Digital products are products that can be distributed over the internet. They can come in different forms, such as PDFs, MP3s, videos, software, and templates and they can be downloaded or streamed. Let’s weigh up the pros and cons of selling digital products.
What Are the Benefits of Selling Digital Products?
- Save time: You don’t need to source or manage inventory or deal with shipping and delivery.
- Easily scale products: You could sell 10 units or 10,000 units per day. Add the right audience, additional customer support and website improvements for extra traffic.
- Higher profit margins: There is no need to buy and maintain inventory on digital items.
- Flexibility: You can easily create new digital products or change how you sell your existing goods. One good example is by offering a subscription service with additional items, otherwise known as a ‘freemium’.
- Opportunity: E-learning is expanding rapidly, more people are working and learning from home than ever before.
Are There Any Negatives to Selling Digital Products?
- Competition: Building a successful digital product business is not as challenging as it seems, so the market can be competitive. You’ll have to compete with people offering similar content for free, whether you want to sell anything or not.
- Stolen content: It is common for hackers to abuse digital media. To avoid becoming the victim of fraud, you should take precautions against hackers.
What Digital Products Can I Create and Sell?
Online Courses
There are numerous free and paid online courses available for a variety of interests. A complimentary test is one of the best methods to evaluate your course.
Make up the sales page for the courses you offer, including all need to know information such as cost, accessibility, time frames, themes covered and who the course will help.
Choose a niche that you have the expertise and special interest in. There is a wide range of themes to choose from, including hobbies, academic subjects, business tools, finance and so on.
Stock Photography
If you love photography why not sell your images? Photos on anything and everything are in big demand for the creation of digital products.
Begin by setting two prices for your images. One for low-resolution files and one for high-resolution items – the customer will have the option to buy either one. You may license the photos through a website.
Videos
Video lectures and lessons need a lot of preparation. You’ll need to pick the proper equipment for the job. At a bare minimum, you will need a camera and some lighting. Depending upon the purpose and audience of the video, recording on your smartphone may suffice.
However, a course on a specialised and technical area such as auto repair is a different story. It may be best to take a video with a camera, edit and upload it online.
Audio Products
There are many different types of digital audio products. Music files and streaming services are just two examples. You can check your local laws to see if a license is needed for the kind of digital audio you want to create. Streaming services might be fined if they don’t have a license for their service.
Would you like to make an app for music or sound effects? Storage is a problem, so keep that in mind.
E-Books
Self-published books are a great way to make some extra income. Digital products are popular right now, and health care is one of the biggest digital categories. Highlighted images, charts and graphs all contribute to the look and feel of a digital book.
You may find it useful to save time by using pre-made eBook templates and adding your content.
Graphic Design Templates
It’s important to know what type of templates you want to offer, before starting a project. There are many different types available for many different uses.
Here are some suggestions for making your templates stand out.
- If you are a beginner, use inexpensive or free design tools.
- Use contrasting colours.
- Combine images and big letters.
- Research current trends and create your version.
You can use a service such as Canva to create your templates. They provide templates for everything from infographics to posters, logos, and presentations. You can select and adapt designs using their design elements and tools to make them unique to you. If you select the premium package it also includes brand management and social scheduling.
Infographics
Businesses are demanding these products in large numbers. You’ll need to gather data, and lots of different features will come in handy, including charts, timelines and graphics. Another beneficial feature is a template where you can personalize the icons, text and colours.
It’s important to have the option to reformat your posts so you can share them on social media. You can additionally improve your Google search ranking by doing so.
Tutorials
If you don’t have the time to create an entire online course, these are ideal. Give your consumers a portion of your abilities. These can be purchased alone or as part of a larger package. PowerPoint slides are an excellent tool for this purpose.
If you don’t have the time to create an entire course, you can create tutorials. Give your audience a taster of your abilities. These can be purchased individually or as part of a package of resources. PowerPoint slides are a great way to present tutorials to people.
How Can I Sell My Digital Products Successfully?
You’ve probably figured out which platforms sell digital downloads, right? What about when you want to have a go selling digital products? Do you know how to successfully sell digital downloads?
Once you have researched, designed and created your product, you need to prepare to launch. Keep in mind these steps to optimise your products:
- Know the difference between licensing and ownership
- Maintain high-quality control and value on your products
- Use SEO (search engine optimised keywords)
- Build your social media presence and your audience
Significantly, when selling your digital products you need to know the difference between licensing and owning.
You are in total control of your digital product. Once you sell this to someone else online, they are only getting the license to use it. There is no physical possession involved. If you buy an object such as a book, you can sell it to someone else. However, licenses for digital media mean your work cannot be shared for free or sold on without your permission.
There are many sorts of licences that you can give to your clients. They might be able to make many prints of your work, or only one. If you list your work with a licence that means they can only use it in the ways that you specify, then there will be no confusion or unclear ownership rights.