After the last email I sent to subscribers, I received quite a few emails with ideas on topics they would like to know more about. Some topics are less familiar to me as well, but based on my experience, I will try to share some of my information. Part of the email read:
"Personally, I would be interested in content on the topic of websites for selling digital products (e.g., booklets = we're not talking about Amazon and e-books, but booklets that you buy, download in, say, PDF format - I don't know if there's anything else - and read; how to put a digital story for children on the web/in an online store so that parents can read it on a phone or tablet, maybe even selling digital images, etc.). We live in a digital world and are moving at the speed of light."
Selling digital products can be very interesting for online sales, as it avoids the packaging and shipping of items. Once we prepare a digital item, in most cases, all that remains is its promotion. Of course, this is only true if everything is set up correctly, so no additional manual work is needed.
I have my own site on the Magento platform and I also have some digital items for sale. Mine are a bit more technical in nature, as I have added a few of my own modules for online stores for sale. The whole process works so that the visitor selects the desired module through the site, adds it to the cart, and then completes the order process. Once the order is completed and paid for, it is automatically confirmed in the online store, and the customer receives a link to download the module. Magento also allows limiting the number of downloads available to the buyer. However, there is still some manual work, as I do not yet have a system in place that would automatically complete payments by invoice. When I receive the funds in the account and confirm the order, the customer gets access to the files.
In the order process, except for the invoice, which can also be automated in sales, there is not much work, as with card payments (Stripe, Braintree, ...) or via PayPal, the store always receives feedback from the payment processor on whether the transaction was successful or not.
The hardest part of selling online products for many is their protection. If someone buys, for example, a PDF book or video and publishes it publicly, it will likely affect our sales. Therefore, it is necessary to protect ourselves. This can be done in several different ways. Maybe I won't write about all of them, but I will add some examples of how I developed some solutions for clients.
Selling digital books
In book sales, the most current protection is DRM technology. DRM is a technique for protecting an e-book, where the file is encoded and can only be opened with special software or hardware and credentials, such as a username or device identification number and a special code. The most well-known DRM service provider is Adobe. Many of the largest e-book sellers, such as Amazon, Apple, and Kobo, use their own DRM technologies, which are not compatible with each other.
In practice, this means that e-books we buy on a computer cannot be transferred to a reader or another own device on which we would like to read the e-book. The e-book can only be read on the device on which it was purchased.
This probably doesn't suit many, as with such protection, we are tied to a specific device, and transfer between different devices is not possible. To avoid this, we have built a system into the online store (bookstore) that adds a digital signature (watermark) with buyer information to the purchased book. At the end of each page, there is a footer signature "This book is licensed for 'buyer's name', 'buyer's email'". At the end of the book, a disclaimer is added. I think this method is quite effective, as most will think twice before sharing their copy of the book. If they do decide to do so, the person who did it can be quickly traced.
Selling video content
Many who have their own online store have probably become real experts in their field, so why not take advantage of this and try to sell some video guides in addition to their products. A client who deals with the sale of creative products has done this very well. She has added a lot of her own creative video workshops to her store. At the time of writing, I see that the number of workshops is already over 100, and given the number, they are probably very well received among her customers.
Of course, you are probably wondering how to make a video workshop so that it cannot be copied and shared online, and that the purchase process is as simple as possible. If we just send the video by email, there will probably be a lot of playback issues, and in the end, someone might upload the free video to YouTube and completely ruin our efforts.
To avoid all these problems, we can upload the video content to our Vimeo account and set the settings so that playback is only possible from our own domain. Once we have the video playback restriction, we just need to arrange it on our site. If we have multiple workshops, it makes sense to create series of workshops with different levels, and for each level, we add a short text introduction and embedded video content.
For the client, everything works so that they find the workshop and make a purchase. Once the purchase is completed, the item page changes so that there is no longer an option to order, but instead, there are now different sets of workshops with all related content. To make it even easier to review all purchased workshops, we added a page named library to the user account, where there is a list of all purchased workshops.
Selling digital products without your own online store
Of course, there are many other digital contents and different ways to protect them. Unfortunately, writing about all of them would take up too much content. However, perhaps more important information for everyone who would like to start selling digital content is that there are quite a few different platforms where you can sell your products, such as Amazon for selling books and Shutterstock for selling images. Of course, there are many such platforms, and some are quite specific, for example, for creative content, you could try selling through the Etsy platform.
If you have an online store and are not yet ready to sell digital content, you might try using digital content as part of a promotion. For example, with the purchase of weight loss products, you can add a free digital workout plan. This way, the gift adds value to the customer's purchase of the product, plus the likelihood that they will stick to the plan and reorder is even greater.
