The place to promote digital merchandise: The most effective platforms for creators
16 min read
By Kaleigh Moore August 8, 2023
Persons are flocking to the digital economic system for extra freedom, flexibility, and, ideally, extra {dollars}.
And it’s working. Based on Goldman Sachs Research, “the rise in digital media consumption and the arrival of expertise…has lowered limitations to content material creation.” By 2027, the creator economic system could possibly be price half a trillion {dollars}.
Content material creators are taking benefit. A lot of them have already deserted the nine-to-five grind. They’re now working for themselves.
However what if you happen to promote a service as a substitute of a product? All of the sudden you end up going through a bottleneck. Your work nonetheless requires effort, time, and your private presence.
That’s why it feels such as you gave up the nine-to-five…simply to start out a brand new nine-to-five.
The answer is to leverage your time by switching from companies to merchandise. What if you happen to might construct a repeatable digital product that sells itself when you sleep? You’d decouple your labor out of your revenue.
However earlier than you do, you’ll should know a couple of issues about digital merchandise:
- What you’ll be able to promote?
- What gross sales methods are succeeding?
- The place are all of the gross sales taking place proper now?
Let’s reply all three with particular emphasis on that crucial query: the place?
What’s a digital product?
A digital product is an digital asset you’ll be able to promote with little to no price of duplication. Usually, a digital product could also be a bit of media like an eBook. Customers can obtain the product and put it to make use of on their gadget of alternative.
What are examples of digital merchandise?
In the event you assume it sounds area of interest, take into account this: Amazon sells roughly half a billion eBooks per year. And 83% of all video game sales are fully digital.
On-line programs, coaching movies, webinars, eBooks, music, PDFs, digital artwork, widgets, and apps. Digital merchandise are so ubiquitous, we barely consider them as digital anymore.
We simply consider them as merchandise.
Digital merchandise are so well-liked, many creators “area of interest down” their companies. You’ll be able to promote coaching for distinctive markets as a result of it’s really easy to search out them now.
Instance:
Take Leela Sinha, a coach providing management intensive for a particular persona sort. Leela has a distinct segment market, teaching “intensives,” or folks with risk-taking tendencies.
Leela’s story reinforces why digital merchandise are so well-liked now, however not from the customer’s finish. Patrons know the way handy it’s to obtain a film relatively than order a DVD.
However take into account Leela’s perspective. In the future, Leela wrote a put up on Fb about gender inclusivity. All kinds of enterprise homeowners responded, making a storm of feedback.
So Leela determined to capitalize and logged into AWeber.
Inside six hours, Leela had a wholly new course on gender inclusivity.
Fairly than promoting teaching companies, which might be time-intensive, Leela spent all of that point upfront. There was now a digital product able to promoting over and over—with none extra work.
AWeber offered the platform to get Leela’s course up and operating, prepared to simply accept funds. Leela printed the course with a hyperlink within the Fb thread, which was nonetheless sizzling with incoming feedback.
The flexibility to supply a digital product that rapidly by AWeber “made all of the distinction,” in keeping with Leela.
The place are you able to promote digital merchandise?
It’s possible you’ll discover a standard thread with all the examples above: most gross sales happen by a particular platform.
Whilst you can create a PDF from scratch and promote it on to prospects, it’s not at all times perfect. You’ll be able to create extra worth in your prospects when your digital merchandise additionally carry full-fledged experiences with them.
To unlock these experiences, you’ll want a digital platform to deal with the grunt work.
That’s very true if you happen to’re not fairly as Web-savvy as Leela—at the least not for the second. So the place do you begin? Let’s discover the digital platforms for constructing digital merchandise and promoting them on-line.
AWeber
AWeber is a full-fledged e-mail advertising supplier. Nevertheless it additionally affords a whole platform for creators promoting digital merchandise.
With AWeber, you’ll be able to construct e-mail newsletters, ship out programs through e-mail, and join platforms like Fb, WordPress, and PayPal to run your complete digital product enterprise.
Customers could particularly respect the landing page builder. Your touchdown web page is a key cog in your digital product machine: it’s the “gross sales rep” able to shifting merchandise, even when you sleep. Create an amazing touchdown web page in your digital product and also you’ve separated your revenue out of your time.
After that, it’s merely a matter of visitors. And AWeber’s subscriber segment tools make it easier to enhance and hone your method over time.
Who’re they?
Consider AWeber as your modern-day storefront. However relatively than providing a enterprise card, you ship guests to a touchdown web page.
From there, your touchdown web page captures guests with an e-mail sign-up type. Customers usually commerce their e-mail for a “lead generator” you supply—typically a free digital product like an eBook.
By way of AWeber, you’ll be able to add your digital product and choose a fee sort (one-time? Subscription? Cost plans?). Then let the touchdown web page deal with the gross sales in your behalf.
AWeber’s touchdown web page instruments do many of the give you the results you want, serving to you construct a visually constant model. You’ll look skilled and succesful.
And even if you happen to promote your merchandise on different platforms like Shopify, it’s a breeze to attach AWeber’s touchdown web page instruments to those merchandise.
Predominant kinds of digital merchandise offered
Something digital works on AWeber, however merchandise like eBooks and programs are particularly well-liked with our creators.
Think about Alycia, a Zumba teacher struggling to get folks to join her courses. She turned to AWeber’s touchdown web page builder. There she used a device displaying her upcoming Zumba courses, which sparked buyer curiosity.
Her e-mail subscribers went up 100%.
Creator programs like Naomi DeRuiter’s are nice methods to show the bottleneck of teaching companies right into a leveraged enterprise. DeRuiter set her AWeber touchdown web page to repeat a free digital cheesemaking class and improve her subscribers.
She solely taught the category as soon as. However her AWeber touchdown web page remains to be signing up new subscribers.
Ranging from pricing
With the free version of AWeber, you’ll be able to check out one touchdown web page with a small transaction price—simply 1%. Or, if you happen to go for $20/month, you’ll be able to construct limitless touchdown pages and scale back your transaction charges to 0.6%.
Examples
Elizabeth Resnick used AWeber to construct Glad, Wholesome, and Scorching. Her area of interest? Teaching profitable professionals on weight reduction, health, and constructing a wholesome life-style.
Resnick’s bread and butter had been 90-minute teaching periods. These periods had her giving useful one-on-one recommendation. However given her restricted schedule, Resnick knew she had two choices if she wished to develop. Both elevate her costs sky-high or discover a technique to “productize” her companies.
She selected the latter, utilizing AWeber to construct a neighborhood with group periods. Now she might attain a better viewers with the identical time funding. She additionally added digital merchandise like recipes and meal plans.
Now her AWeber touchdown pages deal with extra of the work. Resnick funnels in visitors from her social media accounts.
Because of this, she earns extra money per hour with out altering her core providing.
Why are they the perfect?
AWeber’s perfect for creators or anybody who needs to promote digital merchandise whereas rising an e-mail listing. Touchdown pages can accomplish each directly. These pages seize e-mail addresses whereas pushing digital merchandise.
And all of it occurs with out the creator lifting a finger.
Etsy
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Throughout! Most consider Etsy as a tangible merchandise retailer, with important classes like residence decor, jewellery/equipment, clothes, marriage ceremony & celebration, or arts & collectibles.
Even so, there are extra digital products on Etsy than folks know. Merchandise vary from digital planners and Canva templates to eBooks and ChatGPT prompts.
A fast abstract
Etsy is an enormous platform: $2.5 billion in revenue in 2022 and nonetheless rising. Consider constructing an Etsy store as planting your flag in an enormous digital market. It has its personal ecosystem, together with its personal search engine optimization guidelines.
Ranging from pricing
Etsy pricing features a 20-cent price for every merchandise you listing, plus a 6.5% price for every little thing you promote on Etsy. That quantity isn’t static, both; the truth is, it’s gone up twice over the previous a number of years.
Examples
Though the largest Etsy success tales are typically tangible shops, there’s no motive you’ll be able to’t succeed with digital merchandise. And the benefit of digital merchandise is that you just don’t should spend money and time delivery the merchandise to each nook of the world.
Take Ralu Patrea, who constructed a paperless planner on Etsy. Producing about $3,000/month with minimal bills, it’s a enterprise that scales—extra prospects don’t essentially imply far more work for Patrea.
Total impressions
Etsy could have a popularity for promoting knick-knacks and residential items. However there’s additionally a thriving digital market on Etsy price exploring.
The charges are on the costly facet. And also you’ll cede some management to Etsy since it’s important to play by their guidelines.
However these are the breaks if you’d like entry to Etsy’s huge public market.
Shopify
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
You’ll be able to promote nearly something on Shopify. However probably the most common products are tangible items like attire, artwork and residential decor, food and drinks, and health and beauty merchandise.
A fast abstract
Shopify is nice for individuals who desire a platform for constructing a big-time retailer that scales. Promoting attire and bodily items? You’ll love the interface.
Ranging from pricing
Shopify Pricing is $39/month flat for a basic small business, plus small transaction charges with bank card charges of two.9% + 30¢ USD on-line, or 2.7% + 0¢ USD in particular person.
However since we’re speaking about digital items, the diminished in-person transaction price seemingly gained’t attraction to you. Anticipate to pay that 2.9% transaction price plus 30 cents for each product you promote.
Examples
Cinnamon and Jason of Pixie Faire found a big area of interest within the doll clothes market and constructed their retailer up over a long time, beginning with an eBay retailer in 2008. Inside about 18 months, they had been publishing their very own patterns.
Then they bumped into the normal bottleneck. They couldn’t scale this enterprise with out severe investments.
So that they went digital. They’re now promoting $600,000 a 12 months by Shopify with downloadable PDFs for doll clothes patterns.
Total impressions
Shopify is nice if you’d like a retailer that scales—and a retailer you’ll be able to name yours. Nevertheless it helps if you have already got visitors. It’s much less a neighborhood and e-newsletter development platform than a spot to promote items to an current buyer base.
Teachable
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Teachable is all about on-line programs. This makes it an amazing platform for coaches who don’t wish to repeat these programs—and want a technique to stretch their time. It’s additionally a platform for organising digital data merchandise like podcasts and eBooks.
A fast abstract
Consider Teachable as perfect for a particular sort of creator: the coach who needs to maintain educating however doesn’t have the time to maintain doing one-on-one periods.
Teachable additionally dietary supplements your time by providing instruments like an AI curriculum generator. This reduces the friction it takes to construct your first course.
Ranging from pricing
Starting at $0/month makes for a low barrier to entry. However there’s additionally a $1-per-product and 10% transaction price, which implies Teachable will take a chunk as quickly as you begin making gross sales.
Examples
Yoga courses take extra work to scale. In a standard setup, you’ll be able to solely cost as many college students as you’ll be able to match right into a room. That’s why Rachel Jesien went past the one-class-at-a-time paradigm and niched down.
She developed specialised every day yoga tutorials for folks with particular issues like scoliosis. The area of interest made her educating extra related for distinctive buyer segments. For Jesien, it meant amassing revenue with out educating each class herself.
Total impressions
Teachable is a good possibility for coaches and different service-based companies who want to show their choices into merchandise.
Thinkific
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Like Teachable, Thinkific is all about programs and academic digital merchandise. It’s one other avenue to discover if you could flip a standard service right into a repeatable product.
A fast abstract
Thinkific’s main focus is course creation. You’ll additionally respect the neighborhood membership infrastructure. The instruments are right here if you wish to undertake Elizabeth Resnick’s method to a training neighborhood.
Ranging from pricing
You probably have only one course and one neighborhood, Thinkific is free. However if you wish to stretch your legs—say with a customized area—will probably be $36/month. You must also watch for the transaction fees related along with your nation.
Examples
Ellie Diop of Ellie Talks Money had a company job the place she was accountable for numerous big-time cash selections. When she was laid off, she turned to Thinkific as a result of she knew she had specialised information that was price promoting. To this point, she’s taught over 3,000 college students and picked up seven figures in funds by the platform.
Total impressions
Thinkific’s options could strike you as slim, however it’s an intuitive technique to construct a creator course once you need assistance turning your information right into a product.
Gumroad
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Memberships, digital merchandise, and bodily merchandise rule the day on Gumroad. However it might be most well-known for a way rapidly it might probably arrange creators with digital merchandise. It’s additionally a handy platform for constructing subscriber-based communities.
A fast abstract
Gumroad’s easy interface works on each ends: it’s simple for purchasers to purchase and simple for creators to get began. It’s a perfect platform if you wish to check new concepts on the Web and gauge if there’s sufficient curiosity for what you’re promoting.
Ranging from pricing
With a 10% flat transaction fee, Gumroad does take a chunk. Nevertheless it’s additionally a beginner-friendly technique to begin: you solely pay as you make gross sales.
Examples
Brian Hahn achieved success on Gumroad promoting preparation guides for the bar examination. What initially started as a facet hustle for Hahn finally discovered its viewers, generating six figures of income.
Total impressions
Gumroad’s community-building options aren’t fairly what you may want for the worth. However there’s sufficient right here to get began along with your first digital product. And also you gained’t should fork over numerous money to start with phases.
Sellfy
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Sellfy’s well-liked with attire and equipment like mugs and branded knick-knacks. Its digital file internet hosting and supply is a useful platform for promoting eBooks, printable PDFs, and educational guides.
A fast abstract
Sellfy hosts an eclectic mixture of creators who aren’t completely digital. You may also use their print-on-demand choices if you happen to’re promoting equipment and attire however don’t desire a bodily footprint for what you are promoting.
Ranging from pricing
Go for $19/month with the starter possibility and also you’ll make gross sales on Sellfy—albeit with an higher ceiling of $10,000 in gross sales earlier than it’s important to improve.
Examples
King of the Strings had a YouTube viewers with over 175,000 subscribers and wished to search out extra methods to monetize it. Promoting on Sellfy meant eBooks, video classes, and providing free trial choices and digital classes to assist construct a e-newsletter.
Total impressions
Sellfy leans extra into the attire and equipment facet of issues. Nevertheless, its digital product capabilities are greater than sufficient to get began. Be mindful: if you happen to anticipate numerous gross sales, the flat worth will go up.
Payhip
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Digital items and programs are the secret right here. Payhip’s pleasant to coaches and anybody trying to construct a membership neighborhood.
A fast abstract
Payhip makes it simple to “arrange store” just about with an online retailer and affords digital items and programs. You may also join customized domains to take care of a constant model in your choices.
Ranging from pricing
Beginning at $0/month, Payhip’s catch is a 5% transaction price. That places it on par with Etsy and fewer than others, however it might probably nonetheless eat into your earnings. In the event you pay extra month-to-month, you’ll be able to carry that price down: the primary tier runs $29/month.
Examples
Crystal Dawn Culinary is all about plant-based meals. Nevertheless it’s not simply courses. Digital merchandise like downloadable recipes and culinary programs assist scale the enterprise.
Total impressions
Payhip is a pleasant possibility for anybody who needs to get began and desires a complete system for promoting digital merchandise on-line. However AWeber’s touchdown web page and extra e-newsletter options will seemingly give it an edge on this division.
Podia
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Podia’s an all-in-one platform for constructing your bodily items retailer on-line. It additionally affords loads of options for programs, teaching, eBooks, webinars, and workshops.
A fast abstract
Don’t have a neighborhood? Podia’s a superb technique to kickstart viewers curiosity. In addition they supply numerous buyer assist for getting arrange for the primary time, which makes Podia efficient for rookies who aren’t tech-savvy.
Ranging from pricing
$0/month, with 8% charges. If what you are promoting takes off, you’ll should pay $33/month to unlock limitless gross sales and downloads in your digital merchandise. If you have already got prospects, $33/month is your actual starter worth.
Examples
Becky Mollenkamp is a enterprise mindset coach. She leveraged Podia’s community-building options to stack on prime of her current programs. In doing so, she supercharged the engagement she was getting from shoppers.
The neighborhood memberships alone finally drove $10,000/12 months in revenue.
Total impressions
Podia’s one other all-in-one expertise if you happen to’re going from zero net presence to promoting your first digital merchandise.
SendOwl
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
SendOwl creates a easy infrastructure for promoting all sorts of digital products.
Subscriptions? Music sheets? How-to guides and hobbyist content material?
Positive. Even software program presets (like templates for Adobe Lightroom photographers) are simple to promote with SendOwl.
A fast abstract
SendOwl leans closely into the digital facet of product gross sales. They’ll provide the options you want for coupon codes, constructing “Drip” content material, or creating on-site checkout options. They match properly into your net presence if you have already got an current neighborhood and web site and easily wish to monetize.
Ranging from pricing
You can begin with 3 free months, then $9/month—there’s additionally a per-order administration price of 5%.
Examples
Nicole Young was a SendOwl buyer who discovered success promoting pictures presets and eBooks. She additionally loved linking SendOwl with Shopify to mix the options of each platforms.
Total impressions
SendOwl is extra for individuals who aren’t trying to construct a neighborhood, however to monetize. Usually, this implies you’ll have already got an viewers keen and ready to purchase.
SamCart
Predominant sort of digital merchandise offered
Well being & health, enterprise & finance, self-help, and artistic digital merchandise are fashionable over at SamCart.
A fast abstract
SamCart affords loads of options for monetizing programs and including digital merchandise to an current web page. They provide mobile-friendly options as properly. Their no-code, checkout-anywhere add-on is very handy.
Ranging from pricing
Slightly heftier than different choices at $79/month starting out—however with none point out of transaction charges.
Examples
Fit with Mommy Lu affords a web based exercise/dance class that prospects can stream to residence gadgets. It’s the modern-day equal of residence exercise tapes and DVDs—however it’s a lot simpler to promote.
Total impressions
The digital product gross sales instruments are spiffy. However you could discover its community-building options missing, particularly if you happen to’re ranging from scratch.
The place to promote digital merchandise
Being a full-time creator ought to include actual freedom and adaptability. Promoting your companies isn’t at all times the trail to get there. To increase your attain, you could finally should promote digital merchandise.
In any case, you’ll be able to’t scale a one-on-one service. However you can scale what you are promoting when your touchdown web page does all of the promoting for you.
The consequence: much less time, extra money, and a enterprise you’re a lot happier with.
AWeber is the whole e-mail supplier and digital gross sales platform you’ll have to get began. Play with our landing page builder and see how simple it may be to promote your merchandise even once you’re off doing anything.
