How to Sell Digital Products Online : The Ultimate Cheat Guide

Is it possible to make BIG money by standing out and selling on third party websites? Of course, you can make decent money but not BIG money. Third party websites charge you hefty fees. Quite a good chunk of your earnings is lost in the form of commissions. Self-branding and marketing on third party websites cost you a fortune. The best way to sell digital goods is by starting your own online store. Before delving into the details, let us first understand what types of digital products should be sold. Digital downloads is a multi-billion dollar industry. Hence, it is important to ensure that whatever you sell online is saleable, profitable and sustainable.

1. eBooks

Long gone are the days when people used to carry books in their bags. Today, people read books on desktops, smart phones and PDAs. The trend of accessing books on devices such as Kindle and Kobo is skyrocketing. Moreover, the business of publishing books online without undergoing the hassles of finding publishers is booming. All budding writers can showcase their skills and get the much needed recognition they deserve.

I would like to disclose a few remarkable stats – Nearly 31% of e-book sales on Amazon’s kindle store can be attributed to self-published books. Ever since the emergence of Kindle and Kobo, the emergence of independent authors is worth mentioning. In genres such as mystery/thriller and romance, self-published authors are giving a tough time to established authors.People look for variety. Authors look for cult-like following. Start an online store and retain 100% profits. The best sellers will fetch you BIG money.

2. Photography

The total number of vectors, illustrations and photographs being sold on Shutterstock stands at a whopping 100 million. In 2011, Shutterstock registered more than 58 million downloads. Thanks to this huge number, Shutterstock was able to fetch $120.3 million. There are many reputed websites such as Photocrati, SmugMug ,Zenfolio, DigiLabs, Shutterfly, iStock etc., which resemble Shutterstock in many ways.

It is extremely difficult to makes your photos stand out from the crowd. Since the competition is fierce, obsessive and remarkably huge, needle in the haystack phenomenon is widely prevalent. To stay relevant, it is important to competitively price your photos. Just ensure that your photos entice audiences with compelling stories. Every photo should be worth a thousand words. Again, if you are betting your chances on third party websites, be prepared to generously dole out your profits. Otherwise, leverage the full potential of a dedicated online store.

3. Music

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘music’? iTunes! The earnings of iTunes are in billions. While this is a well-known fact, what’s unknown is the fact that iTunes takes as much as 30% of your music sales. Of course, for all the popularity your songs get on iTunes, the commission rate may seem rational. Truth be told, unless you attain immense popularity, you cannot earn BIG money.

Are there any iTunes alternatives? The only viable alternative I can think of is Spotify. However, the commission rates on Spotify are worse. Therefore, I recommend you to start your own ecommerce store and keep every single cent of money. This comes with an advantage- You can build a worldwide fan following. This way, you can sell t-shirts and hoodies along with your digital music files.

4. Videos and Courses

There is so much video content freely available on the net. However, not much of the content is organized and structured. For instance, if you search for a course on Advanced Excel, many freely available videos feature on YouTube search pages. Most of the videos are obsolete. Courses are incomplete. Most importantly, there is no dedicated forum to discuss course-related queries. This is a pain-point. You may think of hosting your course on learning management websites such as Coursera, Udemy, Udacity etc. Again, the commission these websites charge is huge. For instance, Udemy takes 50% of your sales. To make your matters worse, Udemy and courser run discounts. As a matter of fact, discounts and promotional schemes diminish your earnings.

For all intents and purposes, you should start your own online learning management website and host various webinars on various courses. You will be the boss of your website. Believe me, people like organized content. People will be willing to pay for it.

5. Web Elements

People love themes and attractive templates. Right from desktop wallpapers to website logos, web elements are present everywhere. People are extremely choosy. If you have great expertise in designing superior quality themes and templates, you should sell them at premium prices. Theme Forest is an extremely popular website that sells thousands of themes at different prices. Let me run some numbers for you:

• Theme Forest has more than 1000 WordPress themes.
• The highest selling theme till date is tagged at $200,000
• The highest paycheck of a web designer in a single month is $40,000.

Don’t you want your online store to be the next Theme Forest? The possibilities are endless and opportunities are limitless.

Let me remind you – You can sell anything which adds value to the buyers. Ensure that you have immense expertise in what you design and what you do. Run-of-the-mill web elements, mundane video courses or mediocre novels will neither win the hearts of customers nor will make you rich.

In a nutshell, you can:

• Sell shoes
• Sell art
• Sell Jewelry
• Sell handicrafts
• Sell clothes
• Sell t-shirts
• Sell shoes
• Sell toys
• Sell services

Building an online store from scratch is not a meritorious idea. While expertise in Python, PHP and HTML is mandatory, the subsequent steps of A/B testing will drain out your patience. You should hire a team of web developers and present your requirements. Believe me; your online store will take more than 7 months to become fully functional.

The best alternative is to look for some praiseworthy and credible turnkey solutions such as Magento, Shopify etc. There is ShopyGen – a new entrant which is in the good books of its audiences. It is currently catering to the requirements of ecommerce entrepreneurs in as many as 106 countries.

Purchase ShopyGen Premium. ShopyGen Premium as it has the following features:

 6. User-intuitive Interface

A simpleuser-intuitive and user-friendly interface is what all you need to easily add new products and upload new photos. Apart from featuring new items, you can edit inventory. Simple interface allows you to do many more things.

7. Business Tools

ShopyGen Premium has got the following fantastic tools:

1. Shipment Tracker
2. Payment Gateway
3. Revenue Manager
4. Search Engine
5. Filters
6. Documentation
7. Seller Dashboards
8. Admin dashboards
9. Video Listings etc.

This list is not complete. To know more about the built-in business tools, please visit ShopyGen.

The beauty of ShopyGen lies in the fact that you have access to end-to-end documentation. If you intend to make any foundational level code changes, you are free to explore. You can dabble with code and100% control over HTML & CSS is very much in the offing.  And yes, you can get free upgrades for life time.

8. Support

Pre-purchase support is offered by almost every leading ecommerce marketplace vendor. When it comes to post-purchase support, most of the ecommerce marketplace vendors falter. Just like Amazon, ShopyGen is known for its commendable customer service and support. ShopyGen supports its customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have any issues, just call their dedicated support team. Alternatively, you can email your concerns.

Your online store should be SEO friendly. To know more about SEO, read this insightful blog on Why you should choose Search Engine Optimized Ecommerce store? Stores built on ShopyGen platform are scalable and SEO friendly.

If you have any queries or concerns, feel free to drop a line or two in the comments section. I shall reply in a day or two. Keep watching this space for insights on SEO, growth hacking and eCommerce marketing. My best wishes are with you and your e-store. Cheers!