Have you ever made your digital planner? Recently many people jump into the digital planner business to make passive income. Here is a guide for you who want to start a digital planner business and this is so exciting!
If you haven’t decided to create a digital planner, please read the post “The pros and cons of creating your own digital planner.” before you decide to start, especially if you are opening a digital planner shop. You will have an idea of what is to your advantage and how to overcome disadvantages.
I started a blog in 2018 and this is my main source of income for 3 years now. While I am doing a lifestyle blog, I’m doing what I love, on my terms, setting my working hours. I am addicted to planning and organizing everything. So I feel that I want to make a planner for my goals.
That’s why I have been soaked in the digital planner world and opened an online shop.
If you are new to starting a digital planner business, it can be overwhelmed. I have been there too.
Therefore, I would like to share the information and my experience to solve your problems.
How to create a digital planner
In this post, I will cover a few topics in regards to below.
Digital planner business and niche opportunities
What is the digital products/ digital planner business?
It’s pretty much like regular stationery, but the products are downloadable. It can be used with iPad or Android tablets in note-taking apps.
What I love about this type of stationery is that I can create everything I want. It means that no need for printing and delivery services. With digital products, you can sell one item for an unlimited amount of time and never be out of stock.
You might think, that need graphic design skills and experience. I was not a graphic designer before. It can learn easily. So the best part of the Digital planner business is that you don’t have to be a professional graphic designer. Many tools can help you to create beautiful digital products.
Is the digital product business a great niche?
Digital products are a great niche to get into. Even though it’s getting more and more competitive nowadays, compared to when I started. Also, a writing device such as an I-pencil is relatively new, and it allows you to be creative and work on your own work. If you build your system well, give you passive income and you can earn money while you sleep.
Since Covid-19, the digital world has been wide open. Most businesses rethink building a digital system and structure. That means there are many opportunities raised. Even though the digital planners business is more and more competitive, however, there are many opportunities to create many kinds of digital products
How to make digital planners and journals
It will be in-depth information and resources. I will briefly explain them in this post. First, if you are new to digital planning, check out this blog post and get familiar with the term.
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You will get a monthly newsletter and have free access to our member library. The member library is for our members to help create digital planners: sample digital planners, digital stickers, a workbook, and more!
Let’s get started, shall we?
Decide on your planner type and detailed page layout plan
I know you have researched so many competitors’ designs, and markets. You want to start now, right?
This step is the most important and never skip this step!
I usually call this step “Idea storming”
I took 1-2 days to think and draw some layout on the paper or digital note.
IDEA Sketch worksheet
Once idea storming is done, you need to choose which type of digital planner you will create.
I would recommend creating or drawing your Mood board, it helps you to choose a color theme and main font. This will stand out your brand image.
Think about the planner types
Single type – Dated monthly only, Dated weekly only, or Dated daily only
Dual type – Dated Monthly & weekly, Dated weekly & daily, or Dated Monthly & daily
All-in-one type -Yearly, monthly, weekly & daily, or Yearly, quarterly monthly, weekly & daily
You can choose an undated planner as well, however, many people prefer a dated planner to save time.
What resources and tools need?
In designing a digital planner or journal, you will need:
Design programs/ apps: Photoshop, Affinity Designer, Procreate
App for adding hyperlinks and gathering your planner pages in pdf: Keynote, PowerPoint, InDesign.
If you are not confident to design cover or decorative elements, there are a couple of options to save your time. I have some of the template products to help your creation and it is commercial use license. The pro of this, you can be fast.
However, if you want to make these elements, I will share how to create icons, planner covers, and decorative elements using Procreate.
DIY digital planner base kit
Also, there are many tutorials on YouTube and SkillShare. You can join SkillShare for one month free to learn how to use the programs.
Understanding design and page structure.
Before I started my digital planner business, I spent days trying to figure out how to:
Understand planner design and page structure. I love planning but never really thought about how planners are designed with programs. I used to love bullet journaling, and that helped.
Systematize the hyperlink. I use PowerPoint and Keynote at work, so the hyperlink system is well known to me. But this should be considered your niche. All hyperlinks are easy to flow. If you have ever designed a planner before, you know that the page design is only half the battle because adding hyperlinks is next.
I used to get frustrated when I made a mistake linking to the wrong page or numbering the dates on the daily pages. Because that means I have to go through over 500 pages to find the source of the error. Now I have made a master file system where I can spot a mistake at a glance and not waste hours and sometimes days on the same planner. You can subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated with digital planner tips or watch YouTube if you are familiar with Keynote or PowerPoint.
hyperlink worksheet
How to add Hyperlinks
Depending on the planner type, you will find out how many you need hyperlinks?
Hyperlinks are assigning a “tab” or “text” or “shape” to a page. So when you click on it. It will lead them to the page you’ve assigned. The Idea of the tabs is to provide easy access to certain sections and pages in your planner. The most frequently used pages should have a hyperlink.
This part is the most tedious time. If you are making an all-in-one dated planner, the hyperlinks are more than 490 links. if you want to add more sections, like goal plan, finance, or fitness sections, it will be more.
As I mentioned earlier, I made a mistake with linking. So whenever I make linkings I use the hyperlink sheet to write down the tabs and pages. after linking, check one by one thoroughly.
I share the hyperlink worksheet with you. Simply subscribe to our newsletter and you get access to our member library.
If you want to know where to start creating your digital planner in Keynote, here is a “step-by-step tutorial on Keynote.
Final thought.
Creating a digital planner is fun and exciting work, as long as you have a system flow. When I created my first digital planner, I didn’t set up a systematic workflow. It took a month to complete. That wasn’t fun at all. I understand what you are struggling with.
I hope this post will help you level up your digital planner. The next post will be about “how to polish your product to sell.”
As you know me for a while, I love to create digital planners and other products using Keynote and procreate apps. Using Procreate app gives you more creativity and makes a realistic style for digital planners.
To learn how to use the base kit, you can read “HOW TO USE AN EDITABLE DIY DIGITAL PLANNER BASE KIT”
For the more Editable DIY digital planner kits, You can visit our shop to find out more.
For more information about digital planning, please read, “How I use Digital Planner.”
You are a Journal Lover, you might like our Self-Lover Journal. Please visit our “Self-Love 2022 Journal”
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