If you aren’t selling digital products on your blog, you’re missing out on an incredible opportunity to make money writing. Some sources say it’s realistic to make $3,000, $6,000 or more selling digital products through Etsy. While Etsy is one platform to sell certain types of products, your blog is a primary place for a writer to sell digital products.
What Are Digital Products?
A digital product is a product that can be downloaded by the buyer. Generally, if you can put it in a PDF or an image file, it is an option. Another option is a subscription to receive regular tips or resources. A subscription sets you up to receive recurring income, but you will need to spend time creating the subscription content regularly.
Generally, a digital product is something that your target audience finds value you. It helps them in some way. It has be a product that they would be interested in paying money for.
While many people sell digital products for a profit, you can offer a freebie or two on your website. Why would you do this? You can create an opt-in campaign for your newsletter. You offer the freebie through a pop-up window, such as through OptIn Monster. The user provides his or her email address. You now have another email list. This can be used to keep traffic coming to your blog.
Through this increased traffic, you can produce more affiliate income, profit from AdSense and sell your other digital products.
Digital Product Ideas
OptIn Monster has a comprehensive list of digital products to sell on your blog. A few of its recommendations are:
- Ebooks
- Community spaces
- Worksheets
- Planners
- Courses
- A newsletter subscription (Check out this guide to create and monetize a newsletter.)
When deciding on a digital product to sell on your website, consider these points:
- Who is your target audience?
- What information or resources are beneficial to them?
- Can you incorporate this information or resource into a digital product?
- What is the cost to create the product? (Usually, the cost is negligible.)
- What is a reasonable sales price?
Where to Sell Digital Products
If you are just starting to look at opportunities to make money writing online, you need to create a blog. If you’ve never created a website before, I understand that the idea can seem overwhelming. Over with the great design tools available, your site could be up and running over a weekend.
Unless your website is an e-commerce site, you’ll need to work with a sales platform to sell digital products on your blog. Both Gumroad and Payhip are popular platforms to sell digital products. The account setup process is easy for both. You simply open an account, upload your product and add a few details. Both platforms give you the option to create a dedicated online store for all of your products if you want.
Gumroad seems like a better option initially because it has an affiliate marketing option. Meaning, you can hire affiliates to market your products. You can also get your product listed on the Gumroad homepage. However, these features only become realistic when you already have some sales under your belt.
Payhip has more affordable transaction fees as well as a sleeker, more professional look.
When you spend time developing a digital product, it makes sense to squeeze as much money as possible from it. Etsy is a popular marketplace that can increase exposure and produce sales. Review the digital products for sale on Etsy to determine if this is a good platform for you,
How to Create Digital Products
There are numerous resources available online that make it easy to create professional, sleek digital products. For example, Canva is a smart option for designing downloadable worksheets. If you need inspiration or creatives for your digital products, check out these Daily Deals for Designers.
If you’re selling an e-book, you can offer your book online on Amazon KDP as well. Amazon KDP has a free-to-use e-book creator tool that you can use to format it properly. If your e-book is shorter, you could use Canva as well. With Canva, however, you must copy and paste text page by page. A benefit of using Canva is the ability to customize each page easily.
Teachable is a smart option for creating courses. This is an all-in-one platform that allows you to build and sell your course in one location. Through your blog, you could simply add a direct link to your course.
How to Market Digital Products
Depending which platform you use to create your products, there may be platform-specific marketing tools. Some platforms, such as Etsy, have built-in traffic due to their popularity. However, Etsy, Amazon KDP and others also have paid advertising opportunities if your budget accommodates that.
Your blog is also a smart option to market and sell your digital products. This is because your products have been specifically created for your audience. Your buyers are right there. By marketing and Selling your products on your website, you avoid third-party commissions, such as what you’d pay on Etsy, Amazon and others. Selling your digital products on your blog opens you up to numerous marketing opportunities. These include:
- Linking to your products on blog posts
- Advertising your products on your newsletters
- Marketing your products on your blog’s social media pages
With little cost associated with creating digital products and the opportunity to dramatically increase writing income, it makes sense to create a product and see what it can do for you.