How to make money selling Canva templates

You can use Canva for just about anything nowadays—to put together presentations, create business proposals, design social media posts, make event invitations, and even generate marketing materials.

Why you should design Canva templates to sell.

There are three main reasons why selling Canva templates is worthwhile:

1. It can be a great source of income, whether you want to make a little extra money on the side or turn it into a full-time job.
   
   
2. It lets you hone your design skills and share your creativity with a wider audience.
   
   
3. You may end up expanding your business in ways you would’ve never thought of before. Lots of content creators and entrepreneurs start by making a one-off Canva template, which turns into a much bigger and more exciting project over time. 
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How much can you make selling templates?

Selling Canva templates can certainly be lucrative, especially if you tap into the right market, niche, or customer needs and create designs that the masses want to buy.

To give you an idea of the profit potential, Canva templates sell for between $12-$16 on common online marketplaces. If you sold 500 templates, you could make between $6,000 and $8,000. That’s a serious chunk of change.

It can be tricky to price digital downloads, so take a look at what other sellers are charging for their Canva templates and keep track of how much you need to ask for to keep your business running profitably. 

Costs of a Canva template business

One of the reasons why selling Canva templates is so popular is because it’s inexpensive. Most people can afford the tools required to start designing Canva templates and it comes with very low recurring expenses. But there are a few costs to consider:

• Your Canva account. This can range between free and $12.99 per month per person depending on whether you sign up for a Free or Pro account.

• Licensing fees. Depending on the Canva design elements you include in your templates (as well as the commercial objectives you have for your Canva templates), you may have to pay Canva for a special distribution license. Be sure to consult their Terms of Use and their Content Licensing Agreement for more information. 

• Platform or website fees. You’ll likely have to pay a little bit to sell your templates, but the exact charge depends on where you do so. For example, you won’t have to give up any percentage of your sales if you sell your Canva templates on your website, but you will have to pay for your upkeep and domain. And if you want to sell your Canva templates on a platform like Etsy or Creative Market, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee. 

• Other design tools. Some designers may want to use additional design tools like Photoshop or Figma to create more sophisticated marketing and product images to promote their templates. If that’s you, it’s worth remembering that all those tools come along with additional costs, either one-time or monthly.

Canva templates you can create.

The Canva templates you can create are almost unlimited. And remember, the more creative, the better. Check out some of the most popular Canva templates people sell to help you brainstorm ideas:

• Social media graphics, posts, banners, thumbnails, and other more platform-specific visuals (like templates for Instagram stories or story highlight covers)
  
• Website or blog graphics, logos, featured images, headers, hero sections, layouts, backgrounds, and footers
  
• Workbooks, worksheets, or ebooks
  
• Calendars or planners
  
• Presentations, infographics, whiteboards, graphs, charts, and other digital assets
  
• Event invitations, graphics, and menus
  
• Greeting cards, gift tags, and seasonal place-setting cards
  
• Brochures, posters, signs, flyers, and business cards
  
• Resumes, CVs, cover letters, and letterheads
  
• Stickers

Where to sell your Canva templates

You can sell Canva templates nearly anywhere, but here are a few of the more common ways seasoned designers and content creators are doing it.

Etsy

Etsy is a well-known online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers all around the world. People most often use it to sell handmade items, but many Etsy users sell digital products successfully on the platform.

Many people use a platform like Etsy when they’re just getting started creating Canva templates but don’t have a dedicated website or landing page set up.

You can sign up for an Etsy account for free if you want to sell your templates on the platform. It’s a popular platform, complete with a steady stream of customers that’ll browse through your offerings. 

Etsy users also have the option to sign up for Etsy Plus, which costs $10/month but comes with benefits like storefront customization, restock requests, listing credits, ad credits, and other discounts.

Creative Market

Creative market is another online marketplace, specializing in design assets and digital products rather than handmade items like Etsy. Along with templates, Creative Market users sell things like graphics, fonts, photos, and web themes.

Creative Market works because members pay monthly subscription fees that include a set amount of digital download credits, so you’ve always got a captive audience browsing through your products.

Even though it doesn’t cost anything to set up a shop on Creative Market, they take a hefty 40% commission from all the sales you make.