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Simplifying DIY Design

Simple Graphic Design To Grow Your Blog

Digital Product Launch Graphics You Need to Create

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Last updated on March 10th, 2023

Visuals draw our eye in before anything else, including text. Make sure you’re designing these must-have product launch graphics for your first or next promotion, so you’re not missing out on easy sales!

Over the years, we’ve helped bloggers design and launch hundreds of digital products.

We’ve designed and launched dozens of our OWN digital products with full-blown launches, flash sales, baby seed launches… every launch you can think of, we’ve probably done it.

We’ve tested, tweaked, and learned so much about marketing. We’ve taken all of that knowledge and combined it with our graphic design background to create a complete product creation system.

Ready to launch your digital product? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit today! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

GET YOUR QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

Within that system, we teach about everything there is to know to create, design, and launch a digital product.

One of the many factors to a successful launch or promotion is having great product launch graphics and visuals.

The thing is, you can have the best product in the world. But if your graphics don’t accurately convey that to your audience, you’ll lose out on sales.

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇ 

These are the 4 must-have product launch graphics you need to create whether it's your first or next digital product launch so you don't miss out on sales!

We’re a very visual society and will look at an image or graphic before reading a post or sales page. If those graphics don’t draw your reader in, the chances of them reading about your awesome product drop dramatically.

That’s why we’ve dedicated an entire blog post to the different types of product launch graphics you need to create, no matter the type of launch.

And just to set the record straight, we design ALL of our product launch graphics in Canva. Mockups, GIFs, Instagram Stories, posts – Canva does it all!

Try Canva Pro FREE for 30 days and see why it’s the ONLY design program and stock image membership we use in our six-figure business. Check out all of the Canva Pro benefits so you can see for yourself why we’re a bit obsessed!

#1: Product Mockup or Preview Image

If there’s only one graphic you need to design for your product launch, this is it!

A mockup shows people what you’ve created but in a 3D form. We go much more in-depth on the different types of mockups in this article here.

Related Post: 4 Ways to Design Holiday Product Mockups that Convert

Mockups are important because they can give people a better sense of what your digital product is.

Even if it’s a course, having it set on a laptop or computer screen makes a huge difference. We like to include other factors of our products by adding either a workbook or single-page images to show the true value of our products.

Here’s an example of our Complete Blogger Template Toolkit mockup image.

Because there are over 450 Canva and PicMonkey templates, it’s impossible to show them all.

We decided to showcase the cover image we use on Teachable, an example of what the course looks like from inside, and the bonus workbooks so you have a better understanding of how comprehensive this product is.

Now, if your product is much smaller, that’s okay too! Visually represent your product however you can, even if it’s something as simple as a workbook.

Make sure to always present the fact that it’s digital as a positive thing. There are no shipping costs which means it’s instant access!

#2: Promotional Graphics

Before you determine exactly what promotional graphics you’ll need, you’ll first need a launch plan.

Remember when we said we’d done all types of launches? This is what we mean.

You need to ask yourself how in-depth you want to go with your product launch. Is it a pre-sale, baby seed launch (where you only put it out to your email list for beta testers), or are you going all out and selling it to the world?

How about pre-launch? Will you offer some sort of free training, webinar, or other list-building technique prior to the launch? If so, you’ll need promotional graphics for that, too.

These are the 4 must-have product launch graphics you need to create whether it's your first or next digital product launch so you don't miss out on sales!

This is one of the many reasons we created a complete product creation system because if you’re like us, you may be feeling a pinch of overwhelm!

Here are some promotional graphics you may need to consider:

  • Free training or webinar promotion
  • Launch bonuses promotion (if offering bonuses to buyers)
  • Early bird or time-sensitive offers
  • Facebook images/ads for both the freebie and product
  • Pinterest images/ads for both the freebie and product

Keep in mind that if you have affiliates, you’ll want to give them access to some or all of these graphics for their own promotions leading up to and during your launch.

We have a Google folder dedicated to our affiliates, filled with promotional graphics, affiliate spreadsheet, success guide, and more.

Side note: The Product Creators Ultimate Toolbox contains done-for-you templates for every one of these designs PLUS the affiliate center templates, sales page copy, sales launch copy, and so much more. It’s an entire product design and launch plan that’s been “templatized,” so you can customize it to every product you create!

#3: Free training or webinar

We resisted this HEAVILY at first because we were afraid to put ourselves out there. But we knew we had to step out of our comfort zones when launching. If we didn’t, we’d only be hurting ourselves in achieving our WHY (why we started Simplifying DIY Design in the first place).

Pre-launch is so important and, in some cases, can make or break your whole launch.

When we were ready for our first launch, we came up with a challenge that incorporated video training called the 3-Day Design Your Blog Growth Challenge.

As you have probably heard us say a million times, success only comes with implementation.

Since we were selling Canva templates, we wanted people to use them so they could discover the true awesomeness that done-for-you blogging templates provide. We knew once people got a little sample, they would see the benefits for themselves.

They would discover how much of a time-saver they could be and see the difference between their current graphics and the ones they could create using our templates.

It paid off because the response we got was seriously mind-blowing.

Not only were people signing up left and right (seriously, we grew our list by 339 new subscribers over 4 days) without the use of any ads!

These are the 4 must-have product launch graphics you need to create whether it's your first or next digital product launch so you don't miss out on sales!

People continued signing up all week! Even though unsubscribe rates are a bit higher during a product launch (that’s totally normal), we still ended the launch week with over 400+ subscribers we didn’t have prior.

Graphics for your free training or webinar include:

  • Training/webinar slide decks
  • Actionable items to pair with the training (workbooks, worksheets, checklists, etc.)
  • Promo images (mentioned in #2)

We then recorded our training by downloading the slide decks as a PDF and using a screen recording program called Loom to record, edit, and download our video in HD.

#4: Videos

Videos are a big part of the visual world that is social media today. During a product launch or even a flash sale promotion, there are usually a few different ways we use video.

  • Facebook lives (promoted with a graphic)
  • Promotional videos of our product 
  • Convert product-centered blog posts into videos using Animoto or Lumen5
  • GIF highlighting different aspects of your product

This is in addition, of course, to any video training or sales page videos.

Related Post: How to Make a Flipbook or GIF Using Canva

We’re personally not a fan of being in front of the camera. However, when we started Simplifying DIY Design (not our first blog, we promised ourselves we’d do whatever it took to make this business successful.

Even if it was scary. Even if we didn’t want to do it. Even if we were going to lose sleep over it.

Since then, we’ve never looked back!

Your product launch graphics matter.

We promised to always be upfront with our readers, no matter how difficult. And in all honesty, we got very little sleep during the few weeks we were working on the launch of the Product Creators Ultimate Toolbox.

“What if we did all this work and no one bought it? What if we cut back client work and decreased our income, and it didn’t pay off? What if we put it out there, people bought it, and it didn’t help?”

These were the things that kept us up. These were the things that made us want to give up.

But we kept pushing. Because if it was easy, then we weren’t pushing hard enough, right?

We promise you, it was so completely worth it. Every single second was worth it.

But the product launch graphics matter. We didn’t have all of the above prepared before our first launch. We didn’t even think of half of the graphics we listed above!

Our readers asked for preview images, affiliates asked for promotional graphics, and potential buyers asked for videos. Every launch, we learn something new and make sure to document what worked and what didn’t so we can tweak it for next time.

Because it’s extremely time-consuming and almost overwhelming at times, we made sure to have templates for every single design we needed to do so that we could save time.

And that’s how The Product Creators Ultimate Toolbox was born. We documented every aspect of our launches over the years and created a templatized system so each new launch was faster and easier.

That’s what makes this particular product so unique because it’s the exact launch process we use in our own six-figure business.

We share our own launch emails, market research, audience surveys, product templates, and MORE. It’s truly the only product creation tool you’ll need!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Don’t forget our FREE Product Creators Quickstart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

GET YOUR QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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

Launching a digital product take a lot of moving parts and one of the most important is the graphics and visual aspect of the launch! Find out what graphics you must create to have a successful launch and make money blogging fast! #blogging #launch #digitalproduct #graphicsforlaunch #promographics #bloggraphics #launchgraphics

The Easy Way To Plan Your Digital Product Design

by 2 Comments

Last updated on April 13th, 2023

Learn exactly how to plan your next product design the easy way! We will go over branding, inspiration, and the exact design process I use when designing a digital product!

The content in this article is an overview of the step-by-step process detailed in our FREE Product Design Planner. Get your copy now and follow along with us!

GET THE FREE PRODUCT DESIGN PLANNER

We’re a little obsessed with mapping out a digital product because we love anything related to organization and planning.

We document every stage of our product creation journey to see what worked, what didn’t, what could be done better/faster, etc.

Then when it comes time to plan a new digital product, we have your own roadmap to get it done consistently and (almost) effortlessly every single time.

And because we’ve essentially created SOPs along the way, it was a game-changer when we decided to expand our team, too.

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇

Learn how to plan your next (or first) digital product design! This is my step by step process for branding and designing digital products that you can start implementing for your blog right away!!

Since this is something we’ve perfected with our own business, we get asked a LOT about where to start when making digital products (including lead magnets, printables, etc.) for your blog.

We wanted to break down the digital product design process and actually step it out in an actionable way that you can use each and every time you design your digital product.

Determining your products brand

Most of the time, you’ll be sticking with your own branding that you’ve already established for your blog.

But if your digital product is seasonal, it’s common to go off-brand with your brand’s holiday color palette.

We did this for all our holiday products by creating a holiday-specific color palette that blends perfectly with our brand personality. (That’ll make more sense in the article above)

In any case, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a good sense of both the verbal and visual brand for your digital product design.

Verbal Brand

Establishing the VERBAL brand for your product means:

  • Name of the product
  • Slogan or tagline
  • Story of why creating it was important to you
  • Tone of voice
  • Style of language

Visual Brand

Establishing a VISUAL brand for your product means:

  • Product logo
  • Fonts
  • Color palette
  • Imagery and other graphics
  • Campaigns (marketing graphics)

You may or may not have all of these different elements depending on the size of the project you’re working on. For example, a lead magnet or tripwire product wouldn’t require its own logo, but a signature course might.

Most of the time, you’ll be using the same fonts and colors as the overall visual brand of your blog. But there may be exceptions, as stated earlier (like seasonal content), that may mean going off-brand.

The imagery used in your digital product should be minimal but complement your content. Remember that most of the time, less is more.

Especially if you intend of promoting your digital product as a printable product. You could also create a printer-friendly version if you wanted to target both audiences!

Attractive visual elements can help your product stand out and improve user experience. 

You’ll want to make sure any image or clipart you use in your product can be used in products to sell (unless you’re creating a freebie). Commercial free or extended license clipart can be found on sites like Creative Market, Design Bundles, and Envato Elements.

Inspiration Session

Once you’ve established the visual and verbal brand for your product, you’ll move on to your inspiration session.

During an inspiration session, we like to make a list of all the words associated with our product or topic that we’re working on.

This is also where we’ll get keywords to use throughout our sales page, pin descriptions, etc., to help Google rank and show our product to more of the right people.

KEYWORDS TIP: We love using Pinterest and the Keywords Everywhere Google Chrome extension to search for keywords.

You can also search for other things like “family fun design ideas” or “family fun logo ideas.” With each of these searches, make a note of the design, colors, fonts, and anything else you like AND don’t like about what you see.

Also, be sure to make a note about WHY you do or don’t like it. This will give you a great starting point.

Side note: Never EVER copy a design or a product! This is to give you an idea of what styles you like and to give you a jumping-off point when it comes to your project design.

Start the Design Process for your digital product

Now that you have all the visual elements picked out for your brand, you’ll move on to the actual design process.

Don’t forget to download our FREE Product Design Planner to follow along and establish your verbal and visual brand, things you need to consider, different design elements, and more!

Get the free digital product design planner and plan out your next digital product design the easy way!!

Outline Your Content

Once we’ve established our branding, we start outlining and writing our written content so that everything can be proofread and finalized.

This is MUCH easier than trying to re-align your layout when adding a word or sentence you’ve forgotten and finding out that everything has shifted unexpectedly.

We use and LOVE Grammarly because not only does it check our grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but it also re-writes full sentences for better clarity.

Plan Your Layout

We always start with a piece of paper and a pencil. We create a map and sketch our ideas for the actual layout of the product. This is much easier to visualize once we’re staring at the screen (or our product template) so we can see how everything will fit and flow.

If paper is a tad too small for you, try sketching your layout on cardboard.

Better yet, a window or glass door with Expo markers works great, too. Not to mention it’s really fun, and you’ll instantly feel like a mathematician or scientist! #askushowweknow

Here are some tips for sketching your layout:

  • Group information using design
  • Keep basic design foundations in mind
  • Make notes and boxes where visual elements will go
  • Use a pencil for this process
  • Keep it simple, and don’t overthink it!

We still sketch our layout when using a design template, but looking at the template first REALLY helps! That way, we can determine on the paper what content we need to include.

Then, we’ll use the template as a jumping-off point of where things will go.

We’ll decide if we need to add any visual elements, color blocks, or sections to the original template to complete the layout in the way that best fits our content.

Finally, Start Designing Your Product!

It’s time to finally move your design from paper to the computer screen! You’ll need to decide on your design platform of choice. We highly recommend:

  • Canva (free or paid versions)
  • Adobe InDesign

As we mentioned earlier, the Product Creators Ultimate Toolbox has done-for-you designs for not only products but for promotion campaigns as well.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

The content in this article is an overview of the step-by-step process detailed in our FREE Product Design Planner. Get your copy now and follow along with us!

GET THE FREE PRODUCT DESIGN PLANNER!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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

How to Easily Sell Canva Templates | Make Money Blogging

by 3 Comments

Last updated on October 26th, 2023

Learning to sell Canva templates is a great way to make more money with your blog. They’re simple to deliver, have almost zero maintenance, and can be sold over and over again, making them a great source of passive income!

Before we can sell Canva templates, we need to make sure we’re in the right mind frame.

Digital products, specifically templates, are a hot commodity for bloggers, both selling and buying. We’re all just trying to grow our blog in what feels like such small pockets of time.

Why start from scratch on every aspect of our blog when we can buy a template that’ll save time and money?

The thing is, smart investments will actually make you money.

Ready to design a workbook AND launch it? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

GRAB THE FREE QUICKSTART KIT!

If we buy a sales page template, we can save ourselves a few hours in design time. We then take those saved hours and put them back into the business by making another Canva template to add to the shop

That one investment cost, let’s say, $100. And let’s say we’re selling our Canva template for $17, which can be sold over and over again

We would have to sell our $17 template 6 times to recoup our costs.

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

Want to create digital products? Sell Canva templates! It's great for passive income and has almost zero maintenance, making them perfect for busy bloggers!

You can sell Canva templates while you’re working, yes. But you’ll also sell Canva templates while you’re sleeping, traveling, and making memories with your families.

By doing so, you’re also helping others achieve their very own milestones, whether your Canva templates are designed to help homeschooling moms, a local food truck, or a Pinterest manager halfway across the world.

When you truly understand the value of what you provide, your blog-turn business will grow like wildfire.

And to help with that, you need the right tools. This will save you time with tech and customer service issues and is also really important for user experience.


It can greatly affect your customer return rate if your customers are frustrated during the checkout or even with their post-purchase experience.

Don’t worry; most are minimal investments without a steep learning curve, so you can start selling Canva templates (and making money) fast!

But before we get started, there’s one thing we want to make abundantly clear. If you sell Canva templates, you need to abide by Canva’s Content License Agreement.

There are some major LEGAL dos and don’ts regarding Canva templates. Don’t break their agreement just trying to make money with your blog!

It would behoove you to READ THIS ARTICLE FIRST before you start creating and selling your Canva templates.

Now, in order to sell Canva templates, we need to create our Canva templates!

DESIGN PLATFORM

Marketing messages from people teaching certain platforms might make you think you need fancy programs if you want to make any sales. And if you truly want to learn them, great!

If you’re comfortable with Photoshop and know your Photoshop templates will impact your audience, then use it. Or, if you’d like to create other digital products aside from templates, that’s awesome, too.

Related Post: 12 Digital Products That Are Selling Like Hotcakes

But remember, a fancy platform is NOT required to make money or impact with your templates. All of our design templates are created using Canva, and we make six figures annually.

With that said, it’s so incredibly simple to make and sell Canva templates. Once you’ve finished your design, select ‘Share’ from the top right menu and click ‘Template link.’

Want to create digital products? Sell Canva templates! It's great for passive income and has almost zero maintenance, making them perfect for busy bloggers!

That’s the link you’ll use to share your Canva template with your customers, which we’ll chat about more in just a moment.

We’ve designed everything from 80+ page workbooks, planners, course slide deck presentations, and so much more using Canva.

The best part? Canva is totally FREE.


You can upgrade to Canva Pro (which you can try free for 30 days), and is truly worth its weight in gold, but isn’t required to actually sell Canva templates.

If you know you want to sell Canva templates but are new to the platform, check out our FREE Canva 2.0 QuickStart!

LANDING PAGE BUILDER

Now that we’ve created our Canva templates, we need a way to sell them. This can be done on your blog using a landing/sales page, a third-party storefront, or both!

  1. Create Canva templates to sell
  2. Design sales page for blog

Landing pages or sales pages are an absolute must if you want to sell Canva templates on your blog.

The capability of creating a professional and high-converting sales page, opt-in page (or any page in your funnel) is MUCH higher than if you were to create a general page on your blog.

A professionally built sales page helps establish trust and authority and lets potential buyers know their transaction is secure, which plays a huge role in continuing through your epic sales funnel!

Related Post: Ultimate Guide to Designing a Funnel That Converts

While your content and visual elements play a role in creating a sales page that converts, having the tools to present a professional page is also important.

We use LeadPages for ALL of our pages – sales, opt-in, confirmation, etc.

We then integrate our sales pages with Teachable, where all our products are available for purchase.

This allows us to do much more with tripwire pages, countdown timers, etc., than with the Teachable platform alone.

You can try LeadPages risk-free with a 14-day trial! But if your budget is slim (remember our talk about investments!), Elementor is a great option if you use WordPress.

Elementor is a free drag-and-drop WordPress plugin page builder. Their very low-cost paid option gives you access to features like forms and countdown timers. But the free version is all that’s necessary to set up a professional landing page.

Whether you’re using LeadPages or Elementor as your sales page builder and want to save a ton of design time, check out our Confident Funnels.

It’s our complete funnel system with done-for-you landing page templates in three different designs!

SELLING PLATFORM

For those who don’t have a blog or want to have an online storefront, you’re in the right place.

  1. Create Canva templates to sell
  2. Design sales page for blog
  3. Set up online storefront

Etsy and Creative Market are very popular for sellers because of their massive audience.

However, you’re at the whim of their algorithms and changes in fees. Currently, Creative Market now takes a 50% cut on all sales. Ouch!

Related Post: The Easy Way to Create and Sell Printable Products

You can also use WooCommerce if you want to sell directly on your blog, but we found the customizations to be a bit bland and noticed a dip in site speed after installation.

Personally, we highly recommend Shopify or Payhip (totally free!) if you want to sell Canva templates. Shopify is very easy to use and looks professional, building that trust with your audience!


Because you are in full control of your online storefront, you will lose out on the instant visibility that Etsy and Creative Market offer.

You’ll need to promote your Canva templates to your audience, utilize Pinterest and social media, as well as optimize your content for search engines (aka SEO).

We are LOVING these Shopify theme templates for Easy Website Themes. Because they’re crafted by an official Shopify developer, they’re designed for top-notch site speed as well as looks. Use code SIMPLIFY20 for 20% off your order!

DELIVER YOUR CANVA TEMPLATES

Now, one thing to note if you sell Canva templates is that you need a vessel to deliver the template links after purchase.

  1. Create Canva templates to sell
  2. Design sales page for blog
  3. Set up online storefront
  4. Deliver Canva template links

We prefer Teachable because we include other things in our products besides Canva templates, such as video tutorials. Teachable offers a free plan where you can do things like:

  • Duplicate your products instantly
  • Offer free products, like lead magnets
  • Redirect your Thank You page to a tripwire or upsell page
  • Add tracking codes and other information to specific pages
  • Integrate with LeadPages, ThriveCart, ConvertKit, PayPal, and Stripe

Integration is so important, especially with your email service provider, so you can tag new purchasers and send post-purchase email sequences!

But if you want to only sell Canva templates, delivering your links via PDF is a great alternative (which can also be made using Canva!).

Just add a ‘Button’ element and some text to your 8×11.5 design. Then, add your hyperlink to both the text and button. That’s it!

Want to create digital products? Sell Canva templates! It's great for passive income and has almost zero maintenance, making them perfect for busy bloggers!

DESIGN TIP: Add additional pages in your Canva template delivery PDF to share video tutorials or promote similar products (including affiliate products)!

Both Shopify and Payhip are perfect for this as it integrates with PayPal and Stripe, ensuring your customer’s payment is processed securely.

Give Shopify a free test run with a 14-day risk-free trial, or get started with Payhip totally free!

They both deliver the digital product to your customer AND deposit the money straight into your account.

Everything is completely automated, so you can make money from your Canva templates around the clock.

Another added benefit to using Shopify or Payhip (among a very long list) is its ability to integrate with ConvertKit so you can tag and add your customers to the right post-purchase email sequences.

EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER

Your email list is just as important as your email service provider. The reason is that your list is who you’ll be selling Canva templates to!

  1. Create Canva templates to sell
  2. Design sales page for blog
  3. Set up online storefront
  4. Deliver Canva template links
  5. Build email sales funnel

Even more than that, they’ll help you actually brainstorm more product ideas and content for your sales page, fueling consistent sales.

Using your email service provider, you will:

  • Set up an email list
  • Build and nurture through emails
  • Get to know them and how you can help them
  • Survey them and use their answers to develop your product idea and content
  • Sell (or “launch”) the product to them via email broadcasts
  • Automate future sales with automated email sequences

All of this happens within your email service provider, so you’ll need a good one with excellent deliverability and features that grow WITH your business.

We LOVE ConvertKit because it’s easy to use and helps us segment our subscribers based on actions and purchases.

We also set up visual automations and funnels so only the right content is sent at the right time to the right readers.

ConvertKit has grown with us as we went from 1 subscriber to over 20k. And now you can get started with ConvertKit absolutely FREE!

Remember, your email service provider will be one of the BEST and most important investments you’ll make in your business.


Learning to sell Canva templates is such a great way to boost your passive income and grow your blog, no matter your starting budget.

Related Post: 3 Myths Bloggers Think About When Selling Digital Products

When we first started Simplifying DIY Design, our budget was less than $100/mo, so we used ConvertKit and Elementor. That’s it!

But, we learned to sell Canva templates for OUR audience and nurtured them using email every step of the way.

Seriously! We launched our first product to an email list of 2000 subscribers and made over $10k in seven days. How? Because we created Canva templates that solved a problem for our specific readers.

We’re now a six-figure company with multiple employees and an email list of over 20,000 bloggers, all by learning how to sell Canva templates (legally, of course!). And we know you can, too!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Don’t forget to grab our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

CLICK HERE TO GRAB THE FREE KIT!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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

Want to create digital products? Sell Canva templates! It's great for passive income and has almost zero maintenance, making them perfect for busy bloggers!

The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Funnel That Converts

by Leave a Comment

Last updated on April 20th, 2024

Sales funnels aren’t just for million-dollar blogs and businesses. Your sales funnel design is how you grow your email list and make money blogging. Here’s how to design a blog sales funnel that converts, no matter your blog’s size!

We’re not going to lie; we seriously underestimated exactly how much work goes into blogging.

It’s easy to think that starting a blog requires only writing good content, publishing a few Pinterest pins or social media posts, and boom! Instant traffic.

But there’s much more to it than that. Like, x100 more.

A common theme we’ve seen lately is newer bloggers not realizing how much DESIGN goes into blogging. Almost everything we do requires some kind of design.

Ready to nail your product launch? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit with a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template so you can create a digital product for your blog!

GET THE PRODUCT QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

From our Pinterest pins and lead magnets to social media posts, products, and even landing pages, they all require DESIGN.

It wasn’t until we really started getting into the strategy of blogging that our business took off.

A blog strategy didn’t come naturally to us. It took us a lot of time, trial and error, mistakes, investments, and constant learning to nail ours down.

We can do the design part of it all day, but putting it all together in a way that clicks? Well, let’s just say that was definitely one of our biggest challenges.

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

Sales funnels are how you grow your email list and make money blogging. Here's how you can design a blog sales funnel that converts, no matter your blog's size!

We had to examine our blog sales funnel in a completely different light, analyzing the intricacies of every step to determine where our readers would go next.

And you know what we found?

If your design doesn’t stop your reader in their tracks, you won’t get the click.

They’ll never step into your beautifully crafted blog sales funnel to hand over their email address, let alone make a purchase that funds your blog.

STEP ONE: THE IMAGE (ENTRY POINT)

Most of the time, unless someone finds you on Google, the entry point to your blog is visual.

This could be a Facebook post, Pinterest pin, Instagram post, or something similar.

Even Facebook or Pinterest ads are, again, visual.

Sales funnels are how you grow your email list and make money blogging. Here's how you can design a blog sales funnel that converts, no matter your blog's size!

Gone are the days of writing a blog post and putting it out to the world with an ugly pin and a catchy title. (Yes, it was actually as easy as that!)

Now we’re competing with colors, videos, text that pops, and so many distracting elements such as ads, pop-ups, and even outside distractions like dogs and kids.

Your design needs to stop the scroll. It needs to catch attention.

Related Post: Anatomy of the Perfect Pinterest Pin Design

Even more than that, it needs to be professional, readable, bright, and relatable. No pressure, right?

TIPS TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS

  • Use stock photos unless your content is specific to your creations (food, craft, etc.)
  • Choose photos that are light, bright, and relatable (cheesy won’t get clicks)
  • Keep font size in mind; If it’s too small to read on a cell phone, they won’t click
  • Test different titles to see which one clicks with your ideal reader
  • Use design elements like banners or arrows to draw attention to CTA’s
  • Keep your ideal reader in mind when choosing design elements
  • Use a design template to save time

To keep our entry points consistent, we use a pack of templates that have already been designed to match our brand. That way, we only have to swap out the image and update the text.

If you want to build your own pack of branded templates, our MEGA Pinterest Template Bundle is just what you need. Choose from 65+ grid, collage, and mockup-style Pinterest templates

We’ve combined grid, collage, and mockup style pin designs for MEGA variety and MAX conversions! Get it NOW for only $27!

STEP TWO: THE LEAD MAGNET

The next stage of a sales funnel design is your lead magnet.

This is also called a content upgrade or freebie; whatever you’re offering for free in exchange for an email address.

There are several ways to brainstorm lead magnet ideas. Since everyone’s blog and mission are different, we’ll divide the list into two categories.

IF YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF PAID OFFER

If you already have a paid offer, work backward! You need to start with the paid offer, even if it’s an affiliate product you’ll promote in your welcome email (which we’ll touch on later).

Ask yourself different questions about your reader and your paid offer:

  • What problem does the paid offer solve?
  • Where does my reader need to be in order to know that they have that problem?
  • What kind of information do they need prior to being ready to get that problem solved?
  • What’s another problem they might have BEFORE being ready for the paid offer that I can solve?

Let the paid offer guide your decision. The more closely related, the better the conversion.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY KIND OF PAID OFFER

If you don’t have any kind of pair offers, let’s start by doing a quick content audit. What are your top posts and blog topics? How broad is your blog?

We’re firm believers that a blog can be broad, but the email list cannot.

Related Post: 17 Content Upgrades to Grow Your Email List

That’s why we always recommend framing your lead magnets in a way that speaks to a specific person (even if they’re about different things).

Do you see how our lead magnet ties perfectly with this part of the blog post? We’re more likely to get an email address in exchange for our freebie because it directly relates to our content.

It all comes back to your target audience (or avatar). What do they want, and WHY do they want it?

Once you’ve looked at your top posts, think about the next logical step or how you can expand on the content in an actionable way.

We discuss this in depth in our Tripwire Deep Dive Workshop. It’s available now for only $27!

STEP THREE: THE OPT-IN PAGE

Now that you have written your blog post, your social media or Pinterest images are ready, and your lead magnet is created, it’s time to create a dedicated opt-in page or form.

If you’re a beginner blogger, start this stage of your sales funnel design with a FORM embedded in your blog posts.

Related Post: How to Grow Your Email List as a New Blogger

For more experienced bloggers, landing pages are great for sending traffic directly to your offer via Pinterest, YouTube, social media, or paid advertising.

OPT-IN FORMS

Our email service provider of choice is ConvertKit, and we cannot recommend it enough. They have nine ‘inline’ (forms within a blog post) styles to choose from.

It’s so simple to use yet has a ton of features that’ll really elevate your blog sales funnel.

Sales funnels are how you grow your email list and make money blogging. Here's how you can design a blog sales funnel that converts, no matter your blog's size!

Regardless of the tool you use, be sure to include a mockup-style graphic on your form so your readers know exactly what they’re getting in exchange for an email address.

OPT-IN PAGES

You may have seen a few opt-in pages that vary in length. Some are very short (to limit distractions), and some are a bit longer to include social proof, information about the creator, etc.

If you’re just starting out, don’t worry about the extra noise. You’ll add that as you establish brand recognition and trust amongst your readers.

Sales funnels are how you grow your email list and make money blogging. Here's how you can design a blog sales funnel that converts, no matter your blog's size!

ConvertKit has 50+ landing page designs to choose from. You can also edit the photos, fonts, and colors to match your brand.

When setting up your opt-in page, keep in mind:

  • Headline
  • Visual element (usually a mockup-style graphic of the lead magnet)
  • Offer itself
  • Button
  • How it looks on mobile (this is easily forgotten!)

Other landing page options are Elementor and Brizy (both are FREE and available for WordPress users).

We’ve been using LeadPages for years and love it.

It’s (very) user-friendly and 100% customizable, whether you’re creating a basic opt-in page or full sales pages, timed offers, or redirects. Try LeadPages FREE for 14 days here!

If you use Elementor or LeadPages, be sure to check out our Confident Funnels. It’s our complete funnel system with done-for-you landing page templates in three different designs!

STEP FOUR: THE TRIPWIRE

You’ve created your entry point, lead magnet, and opt-in method. Now, it’s time to monetize, especially if you plan to use paid advertising to grow your email list.

A tripwire is a low-cost, quick-win type of product that’s offered right after someone signs up for your email list.

They’re redirected to a ‘Thank you’ page that lets them know their freebie is on the way and offers them a special one-time offer (OTO).

Learn everything there is to know about tripwire products in our Tripwire Deep Dive Workshop NOW for just $27!

The most profitable tripwires are HIGHLY RELATED to the lead magnet offer.

Additionally, you want a visual element ‘above the fold’. Your subscriber won’t read the rest of the sales page if it doesn’t immediately grab their attention.

Visual elements to include above the fold are:

  • Product mockup
  • Countdown timer (that redirects so it’s truly a one-time offer)
  • Button that pops!

We’ll use one of the tripwire page templates from our Confident Funnels as an example. You can also view the entire page by clicking here.

This entire section is ‘above the fold’, immediately visible without scrolling down the page. The product mockup, countdown timer, and buy button are in immediate view to grab attention.

Related Post: Profitable Tripwire Product Ideas for Your Blog

Tripwire purchases are impulse buys (hence the timer). That’s why the offer needs to be very compelling and valuable at a ‘no-brainer’ price.

Be sure to double-check how your tripwire page looks on tablet and mobile devices as well!

STEP FOUR (ALTERNATIVE): THANK YOU PAGE

If you don’t have a tripwire offer, you can still optimize your ‘Thank you’ page for maximum value and connection.

Ways to provide value and establish a connection on your thank you page:

  • Short story about you and your ‘why’ (with headshot)
  • Links to your best articles they might find helpful
  • Create a “favorite resources” page (great for affiliate links, too)
  • Promote your favorite affiliate products (like the bottom of our homepage)
  • Link to your social media profiles, podcast, or YouTube channel
  • Make a short value video (embed it for minimal space)

There are many ways to get creative with your thank you page!

You can also include these recommendations on your ‘Offer expired’ page if you use a tripwire.

An offer expired page redirects your subscriber after the timer expires OR if they sign up to your email list again at a later time.

See what we mean in our Tripwire Deep Dive Workshop. Dive in now for only $27!

STEP FIVE: THE WELCOME EMAIL SEQUENCE

Ironically, we usually suggest very few visual elements inside your email. We’re not huge fans of headers or lots of images inside an email for a few reasons.

If NOT done right, they can increase the chance of being tagged as spam or take too long to load, causing your reader to completely miss the image(s).

Here’s a portion of one of our emails:

We provide visuals in other ways, including colored headings, emojis, and buttons.

Now, keep in mind that we’re an agency, so we want our emails to look very professional.

If you’re the face of your blog, you may want your emails to feel like it’s coming from a friend. Some bloggers are famous for getting personal with their email lists through storytelling and value.

Connection is a ‘make or break’ piece to a sales funnel because connection helps build ‘know, like, and trust’ with your readers.

We’ve included matching email header and signature templates in our Five-Minute Brand!

Get 40 complete (and editable!) Canva brand kits PLUS dozens of matching templates for just $27 with our Five-Minute Brand!

STEP SIX: THE PRODUCT DESIGN

You’ve likely heard the phrase “the money is in the list,” but maybe you’re unsure how or why.

Use your email list to establish a connection with your readers and provide them value.

In doing so, you’ll let them know about products you’ve used or created that’ll solve a specific problem they’re having.

Related Post: 4 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Digital Products

They will trust your recommendation and purchase said product because they know, like, and trust you. You’re essentially get paid to help them.

Here’s the thing, though.

What you recommend has to actually help them! The products you offer can NOT be random. The key to conversion is to quite literally make a product FOR your people.

Here’s how we made $10k in seven days with an email list of just over 2,000 subscribers.

  • Grew our list with very targeted lead magnets
  • Nurtured our list by emailing regularly
  • Surveyed our readers to find their biggest pain points
  • Made product to solve biggest pain points
  • Launched said product

We didn’t create just any product or what we THOUGHT they wanted. We created exactly what THEY asked for.

Alternatively, if you don’t have your own product that you’ve made for your reader, you can still solve their problem.

Tell them about something you’ve used to solve YOUR problem that they’re presumably going through now.

Keep in mind there are some pros and cons of affiliate marketing:

  • PRO: Risk-free for you; it takes no time or energy to create
  • PRO: Little to no customer service issues as it’s not your product
  • CON: No control of price, sales page, email follow-up sequences, customer service, etc.

Personally, we like being in control of our products, launches, flash sales, etc.

If we notice conversions starting to drop, we have data at every point of our funnels and can pinpoint where optimization is needed.

Related Post: Must-Have Graphics for Your Digital Product Launch

The only information we have about our affiliate products is the number of times a link was clicked and the number of purchases made.

We don’t know if they dropped off on the sales page or abandoned their cart. It’s complete and total reliance on the creator’s funnel to make the sale.

COMING UP WITH A PRODUCT IDEA

We always start with our unique audience along with our data. We see what topics people are responding to and what they’re asking for. We look at survey responses, questions, emails, comments, and messages.

  • What are people asking for?
  • What problem do they need to solve?
  • Why does it matter to them that this problem gets solved?

These are the things we really focus on when generating a product idea.

Just because it’s a thing that WE think is a good idea doesn’t mean it’s going to be something my audience wants or needs. To provide real value, you need to start with your people.

That’s why we created our Product Creators Ultimate Toolbox. It’s an entire product design and launch plan that’s been “templatized,” so you can customize it to every product you create!

You’ll get instant access to done-for-you Canva design templates PLUS market research in 13 of the most popular niches, 320+ product ideas, surveys, sales page copy, promotional templates, and so much more.

Learn more about our COMPLETE product creation system here!

TYPES OF PRODUCTS TO CREATE FOR A SALES FUNNEL

There are so many different kinds of digital products you can make for your audience.

  1. Workbooks
  2. Workshops
  3. Planners
  4. E-courses
  5. E-books
  6. Memberships
  7. Coaching or other services
  8. Templates
  9. Patterns
  10. Downloadable files (like SVGs)
  11. Video training
  12. Journals
  13. Instruction guides (including cookbooks and crafts!)
  14. Study guides
  15. Spreadsheets

Once you’ve chosen your product and the format you’re going to make it in, it’s time to design.

DESIGNING A DIGITAL PRODUCT

You don’t need anything fancy to create a product for your blog sales funnel. In fact, digital products can easily be designed using simple design tools like Canva.

But before we get started, there’s one thing we want to make abundantly clear. If you sell Canva templates or products made in Canva, you must abide by Canva’s Content License Agreement.

It would behoove you to READ THIS ARTICLE FIRST before you start creating and selling products made in Canva (including Canva templates).

Here’s what we like to do before we start designing our digital product:

  • Have content completely written out
  • Complete inspiration session (we like to store ideas and inspo in Asana)
  • Map out our product on paper (a cardboard box also works great!)
  • Decide on fonts and colors (usually it’s on-brand unless it’s seasonal)

From there, we’ll search our folder of Canva templates for a design.

We’ve already designed them once. Why start from scratch every time?

Design (especially when it’s for a digital product) can be a very high ROI task but it becomes less and less “high ROI” if you take too long and get stuck.

Our Product Creators Ultimate Toolbox has 320+ Canva design templates in various product types PLUS templates for every step of the product creation (and launch!) process!

STEP SEVEN: THE SALES PAGE

Once you’ve got a product created and launched, it’s time to automate sales.

We like to add a sales sequence to the end of our welcome value emails. ConvertKit makes this simple using tools like rules, filters, and Visual Automations as shown below.

We’ve already established a connection with our new reader, and we like to offer something of higher value next.

With high value usually comes a price tag.

However, as content creators, we need to shift our focus from “feeling bad about asking for money” to “I’m able to provide value because of the fact that this person has invested in me. I can feed my family, pay the bills, and spend more time serving my readers.”

During that sales sequence, we’ll link to a sales page we designed specifically for this sequence.

The reason for that is simple: tracking.

We know that the person viewing this page only sees it because they’re in the sequence which helps track conversions on the email sales sequence itself.

Some visual elements we include are:

  • Stock photos
  • Product mockup images
  • Countdown timers
  • Testimonial graphics
  • Videos
  • Any graphics that might convey a special offer, flash sale, launch special, etc.

If designing a sales page is out of your purview, be sure to check out our Confident Funnels.

You’ll get instant access to done-for-you page templates for every step of your sales funnel in three unique designs!

STEP EIGHT: THE SALES SEQUENCE

After you’ve got your sales page designed for your sales sequence, it’s time to WRITE the sales sequence! Here’s the thing: this doesn’t have to be super complicated.

In fact, you can repurpose a lot of your launch especially if your product converted well. Work smarter, not harder!

We typically do 4 to 5 emails for a sales sequence, but we recommend experimenting with what works well for your audience.

Try to keep these emails simple with little to no distractions: a basic footer without links to your blog, CTA’s, affiliate program, etc.

The only thing you want someone to do is click over to the sales page. The best thing to do with an automated sales sequence is:

  • Continue providing value
  • Address any objections
  • Give people incentive to buy (via special bonuses or early-bird discounts)

We’ve used other email service providers and none even come close to the power ConvertKit has to creating personalized sales sequences.

You don’t want to promote a product to someone who already purchased it or is in another funnel for a different product.

ConvertKit is one of the BEST tools we use in our six-figure business. Try it free for 30 days here!

STEP NINE: THE UPSELL

If you have another product that you think is a great next step or provides extra value to the one that you’re promoting, then make it an upsell!

We’ve tested this in two ways.

The first is the “upsell feature” on Teachable, which displays as a button on the confirmation page and allows people to click through and purchase the upsell.

The second way is designing a sales page (very similar to a tripwire page) that redirects after the purchase. We use ThriveCart for this and love it!

Use this page to thank them for their purchase and introduce the related product they might be interested in. This option has converted nearly 10x higher for us.

Alternatively, you can offer upsells in your post-purchase email sequence. This doesn’t have to be limited to your products but also affiliate products.

During your post-purchase sequence, provide value on how the buyer can get the MOST from your product and introduce other related offers that might help them achieve more success.

These are usually presented in more of a conversational way rather than a harder sell, like a sales sequence.

Related Post: How to Effectively Use QR Codes in Your Blog Sales Funnel

Depending on the product, QR codes are a fantastic way to continue the journey through your funnel.

Once your buyer finishes the product, they can scan the QR code to see what product you recommend next.

As you can see, there are many different ways to level up your blog sales funnel!

WHAT DO THESE BLOG SALES FUNNEL STEPS HAVE IN COMMON?

There are TWO things all of these blog sales funnel steps have in common.

First, they work to provide your subscribers with the highest amount of value possible. Second, they’re all centered around DESIGN!

Related Post: 5 Reasons Why Blog Graphics Can Impact Growth

You truly need great graphics to grow your blog. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen bloggers, including us, underestimate how much design goes into blogging!

Design is involved at every stage of your blog sales funnel.

  • Entry point images (usually Pinterest, social media, or ads)
  • Lead magnet design
  • Lead magnet forms
  • Lead magnet landing pages
  • Tripwire design
  • Tripwire sales pages
  • Product design
  • Design elements for your sales pages and other landing pages
  • And SO much more!

We know this may seem incredibly overwhelming, but you shouldn’t tackle everything all at once!

Start small with your entry points, lead magnet, and welcome sequence first.

If conversions are good, start on your tripwire while your lead magnet continues to grow your email list. This is what we did until we had about 600 subscribers.

Then we were ready to survey, and as the old saying goes, the rest is history!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Don’t forget our FREE Product Creators Quickstart Kit! You’ll get a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to help you nail your launch!

GET THE PRODUCT QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $14.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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5 Reasons Why Blog Graphics Can Impact Your Blog Growth

by 2 Comments

Last updated on September 21st, 2023

Blog graphics can impact trust, promotional success, user experience, conversions, and MORE. Here are five reasons why you need great graphics to grow your blog and grab your reader’s attention to click over to your site, sign up for your email list, and buy your products!

When we started our first blog back in 2015, we couldn’t figure out why our site wasn’t getting any traffic.

There are quite a few vanity metrics when it comes to blogging, but website traffic (measured in pageviews or users) is the lifeblood of your blog.

No traffic = no subscribers = no income.

We FELT like we were doing all the things. And yet, crickets. Looking back, we were doing almost nothing right.

Want to boost your blog’s traffic using Pinterest? Use our FREE Canva video pin templates to grab your readers’ attention and get them to click over to your site!

GET FREE VIDEO PIN TEMPLATES!

We were writing what WE wanted to write about, not what our readers wanted.

We had absolutely no direction, didn’t know what a keyword was, and our images were modeled after other pin designs we saw on Pinterest.

Having little knowledge of anything else, we decided to dust off our graphic design skills and implement basic design principles, starting with Pinterest.

Then, something actually started to happen!

We had a 2200% increase in pageviews just from re-designing our Pinterest pins.

What else could we improve on if we had that much success from just a re-design?

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

You need great graphics to grow your blog. Blog graphics can grow your email list, boost traffic to your blog, and build trust with your readers.

That’s when we decided to learn anything and everything about blogging, from copywriting and email marketing to digital products and sales funnels.

When we launched Simplifying DIY Design, it took us less than one year to replace our full-time income and less than two to generate six figures.

That’s why we’re so passionate about helping other bloggers achieve success because, with us, it all started with a simple re-design!

#1: PROFESSIONAL APPEARANCE ESTABLISHES TRUST

We were driving through a very rural woodland area when we happened to see a sign on the side of the road.

It was a simple white poster board with black marker reading, “Chinese food *phone number* ➡.”

Not only would we never call to order, but we felt it was a very real trap of some kind. That’s how awful and out of place this sign looked.

That’s essentially what you’re doing when your blog, sales pages and other blog graphics are very sub-par.

The internet is both a blessing and a curse. Your audience doesn’t need any LESS reason to give you their credit card information.

The more professional your blog appears, the more credible you’ll appear to your reader.

Related Post: 10 Must-Know Blog Design Tips

That’s why it’s super important that not only are the blog graphics professional, but the tools you use are as well.

A well-designed sales page will convert much higher than a random page on your blog with a PayPal button.

BRANDING

Your brand can play a big part in professionalism as well. A nice-looking site will help build trust and credibility, and a cohesive brand can also go a long way in establishing trust with your audience.

How will your audience ever become familiar with you if you change your logo every other day?

If you’d like to read more about creating a cohesive brand, click here.

#2: VISUAL PROMOTIONS CATCH ATTENTION

There are so many different types of blog graphics that you can create to promote something, such as:

  • Blog post
  • Lead magnet
  • Paid product
  • Affiliate product
  • Event (live stream, webinar, live event, etc.)
  • Collaboration
  • Shop page

The list goes on!

Here’s the thing. There are THREE main components that result in getting the click on a blog, landing, and sales page.

  1. Design
  2. Copy
  3. Offer

We have design at the top of that list because if your design doesn’t STOP them long enough to read your copy, you’ll never get the click.

And without the click, you won’t get the sale. It’s as simple as that.

Related Post: Digital Product Launch Graphics You Need to Create

This is why your promotional graphics need to be spot on. They increase the offer’s perceived value and get people excited to take action!

Just think of what you look for or what you like to see before you click over to a blog post, lead magnet, or paid offer. Chances are it’s what your audience wants to see as well.

#3: VISUAL ELEMENTS IMPROVE USER EXPERIENCE

There are a lot of different ways we like to use visual elements to improve our site’s user experience. The reason is we want our readers to have a good experience because they’ll stay on our site longer.

The longer a user stays on our site, the more authority we’ll have with Google. While the length of stay isn’t a ranking factor, it shows Google our blog is:

  • User-friendly
  • Relevant
  • Valuable

Users might click around to other posts, providing even more value and increasing the likelihood of a conversion, whether a click to another post, product sale, or email sign-up.

SEO TIP: Add related posts throughout your blog posts to keep visitors on your site longer!

Blog posts are meant to be one of the first steps of a funnel. Even though you’re providing free information, you need to hook your reader enough to want to stay.

If they can’t make it through your blog post because it’s written in a giant block of text with no headings, images, or video, how will they get any value from you to want to stick around?

Here are just some visual elements we like to include throughout our blog and posts to increase user experience:

Another type of visual that’s gaining a lot of traction is animated flipbooks (very similar to GIFs).

This style of graphic is intended to mimic the flipping of pages, books, slides, or something similar.

Because of its repeated animation, it instantly grabs attention, which is exactly what we want

Plus, they’re super easy (and free!) to make. Follow our step-by-step flipbook tutorial using Canva!

#4: BLOG GRAPHICS CAN IMPROVE CONVERSIONS

We talked about this a little bit early on, but blog graphics can actually improve conversions.

Blog graphics are important not only in organic promotion but also for paid advertising. A major part of all paid strategies, whether it be social media or Pinterest ads, are visuals!

Related Post: Top Visual Elements for a Brand New Blog

Here are just a few ways you can increase conversions throughout your blog:

  • AFFILIATE PRODUCTS: Create a beautiful image that showcases the affiliate product in addition to your compelling copy about why you love it
  • EMAIL SIGN-UPS: Mock-up style graphic on your opt-in form grabs attention and increases the perceived value by showing that it’s a real PRODUCT that you can get for free
  • BLOG POSTS: Include visually appealing blog graphics that showcase your other posts (ideally ones that are heavily monetized or convert well to a sign-up)

To put things into perspective, we always tell our students to refer back to the last email sign-up or purchase they made from a blogger and another that they didn’t.

We’ll use us an example.

Would you rather see a quick mention of a lead magnet and then link to it like this?

Or a visually appealing graphic that grabs attention and shows you exactly what you’ll get in exchange for an email address?

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!

See the difference?

We guarantee you’ll increase conversions just by adding visual elements to your blog posts and landing pages.

YOU ALSO HAVE SO MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO INCREASE THE CONVERSION ON YOUR SALES PAGE.

In addition to making sure your sales page is set up in a professional and cohesive manner using a drag-and-drop builder (like Elementor and LeadPages), you can also include the following:

  • 3D mockup graphics of your product
  • Photos that drive home the point of your copy (ideally when hitting pain points or describing the transformation)
  • Buttons that pop versus ones that blend into your branding
  • Charts or other graphics that visually demonstrate the statistics of how your product can help
  • Establish credibility and social proof with featured brands and social media testimonials
  • Increase usability by breaking up a solid white background with colored sections

The more visually appealing your sales page is (without becoming overwhelming), the better!

If you want a complete funnel system, check out our Confident Funnels. Confident Funnels is designed-to-convert FULL funnel page templates for Elementor AND LeadPages in three unique styles!

#5: GRAPHICS ARE THE FIRST STEP OF A FUNNEL

A sales funnel can come in all shapes and sizes, especially if you’re a beginner blogger.

Because of this, some drastically underestimate just how much graphic design goes into building a funnel, even if you offer a simple tripwire after your opt-in.

If you think about it, the very FIRST step of a funnel is almost always a visual!

Someone usually clicks on your post from a pin graphic, an ad, or some other visual promotion. That graphic brings them to your post, which leads them to your offer.

Related Post: Ultimate Guide to Designing a Funnel That Converts

Depending on the offer, it might lead straight to a sale, OR it might lead to an email sign-up, which can trigger a tripwire, upsell, or a sales sequence.

We’re huge fans of funnels!

They’re an amazing way to generate a full-time income with your blog and provide a ton of value to your audience. Don’t sleep on creating a sales funnel for your blog.

You can start small with a tripwire and work your way up to offering upsells, order bumps, etc.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF AMAZING GRAPHICS TO GROW YOUR BLOG

We talked a lot about common mistakes I’ve made and constantly saw others make. You are one step ahead of the game.

On the flip side, don’t overwork yourself trying to update all of your blog graphics at once. Create a game plan by starting with one area.

We knew our main source of traffic was Pinterest, so we started with updating the pins to our most popular blog posts and went from there.

You don’t have to be certified in graphics or spend time learning graphic design.

You can get started right away with a simple tool like Canva and some professionally designed templates.

Check places like Etsy and Creative Market or browse our very own shop of Canva templates.

Canva also has a ton of amazing templates in their library, but be mindful of their Content License Agreement, especially if you want to sell digital products using their templates.

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Don’t forget to grab our FREE Canva video pin templates to grab your readers’ attention and get them to click over to your site!

GET FREE VIDEO PIN TEMPLATES!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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

How to Look Like a Pro Blogger | Top 10 Blog Design Tips

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Last updated on August 3rd, 2023

Making an income with your blog is much easier with a well-designed blog. If your blog isn’t keeping visitors around, chances are it’s the design. Check out these top blog design tips to boost your retention rates!

Have you ever landed on a blog and had a little design envy? Their website just screamed ‘PRO BLOGGER,’ right?

You instantly thought, ‘They’re definitely making money with their blog for sure. No doubt about it!’

The thing is, ANYONE can have a professional-looking blog.

Yes, even the no-budget beginner bloggers! How do we know? Because we did it!

That’s one of the reasons we love design SO much. You can make something out of absolutely nothing if you focus on the right things.

Sign up for our FREE Blog Graphics That Convert video training so you can learn how to create beautiful graphics for your blog that’ll increase clickthroughs, SEO, sign-ups, and sales!

WATCH THE VIDEO TRAINING NOW!

If you’re new to the blogging world or have a blog that doesn’t seem to retain visitors, chances are it’s your blog’s design.

The good news is that this is something you can easily fix without spending a dime. The bad news?

Just kidding, there’s no bad news!

REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇

Taking your blog full-time is much easier when you have a well-designed blog. Get that pro blogger look by implementing these top 10 blog design tips!

Keep in mind that some of the blog design tips we’re about to recommend will depend on your website’s theme.

If you’re using a fancy or complex theme, we highly recommend switching to the (free!) Kadence WP theme.

If we didn’t have a beautifully-customized theme by the amazingly talented Pixel Me Designs, this is the exact theme we’d use. It’s HIGHLY recommended by SEO analysts because it’s built for performance.

Now, we get it. The animations and unique fonts on some of the themes out there make for a stand-out blog.

But there’s a reason that successful blogs have a simple website, and we’ll go over the why in just a moment.

Okay, enough of the red tape. Let’s jump into the 10 essential blog design tips that’ll have you looking like a pro blogger in no time!

USE A BRAND COLOR PALETTE

As a new blogger, we completely understand the urge to want to try everything and anything to see what sticks, including color palettes.

Or maybe you’re just so obsessed with colors that you want your readers to taste the rainbow as they navigate through your site. Both are no-gos, and here’s why.

If you change your brand’s color palette too much, it not only creates confusion amongst your readers but lowers their confidence in you, too.

It tells them what you were doing before wasn’t working, so you’re trying something else. That doesn’t really scream ‘pro blogger,’ does it?

Related Post: How to Choose the Perfect Colors For Your Blog

Now let’s chat about the latter.

All of your pages should have a similar feel, and color is one of the design elements that’ll bring your content together. As visitors click from page to page, your site should flow effortlessly, as if it’s telling a story.

If one page is designed using rich, earthy tones and the next looks like a Skittles bag exploded on their screen, they’ll leave without ever thinking twice about you.

ONLY TWO COMPLEMENTARY FONTS

Are you really a blogger if you don’t have a Google Drive folder filled with hundreds of fonts from Creative Market’s weekly free drop, or the massive 700+ font bundles you got for an incredible steal of only $2.99?

It seems font hoarding has become part of a blogger’s nature, even though we KNOW we’ll never use them.


All jokes aside, it’s tempting to use one of those crazy script fonts that we just can’t get enough of all over our website. It’s just so darn cute, and we want others to ooh and ahh in all its beauty.

But that isn’t always the best thing to do. In fact, we don’t even recommend it.

We recently got an email from a reader asking why her site wasn’t retaining traffic. As soon as we saw her blog, we instantly knew why.

While she did follow a basic design rule of only using two fonts, she used them in all the wrong ways.

Instead of using a Sans Serif font as the primary font for her site (because it’s easy to read), she used a script font for nearly everything.

  • Blog’s navigation menu
  • Main text throughout the site
  • Blog post headers
  • Logo

We could barely read the text on a desktop, let alone a mobile device. That’s why her bounce rate was so high!

When designing your blog, use up to two complementary fonts; one Sans Serif and one Serif works best.

Related Post: Easy Typography Tips Every Blogger Should Know

Be sure to use an easy-to-read Sans Serif font like Lato, Montserrat, or Roboto as your blog’s main font, at least. While our brand fonts are Poppins (Sans Serif) and Black Diamond (script), we ONLY use Poppins on our website.

We’d much rather have an easy-to-read website that keeps our readers engaged versus a “pretty” website that doesn’t make any money.

CLEAR IMAGES

Having clear images can be challenging, especially when compressed to the recommended size of <100kb, to keep your site running efficiently.

But blurry or poor-quality images on your website are a dead giveaway that you’re a beginner blogger.

Level up your game by ensuring your images, whether your own or stock, are crisp and well-lit.

When we first started Simplifying DIY Design, we used DepositPhotos for ALL of our stock photos. The quality was top-notch, the variety was great, and the price was comparable to other memberships.

However, we’ve since cut out all of our stock photo memberships (saving us hundreds of dollars a year) by upgrading to Canva Pro!


They have 60 million images to choose from – more than we could ever use in our lifetime! See for yourself with a FREE trial of Canva Pro!

Because visuals play such a vital role in the success of your blog, We cannot stress enough the importance of using high-quality images throughout your blog.

Related Post: 5 Reasons Why You Need Great Graphics to Grow Your Blog

If you do nothing else, improving your images alone can make a huge visual impact, keeping visitors on your site longer!

LIMITED NAVIGATION MENU

It’s easy to get carried away with your blog’s navigation menu.

We don’t want our visitors to miss anything or have difficulty finding what they want. But just like having too little of something is a bad thing, so is having too much.

If you give your reader too many options, they’ll most likely become overwhelmed and not go anywhere on your site except out.

Look at your blog’s navigation from a new reader’s perspective. What would you want them to find first?

Keep your navigation to around five options. This will keep the top portion of your website clean and uncluttered.


You’ll also likely see your visitors clicking their way through multiple website pages instead of coming to your home page and leaving, which is great for SEO!

People come to our site for one of three things – Our content, design templates, and free resource library.

Personally, every blog should have ‘Contact’ on its navigation menu. You don’t want to make your readers jump through hoops to reach out with a question. You never know if it’ll be a lost sale!

We recently added ‘Login’ to our blog’s navigation which has significantly cut down on course login emails which means we’re now spending less time in our inbox!

Another popular option is adding an FAQ page. This is a fantastic option for selling goods and/or services.

MOBILE-FRIENDLY SITE

This is yet another reason why you need to use a top-notch website theme. If your theme isn’t mobile-friendly, no one will hang around and read your content, much less sign up for your email list.

Having a mobile responsive website will:

  • Load faster, improving SEO
  • Provide a better user experience (easier to navigate and read!)
  • Boost your session duration (time spent on your site)
  • Lower your bounce rate (leave after viewing one page)

Stupid Simple SEO recommends the Kadence WP theme (it’s free, by the way) because it still looks great no matter how you customize it without compromising your load times.

Related Post: Top Visual Elements for a Brand New Blog

Any time you create a page, write a blog post, or make any design changes to your website, view it on a mobile device to ensure it still looks and functions beautifully for your readers.

THEME FOR DESIGN ELEMENTS

If your website theme allows for some design elements like an arrow here or a scribble there, be sure to keep it consistent across your site.

Design elements are a great way to add your brand’s personality to any visual. But there comes a point where they can become distracting and, at times, distasteful.

You don’t want your website to become disconnected and amateurish.

Just like an outfit, if you have too many things going on, you’ll look like a hot mess. If you’re going to use design elements, keep the style consistent.


A great way to help with this is using only watercolor designs or hand-drawn icons, for example. Creative Market makes this super easy with their design element bundles.

If you find a design element you like on Canva, you can search by artist to see if they have similar style elements to use together.

TEXT IS BROKEN UP VISUALLY

If only we could’ve written our term papers like we do blog posts. We’d never have to worry about stretching it out to 12 pages again because you’d just start a new paragraph after every sentence or two!

Regarding your blog, it’s very intentional.

When you break up your text using white space, images, bullet points, or different-sized fonts like headers, it gives the eye a break.

It also gives the appearance that the content is easily digestible, keeping your readers engaged longer.

Heavy blocks of text can be visually overwhelming, especially with our insanely short attention span these days. The key to great design, whilst still incorporating your content, is by breaking it up.

Taking your blog full-time is much easier when you have a well-designed blog. Get that pro blogger look by implementing these top 10 blog design tips!

We always preview our blog posts from both a desktop and mobile perspective in WordPress to see if there are any areas that look to be a bit too much.

An engaged reader stays on your site longer, significantly increasing your chances of gaining a new subscriber and, ultimately, a new sale!

CALL-TO-ACTION IS ABOVE THE FOLD

When visitors come to your website, you should have a primary goal, whether that’s to get them to sign up for your email list, buy your bestselling product, enroll in your next webinar, etc.

We know you want them to do everything, but that’s unrealistic. If you’re a beginner blogger, focus on growing your email list first and foremost.

The money is in the list. You own your email list – no algorithm “updates” or account closures will change that.

When you…

  • Launch a product, you email your list
  • Promote an affiliate product, you email your list
  • Need feedback on what product to make, you email your list
  • Want to offer a beta program, you email your list

Your email list is your blog’s bread and butter!

Give us a minute as we come down from our soap box. Our knees aren’t what they used to be.

Now that you know what your call-to-action (also known as CTA) will be, let’s chat about what it means to be above the fold.


‘Above the fold’ is the top of your homepage before scrolling down. It’s the first thing your visitors see before doing anything else, so you must make it count.

We have our free design library loud and proud above the fold because we make our money through our email list. People like to try out our Canva templates first before buying, so we rely on our email funnels to do the selling for us.

And we can’t do that unless they’re on our email list, so we need to promote it every chance we get. Make sense?

ALL LINKS WORK

Anytime you change a link to an already published post/page and had linked that original URL somewhere on your site, you’ve just created a broken link.

While it will cause some frustration with your readers, it’ll also affect your ranking on Google and Pinterest (if a pin is linked to the old URL).

The thing is, search engines and Google and Pinterest are not fond of broken links because it ultimately creates a bad experience for THEIR users.

If we’re on Pinterest looking for DIY dog toys and click on your pin, we expect to go to your blog post that teaches us how to create toys for our dogs.

But let’s say you changed the URL and never added a redirect that takes visitors from the old URL to the new one, and we close Pinterest out of frustration. Not only did you lose a visitor, but Pinterest did as well, which is how they make their money.

Whenever you change a link on your blog, make sure you update it through a redirect plugin like ‘Redirection.’

Taking your blog full-time is much easier when you have a well-designed blog. Get that pro blogger look by implementing these top 10 blog design tips!

Or if it’s something simple like an Instagram handle change, just update it directly in your social icons (usually a widget), which will vary based on your blog’s theme.

DESIGN TIP: Create a branded 404 page that links to popular pages on your site. That way, visitors are likelier to stick around and not just leave.

We also recommend using the ‘Broken Link Checker‘ plugin so you don’t have to spend time going through your site and clicking on all the things just to make sure everything still works.

Anytime there’s a broken link on your site, this plugin will not only let you know its source (like from a blog post or your navigation menu) but give you the ability to correct it all from one place.

Also, be sure to use ‘Pretty Links‘ for all of your affiliate links as soon as possible.

Brands sometimes change their affiliate hosts, meaning you’ll have to update your affiliate links to still receive a commission. By using Pretty Links, you have to update your link ONCE versus going through your entire blog, which can take days!

SOCIAL ACCOUNTS ARE CONNECTED

You probably spend just as much time on social media as you do on creating content for your blog.

Five minutes of scrolling can easily turn into an hour (if not more) pretty darn quickly!

Make sure that your visitors can easily follow you on all of your favorite social accounts by connecting them to your blog. Add the social icons wherever your website theme allows, like in your header, sidebar, footer, etc.

Again, this will depend on your blog’s theme and available widgets. Make sure the color is consistent with your brand’s color palette and that all links work!

We can’t tell you how many times we went to follow someone on Pinterest or Instagram directly from their site, only to find out it’s still linked to the theme’s demo account. Whoopsie!

THESE ARE JUST 10 BLOG DESIGN TIPS TO GIVE YOU THAT PRO BLOGGER LOOK.

As long as you have these boxes checked, you’re well on your way to having a beautifully functioning blog that’s sure to set a lasting impression on your visitors.

Again, some of these are easier to implement than others, such as the mobile-friendly option, but all are important to the success of your blog!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

Don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Blog Graphics That Convert video training so you can create beautiful graphics for your blog that’ll increase clickthroughs, SEO, sign-ups, and sales!

WATCH THE VIDEO TRAINING NOW!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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

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