7 Ways Canva Can Help You With Your Side Hustle
Written by
Angela Mae
Edited by
Gary Dudak
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Canva, a free online graphic design tool, is a popular platform for many freelancers and creatives looking to make money. In fact, more than 100 million people use Canva each month. For some, it’s simply a way to take a bit of money on the side — a side hustle. Others have managed to earn a full-time income from it, though.
As Canva continues to gain traction in the freelance and entrepreneurial world, you may be wondering how you can use it to help with your side gig. Here are some of the best ways.
Design Digital Marketing or Public Relations Products
Whether you own a public relations or marketing agency, or you’re working a side gig, Canva can help.
“Canva is like my creative sidekick. It’s been an absolute game-changer for my boutique PR agency and has opened up a new world of passive income opportunities,” said Lakesha Cole, personal growth strategist at Your PR Bestie. “I’ve been able to put my knowledge into a tangible form by creating digital PR materials like media pitch guides, strategy workbooks, and templates. These resources are perfect for those small businesses navigating the world of PR on their own. It feels like I’m giving them a leg up, and that’s really rewarding.”
Write eBooks
If writing is your thing, you can use Canva to help you write eBooks. And since you have creative agency over what you write, you can write anything from fiction to long-form technical guides.
“One of the most popular Canva side hustles is to use its software to create eBooks or other digital products you can then sell to people,” said Tom Blake, founder at This Online World. “I actually make about $200-$300 per month thanks to Canva by selling an eBook I made with it. To promote my eBook, I use my blog and social media platforms like Twitter, but you have plenty of options.”
The Canva software includes quite a few free templates you can use to produce your own eBooks, but your options don’t stop there. You can also use the platform to create other printables, organizables and more.
“If you’re an expert in a particular subject, you can create digital products like how-to guides or printable worksheets and then sell them to people who need your advice,” added Blake.
Design Graphics for Physical Products
As an intuitive graphic design tool, Canva makes the process of producing designs for physical products easy, especially when it comes to more complex tools like Adobe Photoshop. Whether you want to design t-shirts or mugs for your side hustle (or full-time gig), you can use Canva.
“Print-on-demand is a great way to make some money with the designs you create on Canva,” said Rugile Zukauskaite-Zilinske, marketing manager at Ratepunk. “You may need to do quite a few of them to see what works, but combine some funny (and fairly easy to make) designs with some TikTok and Instagram marketing, and you might just get lucky. One of my ‘for fun’ designs I created like half a year ago still makes me a couple hundred € every month, and that’s just one design! If you are dedicated enough and keep trying, you might just hit gold.”
Create Workbooks and Planners
With Canva’s array of templates, custom fonts and editing tools, it’s also a good tool for designing things like posters, brochures, flyers, planners and workbooks.
“Canva is also my go-to for creating the workbooks, planners, and PR templates that I’m gearing up to launch on Etsy in my new shop The PR Bar,” said Cole. “I tested these offers as lead magnets and free downloads. The feedback has been fantastic, and there’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing my ideas come to life in a product that others find value in.”
Create Social Media Posts
With Canva, you can design engaging social media posts for such platforms as Facebook (Meta), Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. The platform has more than 100 layouts for just this reason. Designing social media posts with Canva makes for a potentially lucrative side hustle.
“I’ve known several people who used Canva to earn money as a side hustle (and I’ve done it myself),” said Nina Cleere, an expert in digital marketing at Haro Helper. “You can use it to create social media posts and other images for companies (though I don’t recommend using it for logos).”
Develop Online Workshops and Courses
If you have expert knowledge in a specific subject — such as AI tools like ChatGPT, fitness or writing — you could use Canva to create an online course or workshop. You can then sell that source online through various social media platforms, your website or another dedicated platform.
“I know several personal trainers who offer online coaching and also sell printables like meal logs and online fitness programs,” said Blake. “Canva is how they create much of their content.”
Cleere added, “I have a course I teach about how to use ChatGPT and Canva to create 30 social media posts in 30 minutes. It took me about 2-3 hours to create the course and then a little over an hour to teach it and I earned a few hundred dollars. That was because the introductory rate was low but if I taught it again, it would only take the time it takes to teach, and I’ve increased the rate so [I] will earn more for less time.”
Create Lead Magnets
Part of what makes a side hustle successful is finding ways to keep it growing. Oftentimes, this entails offering free materials or lead magnets to generate more income down the road.
This could be things like eBooks, templates, checklists, planners or calendars. Whatever you want to create in this vein, you can use Canva to do it.
Bottom Line
Canva is a great tool for many people looking to up their side hustle game, or add another income stream. There are so many ways to go about selling what you create, and that’s something to consider as well.
“Many people sell Canva printables on marketplaces like Etsy,” said Blake. “This is a great option if you already have some type of social media following, coaching business, or clients who already pay you for your advice. And since Canva is so simple to use, you don’t need any graphic design skills to make useful digital products for people.”
“You could create some marketing creatives for various companies as a freelancer or even some event posters,” added Zukauskaite-Zilinske. “Present yourself on service-offering websites like Fiverr, or just reach out to companies around you and start making those designs. Graphic design is all about hustle, and Canva has everything you need to make some professional-looking designs, so you just need to go out there and sell what you can do!”
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