How to monetize digital content

“If you build it, they will come.” The now eternal words that were ominously whispered in the popular 1988 movie Field of Dreams was great advice for the cornfields of Iowa. It even worked for companies like Google and Facebook, whose incredible appeal attracted thousands, then millions, and now billions. But if you’re selling digital content, you’ll likely learn the hard lesson that I learned: you can build it, but they won’t come. 

Why sell digital content?

Selling digital content is a fantastic way to make money online. You can provide immense value, you don’t have to manage an inventory, ship anything, and you product is never sold out. Plus, when you update your content, you can choose to send previous customers the new version – which would make them very happy. 

But it’s also hard to sell digital content – there’s no tangible object for customers to hold and own, so you’ll need to convince them of the value. That’s why you should market, before you even have a product. 

Marketing your digital product (before you have it)

When someone buys a digital product from you, it’s because they know, like, and trust you. That won’t happen if you put throw together a PDF and try to sell it for $97. 

ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT

Instead, you should start a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel, and start talking about the topic for your digital product. Want to create an online course for building affiliate programs? Start a podcast on building one. Want to put out an eBook on podcasting? Start a podcast, and blog about the experience. Want to create your own cookbook? Start a YouTube Channel where you cook. 

The idea here is you want to show people you know what you’re talking about by delivering good content and quick wins. That will make them know, like, and trust you. 

BUILD YOUR MAILING LIST

As you write this fantastic content, make sure to build your mailing list. The people who opt-in to your list will be the ones who are most likely to buy when you’re ready to launch. 

CREATE QUICK WINS

Again – this is about quick wins. At the end of your content, offer a content upgrade – an additional piece of content that they can only get by joining the mailing list. 

This content should be good – everything you do here should deliver value. If we look back at the cookbook example, your content upgrade can be your 5 favorite Christmas recipes. 

NURTURE THE LIST

Once they are on your list, nurture it! Send the 3 emails the week they sign up, all with some sort of value. Most email programs will let you automate this (using something called a Funnel). 

Then, email them regularly. You don’t want them to forget who you are or why they signed up. I’m sure you’ve been on mailing lists where you don’t hear from the person or company all year, and then all of a sudden you’re getting an email a day about their Black Friday deals. 

Don’t do that. Continue to deliver quick wins and the people who signed up will continue to see the value you have to offer. 

Selling your digital product

Now that you’ve got a content machine building your list and delivering value, it’s time to create and sell that product of yours. We’ve got the “who” you’re going to sell it down. Now we’re going to answer a couple of key questions in this section: What, Where, and How should you sell it? 

WHAT SHOULD YOU SELL? 

There are all kinds of digital products that you can create and sell: 

• eBooks or PDFs
• A video series or online course
• An audio book or podcast series
• A Membership

…or some combination of these. 

What you should sell should be informed by 2 pieces of data: 

• What format works best for the information your selling?
• What format has resonated most with your potential customers? 

If you have the same content on your blog, and on YouTube, and your blog gets way more sign ups and has more views, you should probably release a PDF. But if your YouTube channel gets thousands of likes while your articles get tens of views, a video course is the way to go. 

WHERE SHOULD YOU SELL?

I’ll tell you right off the bat: The fastest way to sell your digital product is Gumroad. It’s free to get started and they charge a nominal fee for transactions. They also have an infrastructure for digital downloads. 

If you want to roll your own digital shop, there are two fantastic options for WordPress: WooCommerce, which is free, and Easy Digital Downloads, which specializes in selling digital products. If you plan on building a digital business, EDD is a great way to go. 

Similarly, if you want to sell an online course, the fastest way is Teachable. But the more custom way is with WordPress and an LMS plugin, like LearnDash (my personal favorite) or LifterLMS. 

You’ll of-course need good hosting for a WordPress solution too. I can think of one I’d recommend 🙂