Laura started a blog about her digital scrapbooking hobby. She loved connecting with other bloggers and sharing tips with her community. As she neared the two year anniversary of her blog, she began thinking about how she could monetize it.
So, she reached out to another scrapbook blogger who had successfully built a business around her hobby. The other blogger suggested Laura begin by selling digital products like pattern designs and scrapbook elements.
Although Laura was nervous, she decided to give it a try. She created a scrapbook theme and quickly discovered that her readers loved her work. Now, she’s making enough to quit her job and focus on her hobby blog full-time.
The thought of launching a product can be intimidating if you’ve never done it. But selling digital products is one of the best ways to grow your income. Here are three quick tips to help you get started…
Listen to Your Community
The best thing to do is find out what your community wants and deliver it to them in a digital product. Think about what problems or obstacles your readers keep complaining about and design a product that solves this issue.
For example, one graphic designer realized that her audience felt intimidated by Canva. She knew her followers would love Canva once they discovered what it could do. So, she created a special course and marketed it as an introduction to Canva. She received many compliments on the product and it sold very well.
Decide on the Product Format
Once you know what topic would appeal to your community, it’s time to consider the format. With some products, this may be obvious. The graphic designer knew that her audience would prefer over-the-shoulder videos where she showed them what to do.
However, not every product needs to include video. Your course may best serve your audience if it contains three audio MP3s and a few simple worksheets. Focus on delivering the information in a way that makes it easy for your customers to absorb.
Keep in mind that your product can be a mix of text, audio, and video, too. For example, a financial blogger created a “Get Out of Debt Starter Kit”. This kit included three videos with transcripts for those who preferred to read. She also saved the audio of her videos as MP3 files, so her customers could listen on their smartphone.
Consider the Price Point
The next thing you want to consider when creating a product is the price. One product creator launched a course on building a website. Her target audience was stay-at-home moms who were looking to start an online business so she charged only $17.
Later, the product creator re-branded the course and sold it to executives that wanted to build their own blogs. It was the same content, but now she sold it for $97. Her audience expected to pay more and viewed a product for $17 as too inexpensive to contain good information.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different products and see what your community likes. Once you know what your tribe wants, start working on your next one. Soon, you’ll have a huge library of digital products for sale!
