How To Make Printables, Freebies and Opt-ins To Grow Your Email List and Income
Would you like to learn a new superpower today? Wouldn’t it be great to know how to do something that most new bloggers struggle with for months, or even years?
Not only can you use this skill to grow your blog tremendously, but you can also turn around and make money with it, today! Seriously. If you love this stuff, and you’re really good at it, then do it momma!
I may be giving away too many of my secrets here. This may not be the smartest move on my part. But honestly, I want to help as many moms as I can change their lives.
Blogging has been completely transformational for me. Over the past two years I’ve been able to grow from making $0 per month to making over $30,000 per month with this little blog.
How did I do it? Hard work. Consistent effort. Late nights. Early mornings. Blood, sweat and tears. Is it worth it? Absolutely! What would I do differently? I wish I started earlier.
But let’s not get off track, let’s get right into this magical skill that you can learn today and change your blogging game.
At the end of the post I’ll share my best example of using this technique + video tutorials! So keep reading, this post is going to be a game changer for you!
<<< How to Start a Mom Blog | How to Make Money Blogging >>>
*This post contains affiliate links.
How to Make Printables and Grow Your Blog
Let’s get into it! One of the easiest ways to passively grow your email list is through printables. Printables are also known as freebies or opt-ins when they are used to grow your email list, and I’ll be using these three terms interchangeably throughout the post.
When blogging started, it was fine just to have a “sign up to my newsletter” box and increase your email list that way. But since blogs are a bit more popular today, you have to offer an incentive for someone to sign up.
Think of it like buying someone a drink at the bar before asking for their number 😉 You can’t just go up to them and ask for their number, you have to give them a small gift first. I got this reference by watching movies, I’m not a big partier – you’re much more likely to find me in Starbucks drinking Americano’s than a bar drinking a beer.
I’ve been able to grow my email list to over 50,000 subscribers by just offering freebies or printables on my blog. I would strategically place these above blog posts, in the middle of a post, at the bottom of a post, or as a popup.
What are Printables?
Printables are mostly known as digital paper files. Most of the time they are in a PDF format and contain pretty images, lists or quotes.
What are Popular Types of Printables?
Printables can contain any information, but the most popular types of printables are:
- Calendars
- Checklists
- Coloring Pages
- Activity Pages
- Quick Tutorials
- Reference Guide
- Quotes
- Lists (like this minimalist baby registry list)
Your Email List has Amazing Traffic Potential
But back up, why is growing your email list so important? Because the people who sign up to your email list will one day become your future customers. These are the people that are much more likely to purchase through your affiliate links and recommendations. They will share your articles, comment on your posts and be the first to purchase your new ebook or course!
Every time you email your list you’ll get a flood of readers on your blog eager to learn more. It’s recurring traffic.
Sometimes I think of my email list like a huge dam. Whenever I email them I am opening the floodgates and I have the power to direct that rush of water where ever I need it to go. Do you need traffic to a new sponsored post? Email it to your list. Do you need to do market research and need responses to a survey? Share it with your list. Is one of your affiliate’s running a big sale and you want to help promote it? Send the deal to your email list.
Why Do You Need an Email List?
- Direct access to your readers.
- Increase sales everytime you share an amazing offer or product.
- Better ideas from readers.
- Great personal connections you can’t accomplish using social media.
- Help and support when you need it.
- Grow expertise by helping your readers one on one.
Additionally, if you nurture and educate your email list well, you can predict about $1 per email subscriber per month. It’s a rough estimate of your monthly blog income if you work hard at it.
So if you have a warm email list of 3,000 subscribers, you can expect to make about $3,000 and pay the mortgage with your blog!
Doesn’t that just lite the fire under your tushy to make your first printable and build your email list?
How to Create Printables – Step by Step Video
In this step by step video below I’ll show you how I create printables fast! With three little kids, I don’t have hours and hours of time to blog, so I need to be as efficient as possible with my time. This video will show you all my shortcuts and strategies.
The full video that additionally shows how you can create printables using free online software can be watched here.
After watching this video you’ll know how to create and design freebies. If you love doing this and you’re good at it you could make money right now by selling your own printables or creating printables for others. Isn’t that a neat idea?
How to make money with printables
Offer Your Amazing Services:
The quickest way you can make money online is by offering your services. You can find a client and get paid today for work you do.
Sell Printables on Your Blog:
The second quickest way is to sell printables on your blog. This requires you to drive traffic to your blog, so it takes a bit longer to monetize.
Use Printables as a Funnel:
Lastly, you can make money with printables by using them as part of your funnel. Once someone signs up and downloads your free printable, you can funnel them into customers for your other products.
Freebies are great because readers will refer back to them. They will print them out and hang them on their wall or put them on their fridge. This will serve as a constant little reminder of how amazing you are! And every time they open their fridge with your printable on it, they’ll think, “Gosh, I love Suzi’s printables, maybe I should go check out her blog again today!” Or I guess that’s what I hope happens.
What makes a good printable?
The best types of printables are those that people really want to print out and use. I know that sounds basic, but think about it for a minute.
A great printable is a piece of content that the reader wants to refer to again and again.
They want to put it on their wall, stick it in their notebook, tape it to their bathroom mirror, or carry it around with them in their planner.
A great printable is referred to by the reader over and over. It’s a piece of content they can use.
For example:
- Think of a conversion chart you tape to your refrigerator door.
- A 12 month calendar with inspirational quotes that can be used all year long.
- Or the pretty llama printable used in the example below. The printable is being used multiple times as a gift card to friends or family.
Rethink about the printables you want to create to grow your email list. Is it something that the reader can use over and over again? Or do they get all they need in 5 minutes from looking at the PDF?
Don’t make your printable so simple that someone does not feel the need to save it.
You want to create a printable so good that your reader feels they NEED to save it.
That’s when they sign up and give you their email address – because they want to actually USE the information, not just today, but repeatedly.
Is your printable so good that you’ll want to print it out and use it frequently? If not, think of something that will help your readers more.
How to drive traffic to printables and grow your email list
- Write a blog post on a related topic
- Do a YouTube video or Facebook Live promoting the printable
- Create pin images, see the examples below. You can either link these pins to a blog post or a dedicated landing page.
Examples of Successful Printables
The Llama Printable – a direct feature of the printable is used on this pin image. The printable is so cute, no text is necessary.
The Teacher Binder – there are multiple pin images promoting the same beautiful printable.
The Recipe Binder – a mock up of the printable is shown on the pin image, showing the reader they’re getting a whole binder full of advice!
How to Make Printables – The Detailed Process
Below I’ll cover the steps in the video above. If you like this tutorial and want more detailed videos, check out the List by Number course.
3 Quick Tips on Creating Printables and Freebies
- Lists or calendars work well!
- Make sure you offer a quick solution in your freebie. What pain point are you solving?
- Put your blog name at the bottom so they know where it comes from.
- Include your freebie on your home page and at the top of your blog posts.
Create Freebies Using Powerpoint (shown in the video)
I love using Powerpoint to create my freebies. The first thing I do is to setup a custom slide size by going to the Design tab and clicking on custom size.
Fall Inlove with SmartArt
- SmartArt makes creating printables super easy! I can toggle between different designs to find the perfect layout for my freebie.
- You can copy and paste your content into the SmartArt input box or type it out.
- You can change the color and design of your freebie super easily. PowerPoint allows you to toggle and preview different layouts and colors without having to recreate your freebie.
“ I use PowerPoint for work ALL the time and never would’ve guessed what a useful tool it would be for blogging. You totally changed my world.” – Haylee
How to Create a Preview of Your Freebie in Your Post
I normally add my freebie to my post through a Convertkit subscription box. I add a preview of the freebie in the form of a small image to further entice new readers to sign up. This gives them a clear idea of what they will be receiving once they opt in to my email list.
Create a Preview Image
- You can use any screen capturing software you like to create the preview image. I like Snagit from TechSmith because it is super fast and just overall fantastic. If you are serious about clippings and screencast, I highly recommend them.
- You can snap the picture and copy it and go back to PowerPoint and paste your image there.
- Once you have the image in PowerPoint, you can open a new slide and take the image and add a shadow around your image. That will make the image pop.
- Add a little arrow with the preview image to direct the reader to the subscription box that you’ll add later.
Convert to Your Printable to a PDF
- Make sure you save your freebie or printable as a PDF. That is what your readers will download and what you will connect in the backend of Convertkit.
- Add a new blog post and upload your freebie preview image to it.
How to Connect Your Freebie or Printable to Convertkit
Okay great! You’ve created your printable and have your little preview image. Now how do you connect it all so when someone visits your blog they can submit their email address to your list and receive your amazing freebie? Here are the quick steps below.
Get an Email Marketing Software
- Make sure you have an account with Convertkit. I’ve been using them for years! Convertkit is simple to use and has a powerful automation side for creating high converting funnels.
- In Convertkit you will create a new form for your new freebie. The embed code from the form is what you’ll use to have your readers sign up for your freebies.
You can either create a landing page or a form that will go directly on your blog post. A landing page is great if you don’t have a complete post yet to share your freebie and you’re low on time and need to get it out quickly.
Optimize Your Submission Form
- On the submission button, change your wording and don’t say subscribe. It’s a bit boring. Make it more enticing. Use more engaging phrases such as “Download now”, “Get access”, or “Start now”. Make it a little more interesting than sign up now or subscribe.
- If you want people to click on the button you’ll need to change the color to red or a warm color. People are more likely to click on a button if it is red because it stands out!
Deliver the Goods
- In the form settings you’ll be able to set up the incentive email, this is the email sent to a new subscriber when they sign up to that specific form. In this email they will get the link to download the freebie.
- On the incentive email make sure you change the message and the subject line to something they will recognize.
- In the form settings you can either upload your PDF file directly or link to it if you’ve uploaded it to your blog.
How to Connect Your Freebie, Printable, or Opt-in to Your Blog
Fantastic! You’ve created your freebie. You’ve created your form in Convertkit. Now how do you connect all of this together and add it to your blog? The steps are below!
Connect the Printable Sign Up Box to Your Blog
- Go into the form settings in Covertkit and copy the embedded code.
- Add this code to the text side of your blog post. A lot of people get a little stuck on this part. They will put it at the bottom of their post on the visual side. Make sure you click on the Text tab.
- Don’t worry if you don’t see it on the backend of WordPress. Once you publish or preview your blog post, it will show up.
“I created a freebie opt-in the week before Christmas and went from 100 subscribers to 620 in less than 3 weeks!! Learned everything I know about blogging from Suzi!!” – Shanna
How to Create a Freebie Using Canva
As you may already tell, I absolutely love using PowerPoint to create my optins and freebies. But if you’re not a Microsoft person, there are other options!
Use Free Tools
Like Canva! There are pros and cons of using Canva. The pro is that it’s free and online! The con is that you have to use their designs and the software is a bit slow. Because you have to copy and paste your content into each section, it will take longer to create your printable. Once you’ve created your freebie in Canva, you can download it as a PNG to use as the little preview image and as a PDF to upload directly into Convertkit.
How To Create a Freebie Using Google Slides
Second best to PowerPoint is Google slides. Super bonus, Google slides is easy to use, free and more and more features are being added to it every day!
Fall Inlove with Google Slides (oh, PowerPoint is going to get jealous!!)
- Go to your Google drive and click new Google Slides.
- This will look very familiar to the PowerPoint slides.
- Go to page setup and select custom. You can customize your size of your freebie or printable.
- Add your title and don’t forget your blog name at the bottom.
Every couple of months I discover new features in Google docs – I really can’t believe it’s free!
- Google Slides has a lightweight Smart Art feature. If you go to insert and select diagrams that’s where you’ll find it. It’s pretty neat. But they do only have a limited number of variations, unlike PowerPoint.
The Best of the Internet (Because Google = The Internet, right?)
Google Slides gives you the best of both worlds between Canva and PowerPoint because it will give you ideas like Canva, but has the flexibility to be creative like PowerPoint.
- You can use a screen capture to create your mini preview image or download the slide as a JPEG.
- Then for your freebie, download it as a PDF and upload it to your form on Convertkit.
How to Make Your Printables Unique
I recently discovered a bank of icons I can use in my printables! For only $40 a year I can download hundreds of different icons to customize my printables. It’s called NounProject and it integrates with both Google Docs and Office.
You can search for a topic and there will be so many cute icons to choose from. You can even add your own brand colors to them.
“I watched this video a few days ago and it was so helpful. I am going back to it for reference now. Thank you so much for taking the time to teach this to us.” – Mary
Do Freebies and Printables Really Work?
Not all of your freebies will grow your email list. Some will be duds and that is okay. You will learn what your audience doesn’t like and what they do like. It will take time and experimenting to grow your list.
I have had, what I thought, were awesome freebies, that I thought people would love and then sadly, nobody did. That’s okay too. I learned from those freebies. I learned what I shouldn’t do. I learned what my audience doesn’t like and I improved upon that and created something new.
I am not promising you creating freebies will grow your list to 20,000 by tomorrow. It will take some time, testing, and tweaking. But the more you create, the more you’ll learn and grow!
Remember, a great printable is referred to by the reader over and over. It’s a piece of content they can use.
Pro Question: Will my readers print this out it’s so good?
Ideas for Printables and Freebies to Grow Your Email List
Optins and freebies do not just have to be printable PDF documents. Growing your email list can be done in many different ways. If you’re giving away great advice or tips, you can test out different forms of content types and see what resonates best with your audience.
- List of tips
- How to videos
- Coupons
- Short ebook
- Checklist
- Spreadsheets
- Cheat sheets
- Free stock images
- Calendar
- Planner
- Printables
- Prompts/ fill in the blank templates
- Free course
“I’m a mother with 2 kids and all this is just so overwhelming, but you make it seem to much not overwhelming.” – Ashley
How to Promote Your Freebies
Here are a few ways you can promote your printables! Below are a few of my favorite methods.
- Sign up boxes on your blog
- Webinars
- Sharing a landing page to your optin on social media
- Popups (I use Bloom and Convertkit)
- Run a giveaway
- Create landing page
- Add a call to action in the banner of your Facebook blog page or group
- Use Pinterest to promote your freebie
- Promote your freebie on Facebook promo days
- Do a Facebook live
- Write a guest post and direct people back to your landing page
- Add an optin on your About me page
Congratulations, You Have a New Superpower
Goodness! That was a lot! If you’ve completed all those steps, I am super proud of you! Congrats!! I hope you’ve discovered that not only can you create printables to grow your own email list, but if you really love creating them, you can offer it as a service or sell your work! Once you master the skills of creating beautiful and helpful printables, you’ll have a new superpower!
And as promised, here is my highest converting printable that I’ve created. It did so well, I turned it into a free mini course, called The Blog Plan!
Now that you know how to create gorgeous printables and freebies, please share your success stories below in the comments! Have you made money off printables? How much have you grown you list? Let’s celebrate each other’s successes!!
Read more:
How to Make Printables
Video Transcript
| hello I am Susy from start of mom blog |
| and today I’m gonna teach you all about |
| creating printables in canva so canva is |
| a free software most of its free online |
| you can get the majority of the stuff |
| done in canva for free and you can |
| create these beautiful printables |
| without being a professional designer so |
| why do you want to create printables we |
| also call them opt-ins or freebies |
| there’s three reasons and let me show |
| you if you want to grow your blog and |
| make money with it |
| printables is a great option you can |
| either make printables and sell them on |
| your blog directly so they can become |
| little products for you you can offer |
| them as services where you can create |
| printables if you’re really good at this |
| stuff you can create printables for |
| other bloggers that might not have the |
| time to sit down and create a printable |
| for themselves or you can use them as |
| the front end of your email funnel where |
| somebody gives you their email address |
| in exchange for the beautiful printable |
| PDF opt-in freebie that you created so |
| for simplicity sake I’m just gonna call |
| them printables but they’re also |
| referred to as opt-ins freebies PDFs |
| incentives all those kinds of things |
| alright so I’m so excited you guys are |
| here let’s get straight into the lesson |
| of how to create printables with canva |
| here yeah cool so I actually made this |
| little slide in canva so you guys can |
| see a little bit of it |
| but before we go into it what is my |
| process for creating a printable what I |
| do initially is I brainstorm I think of |
| what’s gonna be the most useful to my |
| reader what do they actually what kind |
| of tracker or monthly calendar or a |
| little ebook or what is gonna help them |
| on their journey like your your blog is |
| there to solve a problem your blog is |
| there to help your audience go from |
| point A to point B from struggling with |
| the issue to point B using the resources |
| on your blog to solve the issue and then |
| get to their end result so what’s gonna |
| help them |
| so ways I brainstorm is I either look |
| online I go to Google or Pinterest and I |
| look at successful printables in my |
| niche what is working right now and then |
| I kind of see like do I get any vibes do |
| I get any ideas from that never copy |
| don’t ever copy other people’s work but |
| do you get any inspiration then I also |
| go to stores like Michaels and Hobby |
| Lobby where I’ll walk around and kind of |
| just find inspiration from the real |
| world because sometimes getting so stuck |
| in the vortex of the online world you |
| you see the same things over and over |
| and it allows you like going to a store |
| and walking around and touching and |
| feeling like more ideas come to you so |
| one of my best ideas came to me when I |
| was walking around a Hallmark store so |
| definitely get out don’t just be stuck |
| in front of your computer to think of |
| ideas then once you have an idea of what |
| you think and help your audience then |
| sketch it so let me show you guys so I |
| just take a little blank paper and I |
| just kind of sketch the printable that I |
| want to create so in this example we’re |
| gonna create a workout tracker just |
| because the ideas come easily to me |
| because if you really want to know the |
| workout that I do it might not be right |
| it might be completely wrong the |
| exercises that I do but right now this |
| is what I’m doing so hopefully this |
| works so yeah I sketch it out on paper |
| because trying to brainstorm online on a |
| program is hard because you’re always |
| struggling with like moving things and |
| changing fonts so it’s much easier just |
| to sketch it out on a piece of paper and |
| then once you have a rough outline of |
| what you want to look like then we can |
| go into the program and actually create |
| it alright so now I’m going to show you |
| how to add your branding colors into |
| canva this is where we’re gonna create |
| that printable then we’re gonna create |
| it then we’re gonna download the |
| printable and then we’re gonna make it |
| editable so some of your audience might |
| actually sign up get your PDF or your |
| printable and download it onto their |
| computer and want to fill it in there |
| with text and that would be really nice |
| if you make the PDFs editable online or |
| on your computer |
| other readers will actually print it out |
| and physically write in on it but it’s |
| nice to have that ability so that they |
| can type on to it so I’ll show you how |
| to do that as well so now we’re going to |
| go into canva |
| so it’s ca nba.com and once you’re in |
| canva it’s free to create account and an |
| account you can just sign up with |
| Facebook or Google or an email what you |
| do then is where do I go |
| my brain go to your brand and then the |
| logos the fonts and the uploaded fonts |
| these are all within the pro pack of |
| canva but at least you can add your |
| brand colors so I have a little document |
| that has my hex colors just I just save |
| it on my computer so then just copy and |
| paste your hex colors and put them right |
| in there so at least your top three I |
| have more colors that I use with my blog |
| but at least your top three hex colors |
| you can add in here so it just makes it |
| easier when you’re using canva to make |
| it look brand it to your blog alright |
| let me just go in here make sure |
| everything’s working nice okay alright |
| so now we have our colors uploaded let’s |
| let me show you what we’re gonna create |
| so from this little notebook sketch that |
| I have I created a mummy workout tracker |
| so you want to create a printable or a |
| PDF that will help your audience |
| something that they want to print out |
| and save think to yourself are you would |
| you print this out would you spend your |
| printer ink on this PDF would you |
| actually want to save it to your |
| computer if the answer is yes then go |
| ahead and create the printable you can |
| always adjust it create another |
| printable it’s gonna take you a couple |
| tries to find this beautiful perfect |
| printable that will grow your email list |
| but at least start trying so for this |
| one I created the mommy workout tracker |
| I have a little title page really and |
| we’ll go into exactly how I created this |
| then I have upper body exercises and |
| lower body exercises so I list the |
| exercises here so that’s great for my my |
| reader who’s gonna download it they see |
| the exercises that I do but the reason |
| why they want to print it out is because |
| there’s a monthly progress tracker so |
| Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday |
| Saturday Sunday they can check off each |
| week as they do this and I’ve branded it |
| for January so you can see Monday’s are |
| upper body Tuesday’s or lower body then |
| Wednesday Saturday and Sunday we’re |
| resting and then Thursday and Friday |
| we’re exercising it again so I’ve kind |
| of made it easy for them all they can do |
| is just do little checkboxes in the |
| color-coded boxes easily you can |
| duplicate it and then just change the |
| title to February so don’t worry I’m |
| just doing an overview here so then in a |
| second I’m gonna show you how to create |
| this you can also add to make your PDF |
| in your printable more valuable you can |
| explain every exercise or for example |
| you’re doing a meal tracker you can |
| explain every meal and maybe do a |
| breakdown of the calories or the macros |
| so how much fat protein and carbs is in |
| each meal so that could help so here I’m |
| doing an explanation of what a bench |
| press is which I didn’t do and then |
| lastly you could add a part to your |
| printable to your pack where somebody |
| could input their own stats so the |
| current date when they want to hit the |
| goal of losing 10 pounds or gaining 10 |
| pounds of muscle or what not the number |
| of pull ups they can do push-ups and |
| their big y so this is just kind of what |
| I put into this exercise tracker |
| obviously you can do something different |
| depending on what your niche is but I |
| wanted to add this so I can show you |
| later on how do we make these boxes here |
| editable alright so now let’s go into a |
| blank template of canva and I’ll show |
| you how we created this go into canva |
| click on create a design and I’m gonna |
| click on use custom dimensions I’m going |
| to do the little drop down and click on |
| inches so normal |
| a4 page is eight point five eight and a |
| half inches by |
| then and we’ll click on design all right |
| we’re gonna go there’s a ton of helpful |
| templates that canva has for this one I |
| used where was it and they do the font |
| pairings for you so you could have your |
| own fonts that you can add in here or |
| you can use a little bit of their |
| inspiration I believe it was that one |
| there’s so many was it I think was this |
| one okay if it wasn’t it looks similar |
| okay so then you can go into you just |
| drag and drop the design that they have |
| you can select it all and click on |
| ungroup normally I don’t like keeping |
| them grouped because I like to change |
| things up a little bit so you select the |
| entire box and click on ungroup so it |
| makes each section its own so let’s put |
| mommy work out what we put here I’m just |
| gonna add my little side template here |
| so I can see it on the side |
| could just track her it’s not gonna look |
| exactly like the one I made but this is |
| the beauty of canva you can just kind of |
| change it as you want to and get more |
| inspiration so monthly progress tracker |
| upper body and lower body exercises what |
| we can do is individually you can put |
| them Center the text |
| so that’s going to be the top of my page |
| then I’m going to do my upper body and |
| lower body exercises and for you it’ll |
| be a little different depending on what |
| your niche is the only thing I don’t |
| like about canvas it’s really hard to |
| select things sometimes it’s really |
| tricky so upper body another tip is you |
| want your printables to look really |
| pretty the prettier they are the more |
| likely somebody is going to download |
| them cuz we’re a sucker for things that |
| look nice so take your time and create a |
| really pretty printable upper body and |
| lower body and really helpful as well so |
| now what’s nice it gives you a little |
| grid line so you can Center things |
| easily you can just click on a piece of |
| text and click on copy and that’ll bring |
| that over so instead of typing all these |
| out I’m just gonna copy what I have here |
| and then click on that and click on copy |
| again look at that that’s nice it’s |
| beautifully centered awesome it also |
| makes it look much more professional if |
| your things line up nicely |
| okay you can select both and then I just |
| used a keyboard and I go up a little bit |
| so that I have space down here for my |
| tracker okay click on our monthly |
| progress tracker copy and a little bit |
| old tip if you click on your keyboard |
| and click on T it adds a little bit of |
| text so without going to the text module |
| and dropping in a piece of text you can |
| just click on T and a little bit of text |
| will be dropped on your PDF okay so for |
| this one we’re gonna put January and |
| canva has amazing fonts so really really |
| pretty fonts that you can use the one |
| that I liked and what I like what they |
| do is they actually show you the font |
| preview so you don’t have to click on |
| each one |
| I think it’s called playlist pppp oh |
| yeah okay well click on that will change |
| it to a larger font and if I go to the |
| little drop-down I can see my branded |
| colors here so I can click on any one of |
| them and see them show up real quick so |
| that helps okay now for the little boxes |
| that we had so that your reader can |
| print it out and actually check off the |
| boxes for for completing the tracker and |
| completing their exercises each week go |
| into elements and click on shapes we’re |
| gonna add a little box not this big |
| we’re gonna shrink it down so what I |
| found is if you create multiple boxes |
| you can’t select them all at once and |
| change the color so let’s make the first |
| line exactly the colors that we want to |
| and then copy them because you can’t |
| select multiple at once and change |
| colors okay so what we’re gonna do we |
| have to do our Monday Wednesday Friday |
| Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday |
| Saturday Sunday okay so here’s our days |
| of the week and click on spacing and |
| increase that okay so Monday is going to |
| be upper body which is yellow oopsie you |
| can also do control C and control V on |
| your keyboard you guys most likely know |
| that if you do control C it copies if a |
| do control V at pace I know you guys |
| know that I’m just letting you know in |
| case you didn’t know that okay we’ll do |
| it again |
| so Tuesday’s gonna be lower body so |
| we’ll make that one red Friday is lower |
| body and then Wednesday is rest day hump |
| day we rest on hump day I’m gonna make |
| those gray and then for Saturday Sunday |
| as well okay so now I’m just gonna look |
| at them and line them up a little bit |
| better using my arrows on my keyboard |
| alright so now I have my little |
| checkboxes now I’m gonna select them all |
| nope just the boxes controls C control V |
| and then line them up easier or you can |
| click on copy line em up that way and |
| click on copy again okay so there’s your |
| tracker well you could do you can select |
| the entire tracker portion here at the |
| bottom line it up make it look really |
| nice and then for upper body make sure |
| that your reader knows that upper body |
| is yellow or that’s a way that you can |
| also like color code your things make it |
| easier for your reader to see how to |
| organize their life think of shortcuts |
| that you can give them so that they |
| don’t have to try to figure everything |
| out by themselves alright so once you |
| have your color there and it’s not on |
| the lot on the right um what you call it |
| what do you call this layer yeah that |
| layer you can send it back and arrange |
| it send it backwards okay so you can see |
| upper body is yellow |
| let’s get a red box again and lower body |
| is gonna be red cuz it’s harder |
| take it back okay so now we have our |
| upper body and our lower body and her |
| monthly tracker additionally you do want |
| to add your blog URL to the bottom of |
| your printables so just click on that |
| little T again a little bit of text |
| comes on and say this is mommy workouts |
| calm for example that could be your blog |
| hero |
| alright so what I would do is just make |
| it a little bit lighter there you go |
| okay so that’s our tracker now super |
| easy in canva you can click on copy this |
| page and for example say February has a |
| different workout you can change the |
| upper body and lower body workouts and |
| exercises and you can change them title |
| the month so right off the bat you’re |
| giving your reader an entire year worth |
| of exercises by just copying and pasting |
| right here how easy is that |
| think of meal planning think of |
| decluttering your house maybe having a |
| schedule of maybe in January you |
| declutter your garage in February you |
| declutter your kitchen and then you give |
| them an activity to do and how to do it |
| but you want to give them something in |
| the printable that they can take action |
| on and that’s something that they want |
| to print out because that’s what it’s |
| called a printable so you want to print |
| it out and use it and sign up to your |
| email list you want to make it useful |
| okay you get the example here we can do |
| every month additionally for printables |
| I try to make them super nice and make a |
| little cover page so we can do delete |
| all this bring that to the middle so now |
| that’s our cover page we can add a |
| couple shapes of what I did here we can |
| select come down here copy it go to your |
| current page paste so it keeps the |
| uniformity between the trackers and the |
| cover page |
| screw that up a little bit right there |
| is my bar perfect all right perfectly |
| centered cool all right |
| so we have our cover page we have our |
| monthly trackers |
| additionally think of ways how you can |
| make your printable even more valuable |
| so say for example somebody prints this |
| out they really want to do these |
| exercises but they have no idea what a |
| tricep pulldown is I had no idea what |
| that was but now you can go into each |
| exercise whoopsy |
| I don’t want to delete my blog name and |
| [Music] |
| delete all the other exercises and |
| explain this one all right so what you |
| can do is have a little explanation of |
| it click on a little T this is what a |
| tricep pushdown is and this is how it’s |
| helpful to your mommy |
| arms to pick up your kids easy easily |
| all right something that all right so |
| explain the exercise and the benefit you |
| can add a couple of tips |
| do this twice a week and go up and wait |
| after you hit eight reps at your maximum |
| something like that okay and then we can |
| add cute little fonts in canva just copy |
| it paste there so what I’m doing here is |
| I’m just adding to the printable so it’s |
| not just a one pager it’s something |
| really useful and the more you delight |
| your reader right from the beginning the |
| more they’re going to come back to your |
| blog and want more help so truly delight |
| your reader make them ecstatic with the |
| amount of things you’d give away for |
| free and then they’ll come back and be |
| like wow this was really great I really |
| can see some definition in my arms or |
| whatnot and then they’ll come back from |
| work |
| alright so what you could also do for |
| example just thinking um you can have a |
| couple of tutorial videos |
| say for example you don’t want to create |
| a whole free course you can create a |
| couple videos on YouTube and then from |
| your freebie you can link to them you |
| can have a specific page on your blog |
| see tutorial videos here mommy workout |
| comm slash tutorial videos um it could |
| be a page on your blog where you embed |
| all your YouTube videos and that could |
| be like a one-stop resource for them |
| just thinking of ways to make this more |
| helpful so that even your freebie once |
| they sign up for your freebie your |
| freebie gets them back to your blog |
| again |
| alright so that virtuous beautiful cycle |
| alright so we have tips and then lastly |
| this is definitely what I want to show |
| you guys how to make a PDF editable so |
| current stats think of what kind of |
| things your reader might want to record |
| maybe it’s their daily tracker it could |
| just be a daily tracker it could be a |
| monthly tracker it could be anything |
| where they actually want to like my |
| daily schedule where they write down |
| their |
| current activities so date goal date |
| just delete some of these so it’s not |
| too messy |
| wait current wait number of pull-ups |
| okay guys I’m just making this up so |
| this is not the perfect workout tracker |
| I am just making things up here as I go |
| and then you’re gonna line them nicely |
| copy and your big wide as with any big |
| goal make sure you have a big wife while |
| you’re doing it if you’re doing a a work |
| a new workout routine if you’re starting |
| a blog always make sure you have your |
| big y in front of you because it’s gonna |
| get hard at times to continue growing |
| your blog it’s gonna get hard to workout |
| it’s gonna get hard to eat healthy make |
| sure you have that big y in front of you |
| at all times okay and then we’ll go into |
| elements and add little squares this is |
| where our reader is actually going to |
| input their text all right and you can’t |
| select multiple elements at once to |
| change the color so make sure you get |
| the color right from the beginning and |
| then copy and paste it so that’s for |
| date |
| Goldade |
| might have to add some spacing to these |
| spacing line-height look at that that is |
| pretty cool that’s really helpful Thank |
| You canva those line up and then the |
| last one okay okay cool so we have our |
| tracker we have our place where our |
| reader from put in their own stats so we |
| have additional tips this is a pretty |
| cute PDF just imagine if that was |
| actually 12 months of tracking you |
| explained every single workout with |
| tutorial videos back to your blog and |
| then you have their stats where they can |
| input that that’s a pretty cool PDF |
| that’s something that I would sign up |
| for because I don’t want to go through |
| the effort of creating this myself this |
| is something that I would sign up for |
| print it out and use it throughout the |
| year additionally if you create a PDF or |
| a printable that they refer back to |
| continuously they have their thinking |
| about you every time they do this month |
| mommy workout tracker they’re thinking |
| about hey Susie created this amazing |
| tracker let me go back to her blog maybe |
| she has some more advice anyway so |
| that’s a little side tip for you once |
| you have your tracker created where your |
| printable and you’re ready to download |
| it click on download and then download |
| it as a PDF first I’m going to change |
| the name okay mommy workout tracker live |
| example just make my download name there |
| click on download click on PDF and it |
| will download directly to your computer |
| coffee break |
| that was a big PDF it’s beautiful |
| okay cool here it is now go into PDF |
| escape that’s what that’s what it’s |
| called go to PDF escape this is where |
| you can actually make your PDF editable |
| so it’s great for those people who only |
| use it online and then the people who |
| print it out and physically write in |
| it’s not going to change anything from |
| your PDF click on the free online upload |
| PDF to PDF escape choose your file it’s |
| most likely gonna be in your downloads |
| folder you can see here’s the mommy |
| tracker so this is all the beginning |
| part of the printable that we carried it |
| this is the part where I want people to |
| actually edit it so click on little form |
| field here on the side and then create |
| the form fields so you’ll just highlight |
| and cover the areas where you want |
| somebody to be able to put in text okay |
| and then our big Y down here super |
| SuperDuper easy alright once we’re done |
| with that click on the little green |
| arrow here click on save and download |
| PDF that’s almost instant you can open |
| the PDF and now you can see here is the |
| mommy tracker and this part of the PDF |
| is editable so 10-4 2018 I wanted good |
| MP strong that’s my big way all right so |
| that’s it now you can take this PDF |
| upload it to your blog and then increase |
| your email signups either you can use it |
| for email signups to grow your email |
| list you can sell this PDF directly on |
| your blog for a small fee and start |
| making money like that or you can offer |
| it as services so if you’re really great |
| at creating PDFs and you love doing this |
| you can reach out to other bloggers or |
| clients and offer this as a service |
Video Transcript
| Let me show you how to create |
| This is the power or the the printable we created in canva recently so you can see it’s a mommy tracker |
| I’ll just take this away. It goes through upper and lower body exercises. It has a little checklist |
| So the mom or the user can check out off how they’re using it |
| goes through every month you can do then it breaks down every |
| Exercise and give some more additional tips and then it has like occurrence stats |
| so this is what we creating in canva but if canva is not |
| What you like and you don’t like using camera and you think it’s a little slow |
| Although it is really awesome. And you like PowerPoint more? Let’s try to recreate this in PowerPoint |
| and as you know a great printable or PDF or |
| opt-in for your readers is something that they want to print out and |
| actually use so this is something that the mommy wants to print out and go through and do the checkboxes and |
| Then every time the exercise is explained that’s something that she also wants to hold on to so she understands it is she doing her |
| Barbell presses correctly even though I don’t do this and we’re like push push ups or whatnot. All right, so let’s go into PowerPoint |
| and I’ve already started a little bit because I |
| Wanted to test out to make sure I can do this. So let’s go into file click on new and |
| This is what you’re gonna start out with and this does not look like a PDF printable at all |
| So, how do we go through and make this look much much better? |
| So first thing you can do in PowerPoint is you can set up your custom colors and fonts |
| And this is something you can do in canva |
| but you actually have to pay for the premium version of canva to set up your custom fonts in PowerPoint because you probably |
| If you have PowerPoint, you’re paying I think it’s $50 per year for the office suite |
| I think that’s the last time I checked. Anyway, you can set up your custom fonts and color |
| So let me show you how to do that going to the design |
| There’s a little here in variant. Click on this little drop-down. It’s pretty hard to find click on colors and then it will |
| Bring down |
| All these different color palates so you can see here. I have mom life happy life. I have that color palette already stored here |
| Tree aid was a website |
| I did recently or a while ago and |
| then start a mom blog brand colors so you can go into here and click on customize colors and |
| Then in the accents you can drop down and find your color |
| If you go into more colors and type in the RGB code for your colors for your blog |
| So your brand colors so you can go through and change these? |
| Let’s say for example, you’re like a very red |
| Brand |
| See, yeah, I’m assuming I’m getting the RGB right that’s for your hex color so you can see |
| I’m just giving you an example |
| You can see the colors are changing |
| Good another like super red one. All right, and then we can say okay |
| This is my blog colors and click on save |
| Alright, so then when you do the little drop down |
| You’re gonna see here’s my blog colors. Alright, so it saves that palette for you. That’s pretty cool |
| You can also save your font style for your headings in your body text |
| So if you go into fonts, you can click on customize fonts |
| Say for example for your heading you have |
| Broadway and then for your body font something probably that’s a little easier to read |
| What’s it what’s |
| With em, it’s very popular. I |
| Can’t find it |
| Let’s just pick something very simple that people could read ok will do grotesque. Oh gosh. Alright, so that would change |
| And save your your fonts, so let’s just double check I don’t think I changed them |
| So if you right-click and click on edit and then we just give them a name ok, my blog |
| fonts and |
| That will save that alright, or if I want to go back to the ones that I use for my blog its railway |
| So I can just hover over and that will enable mine see how cool that is it will save all of that |
| So it’s very time-saving so you can easily |
| Save your colors and your fonts. All right. So now that we have |
| PowerPoint kind of set up and customize a little bit. How do we resize this page so that |
| It looks more like a PDF you can go into the slide size |
| Click on customers custom slide size do the drop-down click on a for paper |
| Make your slides portrait as well |
| All right, so there you go now your slides or a |
| Nicely paper size. So when somebody prints it out, it’s gonna print to a normal a four paper a4 page |
| all right, so next after we’ve |
| resized this we can now add in our I |
| Think when it resized it took away our font, so let’s go click on our fonts for our blog and select our colors |
| All right. Okay, so that’s all set up now. We want to do the mommy workout |
| And it’s our tractor, all right so easily in PowerPoint you can go in |
| And make text a little larger that’s one thing that I like about PowerPoint compared to canva |
| It’s just a little bit easier to maneuver around |
| It’s not as it’s chunky |
| and |
| Then you’ll see the real reason why I love PowerPoint, which is going to come up soon. All right, so that’s your mommy tracker |
| We’ll make that as our little title |
| We can insert some shapes |
| To make it look similar to what we had so you can be as creative as you want to in PowerPoint |
| And it will just easily copy paste |
| That is our title slide |
| Now what you can also do in PowerPoint is going to I think it is |
| View it’s view go into view and even |
| Customize the slide master so you can change your slide master. Say for example, if you have a blank slide |
| That you’re adding to your your PDF. What do you want to add into it? So |
| We insert we can insert text |
| We can create a template that shows up on every page so you don’t have to recreate and copy and paste |
| you can just edit the slide master and |
| It will do it for you so we can insert some pictures |
| I’m just giving you an example here |
| Okay, so that is say for example, you want a nice little title and we can make that a little bolder |
| Mommy work out and then you’ll go into |
| Whew |
| How do I exit this slide master? There you go. That’s it |
| So now when you drop click on the new slide on the blank one |
| It’s gonna bring that up and that’s already set for you as the slide master. So it’s very easy to set different templates |
| Without having to copy and paste stuff. You can just create it once in your slide master and it’s there |
| Alright, so now what do we actually include on our PDF so that people sign up to our email lists get this amazing |
| Freebie that’s gonna help them because the whole reason why you’re creating an email list or building an audience is to help them |
| that’s the whole goal of your your blog is to take somebody that at point a and |
| Take them and help them along to get to point B from where they’re currently struggling with a current issue |
| your blog and your advice and your pdfs and your emails are there to help them through that transition and get them to a |
| Successful place it could be losing that first ten pounds after baby. It could be |
| Reconnecting with your child or being a better mom |
| It could be growing your blog so |
| Everybody our blogs are there to help others and that’s why I’m here for you guys |
| All right |
| so now once you have your mommy workout |
| I added. Well you guys are gonna like this now we’re gonna get into the good stuff. Alright |
| so how do you make like a little list and make things look prettier in a |
| PowerPoint and this is what I really like about PowerPoint. You can go and click on insert and click on SmartArt and |
| when I was in corporate, I |
| was always discouraged to use SmartArt because it’s too fancy and |
| It takes away from the message and things were supposed to just be kind of black and white |
| But now that I run my own business I can use SmartArt as much as I want |
| so |
| Let’s go. It will click one here and I already have |
| Some text that we can put into it |
| So you can fill in your list of tips or tricks or exercises in this case |
| And we have them here. So all I did was just |
| C-type them in here in the little text box and then it would put it in my smart art and look super pretty |
| I’ll make it a little bigger so I can actually read it and |
| now for the fun part, you can go back to design and hover over the smart art templates and |
| This will show you different templates that you can use |
| For the data that you just put in there, so |
| This sometimes takes me hours because I go through each template and I see which one looks the best |
| So that I can help my readers |
| There’s either you’ve even one with like pictures. You can actually add a little picture that describes each step |
| So for this one which one did I like? |
| I’m making you guys dizzy. I’m sorry. Oh, yeah, I like this one |
| so that’s the really nice thing about PowerPoint is you can use the SmartArt and |
| Create these beautiful print up printables and mock-ups really quickly |
| So we’ll do the mommy workout. Those are the exercises then for you can do upper body lower body |
| Let’s go back into this one. Oh |
| This was cool |
| Then this is one that I did just before you guys came on |
| So I made this little smart art of |
| All the different exercises and I can select all of them and make that a darker text so you can actually read there you go |
| This is the exercise the body part of the description of the routine |
| So think about how you can break down a problem in your niche and make it a simple step-by-step guide for your readers |
| Maybe it’s how to cook this |
| amazing Thanksgiving dinner or |
| How to make baby food whatever it is |
| What can you make easier for your readers and give them a little chart that they want to print out and actually use? |
| So that after this |
| Another thing that’s nice about PowerPoint is |
| Did you see there? I just pulled up the slide master slide that we created, which is nice |
| You can insert a table very easily if I find it. So we want to insert something that’s seven days and |
| Six rows so that I can put in my days of the week Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday |
| Friday Saturday and Sunday |
| So you can easily create a little calendar within PowerPoint will select the top row |
| Align the text to the middle and in the center we can make them just a little bit bigger |
| There you go |
| Can also add a nice little title and a different fancy font. So say for example, this is January |
| Yeah, sometimes you have to force it to go a little bigger, all right, yeah and |
| Then what you could do is in the previous tracker we had |
| Those days kind of grayed out Saturday Sunday and Wednesdays are grayed out cuz we’re not gonna exercise on those days |
| we’re gonna rest Mondays our arms and |
| Tuesdays and Fridays our legs so Tuesdays and Fridays. I can only select one of the time |
| You can change the shading |
| to |
| Match the workout. So upper-body was yellow you can easily copy and paste the pages. This would be lower body |
| I’ll show you. Okay. Well while we’re on it, you can change the colors of the smart art pretty easily too |
| So you guys might think I’m this designer with all my PDFs and I’m not I just use |
| smart art in PowerPoint |
| So you can go through and change the different colors different styles and the coolest part |
| You can even make it a rainbow. You can use all your colors at once or a shade of all your colors. It’s not pretty |
| Ok, and then we’ll go back sorry. Oh, it’s got a little distracted there change the shading here |
| So then your readers know that |
| They have to check off the boxes for Monday, it’s upper body. Tuesday’s lower body. Alright, so you can do this little calendar |
| For each month of the year another cool thing that you can do of PowerPoint is easily toggle between |
| Cases so you can do sentence case you can do lowercase uppercase |
| capitalize each word toggle case |
| so just with this little drop down if you accidentally wrote everything in an |
| Uppercase and you want to get it all down in lower case or sentence case, you can just use that instead of rewriting the entire |
| Line of text so that’s super helpful. And then lastly I want to show you how to create a little tracker and |
| then make this PDF editable so we can insert a |
| Couple shapes here where we will input text |
| Because some people might want to print this out and some people might want to edit it online. So we’re gonna do that |
| I’m gonna insert some text |
| Okay, why |
| So say for example that one okay that piece of text. I wanted it to be all uppercase. I just click on that |
| Boom, it’s all uppercase |
| And then this would be current wait I |
| Know you guys probably not not everybody’s gonna be in the |
| The exercise niche but think about ideas of how this can be used in your niche and how easy this is to create |
| The more time you spend on this PDF and the more information you’re gonna put in it the more helpful |
| It’s gonna be and the higher conversions you’re gonna have so I advise you don’t create the PDF in five minutes |
| And then that’s it. Take some time to really input some amazing |
| advice in here |
| And |
| especially if you do the the hard work of going through and |
| Curating a lot of advice and bring it breaking it down into simple steps for your readers |
| They’re gonna love it more so current way goal weight |
| Number of push-ups and then number of pleasure pull-ups, okay |
| So just little goals that the person could write down |
| Alright. Oh, you would probably want to make this just a little lighter if they’re going to be writing in the boxes |
| All right |
| Okay, so now we have our PDF creative imagine there’s more data for for our readers |
| One thing that I missed that I haven’t put in here yet |
| Um, there’s a little add-on to PowerPoint and this can work for Google slides as well. It’s called the noun project and |
| I think it’s about 40 dollars per year |
| You can click and add it on to to Google or I mean to Google slides or PowerPoint and then you can search for any |
| Any icon so say for example, we want to search for |
| a |
| Barbell, right because this is all got exercise. Look at all. These cute little barbells that come up those our dumbbells the barbell |
| if you want to add that you click on it, and then it adapts to the custom colors that you’ve |
| chosen for your PowerPoint deck and you can add that into your |
| slide |
| How cool is that or for example each exercise here we can do push-ups. Let’s see if they have a |
| push-up one |
| Cool. Okay. So here’s a little push-up guy. He’s doing a push-up we can insert the icon and |
| then oops |
| Okay. So what you want to do is if you hold shift and then change the box it retains the size |
| So we can do a little push up there |
| Wonderful a barbell row probably not just do barbell or benchpress benchpress |
| Cool it has a little bench press so we’ll click on that |
| As you can see this kinam this can get really fun |
| All right, so you can add little icons if you want |
| Info or graphics, you can even use this as infographic so you if you want graphics for your printable |
| The noun project is really easy to use and it’s a little add-on in PowerPoint |
| So that’s a tip for you now lastly |
| What we want to do is at least add your blog URL at the bottom of this PDF. So if somebody prints it out and |
| They |
| They put it on the refrigerator or they start using it |
| you want them to remember where they can find you so if you click on |
| Insert |
| Click. Oh |
| Where is it? |
| Header and footer and on the footer you can put your name |
| and your |
| blog |
| And apply to all so there you go so that will be added to every slide |
| So that people know where to get you. All right |
| so once you’re done with your slide and you’re ready to use it on your blog as an |
| incentive offer |
| Let’s do one last thing and make it editable you can do file |
| Save as and |
| Will save it as a PDF right from here my mommy workout |
| PowerPoint example |
| All right, so it’s saved as a PDF now go to |
| PDF escape |
| So that’s the website that can make your PDF editable PDF escape com |
| click on the free online version |
| Upload a PDF to PDF its PDF escape choose your file |
| Easiest place to go find it |
| alright, so |
| we have our PDF it’s loading and |
| We can scroll down to the part of our document where we want to make it editable and you’ll click on |
| Believe it’s form field |
| Click on select and you’ll just drag and drop where you want to add form field |
| So this will make the PDF editable online |
| Pretty cool for your audience |
| After you’re done with that click on |
| Save and download PDF here on the side |
| and |
| then |
| we’re gonna open it and |
| this will be the PDF that you |
| share of your audience and it’s super helpful and then they can |
| my current weight |
| Edit it here or they can print it out and edit it from home |
| Alright, so I hope that helps you see that there’s more than one way to create printables you |
| Can use canva you can use PowerPoint you can use Google slides. Those are only three other programs that I like to use |
| I know there’s many many more you can use word |
| So let me know what questions you have regarding printables and how I can help you and I hope this was super super duper helpful |
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