How To Create and Add a Printable to a Blog Post
I LOVE a great printable.
10 ways to declutter your closet, 30 questions to ask your 1st grader after school, even printable quotes to frame and spruce up an office space.
As you grow your blog, you’ll want to add extra features to your posts to keep your readers coming back for more.
An easy way to do this is by offering a free printable or download within a blog post.
It may seem complicated at first but I assure you, it’s really simple.
Create Printable
The first step is to decide what you want to create and bring it to life.
A printable could be anything that your readers are asking for:
- Checklist
- Calendar
- E-book
- Coloring Page
- Recipe
- Template
- Tracker
- Planner Sheet
- Worksheet
I’ve created printables for my blog and my course using Canva.
They have really great templates to start from if a blank white space makes you freeze.
To search their templates CLICK HERE.
Upload and Share
Once you have created your gorgeous printable or downloadable product, you’ll want to save it as a PDF.
The next step is to upload it to a cloud based system like Dropbox or Google Drive.
I love organizing my businesses within Google Drive so that is where all my printables are housed.
Now that your PDF is in your Google Drive, open it up to grab the shareable URL.
One key point is to make sure the URL is set to “View Only”.
This is especially important if your printable is a worksheet. You would not want your readers to be able to edit the document.
The next step is optional, but I highly recommend it.
Pretty Link
One of the best plugins for bloggers is the Pretty Link plugin.
This allows you to create a simple, rememberable “pretty” link for any URL.
You’ll want to use a Pretty Link for your long shareable Google URL for your PDF.
It’s clean looking and it allows you to track how many times your pretty link has been clicked.
This comes in handy if you are testing out a few versions of printables. You’ll easily see which one is outperforming the others.
Imagery
Once you have your Pretty Link saved, you are ready to use it in any blog post where it is relevant.
To really grab the attention of your readers, insert an image of your printable within the blog post itself and change the settings so that when clicked, it takes the reader out to the printable itself.
Here’s a great example of this:
Recap of Steps
Let’s do a quick recap of the steps you need to take to create and add a printable to a blog post.
- Create Printable
- Save as a PDF
- Upload to Google Drive
- Grab Shareable Link (view only)
- Create Pretty Link (optional)
- Upload Graphic to your Blog Post
- Add Pretty Link to the Graphic
See how easy it is to add a printable to a blog post? What printables do you have on your blog?
Share what ya got in the comments below!
What to Read Next: Blogging Tips for Direct Sellers
Kristy E
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This is awesome thank you Kristy!
Happy you found this post helpful, Cheri!
I just finished my first printable last week for an upcoming post and I was actually going to look for this information this week. So thank you for sharing and always being so helpful. I will share here when mine is done. ?
Perfect timing! Congrats on your first (of many!) printable!