Hi WordPress users! Today I am going to show you how to offer a free printable on WordPress with your blog readers.
As a blogger a great way to gain traffic and give back to your readers is with a free printable! It could be a free printable party decor, holiday tag, invitations, wall art, game, kids coloring page, etc…. Really the options are endless! And I think we can all agree that the amount of beautiful free printables out there is pretty amazing.
Here are the step-by-step directions on how to share a free printable with your blog readers.
For this example I am going to use a post and free printable I wrote on my blog, The Small and Simple Things Printable. My blog is a self-hosted WordPress site.
1. Create the printable that you would like to offer your readers. This can be done in Photoshop, Word, Google Docs, or basically any photo/text editing program that will allow you to save as a .PDF.
2. Write the post. Upload photos and write the text for your post.
3. Upload the PDF to your blog’s media library. Click the ‘Add media” icon while you are composing a post (just like you would to add a photo) and upload the PDF. Once it is uploaded don’t be freaked out if there isn’t a preview image for your file. You are just hosting the file. Not making a preview of it.
4. Copy the URL to the File. Make sure you file is selected and then copy this link to the media in the bottom right hand side.
5. Add the link for the printable in the post content. Now you will want to exit out of the “add media” area and return back to the post you are composing. Somewhere in your post (probably towards the bottom) you will want to have a the link for readers to click to download the printable. Go ahead and type the text “Download” (or whatever wording you want) and then highlight the text and link it to the url you just copied.
That’s it!
If you have any questions leave them in the comment box!
Don’t have a blog yet but want to start one?
Snap
Editor at Tauni Everett
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Great tips!!! Using this tonight! Thank you!!
Awesome Mallory! Thanks for leaving a comment. xoxo Tauni
Great post!!
Thanks Michelle! Hope you’re having a great holiday season! xoxo Tauni
Ok, I have NO CLUE it was this easy!!! I have a PDF pattern that has been downloaded 10K+ times and viewed 17K+ times. I am very annoyed that those PVs went elsewhere! I just changed it. THANK YOU!!!
Haha. It’s so amazing all of the little things we’re completely unaware of, right? Now you can nab all those future pageviews through, right?! xoxo Tauni
This seems crazy easy! I don’t know why I’ve been holding off offering printables!
Oh gosh. It’s super easy! It’s amazing how many things are kinda scary until we look into them a little more, isn’t it?! Hope you will share when you get something up! xoxo Tauni
Do you know how many times I have tried to find a tutorial like this? I could always find how to make a printable but never “how to host it or make it available to readers”…thank you so much!!
This was such a great post and I’m wondering why I didn’t realize sooner than I should be hosting my own PDFs! (one of my files has had over 700,000 downloads!…those could have been pageviews for me!) QUESTION….I would like to do the same thing for JPEGS (full size) that my readers and can download and upload for ordering on canvases, etc. Any tips how to do this? (see my post from today post for example)
Hey Kim, You should actually be able to host a jpg almost the same way you do a PDF. All you need to do is grab the URL WP provides for your jpg (ath the bottom right in your media upload) and use it as the link. It will count as a pageview. Does that make sense? –Tauni
Oh Tauni!! Thank you SO MUCH for this post! I am a BRAND NEW blogger and I want so badly to offer free printables to my readers (if I ever get any! Ha). This sounds super easy and I can not wait to give it a try!! Thank you AGAIN!!
Gretchen, I am so glad you’ve found a couple of helpful posts. It’s a little hard when you’re first starting out, but suddenly you will find you have loads of readers! xoxo Tauni
Thanks I plan to make a printable available in near future so I’m glad to know how to do it now. This post explains a little about the printable I plan to make available loveneverfails2014.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/im-still-here
This is great! I have been uploading mine to google docs and sending my readers there…how silly when I can keep it on my site! Thanks for the tips Kendra and Tauni!
I know that a lot of people are working with WordPress but I’ve yet to make the leap over and am working on transitioning in the near future. Until then, is there an easy way to to do this on Blogger? Thanks!
Kennesa, Unfortunately, no. If you’re working with Blogger you will need to host through a third party host. Google Docs is a good one to use. Are you a subscriber? I will add this to the list of post ideas! xoxo Tauni
Thank you so much for sharing. I have been looking for a post on how to actually create a Printable and your explanation of how to share one gives me the answer that I was looking for. Thank you so so so much for sharing. I have been searching and racking my mind trying to figure this out. I guess you can tell that I am not that creative…lol.
Thanks Trina! Hope you found lots of information that helped! xoxo Tauni
That’s awesome! Now, if I wanted to make it be a clickable picture of the item (mine is a packing list of sorts for vacations), I could just take a screenshot of the form and link on that, right? SO EASY! Thanks! Now I can share all of my fun forms (I know… sounds like an oxymoron!) 😉
Katie @ MyDailyCrumbs
Katie, Yes. You could definitely do it that way…Happy sharing! xoxo Tauni
This was a great help, thank you! Finally published my first post with free printable 🙂
http://misplacedbrit.com/diy/free-fathers-day-chalkboard-printables/
Yay! Congratulations. I will hop over and check it out! xoxo Tauni
I’ve used this tutorial a few times but I keep running into my PDFs being too large… any tips on how to get that file size down so WP will accept them?
Colleen, you will want to use the reduce file size option in Adobe. xoxo Tauni
I’m finding that extremely hurts the quality… I’ve found if I flatten the image before converting to PDF that helps though 🙂
I am a new blogger and have been wanting to know how to go about providing free printables in the future. This guide was a huge help! Thanks for the info!
Great Christine! Glad we could help out! xoxo Tauni
Wow! I googled my question (how to put a printable on my blog) and I am so glad your post came through!! Started a new blog and very new to wordpress! Most simple answer I have received about a question so far! WIll definitely be returning! Would love for you to check out yourclassygals.com. Like I said..brand new. Just launched Aug 1. 🙂 Thanks!
Awesome! I am so glad that this tutorial worked for you. Good luck with your new site! xoxo tauni
Great help and amazing tutorial 🙂
Thanks for the simple tips!
Thanks for the tip. Do you need flatten your PDF and add security so it cant be copied?
Maddi, You can. Honestly, I am not that worried about security…If someone’s going to go to much trouble, they will find a way to steal regardless. Good luck! –Tauni
Thanks. Would it work to use this tutorial to offer free downloadable PDFs on my website?
Yep! It should work! xoxo Tauni
Awesome tutorial 🙂 I have a bit of a complicated question for someone who is practically clueless :/ I’m wanting to share a free printable but it’s a 26 page document (a decorative banner where each letter of the alphabet is represented). Is there an easier way to create and share a whole file rather than each page separately?
Thanks so much!
You could turn the document with all of the letters into a PDF, but the challenge will be with PDF size. It may be too big to upload to your site unless you’re able to smoosh it…Good luck! Tauni
Thanks for sharing such useful information!
Thank you so much!!!!!!
This was very helpful!!
Glad you found this post helpful Jamie! xoxo Tauni
Thank you! Simple, plain English and it works. I will check your blog first when I have a question.
I’ve been wondering how to do this! Thanks so much for sharing! I’m going to give it a try today 🙂
Glad it helped!
I’m sorry but this is not clear or specific enough.
Hi Jolene, Sorry you didn’t find this tutorial helpful. Hopefully you’ve been able to find the information you need elsewhere! –Tauni
Thank you so much for I simplifying this! I don’t know why something so simple seemed so complicating for me. Just learning as I go. ?
Thanks so much for the help. Been researching this task for 2 days. Thanks a bunch!
You bet Brenda! Thanks for stopping by. xo Tauni
Thank you! This is great! Love the visuals also.
Thank you so much! I just started a blog and I had no idea where to add my first free printable in my post. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
This is awesome! I am having trouble adding more then one photo at once. For instance I have a banner print out and each flag is a page (5 designs/pages). Do you know how to do that so the viewer can print them all at once with one link?
Hey thanks. This sure sounds simple enough. I’ll be trying this later in the week
Thank you thank you thank you! This is EXACTLY what I needed! Thank you for the step-by-step with WordPress…. PERFECT!
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by. xo Tauni
This is Fantastic, Clear and Precise. Thank you so much 🙂
Glad this post helped you out! Good luck! xo Tauni
Thank you! Who knew it was so easy?? LOL
Thank you so much! I have been looking for a easy way! : )
Awesome Elizabeth! I am glad this helped. xo Tauni
Ahh this makes sense! I didn’t think I would be able to make an actual printable, it’s so professional! Thank you for the tutorial! Really helpful! ??
https://busybeeblogweb.wordpress.com
Oh good. So glad you found this helpful! xoxo Tauni
Hi tauni, i never knew hosting printable was this easy..thank u for this wonderful tutorial!!
I will be using this pretty soon on my blog https://desisoulart.wordpress.com/
Awesome! I hope you will share your printable once it’s up! xo Tauni
I can’t believe it was that easy! Thank you so much for putting this out there! Do you have a post on how to offer a printable when someone signs up for an email list?
Thanks!
Hey Ashley, I don’t currently have one, but I will add it to my list! xo Tauni
Thank you for the help!
You’re so welcome Joanna. Happy blogging! xo Tauni
I knew it would be easy, but didn’t know it was THAT easy! Now I just have to draw the pattern, scan it, and get it posted. By the way, I searched “how to post a PDF for downloading on a blog” and found you.
And yes, providing a printable when someone subscribes is a great idea.
Looks like I need to start following you!
Jan
Jan, I am so glad that you found an easy option here. Happy I could help you out! xo Tauni
Thanks for sharing this information I’m going to use this on my next blog!
Super! Good luck with your blog. xo Tauni
Just starting to get info on how to build and share printables in my blog. Your post has given me tricks on how to do it. Thanks. Am going to put in my pinterest so I can keep rechecking. 🙂
Great! Good luck with your blog. xo Tauni
Is there a way to do this so you can have readers enter their email before unlocking the PDF? I’ve seen this a few times now for newsletter subscriptions
-Eva
Eva, Yes. You would need to subscribe to a paid email service that offers this functionality. Good luck! Tauni
Thanks for taking the time to give this explanation. I am just now looking for a way to offer English tutoring printables from a website I’m making. Could you give me a suggestion on how to put a price on these and collect the money? I haven’t a clue on the details although I supposed PayPay might come into it, right?
Hi Art, It really depends upon the type of site you’re using and how you plan to deliver your product. I do recommend Shopify for WordPress users. Good luck! Tauni
This is an excellent idea, thank you for sharing. I am only beginning the blog adventure, and this will help me tremendously!