Last Updated on April 14, 2024 by Jan Barley
For many years, I put off creating digital products. I thought I’d have to create an ebook or course from scratch, and I couldn’t face it. I knew it would be time-consuming, and I was busy with client work.
My biggest regret? I wish I’d started sooner!
I bought my first digital product at the end of November 2023. However, I quickly realised there were too many customer friction points for me to feel happy about selling it. For instance, it isn’t fully automated.
I decided to let it go. Thankfully, it recently changed to an automated program, and I’m getting everything set up. Still, between December and February, I began creating digital products of my own.
The Process I Followed to Make Digital Products
I will bullet point my process because I’m sure you don’t want to read reams of pages.
- I bought low-cost PLR (private label rights) products with resell rights
- I bought from people I knew in digital marketing groups, Facebook ads and platforms that sell PLR, such as Etsy
- These products were Canva templates so that I can edit and personalise/improve
- I reorganised the content, adding elements, changing fonts, images, and colours and creating new covers
- I opened a free account with Gumroad (they take a 10% commission on sales). I found it easy to learn from a few YouTube tutorials
- I created mock-ups on Canva for images for my shop listings
- I began promoting on Pinterest
Gumroad is my first shop, but I plan to open an Etsy store and put my digital products on Systeme. I will use a few as lead magnets and sell the rest cheaply so others can make money by reselling them.
Most of the PLRs I bought were not up to the standard I like. I modified things like moving one block of text on one page across three pages, making it more readable. I corrected grammar and punctuation errors and added sections based on the training I did with the MRR course.
I have a pro-Canva account, but I used free elements, so anyone buying can edit with a free Canva account without paying for pro images.
Was it Easy?
Yes and no. I have undiagnosed ADHD with some elements of ASD, so my natural inclination is to simplify, problem-solve and improve. That meant it took me a long time to edit the courses. It didn’t help that I manually changed fonts and colours on every page for three courses before realising that Canva has a “change all” option.
<<<Slaps forehead>>>
What’s Next?
Well, good news for me. I joined a private community when I bought the $600 course, and recently, the leader has relaunched the product and grandfathered 11,000 people in, including me. There’s a community launch this week, and it should be good to go public on the 1st of April.
The system will be 100% automated with no customer friction points, and I’m excited to start. I will continue to build digital products and add to my portfolio.
If you’re thinking about starting a digital products business, I recommend building one product. Decide which social media channels to use for marketing and practice until you have mastered the process.
I had a lot of fun building my first nine digital products and learning how to navigate Gumroad. I’m sure you will, too.