Tuesday 13 November 2018

the tech I used to create and sell my Christmas Planner

Inside - the steps I took, and the tech I use, to sell my Christmas Planner

From the time my friend Shell suggested I actually make a Christmas planner, to launching it, was only one month, and I spent half that month ignoring my to-do list because my brain thinks I work better under pressure (it's right, sort of.)

But from an idea to do something to switching on and telling the world about it there were a few step and programs I needed to understand first.

Disclaimer - this post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase via my link, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.

Creating the planner


I tried a few different programs when I was starting to create the planner.

Canva is cumbersome.

Photoshop Elements is slow to create each element.

Then I remembered an amazing class I randomly purchased a year ago.

My mind was blown after discovering that Laura from I Heart Planners makes all her printables in Excel.

Yep, Excel.

So that's what I did.

[check out the class here]

Once I had the planner created, I needed to decide what else I would use.

I needed a landing page.

And a distribution platform.

An email list.

And a payment gateway.

[And I needed to renew my ABN]

Sorting out a landing page


I decided to stick with using my blog as a landing page.

That meant playing with the HTML code to hide the sidebar and header, so there were no other distractions when people landed on the page.

[This tutorial from Code It Pretty was the easiest to follow.]

Once I had it coded I moved on to setting up the rest of the tech, before coming back and writing the copy last.

Sticking with my email provider


I've used ConvertKit for two years now, so it made sense to just stick with what I know and understand.

SendOwl as a shopping cart


Because I'm still using Blogger as a platform (you probably didn't even notice) I needed a platform to sell from that could store all versions of my planner, take payments, and connect with both the sales page and the email platform.

I also wanted to offer sales codes, and potentially an affiliate program next year.

After comparing the prices of SendOwl and GumRoad, SendOwl was cheaper if I made sales of the planner (which I have managed to do so far.)

I found the help centre easy to understand, even when I tried to test sell without having connected a payment gateway, although I didn't like the look of their sales buttons so used a linked image for that.

Choosing a payment gateway


Or more precisely, sticking with what I know.

I chose to connect PayPal as my payment gateway because I knew my way around, and what fees were involved, and I was already using it personally, so it made sense to just change over to a business account.

Stick with what you know


There are no rules about creating products and selling online.

You can read and pin hundreds of posts on Pinterest, but when the crunch comes what someone else uses might not work for you.

These were the things that worked for me right now.

Next year things might have changed, and I'm using a different sales cart.

Who knows.

bit.ly/ChristmasPlanner2018


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2 comments

  1. I love Excel! I use it to make our family term calendars to keep track of the numerous activities we have on. What a great idea to make a Christmas planner. =)

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  2. What a clever woman you are. I am not so savvy but glad you are and can make some money from this initiative. Denyse #teamIBOT

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