Before creating any printable, you should certainly do your homework. You may notice that some are not as nice as others. So here are some printable mistakes to avoid, so your printables stand out in a good way.
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Printable Mistakes to Avoid
The first mistake that you want to avoid is one that is quite easy to make. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that 'more' and 'quicker' are better. This can often not be the case, especially when you are just starting out.
Creating in a Hurry
When you do your research, you will find that some printables look like they were created and then put up in a hurry. This behaviour will always show up in the final product. That’s a mistake that you definitely want to avoid.
Poor Quality Will Show
If you want to start creating printables to sell, don’t attempt to sell printables that are poor quality. This usually means that the design isn’t quite right, or there wasn’t enough time spent on details to make it appealing to customers.
When you create a printable that can’t stack up to the competition, not only will you lack sales, but you’ll also get a reputation within the printable community as someone who puts out poor quality work.
Take the time to create the printable the right way from the start. If you don’t know how to handle a part of the design process, work on it and study methods until you get the hang of it.
Mastering the craft of creating will pay off in the end. If you reach the point where you think you just can’t create products that are good enough to compete with others in the niche, then outsource the design.
More Things That Don't Sell, Won't Sell
Another of the printable mistakes that you want to avoid is making a lot of printables and putting them up for sale when they’re not selling. Printables do sell well when they’re done right and there’s a proven market for them. Popular printables sell every day.
But if you notice that you’re putting up printables that are designed right and fit the market, but they’re still not selling, then don’t keep uploading more. Stop and figure out what’s gone wrong so that you stop wasting time.
Unfortunately, this is not always easy as there are a few things it could be.
Problem With Your Keyword or Description
It’s not a volume issue when things fail to sell. Usually when something like this happens, it means that the seller didn’t optimize the listing. They didn’t hit the right keywords or created descriptions that were lacking.
Sometimes a simple product listing tweak will correct the lack of sales issue. Sellers sometimes make the mistake of thinking that just listing a printable on one of the popular selling platforms means the sales will roll in.
Each site has their own algorithms and ways they handle a seller’s keywords. You need to know how tags, keywords, relevancy and frequency matter on each selling site.
Pricing Problems
A mistake that many newcomers to printables end up making has to do with pricing.
This again goes back to doing your research first. If you create a printable calendar and you price it as $19.99 but most of the comparable printables are $9.99, you’re pricing yourself out of business.
Unless you’re offering additional printables that go along with your product or you have yours set up as a bundle sale, it won’t be able to compete. You also don’t want to under-price yourself either.
If you see that trackers are selling for $3.00 a page and you sell yours for $1.00, then you’re losing money. So make sure that your prices are within range of what everyone else is selling the same or similar products for.
What you must understand about pricing is that people don’t all live the same way financially. So what’s affordable for one person won’t be for the next. While some might not blink at dropping $20 for a printable planner, that might out of reach for someone else.
You don’t want to leave that audience behind. Let your motto be that you have something affordable for everyone. This is what at least half of all your printables should be, unless you want to specifically target a high end audience.
You want to structure your pricing so that you have a pyramid of options. It’s okay to have your high priced printables. But these are items that usually sell once a customer has built a rapport with your business.
These people have tried your products, found them helpful and so they’re back for more. Have middle ground printable prices. These will fit an average budget and should be about 25% of your pricing ratio.
Don't Be The Wooden Spoon of Customer Service
One of the biggest mistakes that you can make when selling printables is having poor customer service. Your customers will share reviews, they will talk online. You want to make sure that they have a good experience with your printables and there are many ways that you can ensure that.
Create a FAQ page for your products. That way, when a customer has a question, they can look it up and usually get an immediate answer. These might be questions like the customer wants to know about upcoming sales or wants to know if you do custom orders.
Having answers to the most commonly asked questions can save you a lot of time. You may also want to create an email responder file and have that ready in case customers have questions that aren’t covered under the FAQ.
This will also save you a lot of time and enable you to give quick responses. For example, customers might email you wanting to know if you give discounts for multiple orders.
Remember to keep updating your FAQ page. If you find you are asked a question more than once, then add it to the page.
Organisation is Key
Another mistake to avoid is not having your ideas organized. You need to create a spreadsheet of ideas for your printables. Have each of these ideas in the appropriate category.
You might think that you can easily keep up with what you plan to make for your printables, but when you have multiple projects, it’s easy to lose track of what you need to work on and when.
This is especially helpful when your printables are part of a bundle. You can keep everything together so you’re not searching for a bunch of individual files when it comes time to upload everything.
When a printable idea comes to you, go ahead and draw it out - either in a notebook or in your online design software. It’s okay to just get the basics down so that you don’t forget your thoughts and come back later to finish up.
You’ll save yourself time if you do a quick drawing and make notes of what colors you might use as well as font type or sizes.
Size Matters
A major printable mistake is around sizing. To avoid the mistake of wrongly sizing your printables, know ahead of time what the standard sizes are.
It can be helpful to have a cheat sheet of all the common sizes used for each product.
You can find out what these sizes are by checking out the sizes that other sellers are using as well doing a quick online search.
These sizes are what most people buy so you want to stick with what works. Don’t make the mistake of uploading something without first doing a quality and size check. Every time you get ready to sell a printable, make sure that you print it out yourself first.
Doing this step will help you see if any text might be outside the margin or if the design looks weird. It’s always better to do this pre-check first rather than having customers complain that your printables don’t look right once they download and print them.
Know Your Market
Don’t make the mistake of not knowing your market. Don’t create a bunch of random printables ahead of time in the hopes that they’ll sell. Understand who your audience already is if you have an established platform.
This means paying attention to what it is they need or want and then creating that as a printable option for them.
Plan Your Printable Venture
The best way to avoid making these printable mistakes is to have a plan. A detailed plan. Plan and build everything out first before you start adding your printables.
What's your advice for beginners? Let us know in the comments.
Penny xx