Contents
Building Your Digital
Store.....
Selling Products With
Shopify....
Selling Products
With Amazon....
Introduction
Have
you ever wanted to sell digital products online? If so, you’ve likely
researched many of the different options available to online vendors.
From
ecommerce software to shopping cart plugins and applications, there are many
ways to get your storefront up and running.
The
great news is that anyone can sell digital products. Better yet, with no
overhead, or inventory to worry about, you can easily set up shop over the
course of one weekend!
So,
the question is; how do you get started?
Depending
on the type of products you intend to sell, and whether you need a feature
laden ecommerce solution, complete with all the bells and whistles or an all-in-one simplified
digital delivery system, there are many different options available. We’ll take
a closer look at some of the best and easiest options, as well as the most affordable.
It’s
my hope that this special report will help you to quickly start selling digital
products without getting confused or overwhelmed along the
way.
With the digital economy booming, and over $100 billion dollars in digital products sold yearly, there’s
never been a better time to create your own digital storefront and get in on the action.
Are you excited
yet? If so, let’s get started!
Getting Started
When planning your digital storefront, the first thing
you’ll need to do is decide what kind of
digital products you want to sell. That way, you can choose an ecommerce
platform that does exactly what you need.
There
are many different types of digital products to sell, such as books, software,
graphics, videos and music, just to name a few. There are also just as many
ways to sell that content, including paid access via a membership or
subscription site where you can bill customers on a recurring basis, as well as
selling individual digital products through a shopping cart system.
But, what if you just aren’t sure what type of digital
content you intend to sell – or, you wish to expand your storefront in the
future to include additional product formats?
For
many of us, we start out selling individual products and later branch out to
include collections, or additional auxiliary components that enhance the value
of our front running product.
To
do that, you’ll need a robust system that can manage upsells, one- time-offers,
time sensitive offers and possibly give you the opportunity to rebill customers
on a regular basis for ongoing access to your digital content.
If
you aren’t sure what kind of products you intend to sell, or you want to choose
a digital storefront solution that will allow you to sell any type of digital
content imaginable, allowing you to branch out as your business grows,
I highly recommend that you check
out Product Dyno.
Product
Dyno is a powerful, yet user-friendly system that allows you to sell an
unlimited number of digital products either with your own domain or a
sub-domain offered through their system.
What I like most about it Product Dyno that you can sell
virtually any kind of digital product you can think of, including licenses to
plugins, apps and software, and they make it exceptionally easy with a point
and click interface that will guide you through the entire process.
It’s
one of the easiest ways to get started, even if you’ve never done anything like
this before, or you have limited time to dedicate to setting up your shop.
You can grab a
copy of Product Dyno here: https://productdyno.com
Side
Note: If you are
anything like me and you want to prevent serial refunders from gaining access
to your content only to turn around and dispute the charge, you can also use
Product Dyno to immediately revoke access to your content. It’s simply one of
the most robust, feature-rich solutions online.
If
you want to build your own brand online, rather than simply point customers to
a sub domain remotely hosted by your digital storefront provider, you’ll want
to register a domain name. Even if you choose to let your digital market
provider host your files, you can still point your domain to the sub-domain
and build your own unique brand.
If you are looking for cheap domain name registrations
from a company that’s been around for over a decade, check out www.NameCheap.com or www.GoDaddy.com
Cool
Resource: If you want to
check the availability of domain names on the fly, visit http://www.InstantDomainSearch.com and
begin
entering
in keywords. The website will tell you whether a domain is available as you
type in characters.
Once
you have the domain, and you know what kind of digital products you intend to
sell, you’ll want to decide whether you plan to host the website yourself, or
use a service that remotely hosts your products for you.
This is referred
to as “self-hosted” or “remotely hosted”.
Remotely hosted simply means that the provider will host
your digital storefront for you, where with a self-hosted platform, you are
setting up your own website and installing ecommerce software.
With
a solution like Product Dyno, for example, you can create sub domains for all
your digital product sales pages, or use your own website and Product Dyno can
easily protect all your product pages.
If
you choose to set up your own hosting account so that you can store files and
build your website, I recommend Blue
Host as they are not only
incredibly affordable and offer fast and reliable servers, but they offer
top-notch customer support.
Depending
on whether you plan to store your own files, you’ll want to upgrade to a larger
server, go dedicated, or you could create an
account with a service like Amazon AWS that will host all of your files.
You can take a look at their plans here: https://aws.amazon.com
Once
you have a domain and hosting account, you’ll be able to start building your
product pages and sell your digital products!
To recap:
1:
Create a content plan that outlines the different types of digital products
that you wish to sell.
2:
Purchase a digital delivery and product protection system like www.ProductDyno.com, or
an alternative solution.
3. Register a domain
name or use an existing one.
4.
Set up a hosting account with
BlueHost, or another provider, so that you can begin building your product
pages and sales copy.
Building
Your Digital Store
If
you want to set up shop quickly and easily, and you plan to host your own files
and create your own website that features your digital product pages, I recommend installing
Wordpress. Not only will it be easier to create an attractive website (even if
you lack design experience), but you can set up a fully-functional ecommerce
website using powerful plugins that instantly add shopping cart functionality
to your website.
Most
hosting providers offer one-click Wordpress installation so you don’t have to
manually upload files, or configure anything. If you’ve chosen BlueHost as your
hosting provider, you’ll be able to access this feature from within your main
account manager. Just log in and search for “Wordpress Installation” to get
started.
Tip: If you need help with Wordpress, one of
my favorite resources for beginners is found at http://www.WPBeginners.com. This
website offers comprehensive tutorials
and guides on everything Wordpress,
from customizing your themes, to optimizing your website for the major search engines using free plugins.
Wordpress
is one of the most popular content management system online, and one of the
easiest to use so don’t be afraid to give it a try. It’ll make building and
designing your own storefront or digital shop a lot easier.
When it comes to building a digital product store that
features a shoppig cart system, WooCommerce is one of the more popular plugins.
You’ll
have to spend some time configuring the plugin to work the way you want it to,
but once you’ve set it up it will add shopping card functionality to your
website, and automatically deliver your products to paying customers.
Here are my favorite shopping cart plugins for Wordpress:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/ https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-easycart/
If
you really don’t want to build your own digital storefront, or if you already
have a website that features sales copy for your products but
you
are looking for an easy way to protect your files and automate the process from
checkout to delivery, Product Dyno is definitely the better option.
Here’s how I’ve used Product Dyno
to sell some of my information products without needing a hosting account, but
still being able to build my own brand:
Step 1: I registered a domain that matches the
kind of content I am selling. For example, if you were planning to sell a
course on Social Marketing for business owners, you might register something
like SocialMarketingExpert, or SocialMarketingGuide.
Step 2: I log into my Product Dyno account and
set up a product page. Instead of using a free sub-domain offered by Product
Dyno, I choose to use a custom domain. All I have to do in order for my domain
to work with Product Dyno’s system is log into my domain registrar account and
change my DNS servers to point to app.productdyno.com
After
a day or two, my DNS settings will propagate and whenever potential customers
enter my domain name into a search engine or
visit it directly,
they will automatically be directed to my product
page
hosted by Product
Dyno!
It’s
that easy. That way, instead of having to spend time customizing templates and
configuring plugins or shopping carts, I can spend my time developing new
digital products. J
Selling
Products With Shopify
Another
easy way to set up a digital shop is with Shopify. Not only is the interface
easy to navigate, but Shopify will host everything for you.
In case you
aren’t that familiar with Shopify, here’s a quick overview:
·
Shopify offers merchants a
remotely-hosted solution to selling digital products via their “Digital Downloads App”.
·
All you have to do is upload your
digital product, set a price, and your customer will be guided through the
entire process from purchase to delivery. Better yet, you can automate the
entire process so that orders are immediately
fulfilled!
Shopify
is also one of the most cost effective ways to sell both physical and digital
products online, although I personally prefer it for physical products.
Also,
if you’re not skilled with web design and don’t want to mess with HTML or code,
you can easily snag a copy of one of their free templates
and create a beautiful digital shop within a few minutes.
Another great thing about Shopify is that there are many
different third-party developers working on creating plugins and scripts that
enhance the functionality of your Shopify store.
For
example, one developer offers a simple way to sell hundreds of physical
products through drop shipping where you never have to worry about shipments or inventory costs,
while being able to tap into a massive
catalog of hot-selling products.
You
can find out more about this plugin here: https://www.oberlo.com/
Another
way to sell digital products through Shopify is by installing a third-party app
called SendOwl. With SendOwl, they
will host your digital products for you while ensuring reliable delivery of
your products.
You
can also set up time sensitive download links that encourage potential
customers to make the purchase before the offer is no longer available.
At the time of this writing,
SendOwl is the highest rated digital delivery app on the Shopify marketplace.
SendOwl is
available here: https://apps.shopify.com/sendowl
If
you are interested in selling access to music, stock photo or videos, you can
easily create custom pages on your store where you can offer paid access to all
of this content.
Customers
will be able to create a free account, purchase their “digital pass”, and log
into their account. One of the best
solutions we’ve found is Sky Pilot,
available here: https://apps.shopify.com/sky-pilot
Note: Shopify starts at around $30 per month.
To recap:
1: Create a Shopify account and choose your
storefront theme. You’ll be able to
choose from both free and premium (paid to use) templates directly from within
your account.
2: Create your content pages and set up your
products. Be sure to add a terms and
conditions page, as well as a privacy page. You can do that using Shopify’s
free page generator here: https://www.shopify.com/tools/policy-generator/terms-and-conditions
3.
Configure your settings including
your preferred payment provider. Disable the “shipping” setting if you plan to
sell only digital products. You can do this from within the Products page.
4.
Add your digital products to your
Shopify store. Be sure to provide as much information about your products as possible.
5.
Configure your email templates.
These are sent out via the Shopify system whenever someone purchases a product.
6.
Place a test order to ensure
everything is working properly. You won’t be charged for making test orders.
7.
Register a domain name and direct
it to your Shopify URL. (Not necessary, but it helps you build your own brand).
You
can find out more here: https://www.shopify.ca/sell/digital- products
Selling Products With Amazon
If
you’ve written a book, report, or online course, you can put it in front of
thousands of potential buyers just by creating a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)
account with Amazon.
Why should you sell your digital
products on Amazon? Here are just a few reasons:
·
Approximately 5% of all internet
traffic visits Amazon.com each month.
· Amazon is the 5th most visited
website in the United States.
· Amazon is the 14th most visited
website in the entire world.
·
Amazon has captured one of the most
lucrative demographics in existence – childless women over age 35 making
$60,000+ per year.
The
KDP program allows authors and publishers to make their content available for
sale through the Kindle platform as well as in paperback format through either
your KDP account, or www.CreateSpace.com
There
are two price points in place based on your digital content pricing:
·
Earn 70% of every sale of your
digital product when it’s priced between $2.99 and $9.99.
·
Earn 35% of every sale of your
digital product when it’s priced between $0.99 and $2.98 and on products
$10 and up.
 |
Obviously,
the most lucrative price point for your digital content is between $2.99 and
$9.99.
Once
you publish one of your information products on the platform, it will be available to anyone who has a Kindle
device, as well as anyone who downloads the Kindle app to their computer, or
mobile device. The Kindle app is available for both Mac and PC computers, as
well as many different devices including
iOS (for iPad and iPhone)
and Android.
You
can publish nearly anything on the KDP platform, as long as it is original
content and not private label material, and that you own the rights to publish
the content. You are also not allowed to sell content that is available free on
other websites, unless you set it as free on Amazon as well. Amazon’s terms
indicate that they must always be offering the best price point
on products sold within their marketplace.
Here
are a just few ideas of digital products you can sell:
· Short stories
· Box
sets/collections of content
· Cookbooks
· How-to books
· Novels
· Online courses
compiled into one book
· Poetry collections
To
get started, create your free KDP account here: http://kdp.amazon.com
When
you create your account, you’ll be asked to provide payment information, your
address and citizenship.
You
can change your payment preferences at any time. Just keep in mind that should you change your details in
the middle of a regular payment, it could delay your payments from being
disbursed. Double check your bank account information to ensure that it’s
accurate before you publish your digital product.
Keep in mind that your book can
take 24-48 hours to appear on the Kindle marketplace, and during that time you
are unable to make any changes to your submission.
When
your books’ status changes from within your KDP account, you can then make
changes, including price changes, description changes
and
even category changes but keep in mind that each time you make any changes your
book it goes back into “review” mode and can take another 24-48 hours to
update.
There are 3
main stages of updates: Review, Publishing and Live.
v
Review means that your digital
content is being reviewed by Amazon staff in order to ensure that it follows
their publishing guidelines.
v
Publishing means that your content
has been approved and is now being published in the Amazon marketplace.
v Live means your
content is now available for purchase.
Tip: Amazon offers
authors with the opportunity to create an Author Page that is connected to all
your digital content. You can do this through “Author Central” at http://AuthorCentral.com
Building this bio page will help you reach out to new
readers, connect with existing ones and share your most up-to-date information
about you. You can also link your blog to this page and your recent posts will
automatically be
added to your author page on Amazon.
Aside
from Amazon, you should also consider selling your digital content on other marketplaces in order to
maximize your income. Other
marketplaces include: Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and through Apple and Kobo
I
do this with a free Draft 2 Digital account, available at http://www.Draft2Digital.com
With
Draft 2 Digital, I’m able to sell all my digital content across multiple marketplaces, all from within one
account. Smashwords (www.Smashwords.com) is another company that offers the same opportunity
to publish content across various networks all from within one centralized location.
Note: Both companies will
pay you monthly, via Paypal.
Resources
Here are links to
the resources found in this guide:
Product
Dyno: http://www.ProductDyno.com
Fast
and easy solution for selling digital products of all kinds. Highly
recommended. If you want to create a digital store or sell access to your digital
products in just a few hours, this is the best place to start.
Shopify: http://www.Shopify.com
Best
for physical products, but they also provide the option to sell digital product downloads. Remotely hosted option. Plans start at
$30 a
month.
Blue Host: http://www.BlueHost.com
Highly
recommended hosting provider offering affordable packages.
Amazon
file hosting offers: https://aws.amazon.com
Host
all your files, regardless of size, on Amazon AWS and never worry about using
up web space.
Amazon: http://kdp.amazon.com
Self-publishing
platform that enables you to sell all sorts of digital information products.
0 Comments
Post a Comment