How to Make Planners to Sell on Etsy

If you're wondering how to make planners to sell on Etsy (or anywhere else), look no further! Perhaps you found this post from one of my other side hustles posts, or from my brand new YouTube channel. Either way, welcome! Let's get started making planners!

Note: Affiliate links may be used in this post. I earn a commission when you make a purchase through them. 🙂 Click to learn how to increase your affiliate earnings on your own blog.

How to make digital planners to sell

If you haven't designed a planner before, you may feel a bit overwhelmed. I highly recommend starting out with templates if that is the case. The tools I use most often are Canva and Planify.

For planners, though, Planify definitely wins.

Planify offers tons of options and thousands of templates, all super intricate and easy to use. Canva is great for digital design, and creating all types of digital products, but the planner creation options leave much to be desired.

Calendar and paperclips on desktop

Because of that, I'll be talking about Planify in this post. Everything can easily be translated over to Canva so you don't have to learn a new system, but if you want to sell planners, Planify is going to save you tons of time.

Popular planner sizes to offer

Many shops only offer one or two sizes. Offering multiple sizes means just a few more clicks for you, but the potential of many more sales.

Popular digital planner sizes include:

  • US Letter
  • Half Letter
  • A4,A5, A6
  • Mini and Classic Happy Planner*
  • B6 Rings
  • Pocket Size

To resize a planner using Planify, simply click on the Size Panel. Then, select your planner size and the planner will automatically resize. That means it takes just a few clicks to offer several sizes – something not every Etsy seller does.

Every little thing you can do to set yourself apart from all the other digital creators on Etsy, you should do it!

*Do not mention Happy Planner anywhere in your listings. You can mention the exact measurements but mentioning HP in any way is a copyright issue. Don't do it.

Learn how to make digital planners that sell with Make Digital Planners

Creating planners on Planify Pro

I signed up for Planify Pro to see if it was worth it before adding it to this post. Previously, my planners (like my word searches) were all created in Canva. And while Canva is amazing, creating planners in a program that wasn't really designed for planners can be difficult.

You can use Canva and even use their pre-made templates, but I found Planify Pro has many more options. If you're creating planners to sell as part of your business, Planify Pro is worth the investment.

If you are just creating planners for fun, it's only half the cost of the Commercial License, so you still may find it worth it.

Creating planners is a hobby for many, kind of like scrapbooking. If you are investing in layouts, graphics, fonts, etc, you'll most likely find Planify is worth the $10 a month. The Commercial License is $20 a month. You get a discount if you pay by the year.

Quick walk through of Planify Pro's features:

screenshot of a YouTube video about how to make planners using Planify

Customization options on Planify

There are many customizations available in Planify. So many, in fact, that I'm still learning them! But I wanted to get this post up before everyone else started using it, so you can be ahead of the curve.

You can change the:

  • planner size
  • color scheme
  • layout
  • fonts and text
  • graphics
  • and more!
wellness journey tracker planner page
These planner pages took me less than ten minutes to make with Planify!

Learning Planify

I'm still learning Planify, and there is somewhat of a learning curve. There aren't a whole lot of tutorials out there yet, so I've set out to learn – and create some at the same time! 🙂

How to make a two-page planner using Planify:

screenshot of YouTube video about making monthly calendars on two pages

How to create cash envelopes using Planify:

screenshot of a YouTube video about how to make cash envelopes

Cash envelopes are HOT sellers. You can sell them in digital format or you can print them and sell them in their physical format.

Selling on Etsy

As you know, I'm a huuuuuge fan of selling digital products on Etsy. I talk about it all the time. Etsy is easy, has built-in customers for you, and makes it simple to sell anything handmade on their platform.

How Etsy works

Long story short, Etsy is like Google for handmade shops. The reason I use Etsy in addition to selling on my own websites, despite the fees, is because Etsy sends you customers! How do you get customers? SEO!

What is SEO? Why is it important?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is basically writing titles, listings, and tags based on phrases (or keywords) your customers would search to find your products.

Think about it: which phrases (keywords) would your potential customers use to find your planners?

  • digital planner
  • digital planner download
  • floral planner
  • daily planner
  • planner for moms

Those are all just phrases folks would type in to find your planners, right? That's SEO! It's pretty simple to SEO your listings for Etsy to maximize the number of people who will see your listings (also known as “ranking”).

If you need help learning Etsy SEO, I've written a post about it here: how to rank on the front page of Etsy. I've used the exact tips in that post to rank on the front page of Etsy for several items in multiple shops.

Another thing about Etsy: Etsy loves Etsy. This means if you're active on Etsy, if you're listing, renewing, etc on a daily basis, you're going to move up in search, too. Just one more way to get more eyeballs on your goods. 😉

Understanding Etsy's fees

It never fails, every single time I read a post about selling on Etsy, people complain about the fees. Yes, Etsy charges fees. If you price your goods correctly, those fees will be worked in and you'll still be making a nice profit.

How to avoid Etsy listing fees

The easiest way to get around Etsy's listing fees? Refer a friend to start an Etsy shop! They get 40 free listings, and so do you! Do that once a week and you'll never pay a listing fee again! 😉

Note: you cannot avoid the other fees you're charged when an item sells. Factor those into your costs and price accordingly.

Selling planners online

While I love Etsy, I still recommend building your own website up, too. I'm not going to get into that here, but check out my free Blogging Foundations course to learn how to set your website up the right way. 😉

Read my other posts about Etsy and SEO

And join this group on Facebook: Build Your Digital Product Empire

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It helps my blog tremendously. Thank you!

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12 Comments

  1. You can also use photopea it’s a free version of photoshop, and can do almost everything that photoshop can do. I have lots of tutorials in my website if your readers are interested.

  2. I’ll be able to make my own personal 4.125 x 9.25 size planner Inserts with this? Also can you go from personal to commercial at any time?

    1. Sadie Smiley says:

      I upgraded from personal to commercial without any issues. I haven’t made that size but if it’s a regular planner size, Planify covers it! 🙂

  3. Hello! If I’ve already created a planner in Canva, is there an easy way to upload my files (pdf) into Planify?

    1. Sadie Smiley says:

      Not that I know of but their customer support is VERY helpful! Email them 🙂

      1. Hi Sadie,

        Thank you! I’ll do that!

  4. Gretchen Little says:

    Just signed up for Planify Pro. I have Canva and Adobe Creative Suite, but this is a game changer!! Even if I just use it for myself, it’s amazing.

  5. Okay but how do i make a planner that has only 1 page? Because all of them are double? I only want a single page design

  6. Hi Sadie, I bought your course Build Your Etsy Empire but can’t access it anymore. Can you please help me? Thanks, Juliet.

    1. Sadie Smiley says:

      Hi, Julie! 🙂 I sent 7 emails out in October, November, and December letting everyone know how to move their account over. If you opted NOT to allow me to send emails when you signed up, that is probably why you missed them. The deadline to make this switch was December, but I’d be happy to get you access if you email support@passiveincomepathways.com with your receipt. Thanks!

  7. Christine Long says:

    Hi Sadie
    I also purchased your course Build Your Etsy Empire last year which I can access on the old platform. Is there a way to access on your new platform so that I have all courses together. Thank you

    1. Hi, Christine! 🙂 Thanks for your purchase. The Etsy course is retired now so it won’t be on the new platform. Sorry!

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