What Are Digital Products?

We have covered so much ground in four days! You've learned about goal setting, basic business building principles, understanding your ideal customers, exploring your niche, doing market research, finding a balance between high and low value issues and challenges that your potential customers are facing.

In today's lesson, we'll finally start talking about digital products! We'll expand on what we've already learned about these items.

What are Digital Products?

Digital products are intangible items that can be accessed from any internet connected device. They differ from physical products because they can be delivered electronically.

They are like physical products in that they work to solve a problem for a group of people who are working to accomplish a goal.

We talked in the introductory video (above) about cheat sheets, worksheets, video tutorials, digital graphics, home decor, planners, guides, printables, case studies and quizzes and surveys. If you haven't watched the video, please be sure to check it out for digital product ideas that you may have overlooked. 

Not So Obvious Digital Products

In addition to the product types mentioned above, there are lot’s of other ideas you can use to sell digital products. We will expand on what we know about them and how they can be used to earn full or part time income.

• Lead Magnets - Digital products can also be used as lead magnets and freebies to attract people to an online business. The products listed above can be given away for free to help business owners start a dialog with prospective customers.  

• Portable Document Files (PDFs) -  are another kind of digital product. Did you ever think something as simple as a PDF could earn you money? 
• Graphic Images and Clipart - Graphic images (like the one on the onesie shown in the picture above) in the PNG, JPG and SVG format are also digital products. Another surprise. People are making these products and becoming a supplier to the entire “maker” community.

Graphic images and clip art are further processed to make a finished product that is sold to the public. So from that perspective, your digital product business can be a supplier for the business to business (B to B) market as well as the business to consumer (B to C) market.  That creates lots of opportunities to earn consistent monthly income. 

Digital Product Opportunities

There are opportunities to sell and promote products, supplying the B2B business to business market. In the B2B space partnerships, sponsorships and affiliate deals can also help you experience tremendous growth.  

There are also individuals who make items for personal (B2C) business to consumer use, for events like anniversaries, birthdays, reunions and more. The end users aren’t in business but they use these items on a regular basis.  

Here are some of the industries that you can support to build a thriving online business:

• Print on Demand. Graphic design and image file types are digital products used in the Print on Demand space. They are also used to create clipart (another type of digital product) that people can use for stickers, labels, cards, online graphics, sublimation and more.
  
  Print on demand is another avenue for those who make digital products. Companies who sell print on demand products are always looking for designs to place on items like t-shirts, mugs, home decor and more.  
   
  Print on demand is a growing business model that’s free to start and compares to digital products in the ease of entry into the market. One of the biggest benefits you don’t have to carry inventory. You can make your own designs or buy designs and mock ups from sellers on Etsy and other platforms.
   
  Companies like Printful and Printify will print your products and ship them to your customers, allowing you to focus on sales and marketing. You don't have to worry about maintaining inventory and you don't have to pay for products until you have made a sale.
  
  Learn more about Print on Demand with the document found in the Resources section below. 

• Courses - Courses are examples of digital products. They are sold on a number of platforms for a wide variety of prices. Some are used as lead magnets, others are sold in shops and marketplaces.
• Videos - Are digital products, and can be used to teach courses, sell products, demonstrate how products are used, assist people in shopping and more. They can also be monetized with ad revenue on YouTube to bring in earnings each time someone watches and takes action on an ad.
• Podcasts - Moving on to the next kind of digital product… podcasts. Have you ever thought about podcasts as digital products? Podcasts are an excellent solution for business entrepreneurs and consumers who don’t have time to sit down and read.
  
  You can provide information via an audio file and upload it to free hosting platforms for podcasts.

Once you have your audio files on the hosting platform, they can be accessed on platforms like Spotify, Apple Play, Google Play, Amazon Music and more.
 
Podcasts are usually monetized using paid sponsorships once your audience reaches a certain level. The larger your audience, the more you can charge for advertising. That’s another reason for choosing a specific niche for your business.
 
Brands who want to get in front of people in your niche will pay you for advertising. If you’re not sure who your audience is, you will look less attractive when it comes to forming lucrative partnerships.

That's why establishing yourself as an authority and building on a specific niche will help to position you as someone who knows what they are doing in your industry, which makes you more attractive to popular brands. 

I invite you to listen to our podcast, the Creative Impulse to receive a business building tip each week. You can listen to our podcast on Spotify, Apple or Google podcasts and wherever you listen to podcasts.
 
So when you think about the kinds of digital products you are interested in selling, consider which market you want to start with, B2B or B2C.  It’s best to start with one and expand to other markets to grow your business.
 
If you’re good at creating digital products you could have an entire business built around creating this kind of content for people who need help in a given niche area.