Yes, digital products are a great way to make passive income. But, you need to create a profitable digital product to actually make money. However, not all digital products are profitable, and the profitable ones have to be created the right way to sell online. In this guide, you’ll learn the basics of digital products and the step-by-step process to create a profitable digital product that would actually sell.
What is a Digital Product?
A digital product is an intangible product sold online. That is, they can’t be touched or felt like bags or pieces of clothing so, they can be sold online repeatedly without needing to restock. Usually, they are in the form of downloadable or streamable files such as videos, e-books, music, podcasts, and templates.
Types of Digital Products That Are In-Demand Online
There are a lot of digital products you can sell on the internet today. More importantly, your skillset, whether as an academic or an entertainer, can easily fit into any of the several types of digital products. Here are some of the most in-demand digital products to sell online.
- E-books
E-books are downloadable texts created in book form and cost next to nothing to produce. Perhaps, the most fantastic thing about e-books is that anyone can create one. Think of a knowledge you’d love to share as a guide to help people, write it down, design it into a book, and voila, you have a digital product. You can then sell it on large marketplaces such as Amazon Kindle or even run social media ads to sell them.
- Courses
Given the increasing demand for people to upskill, courses that teach people a particular skill are digital products that sell fast. Take a stroll around the internet; there’s always an advert for you to buy a course on copywriting, data entry, or even fashion illustration for dummies. So, if you have an in-demand skill, courses are the right digital products for you. You can create them in texts, audio and video formats, or a combination of all.
- Audio
These are audio or music files people have to pay a subscription to access or buy off the internet. Podcasts, audiobooks, and music on Spotify are all examples of subscription audio digital products. You can also create and sell some types of audio like sound effects and meditation audios.
- Videos
All video contents on the internet, from YouTube to TikTok and Instagram, are video digital products. Also, the subscriptions you have running on Netflix and HBO are examples of video digital products you are consuming. If you don’t mind being on camera, you can sell your skill and knowledge in video format.
- Art and Photography
Before now, you’d need a pen and paper to make artwork for sale. Now, you can make digital arts or digitize your physical art and sell them online. And, this isn’t just for traditional art like painting. Cartoons, 3D animations, and photographs are also art digital products that sell fast online.
- Templates
The last time you wanted to edit or create your CV for a job, where did you turn to? We bet you answered Google, right? There are thousands of CV templates available on the internet. Beyond CV templates, there are other templates people always seek out on the internet. Business plans and proposals, content calendars, and marketing plans are all templates people search, pay for, and download on the internet.
- Software
Any application powered by codes is software and can be sold in the digital market. Digital games, web-based applications, mobile apps, web templates and plugins are examples of software you can sell online. So, if you’re a software developer, you can sell generic software as digital products instead of just creating apps for specific businesses.
6 Steps To Create a Digital Product That Sells
There are a lot of digital products available, yet not every one of those products is profitable. However, not all products that don’t sell are terrible. Sometimes, the problem is in the production process. To avoid this, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to ensure you create not only great products, but also profitable ones.
Step#1 – Research & Validate Your Product Idea
Before you create any digital product, first ask yourself, is there a problem my skillset or knowledge can help solve? Is there an audience that would like my product? Next, validate the products by searching related terms on the internet and how frequent they come up in searches. With your answers, you can decide what type of product you think can be profitable.
Step #2 – Create a Waiting List of Buyers
Creating a waiting list is one way to build anticipation for your product. To do this, create a simple landing page asking your targets to leave contact details such as mailing addresses and their names. This would give you access to hundreds of potential buyers when your product is ready to sell.
Step #3 – Wet Your Consumer Appetite with Free Content
People love free content and are often not willing to whip out their credit cards on first meeting. Therefore, you need to keep giving potential clients something to keep them interested while anticipating the main digital product. You can give a lead magnet related to the digital product to give an idea of what they will get when you launch it.
Step #4 – Build Your Digital Product
At this point, you must have built an audience that trusts your voice and brand and are willing to pay for your product. Now, it’s time to create your product. You must ensure that you create a unique product that’s worth paying for. Fortunately, your interaction with the audience would have given you an idea of how to enhance your product to create more value.
Step #5 – Get Feedback from Beta Testers
After creating a product, do not launch immediately. Instead, get beta testers to use your products and give you feedback on how to improve your products. This will help you fix any errors in the digital products, as well as get testimonials that you can use to market the product to the general audience.
Step #6 – Launch Your Digital Product
Now you’re ready to launch your digital product and watch that passive income roll in. This doesn’t just mean uploading your product on online marketplaces and waiting for buyers to find your product. Also, it’s more than just announcing the launch to your waiting list. You may have to do online marketing, such as Facebook ads, to get your products in front of more of your target buyers.
Conclusion
Digital products are not just a trendy buzzword, but a great way to diversify your income. With the steps outlined in this post, you can create a profitable digital product. However, creating a digital product that sells entails several skills, such as design, video editing, branding, and marketing skills. But, don’t be overwhelmed. You can get in touch with us at Draidel to plan, design and create a profitable digital product for you.
