome way to make a decent amount of money fairly quickly.

4. Digital Products – Another huge mistake I made when I first started: don’t create a product before you have an audience!!!!!!!

I was following a blogger that was all about products, and YES the best way to make an income blogging is products. But that comes AFTER you have an audience.

You want to be able to survey them. You can literally ask them directly what they are struggling with, what would solve their problem, and what kind of product they would like to have.

Then you make it. And guess what? They will buy it. If you make a product before you know what your readers want, you will likely waste a bunch of time and not make a ton of money from it.

Now, don’t worry- you don’t NEED to have a product right away. I know bloggers that have made well over $10k monthly on just affiliate and ad income alone.

The thing to remember is that NONE of the things above will make you any money unless you have a solid blog foundation. You need to grow your audience and your traffic before any of those things will generate you an income.

Yes, it’s possible to do it quickly (I think my 3rd-month blogging I was already making over $200 and it grew quickly after that) but it does take a lot of time and effort to build-up to the point where you can really call it a business.

It also takes an investment. You can try to do everything the free way for a while but there comes a point where you will plateau and you will not grow unless you start investing back into your business.

Think about it; you can’t start a brick-and-mortar business without investing money, right? The cool thing is that it doesn’t have to cost a fortune and you can use the money you’ve already made!

Not to mention, you will actually start earning MORE money by spending money– it sounds crazy but it’s true!

To grow your business the right way, you need the right resources. I have spent a lot of time and money on learning the ins and outs of blogging.

I have wasted money on courses that brought me little results. But I have also purchased materials that have more than made me back the money I invested! Here’s what I highly recommend in order to grow your blog quickly!

1. HerPaperRoute Academy – Learn everything you need to know in order to start, grow, scale and even SELL your blog and online business.

2. How to Blog Without Selling Your Soul – √ one of the bests book, by far, that I’ve read about blogging

3. Time Management Mama – A great book about managing your time. provides excellent information, advice, and tips for managing your time as a business owners and a mom (also, one of the authors is a milspouse so it’s awesome to have that perspective!)

4. Fiverr- You can pretty much hire anyone to do anything for $5. Logos, design, even VA work. I’ve also had videos made and other stuff- you just can’t beat the price.

5. Convertkit – You will likely hear a lot of bloggers screaming about Convertkit, because, yes Convertkit is awesome! You can tag your readers based on what they click, you can segment your list to make sure you are sending the content that those people want to be reading, and you can also set up automatic sequences to be delivered when someone signs up for your email list

6. List Building- Speaking of list building, this free guide is excellent for teaching you how to create an opt in that your readers actually want, how to set it up to your blog, and how to deliver it to your subscribers. That list is really important- please take time to build it and nurture it!

7. Affiliate Strategy- Easily the best strategy for making affiliate income. This strategy works by launching affiliate products to your email list and walks you through step by step how to do it. The author makes an insane amount of money through affiliates and definitely knows what she’s talking about.

8. The Pinterest Strategy Guide– This guide shows you exactly how to leverage Pinterest to your advantage. It helped me get over 30k monthly pageviews by my third month of blogging! Worth every penny.

9. Tailwind – have campaigns set up that loop my pins and automatically pin to boards and group boards (group boards are key to getting traffic, guys!!) I also have it automatically pinning the best content from others onto my boards for my readers. It has significantly increased my traffic and pageviews, and it’s very affordable.

10. Canva – As someone that is certified in graphic design, I LOVE Canva! This is a free design tool that’s very user-friendly, it’s easy to use and you can make some awesome stuff! I use it for my social media graphics and also to create printables and worksheets!

And of course, don’t forget about Simplifying DIY Design’s epic templates for bloggers!

20 Tools I Use To Run a Six Figure Blog

August 20, 2021 by Simplifying DIY Design Leave a Comment

In this post I’m going to go over the exact blogging business tools I use to run my six figure blog! We will also dive into the tools I used when I just started out, when and why things shifted, and how you can use them in your business too!

If you’re looking for free Canva templates and business resources, check out my free design library now! Just click the button below to get instant access!

CLICK HERE TO GET FREE ACCESS!

If you’ve been following along with Simplifying DIY Design for a while, you may have seen a post that I wrote after running this business for a few months, 30+ Tools I used To Grow My Blog.

After almost 3 years of running this business, I wanted to update it! However, I still stand by a lot of those tools especially when just starting out.

Let’s face it, running a new blog vs a seasoned blog are two very different things.

Each new blogger has a different story. Different resources.

A lot of times when it comes to just getting started, it’s about what you can afford and the tools you choose to invest in.

For that reason, I want to leave that post the way that it is. After all, it IS exactly what I used when I just started my site.

So this post is essentially part two.

What I use now that my blog has grown and what I’m using to scale it.

I’ll also dive into the tools that we’ve changed and why we made that change as the business grew.

Let’s jump in!

The Website

I’m still using a custom theme from Pixel Me Designs! We re-branded and got a new theme created about a year ago and Laura did another amazing job!

I’ve grown out of Siteground and now recommend BigScoots for hosting. With BigScoots, you will never run into issues. Their customer service is always wonderful, too!

Email Marketing & Leads

Convertkit

Convertkit was an expense I chose to make from the beginning and I have never switched or moved away from it. I continue to use and love Convertkit when it comes to my weekly emails, email marketing, sales funnels, etc.

Some things that I love about Converkit include:

Tags. You need to be able to tag people. This comes in handy if you’re segmenting your list so you can track the things they are interested in. This is also handy to identify people who purchase products, people who sign up for specific lead magnets, etc.
Segments. I love being able to create segments in Convertkit, it gives me a lot of data. For example, I can set up a segment of people who went through a specific lead magnet or funnel and which of them ended up purchasing the product. There are so many things that segments come in handy for!
Visual automations. I love using visual automations for my email funnels. I don’t have to mess with the rules as much and it let’s me look at the flow a new subscriber will go through. I can customize it to do (or not do) specific things based on the actions the subscriber takes as well.
Data and analytics. The more data you have available to you, the easier growth is! I took entirely too long to dig into the data side of my business.. Don’t make that mistake! Business is numbers. Find what works and do more of it! If you don’t know what’s working or what needs optimizing, you won’t have a plan for moving the needle forward and you’ll just constantly be throwing spaghetti at the wall.

LeadPages

LeadPages replaced Thrive Architect for me. I started with Thrive because it was a one-time cost but it got clunky and difficult to use. I no longer recommend it as a page builder and if LeadPages is off the table for you, I would recommend Elementor as an alternative.

Want to remember this list for later? Save it to your favorite Pinterest Board!

Products and Sales

Teachable

I continue to use Teachable. I did attempt at one time to switch to another course platform that was a bit cheaper and ultimately decided to switch back. It’s more important when growing a business to have tools that work well and do the things you need to do then to save a few dollars!

I have always loved Teachable both as a student and as a creator. It’s easy to use and the customer support is amazing!

With any technology, we have had glitches and issues over the years. Mainly, the checkout process.

Because of this, we switched to ThriveCart for our checkout process and never looked back. Because our sales pages are made with LeadPages, we can integrate them all together very easily. This leads me to…

ThriveCart

We recently made the switch to ThriveCart and couldn’t be happier. Not only is it easy to use but it’s robust and it integrates with all the tools I was using in my business already.

We also decided to move our affiliate program over as well and it was a very smooth transition. I personally love the ability to auto-apply affiliates to certain coupon codes: this opens up so many collaboration opportunities!

What I love most about ThriveCart is the ability to completely customize the checkout page with their drag and drop builder. You can test different designs and layouts, you can add order bump boxes, testimonials, and anything you want!

I continue to use Stripe and PayPal (integrated with ThriveCart) for payment processing.

Deadline Funnel

I use Deadline Funnel for my evergreen funnels. You can also use it for live launches as well but I typically just stick to using the countdown feature on Convertkit for the live launches.

Deadline funnel integrates with Convertkit using webhooks to deliver certain emails on certain days after the deadline funnel is activated.

This is essential when creating webinar funnels and other evergreen funnels that are triggered after someone gets added to your email list.

ManyChat

Manychat is awesome! I can’t take credit for my chatbots as that was all my assistant, Sarah (who did a guest post about creating QR Codes on Simplifying DIY Design).

We have several chat funnels set up to answer common customer service issues, direct people to products that fit their needs, and we also notifications for things like our monthly templates. If you’d like to learn more about Chatbot funnels, check out Sarah’s ebook here.

Task and Team Management

I still don’t have a large team by any means (and it’s not a goal of mine to have one) but I do have an assistant and have hired contractors for specific tasks before. Here’s what we use!

Slack

My assistant and I communicate via Slack. It’s essentially organized instant messaging. We have different channels for different things that we work on all the time.

We also have a channel for brainstorming and we integrate it with our chatbot for customer service issues.

Asana

We recently switched from Trello to Asana and I’m so happy we did! It’s hard to describe quite how amazing Asana is but once you get into bigger projects, you’re going to need Asana (or something similar such as AirTable or Clickup)

I also have my personal schedule and my kids scheduled in Asana under a different board. You can have different sections for different things.

My assistant is not added to my personal board and can’t see those things. She is added to different project boards based on the things she helps me with such as social media content.

We can assign each other different tasks, due dates, and make notes about things. Everything is color coded and organized.

You can see it in a board view (like Trello), list view, or calendar view. It’s beyond amazing and really deserves more than a few paragraphs but you get the idea!

Social Media

While I do outsource social media to my assistant, we both make graphics as needed and use my templates. We also use Tailwind to schedule pins and Facebook creator studio to schedule Instagram posts.

Design

Again, I am a certified graphic designer so I do know how to use (and love using) Adobe products. However, we almost exclusively use Canva for what we create for Simplifying DIY Design.

This is because I know my assistant can use it, we can collaborate on designs, and anyone else that I might hire will know how to use it. It’s better from a team aspect (at least in my eyes) to use a tool we can all jump in on!

Canva Pro

While I am never going to be someone that says you *need* to do or use something specific to be successful (how silly!!) I personally use Canva Pro.

Canva Pro has features that I can’t function without at this point like the ability to have as many folders as I want (and subfolders), downloading with a transparent background, having options for size and quality at download, etc.

They are adding more and more every day. If you’re looking for more help with Canva, check out Confidently Canva which teaches ALL about Canva and how to use all the features for a blogging business in addition to teaching you how to use it to create social media graphics and page designs for things like lead magnets and digital products.

Stock Photos

Most of the time I just use the ones available on Canva Pro for stock photos but I also have subscriptions to Depositphotos.

Find what blogging business tools work for you!

I firmly believe that it’s important to simplify your business while also helping it run more smoothly for you and for your customers.

This is something I’m always working on!

In addition, what works for me might not work for you and that’s ok! It’s all about finding out what works for you and doing more of it!

If you’re looking to get access to tons of free templates and tools, check out my design library now! Just click the button below to sign up!

CLICK HERE FOR FREE TEMPLATES AND RESOURCES!

12 Digital Products That Are Selling Like Hotcakes

August 19, 2021 by Simplifying DIY Design 9 Comments

Digital products are exactly how we make 80-90% of our full-time blogging income. The best part? It’s completely PASSIVE once you get your product created! Find exactly what product to make for your blog AND grab our free ebook template to make it happen!

Want our FREE Ebook (includes worksheet pages) for Canva OR InDesign? It’s available in our evergrowing Design Vault! Get that product made, out there, and generate income in no time at all!

GET THE FREE DIGITAL PRODUCT TEMPLATE NOW!

The very first monetization course I took was about 5 minutes after I started a blog.

I always knew I wanted my blog to be a business. As it was, I started blogging in order to generate an income from home.

The person teaching the course was all about “products, products, products.”

Of course, not knowing anything about the online world, my mind went to “physical products” not digital products.

Thus started the Etsy shop.

Remember this post later! Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board! 🙂 ⬇

Learn how you can do the work once and get paid over and over! Digital products are an amazing way to create passive income for your blog and start making money online fast even without a ton of pageviews! #digitalproducts #passiveincome #eproducts #designproducts #designdigitalproducts

My Etsy shop was a success and a failure all at the same time. People liked my stuff and bought it, however, each product needed to be individually sewn and put together.

I sold things like military-inspired blankets, dog collars, keychains, etc. They were embroidered and would take me anywhere from an hour to a day to create.

The orders piled up and soon I had a two-week waitlist and was spending almost ALL of my time at the sewing machine. Cursing at it and getting frustrated.

I hated it. I quickly decided this wasn’t for me and I needed a way to generate a more passive income.

And then I learned about digital products.

The thing about digital products, especially for bloggers, is that they can be a hit or miss. Luckily they cost almost nothing to make (especially when you design them yourself using Canva).

The key is to build your audience first, and your product second.

Ask them what they want, survey them, hang out in Facebook groups where they ask questions, and keep a running list of reader questions/concerns.

Once you know your readers’ problem, then it’s time to brainstorm solutions.

If you do that, they’ll buy it.

And if you design it where it’s visually appealing and easy to use… You’ve hit the jackpot.

By the way, if you’re needing more help with this check out our FREE Product Creation Training!

Now let’s jump right into the 12 best digital products (that sell like hotcakes)!

1. WORKBOOKS

Workbooks are something that works for almost every niche. There is something you can teach your audience that can be stepped out into a workbook. Take a moment to brainstorm!

I’ve seen everything from cleaning and organizing, to budgeting and finances. Seriously, I’ve even seen a workbook on parenting techniques and getting your child to listen (cool, right?).

Workbooks sell because it’s a step-by-step way of teaching that walks someone through the process of solving their problem. I’m a workbook junkie. Show me a Pinterest-pretty workbook and I’ll buy it.

Can’t quite commit to a full workbook just yet? Don’t worry, we have you covered with another hot digital product idea!

Start small by creating worksheets using our worksheet templates inside our FREE Design Vault!

Worksheets were one of our very first digital products/lead magnets we used to grow our email list to now OVER 20k subscribers! and I’ll buy it.

2. WORKSHOPS

Workshops are somewhere between workbook and e-course (kind of a combination of both, actually). This is an interactive e-course that includes worksheets and other learning material.

The selling point of the “workshop” is that the person is able to interact with you and other students, rather than an e-course which is self-paced and usually through a program like Teachable.

Related Post: How To Sell Tons of Courses on Teachable

Workshops are not generally held all the time because of the need for the creator to be involved. But, when a course is not constantly open for enrollment, it builds suspense and urgency and people are more likely to jump on it when it opens.

Another amazing thing about workshops is that you don’t spend nearly as much time “creating” it. Full e-courses can take months to build.

If you decide to sell a workshop, you can spend about an hour outlining what you’ll cover in the class and set up a sales page. That’s it!

The “product” is created when you spend the 1-2 hours teaching and then you’re done!

3. PLANNERS

People LOVE planners and there are so many ways you can go with this. You can create a life planner, budget planner, organizational planner, chore planner, meal planner, etc.

QUICK TIP: Create multiple themed planners and then give people the option to purchase multiple ones! That way, they can essentially “customize” their planner by having the sections they need and you can get repeat sales!

Once you have a few planner options, you can also offer bundles at a lower cost.

Planners also make fantastic digital products. Again, show me a Pinterest-pretty planner and I’m in!

4. E-COURSES

E-courses are so popular because it helps your reader learn something and it also creates a passive income for you. They can either be created for free through email or through a platform like Teachable (just like us!).

When you create an e-course through a platform, you can also set up an affiliate program and get people to promote your course for free. E-courses generally take more time to make than other digital products but can be sold for 3, 4, even 5 figures!

The best e-courses also have worksheets, checklists, and video content as well. Take the time to make your course awesome and it will absolutely pay off.

SIDE NOTE: Grab our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit with a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva eBook template to help you plan, design, and launch your first (or next) digital product!

5. E-BOOKS

E-books are a great tripwire, opt-in, or digital product. You can sell it through your blog and you can also put it up on Amazon, Etsy, or even through ConvertKit Commerce!

E-books are pretty easy to make because you can repurpose a lot of your existing content, particularly if you have a blog post series or a lot of posts on ONE topic.

The key to an e-book that actually sells is a killer cover though, which I go over in my course Confidently Canva.

You can make an awesome cover in Canva and then upload it to myecovermaker.com and create an eye-catching 3D model. They say, “don’t judge a book by its cover” but people totally do, especially online.

6. MEMBERSHIP SITES

Membership sites are fantastic for recurring income. The possibilities for membership sites are pretty endless.

Maybe you’re a fitness blogger? Create a membership site that provides different workout routines, meal plans, and accountability meetings each month.

Maybe you sell sewing patterns? Each month you can release a new set of patterns for your members. The list can go on and on.

SIDE NOTE: Join our FREE Facebook community to help brainstorm membership ideas for your digital products!

Some memberships are less about “new product” delivery (unlike our template membership!) and more about community and interaction. Many include weekly or monthly meetings, some have support groups, and others have challenges.

You can really get creative with it! Each month you can release a new set of patterns for your members.

7. COACHING SESSIONS

Coaching is less “passive” than most other digital products. It does involve time with your client but it allows for individualization and a personalized approach for your customer, which is a major selling point.

Plus, much like selling digital workshops, coaching doesn’t require actually creating anything ahead of time!

The “product” is the time you spend with your client so there’s really not much to do prior except setting up a sales page and possibly an onboarding system to allow your client to sign contracts, book appointments, and pay.

SIDE NOTE: Before we retired our design coaching service, we used and loved Dubsado!

Each person learns differently, and each person is at a different point in their journey. Allowing a set amount of time to talk about where your client is, where they want to be, and how to get it is priceless.

Not to mention, a lot of people are willing to pay higher price points for this.

8. APPS

You do NOT need to be an app developer to create an app.

All you need is a killer idea. You can hire an app developer to create it for you (find one on upwork.com) and then you can sell it.

Another way to make money with apps is to treat it as its own sales funnel by offering the app for free and having an upgraded paid version or in-app purchases.

This is the least popular out of all the digital products we mentioned but the upsells within the app will pay off!

9. TEMPLATES

If creating digital templates to sell sounds like your cup of tea, you’re in the right place.

“Done for you” solutions are always a big hit! Especially anything that has to do with copy, spreadsheets (with formulas), etc.

Templates are essentially fill-in-the-blank mini-products that someone can customize to make their own. It gives them a jumping-off point and saves them a ton of time (like our templates)!

Our biggest source of income has always been from selling digital templates. They work for every niche because they’re entirely customizable.

Aside from graphic design products to sell, copy templates, spreadsheet templates, and many other versions of templates can easily be shared via Google Docs. Make sure the Doc or spreadsheet is in view-only mode and instruct people to make a copy before editing.

10. PATTERNS

Typically, this is more for the craft niche. Sewing, knitting, crochet, etc. These patterns are awesome digital products and they totally sell like hotcakes. People love them!

Not to mention, things like these make great tripwires, bundles, and opportunities for a membership site.

In my opinion, though, patterns fall under an “instructional format” digital product.

This can include things like recipes, DIY, and the like. Anything that requires a list of needed items and then step-by-step instructions.

You’re essentially teaching someone how to create something and it’s amazing!

11. DOWNLOADABLE FILES

If you know how to create files like fonts, embroidery art, clip art, stock photography, etc. then you have it made, my friend.

People, especially bloggers or any content creators, pay good money for things like this!

Plus you can sell it on your own site along with sites like Creative Market (entirely digital products) or Etsy. If you do stock photography, sell it to the major stock photo sites and boost your income even more!

Of course, these things are also great to sell to clients as well. Selling to clients requires a little more “time for money” than other digital products.

However, you can sell it at a much higher price point!

12. SWIPE FILES

People love to know how you did it! Swipe files are a file (you can create one in Google Drive) that includes your exact copy for things like sales pages, launches, emails, etc.

The idea is that they will personalize it to their own style of writing that fits their product (similar to a template), but you are giving them direction.

It’s a huge bonus if you’ve had success. If you can say something like “the sales copy that made me $10,000 in 3 days” you are pretty much guaranteed to make sales.

The benefit of this is that you’ve already created it, you’re just packaging it up and selling it. The downside is that you may be exposing yourself to copycats.

Realistically, that’ll happen with all digital products. Be sure to make your Terms of Service very clear!

Of course, having the idea for digital products is one thing.

But knowing how to make it is another.

The majority of these things can be made or designed in something like Canva (you can also grab our FREE Product Design Planner to help you get started).

It doesn’t take a fancy, expensive product to make digital products sell. It just takes an eye-catching design that stands out among all the other things fighting for your audience’s attention.

Once they buy it, your amazing content will keep them coming back for more.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Don’t forget to grab your FREE Ebook template (that includes worksheet pages)! It’s the PERFECT jumping-off point to any paid product (or even lead magnets!) that you can customize to fit your brand and use to start making that passive income.

GET THE FREE EBOOK TEMPLATE NOW!