How To Sell Digital Products From Your Blog

How To Sell Digital Products From Your Blog. I love creating and selling digital products. In 2020 I earned $115,562.64 from digital product sales alone. In today’s episode, I’m going to share some ideas with you, for how to sell digital products from your blog! Listen now: How To Scale Your Blog With Digital Products

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How To Sell Digital Products From Your Blog

Digital products are one of the best ways to scale and earn passive income. Did you know that I teach a course on how to create and sell digital products called Scale With Digital Products?

You can enroll in that course on its own, or you can get it included in your HerPaperRoute Society membership, which gives you access to all of my courses, plus weekly coaching calls with me.

Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Scale With Digital Products course
• Thrivecart – Lifetime deal
• Better Help – Online counseling
• ConvertKit

I absolutely believe that starting a blog is one of the best side hustles for those who want to make money from home. And it’s something that can actually become your full-time career if you want it to be. 

(It’s mine! Living proof!)

But what’s the best way to monetize your blog?

If you are at the beginning of your blogging journey, affiliate marketing is a great idea to start generating income.

You don’t need to have a ton of content, a large social media following or a huge email list to make money with affiliate marketing.

As you create more blog content and start to grow your online audience, selling a product on your blog should be a monetization strategy that you seriously explore.

You don’t have to wait to start selling digital products. I launched my first course at the same time as I launched the HerPaperRoute blog, in 2017.

Don’t wait for “the perfect time” as there is no such thing. I say, just dive in and start getting your hands dirty!

You will learn the most by having real-world experience of trying, testing, and tweaking as you go. 

If you’re ready to start selling products on your blog as a new revenue stream, keep reading.

In this post, I’ll walk you through some tips and ideas to consider as you get started with creating and selling products.

Creating Great Content and Building a Loyal Audience

You can come up with a million great product ideas to sell on your blog. But it’s worth noting that you should invest time in creating great blog content too. You will want to start nurturing your audience of loyal readers so that when your products are available, your audience is ready to buy. 

Creating blog content that your target audience finds super helpful and valuable is key.

The tips, advice, and recommendations you offer through your blog content have to be valued enough that your readers feel a connection.

Many readers are looking for the content they read to provide a solution to a specific problem they face.

They are searching to find answers to burning questions and issues that need to be solved.

Your goal should be to let the content on your blog create opportunities for you to positively impact the people who are reading it.

Some readers do not want to be sold to right away. Some will need to be “warmed up” to you and your teachings first. But every reader probably wants to feel connected to others and feel like they are not alone in their struggles.

So how do you show this? 

Through your email list, of course! Put the time in creating a few awesome free lead magnets to grow your email list, and then send helpful weekly newsletters. 

If you can make sure you have a really good understanding of who your target audience is, and find out what their pain points are, then it will make the process of creating good content and successful products much easier.

You’ll want to craft your brand voice and have sales funnel systems in place to capture, nurture and sell automatically.

(Training on list building, target audience attraction, brand voice, and sales funnels is all included in the HerPaperRoute Society membership)

And in case you’re wondering, there’s no magic number for how many blog posts that you need to have on your blog before you start selling products.

If anything, my advice is that you focus on quality over quantity.

Now, with that said, I will say that having a decent number of good-quality blog posts that cover related topics will help you to keep your blog readers engaged and on your blog for a longer period of time.

With more blog posts, you have more opportunities to link to more related posts to continue to keep your audience captivated and learning from your content.

People make product purchases from those who they feel they know, trust, and like.

Giving your readers as much valuable content as you will increase the likelihood of them purchasing your products.

Tip: Show up in live videos on your Instagram stories and Facebook page.

The more your audience sees the real you on video, the faster they will come to feel as though they know you.

Tip: Speaking at virtual summits works like gangbusters, too!

What Type of Product Should You Sell on Your Blog?

When it comes to deciding what type of product to sell on your blog, the first decision you have to make is whether you want to sell physical products or digital products.

For me, selling digital products is way more appealing.

It doesn’t require me to keep up with any inventory, I can sell an unlimited number of products, and the instant download capability means instant gratification.

However, selling physical products on your blog can certainly be a good income source for some bloggers. Selling books, mugs, shirts, jewelry, and more can be a profitable revenue stream.

You can even sell physical products without a need for inventory or shipping if you use drop shipping or a print-on-demand service.

But because I believe digital products involve less hassle than physical products, the content below will dig deeper into to how to sell digital products and services from your blog.

List of Digital Products to Sell on Your Blog

There are a ton of variations of digital product ideas that can work for bloggers in any niche!

Below are just a few digital product ideas to get you started.

Sell E-books

You can decide on a specific topic and package the information you know on that topic into an e-book.

E-books can be sold directly from your blog and it’s also possible to self-publish your books on Amazon.

Sell Online Courses

As I mentioned above, an online course was the first digital product I created. Online courses for business continue to be the main type of digital product that I earn from on this blog.

Creating an online course allows you to combine text, audio, and/or video lessons to teach what you know on a particular topic.

Sell Email Courses

An email course is a great digital product to sell on your blog.

The content of your course can be “dripped” to the reader over the course of a few days.

Convertkit is an email marketing tool that easily allows you to create and send email courses.

Sell Photography

If you’re into photography, you can make passive income selling photographs from your blog.

You can sell your photos individually or take it a step further and sell a service where you deliver X number of photos each month to paying customers.

Sell Worksheets

Creating worksheets for your audience is a great digital product idea.

You can sell worksheets that help with budgeting, parenting, exercising, blogging, etc.

Sell Video Tutorials

If you are good at demonstrating processes step-by-step, then selling video tutorials could be a great idea for a digital product.

You can sell tutorials across any niche. Your tutorial might show someone how to use specific software, how to cook a certain dish, how-to DIY a custom chair, etc.

Sell Printable Planners

Digital planners continue to be popular digital products for nearly every niche!

You can sell meal planners, exercise planners, self-care planners, date night planners, budgeting planners, and the list goes on and on.

Sell Access to Virtual Summits or Live Workshops

Hosting a virtual summit or live workshop is a perfect digital service idea for those who enjoy hosting events.

Sell Private Coaching

This one isn’t a digital product, it’s a service. But you could package one-on-one coaching or group coaching services with other on-demand digital lessons.  

You could sell mindset coaching, business coaching, fitness coaching, etc. in weekly or monthly time blocks.

You would then connect with your coaching clients via Zoom or Skype.

Payment and Delivery Platforms for Digital Products

Before we discuss design tips for your digital products, let’s talk about payment and delivery systems.

Here are a few trusted platforms for selling digital products:

THRIVECART 

This is my #1 pick for the best digital product selling tool. Thrivecart is an easy-to-use digital publishing platform helping creators sell and deliver digital content. It has built-in funnel systems for every step in your sales funnel, and integrates with ConvertKit like a charm.

Thrivecart also includes a full-on affiliate program system. So that you can have your own affiliate team promoting your products. Thrivecart is a lifetime deal, where you pay one time only, and then get to use it for life.

So you never have to pay for monthly fees, or any service fees at all. 

SENDOWL

SendOwl easily allows you to directly sell your digital product to your audience from your blog. It’s a pretty affordable tool to use with pricing starting at just $9 per month, but it becomes more expensive than Thrivecart after the second year, as Thrivecart doesnt charge monthly fees. 

PODIA

Podia not only hosts your digital products, but you get a complete sales funnel that allows you to capture emails, market to your list, collect money, sell digital downloads, and even upsell with additional products like online courses. Pricing starts at just $39 per month.

Gumroad

Gumroad is a well-known platform for selling digital products. It was made for artists and creators to sell everything from ebooks to music to courses and more. The premium plan for Gumroad starts at $10 per month.

Teachable

Although Teachable is most known for helping creators to sell online courses, the platform can also be used as a way to sell ebooks, PDF guides, private coaching, and more! 

A few things to keep in mind when choosing your digital product delivery platform:

• Most, if not all, of the above platforms allow you to embed a payment link on your blog.
• Most platforms allow you to accept payments via PayPal, Stripe, most major credit cards, and sometimes Bitcoins.
• Be sure to look closely at the payout process. Some platforms allow you to be instantly paid out for any sales you make, while others may only release payments on a weekly or monthly basis depending on the pricing level you choose.
• Pay attention to the transaction fees. Most platforms charge a small transaction fee for using their service. Those fees can add up. (Thrivecart does not charge any transaction fees.)

How to Design a Digital Product

I use Canva to design most of my digital products like ebooks, worksheets, planners, etc.

Most times I don’t have the extra time or the energy to create my own design from scratch, so I use pre-made templates to cut my work effort in half.

Here’s a great place to find beautiful pre-designed Canva templates!

Those digital product templates can be customized using the free version of Canva.

If you’re not up for the task of designing your product completely from scratch, these templates are a lifesaver.

How to Plan a Digital Product

The key to creating a successful digital product is understanding your audience and creating a product that solves a specific problem they are experiencing.

To do this, you must understand who your target audience is.

• Is your audience married women? Men?
• What’s their age range?
• Are they 30-something parents with kids who need help planning meals?
• Single 20-somethings with well-paying professional jobs who want to exercise more?
• What do they want vs. what do they need?
• What are some of the big problems they face in life or business?
• What price are they willing and able to pay when it comes to a digital product?
• Which formats work best for them?

How to Sell Digital Products on Your Blog – Conclusion

When it comes to selling a digital product or service from your blog, make sure it’s on a topic you know well and that you enjoy talking about.

Focus on creating content that is super valuable and creating a product that solves a problem that is experienced by your audience.

Remember to focus on providing solutions for your readers, rather than focusing on how much money you can earn from your product or service.

If you follow this golden rule, you will be better off in the long run.

I hope this post has inspired you to monetize your blog by selling a digital product.

I truly believe that all growing businesses need to make sure they are creating multiple income streams.

Never put all your eggs in one basket with just one revenue stream. It’s a recipe for disaster!

Whether you decide to sell a service, sell digital products or sell physical products from your blog, products are a great income stream to add to your bottom line and grow your business.

Creating and selling a simple digital product is one income stream that any blogger in any niche can implement in a relatively short period of time.

You’ve considered creating your own digital product, but you haven’t followed through because you are unsure of what steps to take or what software to use.

I remember how frustrating it was for me with my first digital product. Everything from coming up with product ideas to figuring out who would actually buy my product was frustrating.

With my help, you can create a digital product to sell on your blog in no time.

Scale With Digital Products helps you:

• Get clear on your target audience
• Identify one problem to solve
• Create a product outline
• Draft a sales page
• Increase the perceived value
• Repurpose content
• Leverage other people’s audiences
• And more!

Now, go enroll in Scale With Digital Products to learn more. Or, apply for a spot in my high-touch coaching program where we can work together 1:1. 

 

 

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