How to Make Money Selling Templates Online (Complete Guide)

Selling templates online was the first digital product business that made sense to me.

Templates are useful, fast to create, easy to price, and genuinely passive once they're live. You build something once, put it on a product page, and it sells to the same person who needed it five years ago and the person who will need it five years from now.

This is the complete guide to building a real income stream from templates — what types work, how to build them, where to sell them, and how to get people to buy.

What Types of Templates Sell Best

Not all templates are created equal. The ones that sell consistently share one thing: they save someone a significant amount of time on something they do repeatedly.

Templates that perform well:

• Notion templates — productivity systems, project managers, content calendars, life dashboards
• Canva templates — Instagram posts, pitch decks, media kits, lead magnets, ebooks
• Excel/Google Sheets templates — budget trackers, business financial dashboards, invoices
• Email templates — cold outreach sequences, client onboarding, sales sequences
• Resume/CV templates — ATS-friendly formats, industry-specific designs
• Pitch deck templates — startup decks, sales presentations, investor templates
• Content planning templates — editorial calendars, social media planners
• Website templates — landing page frameworks, portfolio layouts

The higher the frequency of use (something someone does every week vs. once), the more valuable the template is perceived to be.

Step 1: Pick a Template Type Based on Your Skills

Start with what you can create at a high level — not what looks most lucrative.

If you're a great Notion user, build Notion systems. If you're good in Canva, create visual templates. If you understand financial modeling, build spreadsheets.

The key question: what do I create for myself that other people would need to build from scratch?

Your shortcut is someone else's product. Look at what you've already made for your own use — that's your first template.

Step 2: Make the Template Actually Good

The most common mistake in template selling is releasing something half-finished and hoping buyers won't notice.

Before you list it, use it yourself. Walk through the experience as a new user who has never seen it before. Ask:

• Is it immediately clear what to do?
• Are there instructions included?
• Does it handle edge cases gracefully?
• Would you pay money for this?

High-quality templates get good reviews. Good reviews drive more sales. The quality bar matters — especially when you're starting out and don't have a reputation yet.

What to include with every template:

• A README or start-here page with instructions
• A quick-start walkthrough
• An FAQ for the most common questions
• A sample or demo version so buyers know what to expect

Step 3: Price It Properly

Most new template creators price too low. I've made that mistake myself.

General pricing guidance by template type:

• Simple single-use templates (one resume, one ebook layout): $7–$25
• Multi-use packs or content kits: $19–$49
• Full system templates (Notion OS, business dashboard): $29–$97
• Premium multi-template bundles: $49–$197

The psychology of pricing matters. A $5 template signals low value — people assume it's not worth their time. A $29 template feels like a real investment that a professional made.

Price at what you'd be willing to pay for the time it saves you, not at what feels "safe."

Step 4: Choose Where to Sell

You have several options, and each has tradeoffs.

Your own store: Maximum revenue per sale (no heavy fees), full control over customer experience and data. Requires you to drive your own traffic. Platforms like MadeThis.com make this easy — you get a clean product page, checkout, and automated file delivery without any technical setup.

Etsy: Built-in marketplace traffic, especially for Canva and creative templates. Transaction fees apply. Good for early visibility when you don't have traffic yet.

Creative Market / Envato: Established audiences for design assets. Competitive, but if your work is good, you can do well here.

Gumroad: Simple setup, small fee. Works well when paired with your own traffic (blog, Pinterest, social).

My recommendation: sell on your own platform from the start, and use a marketplace as a secondary discovery channel. You own the customer relationship when they buy from your store.

Step 5: Create a Discoverability Strategy

The product is only half the equation. You also need people to find it.

SEO content: Write a blog post targeting the keyword "[type] template" + the use case. "Free Notion content calendar template," "best resume template for tech jobs," etc. These posts rank and send recurring traffic.

Pinterest: Create pins showing your template in action — before and after, screen demos, clean previews. Pinterest drives significant template traffic because it's a visual, search-based platform.

YouTube demos: A short screen recording showing how the template works can be incredibly effective. Search "how to use [template type]" — you'll see exactly what to make.

Community visibility: Post in relevant communities (freelancers, solopreneurs, creators) and answer questions where your template would be a natural, helpful mention.

Step 6: Build a Bundle

Once you have your first template live and selling, build a second one for the same audience.

Then bundle both together at a modest discount.

Bundles consistently increase average order value. A buyer who was going to spend $25 will often spend $45 for a bundle with two products they both want. And the marginal effort to create post #2 is far less than post #1.

What Real Income From Templates Looks Like

I won't oversell this. Template income is not a get-rich-quick scheme.

Realistic first 90 days: $50–$300 if you're actively building discoverability After 6 months of consistent content: $200–$800/month from a small library Mature library with real traffic: $1,000–$3,000+/month is achievable

The ceiling is high. Some template creators do five figures a month from libraries of 20–30 products. But that takes time and a lot of iteration.

Start with one template, get real feedback, improve it, then expand.

The Honest Take

Templates are one of my favorite beginner digital products because the feedback loop is fast. You build something in a weekend, list it, and get real market data within weeks.

If it sells, you've validated a direction and can build more. If it doesn't, you've learned something before wasting months on a dead-end niche.

Build something genuinely useful. Price it like it's worth something. Then go earn the traffic.

If you're ready to build, I'd start at MadeThis.com.