How to Sell PDFs Online?

Do you have expertise or knowledge on a specific topic? The easiest way to monetize your knowledge is by selling PDFs online. PDFs are one of the most profitable digital downloads to sell online. They don’t require any specific tools and are easy to create, yet they earn you considerable profits. 

Content is an amazing product! Whether you’re a fitness expert or a marketing consultant, PDFs are the easiest way to pack your knowledge and sell it as a digital download.

If you have an amazing idea and are exploring how to sell PDFs online, we have got you covered! From creating your PDF file to monitoring your sales, this blog is going to be your go-to guide!

So, let’s see how to earn your first PDF sale, shall we?

Why Sell PDFs Online?

Here are the benefits of selling PDFs online:

• Earn Recurring Income

Digital downloads like PDFs incur a minimal one-time creation cost but can be sold multiple times to earn high profits. Plus, you own the profits completely because there are no middlemen like publishers or stores involved. 

• Easy to Create

PDFs are one of the most common content formats. Whether you’re crafting a whitepaper, infographic or how-to guide, you don’t require any specific tool to create a PDF. Even MS Word or Google Docs allow you to create a PDF file.

• Low Initial Cost and Time Investment

Given the low investment barrier for creating and selling PDFs, creators can earn profits early in their business. 

• Lead Generation

PDFs and mini courses make excellent lead magnet generation tools. Including a simple CTA about your course or coaching program within the PDF or post-sale email could win a potential lead!

• Passive Income

PDFs are definitely a great way to monetize your knowledge. The low investment and high-profit margins make it a lucrative side gig! 

7 Steps to Sell PDF Online

Selling PDFs online is one of the easiest ways to enter the $156.37 billion creator economy. The majority of creators and entrepreneurs have leveraged this into their business!

Now’ let’s look at the how to sell PDFs online 7 easy steps:

Step 1: Choose an Idea for PDF File

Are you creating PDFs to earn a passive income or as lead magnets? Finding a profitable idea for your PDF is the first step.  

If you are overwhelmed to begin creating your first PDF, these profitable ideas could help you craft your first masterpiece:

• Ebooks
• How-to-Guides
• Checklists
• Patterns and Templates
• Comics
• Infographics
• Research Papers
• Magazines
• Whitepapers

While many content ideas exist to explore, start by defining a clear purpose. Decide whether you plan to educate, entertain, or assist your target audience through your PDF! 

Just analyze what is relevant to your audience and scale your idea accordingly. Your idea also depends on your niche. 

For instance, comics work great for visual artists and storytellers, while checklists help marketers achieve their purpose. 

Step 2: Create Your PDF File

Now that you might have found your big idea, it’s time to don your thinking hats and begin with the actual creation process!

1. Content-Creation

So, let’s discuss the most crucial step — how to create downloadable pdf. Yes, your PDF’s content determines the value you offer to your audience. So, it’s crucial you try your best to create a PDF that proves to be a valuable resource. 

Consider the following checklist before you begin with content creation:

• Immediate goals, topics or concepts to be learnt by the target audience.
• Ideal tone for gaining the information.
• Effective learning methods that work best for your niche.

Speaking about the software, Google Docs, MS Word, Adobe Acrobat DC, and  Canva are enough to create a simple PDF.  Unlike selling online courses or coaching programs, you don’t need any additional software to host and deliver them.

2. Add Design Elements

“Good design is good business.” 

• Thomas Watson. Jr.

Your PDF might be power-packed with extensive knowledge, unique insights, and the best content. But what if it’s just pages of text without headings or visual elements? 

Sounds boring, right?

Apart from offering valuable information, your PDFs need to look their part!

Follow these best practices to make your PDF book more visually appealing:

• Make clever use of the humble white spaces
• Divide your content into headings and subheadings
• Choose the right readable typography settings (font style, size and color)
• Break the monotony of text with solid visuals in the right places
• Keep the formatting consistent to avoid distracting from the content

3.  Make PDFs More Interactive

Engagement is the key to capturing the attention of your audience! 

Why not create an interactive PDF? An interactive PDF is a document consisting of rich media content with which your readers can interact and engage. 

Listed below are the dynamic elements you can include in your PDF:

• Embedded videos
• Audio and sound clips
• GIFs
• Links to emails and websites
• Bookmarks
• Page flips
• Fillable forms and sidebar menus

Besides, an interactive PDF makes reading your content a fun and memorable experience!

Step 3: Add Branding to Your PDF & Export Your File

Branding makes your PDF instantly recognizable and memorable! People not only relate to your content, but it also helps you stand out from the crowd!

If you are selling your PDF as a lead magnet, branding helps to increase your sales for your online course or coaching program.

Here are the branding elements you can add to your PDF:

• Logo

You add a logo to your PDF by inserting an image or a link to your professional website.

• Color Palette &  Fonts

Does your brand have a specific brand color or font style? Add unique brand colors, imagery and illustrations that align with your brand. 

• Watermarks to Your PDF

Watermarks can be an effective approach if you wish to add branding and protect PDFs from duplication. It could be a text or image behind the document content. 

Apart from the typical branding elements, you could even add a background image, an icon, or even your brand music to your PDF. 

Step 4: Exporting Your PDF

Once you have created content and added design and branding elements, the last step is to export your PDF file. 

The basic advantage of PDF files is that the text remains intact, even if you open it in a different screen. Exporting your file as a PDF ensures you can share your file, compress large files and  add comments and annotations to your file. 

So, what are the ways to export a PDF file?

If you use MS Word, export using the “Save as” or “Export” option. For Google Docs, use the “download” option and save it as PDF. 

Lastly, for Adobe Acrobat, choose Create> PDF from the file and select your file. 

Step 5: Protect Your PDF

Your content is valuable and your business’s unique selling point! The fact that PDFs are easy to create and accessible makes them a bit more vulnerable to copyright issues. But with evolving needs, you can secure your PDFs in different ways.

Let’s explore the best ways to protect your PDF!

• Password Protection

If you’re sharing sensitive information, password-protecting your files is a great way to protect your data. Additionally, you can use Digital Rights Management to add specific permissions for copying, editing or printing your PDF files.

• Certificate Protection

Instead of passwords, you can even use public and private key pairs to add an additional layer of protection.

• Document Watermarking

Although watermarking is an essential branding element, it is also a crucial way to protect content from infringement.

• PDF Stamping

Each time the PDF is shared, buyer-specific information is added to each PDF copy. This helps to track your PDF when shared without permission.

Step 6: Choose a Platform for Selling Your PDF

Now, you are ready to share the resource with the world, but you need the right launchpad — an effective platform! Choosing the right platform is a crucial step, as it affects your profit margins, outreach and conversions. 

Given below are the effective platforms to sell PDF documents online:

• Amazon KDP

The world’s largest book marketplace, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, has a value proposition few can beat. It provides unparalleled outreach to a global audience, offers pricing control, customer service, and promotional opportunities. However, depending on your book type, the platform takes a revenue of 35% or 70%. 

• Third-party Online Marketplaces

Third-party marketplaces are often great for selling digital downloads, given the reach, marketing, e-commerce, tracking features and ease of doing business. Gumroad, Etsy, and Facebook Marketplace are excellent platforms for selling PDFs. 

• Ecommerce Platforms

E-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce are well-known tools to sell PDFs through an online store. You can access extensive features like discount codes, cart recovery, shipping options, sales channels, etc. 

• Your Website

Another excellent place to sell PDFs is your website. Customers interested in your business will obviously visit your website, making it an ideal place to sell your products. Integrate a trusted payment gateway like Stripe or Paypal with the website, include your product listing and start selling your PDF.

Alternatively, you can use a third-party service like Payhip to embed an online store into your website.

Consider features, scalability, mobile responsiveness, security, and SEO while choosing the right platform.

Step 7: Set up Your Online Store and Sales Page 

Now that you have figured out the platform to sell your PDF, you’re halfway through!

The next step is to create an online store to easily sell and manage your products from one place. Choose an appropriate domain name for your store and connect it to your site.

Regardless of the platform you choose, here’s how you can create your online store:

• Choose a Page Template

If you are using a third-party platform, once you sign up with the platform, you can choose a pre-designed page template for your product page. Templates offer all the essential aspects to initiate a sale and save you time.

• Create Product Listing

Of course, you need a product page with a complete product listing! It should include a captivating title, an interesting description, and high-quality screenshots of your PDF. If you need help setting up your store, you can look at competitors’ online product listings. 

 

Upload and publish your PDF. Also, create other essential store pages like the Contact, About Us, and FAQ pages. 

• Determine Pricing Strategy

Identify an ideal price range based on your target audience, value offered, niche, demand, and competitor pricing. Cost-based, value-based, market-based and bundle pricing models are the common pricing strategies for selling PDFs.

• Connect a Payment Gateway.

The final and most important step is to connect with a payment gateway processor. Definitely, you want to find a way to accept payments for your PDF! The most-common and reliable payment gateways are Stripe and PayPal.

Ideally, offer multiple payment options to your customers!

• Digital wallets
• Credit / Debit Cards
• Bank transfers
• Crypto transactions like NFT

Once the payment is made, the customer will receive a link via email, or they can download the file in-store.

Step 8: Market Your PDF

Now that your PDF and online store are all set up, it’s time to drive customers through some spellbound marketing strategies!

Listed below are some effective ecommerce marketing strategies!

• Promote your PDF through your website or related blogs.
• Share exclusive posts, images, stories and snippets from your PDF on social media. Include the PDF link in your profile bio.
• Build an email list and send newsletters on related topics, promoting your ebook.
• Host contests and PDF giveaways on your website or social media.
• Use Facebook and Instagram ads targeting specific user groups.
• Optimize your meta titles, descriptions, and product listings with appropriate keywords.
• Drive traffic by sharing the images of PDF on your TikTok handle.
• Get interviewed on related podcasts and discuss about your PDF
• Market through Pinterest with attractive photo and video pins.
• Generate user-generated content like reviews and share your stories.
• Update your Google Business Pages and use pay-per-click ads like Google Shopping to rank higher in SERPs. 

Step 9: Monitor Your PDF Sales

Your job doesn’t end once you make your initial set of PDF sales! It’s essential to constantly evaluate your sales and understand what’s working and what’s not.

Connect tools like Google Analytics to your store or website to track your store performance. Gauge metrics like traffic, sales, conversion rates, and user behavior. Identify any relative trends, peaks and falls in the sales. 

Use A/B performance testing to tweak different pricing, product listings, and marketing strategies to find which works better. For example, if sharing on Facebook isn’t driving any significant traffic, try sharing on TikTok.

PDF tracking is another important aspect that helps you monitor your PDF sales. Although it isn’t a common strategy, you can track your PDF with Google Analytics and other third-party software like Decklinks. Track when a PDF is opened and forwarded and the amount of time spent per page. 

Don’t stop at your first PDF sale! Discover the next fantastic idea and start working on it!

Tips to Sell PDF Online

Here are a few handy tips to boost your PDF sales:

1. Choose a profitable product idea that you enjoy creating.
2. A good rule of thumb is to follow the three-click rule to reach from the home page to the product page. 
3. Write product descriptions highlighting unique selling points, telling a story, and building trust.
4. Include clear CTAs at relevant places like product descriptions, store pages, etc.
5. Listen to customer feedback from comments and follow-up emails and discover your next big idea.
6. Constantly update your product listings and sales information on your online store.
7. Offer incentives on your website or social media for sharing your PDFs.

Resources for Creating and Selling PDFs

Well, if it feels like there are a lot of things to catch on, our extensive resources and tools guide might make it less overwhelming!

Content & PDF Creation 

• Microsoft Word
• Google Docs
• Adobe Acrobat
• PDFplatform
• PDFelement

Designing PDFs 

• Canva
• Adobe Indesign
• Google Slides
• LucidPress

Platforms for Selling PDF

• Amazon KDP
• Gumroad
• Podia
• Etsy
• Facebook Marketplace
• SendOwl
• PayHip
• E-Junkie
• Thinkific
• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• 10 Web

Marketing & Monitoring

• MailChimp
• Google Analytics
• FlippingBook (PDFTracking)

Content Ideation and Resources Guide

• Tools like BuzzSumo, AnswerThePublic, Google Trends
• Websites like Creativemarket.com

Conclusion

PDF is a versatile tool in the modern business landscape. From sharing knowledge to proving to be a lead magnet, it caters to different phases of customer relationships!

With technological advancements, you are no longer limited to conventional metrics like email open rate. You can use advanced PDF tracking metrics to prioritize your leads and grow your business! So, now that you know how to sell PDF, dare to take that first creative stride!

FAQ-Related to How to Sell PDFs Online

1. Can you make money selling PDFs?

Yes, selling PDFs is one profitable way to monetize your knowledge. Identify a profitable idea, stellar content, and a scalable platform to make decent profits. With valuable resources like industry reports and whitepapers, you can even earn around $1000 per month.

2. Which are the best platforms to sell PDF documents online?

Amazon KDP, marketplaces like Etsy, Gumroad, Facebook Marketplace, and e-commerce platforms like Shopify are the best places to sell PDFs online.

3. What can I sell as a PDF?

You can sell ebooks, magazines, comics, whitepapers, checklists, etc., as PDFs. The content you sell depends on your niche and target audience.