Sell digital products online like an proficient
Digital products provide all the pros of online shopping – condolement, convenience, unlimited options – and none of the cons. Picture it: you're browsing on your laptop, you discover an artsy print that y'all love, and… done! The file's on your desktop faster than you can alter out of your pajamas.
Selling digital downloads is an easy style to create a great customer experience. But how do you get started?
At that place are a few different sales channels at your disposal. Y'all can either sell through an online market place, or prepare your ain online store. An online marketplace is quicker for you to fix, but 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 feel like an information overload, which is why we've organized our findings after hours of enquiry to bring you the all-time platform for each sales channel.
iii of the All-time Places to Sell Digital Products
- Etsy is an online marketplace that will aid you sell rapidly 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 y'all
- WordPress is a more advanced CMS, which you'll have to host yourself. If you have the technical know-how, and so WordPress can assistance you lot create a powerful online shop
Read on for our full breakdown of each platform, and find out which is best for your own digital goals!
Desire the full scoop on how to brand money marketing your music? Explore our detailed guide to selling music online.
i
Etsy
Etsy is the queen bee of online marketplaces, with two.six million active sellers – and, more importantly, 44.8 million active buyers . It's managed to shake off the corporate ecommerce stereotype, and has instead become known equally the platform of choice for artistic, handmade, and original artwork and crafts. In other words, it'southward the best online marketplace for selling digital products.
Etsy Key Features
| Cost | twenty¢ listing fee, plus 3.5% of your sale toll |
|---|---|
| Pros | Huge popularity gives you lot a born audience Extremely quick setup process |
| Cons | Lots of competition for buyers' attending Not every bit customizable as Squarespace or WordPress |
| Who is Etsy all-time for? | Those looking to sell fast |
Because Etsy is already a household name, you won't accept to work very hard to build trust amid your customers. You lot also 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. In that location are currently over 60 1000000 items for sale on Etsy, and similar we said before, at that place are 2.6 million active sellers. That ways customers have a lot of options. And while y'all won't take to worry about getting people onto the site, you volition demand to call up almost how to stand out from every other seller.
If you're willing to try to cutting through the noise, and so Etsy is a great way to commencement selling quickly. All yous have to do is create an account and start uploading your products – it really is that unproblematic.
Etsy is free to bring together, only you'll have to fork over 3.five% of your sales, and pay the xx cent fee to list each product. A fair tradeoff, nosotros'd say, considering the ease of apply that the platform provides.
ii
Squarespace
Squarespace places fourth in our overall ecommerce website builder rankings, which nosotros've determined through hours of testing and research. Squarespace has all of the necessary tools for selling online, plus the all-time template designs that we've seen – so it'll exist actually easy to give your store its own personality and style.
The benefit of ecommerce website builders similar Squarespace is that y'all get a set up-made, just still hands personalized store at an all-in-one cost. A professional customer service team is on mitt if you demand it, and you won't have to think almost hosting at all – everything is taken care of for you.
Unlike ecommerce heavy-hitters like BigCommerce and Shopify, Squarespace makes it a lot easier to customize your brand. That'due south considering it's more geared towards small and medium-sized shops who don't have the fourth dimension or money to rent a dedicated digital team.
Most importantly, Squarespace is the best website architect for selling digital downloads. Not merely is it cheaper than other ecommerce builders, with higher quality templates to emphasize digital products, but it also:
- Has the digital production pick built in, while other builders like Shopify require an app
- Offers time-sensitive download links that elapse in 24 hours, to minimize unauthorized sharing
Squarespace also offers unlimited storage space on every plan, which is perfect for keeping multiple digital products in your shop.
Squarespace Primal Features
| Price | $18/calendar month, plus 3% transaction fee |
|---|---|
| Pros | Huge choice of built-in features Easy to use, but still customizable Built-in customer support services |
| Cons | Have to promote your own site Less customizable than WordPress |
| Who is Squarespace all-time for? | Those who want the most personalized store |
The cheapest Squarespace plan that you tin sell digital downloads with is the Business organisation plan, which costs $18 per calendar month. With this plan, you lot can sell unlimited products and manage your inventory with ease.
Every Squarespace plan as well comes with a 14-mean solar day free trial, then you can attempt this builder out risk-free.
iii
WordPress
WordPress.org – not to be confused with its simpler counterpart, WordPress.com – is a Content Direction System (CMS). A CMS is a more powerful, scalable tool than a website builder, and tin arrange more files (i.east. content).
WordPress is highly customizable, only you won't enjoy whatsoever of these benefits unless you have a degree of technical know-how. If y'all 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 means you'll have to cull a hosting provider yourself. WordPress.org has been recommending Bluehost's hosting plans since 2005, and this provider really earned the " Best for WordPress Specific Hosting " title in our own research. Bluehost'south seamless integration with WordPress and WordPress plugins makes it a reliable hosting option.
WordPress Central Features
| Cost | $iv.95/month (minimum) |
|---|---|
| Pros | Extremely customizable Lots of scalability |
| Cons | More complex setup process Technical cognition is mandatory No dedicated help and back up team |
| Who is WordPress best for? | Those who programme to calibration their store |
The most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress is WooCommerce – but if you only desire to sell digital downloads, and then WooCommerce is actually not your best option. You tin sell digital products with WooCommerce, but it will also come up with too many features that merely apply to concrete products, such as shipping options.
Instead of WooCommerce, y'all'll want something more specific. Another WordPress plugin, called Piece of cake Digital Downloads, ticks all the right boxes. Information technology is designed to work with any WordPress theme, though in that location are too themes created specifically for Easy Digital Downloads. You can hands have payments via Amazon or PayPal, and you can upload whatsoever kind of digital file to sell on your site. Depending on what you'd similar to get out of this plugin, you lot can opt for the gratuitous or paid version.
WordPress is an open up-source software, which ways the original source lawmaking is freely available for users to modify and redistribute every bit they similar. This means that there is no defended WordPress help and back up team; instead, you'll have to rely on help from cyberspace forums.
To kickoff a WordPress site with Bluehost, you'll have to purchase a Bluehost plan. At that place are a lot of hosting services to cull from, but to sell digital downloads, we recommend Bluehost's Bones WordPress hosting plan .
The introductory price for the Bones WordPress program is $4.95/calendar month when you pay for i year in advance (you can also pay for three years in advance at $two.95/month, simply one twelvemonth is a lower-risk commitment). Later on the starting time year, that $4.95/calendar month renews at $7.99/month, which is a pretty standard pricing bound for the hosting industry.
While hosting is the just definite cost yous'll have with a WordPress store, there will realistically exist a few other things you'll end upwardly paying for, like avant-garde ecommerce functionalities or heightened site security. Of course, information technology's up to you how much y'all end up spending beyond the base hosting price, but it'due south good to keep in mind that WordPress pricing is less all-inclusive than that of an ecommerce website builder.
Tips for Selling Digital Products Successfully
By now, you lot know which platforms are all-time for selling digital downloads. But do you know how to sell digital downloads successfully?
We've compiled all of the necessary tips and tricks that will give your business that extra button. Here's what you demand to do to take your digital downloads to the side by side level:
- Know the divergence betwixt licensing and ownership
- Don't skimp on scanning
- Use SEO best practices
- Build your social media presence
Know the difference between licensing and buying
You ain your artwork/photography/digital content. When you sell that content online, whoever buys it is ownership a license to use it. This is dissimilar from buying and selling in the physical sense. If you purchase a dresser at a thou sale, you now own that dresser, and have the right to and then sell it to someone else. This is not true for digital content, which means your piece of work is protected from unfair redistribution.
In that location are different types of licenses that you can cull to grant to your buyers. For instance, you can requite customers the right to print out multiple copies of your work, or merely one. You can as well give buyers the right to utilise your work only in the means specified by your list – for example, you lot accept control over the way your artwork gets copied, distributed, and/or displayed.
Don't skimp on scanning
Some of your piece of work may have been created online, which makes uploading it to your website unproblematic. Simply if y'all're wondering how to sell digital downloads of physical artwork, this side by side department is for you.
There are 2 bones options for getting physical art online with ease: scanning and photographing. If your physical art is eight.5" 10 11" or smaller, yous'll be able to employ an at-home scanner that connects to your reckoner. For larger artwork, you'll want to have it scanned at a printing shop. From there, y'all can become the file sent to your electronic mail, or you can provide a flash bulldoze for it to exist uploaded to.
The photography option is a little riskier – you'll have to use a quality camera, like a DSLR, and make sure that each photo is taken at a high resolution. No matter what yous do, resist the temptation to take a photo with your smartphone. No matter how quality the image looks, the screen on a cell phone is too small to permit for the file to exist printed conspicuously later on.
Apply 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 volition rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and the more people will find them.
Search engines want their users to have a straightforward experience, and a large function of SEO is making sure your details and descriptions are articulate. There are a few elementary actions yous can have to help your products stand out:
- Use keywords. Relevant keywords turn into relevant tags for your item listings – call up nigh the kinds of phrases you'd search for as a consumer looking for your product, and stick to them!
- Give your product a descriptive championship tag. A good championship tag volition encourage potential buyers to click. The championship tag is the clickable headline on the SERPs that leads people to your product page, so you'll want to keep it elementary and concise.
- Write a dazzling product description. A production description is the copy that users will view equally a summary of what you're selling, so you'll want to proceed it specific and engaging – and, like the title tag, it should tell people exactly what your product is.
- Add alt text to your images. Alt text is the descriptive text that appears in identify of an image when it has trouble loading. This chemical element is important in any example, only particularly for ecommerce SEO, considering buyers want to know exactly what they're going to exist getting.
Build your social media presence
Social media is a promotional tool that will benefit you regardless of whether you're selling on Etsy, Squarespace or WordPress. Consider platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as opportunities to widen your audience and appoint with people. Once you've built a proper name for yourself on social media, you can employ those platforms to drive traffic back to your site.
Some companies use social media really well. Square Sayings sells wall art, phone cases, and the like, all decorated with funny sayings that take gotten a lot of date on its Instagram folio, which has an impressive 163k followers.
By letting users interact with products before ownership annihilation, Square Sayings has generated a ton of buzz around its brand.
With Squarespace and WordPress, you lot can also use social media-specific apps and plugins to add certain 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 brand it like shooting fish in a barrel for customers to spread the discussion nigh your products!
7 Digital Products to Sell Online
In case y'all're in demand of inspiration, here are seven examples of digital products you can sell online:
- Music
- Art
- Services
- Ebooks
- Photography
- Designs
- Tech software
one. Sell Your Music Online
Selling your music directly from your website is a groovy fashion to monetize your talent other than creating merchandise and selling gig tickets. This fashion, you tin release new music directly to your fans, and promote your work anytime, anywhere.
Other audio products include:
- Audiobooks
- Sound furnishings
- Recorded language lessons
two. Sell Your Art as Digital Downloads
Gallery fees are expensive, hiring out a shop is expensive, and carrying your fine art effectually the streets to try and sell to tourists is tiring. Why not sell your fine art online instead? If yous create digital prints of your work, you lot can turn them into wallpapers or avatars for utilise on phones or online.
Other ideas for those with the creative touch include:
- Video animations
- Custom illustrations
- Printable calendars
3. Offer Your Digital Services
Y'all don't have to meet your client in person to offering your services online. You tin run online courses, offering translation services, or editing jobs, to proper name just a few. By creating courses online and working with clients digitally, you can work from the comfort of your own home, at whatever hours arrange you, and y'all relieve time travelling to and from each chore.
Other examples of digital services you tin offer include:
- Design services
- Fitness plans
- Tutoring
four. Create an Ebook to Sell Online
If you take an area of expertise or niche cognition, you might want to write an ebook or create an online form that people tin can purchase and download. People like learning online because information technology gives them the flexibility of plumbing fixtures their interests into their own schedules.
In that location are tons of different ways you lot can put an ebook or online learning course together – call up about including:
- Presentations
- Videos
- Quizzes
5. Monetize Your Photography Skills
Perhaps you take photos for the dearest of it, or possibly yous never thought to monetize it because setting up a studio or popup shop was beyond your budget. All the same, by digitizing your photos or taking your photography skills online, yous tin can make some coin directly from your website.
Here are some ways you lot can 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 there's a lot of selection involved if you lot have the right skillset. Creating logos is a great style of getting started, as at that place's a pretty loftier demand for good quality designs.
Other ways of selling digital design products includes:
- Creating infographics
- Designing fonts
- Branding websites
vii. Sell Tech Software
It makes sense that selling tech software online would exist a popular, and often lucrative, manner to sell digital products. Whether you lot develop apps or WordPress themes, y'all're in a great position to attract customers to your digital store.
Hither are some extra examples of tech software you could sell digitally through your site:
- Hosting packages
- Games
- Browser or website plugins
Hopefully y'all're now feeling inspired and gear up to start selling your own digital products!
How to Sell Digital Downloads: Summary
At present that you know the basics of selling digital products successfully, you have a few decisions to make! The start is determining whether an online market place, an ecommerce website architect, or a self-hosted WordPress site is the all-time sales channel for you.
To assistance you get-go selling digital products sooner, nosotros've narrowed the best platform for each sales channel:
- Etsy: all-time online market place
- Squarespace: best ecommerce website builder
- WordPress: best cocky-hosted CMS
If you're having a hard time choosing, Squarespace provides a great blend of the sales functions you get with Etsy and the customization you get with WordPress – it'due south the best of both worlds.
Regardless of which platform you choose, you tin can trust our top tips for successfully selling products online. To recap, these are:
- Know the divergence betwixt licensing and ownership
- Don't skimp on scanning
- Utilise SEO best practices
- Build your social media presence
And if you're in need of some inspiration, we likewise whizzed through some examples of digital products to sell online. The key is playing to your strengths as well equally playing to the market place, so have a think near what you lot've already got to offer. To sell digital products online, consider:
- Music
- Art
- Services
- Ebooks
- Photography
- Designs
- Tech software
…and now y'all're ready to go! Good luck with your site, and let united states of america know which platform yous like best in the comments!
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