How To Make Money Selling Journals: Free Ways You Can Sell

Are you looking for a way to make money that’s both creative and profitable? Making money selling journals can be a great way to do just that! Whether you’re interested in a journal business or low content publishing business, there are endless possibilities to make money. Journals can be both fun and profitable to create, without needing to be an expert designer or marketer.

You don’t need a lot of start-up costs either, as creating and selling journals is a business model that allows entrepreneurs to turn their craft into profit. If you’re an aspiring online seller who’s looking for a low-risk business idea, then this could be the perfect opportunity for you. With selling journals online, you can provide customers with products they already need and love, while still having full freedom to design your own items and pricing structure.

In this article, we’ll explore the types of journals you could sell, how to make your own journals, places to sell journals online, and more. With these strategies, you can easily create a profitable business selling journals and turn your creative ideas into money.

So let’s get started!

How To Make Money Selling Journals
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The benefits of selling journals

One of the great things about selling journals is that it can be a very profitable business. If you’re able to sell just a few journals each month, you can easily make a nice profit. Plus, selling journals is a great way to get your name and brand out there.

Whatever your niche, you can pretty much brand a journal (or low-content books) to fit. For example, a journal is a perfect product for people who are interested in mindfulness and self-improvement.

So, if you’re looking for a way to make some extra money, selling journals is definitely worth considering.

Another great thing about selling journals is that it’s a very easy business to get started. You don’t need any special skills or training and you can use free tools to get your own business up and running.

So to help you get started selling journals, I’ve packed this blog post with tips and advice on how to make money.

Lastly, selling journals is a great way to make a difference in the lives of others. By helping people journal, you can provide them with a valuable tool that will help them improve their lives.

And to provide even more value you can pair your journal with prompts to give your customers more guidance and direction.

Those are just a few of the great things about selling your own book or journal. If you’re interested in getting started, keep reading!

What is a journal?

A journal is a notebook or book used for writing down thoughts, ideas, reflections, or anything else that you want to document. It is usually divided into sections with different topics of interest separated out. Journals have been around for centuries and are often used as a way to capture memories and moments in time.

Journals can be used in many ways such as:

  • Recording dreams and hopes for the future
  • Reflecting on life lessons or spiritual growth
  • Writing down inspirations and creative ideas
  • Documenting daily thoughts/feelings
  • Planning goals/tasks
  • Tracking progress on a project or goal, like a fitness challenge.

People also use journals to express themselves. Writing can be a powerful tool to work through emotions and get clarity on life events. A journal can be a safe place to explore feelings, thoughts, and experiences outside of your everyday conversations with others.

In addition to being used for creative expression, journals are also popular tools for tracking physical health or mental well-being such as sleep patterns, food consumption, exercise, or mood.

Starting a journal business can be a fun and exciting way to make money online. You don’t need any special skills or training, you just need an idea (or several) for what kind of journals you want to create and then the right tools and resources to get started.

Types of journals you could sell

There are all sorts of journals or types of books that you can sell. From planners to blank journals to coloring books and everything in between.

Here are a few ideas for journal types:

  • Blank or notebook journals
  • Dream journals
  • Gratitude journals
  • Travel journals
  • Food or recipe journals
  • Book journals
  • Bullet journals
  • Art journals
  • Project journals
  • Pregnancy journals
  • Photo journals
  • Prayer journals

Now that you know what types of journals you could sell, let’s move on to find your target audience.

Pick a niche

A niche is a group of people that share a similar interest. These people are who you can tailor your product or service to.

To find your niche, think about what interests you and then find a way to turn that into a journal. For example, if you love to travel, consider selling travel journals. You could sell journals that people can use to document their travels, write about their experiences, and track their memories.

The key is to find a profitable niche that you’re passionate about and then brand your journal accordingly.

Some niche examples could be:

  • Journals for busy moms
  • Journals for creative souls
  • Journals for entrepreneurs
  • Journals for travelers
  • Journals for nursing students
  • Journals for dog lovers
  • Journals for plant enthusiasts

As you can see, you can create journals of all sorts to sell. You can really brand a journal to fit any interest or demographic.

Making journals to sell

To start making new journals there are a several free tools that you can use. Depending on where you plan to sell your journals may determine where you get some of the items needed to create your journal.

In this blog post I’ll discuss 3 ways that you can sell your journals. The first being, selling your journals on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform (KDP) which is super simple and of course free! I’ll cover the other two a bit later.

To get started making your journal to sell on Amazon KDP, you’ll need book covers or a KDP cover template. The best way is to grab a done for you cover template. I recommend getting it from Bookow.

Not only is it free, you don’t even need to create an account. They do ask for a donation in an amount that you choose. I’d ask that you consider giving a donation just because they make the process so simple. After you receive the email with your template go ahead and download it to your computer.

In order to design your journal you can use a free tool called Canva. It’s an online design tool that’s perfect for creating journals. You’ll get access to tons of free graphics once you sign up.

There’s also an option to upgrade to the Pro version where you have access to even more elements and templates.

After you create an account. You want to begin making your journal by clicking ‘create a design’. Select ‘custom size’. Then enter the width and height you want your journal to be.

Next be sure to select the correct unit of measurement. In most cases you’ll be selecting inches or ‘in’. 

Use the dimensions given to you on the KDP cover template.

Now you can upload your KDP cover template to Canva from your computer.

Select a square element to drag and drop over your template. This will serve as a background for your cover image. You can then start designing your template to market to your niche. Add elements, graphics, page numbers, or stickers as you like! Once finished download your journal cover as a ‘PDF’ to your computer.

In order to make the interior pages of your journal you can choose formats like graph paper, line paper, planner pages, habit trackers, and even coloring pages.

For quality-tested interiors you’ll love, I have an Amazon KDP interiors bundle which includes 10 different book interiors to get you started right away. Another option is Creative Fabrica, where you’ll find an interior for every niche you can think of.

Once you’ve picked your interior for your journal, download it to your computer. You’ll upload it later directly to Amazon KDP. I’ll cover that in a bit more detail in another section.

For now you have everything you need to make a journal to sell on Amazon KDP!

Other ways to make journals

You can also make journals that are downloaded and printed by the customer. To get started, create a Canva account or sign in if you already have an account.

Click ‘create a design’ in the right hand corner. Select ‘custom size’. Then enter the width and height you want your journal to be.

The next step is to select the correct unit of measurement. In most cases you want to select inches or ‘in’.

Head over to the templates menu. You can narrow your search by typing in more specific terms (ie prayer journal) to help you find a template that fits your needs.

Make yourself familiar with the licensing terms and exactly what you can and cannot do with the template. Many of them are for commercial use but have some restrictions on how you can use the template, graphics, or elements. Canva makes them easy to read so take a little time to do so.

So you’ve got your template picked out. Edit it to make it your own. Add pages to your journal by clicking here. When finished you can download your journal to your computer as a ‘PDF’.

Another way to create a journal is to personalize PLR products. Now this way will cost you a few bucks but save you a lot of time. PLR stands for Private Label Rights these products are usually digital products that come with a license.

This means you can edit and brand the product as your own and then resell them. You can find PLR products on sites like Etsy and Creative Fabrica or from bloggers and coaches in the digital product space.

Be sure to check the licensing terms before you buy so you know exactly what you can do with the product.

Free ways you can sell journals

Why sell on Amazon?

Selling journals on Amazon KDP has a lot of benefits. First, it’s a very popular platform with a lot of traffic. This means that your potential audience is huge.

Second, it’s very easy to use. You can create and upload your journals in just a few minutes and for free! Third, you can make a lot of money. With the right niche and marketing strategy, you can easily make a full-time income with low-content publishing of journals, planners, or ebooks.

Lastly, it’s a great way to build a passive income stream. Once you create and upload your journals, they can sell for years to come with very little effort on your part. So, Amazon KDP is a great place to get started selling your journals.

Amazon KDP journals

To list your journals on the platform. Head over to Amazon kdp, either sign in or create an account.

You will be asked to enter your bank account and tax information in order to receive payments from Amazon.

Once you’re signed in, click on ‘bookself’ in the top menu.

And then click ‘create’. 

You then want to click on paperback.

 

Move through each section filling out your details. 

Below I’ll highlight some important things to know:

Under the section ‘paperback details’. Here you’ll need to give your book a title, description, keywords, and a category.

Keyword research

Take some time to do a bit of keyword research. You want to help readers find your journal.

A good way to start is by using a keyword research tool like Book Bolt. They offer a 3-day free trial, so plan to do as much research in that time as possible if you’re not going to invest in a monthly subscription.

They’ll help you to find the titles, keywords, price, and descriptions of the Top sellers. You’ll also get the Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR) of products. The best seller rank is good indicator of how well a product is currently selling on Amazon. The closer to #1 the product’s BSR, the better its sales.

A free chrome extension like Jungle Scout, AMZ Suggestion Expander, or Ultimate Amazon Search Suggestion Expander can also be extremely helpful in this process.

You can also check out the Amazon Sales Estimator.

When entering the author’s name, you can certainly use your legal name or company. You may also want to consider using a pen name. It’s totally up to you!

Under the section ‘paperback content’. Your print option of black and white print is cheaper. So if you want more money in your pocket from each sale, choose black and white. Though in certain niches color print is important. If this is the case, choose color.

You may be wondering, what are bleed settings?

Bleed is when your print extends to the edge of the page. So, if you want a white border around your journal, don’t select bleed. If you want your journal to have a color or design that goes to the edge of each page, select bleed.

This section is also where you’ll upload your KDP cover design from Canva. You’ll also upload the interior or manuscript that you chose in this section.

Under the section ‘paperback rights and pricing’. Check out what other sellers in your niche are charging for similar products. When deciding how much to price your journals, you want to account for the cost of printing and the royalty rate or percentage you pocket with each sale.

The royalty rate changes based on the distribution channels you select. A price of $6.99 is a good place to start.

Finally, Hit Publish Your Paperback Book!

Selling journals other places

Etsy

The second way to make money selling journals is to list them on Etsy. Etsy is an online global marketplace for unique and creative goods. With 81.9 million active buyers you’re sure to find a lot of people interested in your journals (source).

The journals that we discussed above under the heading ‘Other ways to make journals’ would be perfect to list in your Etsy shop.

After setting up your shop if you don’t already have one, you could list your journals as digital products. When a customer makes a purchase, they would download, and print the journal themselves.

If you are serious about selling journals on Etsy this course is a must have to walk you through your first sale to $10,000 + months.

Your own website

Third, you could sell your journals from your own website. Sendowl is an all-in-one solution for turning your site into an ecommerce store. You can only make so much money when selling on other platforms that charge you fees. Selling more journals from your own site is a great opportunity to keep more of the sale for yourself.

After setting up your store and listing your digital journals, use Sendowl to add your buy buttons. They’ll connect your payment processor and delivers digital files to your customers after successful payment.

And good news, you can get started with both Etsy and Sendowl for free!

Tips to get your first sale

The most important thing to do is to get started and put your journals out there. Though in addition there are some different things that you can do to help make your first sale even faster.

Optimize your product listings

Whatever marketplace you decide to sell your journals on, take time to do a little research on what the different platforms like to see in a listing.

An optimized listing is both buyer friendly and marketplace friendly Meaning all the information about the product is describe and highlighted nicely for the buyer. Plus, the content includes high search volume relevant keywords to maximize traffic on the marketplace.

Use Jasper.ai

Jasper is a super easy to use AI writing assistant. It includes tons of writing templates! Quickly write your products key features and benefits, along with writing compelling product descriptions.

Ask for reviews

After your first few sales, reach out to your customers and ask if they would leave you a review. These reviews build social proof and can help increase traffic and sales to your listing.

Drive traffic

Help to drive your own traffic to your products. Use your social media platforms including Facebook advertising to post about your journals. You can also use search engines like Pinterest or a YouTube channel to help increase traffic and send potential customers to your listing or website. 

In summary, how to make money selling journals

Whether you’re a nurse looking for a side hustle or a stay-at-home mom looking to bring in some extra cash, selling journals is a great way to make money from home.

With a little creativity, you can easily make and sell journals that people will love. Add in these tips and you’re sure to get your first sale in no time.

Happy selling!

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