Last Updated 9 months by Emily Standley-Allard
If time is money then passive income is the holy grail when it comes to time spent versus profit earned. If you have a basic understanding of design or are familiar with simple design software like Canva, Photoshop or InDesign, then you have what it takes to start earning a passive income year after year by selling digital products from your blog easily with WooCommerce.
These days you don’t even need to have any tech or coding knowledge to sell digital products online which has opened up this opportunity to anyone who has a passion they wish to share and earn unlimited profits at the same time.
This post will tell you exactly which platforms you can use to sell your digital products with no technical knowledge or skills whatsoever!
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How does selling digital products work?
Digital products are easily updated and can last forever. There are multiple ways to sell digital products online and a variety of elements to choose from.
In this post we’re going to focus on WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is a open source WordPress plugin that is free to download. It charges you no transaction fees and doesn’t require bandwith or storage fees. It offers extensive features right out of the box, making it very appealing to everyone looking to sell online.
WooCommerce’s biggest benefit to ecommerce newcomers, is that merchants using the platform can exercise a whole lot of flexibility with their products, without having to know too much about the technical side of things.
Products can be categorized, given sale prices, independent attributes, and more. Additionally, WooCommerce stores are capable of selling physical, virtual, downloadable and even affiliate/external products
But there’s also other platforms such as the super popular Shopify, as well as Gumroad, E-junkie, Sendowl, Sellfy, Easy Digital Downloads, ClickBank, FetchApp, PayToolbox, Creative Marketplace, Envato Market, CMSmart and more!
Let’s start by explaining what it means to sell digital products.
The product
First, we need to define what a digital product actually is and which type you wish to sell on your website.
In most cases, a digital product is a downloadable graphic template that is created using a platform such as Canva or software such as Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. This is one of the most common types of digital product to sell because it appeals to other website owners and entrepreneurs.
A great example would be a website template, email template, swipe file or printable.
Read what some of the most profitable selling digital products are in this post HERE.
Since many provided templates by website hosts are overused, business owners often browse around for unique templates that haven’t been seen before or that fit their unique needs.
Similarly, people often purchase design templates when creating things like posters, cards and other similar products.
These can also be customizable to the buyers liking as well which makes them super appealing.
I purchased these landing page templates from Bluchic which I customized exactly to my liking and use them over and over again!
The tools
Canva is one of the most popular drag and drop platforms to use when creating design templates because it’s super easy to use, offers a massive library of assets to use in your designs, and can easily be used on a variety of different devices.
In order to sell digital products on your site, you’re going to need a web host and an eCommerce plugin such as WooCommerce.
The most common combination for this is a host that supports WordPress (the content management system, NOT the free website and blog platform – In other words, wordpress.org NOT wordpress.com – which does not allow you to sell products) and WooCommerce which has natural integration with WordPress.
I use a combo of WooCommerce and Podia to sell digital and affiliate products and to house my Academy of courses, guides and swipe files.
This combination is easy to set up, straightforward and widely used, meaning there is plenty of support out there if you run into any issues.
The Deliverables
When you purchase a product online in the digital product world, what you receive is known as a deliverable.
In the case of a design template this is often sent in the form of an image file, a PSD (Photoshop Document) or even a shareable Canva template.
These are all eligible as deliverables and are usually uploaded to your eCommerce platform to be automatically distributed to buyers.
This completely automates the sales process and is one of the reasons why selling digital products is a great way to make passive income.
You don’t need to manually process orders and the customer is given access to the product instantly.
The store
In most cases, this is going to be through your hosted website since it has all of your products and the eCommerce backend to process orders.
You can add it to your main menu so people can find it easily.
However, you could also sell your products on a variety of other platforms that you could link up to your website.
As mentioned I use the platform Podia.com.
Podia requires no tech and no coding knowledge which is why I love it so much!
Some websites focus on providing designers with a platform to sell their templates automatically, introducing a middleman but cutting out some of the cost and manual work involved in setting up your website. However, as we’ll explain in this post, it doesn’t take long to get your store up and running.
You could also sell on social media networks such as Instagram which doubles as an advertising platform.
If you have a lot of followers, a visible brand and want to appeal to many different platforms and users this is a great method as well.
How to Use Instagram to Build a Buzz For a New Product Launch
The Marketing
Lastly, you also need to think about marketing your new digital product.
Even with beautiful designs, you’re not going to make any money if nobody knows about your products.
We suggest using platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest for the best visual displays, but Facebook and Twitter are also suitable. It really all depends upon your audience and where they are most likely to be.
To get started growing a vast audience on Pinterest read this post:
Powerful Pinterest Marketing Strategies
The goal is to identify your audience and get involved in the social circles and platforms that they also frequent as well to attract their attention.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of selling digital products, let’s take a look at what it takes to set up a website.
Setting up a website and eCommerce platform
Setting up a website and eCommerce platform is easier than ever before, making this a fantastic route to earning passive income.
Setting up a website
Although it is highly possible as mentioned to sell your products on social media, a website is highly recommended to help you build a personal brand and also provide an online store for your users to purchase things directly from you.
The combination of a web host with WordPress and WooCommerce is definitely recommended and takes care of everything!
Most web hosts like BlueHost offer one-click installation of WordPress, making it super simple for anyone to set up.
How To Start a Blog in 5 Simple Steps
You can then pick a website template (or design your own) and create content for your pages before adding products to it. The more attractive your website, the more likely people will take notice of it.
11 Website Essentials You Can’t Afford to Ignore
Installing WooCommerce
Next, you need to install WooCommerce. This is the eCommerce platform that will allow you to register products, accept payments and automate deliverables.
You can also use WooCommerce to track analytics which can be helpful for marketing in the future.
Installing WooCommerce involves opening your WordPress dashboard, finding the plugin and clicking install.
WooCommerce has the ability to help any aspiring online merchant set up, and run his business easily, and professionally. Yet, for those looking for extra functionality, WooCommerce once again doesn’t disappoint.
There are hundreds of WooCommerce Extensions available, some of which are free, and some of which require a fee. From these extensions, one can find applications relating to accounting, payment gateways, marketing, reporting and more.
That’s all there is to it! The setup process is detailed and straightforward, covering everything from your brand name to payment methods and legal information.
We highly suggest using PayPal as your preferred payment method of choice, but Stripe is also great for frequent credit card users.
Adding a product
Lastly, you’ll need to add your products.
This is done through the Products page of your dashboard. Again, the process is simple and all you need to do is add some information, set up your deliverables and pick a price.
It’s important to enable the Virtual and Downloadable check boxes so that WooCommerce knows it’s a digital product.
Once the product has been added, you can start focusing on marketing your products, creating new templates and responding to customer queries.
This is the basic setup for earning passive income selling digital products. While it admittedly takes a bit of setup in the beginning, a platform like Podia or Woocommerce makes it incredibly easy since they handle all the payment aspects.
You can essentially leave your website alone for long periods and it will continue to generate revenue passively for you.
Proper promotion and adding new high quality products will certainly help improve your profits, and is a fantastic way to increase your source of revenue over the course of time.
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