What is Digital Products? (Definition & Examples) |
If you've ever slipped in a tangle of posts on "passive revenue" or "how you can earn money online," you've probably come upon the word "digital product." And you might be confused as to what a digital product is and how it differs from a traditional product, and how one goes in creating and selling the digital version of a product.
In this piece We'll tackle the issue: "What are digital products?" And we'll give you some benefits and illustrations to inspire you to create your own.
The post...
What is an electronic product?
Digital products are a benefit
The challenges of the sale of digital goods
What exactly is a digital product?
Digital products are digital good that is created to be sold or bought on the internet. It is often can even be consumed on the internet (except when it comes to printables). Contrary to the physical goods you purchase on the internet, which must be placed in a container filled with packing peanuts, and then sent out, digital goods can be delivered online, usually instantly after your purchase.
The web has created a brand new method of conducting business that made it possible for an explosion of different kinds of products, plus the digitization of a bunch of traditional products. The old days, you would go to the bookstore to buy the most recent edition of Harry Potter. Now you might just purchase it through your electronic device or phone. Once upon a time it was common to purchase an old-fashioned paper calendar or planner. Now you probably use digital project management software or Google Calendar.
Benefits of digital products
Digital goods are an excellent way to make money for entrepreneurs who are creative. Below are a few advantages!
Scale: Digital goods are often endlessly scalable. If you decide to sell a brand book or course that is a new digital format there is no need to create the same thing again. The user simply has access to the digital item by means of a paywall. That's a huge advantage for a brand-you don't need to think about things like manufacturing or shipping. The brand can simply continue selling!
Recurring revenue: Some digital goods or services are sold on a membership (or subscription) model. This can create a ongoing revenue that is repaid monthly by businesses. A majority of SaaS businesses operate on this type of model (think Microsoft), as well as subscription content (e.g. Netflix as well as The New York Times ).
Simple: Physical goods require manufacturing, quality control, shipping, returns, and much more. Digital goods don't have this. This means that an online business could offer a way to greater profits.
Automation: If you're in the elusive quest for passive income, digital products can be automated like nothing else.
Simple to make: Every year, software tools for creating digital products discussed below get more and more readily available, which makes it simpler and more straightforward to design them. Improved platforms, greater features and payments that are easier, larger marketplaces on the internet with greater saturation-the access to digital products continues to grow.
Problems in selling digital products
But don't be fooled by their simplicity. While digital goods are all over the place, it can take a lot of work to make a good one as well as many of them don't even sell. These are the problems with selling digital products:
- Oversaturation: We live in the age of digital products oversaturation. So putting any old item in a PDF and putting an price on it will likely not bring you many customers. The most effective digital products are well-researched, well-executed, and constantly developed.
- Increased competitors: Buying a product within your local area means you have to compete against local companies. Selling a digital product online means competing with EVERYONE.
- There's a lot of free content: In the event that your knowledge is available freely on YouTube this is more than a struggle to make it sell.
- Customer fatigue: Most of us are bombarded with digital offers and products daily. Sometimes a digital product could be seen as another form of X.
- It is sometimes viewed as less valuable: You could put your soul and heart into an online product yet it's sometimes thought to be less worth the same as its physical counterpart. (It's important to be clear on its value proposition. )
- You need digital marketing: You don't have a storefront. Selling digital products requires the ability to master some type or method of acquisition by digital means.
How to Sell Digital Products
Each of the cases below, we'll offer some suggestions for how you can market your digital product. Above all, there's one model of business that we like. A community flywheel. A community flywheel was named one of the most successful business models in the future by McKinsey and is an excellent reason to throw your sales funnel out of the door.
Contrary to funnels that sell only a small portion of the potential buyers, a community flywheel occurs by consciously creating communities, get the right brand message that's infectious and then provide that communities with relevant content (after when your community members begin producing content of their own). If you are launching a digital product in this environment, it makes selling effortless... This is the ideal way to promote an online product.
It's about creating a an environment for customers, fans, followers, or whatever, to convert into members. If they are members of a group then you've a formula for growth driven by members that can propel your business up.
You can read further regarding creating your own flywheel by clicking here. .
Examples of digital goods
We've got a longer listing of some possible digital product ideas, but here are some illustrations of digital goods.
1. eBooks
eBooks were one of the first digital products however, they're not finished! The forecast is that eBook sales will amount to $14.7 billion dollars by 2023. And with tools like Amazon for sales or Reedsy for creating and typing books, the technology is now more readily available more than ever.
If you're creating and selling your own eBook, you'll need to find the intersection between what your ideal readers need/want and what you know (or you'll have to find writers who know it better that you do).
However, you'll need find out the best way to market your book and achieve profits (collecting the funds).
Guides for selling eBooks
- Take the time to make a quality product. The readers who are enthralled by your work are more likely be inclined to recommend it to other people. Provide value, and make sure that the book is easy to read as well as interesting. Find beta readers to give you feedback early and think about hiring an editor who is professional.
- Do your research. Learn what your readers want. If you're writing nonfiction, what are they looking to achieve? What can your book do to help to accomplish? You can even interview a few people before you start.
- Make sure you optimize your site for SEO. Amazon is also a search engine. If the book's title is in line to what people are looking for, then it has a better chance of selling (For instance, "How to pay flamenco guitar" or "How to begin a hair salon ").
- Create a professional appearance. It is possible to use a software such as Reedsy to professionally typeset your book at no cost.
2. Online Courses
Online Courses started as simple online teaching-when they started, they were just a blog post. However, eLearning has grown into an $848 billion market.
Online courses still dominate digital services, and also transformed the higher education industry. One of the biggest changes currently is the increase in cohort courses-that's a course that's taught live online-which is better for the students as well as yields superior result!
How to sell online classes
- Do your research: Again, it's not radical advice however, a course that is successful starts with an Ideal Student. Choose the student you want to teach-and study the transformation they'd like! What are the outcomes that an online course give them?
- Make transformation a selling point. Beware of the temptation to share with your students all the information you've learned. Instead, give them only things they'll need to accomplish the changes (goals) they want to accomplish.
- Try a cohort course. Honestly, there are so many pre-recorded online (asynchronous) courses you can choose from. The courses taught by cohorts are conducted live, letting instructors and students get to know one another and learn together. These courses are distinctive for students, as they pay a premium for them.
- You can find more niches than it is necessary to. In the face of so many competitors, your niche has become more crucial more than ever. Consider, for instance, putting aside a generic course (e.g. "marketing") but instead consider something that is particular ("SEO strategies for small companies .")
3. Apps
The market for apps is growing exponentially, and is expected to reach $755.5 billion in 2027. The rapid growth of software as well as more and more flexible ways of monetizing a mobile app makes apps an online product that we will see for a long time to be.
Tips for selling apps
- Find out who you want to be your target market before you build. It's always a good idea interview some potential users. Think about the benefits that the app will do for them.
- Find a strategy for monetizing that is compatible with your desired Revenue Per User. This lets you make more money from less users when you decide to choose.
- Write a concise description, catchy visuals, and test the UX (or check that the app development firm you choose to work with does).
- Collect reviews quickly as you can.
We build awesome community apps using Mighty Pro! Call us to discuss your ideas.
4. Software
If you have coding experience, creating software to sell-either as a SaaS solution or white label product can be a very attractive digital item. The creation of software can be extremely flexible. If your program meets the market's needs this could be the path to huge profits.
A few kinds of digital goods which are considered to be software include:
- SaaS instruments
- Premium web themes
- Premium browser extensions
- White-label software for selling in an online market
Selling tips for software
Here are a few tips for creating and selling a software solution.
- Choose the business model which makes sense for your service. Having a SaaS model that's Freemium may be ideal for a browser extension that's in-demand or a premium service. Certain products may be best white labeled and repeated sales.
- Consider the amount of support that you'll need to provide. If you're selling software that's going be used regularly and your customers need to know they can get support when they require it, and you'll probably have regularly update your software.
5. Printables
Printables are STILL working as an online product, which is cool. Create some kind of information or artwork-a budget, art, house plan, etc.--and people can pay to download the document and print it on their own. Platforms like Etsy make it really easy to offer printables for sale.
When you're selling printed materials, the majority of people buy them because the information on the printout solves problems they face (e.g. the calculator cheat sheet) It also helps users organize things they might not normally (e.g. an excellent project management tool) It can also be creative and appealing (e.g. an artwork piece ).
Tips for selling print-friendly materials
- Explore marketplaces. Unless there is already a significant amount of traffic on your website or followers in the market, it might make best sense to offer printables on a marketplace-that way you can focus on creating your best products (and let them take care of the store front).
- Etsy's the top printables marketplace, but Amazon and Facebook Marketplace can also work.
- Make sure you format the right. Research ways to format your printable or else you'll be left with unhappy clients!
6. Communities
Our favorite digital product is an online community! Communities thrive by creating businesses that are based on member participation where discussions and changes take place. And yup, you can sell memberships, and/or courses, events or private group memberships, and much more!
It's incredibly simple with our modern community platform-our Mighty Co-Host(tm) tool makes use of AI to build a community on your behalf! It is also possible to build your brand on your own platform, and even get an app with your logo should you wish.
Tips for selling communities
- You must have a clearly defined Big Goal to bring your community together around a shared value.
- Charge a membership fee -Our typical community costs between $27 and $33 per month, and we've found that communities with paid memberships tend to have better engagement; people are able to appreciate the value they receive for what they spend.
- Make use of a contemporary community platform which gives users everything they need to create a thriving community: discussion forums, chat & messages, classes as well as live events and more.
You can now read: 16 killer digital product ideas (+ how to launch)