Sell digital products online similar an expert
Digital products provide all the pros of online shopping – comfort, convenience, unlimited options – and none of the cons. Picture it: you're browsing on your laptop, you notice an artsy print that you lot honey, and… done! The file'southward on your desktop faster than you can change out of your pajamas.
Selling digital downloads is an easy way to create a great customer experience. Merely how do you go started?
There are a few unlike sales channels at your disposal. You can either sell through an online market place, or set upward your own online store. An online marketplace is quicker for yous to ready, simply an online shop more effectively communicates your brand personality to your shoppers. And presenting a brand that people identify with is vital: 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values.
This might experience like an information overload, which is why we've organized our findings after hours of research to bring you the best platform for each sales channel.
3 of the Best Places to Sell Digital Products
- Etsy is an online market that will assist you sell speedily and easily
- Squarespace is an ecommerce website architect that's feature-rich, easy to use, and takes care of all the behind-the-scenes techy stuff for you
- WordPress is a more advanced CMS, which you'll have to host yourself. If you have the technical know-how, then WordPress tin aid you lot create a powerful online shop
Read on for our full breakdown of each platform, and discover out which is best for your own digital goals!
Want the full scoop on how to make money marketing your music? Explore our detailed guide to selling music online.
1
Etsy
Etsy is the queen bee of online marketplaces, with 2.6 million active sellers – and, more chiefly, 44.8 1000000 active buyers . It'southward managed to milkshake off the corporate ecommerce stereotype, and has instead become known as the platform of selection for creative, handmade, and original artwork and crafts. In other words, it'south the best online marketplace for selling digital products.
Etsy Key Features
| Price | 20¢ listing fee, plus three.five% of your sale price |
|---|---|
| Pros | Huge popularity gives you lot a born audience Extremely quick setup procedure |
| Cons | Lots of competition for buyers' attending Not as customizable equally Squarespace or WordPress |
| Who is Etsy all-time for? | Those looking to sell fast |
Considering Etsy is already a household proper name, you won't have to piece of work very hard to build trust among your customers. You as well won't need to worry about driving traffic to the site – Etsy already promotes itself, and does so very successfully.
The downside of this popularity is competition. There are currently over 60 million items for sale on Etsy, and similar we said earlier, there are two.6 million active sellers. That means customers have a lot of options. And while you lot won't have to worry about getting people onto the site, you volition need to think about how to stand out from every other seller.
If you're willing to try to cut through the noise, then Etsy is a not bad way to outset selling quickly. All you have to practice is create an account and outset uploading your products – it actually is that simple.
Etsy is gratis to join, but you'll accept to fork over 3.v% of your sales, and pay the 20 cent fee to list each production. A fair tradeoff, we'd say, considering the ease of use that the platform provides.
ii
Squarespace
Squarespace places fourth in our overall ecommerce website builder rankings, which we've determined through hours of testing and enquiry. Squarespace has all of the necessary tools for selling online, plus the best template designs that nosotros've seen – so it'll exist really piece of cake to give your store its own personality and style.
The do good of ecommerce website builders like Squarespace is that you lot go a ready-made, but still easily personalized shop at an all-in-ane cost. A professional client service team is on hand if yous demand it, and you won't have to remember nigh hosting at all – everything is taken care of for you lot.
Unlike ecommerce heavy-hitters like BigCommerce and Shopify, Squarespace makes it a lot easier to customize your brand. That's considering it'southward more geared towards pocket-size and medium-sized shops who don't have the time or money to hire a defended digital team.
Most chiefly, Squarespace is the best website builder for selling digital downloads. Not only is it cheaper than other ecommerce builders, with higher quality templates to emphasize digital products, but it likewise:
- Has the digital product choice built in, while other builders like Shopify require an app
- Offers time-sensitive download links that expire in 24 hours, to minimize unauthorized sharing
Squarespace also offers unlimited storage space on every program, which is perfect for keeping multiple digital products in your shop.
Squarespace Key Features
| Price | $18/month, plus 3% transaction fee |
|---|---|
| Pros | Huge choice of built-in features Easy to use, but yet customizable Born customer support services |
| Cons | Have to promote your own site Less customizable than WordPress |
| Who is Squarespace best for? | Those who want the near personalized store |
The cheapest Squarespace plan that yous can sell digital downloads with is the Business plan, which costs $18 per month. With this programme, y'all can sell unlimited products and manage your inventory with ease.
Every Squarespace plan besides comes with a fourteen-day free trial, so yous tin try this architect out risk-free.
3
WordPress
WordPress.org – not to exist confused with its simpler counterpart, WordPress.com – is a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is a more than powerful, scalable tool than a website architect, and can adjust more than files (i.e. content).
WordPress is highly customizable, simply you won't enjoy whatsoever of these benefits unless yous take a caste of technical know-how. If you don't know how to code, you'll struggle to alter your site much beyond the initial theme you choose.
WordPress.org is a cocky-hosted platform, which ways you'll accept to choose a hosting provider yourself. WordPress.org has been recommending Bluehost's hosting plans since 2005, and this provider actually earned the " Best for WordPress Specific Hosting " title in our own research. Bluehost'due south seamless integration with WordPress and WordPress plugins makes information technology a reliable hosting option.
WordPress Key Features
| Price | $4.95/month (minimum) |
|---|---|
| Pros | Extremely customizable Lots of scalability |
| Cons | More than complex setup procedure Technical knowledge is mandatory No dedicated assistance and support team |
| Who is WordPress all-time for? | Those who plan to calibration their shop |
The well-nigh pop ecommerce plugin for WordPress is WooCommerce – but if you lot only desire to sell digital downloads, then WooCommerce is actually not your best option. You can sell digital products with WooCommerce, but it will likewise come with too many features that only apply to physical products, such every bit aircraft options.
Instead of WooCommerce, you'll want something more than specific. Some other WordPress plugin, chosen Easy Digital Downloads, ticks all the right boxes. It is designed to work with whatsoever WordPress theme, though there are besides themes created specifically for Like shooting fish in a barrel Digital Downloads. You tin easily accept payments via Amazon or PayPal, and you can upload whatsoever kind of digital file to sell on your site. Depending on what you'd like to become out of this plugin, you can opt for the free or paid version.
WordPress is an open-source software, which means the original source code is freely available for users to alter and redistribute as they like. This means that there is no dedicated WordPress help and support team; instead, you'll take to rely on assist from internet forums.
To start a WordPress site with Bluehost, you'll accept to purchase a Bluehost plan. At that place are a lot of hosting services to choose from, simply to sell digital downloads, we recommend Bluehost'southward Basic WordPress hosting plan .
The introductory cost for the Basic WordPress plan is $iv.95/month when yous pay for one twelvemonth in advance (yous tin can also pay for three years in advance at $two.95/calendar month, but one year is a lower-take a chance commitment). Subsequently the first year, that $4.95/month renews at $7.99/month, which is a pretty standard pricing leap for the hosting industry.
While hosting is the but definite price yous'll have with a WordPress shop, there will realistically be a few other things you'll end up paying for, similar advanced ecommerce functionalities or heightened site security. Of course, it's up to you how much you end up spending beyond the base hosting cost, but information technology's adept to keep in mind that WordPress pricing is less all-inclusive than that of an ecommerce website architect.
Tips for Selling Digital Products Successfully
By now, you know which platforms are best for selling digital downloads. Merely do yous know how to sell digital downloads successfully?
Nosotros've compiled all of the necessary tips and tricks that volition give your business organisation that extra button. Hither's what you need to exercise to take your digital downloads to the next level:
- Know the difference between licensing and ownership
- Don't skimp on scanning
- Use SEO all-time practices
- Build your social media presence
Know the divergence between licensing and ownership
You own your artwork/photography/digital content. When y'all sell that content online, whoever buys it is buying a license to use it. This is dissimilar from buying and selling in the physical sense. If you lot buy a dresser at a one thousand sale, you lot at present own that dresser, and accept the correct to then sell it to someone else. This is not truthful for digital content, which means your work is protected from unfair redistribution.
There are different types of licenses that you can choose to grant to your buyers. For example, you can give customers the correct to impress out multiple copies of your piece of work, or just 1. You tin besides requite buyers the right to employ your piece of work simply in the ways specified past your list – for case, you have control over the way your artwork gets copied, distributed, and/or displayed.
Don't skimp on scanning
Some of your work may have been created online, which makes uploading information technology to your website unproblematic. But if you lot're wondering how to sell digital downloads of physical artwork, this side by side section is for you.
At that place are two basic options for getting concrete fine art online with ease: scanning and photographing. If your concrete fine art is 8.five" X 11" or smaller, you lot'll be able to use an at-home scanner that connects to your estimator. For larger artwork, y'all'll want to have it scanned at a printing store. From in that location, y'all tin get the file sent to your email, or yous can provide a flash drive for it to be uploaded to.
The photography option is a niggling riskier – you lot'll accept to utilise a quality camera, like a DSLR, and make sure that each photo is taken at a loftier resolution. No affair what you lot practise, resist the temptation to have a photo with your smartphone. No matter how quality the paradigm looks, the screen on a jail cell phone is too small to allow for the file to be printed clearly later.
Use SEO all-time practices
SEO is often the deciding factor in whether or not your products will get the viewership that they deserve. The more recognizable your item listings are to search engines, the higher your product pages will rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and the more people volition discover them.
Search engines desire their users to have a straightforward experience, and a large office of SEO is making certain your details and descriptions are clear. There are a few simple actions you can take to help your products stand out:
- Employ keywords. Relevant keywords turn into relevant tags for your particular listings – think about the kinds of phrases you lot'd search for equally a consumer looking for your production, and stick to them!
- Give your production a descriptive title tag. A proficient title tag volition encourage potential buyers to click. The title tag is the clickable headline on the SERPs that leads people to your product page, and so you'll want to proceed information technology uncomplicated and concise.
- Write a dazzling product clarification. A product clarification is the copy that users will view as a summary of what you're selling, and so you'll want to go along it specific and engaging – and, like the championship tag, it should tell people exactly what your production is.
- Add alt text to your images. Alt text is the descriptive text that appears in place of an image when it has trouble loading. This element is important in any case, just especially for ecommerce SEO, because buyers want to know exactly what they're going to be getting.
Build your social media presence
Social media is a promotional tool that volition benefit you regardless of whether yous're selling on Etsy, Squarespace or WordPress. Consider platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as opportunities to widen your audience and engage with people. Once you've built a proper name for yourself on social media, you tin can apply those platforms to drive traffic back to your site.
Some companies use social media really well. Square Sayings sells wall art, telephone cases, and the like, all busy with funny sayings that have gotten a lot of engagement on its Instagram page, which has an impressive 163k followers.
By letting users collaborate with products earlier buying annihilation, Square Sayings has generated a ton of fizz effectually its brand.
With Squarespace and WordPress, you lot can also use social media-specific apps and plugins to add sure features to your site, similar icons that link to your various profiles, or a form that lets users comment and share your website posts on their own social pages. In other words, Squarespace and WordPress make it piece of cake for customers to spread the discussion nearly your products!
7 Digital Products to Sell Online
In case you're in demand of inspiration, here are seven examples of digital products you tin can sell online:
- Music
- Fine art
- Services
- Ebooks
- Photography
- Designs
- Tech software
1. Sell Your Music Online
Selling your music directly from your website is a bully style to monetize your talent other than creating merchandise and selling gig tickets. This way, you lot tin can release new music straight to your fans, and promote your work anytime, anywhere.
Other audio products include:
- Audiobooks
- Sound effects
- Recorded language lessons
2. Sell Your Fine art every bit Digital Downloads
Gallery fees are expensive, hiring out a shop is expensive, and carrying your art around the streets to endeavour and sell to tourists is tiring. Why not sell your art online instead? If you create digital prints of your work, y'all tin turn them into wallpapers or avatars for use on phones or online.
Other ideas for those with the creative bear on include:
- Video animations
- Custom illustrations
- Printable calendars
iii. Offer Your Digital Services
You don't take to meet your client in person to offer your services online. You lot can run online courses, offer translation services, or editing jobs, to name just a few. By creating courses online and working with clients digitally, you lot can work from the comfort of your own abode, at whatever hours arrange you, and you save time travelling to and from each job.
Other examples of digital services yous can offer include:
- Pattern services
- Fettle plans
- Tutoring
4. Create an Ebook to Sell Online
If you lot have an area of expertise or niche noesis, you might want to write an ebook or create an online course that people tin can buy and download. People like learning online because it gives them the flexibility of fitting their interests into their ain schedules.
There are tons of different ways yous can put an ebook or online learning class together – call up about including:
- Presentations
- Videos
- Quizzes
5. Monetize Your Photography Skills
Perhaps you accept photos for the love of it, or maybe y'all never thought to monetize it considering setting upwardly a studio or popup shop was beyond your upkeep. Withal, by digitizing your photos or taking your photography skills online, you can brand some money straight from your website.
Here are some ways you tin monetize your photography skills digitally:
- Create stock imagery
- Sell your lightroom presets
- Offer photo editing
6. Start Designing For the Web
Pattern skills are perfect for digitizing and selling online, and at that place's a lot of selection involved if you lot have the right skillset. Creating logos is a great way of getting started, every bit there'southward a pretty high demand for skilful quality designs.
Other means of selling digital pattern products includes:
- Creating infographics
- Designing fonts
- Branding websites
7. Sell Tech Software
It makes sense that selling tech software online would be a popular, and often lucrative, way to sell digital products. Whether you develop apps or WordPress themes, you're in a peachy position to attract customers to your digital store.
Here are some extra examples of tech software yous could sell digitally through your site:
- Hosting packages
- Games
- Browser or website plugins
Hopefully y'all're at present feeling inspired and ready to start selling your own digital products!
How to Sell Digital Downloads: Summary
At present that you know the nuts of selling digital products successfully, you accept a few decisions to brand! The first is determining whether an online marketplace, an ecommerce website architect, or a self-hosted WordPress site is the best sales channel for you.
To aid you lot first selling digital products sooner, we've narrowed the best platform for each sales aqueduct:
- Etsy: all-time online market place
- Squarespace: best ecommerce website architect
- WordPress: best self-hosted CMS
If y'all're having a hard time choosing, Squarespace provides a swell alloy of the sales functions you become with Etsy and the customization you go with WordPress – information technology'due south the best of both worlds.
Regardless of which platform you cull, you tin can trust our summit tips for successfully selling products online. To recap, these are:
- Know the departure between licensing and buying
- Don't skimp on scanning
- Use SEO best practices
- Build your social media presence
And if you're in demand of some inspiration, nosotros too whizzed through some examples of digital products to sell online. The key is playing to your strengths also every bit playing to the marketplace, so accept a think about what you've already got to offering. To sell digital products online, consider:
- Music
- Art
- Services
- Ebooks
- Photography
- Designs
- Tech software
…and at present you're ready to go! Good luck with your site, and let us know which platform yous similar best in the comments!
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