How to Make Money Selling Notion Templates – Marketing Hacks

After reading this, you’ll overcome one of the biggest fears that stops us from making money by selling digital products – Who will buy it?

I am going to share some marketing tricks that have not been talked about, at least I didn’t find any mention in any blogs or YouTube videos. You’ll have all your answers today on how to make money selling Notion templates in this post.

I know this, you’re a creator at heart and that’s why you like exploring Notion templates and want to create something unique. You enjoy playing with Notion blocks, oh I keep updating my Project Tracker Kanban board. And I love the process of customization!

So, what’s stopping you? Grab a cuppa, and let’s jump in.

You know this already but let’s hear again. Notion has created a stir in the productivity world. Those who have switched to Notion love it for its customizations, flexibility to create any boards, and simple yet powerful databases and integrations.

Notion is a powerful task management tool, a knowledge manager, habits and expense tracker, and pretty much everything. Think of it as Google Sheets, Evernote, Google Drive, and Trello, all in one app.

What makes Notion special? Notion is designed in the form of customizable blocks. You can easily drag and drop them anywhere and create anything you want. It’s a tool to organize your entire life (I have heard people saying ‘My entire life is on Notion’) and is more powerful than Google Docs.

What are Notion templates then? A Notion template is a page or page that can be publicly shared with anyone on the internet. They can be easily duplicated and customized by someone as per their needs. There’s no doubt, that Notion templates are one of the reasons for their massive growth, much like Canva. I hope you agree with this.

Why should you sell Notion templates?

The number one reason I give is the growth of Notion and its potential. They have got a massive user base in a very short time, and most of it is organic growth driven by the community sharing templates.

Another reason most of us might not be aware of is the team behind it. They have an incredible team including the founders, backed by some top investors, and like any great product company, they’re constantly innovating.

But the reason why you and I are here is the earning potential. There is no limit on how much money you can make selling Notion templates. One of the top creators Easlo made $300,000 last year selling only Notion templates.

Now, the choice is yours. Can you imagine how just one page can change your life?

When selecting what Notion template to sell, I find this the most interesting yet challenging part of this entire process. This primarily starts with simple user and market research. However, to make it easier for you, I am listing down a few simple steps that you can follow to find ideas.

2.1 Ask yourself – what type of templates you would love to create

Do you love any specific niche or industry like productivity (It’s a very broad niche though) or any hobby that you like? Once you’ve figured out an area of interest, do some research to find out the common pain points of your audience in that niche.

As an example, if I see that people are struggling to track their expenses, I would think of creating a Finance tracker. But before jumping into the idea, we need to validate it first which we’ll discuss in the next section.

The best way to do your research is by hanging out in relevant Subreddits and Facebook groups. I have linked two, you can find more and do extensive research.

2.2 Ask your audience – if you are a creator and have a follower base

If you have an audience, you can ask them by making a post or creating a poll. This is perhaps the simplest way to generate ideas. But if you don’t have any following yet but certainly want to have one day, skip to the next. We’ll be there soon with all the hard work! 🙂

2.3 Take Inspiration from others, without Stealing

There is no harm in getting inspiration from an idea, but don’t directly copy someone else’s work. According to the author of ‘Steal Like an Artist’, here Steal doesn’t mean Plagarize, but study, credit, remix, mash up and transform. 

These are the places I would recommend to start your research –

1. Google – you’ll also find really useful Facebook groups and Reddit (don’t forget to bookmark them as you come across them).
2. Etsy – Notion templates are getting popular in this marketplace, you’re not late yet.
3. Gumroad – the most popular platform for selling digital products. Go to their Discover section and search for Notion templates.
4. TikTok – get inspiration from creators like @mnotiontemplates 

Make a list of the templates that have good reviews, and see why people buy them. You’ll start finding some clues as to why some templates are more popular – solve a genuine problem, well-designed, etc.

So, you’re done with your research and excited to move next. But you must prioritize your ideas and validate at least the top two or three ideas before spending all your time and effort. Because you don’t know yet whether people are ready to give you their money.

Let’s prioritize the ideas to start with, and list down all the ideas you have got on a sheet. Now, there are many prioritization frameworks out there. (When I was a Product Manager, we used RICE scoring method or the MoSCow framework, and sometimes a mix of both). I would say don’t overcomplicate this, instead follow this simple approach –

Next to each idea, give a score out of 10 against these factors – demand, competition, and confidence. Now do an evaluation based on the idea that has a high demand, but is less competitive, and you’re high in confidence that you can create the best template.

We’ll now validate one idea from the list that we have just prioritized. We can repeat this validation step for the top two or three ideas or start with new research to come up with new ideas as mentioned in the previous section.

Let’s say we want to validate the personal finance tracker idea. So, instead of creating the full template, we’ll create one template page and share it with our audience for free. If you see people are interested in your template, you can now extend it and create the full product. At this point, you can start charging a competitive price. I’ll start with somewhere between $5-$9.

Now that you have finalized the idea for a sellable Notion template, it’s time to create the best Notion template out there.

A good Notion template is –

1. Aesthetic (it’s like the thumbnail of a YouTube video)
2. Easy to understand (make sure you add enough instructions on how to use it)
3. Filled with Basic Content (so users don’t land on a blank page and get confused)

I would highly recommend you download or even purchase a few templates related to your idea. I would prefer templates from the top creators or that has got more reviews.

Once you’ve got a rough idea of what you need to have in your template, start with the structure – number of pages, database, relations, links. While you’re on it, always keep your target audience in mind and their pain points.

Remember this, you might fall in love with the process or with the outcome, but if it doesn’t make your audience’s lives easier, they will not buy. I’ll share more on how to add this to your marketing message in the later section.

Alright, now you’ve got a structure in place and you know what needs to be built. It’s time to build the functionality and link the pages with the right database. In this stage, make sure it’s easy to use and meet the needs of your users.

Check Notion’s guide for detailed tutorials – https://www.notion.so/help/guides

With a working template in place, it’s time to add the final touches. This part will determine whether someone would choose to even click on your template listing. Yes, we’re talking about aesthetics – the look and feel of your notion template.

You can add some nice cover images to your pages, add subtle colors, use emojis and icons wherever it seems right, and play around with the page or database layouts. Just make sure, you don’t overdo this step. You can always refer back to the templates you have downloaded. If not the best, at least make it better than the rest. Keep in mind, it comes out as unique, at a later point it’ll give you an identity. You’ll notice that all the top creators have their unique styles.

Read This – How to Make Notion Aesthetic

While you work on the aesthetic, make sure to add necessary instructions wherever possible. You can use callouts to explain what a section is all about. In the product management world, this is what we call user onboarding. It makes it easier for a user to adopt the product. I would go a step ahead and also add a FAQ page.

Huh, this is the most time-consuming part of the entire journey. You are almost there. But before you go and share with the world, do all the final checks. Make sure all the pages are working, there are no broken links or typos.

Once you are done with creating the Notion template, it’s time to share it with others. It works similar to Canva templates. You’ll have to create a duplicate link and anyone with access to the link will be able to add it to their account.

To share Notion templates with your friends and others, follow this step –

1. Go to the page you want to share and click ‘Share’ on the top right. (It should be your top-level page if there are other sub-pages and database)
2. Click on the ‘Publish’ tab and you will notice that the ‘Allow duplicate as template’ toggle is on. Turning it on will allow others to copy the template in their workspace.
3. A unique link will be generated, copy the link, and share it with others.

Once you have done all the hard work, this step should be pretty straightforward. I am listing down all the places where you can sell your Notion templates.

Although there are multiple options, I would highly recommend you follow the order mentioned below. This is a recommended order for beginners. For example, Gumroad is very easy to get started, you only need to focus on the marketing.

Etsy has become a popular marketplace in recent years to sell digital products. Once you have good sales in Gumroad you can expand to Etsy and open up more channels of sales. Selling on your website will be more profitable in the longer run, but needs time and effort for the initial setup.

The truth is unless you are established, you will need a lot of convincing to sell from your website. The best is to start on a marketplace and focus on driving traffic using unconventional tricks (which I will share in the next section).

6.1 Publishing Notion Template on Gumroad

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6.1 Publishing Notion Template on Etsy

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6.3 Selling Notion Template on your Website

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6.4 Selling Notion Template on Notion

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As an example, see this post in the Facebook group –

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If you have read this far, Congratulations! I am sure you are motivated enough to create the best template out there. Remember two things – 1. your Notion template must solve a problem, 2. it should be aesthetic and easy to use. And, don’t forget to come back and read Step 7 again. Ultimately, you should be able to sell your Notion template and make money.

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