Nicole MunsamiIf you’re looking to harness the power of Canva to create income streams, you’re in the right place. Canva is not just a design tool; it’s a versatile platform that can open up a variety of profitable opportunities. Here are 15 proven ways to make money with Canva that actually work, along with some tips on how to use Canva’s features to boost your creativity and efficiency.
1. Generate Quiz Videos
One of the easiest ways to start making money with Canva is by creating quiz videos. Canva offers multiple quiz video templates that you can easily customize with your own graphics and niche questions. For instance, a new TikTok account focused on English language quizzes gained over 100,000 followers within just two months. The creator links to English learning courses and ebooks through affiliate marketing, earning commissions from their audience.
If you’re unsure about the quiz questions, you can use the free version of ChatGPT to generate engaging and relevant quiz content.
2. Create and Sell Brand Identity Kits
Brand identity kits are a high-value niche often overlooked by freelance graphic designers. Unlike selling single logos, which can be undervalued, brand identity kits offer businesses a complete package including fonts, color palettes, and logos. These kits typically sell for R1000 or more.
Canva makes this process easier with a wide range of brand identity templates and an AI-generated color palette feature. By uploading a photo that matches a client’s aesthetic, Canva can automatically generate a tailored color palette to enhance the brand’s visual identity.
3. Create List Pins for Pinterest
List pins are highly effective on Pinterest for driving affiliate sales. For example, searching for “growing vegetables at home” on Pinterest reveals popular pins that list vegetables, which link to blogs filled with affiliate links to related products.
One affiliate marketer scaled her income to over $111,000 a month using Pinterest, creating list pins in Canva. She uses one template and simply swaps out text, photos, and graphics to scale her efforts efficiently.
4. Start a Clothing Store
Designing clothing with Canva is simplified thanks to millions of pre-installed graphics and elements. You can find countless T-shirt templates to customize quickly. After designing, upload your creations to print-on-demand apps like Printify, which offer blank clothing items ready for your designs.
You can sell these products on the printify pop-up store, your own online store, or marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, Redbubble, and Zazzle. This method is a fantastic way to earn passive income, and there are plenty of tutorials available to help you get started.
5. Generate Quote Videos
Quote videos are trending on TikTok and can be lucrative through TikTok’s Creativity Ad Program, which pays creators between 50 cents to $1 per 1,000 views. One TikTok account created quote videos from popular Tumblr posts about trending movies, like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” and earned between R8000 to R16000 from a single video with 900,000 views.
Canva provides plenty of video templates to create these quote videos quickly. Instead of sourcing quotes online, you can use ChatGPT to generate fresh and engaging content.
6. Create and Sell Printable Wall Art
Digital posters and printable wall art are popular on Etsy, where customers love downloadable content they can print at home. For example, a set of funny downloadable posters has reportedly made over $900,000
Canva offers hundreds of poster templates and supports exporting in high-quality PDF formats optimized for printing, ensuring vibrant and professional results.
7. Create and Sell Pitch Deck Presentations
Startups often need pitch decks to secure funding, and these presentations can sell for hundreds of dollars or more. Canva’s pitch deck templates speed up the creation process, and their built-in graph and chart maker help present data visually and effectively.
8. Create and Sell Candles
Printify offers a range of print-on-demand candles, which are surprisingly popular gifts on Etsy. The customization is simple—you only need to design and upload the candle label.
Canva has numerous candle label templates and a vast library of fonts, allowing you to create attractive and unique labels easily. Many candles with funny or creative labels sell multiple units daily.
9. Generate This or That Videos
This-or-that videos, such as “Choose Your Gift” games, are viral on TikTok and YouTube, garnering hundreds of thousands to millions of views. New creators can quickly gain traction with these videos because demand is high and supply is limited.
Thanks to Canva’s extensive photo and graphic library, including gift box images, you can create these engaging videos rapidly using Canva’s video editor. With TikTok’s ad payouts, a video with 145,000 views could earn over R1000.
10. Create and Sell Mugs
Mugs remain a popular product to sell online. Canva has many mug design templates that you can customize. Selling mugs is easy through marketplaces like Etsy and eBay, especially when integrated with print-on-demand apps like Printify.
Mugs are also highly pinnable on Pinterest, allowing you to combine Pinterest marketing with Canva designs to boost sales.
11. Create and Sell Self-Care Printables
Self-care printables such as planners and journals are in demand on Etsy. For example, an ADHD management planner has sold over 8,000 copies. Canva offers templates for a variety of worksheets that you can customize.
To stand out, consider creative products like flashcards for anxiety management, which have earned over R300 000.
12. Create and Sell Custom Products with Templates
Customised print-on-demand products continue to grow in popularity. You can create a base design in Canva and save it as a template. When you receive an order, simply open the template and swap in the customer’s customisation, speeding up production.
These products sell well on Shopify stores, Etsy, and other marketplaces, often converting well with Facebook ads.
13. Create and Sell Classroom Lessons
Teachers and experts can create engaging classroom lesson slides using Canva’s pre-made templates. Canva’s own creative team has designed appealing templates that children enjoy.
You can sell these resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, the largest marketplace for educational materials, turning your expertise into profit.
14. Create and Sell Patterns
Patterns are popular designs for all-over print products like phone cases. One Etsy seller has reportedly made over R1 000 000 selling pattern designs.
Canva’s magic recommendation feature helps you find matching graphics by the same creator, ensuring cohesive patterns. Additionally, Canva’s grid feature allows you to create seamless repeating patterns quickly by splitting and re-uploading your design.
15. Create How-To Pins for Pinterest
How-to pins are widely searched on Pinterest and can drive significant affiliate income. For example, pins on budgeting often link to blogs with affiliate products.
Canva provides many templates for how-to pins. You can select an aesthetic that matches your niche and easily swap out text and graphics to create engaging pins that attract clicks and commissions.
Conclusion
Canva offers an incredible range of opportunities to make money, whether you’re creating videos, digital products, printables, or custom merchandise. By leveraging Canva’s vast template library, AI features, and integrations with print-on-demand services, you can build multiple income streams effectively.
Try out these 15 methods, find what resonates with your skills and interests, and watch your creative hustle turn into a profitable business.
