How To Profit From Selling Digital Products (Part 2)
- July 16th, 2014
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This is a second and final essay on how to sell and distinction from digital products. In part 11, we lonesome many of a advantages of digital products over earthy products as good as a offered philosophies to assistance we build an assembly for your products. Today, we will be deliberating some-more of a plan compulsory for a successful digital product business. There’s also a dim side to this world, that we’ll get into towards a end.
Let’s burst in.
Sales And Fulfillment
Remember how one of a best things about digital products is that we don’t have to boat anything? Your distinction margins are many higher, and fulfilling orders is so many easier! You still have to broach a product to a customer, yet e-commerce module will do that for you, so we don’t have to be concerned during all.
This means we can be sipping Mai Tais on a beach or (more approaching for me) personification with a kids while people are shopping your product.
To set this up, we need some kind of module to uncover a product, accept purchases, routine credit cards and afterwards make a record accessible to be downloaded by a customer. PayPal has been a courtesy customary for some-more than 10 years, yet it also hasn’t softened many in that time.
In fact, digital e-commerce solutions (at slightest a ones that are best for offered standalone products) were flattering low until Gumroad82 launched a integrate years ago.
When we was operative on offered my initial book, The App Design Handbook3, Ryan from Gumroad reached out to me to get me to cruise a platform. we had a few questions about sole features, yet what unequivocally sole me was a illusory checkout experience.
The universe of online payments has always been tormented by a frustrating checkout process, nonessential fields and other pattern failures that make business desert their purchases. Gumroad altered that. Its checkout routine is impossibly elementary and elegant. The outcome is some-more purchases from less-frustrated customers.
Because my initial books were about conceptualizing good module experiences, we felt that regulating a remuneration provider with a unintelligent checkout routine would be hypocritical.
All in One
Gumroad handles a checkout routine from finish to end. With many other providers, we need one apparatus to hoop checkouts and broach a record and another apparatus to routine a tangible payment. With Gumroad, one apparatus does everything. You upload a product, supplement your banking information (so that we can get paid) and start usurpation sales!
The Overlay
Normally, we would need to set adult utterly a bit in method to get e-commerce operative directly on your website. Linking to a remuneration page on a third-party website is easy, yet gripping a patron from ever withdrawal your domain is some-more work (both in pattern and security).
4So, one of my favorite facilities of Gumroad is a conceal checkout process. The checkout symbol on your sales page will trigger a modal conceal that contains a whole checkout process. Because that happens in a secure window, we don’t need to worry about confidence on your website, yet we still get a advantages of a patron never withdrawal your website to pay.
No, I’m Not Being Paid by Gumroad
Yep, we adore Gumroad. And, no, I’m not being paid to countenance it. Quite a opposite. I’ve paid Gumroad over $20,000 in payment-processing fees in a final one and a half years, and I’m still their biggest fan!
Product Launches
Once you’ve identified your marketplace and set adult your sales page and credit-card estimate system, you’re prepared to start usurpation sales, right? Wrong.
Product launches destroy for a array of reasons, and a many common is that a patron hears something like a following heading adult to a launch: Silence… silence… silence… “Go buy now!”
Compelling, isn’t it? we know that would make me wish to buy… not.
A Good Launch Requires a Launch Sequence
After blogging for a while and successfully rising The App Design Handbook and Designing Web Applications, we had an email list of about 5,000 designers. Because a few friends had been successful with online workshops, we wanted to try them as well. The outcome was a delicately designed (at slightest for a content) seminar on “Designing Web Applications.” we sole seats for $400 any and capped assemblage during 25 people.
I suspicion this was going to be easy. I’d already finished a tough work of building an audience, so my suspicion routine was, “With an email list of 5,000 designers, how tough could it be to sell out 25 seats?”
With that mindset, we devised a plan consisting of one email — that we suspicion was a unequivocally good email — to launch a workshop. The email was educational yet tied simply into a sales representation during a end.
Monitoring Sales
After attack “Send,” we tabbed over to Gumroad and waited for a sales to hurl in. You know what? They didn’t come.
That unequivocally confused and undone me during first. In my prior product launches, we had seen adult to $1,000 in sales within a initial 10 mins of launching. Why was this different?
Anticipation
When was a final time we bought a product within a few mins — or even an hour — of conference about it for a initial time? That doesn’t occur often.
If we see a product that we arrange of like and have a event to buy it right then, chances are we will put it off until a bit later, and afterwards totally forget to purchase.
With my prior launches, we had built adult a expectation over weeks. Every time we talked about it, a approaching buyers got some-more and some-more excited. Then we gave a transparent date for when a product would be accessible for purchase.
Providing Every Detail
The day before launch, we would send out an email providing any bit of information that my subscribers would need to make a purchase. The email lonesome a advantages of a product, pricing information and even frequently asked questions (which indeed hadn’t been asked yet).
The one thing a email didn’t embody was a integrate to buy a product.
Instead, we told them accurately when a product would be accessible (for example, 8:00 am EST tomorrow) and to pattern another email from me during that time.
I was perplexing to get any chairman on my prelaunch list to confirm possibly to buy a product before giving them a event to buy. The final thing we wish is someone thinking, “Oh, that’s an engaging product — we should buy it. Well, my credit label isn’t handy. I’ll buy it later.”
If that happens, they will customarily forget and not come behind to buy.
Launch
Then, on launch day, my pursuit was easy. we wrote a elementary email saying, “Hey, a product is ready. Buy it here.” And we strike “Send.”
Whenever we followed that process, with expectation building adult over weeks or months, I’ve done during slightest $1,000 in a initial 10 mins after launching.
It’s a times when we got idle and cut true to a sales representation that my product flopped.
If we wish to have a successful launch, afterwards repeat after me: “In method to have a successful launch, we will build adult expectation and fad before giving my business an event to buy.”
Dealing With Fraud
Fraud is an hapless side outcome of offered online. Until we started offered books, we had no suspicion how common fake payments indeed are. In fact, it didn’t even make clarity to me given someone would buy my books with a stolen credit card.
It turns out that there is a reason given criminals wish to buy ebooks about conceptualizing improved software. It’s not given they wish to get into conceptualizing iPhone apps as a side business. Rather, they need to countenance a credit cards they’ve stolen.
Let’s contend Joe a rapist has bought a list of thousands of stolen credit label numbers. Most of a numbers are no longer valid, so he needs a proceed to simply find that numbers can still be used to squeeze products. That’s where my ebooks and your digital products come in. Joe writes a module that automatically attempts to make a squeeze one label during a time until a array isn’t denied.
Then, Joe takes that current array and possibly goes on Amazon to buy earthy products (ones that have resale value) or creates a earthy label and has someone make purchases during a internal mall (again, earthy products).
Why we Was Upset About $1,500 in Sales
Just final week we saw a outrageous spike in sales. Nearly $2,000 in a singular morning is flattering awesome! At first, we figured that an essay contingency have mentioned one of a books, pushing trade over. Then, we looked some-more closely during a sales. A singular email residence was obliged for $1,500.
This chairman had purchased a top-tier package of dual of my pattern books ($250 each). That happens sometimes, so it wasn’t odd. But we saw that they had also purchased a group permit for one of a books ($1,000). Why would we squeeze both a finish package and a group permit of a same book? That didn’t make sense.
I plugged a email residence into Rapportive (a Gmail plugin for anticipating out about email addresses). If a residence belonged to a pattern or growth shop, we wouldn’t have been surprised, yet Rapportive didn’t lift adult any kind of profiles from around a web, definition that a email residence was many approaching a throwaway and that a squeeze was fraudulent.
One of a reasons we adore offered on Gumroad is that we was means to usually impute a purchases to a support team, that fast accurate that they were fraudulent. The charges were refunded and we altered on with my day.
Chargebacks
You competence be thinking, “Why not usually keep a income and wish that a strange label owners never finds out?” Besides being implicitly questionable, doing that can harm we financially.
Have we ever looked by your credit-card matter and found a assign we didn’t recognize? Chances are we called your credit-card association and told them that we didn’t make that squeeze and asked for it to be refunded. That’s called a chargeback. It’s a smashing partial of regulating your credit label for online purchases. Your credit-card association protects we from guilt if your label array is stolen. That’s illusory for a consumer — not for a merchant.
Do we consider a credit-card association or bank swallows a cost of that fake purchase? Nope. They pass it on to a businessman — that is, we and me and anyone who creates a vital from offered digital products online.
When a chargeback occurs, a bank takes a income out of your account, so it’s like a squeeze never happened — solely that a bank adds a fee. The volume of a cost depends on a remuneration provider. Stripe charges $15, and PayPal charges $20 (although usually sometimes). This means that, after refunding a customer, we still have to compensate a cost on tip of a mislaid revenue!
Stopping Fraud
That’s given throwing rascal early is so important. You don’t wish to be probable for a additional cost for any chargeback. Gumroad has illusory rascal prevention. For starters, it has glorious confidence measures to detect rascal purchases and forestall them during checkout. If something does get through, it covers all of a reinstate and chargeback fees.
If a fake assign gets by and a chargeback is issued, we usually remove what a patron paid and aren’t probable for any other fees that other payment-processing companies competence charge.
Fighting Chargebacks
Not all chargebacks are given of fake purchases. Sometimes a patron buys a product, decides they don’t like it and calls their bank to ask for a reinstate instead of articulate to we directly. This sucks given it can be costly for a merchant. So, to all business out there, greatfully don’t ever ask a chargeback unless we have initial talked to a seller and requested a refund!
That’s partial of a reason given we always emanate refunds when asked. Risking a chargeback is usually not value it. Just reinstate a income and pierce on.
If a squeeze was apparently fraudulent, afterwards we have unequivocally small possibility to brawl a chargeback. But if we can infer that a squeeze was done by a owners of a card, afterwards there is a decent possibility we will win a chargeback, keep a income and equivocate carrying to compensate a additional fees. Some people are scammy adequate to buy a product, use it and afterwards emanate a chargeback, even yet 0 is wrong with a product.
When a legitimate squeeze is charged back, Gumroad will indeed quarrel a bank on your interest to try to win a dispute. It does this by promulgation a simply formatted request to a credit-card association display who done a purchase, where they were during a time, and other information to infer that a owners of a label done a purchase.
It’s tough for a patron to brawl a squeeze when they submitted information that matches their information on record with a credit-card association and did it from their home IP address.
Don’t Let Fraud Discourage You
This whole routine is frustrating sometimes. A lot of decrepit characters use a Internet for crime, and infrequently your products are a apparatus in their incomparable scheme. It happens.
First, don’t highlight about it. Many things are out of your control. But secondly, sell by a provider that will forestall fraud, quarrel chargebacks and cover all of a fees in a process. Being loose about online rascal is easy when we know that a group during Gumroad has my back.
Theft And Piracy
One of a many common questions we get is, “How do we forestall people from hidden your product?”
You don’t.
Look during a film industry. It has large amounts of income and has spent many fortunes on digital rights government (DRM) to forestall unapproved observation of a movies. Has it worked?
Not during all. A discerning Google hunt shows download links for any renouned movie. Those who wish to bandit your calm will. You can do 0 about it.
The usually thing we will accomplish by adding DRM or a like is upsetting your customers. Everyone who pays will feel like we don’t trust them and will resent a nuisance you’ve combined usually for them to use a product they’ve legitimately paid for. Starting a attribute with a patron by revelation them we don’t trust them is not a good idea.
Really?
Yep, we don’t do anything to forestall my books from being pirated. Instead, we concentration on a business who have paid and will continue to compensate for some-more products. It’s not value worrying about something we can’t control.
One Thing You Can Do
In a final few weeks, we have started doing one thing. Sometimes these swell and free-download websites will cocktail adult on a initial page of Google’s hunt results. That’s not good. I’d rather that people who are acid for a proceed to buy my book not be shown a proceed to bandit it on a initial page of results.
So, any so mostly we have someone on my group go by a formula and contention takedown requests to Google, that is unequivocally good about hidden a formula from a hunt engine.
I don’t “go after” anyone. we usually try to get a links unlisted from Google. It takes maybe 30 mins any few months and creates me feel better.
One More Thing
While we was roving with my family a year or so ago, we got a rather undone email from a client of The App Design Handbook. He said, “I bought your book on Amazon, yet a formatting is all messed adult and a book is hardly readable!”
A integrate of things worried me about this email. First, we caring about design, so a reading knowledge ought to be good. That’s critical to me, so clearly something had left wrong. Secondly, we don’t sell my books on Amazon. That’s what confused me most.
After a few some-more emails and a small research, we schooled that someone had stolen my book (to be expected) and was offered it on Amazon and pocketing a distinction (not to be expected). Luckily, Amazon took it down, and a lady got a refund. So, if we protest about people hidden your work, usually remember that during slightest they aren’t offered it.
The Power Of An Audience
The final dual years of my life have been crazy. we quit my job, started offered digital products, doubled my annual income, wrote some-more books and doubled my annual income again.
Many plan helped in a routine (including a ones we’ve usually covered), yet 0 of it would have happened though my readers. we done a preference early on to concentration on training and pity all we learn.
Those readers are a ones who have enabled me to sell books, learn workshops in cities around a world, get paid to transport and get entrance to so many people whom we now call friends.
A Portfolio Approach
When we started offered digital products, we was going for a “portfolio” approach. we would pursue any plan that we suspicion could get a lapse on my investment.
My suspicion was that we indispensable to reinstate a income from my pattern pursuit ($5,000 a month), so we would smoke-stack income from these differently separate apps together until it reached that sorcery number.
I had products for small-business owners, debate denunciation pathologists, students, sign-language interpreting agencies and capability enthusiasts. Yes, any one got me closer to my $5,000 a month goal, yet my time got scattered.
An Audience-Centered Approach
Anytime we worked on compelling OneVoice, my app for debate denunciation pathologists, it did 0 to advantage Commit6, my app for capability enthusiasts.
There was no overlie between those dual audiences. The same with compelling a peep cards app and a ebook about design: 0 suggestive overlap.
That meant that any bit of bid we put into graduation benefitted usually a singular product.
I’ve given altered that proceed to concentration on portion a singular assembly — well, unequivocally dual overlapping audiences: designers and marketers. The topics are ones we caring about deeply, so we can write about them though removing bored. More importantly, any bid we put into compelling The App Design Handbook also helps to marketplace Designing Web Applications.
Every hour we put in earnings twice a formula (or more) in revenue.
Serve a Needs of a Single Audience
I still have a portfolio proceed to products. My income this year comes from during slightest 6 graphic products. But they all offer a singular assembly (at slightest as closely as possible).
Think about a assembly for your product. What else do they need? How else can we assistance them? Could we yield collection or training on tip of what we already offer?
How To Get Started
Hopefully, by this array of articles, you’ve schooled adequate speculation and plan to make your digital products successful. Here’s how to get started:
- Decide on what to sell. If we don’t already know, demeanour during a byproducts we emanate in your bland work.
- Plan what we will learn or what stories we will share to attract attention.
- Set adult a alighting page and email-marketing app to build your list (use ConvertKit7).
- Create your product.
- Decide on how to cost your products. If possible, use mixed cost tiers to boost revenue.
- Set adult an comment on Gumroad82 to sell your product.
- Set a launch day, and build adult to a launch with a method of information and training.
- Launch a product and start selling!
- Take a break.
Strategize where to go from here and how to use your assembly to accommodate your long-term goals, whatever they might be.
That’s It
This concludes a series. we wish you’ve schooled some profitable techniques to make offered digital products some-more profitable!
If you’d like to keep learning, I’ve created a giveaway march that goes into some-more fact on regulating email offered to boost sales: “5 Days to Selling More Through Email Marketing9.”
(al, il, ml)
Footnotes
- 1 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/07/10/how-to-profit-from-selling-digital-products-part-1/
- 2 http://gumroad.com
- 3 http://nathanbarry.com/app-design-handbook
- 4 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/6-gumroad-payment-large-opt.jpg
- 5 http://www.smashingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/6-gumroad-payment-large-opt.jpg
- 6 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/commit/id473527073?mt=8
- 7 https://convertkit.com
- 8 http://gumroad.com
- 9 https://app.convertkit.com/marketing/sellingmore?ref=smashing
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How To Profit From Selling Digital Products (Part 2)
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