while there are a lot of different ways
you can make money online creating and
selling digital products has got to be
one of the very best and it's certainly
one of my favorites it gets you so many
of the advantages of making money online
the flexibility the huge potentials for
profit etc without a lot of the
disadvantages that can come when you're
selling physical products or services
now of course selling physical products
or services can be amazing businesses as
well but my personal favorite and the
one that i really think is the best in a
lot of ways is selling digital products
but i know that it can be intimidating
to get started with and i think that
that's one of the biggest things that
holds people back is just that they
don't really know what the process needs
to look like it feels like it's very
complicated it's complicated
so the main thing i want to get across
to you in this video is just how simple
it can be
i started creating and selling digital
products a few years ago and one of the
first ones that i ever sold was an ebook
i wrote it on my own i had someone else
edit it a few times and then i ended up
publishing it on amazon
and it earned me a few thousand dollars
right away and has continued to earn me
a couple hundred dollars every month
since it also grew my email list a whole
lot in the process since that time i've
also created and sold a lot of different
online courses and i have a membership
program that i've run and other digital
products as well so i've created and
sold a lot of different types of digital
products and some of them have been more
complicated and some of them have been
easier so i'll definitely share that
with you in a bit just which ones were
the easiest and which ones i would
recommend for getting started with but
right now let's get into exactly what
you need to do to create your digital
product
[Music]
the first thing you have to do to create
any sort of digital product is just
decide what it actually will be
substance wise so here i'm not talking
about should it be a course or a
membership site or an e-book i'm talking
about what will it actually teach people
because most digital products not all
but most are information products
products that somehow teach someone
something or help someone do something
there are some other types of digital
products that are more like templates
either design templates or templates for
using in certain software and so you
might decide that you want to help
people in that way and so that would be
the substance of it but what exactly are
you going to teach people or help people
do and who are those people so just
getting some clarity on that point and
then once you know that you can move on
to deciding whether thing will actually
be so is it going to be an ebook is it
going to be a canva template is it going
to be a course or a workshop you need to
decide the best format to communicate
this information or to help people in
the way that you want to help them when
you're choosing your format i can't
stress this enough keep it simple this
doesn't have to be very complicated
don't think you necessarily need to
build out a whole membership site or
that you need to create an extensive
online course or something like that if
you want to teach someone something
start with the minimum viable product
the smallest tiniest version of this
digital product idea that you could
create and sell for a low price just to
test it out so for example if you're
thinking you want to write an entire
book instead of sitting down and
starting that long and arduous process
perhaps you can instead just pull open
google docs and write a short guide
format it nicely and then export it as a
pdf and sell that as a digital product
this doesn't have to be complicated it
doesn't have to be fancy and i wish that
someone had told me that when i was
first starting out because i definitely
tried to overcomplicate a lot of things
another example of how you can keep this
simple is if you're thinking of creating
an online course rather than taking all
the time to plan out an entire course
film an entire course edit all those
videos and put them into an online
course platform why not start by just
teaching a live video workshop just via
zoom and then when you're done you'll
have the recording of that and you can
sell the recording as a workshop
recording or you can chop it up into
smaller sections and sell it as a mini
course one of my most successful digital
products that i sell today is called
creator fast check it's a course that
teaches people how to grow on youtube
how to successfully get their first
thousand subscribers and set their
channel on a trajectory of success but
the way that that course got started was
basically exactly what i just described
first i just taught a live workshop it
was an hour long then i decided to break
that up into smaller sections then i
re-recorded it as a longer course and
then since then i've overhauled the
entire thing a few times to make it
bigger and better and to help the
students even more but we got started
really simple and that's led to now
earning hundreds of thousands of dollars
with that one digital product so once
you've made all of those decisions about
exactly what it's going to be and who
it's going to help and how it's going to
help them then it's time to actually
create the content and depending on what
product you're creating this will look
pretty different so maybe it means you
need to sit down and write your guide
maybe you need to plan out your workshop
and set up a page where someone can
register for it maybe you need to sit
down and start filming your course
videos if that's what you decided to do
but you have to get through this
creation process for a lot of people
this is really the hardest part some
people get stuck on the decisions but
then some people get past those
decisions the people who are more the
planner types but then when it comes to
actually creating the content they get
stalled out so again keep it simple
don't make your content bigger than it
needs to be start with a smaller version
of it once you're done creating then
it's time for editing editing is
essential whether you're creating a
small piece of content or a long piece
of content whether it's written or it's
video somehow that has to get edited and
cleaned up and if it's a short piece of
content you can probably do it yourself
but the longer the content is the more
likely it is that you will need some
help so you might need to outsource this
you might need to hire a freelance
editor whether that's a video editor or
a copy editor to actually help you get
through all of it and make sure that
there are no mistakes and that it is
clean obviously outsourcing will cost
some money you will have to invest some
money into this project that you're
working on into this new business that
you're starting but if you're serious
about making money online if you're
serious about creating and selling
digital products and you really want to
make money that way then you are going
to need to invest your time at least and
you'll be able to save yourself time and
get to success more easily if you do
invest some money as well but if you
don't have the money to invest you
certainly can do this all yourself it'll
just take a little longer and now we
come to the final step of the creation
process and that is designing your
product you might have already done this
to some extent earlier on but if you are
creating some sort of ebook or guide
then you might need to have graphic
design done for the cover you might need
to have the book formatted and if it's a
video course that you're creating or
something like that then you will need
to actually design the course platform
maybe you're doing it in a software like
teachable or kajabi or something like
that and so you'll just need to set
everything up as well as perhaps you
need some design work for the thumbnails
of the videos and that sort of thing now
this is an area where you can save a lot
of time if you did keep things simple
for example if you're just doing a live
zoom workshop there's virtually no
design that's required unless you are
doing slides and then you need to have
those slides designed or design them
yourself but when you're making a more
full feature extensive online course
then a lot of design work ends up being
required for all those thumbnails pdfs
and the course itself so especially if
this is your first digital product i
just can't stress enough to keep things
as simple as possible so that the
project stays as small as possible
because you will get bogged down if this
project is too big and complex your
first time round
creating a digital product can be a fair
amount of work but you aren't going to
get paid for that work until you do the
second part of this process which is
selling your digital product selling
your product online now this part has
two parts to it the first part is
setting your product up to sell so you
have to decide how you are going to sell
this product so you could sell it on a
third-party marketplace like amazon etsy
or creative market or you can sell it on
your own website now selling it on a
third-party platform has a lot of
advantages when you are first starting
out because there is built-in traffic
exposure visibility on those platforms
so you don't have to put in quite as
much effort to going out there and
trying to find potential customers the
other nice thing about selling on one of
those platforms is that you don't really
have to set up the selling process you
just have to list your product on the
website so if you've ever sold anything
on ebay or anything like that then
you're already familiar with what that
type of process looks like now on the
other hand selling on your own website
has advantages as well when you sell on
your own website you are doing more to
build your personal brand and you often
can sell your products for higher prices
and you aren't competing with other
similar products that are already on the
market oh and one other advantage is
that you can grow your email list
because you'll get the emails of
everyone who purchases your product or
even just signs up to get a free product
we'll talk more about that in a minute
but the downsides of selling on your
website is first of all there's a little
bit more tech involved you're going to
have to set up some sort of selling
system on your website now if you're
using a website like shopify or
squarespace then they've really
simplified this process and very little
tech is actually required but you are
still going to have to connect a few
things so that when someone checks out
and purchases your product they actually
get it delivered to them via email or at
least on the thank you page that they
land on after completing their purchase
the other downside of selling on your
own website is that you have to do the
traffic generation you have to send
people to your website or no one is
going to purchase your product when you
are first starting out my top
recommendation truly would be to use
both of these options at the same time
to sell on your own website because of
the power there with brand building and
to sell for a higher price and all of
that and also to sell on a third-party
marketplace because that can get your
business more exposure and help you to
reach new potential customers and to
grow your audience of course you won't
want to try to do these things at
literally the same time you'll need to
do one of them first and then the other
one and it doesn't matter that much
which one you do but i would recommend
listing it on your website first so that
you have that system that hub set up so
that when someone finds your product on
amazon and then they learn about your
brand they're able to go to your website
you probably will generate more sales
initially from listing on the
third-party platform unless you already
have a bit of an audience but just
having your website set up having your
product there and having all of those
systems set up is going to help to give
your business the foundation it needs to
be able to grow in the future by the way
if you are enjoying this video please
give it a like right now to help me out
here on youtube and also to let me know
that you want to see more videos like
this in the future now with your product
set up to sell the last step of the
seven step process is to market your
product we've already talked about this
a bit first of all you need visibility
or traffic people have to discover your
product and then somehow you have to
engage with them because they might not
be ready to just buy it right then
especially if they have only just
discovered you they might not have trust
for you yet and be confident that you
will be able to help them solve their
problem or be confident that your
product will be good quality
so the best way to do this is to give
them some free content now this could be
just videos or blog posts that are on
your website that they can consume
completely for free but you can level
this up by offering a free digital
product this is often called an opt-in
offer or a freebie something that they
can sign up to get for free it gives
them a taste of what your products are
like it helps them take that first step
of engaging with you and starting that
more transactional relationship where
they've given you something and you gave
them something in return and you
fulfilled what you said you would do you
said i'll give you this free thing and
in fact you did give it to them and it
was good quality and that really
increases their trust in you and it
means that you now have their email list
so you can use email marketing to tell
them about your paid product and to sell
your paid product
hey there i'm interrupting the video for
just a moment
so if you've been on my channel for any
amount of time you've probably seen
several sales funnel videos i've made
over the last year or so about how to
plan a funnel a funnel strategy how to
set up an evergreen funnel lots more you
guys seem to love those videos but in
addition to just like lots of views on
them i've also seen a lot of comments
from you guys asking me to go even
deeper asking lots of questions about
sales funnels asking me to show you how
to set up your own funnel and so i've
finally decided to put together a master
class and go even deeper about sales
funnels specifically evergreen automated
sales funnels so if you want to improve
your sales funnels you have in your
business and get them to convert more
and make you more money or if you're
just setting up your first funnel and
you want to go deep fast and learn how
to create a really high converting
funnel then this is the master class for
you it's happening later this month it's
going to be live we're going to have a q
a after if that's something that you
would be interested in then check the
description for a link for more info and
to sign up for the master class i hope
to see you there i know it's going to be
a lot of fun we're going to go super
deep get super nerdy about those
evergreen sales funnels right now let's
get back to the video
[Music]
so we've covered the seven steps for
creating and selling a digital product
but
you can't do any of this until you get
started right until you decide exactly
what product you should create and a lot
of people get stuck on that step so i
just wanted to share a little bit of my
experience and my insights as to which
types of products are the easiest to
create now you might be tempted to
create an online course because you've
heard how profitable they can be and how
amazing the online course industry is
and i mean honestly i love online
courses and my business today makes the
majority of its revenue selling digital
courses but i wouldn't recommend them as
the product to get started with because
a full feature online course it just has
a lot of moving parts especially video
if you don't already have a fair amount
of experience creating videos there is a
pretty high probability that you will
get bogged down somewhere in the process
of planning your videos setting up a
space to film filming the videos and
then the editing process that can be a
lot longer than you think it will be and
most of the time with online courses
people also add in other assets like
pdfs and workbooks and so that makes it
even more complicated so i just see a
lot of people who want to make money
online so they start making an online
course then they get stuck halfway
through they've invested dozens of hours
haven't made any money yet and never do
because they never finish the process
and kind of the same goes with
membership sites membership sites can be
really profitable and they can be great
for generating recurring revenue so
sending you passive income every single
month but they take just as much time to
set up as an online course and a lot of
the time it can be difficult to get
enough members at the start if you don't
have a very big audience yet so if you
are just starting out and especially if
you don't have much of an audience yet i
would highly recommend going with either
a short written guide just because
written content is so much simpler to
create than video content it's not
always a ton faster once you're familiar
with both but it's just a lot easier so
creating a short guide you can export it
from google docs or word as a pdf you
can sell it on your own website you can
sell it on amazon as an ebook
or
creating a live workshop like i talked
about earlier and if you're nervous
about the live thing it doesn't actually
have to be live but more of a one take
30 60 or 90 minute workshop where you
just sit down and talk to the camera and
you're not really planning to edit it at
all you can do this without even being
on camera by creating slides and then
recording your screen while you talk
through the slides and that can be one
of the easiest ways to create
a much more professional
upleveled type of workshop or even mini
online course without having to do all
of the work of setting up a nice space
to film and also a lot less of the
editing because unlike when you're
talking to a camera and you make
mistakes and forget where you're going
because you aren't looking at your notes
when you're clicking through slides you
tend to make a lot less mistakes and so
a lot of the time you can get away with
no editing at all all right well those
are my thoughts on creating and selling
your first digital products and some
simple steps to get you started i'm
curious right now are you in the
planning stages or are you done with the
planning stages and ready to create tell
me in the comments down below whether
you need to plan or you need to start
creating right now or if you happen to
already be past the creating process and
you just need to sell the darn thing you
can tell me that too anyway thank you so
much for joining me for today's video if
you happen to be new here nice to meet
you my name is gillian perkins here on
this youtube channel i teach how to
start and scale successful online
businesses and a lot of that is about
creating and selling digital products
just like we were talking about today so
if you want to learn even more about
that then be sure to subscribe i hope
you're having an amazing week i love you
and i'll see you next week with another
video