Most people who use Teachable use the platform to sell online courses or coaching programs, some people even sell full certification courses.
However, that isn’t the only thing that you can sell on the Teachable platform.
So, can you sell PDFs on Teachable?
Can You Sell PDFs On Teachable?
It is possible to sell PDF documents on the Teachable platform.
This is a lesser-known aspect of the platform, considering the platform is mostly used for course creation, however, it can be a great way to supplement your income on the site, or even be your sole income on Teachable.
In this article, we will look at how you can sell PDFs on Teachable and make an income from your knowledge.
What Is A PDF Classed As On Teachable?
If you have been searching the Teachable platform to see whether you are able to sell your PDFs on the site, you are likely to have come up short.
This isn’t because you are unable to sell PDFs on the platform, but it is because Teachable doesn’t have a specific section for PDFs. (Check out ‘11 Best Teachable Sell Tutorials You Can Try Today!‘)
Instead, PDF files on the Teachable platform can be found under Downloadable Products.
This is a section of the platform that deals with all types of digital downloadable products.
These can be PDFs, e-books, workbooks, templates, and so on. If you want to begin to create or find PDFs on Teachable, this is where you need to be looking.
Create A Downloadable Product
The first step in selling PDFs on the Teachable platform is to create a downloadable product.
Your downloadable product can be anything from an e-book to a template.
However, for the purpose of this article, we will focus on making a PDF for Teachable.
To create a PDF as a downloadable product you will need to set up or log into your Teachable school account.
If you don’t have one, it is quick and easy to sign up.
Once you have accessed your account, make sure that you are on the admin page.
From here, you can click on Digital Downloads.
On the digital downloads page, you will see a button in the top right corner that says Create Digital Download, you can also click on the plus icon located next to the products, or create new product button on the dashboard.
An information tab will come up on your screen.
You will need to input the name of your product, the name as you type it is how it will appear to prospective students or customers.
You will also have to select a category.
For a PDF file, you will need to select PDF, if you select the wrong one it could affect your sales and the uploading process.
You will then be asked to provide a description of your downloadable product.
This description is what will appear to your potential customers. It is incredibly important that you put thought into how to describe your product.
Think of it as a sales pitch for what your product offers.
Focus on what your product can provide your customers with or how it can help them or boost their knowledge in a certain area.
The more detailed your description, the more likely you are to make sales.
Finally, you will need to upload a thumbnail image for your product. It is important to make sure that the image or images in your thumbnail are relevant to your PDF product.
The image will be displayed on your all products page for customers and students to view.
Make sure that you press save before moving on to the next step.
Below the thumbnail that you uploaded, you will need to add your PDF content.
The Teachable platform allows you to upload a maxim of 5 files per digital download product.
The total size of your files cannot exceed 250 MB.
Once you have uploaded your content and you are happy with all of the details, it is time to publish your PDF. Once you click publish, you will need to adjust the visibility settings to ensure that your new product is visible to your customers.
Simply toggle the product visibility switch and your product will be live and able to be purchased by customers.
Manage And Edit Digital Download Details
Once your PDF is live on the Teachable platform, you are free to manage and edit it whenever you need to. You do not have to delete your PDF and reupload it if you want or need to make any changes.
Information
When you alter or replace any content on your PDF product, it will not replace any content that customers have already downloaded to their devices. However, new customers will not be able to download any content that you have deleted or removed from your PDF.
If you want to add or remove content from your Teachable PDF, you will need to go to the information tab on your dashboard. From there, scroll down until you see the content section. There are two actions that you can perform from this section.
You have the option to add additional files to your downloadable content, or you can delete a file from your downloadable content.
If you want to add something to your downloadable content, simply click on the upload button in the add section. From here, all you have to do is select a file from your device or cloud storage.
Remember that you can only add 5 files per downloadable product, and the sum total of those files cannot exceed 250 MB.
If the files you upload exceed either of these restrictions, you will be unable to complete the upload process and will have to redesign the content or remove other files.
If you want to delete a file from your downloadable content, all you need to do is select the delete button next to the file that you wish to remove. It is important to note that this action is permanent and you will be unable to recover the file on the Teachable platform.
If you do delete a file by accident, you will need to re-upload it from your device. If for whatever reason you don’t have a version of the file saved on your device, you will need to recreate the file so that you can re-upload it.
You can also manage the visibility of your PDF directly on the Teachable platform. When you first upload your PDF, you will need to toggle the switch that allows your customers to see your product in your school.
At any point, you can toggle the switch back to make it so that they are hidden from your customers. This won’t prevent customers who have already downloaded your PDF from viewing it, it just won’t be visible to new customers.
Toggling the visibility of your PDF is a great way to allow you to alter the download without risking a customer downloading an incomplete product or a product that is unorganized. You can also hide a PDF from view if you want to push the sales of another product from your school.
Pages
The Teachable platform also gives you the ability to edit and manage your product’s sales page at any time in the pages tab. There are a few reasons why you might want to update your product’s sale page.
You might have a promotion to run or are offering a discount, you might even want to advertise to customers that you have updated your product and added new information.
To edit your product’s sales page, simply click on the pages tab and tap the edit button that is next to the sales page to which you want to make changes. Once you are on the editing page, you can use the built-in tools to make visual changes to the page.
The page blocks allow you to add or change images, alter descriptions, and change other details of your product sales page.
If you want to make changes that are more than just aesthetics, you can select the gear icon at the top of the page to access the page settings. This will allow you to make alterations to things such as the page name and the page URL.
These are useful options if you are making fundamental changes to your product such as renaming it to increase marketability and sales.
Once you have finished making changes to your sales page, you can select the preview button to see what your changes look like to students and customers on your school page. If you are happy with what your page looks like, click on the save button.
You can also share your sales page directly with your customers. Simply click on the three dots next to the page that you want to share. From here you can opt to copy the URL of your sales page.
When you copy the URL, you can share it in marketing emails, newsletters, and on social media sites.
Pricing
You can make changes to your PDF pricing in the pricing tab. There are three pricing options that you can choose from when you are selling a PDF on Teachable. Your PDF can be free, have a one-time payment, or have a payment plan option, like a basic plan.
It is up to you which option you choose, however, offering a PDF for free can work really well to promote your PDF and any other products that you have available at your Teachable school.
Students
You can also manage customers or students that have access to your PDF. All you need to do is select the filters that you want to search for and then click on the students tab. This will then allow you to view all of the students that fall into the filter categories that you selected.
Pricing Your Digital Downloadable Product
We briefly mentioned the pricing options that you can manage and edit above. There are three basic options that you can choose from when you are selling a PDF through Teachable.
You will need to select one of these pricing options when you first upload your PDF to the Teachable platform, however, as we mentioned above, this can be edited at a later date.
Free
You can select to offer your PDF for free. This means that your students and customers are able to download your PDF without having to pay anything, like when offering free courses.
This might sound counterproductive if you are trying to make money from your products on Teachable. However, it can be a beneficial choice.
If you have another online course and coaching program available on Teachable, offering a free PDF can be a great way to introduce new customers to your products and your work.
It can also be a great way to offer your existing customers something extra without charging them more. Selecting the free payment option can also be a super easy way to run a promotion on your products.
If you are new to Teachable and don’t have much of a presence or following to help you sell your products and online courses, offering a free PDF can introduce your work to people without expecting people to spend money.
Once prospective customers have gotten a taste of your knowledge and style, they are more likely to then purchase one of your other, paid products.
One-Time Payment
If you don’t want to offer your PDF for free, you can opt to offer it for a one-time payment. With this pricing option, your customers will be required to pay a one-off fee in order to gain access to your PDF file.
This can be a popular choice because a one-off payment suggests that the price is incredibly affordable and there is less of a feeling of commitment from your customer.
They can purchase your PDF, download the file, and then return to it as many times as they want or even never look at it again. There is no contract or long-term commitment required.
Depending on what your PDF is about, your customers may be more inclined to purchase a file with a one-time payment.
Payment Plan
If your PDF is a little more expensive and you want to make sure that as many people as possible have access to it while still making money, you can opt for a payment plan. With this option, the cost of your PDF will be split into a number of payment installments.
This means that when a customer purchases your product, they will pay a certain amount of the full price at the checkout. The rest of the Teachable payments will be taken in installments, spread out across an allotted time.
This can be a great way to make your PDF more accessible to more people. However, having to pay in multiple installments can be off-putting for some people as it can feel like an excessive commitment for a downloadable product.
Marketing Your Downloadable Product
Once your PDF has been created, uploaded, and is visible to your customers, it is important to market it. Without appropriate and effective marketing, you are unlikely to sell many PDFs if any at all.
Thankfully, marketing a downloadable product such as a PDF is relatively easy, especially if you have an online presence and other products on the Teachable platform.
One of the easiest ways to market your PDF is through social media profiles that are linked to your Teachable school and already have something of a following.
Social media is able to allow thousands of people direct access to your PDF. Best of all, if you are a small business owner, marketing your product on social media is normally free. (See also ‘How Popular Is Teachable?‘)
You can also market your PDF within the Teachable platform. Running promotions of your online course business within your school can make your products more interesting to prospective customers.
Offering your PDF for free for a fixed amount of time can be a great way to market it to people who already use the Teachable platform to expand their knowledge of different niches.
This can be a really effective marketing tool for people who are already established on the platform as well as for people who are just starting out.
Student Experience With Downloadable Products
When you are trying to sell a PDF on the Teachable platform, it is important to understand the student experience with downloadable products. This can help you to effectively design and market your PDF.
Once you have published your PDF to your school, your students and customers can view your available PDF from your school’s all products page. Alternatively, students can access this product directly using the URL for the sales page that is associated with the PDF.
Once the student or customer is on the sales page for the PDF, they are able to click on the download button. If a student clicks on this button, they will be redirected to the login page of your school.
If the student is a returning student to your school, they can use their existing login credentials on this page. If they are a new student, they will need to sign up and create a login for your school.
Once the student has logged into your school, they will have access to the download page for your PDF. From this page, the student will be able to download the PDF and any other files that you have in the digital download folder.
When a student downloads your PDF, they have access to the PDF for life provided that they don’t delete it. The content of the PDF does not change.
This means that if you make updates to your PDF file and add, remove, or update information, the product that the student downloaded will not change.
If you are making important changes to your PDF, such as changing the wording or scientific information that has been altered or updated, it can be important to let previous students know.
You can do this by filtering student information and contacting all your students that have access to the outdated PDF. You can encourage them to purchase the new, updated version of your PDF.
However, if the information change is critical, it can be good practice to offer the updated version to previous students for free for a limited period of time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Upsell A Digital Download Product?
If you have other products available on your Teachable platform, it is possible to use your PDF to boost products and multiple courses from your school. It is possible to add a PDF to other products on your site to act as something called an order bump.
The PDF is essentially added as a free extra that is available to customers when they purchase a selected product during a specific window. This can increase selling online courses if your main focus is on creating online courses.
It is not possible to add other products or course content to a digital download product to act as an order bump. It is also not possible to upsell digital download products currently on the Teachable platform. It is unclear whether this is likely to change at any point in the future.
Can You Bundle Digital Download Products?
Although you cannot upsell a digital download product, it is possible to bundle digital download products. This means that you are able to combine your PDF into a bundle with other products from your Teachable school.
When you create a bundle, the price of the bundle should be less than the sum total of the products and PDFs should they be purchased separately.
There is only one criterion that your PDF needs to fulfill in order to be eligible to be added to a bundle offer. The PDF that you choose needs to be fully published and visible to customers.
There are no stipulations about the size of the PDF other than the ones that apply to all digital download products.
Bundling your PDF with popular products from your Teachable school is a great way to increase the purchase rate of your PDF. It is also possible to consider bundling your PDF like this as a marketing tool.
Final Thoughts
Selling PDFs on Teachable is a great way to make some extra income and provide additional information about your Teachable school in an easy-to-digest way.
