Introduction
If you’ve been looking for a fast and easy way to build a profitable online business, look no further than digital products.
When it comes to selling physical products, you’ll spend a lot of time and energy dealing with the complexities associated with shipping, fulfillment, inventory, and management.
With digital products, you’ll never have to worry about any of that!
Not to mention ever-changing industries that can shift in favor of digital virtually overnight.
Just think about the rise of digital music for example, versus those who still purchase CD’s.
The same for the growing number of people who pay for streaming access to movies versus those who still purchase DVD’s.
Here’s a fun fact: digital sales surpass physical sales in many other industries as well!
Digital products are not only easy to create, but they can be easily replicated and turned into multiple product lines that fuel an unlimited number of sales funnels.
They’re also consistently in demand, easy to deliver, and if you never want to write a line of content yourself, you can affordably outsource everything!
So, the question is: what kind of digital products are the most profitable?
The answer is surprisingly a rather simple one: any digital product that caters to a consistent demand within an evergreen niche market.
An evergreen market is one that consumers are interested in for years to come.
They aren’t based on a fad or current trend, but rather on fulfilling an ongoing demand from a loyal audience.
These markets are filled with die-hard fans, or people who have a strong passion and interest in products and services related to the niche.
So, it makes sense that when you’re considering what digital products to create, you should focus specifically on these types of markets!
In the first chapter, we’ll dive into the different digital product formats that are not only easiest to create and sell, but that people are actively looking for (and already buying!).
I’ll then take you down the digital product rabbit hole where I’ll show you exactly how to gauge overall interest, demand and profitability of a niche before you even begin to create your products.
This one step will maximize your chances of success because you’ll base your digital products on proven winners.
Later, I’ll show you how you can easily use existing content to create outstanding digital products that will sell like wildfire.
Are you ready to enter the insanely profitable world of digital product creation so you can set yourself on the path to success?
Then let’s begin!
Uncovering Digital Goldmines
When it comes to creating profitable digital products, you’ll want to begin by analyzing what is already selling.
This sounds like common sense, right?
Yet you may be surprised at how many people overlook this step and go on to create digital products in formats that no one cares about.
For example, if you were interested in creating a course that catered to new self-published authors who were looking to build their social following, you’d quickly discover that most of those entrepreneurs are interested in eBooks, courses, reports and step-by-step video instruction.
They want to read about the steps they need to take to grow their audience and connect with their readers’ base.
They want to watch how they can find relevant keywords for their books, or build an author platform using WordPress.
Most of them won’t be interested in software, audio, music, stock photos, or most web-based applications.
That’s not to say that none of those people would prefer those formats, but the majority are interested in the other types of content and training tools.
So, you need to know your audience, and the easiest way to find out what they’re most interested in is by analyzing the types of digital products they’re already buying.
You can find your audience many ways, including:
Facebook Groups
http://Facebook.com/groups
This is a fantastic way to gauge overall demand of a niche.
By looking for groups that consist of active members who are avidly discussing the niche, you’ll be able to quickly find an unlimited number of hot niches and then qualify them.
Start by searching Facebook using relevant keywords under the “Find Groups” tab.
If I were looking for groups pertaining to low carb recipes, I’d type in something like: “Low Carb Diet”, or “Low Carb Recipes”.
Look for groups that are active and include at least 1,000 members.
While smaller, more segmented groups can also include profitable niches, when you’re just starting out it’s wise to focus on creating digital products that appeal to a wider audience.
Don’t spam the groups you join! You’re there to gauge interest and to spy on conversations to determine what people are most interested in.
So, pay attention to recurring questions and threads that include common, ongoing discussion.
Facebook groups are a goldmine of helpful information that you can use to form the outline for your digital product.
http://www.Pinterest.com
Pinterest is a great resource for those who are looking for digital product ideas that sell, or trend-influenced product categories.
With this social media giant, catering to over 180 million active monthly users, you’re able to follow popular boards that are focused on niches you’re evaluating to see what people are sharing and what they are saying about it.
You can begin by browsing Pinterest’s most popular topics here: https://www.pinterest.com/categories/popular
You can also use Pinterest’s general search to discover new niches, quickly gauging popularity based on the number of followers an account has or the number of re-pins (shares) on any given board.
It’s an easy way to generate a quick snapshot of a potential niche’s overall demand.
Etsy
http://www.Etsy.com
When it comes to uncovering hot digital products, you may not think about Etsy.
After all, it’s best known for handmade goodies, one-of-a-kind products, and handcrafted creatives.
But with more and more Etsy users creating digital products, it’s become a hidden reserve filled with potential ideas for your next digital product.
For example, thousands of Etsy sellers are making money by offering various printables in countless niche markets.
These are simple downloadable products like journal inserts, planners, calendars, sewing patterns and even birthday and wedding invitations.
Talk about set and forget, passive income!
These sellers create their digital downloads once, add them to their Etsy shop, and then move onto another project while they continue to sell day after day.
Spend some time browsing Etsy, paying attention to the shops that offer downloadable content.
Begin by searching the marketplace using keywords like: printable, planner, download, journal, prints, etc.
Amazon
http://www.Amazon.com
It should come as no surprise that Amazon is one of the best places to find hot niche markets. After all, it’s synonymous with ecommerce.
When it comes to finding in-demand digital products, there’s no better place to go.
You’ll want to focus on researching digital products found on the Kindle store.
Begin by entering keywords relating to your niche market. This is where you’ll begin researching and validating your digital product ideas.
Tip: Begin by entering in a broad term into Amazon’s search bar and then pay attention to Amazon’s auto-suggest feature.
These are popular keyword phrases used by consumers.
This will also make it easier to uncover a wider range of potential ideas than if you enter a specific keyword phrase.
Examples:
How to…
Learn to…
Make money…
Lose…
By entering in just a couple of seed keywords rather than complete phrases, Amazon will suggest dozens of popular search terms based on common searches.
Once you’ve found a niche you’re interested in, or if you already know what niche you’re evaluating, then complete your search query, and look at the following components:
Active demand for your digital product idea.
Are there a lot of existing eBooks in this niche? A healthy amount of competition is important as it indicates the niche is a popular one.
Reviews Matter.
Not only can the number of reviews indicate the popularity of a topic, but you can gleam a ton of useful information by reading 2 and 3 star reviews.
These are comments left by consumers who have found weaknesses in the books, or components they didn’t like.
You’ll be able to come up with tons of ideas by reading this feedback, including what direction to take with your own digital product, what subject matter is most important to consumers, what is lacking in existing products, and how you can create a competitive brand that will stand out to this audience.
You can also take things a step further and enter in the search terms provided by Amazon into: https://kwfinder.com/ to double-check the overall demand for specific topics.
In the next chapter, I’ll show you how to use 2 popular marketplaces to determine the profitability of different types of digital products.
With these 2 resources alone, not only will you be able to immediately determine the popularity of a niche, but you’ll be able to take a close look at how successful digital entrepreneurs have set up their sales funnels to maximize profits.
Dressed for Success
After applying the digital product research strategies in the previous chapter, you should have a great idea as to what your digital product will be about.
You should have also decided on the different formats you’re going to offer (video, eBooks, reports, lesson plans, course, etc.)
Next, we’re going to take one final step to verify profitability of the niche you’re interested in.
Note that this step may not be required, but it’s a great way to verify demand and to effectively determine a fairly accurate estimation of the overall profitability of your digital product.
Most people will look at the two resources I’m about to introduce you to as a way of finding affiliate products to promote.
After all, that’s what the markets were designed for: to connect vendors with affiliates who want to promote their digital products.
But when it comes to finding what type of digital products are selling and what niche markets are in demand, these websites are filled to the brim with incredible information.
In fact, I rarely create a digital product without verifying that others are actively selling the same type of content in one form or another within one of the following marketplaces.
I’m talking about:
JVZoo: http://www.JVZoo.com
And
Warrior Plus: http://www.WarriorPlus.com
Both marketplaces are focused on selling digital products, so regardless of your niche market, chances are you’ll be able to use these resources to verify demand.
Start by creating a free account on both of these marketplaces. If you already have an account, you’ll begin by entering in a keyword that describes the type of digital product you are considering.
Let’s start with Warrior Plus.
Click on the “Affiliate” link in the top navigation bar as shown below. Then, enter in a seed keyword. It can be anything relating to your niche.
In my example, I’m searching for profitable PLR (private label rights) product ideas. So, I enter “Private Label Rights” into the search bar.
You can also search by category.
Next, you’ll want to click on “Launch Date”. That way you can be sure you’re only searching for current products and recent launches.
You can also organize based on “Sales” but just be sure that you’re only paying attention to recent launches in the last 6 months or less.
Obviously, the higher the number of sales, the more successful the launch was.
Scan through the products that have sold at least 200 copies.
Sales volume is what you’ll want to pay most attention to because this is a clear way to evaluate overall demand for your digital products.
So, the more sales, the better.
Obviously lower priced digital products will equate to a higher number of sales so keep this in mind when considering your own price point.
If you’re interested in selling higher-ticket items, you’ll want to focus your research on digital products that are in a similar price bracket.
Scan the sales pages for each digital product that you find within your niche that has sold more than 200 copies.
Take as many notes as possible, including sales copy ideas, bonuses offered, the digital formats available, etc.
All this information will help you come up with a successful launch strategy for your own digital product, as well as help you determine what your product should be focused on, how much coverage to provide, as well as the type of formats your customers will expect.
If you want to dive deeper into a vendor’s sales funnel to figure out what kind of bonuses, upsells, down-sells and one-time-offers are more likely to sell, you can find all this information easily just by clicking on the “Request” tab next to every product on WarriorPlus.
On this page, you’ll be able to see how many products are in the sales funnel, how each one is priced, and quite often, you’ll be able to visit their JV/affiliate page where you’ll see the funnel in action, including links to internal sales pages.
Like I said, these two marketplaces are a wealth of information, especially when it comes to figuring out what digital products are in demand and what is being offered.
Next, we’ll run the same search through JVZoo. Start by clicking on “Affiliates” and then choosing “Find Products” from the drop-down menu.
Run the same search, paying attention to product sales volume, pricing, and exploring the backend of each product launch.
Remember to take notes of everything you find!
By the end of your quick and easy research you should have a solid idea as to the type of product you’re going to create, as well as what pricing strategy will give you the best chance of success.
In the next chapter, I’ll show you how to quickly create in-demand digital products just by using existing content.
This will not only save you time and money, but you’ll be able to create an unlimited number of profitable digital products in record time!
Instant Bestsellers
When it comes to creating your digital products, typically people choose one of two different routes:
- Create the products themselves.
- Outsource them to professionals.
These are both great options, but they can be rather limiting.
For example, you can choose to create your products yourself if you’re personally invested and experienced with the topics at hand.
Or, if you have the money to invest in outsourcing the content to qualified writers you can easily find what you need at places like www.Upwork.com
But what if you don’t want to invest a lot of money in creating digital products?
And what if you lack knowledge or experience with the topics and are unable to create them yourself?
That’s when this secret weapon comes into play.
Just by using this one resource, you’ll be able to create as many digital products as you wish in as many markets as you choose, even if you know absolutely nothing about the topics!
I’m talking about white label (otherwise known as private label) content. This is content that has been created by others who sell licenses to people just like you.
With a private label license, you’ll be able to:
- Edit the content to suit your needs and to better represent your brand.
- Combine content from different providers to create a full training package, a compilation of material that extends the coverage of your product.
- Create bonuses, upsells, downfalls and even one-time-offers or upgrades just by repurposing private label content from qualified sources.
- And much more.
Chances are you’ve heard about private label content before, but you may have overlooked just how useful (and profitable!) it can be.
The key is to find a source of high quality content.
You want to be careful with this because not only will the content you sell form the basis of your brand, but you want to make sure that you’re buying private label content from the source so that you’re confident with your licensing terms and you aren’t buying content that’s been widely distributed by multiple vendors.
And finally, you want to make sure the private label content you purchase doesn’t include unrestricted rights.
Unrestricted licensing allows anyone who purchases the content to do anything they choose and while this might sound good to you because it gives you unlimited freedom and flexibility with what you can do with the material, it also means others can do the same thing.
Unrestricted PLR content tends to become saturated rather quickly, not to mention distributed for free.
Imagine how difficult it would be to use this type of content in digital products you plan to sell if others are giving away the same content.
Instead, purchase high-quality private label content from trustworthy sources like InDigitalWorks and whenever possible, directly from the original creator.
In the final chapter, I’ll show you how to protect your digital products so that only authorized buyers can access them.
I’ll also leave you with a few final tips to help you get on the path towards making consistent money with your new product line!
Final Tips
It’s important to ensure that your digital products are well protected so that only those who have paid for access can download them.
While there are many ways to protect your files, including going through the learning curve necessary to install your own authentication gateway or protection tools, a far better and easier way is to simply use a product like Product Dyno, available at: http://www.ProductDyno.com
Product Dyno is a robust, feature-laden utility that not only makes it easy to sell digital protects that are securely protected, but they also allow digital marketers to sell membership access, one-time purchases or a combination of both.
What we love most about Product Dyno, aside from the ease of use and intuitive admin panel is that they host the software themselves, meaning that you never have to deal with script installation, configuring files or messing around with complicated permission settings.
You just sign up for a Product Dyno account and follow a simple set of guided instructions and you’ll have your digital product set up and ready to sell within minutes.
You can create your account at http://www.ProductDyno.com
I wish you the very best in your digital product adventures.
