Digital products - what is there and how can I use them on the eCommerce Get a foothold in the market?
When you hear "digital products" being sold or manufactured, you first think that they are a strange invention of modern times. After all, what kind of products are they? You can touch a product, right?
What are digital products anyway?
With digital products this is exactly what is not possible. They come in the form of music, videos, books or online courses, and you can spend a lot of money on them since iTunes and Co. have sharpened our minds that it's illegal to download these products from the Internet just like that for free.
Yet it is not so long ago that many of us did just that. So at the end of the 90s of the last century there was a run on sites like Napster and Co. that let you share content you already had and in return you could download content.
Of course, a bolt was quickly put in place. After all, the artists, whether they are musicians, actors or authors, should be rewarded for their work. And of course that is absolutely right.
Since then, many small businesses and even more individual entrepreneurs have noticed that they too digital goods can produce and sell.
The advantages of digital products
The advantage is obvious. Once you have created the product, you can sell it for years without incurring significant costs. But that does not mean that it is easy to create a digital product. If it were, anyone would do it. After all, who wouldn't want to sell as many products as possible without incurring additional manufacturing costs?
You should think about it like this. A baker bakes his rolls, cakes and pastries in the morning to sell them. He has to do this every day, because the pastry from the previous day is old and no longer tastes good by the third day at the latest. So the sequence is clear: one bakes and sells. Every day. In addition, you have to buy new raw materials every day to make the products.
A musician, on the other hand, records his song once and offers it on various platforms such as iTunes or Amazon Music and many more. He sells his product, in this case his song or album, without ever using raw materials for it again. And of course this is exactly the reason why well-known artists often earn a lot of money with their products. They create their album once and then have it distributed by their record companies, for example.
It works the same way with actors. For months a film is shot with many actors and incredible equipment and then sold over and over again - often decades.
How you can benefit from digital products
Let's just take a look at the details. Even sole traders or small companies can create digital products and sell them on the Internet. For them too, once the product has been created, there are hardly any costs for its production. Of course the costs for marketing remain. But every entrepreneur has those. Because the sentence "If you don't advertise, you die" applies equally to every entrepreneur, whether small or large.
So the question is whether you can do without significant income long enough to create a digital product. After all, creating an online course or book naturally takes much longer than baking rolls and cakes. Of course, this is meant to be completely value-free. However, the question an entrepreneur has to ask himself is exactly that: Can he use his resources, in this case time and equipment, long enough to create his digital product?
Let's assume you want to create an online course. For a good online course you can easily charge 100 Euros and more. So the product is fixed, and so is the selling price.
Then you still need equipment for it. In this case that would be a video cameraa computer, a video editing program and the appropriate lighting. If you already have a computer, this means that you will have to invest a few hundred euros for additional equipment. More importantly, however, is the time and resources, such as staff, that you will need to create your product. After all, when you record, you can't be in Shop and in turn need a staff member there.
You should therefore plan exactly how much your digital product will cost to produce. You should see if you can produce this alone in your spare time or if you really plan a time frame in your core business to produce your product. You should also calculate exactly how long it will take to recoup the investment you have to make.
What does the creation of your digital product cost?
Let's say you are a photographer and sell not only prints but also frames, photo books and much more. So while you are taking your online course on photography, you can't stand in your shop and sell your products there. This inevitably means that you will need an employee for this time, which costs money. Of course, the equipment you need to create your course also costs money. However, you can also use this for countless other online courses.
So if you need two weeks for the creation, you have to pay an employee to take over your working time during this time. If you keep these points in mind, you can quickly find out how much the creation of your digital product will cost you approximately and when the investment you make will pay off.
Marketing your digital product
Because when you have the product, you naturally need customers. Otherwise you will not get your investment back.
You can sell your digital product in many ways. If you have a stationary business, you can sell your Video course burn it on a DVD or have it burned and sell it in your shop. You can also do this online, via your own website.
But to do this, you need to advertise in some way. You can do this when you participate in social media completely free of charge or via Facebook and Google Adwords, if you are willing to pay for advertising. This is also often worthwhile. Because this way you can get customers and sell your product without spending any more time.
Of course, there is nothing to be said against both free and paid advertising. In our article 5 tips how you can optimize your online shop today you will also find Optimization tips for your own shop.
Conclusion
The creation of a digital product requires the overcoming of several hurdles. But once you have mastered them, it is really the case that you have generated more or less passive income and can therefore also create a basis for the future, a future in which you may no longer be able to work from morning to night in your Shop I'd like to sell.
Before you decide to become a digital entrepreneur, however, you should consider the advantages and disadvantages and calculate what it costs to create such a product. As you could read in this article, the financial outlay depends on many factors. If you already have equipment and don't need to employ people to create your product, it is of course much cheaper to create it.
In addition, once you've created a product and it's sold, you have the time and equipment to create more digital products, no matter what they look like.
For example, if your first digital product is an eBook, you can also create an online course from it. Or you can create an audio book from your eBook - there are no limits to your imagination.
Please also read our article on Fakeshops during the Christmas season.
