How to Make Money Online Selling Templates

Have you ever wondered who made all of those awesome templates on Canva? It wasn’t just Canva employees! Regular people like you and me are able to make Canva templates and make money off of them. Some people even report making $2,000-$5,000 per month doing this. So how do you make money online selling templates for graphics? You’re about to learn all about it!

Canva vs Photoshop

Photoshop is a tried and true graphic design program, but it has some barriers to entry. The subscription cost can add up over time ($20 per month for just Photoshop), and the software is complex. Canva by contrast is a free (with premium plans available) graphic design web application with a focus on templates and premade assets. It’s much more beginner-friendly. Both tools allow a high level of customization when it comes to fonts, colors, images, and other elements. Your level of experience and willingness to learn tools and concepts will help determine if you’ll use one or the other or both to sell templates.

Also for both tools, creating and selling templates is a potentially lucrative side hustle.

Do You Need to Be a Graphic Designer to Start Selling Templates?

While being a professional graphic designer will help you out, all you truly need is a general eye for design. Canva will be a better choice for less experienced designers. This is because the web app is free to get started with and much easier to work with. This is partly thanks to its more narrow purpose, and preset elements. Photoshop is complicated by comparison, and it would be difficult for a total beginner to make worthwhile templates. But if you’re experienced in Photoshop, you should have no problem working with it. Photoshop will be more flexible and more advanced. Also, keep in mind who will be buying these templates…

Who Buys Canva or Photoshop Templates?

With so many folks running their own side hustles, there has been an increased demand for things like graphic design services. But a lot of people want to be able to do every aspect of their business themselves. Whether it’s making a logo or creating an attractive social media post, not everyone has the time to learn graphic design or the money to hire a professional designer. For many people, a pre-made template that they can change the colors on is going to be a quicker, easier, and more practical option. And with the customization features that these templates provide, users can feel as if they had a hand in the designs they use.

Photoshop templates will be aimed at users who have at least a small amount of graphic design experience, even as just a hobbyist. As mentioned before, Photoshop has a barrier to entry. There are very few reasons someone would spend $20 per month on the program unless they used it somewhat seriously. So Photoshop templates may need to be fairly advanced and stand out from the crowd. Canva on the other hand will appeal to non-designers who need to create a one-off poster or social media graphic. Canva templates should be easy to edit, because they will often be for people who don’t have a lot of experience with advanced editing.

Ultimately, it’s all about people spending less time on things that they don’t want to do. Explore Social Media Templates for Canva, Photoshop, and other software programs here →

Where to Sell Templates

Despite Canva being a website with templates, you may not be able to actually sell on Canva. Their contributor program is popular and can be temporarily closed at any time. So selling outside of Canva is a more reliable choice. You can sell your Canva templates on third-party marketplaces like Etsy or directly on your own e-commerce website. Your products will be discoverable and you can create marketing campaigns that promote them.

You’re still selling access to a template on Canva, so the template will open on the website. This also means that the buyer will be able to use fonts and images that are normally not free to use. A Canva account grants you usage rights to certain assets that are not otherwise free. And that extends to anyone who uses your template since they will need to make a Canva account as well.

Here are some marketplaces, tools, and sites you can use to sell your templates:

• FilterGrade! Learn how to sell your digital products on FilterGrade here →
• WooCommerce (for WordPress)
• Squarespace
• Shopify
• Envato Market
• Etsy

Canva and Photoshop templates are growing in popularity fast! Did you know that you can also sell your digital templates right here on FilterGrade! Our marketplace is home to a ton of assets for photo editing, video production, motion graphics, and design. Visit the sellers’ page to learn how to get started! Apply to sell here.

What Templates Should You Make?

There are a ton of types of templates you can create for Canva. Social media posts are incredibly common, especially square graphics for Instagram. But you can find your niche in wedding invitations, calendars, logos, resumes, newsletters, YouTube thumbnails, and just about any other kind of graphic you can think of!

Photoshop templates can include the same sorts of graphics, but they can be more advanced. For example, something like using text as a mask for an image is a simple click away in Photoshop, but is not possible in Canva. (In case you’re wondering how to accomplish it in Canva, you need to use the Elements panel to add images of the letters you need, then overlay an additional image. This makes it very hard to create a template for if you want the text to be adjustable.)

So, choosing which program to make templates for depends on the complexity of the templates you’d like to create. More advanced templates may need to be made in Photoshop.

Here are a few types of templates you could make:

• Instagram stories
• Calendars
• Brand kits
• Slide decks
• YouTube thumbnails
• Event posters
• Worksheets
• Infographics
• Invitations
• Resumes

Considerations When Selling Templates

Most Canva and Photoshop templates are one-offs. This means that it’s difficult to find free templates that go together and can form a cohesive brand. When you’re selling templates, it can be valuable to sell template packs. This means that instead of just one social media template, you might sell a pack of 10, or 20, or 30 templates that all share elements and styles. These packs are more enticing because they provide a variety of content for social media managers and brand owners.

You should also be sure to create your templates from scratch. Don’t tweak someone else’s template and try to sell it as your own.

Also, be aware of licenses for fonts and other graphics. You may have the right to use a font, but the person you sell to may not. This is really only a problem with Photoshop. Be sure to use only free-to-use elements, and include the license and usage information for any free-to-use elements that were downloaded from a third party. Having a Canva account gives you permission to use any of their fonts or elements, so anyone buying your Canva templates will have the same rights. However, be careful about using elements that are only available in Canva’s Pro plan, as these won’t be accessible to everyone.

Depending on your style, you might be able to find a niche. Maybe you use shapes and colors that appeal to healthcare brands. Maybe you excel at gothic-style creations. Or maybe you make really effective YouTube thumbnail templates. No matter what it is, if you have a signature style you shouldn’t be afraid to focus on that. You can choose to be a jack of all trades, but becoming a well-established seller of a specific look can make you incredibly popular with the right customers.

Conclusion

Some people make good money selling Photoshop and Canva templates, and you can be one of them! By following these guidelines, you can be on your way to providing designers and non-designers with useful templates. Just remember that “if you make it they will come” doesn’t work these days. You’ll need to market yourself, and you can start reading how to do that with our guide to email marketing, or how to optimize your eCommerce store.

Read next: 50+ Unique Types of Digital Products Creators Can Sell