How to Create a Digital Planner to Sell on Etsy

One of the easiest ways to create a digital planner is to use Canva. However, I’d personally add the hyperlinks in a different program because sometimes Canva links don’t work.

More and more people get interested in selling digital products on Etsy. And no wonder that people are interested, some of these digital planners’ Etsy shops have more than 130,000 sales.

Imagine a product that doesn’t need to be shipped & doesn’t cost anything extra to make. Basically, digital planners are the ultimate passive income dream. Or is it?

Do Digital Planners Sell on Etsy?

I’m not going to lie. There’s a lot of competition in this area. Especially, if you type in “digital planner” keyword on Etsy. At the moment I’m writing this article, there are currently 462,121 listing results.

That being said there are still lots of opportunities here. If you type in “digital planner iPad” keyword in Google Trends, you’ll see that the interest is only growing in the US.

Basically, the best time to create a digital planner might have been a couple of years ago. That way your brand could have been one of the top ones on Etsy. However, the other best time to create your own digital planner to sell on Etsy is now 😉

What Programs Can I Use to Create Digital Planners to Sell?

There are three main programs that people usually use to create digital planners: Canva for simple planners, Google Slides or Keynote for larger planners and Indesign or Affinity Publisher for more complex ones.

One of the best ways to create a digital planner would be to use Canva or Photoshop to create the actual design and then add the hyperlinks in Indesign or Affinity Publisher. The truth is that when you have more than 200 hyperlinks, the other programs may not work as well.

Another great way to create designs is to use Illustrator. That way all of your designs are vectors and they will not get pixelated when you zoom in. However, most planners still use Canva or Photoshop for the design process because the quality is good enough.

How to Create a Digital Planner with iPad?

You can create digital planner designs with Canva and later add hyperlinks with Keynote. Also, some people create hand-drawn illustrations for their planners with Procreate.

Pros & Cons of Creating Digital Planner with Canva

Pros:

it’s probably the easiest way to create a digital planner. You can even choose a template, make some changes and sell the digital planner on Etsy. Also, most people already know how to use Canva. And you don’t even need the PRO version to create a digital planner. So, basically, it’s easy and free.

Cons:

as soon as you want to create a digital planner that has more than 15 pages, I’d choose a different program. Canva can create hyperlinks. However, many times those hyperlinks don’t work if you have a larger file. That being said, you could still create the designs with Canva and add the hyperlinks in a different program.

How to Create a Digital Planner with Canva in Less Than 10 Min

Step #1: 0:15 Choose the right digital planner size

I personally usually choose US Letter size:

Vertical digital planner: 8.5 by 11 inches

Horizontal digital planner: 11 by 8.5 inches

Some other people also use A4 or tablet screen-specific sizes. However, I’ve noticed that most tablets work great with US letter sizes.

Step #2: 01:52 Choose a digital planner template

One of the best things about Canva is that you can choose from one of the pre-made design templates for your digital planner. Now, I am not saying that you should just do that. If you want to sell this digital planner on Etsy, you most definitely need to make changes to that template: change the colors, change the fonts, move the shapes around.

However, a template can be a great starting point in creating your digital planner. Especially if you choose a yearly view. That way you don’t need to type in each date individually.

03:05 Create a digital planner with tabs

Customers usually prefer digital planners with hyperlinked tabs. Honestly, that is one of the main reasons why they buy a digital planner to begin with. On top of that, tabs help you add a personal touch to the planner.

05:42 Add hyperlinks

People can’t create hyperlinks in Goodnotes or Notability. That is the main reason why people buy digital planner templates because they just don’t want to do that work themselves.

08:10 Download digital planner pdf

This is the easiest part, now all that’s left to do is to download your digital planner PDF. Make sure that you download the PDF standard. This will ensure that your hyperlinks work.

Can I sell a digital planner I made on Canva?

The short answer is yes. However, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind. First of all, it doesn’t matter whether you use Canva PRO or the free version, you still need to make significant changes to the design templates (if you use them) or otherwise you’ll risk copyright infringement.

Just make some changes to the colors, fonts and shapes. Add your own personal touch. After all you want to create a unique product anyways.

One more important thing to keep in mind is that if you are creating a larger digital planner that has more pages and hyperlinks, Canva may not be the best option. Sometimes once you download the PDF the links don’t work. That’s why it’s incredibly important to test it out before selling.

Free Digital Planner Template 2023

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