The Ultimate Handbook For Selling Digital Downloads

In this post, we’ll uncover the key strategies to sell digital downloads successfully. 

Key Takeaways

• Selling digital downloads involves 5 steps. Each of these steps is crucial. You should leverage marketing, SEO & social media to ensure your products reach your target audience and drive traffic to your sales channels. 
• Shopify is the top platform for selling digital downloads due to its user-friendly interface, secure payment options, and robust digital product management, making it the ultimate choice.

Where To Sell Digital Downloads

There are several online platforms where you can sell digital downloads, such as ebooks, music, artwork, templates, and more. Here are some popular options:

Shopify

Shopify revolutionizes website building through its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, erasing the necessity for coding skills. Tailoring your site to resonate with your brand identity is effortlessly achieved. From color palettes to logos and fonts, you wield complete creative control to craft a website that seamlessly aligns with your brand.

Additionally, Shopify offers a diverse range of over 150 free and paid themes, expediting the development process. Furthermore, Shopify ensures optimal display across mobile devices, guaranteeing smooth navigation and enhanced engagement.

Features

Shopify offers versatile domain options: use a free domain, transfer an existing one, or buy a new domain directly. This all-in-one approach eliminates third-party domain hassles, simplifying setup. For those focused on online sales growth, Shopify excels. Manage inventory efficiently and keep offerings up-to-date.

With 8,000+ apps, Shopify integrates seamlessly to enhance store functions, from marketing to shipping. Built-in SEO tools improve visibility, driving organic traffic. The mobile-friendly design ensures convenient shopping across devices, boosting engagement.

When dealing with digital products, utilizing an app to furnish a download link is essential. You’ll have to leverage an application sourced from the Shopify App Store to grant customers access to download your digital offerings. For instance, the Shopify Digital Downloads app offers a straightforward, cost-free solution. 

Pricing

Shopify provides 5 subscription plans, primarily designed for creating ecommerce platforms, with costs spanning from $39 to $2000+ per month. Opting for an annual subscription comes with a 25% initial fee reduction. It’s crucial to acknowledge that these rates are pertinent to the US, and divergences could arise in alternate regions. 

The initiation process includes a complimentary three-day trial period and an exclusive opportunity to pay just $1 per month for the initial three months. This setup enables you to comprehensively explore and assess Shopify’s features at a minimal upfront expense.

Pros

• All-in-one e-commerce solution
• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for effortless customization
• 150+ pre-designed themes for web creation
• Limitless bandwidth, products, and storage
• Integrated payment gateways and 100+ third-party options
• 8,000+ apps on Shopify’s app store for enhanced functionality
• Complimentary 10,000 monthly email marketing
• SEO optimization and blog integration

Cons

• No free plan
• Non-Shopify Payments transaction fees
• Extra charges apply to premium themes

Who should use Shopify?

• Artists and Creatives: For selling digital art, music, videos, and other creative content.
• Content Creators: Writers, photographers, videographers, and musicians looking to monetize their digital work.
• Online Educators: Those offering digital courses, e-books, tutorials, and educational content.
• Digital Product Sellers: Individuals or businesses selling downloadable files, software, plugins, and templates.
• NFT Sellers: Those dealing in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and looking for a platform to showcase and sell their digital collectibles.

Etsy

Etsy, a platform focused on handmade, vintage, and unique items, has historically emphasized ease of use in its web design. The platform offers simple navigation with clear menus for easy browsing, robust search and filtering options, and a straightforward shop setup for sellers. The product listing process is intuitive, allowing sellers to provide comprehensive details and images.

Features

Etsy boasts a massive and active community of buyers and sellers. This built-in audience contributes to a ready-made market for your digital downloads, significantly enhancing your chances of reaching interested buyers.

One of Etsy’s key features is its global reach. It lets you sell your digital downloads to customers worldwide, eliminating geographical barriers. This means you can tap into an international customer base and significantly expand your reach beyond local markets.

With digital downloads, you benefit from the advantage of unlimited inventory. Etsy also offers an array of built-in marketing tools and features. These tools are designed to assist you in promoting your digital downloads effectively. You can optimize your listings with relevant keywords, use social media sharing options, participate in Etsy’s advertising programs, and leverage the platform’s SEO-friendly structure. 

Etsy offers robust support for selling digital products with various file formats, customizable products, and license specifications, enhancing versatility. With tools for marketing, analytics, and mobile management, Etsy provides a comprehensive ecosystem for sellers of digital content, making it a favored choice for creators in this space.

Pricing

At the very least, you should aim to cover your expenses. Etsy imposes a $0.20 charge per listing, accompanied by a transaction fee of 6.5% and a payment processing fee totaling 3% + $0.25 per transaction. If you’re uncertain about your pricing strategy, consider examining the price ranges of analogous products available on Etsy.

Pros

• Low production costs
• Unlimited inventory
• Ability to reach a global audience
• Massive and active community of buyers and sellers
• Quick setup process

Cons

• Intense competition for buyers’ attention
• Limited customizability compared to Shopify, Squarespace, or WordPress

Who should use Etsy?

Etsy is suitable for:

• Creators of digital products like ebooks, wallpapers, calendars, invitations, and cosmetic labels.
• Artists, designers, and writers seeking to reach a broad audience with their creations.
• Graphic designers aim to showcase and sell their wallpaper and invitation designs.
• Photographers were interested in offering printable calendars.
• Individuals looking for a platform to achieve quick sales of their digital products.
• Entrepreneurs in the digital space seek a user-friendly platform with an established audience.

Squarespace

Squarespace stands out as one of the top website-building platforms, offering a seamless way for you to sell a wide range of products, whether they’re digital or physical. The impressive aspect of Squarespace is its ability to quickly set up your digital products store – just a few clicks, and you’re good to go.

Squarespace’s web design is famous for its simplicity and user-friendliness. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes crafting a visually captivating website effortless, all without requiring coding expertise.

Features

Regarding selling digital products, Squarespace offers a range of features incredibly beneficial for businesses in this realm. Firstly, the platform enables businesses to establish a unique online presence by providing free custom domains. This capability empowers businesses to curate a professional and branded image, enhancing credibility and brand recognition.

Squarespace’s Ecommerce package takes it a step further with its advanced analytics suite. This comprehensive toolset provides in-depth insights into customer behavior, sales trends, and marketing performance.

On top of these impressive features, Squarespace goes the extra mile to enhance SEO for digital product sellers. The platform allows for customizing meta tags, titles, and descriptions, significantly amplifying visibility and organic traffic. This strategic approach improves search engine rankings, effectively expanding reach to a broader audience and opening up new avenues for sales opportunities.

Pricing

Squarespace suits business and e-commerce needs, offering monthly packages from $23 to $65. Squarespace has a standard 14-day trial period for platform testing. Additionally, users opting for annual subscription payments can enjoy 24% to 30% discounts.

Pros

• Affordable plans
• Fee-free transactions for specific plans
• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for ease of use
• Wide selection of 100+ professional templates
• Endless bandwidth
• 30-minute video storage
• SEO optimization and integrated blog pages

Cons

• No in-house gateways, under 10 third-party payment providers
• Limited US payment acceptance for POS
• Limited inventory management
• Just 32 extensions

Who should use Squarespace?

Squarespace is suitable for:

• Individuals seeking a highly personalized online store experience.
• Those interested in selling both physical and digital products.
• Photographers, graphic designers, and musicians looking to sell their digital creations.
• Creators who want to establish product pages and integrate payment buttons seamlessly.

WordPress

WordPress is a widely used open-source content management system for creating and managing websites and blogs. However, even though WordPress is popular, it might be tricky for regular users. You might need to know coding or have the money to hire a developer to help you.

Features

With the user-friendly WordPress content management system, you can easily log in using any modern browser and make updates without knowing how to code. WordPress offers endless options due to its flexible nature. 

You can effortlessly add images, text, files, links, and media to your pages without any constraints on the number of pages, posts, or products you can include. 

You can also take advantage of its built-in features for news and blog posts, making it simple to add, edit, or remove content whenever needed. Plus, you can conveniently add news articles directly from your browser.

While WooCommerce is the favored WordPress ecommerce plugin, it’s not ideal for digital downloads. In this case, consider Easy Digital Downloads, a tailored alternative. It seamlessly integrates with any WordPress theme and even has themes dedicated to it. Accepting payments via Amazon or PayPal is effortless, and uploading digital files for sale is straightforward. You can choose between free or paid versions based on your preferences.

Pricing

WordPress presents a range of pricing plans, from $0 to $70 per month (monthly billing) or $0 to $45 per month (annual billing). The platform also offers an enterprise-level VIP package, beginning at $25,000 per year.

Pros

• The customizability of website design
• Complete access to its codes
• Over 59,000 plugins Infinite possibilities for building a website
• Open-source platform with a vast community of developers and users
• User-friendly CMS
• SEO optimization

Cons

• Must have coding knowledge
• Familiar with HTML/CSS/PHP requirements
• Limited customer support

Who should use WordPress?

WordPress is ideal for:

• Those aiming to scale their online stores.
• Sellers of digital downloads, like eBooks, music files, images, sewing patterns, and fonts, whether as standalone purchases or alongside physical products or services.

5 Tips for Selling Digital Products Successfully

Refer to the 5 tips below for selling digital products successfully.

Understand the difference between licensing and ownership

When you buy a physical item, you own it outright and can do whatever you like, including selling it to someone else. However, with digital software, ownership remains with you as the creator. Customers who buy your software receive a license defining how to use it.

In this context, you maintain ownership of the software, and when customers purchase it, they acquire a license to use the software under specific terms.

For instance, you can offer different types of licenses to your customers. A basic license might grant the right to use the software on a single device, while a premium license could allow usage on multiple devices. You can also dictate whether users can modify the software’s code or distribute it to others.

You retain control over how your software is used and distributed by selling licenses instead of ownership.

Create High-Quality Products

Present your digital products in a clear and appealing manner. Use high-quality visuals, detailed descriptions, and engaging product images to showcase what customers will receive. Make it easy for potential buyers to understand what they’re getting and how it can benefit them.

But if you’re wondering how to sell digital downloads of physical artwork, a home scanner connected to your computer is effective for smaller pieces (8.5” X 11” or below); professional printing at a print shop is preferable for more significant artwork. Alternatively, a high-resolution camera like a DSLR is an option, but avoid smartphone photography due to potential quality loss. 

Leverage Content Marketing, SEO & Social Media

A seamless user experience aligns with search engines’ goals, and integral to SEO is ensuring the clarity of your details and descriptions. Implement these simple strategies to make your products stand out:

• Strategize with Keywords: Consider the phrases consumers might search for when seeking your product and incorporate them as tags.
• Craft Compelling Title Tags: This tag appears as the clickable headline on SERPs, directing users to your product page. Keep it brief and engaging.
• Craft Engaging Descriptions: Keep it focused and captivating. Similar to the title tag, it should provide insight into your product’s nature.
• Incorporate Alt Text: This holds particular importance in ecommerce SEO, aiding buyers in understanding the product they’re considering.

Clear Pricing

Establishing transparent pricing for your digital products is essential for building trust with potential customers.

Let’s say you’re selling an online photography course. Instead of just stating a flat price of $99 for the course, you can break down the pricing to provide a clear understanding of what’s included:

• Base Course Fee: $79 This fee covers access to the core modules of the course, including video tutorials, downloadable resources, and quizzes.
• Premium Package: Add $20 for a premium package with additional benefits such as live Q&A sessions with the instructor, personalized assignment feedback, and exclusive bonus content.
• One-time Access Fee: $0. Your customers pay the listed fee once and gain lifetime access to the course materials. There are no recurring charges or hidden subscription fees.
• Money-Back Guarantee: 30 Days Highlight your 30-day money-back guarantee. Customers dissatisfied with the course within the first month can request a full refund.

This approach builds transparency and confidence, ultimately driving higher conversions and customer satisfaction.

Continuous Improvement

In digital products, continuous improvement is essential for sustaining customer satisfaction and a competitive edge. For instance, consider a fitness app that initially offers workout routines and tracking features. Regular user feedback highlights the desire for meal planning integration and social motivation tools. 

In response, the app undergoes updates to include nutrition tracking, recipe suggestions, and a community feature where users can connect and challenge each other. These enhancements keep users engaged and attract new customers seeking a holistic fitness solution.

10 Suggested Digital Products To Sell Online

Here are 10 suggested digital products that you can consider selling online:

Music and Audio Tracks

Selling music directly from your website gives artists greater control over their content and a direct connection to their fans. By offering merchandise and gig tickets alongside digital tracks, artists can create a comprehensive experience for their audience.

Expanding the audio products, consider:

• Audiobooks: If you’re a writer or have expertise in a particular field, turning your written content into audiobooks can be lucrative. 
• Sound Effects: Sound designers, filmmakers, and content creators often need high-quality sound effects to enhance their projects. 
• Recorded Language Lessons: As globalization continues to connect people from different cultures, there’s a growing demand for language learning resources.

Mobile Apps and Software

Mobile apps and software are digital products that can be developed and sold online to cater to various needs of users. Here are three specific examples:

• Fitness Tracking App: This mobile app helps users monitor their fitness activities, track their workouts, record their diet, and set fitness goals. It might include features like real-time activity tracking, personalized workout plans, integration with wearable devices, and progress analytics. 
• Language Learning Software: Language learning software is designed to help users learn new languages through interactive lessons, quizzes, and practice exercises. The software may include features like speech recognition, gamified learning, cultural insights, and progress tracking. 

Services

Service digital products are intangible offerings created and delivered electronically, primarily for online consumption. These products can take various forms, such as e-books, online courses, downloadable templates, software, graphic designs, stock photography, webinars, and more.

Ebooks

Today, people are increasingly drawn to online learning due to its flexibility, enabling them to pursue their interests at their own pace and on their schedules.

Crafting an ebook or designing an online course involves several elements. Consider integrating various components such as:

• Presentations: Slide-based presentations are an effective way to organize and convey information. 
• Videos: Video lectures can be interspersed with on-screen annotations, graphics, and real-life examples to make the learning experience engaging and immersive.
• Quizzes: Integrate quizzes at the end of sections or modules to help learners gauge their progress and retention. 

Photography

Photography digital products are creative assets that photographers can create and sell online to generate income and share their skills with a broader audience. Here are some examples:

• Photo Presets and Filters: Presets and filters are pre-made settings that can be applied to photos to achieve a particular look or style. Photographers can create and sell presets for popular photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop.
• Printable Wall Art: Selling high-quality digital images that buyers can print and use as wall art for their homes or offices. These could include landscapes, cityscapes, abstract photography, and more.
• Stock Photography: Photographers can create stock photos that cover a wide range of subjects and themes. These images can be sold to businesses, designers, and marketers on stock photography platforms.

Online Courses

Online courses are a type of digital product that you can create and sell on the internet. Educational materials are delivered online in various formats: videos, text, audio, quizzes, assignments, and more. Online courses allow individuals to learn new skills, acquire knowledge, or enhance existing abilities from the comfort of their homes. 

These courses can cover various topics, including academic subjects, professional skills, hobbies, personal development, fitness, and more.

Tech Software

Here are some examples and considerations for selling tech software digital products online:

• Web Applications: project management tools, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and online collaboration platforms.
• Mobile Apps: games, fitness trackers, and productivity apps.
• Software as a Service (SaaS): cloud storage services, email marketing platforms, and online accounting software.
• Plugins and Extensions: browser extensions, WordPress plugins, and integrations for other applications.

Graphic Design Assets

These assets are created and sold online to provide designers with tools, templates, and elements that can save time, improve the quality of their work, and help them achieve their design goals more effectively. Here are some examples of graphic design assets and considerations for selling them online:

• Graphics and Illustrations: High-quality illustrations, icons, vectors, and other graphical elements that designers can incorporate into their projects.
• Fonts: Unique and creative fonts designers can use to add a distinctive typographic style to their designs.
• Mockups: Realistic mockups of products or designs in various settings, allowing designers to showcase their work as it would appear in real-life situations.
• Textures and Backgrounds: Textures and background images that can add depth and visual interest to designs.

Fitness and Nutrition Plans

These digital products typically include comprehensive workout routines, meal plans, nutritional guidance, and lifestyle tips catering to specific fitness goals, whether weight loss, muscle gain, or overall wellness. They can be delivered through videos, downloadable guides, interactive apps, and more, making it easier for individuals to embark on their fitness journey at their own pace and convenience.

Craft and DIY Patterns

Craft and DIY patterns encompass various projects, including sewing patterns, knitting and crochet patterns, woodworking plans, and various DIY projects. These digital patterns are often delivered through downloadable PDFs or instructional videos, allowing individuals to engage in creative projects from the comfort of their homes.

Social Media Content Packs

Social media content packs include a collection of ready-made posts, graphics, captions, and templates designed to engage and resonate with target audiences across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and more. 

Selling social media content packs online empowers businesses to optimize their digital marketing efforts while relieving the pressure of content creation and catering to the evolving landscape of online communication.

Final Thought

With a grasp of the fundamental principles for successfully selling digital products, you now face a few choices to consider where to sell them. Shopify is the optimal platform for digital sales. However, you should try alternatives such as Etsy, Squarespace, and WordPress to choose the best one that suits your needs.