How I Would Sell Digital Products (If I Could Start Over)

If I had to start over from scratch, no audience, no digital product sales and no experience, this is exactly how I would build my digital product business today. Because the truth is, I wasted months doing it the wrong way. And I wish someone gave me this advice when I started. Let me first be honest about where I messed up. I started my digital product journey on Etsy because I was told that it would be easy. There's already a large audience visiting Etsy every day. And that meant I could quickly get discovered by new customers without having to put in much effort. I'd go on Etsy, scroll through the digital products that were trending and making a lot of sales, and I would just replicate whatever seemed popular at the time. Floral wedding templates, basic quote wall art, nursery decor, habit trackers, you name it. I was spending hours and hours making all kinds of printables and templates with no real vision or cohesion. I thought if I just posted enough low-cost products, something was bound to sell. I think I made like three sales after five months of hard work, which totaled a whopping $15 in revenue. And to make things worse, I was burning out from constantly creating and uploading new products with hardly anything to show for it. This mistake cost me two of my Etsy shops that failed, and I decided to close them down. Looking back, I realized I wasn't thinking about the customer. I was creating based on what I felt like making. Here's what I would do instead if I could go back. First, I would get super clear on who I want to help. Then I'd reverse engineer my digital product ideas based on that. The hard truth is no one wants your digital product. They want your solution. So instead of asking, what should I create for my shop? I'd ask, what problem do I want to solve for my customer? One of my biggest early mistakes was not knowing my ideal customer avatar, or ICA. I used to create things for anyone who's looking for printable wall art. If I could start over, I'd get laser focused on one specific type of customer, and I'd actually have conversations with them before I made anything. The best insights you'll ever get won't come from keyword tools or trend reports. That can definitely help, but it should be supplementary and not the only research you rely on. So reach out to at least three to five people that fit your ideal customer profile. This could be your friends, family members, social media followers, colleagues, members inside Facebook groups and online communities, and ask them what they're struggling with right now. You don't need hundreds of survey responses. Just three to five honest conversations can give you more clarity than any Google search. Here are three simple questions I would ask my ideal customer now before building any new digital product. What's your biggest struggle when it comes to, and then you would insert your topic like decluttering an organization. What have you tried before that didn't work? And if someone could make a digital resource just for you to solve this problem, what would that be? These questions have been game-changing for me because when your product solves a problem people already know they have, selling becomes so much easier. Plus, you're letting your ideal customers literally tell you what they want. After you know what your customer needs, it's time to map out a product ladder. A product ladder means your offers actually make sense together. Each one builds off the last, instead of being a bunch of random digital products for completely different types of customers. That way people don't just buy once and disappear. They turn into loyal repeat customers. So a product ladder starts with a low ticket offer, which is an entry-level product around $10 to $15 for first-time buyers, like a template, printable, workbook, etc. This is to help my new customers get a quick win and start trusting me. Next would be a mid-ticket offer, which could be a bundle of printables, an ebook, a workshop, or a mini course, for example, priced at around $50 to $100. This is for people who got value from the first product and want to go deeper. And finally, a high ticket offer, like a premium course, membership, or coaching package. This is where I could help my customer get the full transformation they're looking for. And the key here is that each level should build on the one before it. This doesn't have to take weeks of planning. Honestly, this should only take 30 minutes to sketch out a simple business offer if you're clear on who you're helping and what outcome they want. Let's go through an example together. Let's say you want to sell storage bin printable labels to help people declutter and get organized for around $10. Your mid-ticket offer could be an ebook on how to declutter your home, one room at a time, priced at $50. Your high ticket offer could be a digital course or coaching package where your customer can work directly with you, priced at $500. This approach will also make it far more achievable to reach your higher revenue goals, unlike what I initially tried, selling a large volume of low-cost $5 printables. And all of these tips are relevant for you, regardless of where you decide to sell your digital products, whether that's your own website, PayHip, Etsy, Amazon, or wherever it may be. With that being said, you don't want to build any digital product before you start selling it. And I wish I learned this sooner. I used to spend weeks designing my planners, templates, printables, and workbooks before getting a single sale. So I was basically working for free. Now I pre-sell my products before I create them. And if you value your time, you need to start doing it this way too. Here's how it works. I'll create a rough outline of the product, design a cover or preview to give my potential customers an idea of what they'll be getting, and then offer it at a discounted price to early buyers. If no one bites, I don't waste time building it. Even if three to five people pre-order it, that's proof I'm on the right track. I did this with a digital course I launched last year. I shared the concept of it on social media, who it's perfect for, and offered a 50% discount to the first 10 people that purchased. I was not expecting this to fill up as quickly as it did. But to my surprise, I made 16 sales just through this pre-selling strategy. And I hadn't actually built anything yet. Because here's the thing, it's so much easier to find buyers first, then build, rather than spend weeks creating something and hoping someone buys it from you. I've also done this with Etsy printables. When I finally had a good product ladder and a clear customer avatar, I launched a new shop using this exact strategy. I promoted one of the first products as a beta version, which was a social media planner at the time, and offered it at a 50% discount to the first five people that purchased. I was also open to real feedback from my first buyers on what to include in this planner and how I can improve on it. It's so important to talk to your early customers, because not only will this make your product better, but it will give you real testimonials that you can use for future promotions. Among all the mistakes I made when I first started, one of my biggest was heavily relying on Etsy and social media platforms to promote my digital products. I spent hours creating beautiful promotional graphics and posting them over and over, hoping they would go viral and reach new customers every single day. But most of the time, they barely got any traction. I realized it wasn't because my products were bad. I mean, they could have been bad. Let's be real, I didn't do enough research. But it was also because I had no control over the algorithms. That's when I realized I needed to build my own audience outside of those platforms. I created a free productivity and time management guide, something simple, yet genuinely helpful, that aligned perfectly with the digital products I wanted to promote, all tailored to the same target customer. I offered it as a freebie to anyone who joined my email list, and I used Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube to drive traffic to it. Over time, I began building a list of people who genuinely wanted to hear from me, people who were already getting value before ever making a purchase. So when I finally launched a digital product, I had a warm, engaged audience I could reach directly. If you want to know how I was able to make $150 a day with just one $12 digital product, you can check out this video next, and I'll see you there.