How I went from $0-$80,000 in digital product sales in 3 steps

Honestly, it was only really in 2023 that I "saw the light" when it comes to digital products. I really started experimenting with digital products in 2022 - before that, I really hadn’t ventured into the space. However, my digital product strategy wasn’t very - well, strategic. I sort of was just making products here and there and seeing what stuck. But over the last year, throughout 2023, I learned a lot about how if you just simplify your offering and make sure that it will be actually useful to your community, you will see a change in sales.

Today I am excited to share how I went from $0 in digital product income in 2021, to $80,000+ in the last two years in digital product sales, and how you can implement the same strategies to make digital products a part of your income streams as a creator.

Step #1: Identify a need or problem your audience has

My old strategy, when coming up with digital product ideas, was creating what I would have thought was useful back when I was first starting as a content creator. I didn't really dig deep into my current audience's needs. But instead, the needs I had a few years ago. Now, this can be a really good starting point, as a lot of us are in a position where our audience may be in the same spot as we were a few years ago. However, it’s not necessarily going to be the best strategy for making sales.

Here's the problem with that. You're not selling to yourself; you're selling to your audience. So it's important to create and develop the product that will be useful for them NOW.

And this is how you can do that:

➡️ Figure out what problem they have and create a digital product that solves it.

I'm not even kidding you; if you can figure out this part, everything else is easy. Because once you figure out what this problem-solving digital product is, all you need to do is get it in front of your audience, and assuming they trust you, I can't imagine it taking much convincing that they should make the purchase. 90% of the battle with making sales on your digital products is having a good idea that really directly addresses a need. Once you have that, it practically sells itself.

How do you figure out what problem they have that needs solving?

First of all, the best way you can understand your audience better is by engaging with them. I don't mean straight up asking, like … "What's your problem?" I mean just genuinely having a conversation. Through these genuine conversations, you can discover more about their problems. You're more likely to get a real grasp on what your audience needs by just casually having conversations with them versus straight up asking them what problems they have.

When you ask somebody questions like that, it gives them the opportunity to overthink, and I am sure you have experienced this. But when you start overthinking, it becomes really challenging to think about something honestly and deeply.

Strike up a conversation with somebody in your comments or in your DMs. And if you want to make it even more meaningful, don't be afraid of video or voice note responses. This is something I am doing as much as I can. Not only does it help you have a genuine conversation with your community, it just feels so much more real and personal, and reminds your audience that you are a real person who truly does care about the issues they're facing.

Funny enough, my operations manager, Shelby, before working with me, she was a part of my community, and after working with me for a while, she mentioned to me that she had sent me a DM and that I responded via voice message, and she told me how special that made her feel that I would take the time out of my day to do something like that.

Something else you can do and I am loving this is to start a broadcast channel.

This is pretty much like a giant group chat with those in your community who want to dive a little deeper with you. You send them an invite, and they can join this group chat and be involved with polls and exclusive information directly from you. I have used this to help decide what thumbnails I should use for my YouTube channel; I use this to ask which video out of a few options my audience would prefer to see first. It not only gives you an idea of what your audience is most interested in; again, it just really gives them this deeper sense of community and allows you to build trust with them, which overall is a step you don't want to skip if you plan on selling digital products.

Another tip for discovering your audience's problem is by being consistent in your stories.

Stories are one of the best places to communicate with your audience on a daily basis - with direct messaging, question boxes, polls, quizzes, and so on. There are so many opportunities where you can dive deep into what your audience needs from you. You don't want to just directly ask your audience, "What do you want me to make?" But you can ask more detailed questions and gather the data to find similarities in the problems your audience is facing and find a product that could help the majority.

Step #2: Identify the way they will like to receive the solution

Next on the list is figuring out how your audience prefers to consume your digital product content (aka: the solution). There are so many different types of digital products you can create – detailed PDFs, templates, courses, workshops, and the list goes on.

But how do you figure out which type of digital product will resonate best with your audience?

Well, you can do everything we just talked about as far as getting to know your audience better, and using the same methods, you can figure out the best way they absorb information.

🤫 But here is a little secret…

The answer to this question is most likely found in your social media data. Yep, you can figure this out by looking deeper into your analytics.

Most likely, you’re already creating a variety of different types of content, right? If your audience seems to gravitate towards your informational carousel graphics, then a digital PDF might be for them. If you feel like long-form videos is where your audience is gravitating to, then, something like a workshop or a course might be perfect for your audience.

If your audience is constantly reaching out to you, asking how to create this, and how to organize that, maybe some templates would be useful for them. Or a membership, where you can create monthly curated content!

If you just pay attention to the analytics and inquiries from your audience, you can usually determine the type of digital product they would be most interested in.

But again, don’t forget to engage with your audience and learn from them through genuine conversation.

Step #3: Create the problem-solving digital product

Now, for the fun part, but honestly, one of the more challenging aspects: creating the digital product. I could go into detail about how Canva is a great place to create any type of digital product and how there are multiple website services you can use, like Squarespace or StanStore, to create/sell your digital product. But I really want to talk more about the method of starting from a blank page to creating something of high value that will live up to your audience's expectations.

You don’t have to start from scratch. Things have changed a lot over the last year, and we are seeing AI everywhere. In my honest opinion, there’s definitely a right way to use AI and a wrong way. But one thing that you can definitely do is have AI help come up with ideas or outlines to get those creative juices flowing – you can use ChatGPT for free, or even Notion has an AI upgrade you can use.

For example, you could use the following prompt in ChatGPT: “Please create an outline for my workshop that will be all about [topic here]. Please use the following information [information goes here]. If you have more questions about the details I provided that could help with this outline, please ask.”

This prompt will give you a basic outline, including headings and subheadings, and will be pulling from information you provided to make sure that it is connected to your thoughts and ideas. Once you have this roadmap, essentially, you can start making adjustments and changes and actually begin writing out the content. This can be helpful to give structure to the original ideas you already had.

What you don’t want to do is ask ChatGPT to write the entire script for your workshop - because, frankly it’s going to be boring and generic. Use it as a tool and a starting point, not as a replacement for your own original ideas and creativity.

Put yourself in your audience's shoes. We all know the saying about putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes so that you can experience what they’re experiencing. It may sound cliché, but this is what you need to do with your audience as well.

Remind yourself where they are, where they are starting. Think about what their day to day looks like. Using your knowledge, ask yourself, “what steps would you take to get to that end result, that solution you are providing them?”

List it out like a roadmap, and then use that as you draft the outline to your digital product. This is a great way to start from scratch and make sure it aligns directly with what you have done or would do starting from the same problem your audience has.

Remind yourself that you can change and adapt. I wanted to add this here because obviously, you want to create an amazing digital product that will help solve your audience's problems. But you’re going to learn a lot over time, especially once you release your digital product.

I’m not saying “done is better than perfect,” but I am saying that don’t be afraid to release something, and then get feedback from your audience and make adjustments. Because honestly releasing it to your audience is going to be the best way for you to know how it’s being received and if you need to make any changes. And, you can always provide the upgraded version for free to your customers. This will help you feel more confident about releasing “before you’re ready” This is something I personally do - my Notion templates, as included in my Content Creator Starter Kit, are being refreshed all the time as I learn new methods or find new strategies for orgaization in Notion. And because these are live pages that my customers have the links to - they get the new updates to the templates as soon as they are made.

If you’re not quite ready for a fully public release of your product yet, you can also release this to a small group (or beta-testers) and get feedback before releasing it publicly. But this direct feedback will really help ensure your digital product is top-notch.

Imagine that you're just chatting with a friend. This is seriously one of the best ways to think about digital products. It’s so easy to be overly structured and serious. Instead, draft your initial digital product as you're trying to explain your topic to a really good friend. I’ve had friends who are intrigued and interested in what I do for a living, and I don’t all of a sudden put on a fancy suit with a whiteboard and start speaking as if I’m in a corporate meeting. I would be excited and tell them everything I think they need to know and encourage them; I would treat them like a friend and I would share the information I have casually and honestly. Keeping this mindset will help your additional product feel more authentic and better relate to your audience.

—

So, to sum up, the secret to selling digital products is creating the solution to your community's problem. If you can do this, success won’t be far behind.