Creating Digital Products to Sell Digital products are increasingly becoming popular as more and more people connect to the internet and use their PC’s and mobile devices for pleasure and productive purposes. It’s relatively easy for anyone to create an information product, say an ebook for example, that can generate an income for years to come through the process of self-publishing online. That’s not to say you should give up your day job, because very few ebooks actually make a lot of money for their creators. However, the opportunity is there, and it has to be said that if you’re a savvy marketer, it’s quite possible to make a very good return on your investment in time and money spent producing and promoting your book. There are those who have made a very good living from these type of products. But ebooks are only one possible option for earning money from creating and selling digital downloads. Actually, there’s quite a wide range of other digital formats and the possibilities are almost endless. If you’re a talented programmer then producing your own software designed to be used for a particular purpose can be quite profitable. Then there’s digital downloads for pre-designed website templates, fonts for graphic design and word processing, clip art, digital photos, copyright free music, logo design, and wordpress templates etc etc. Internet marketers are particularly good at finding a market for digital product sales. Some of the best marketers have become extremely wealthy from information products which they developed. But these guys don’t just get rich overnight.
It can take a lot of experience and perserverence to become as successful as they have. The fact is, if you have the flair and determination to succeed, then producing your own digital information products can be a good way to make money online. The most competitive niche of course, is the internet marketing niche. But there are many other profitable niches out there waiting to be explored. Before you start creating your own digital masterpiece, you need to make sure that there’s a big enough market for the niche you have chosen, and that people are willing to pay for the information you intend to sell. One of the most popular types of information product is the self-help guide. There are all kinds of problems that people are seeking answers for and a lot of the information they seek can be found online. But anyone with a more comprehensive understanding of the subject and the related problems that exist, could quite easily create a suitable information product that people will buy if it can provide a quick solution to their problem. If presented in a professional and effective way, this ‘quick fix’ solution would no doubt sell if it saves the prospect a lot of time researching the answers online. The internet can be a confusing place and often provides little or poor information on specific subjects. If you have specialist knowledge then you could develop a product that addresses a specific problem in a new or interesting way. For example, fortunes have been made by nutritional experts who devise their own dieting solutions.
So too have some individuals who have developed their own ‘cures’ for certain types of allergies and health problems. However, unless you have a phd in medicine, or some specalised knowledge in health and fitness, I would advise you to avoid these specialist subjects, or you could find yourself subject to a lawsuit in the worst case scenario. One of the easiest ways to develop your own product is to use PLR (Private Label Rights) products that you are available to purchase from various online sources. Obtaining Private Label Rights, (a concept similar to reselling), will generally allow you to modify the product to fit your own needs. PLR products are often used by internet marketers to create new articles and eBooks, modified in some way to produce an entirely new product. So if you’re struggling to create enough content to complete your product you may find PLR products useful. To start with though, it’s a good idea to plan out how you want your digital product to fulfil it’s purpose. First make a list of the topics you are interested in yourself. Then write down any questions and solutions to problems that are related to the subject. If necessary, do some research to find the best answers and compile a short list of the most likely questions and problems people are going to need an answer or solution for. Next, check to see if there are other products available that already provide the solutions to the questions and problems on your shortlist. At the same time, make detailed notes about how much competition there is from other websites promoting similar products. It’s also important to find out if there there will be enough demand for the product. In other words, are there enough people seeking the type of product you can provide. One way to do this is through keyword research. You can do this using online resources such as Googles keyword research tool. If you decide to go ahead and develop your own product you’ll then need to follow the next steps in order to get your product to market. 1. If you’re developing an ebook, you’ll need to publish it in a format that is easy to download and be easily accessible by everyone. Most ebooks these days are published in the pdf format. Even if the buyer doesn’t have a pdf reader installed on their computer they can easily obtain one free from Adobe. Creating an ebook in the pdf format is not that difficult either. There’s plenty of software available that can do this. I would recommend downloading ‘Open Office’ if it’s your first attempt at creating a pdf ebook. The Open Office software is free to download and it can also convert Word .doc files into pdf files. Very handy if you’re used to working with Microsoft Word. 2. Once the product had been completed to your satisfaction the next step is to create the marketing material and set up a sales page. For detailed information on how to promote your digital products read this article Apart from ebooks there are other digital products you might want to consider, such as software programs, mp3 audio files, screensavers, website templates, font and clip art packages, Wordpress templates, ringtones, games and iphone apps etc. Another digital product that is becoming more and more popular with content publishers, is video tutorials. These can also be packaged into downloadable files but generally produce quite large file sizes, even after they have been compressed.
As an alternative, you might sell access to them in a secure members area where the buyer pays a set fee to be able to view them. Ideally, for this you will need to set up an account with a company that can provide unlimited storage content and offer a streaming video service. Amazon S3 is one solution. Amazon S3 states that it can ... “provide a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web” As regards pricing they also say that you only pay for what you use.
For more details on their service click here By the way, most types of file can be compressed to make it easier and faster to download. As long as the customer has a file compression utility to decompress the file, it won’t be a problem. After sales service should also be considered in case of any problems that may arise. Some customers may ask you questions relating to the product, which may be technical in the case of problems with software, or possibly relating to the content you are providing, or how to access it if they are having difficulty with downloading it. You need to be prepared to answer queries quickly and politely. In some cases you may be asked for a refund, even though the customer has already had access to the product. There will always be a small proportion of people who may not be happy in some way with what they receive, in which case it is wise to give a refund to maintain your business integrity. If you’re getting too many refund requests however, you may have to re-evaluate the product, and whether it’s providing value for money, or whether there’s some other reason for it’s lack of success. |
