Blogging is a great way to make a little side cash, but if you want to take the income you bank from blogging to the next level, or produce an entirely different stream of revenue, creating and offering digital content to sell on your blogs or websites is an avenue toward getting it done. Digital content can range from Ebooks, material for courses, music, photographs, and anything else you can think of, that can be packaged and sold in a downloadable format and you feel your customers/readers would benefit from.
Offering digital content for free is a great way to provide your readers/customers with a sneak preview of what you can offer them. This also equates to free advertising for your blog (everyone has a bigmouth when they get something for free).
IMPORTANT: There are always a maze of legality issues when dealing or distributing digital content for sale on the web. PLEASE, do your research or hire someone (Upwork, Freelancer, or Peopleperhour all offer this type of service) before selling your digital content. There have been many instances where individuals have completed a great deal of work only to find out there Ebook(s), video(s), or music was taken down, because of violating copyright infringement laws.
TYPES OF DIGITAL CONTENT TO OFFER:
AND ACTION!: VIDEOS
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Creating videos is another great way for your readers/customers to get to know you and become engaged. This type of digital content is an added bonus, because as I mentioned in my previous post “How to Create a Virtual “Bridge Gate” on Your Website and Generate Revenue,” you can incorporate this type of digital platform, which can offer monetization for your videos. Profits will be gained from the downloadable content youʼre offering and the monetization from the videos too. Youtube is a huge platform, where you can offer your videos. This means youʼre creating another venue to showcase your work and you can get paid for it. Videos can range from webinars, courses, recipes, makeup tutorials, music, or just about anything you can think of, that you are interested in and you can make a profit from.
HOW-TO CREATE DIGITAL CONTENT FOR VIDEOS
There are many options when it comes to selling your videos, so for the sake of this post not morphing into a novel, I will only provide one brief tutorial for each digital content type.
YOUTUBE
Step 1: If you donʼt already have one, sign up for a Youtube paid content video account. Note: There are eligibility requirements, which can sometimes be difficult to meet.
Step 2: Upload the video to your Youtube channel.
Step 3: Go to ‘Monetizationʼ section located in the video editor and then click on the ‘Require purchase or rental review.ʼ
Step 4: Enable ‘Paid Content.ʼ
Step 5: Click ‘Create an Offerʼ and fill out all pertinent information within the form.
Step 6: Click on the ‘Create Offer.ʼ
More detailed information can be found by Googling ‘paid video content YouTube.ʼ
YOUʼRE AN OPEN BOOK: EBOOKS
Canva, is a great platform to get your digital content out there and the best part, itʼs FREE. And, if youʼre like me when it comes to tech, the user interface is donkey proof and with drag and drop features, youʼll be ready to sell your digital content in no time. This digital content platform brings in 10 million plus and counting users. Canva has a wide range of categories to offer and includes: cards, ecards, logos, labels, flyers, posters, banners, tickets, reports, and too many mention. So, if youʼre sold and interested in Canva, head over to about.canva.com to check out more.
HOW-TO CREATE DIGITAL CONTENT FOR EBOOKS
CANVA
Step 1: Note: Canva is not yet available for Android. Create a Canva account or you can also bypass sign up, by logging in with your Google or Facebook credentials.
Step 2: Once your all logged in, click on the ‘Moreʼ link and scroll down to ‘Blogging and Ebooks.ʼ
Step 3: Choose from the wide range of templates, designs and fonts Canva has available to your liking.
Step 4: Once your done with designing your Ebook, click on the ‘Downloadʼ button at the top of the menu bar and choose the format, which you would prefer. Currently Canva offers PDF and JPEGs.
Step 5: Upload the downloaded file to your website or blog and integrate a payment method.
GOTTA HAVE HOUSE!: MUSIC
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Offering music as digital content first became widely known once Napster (senior moment) offered MP3s and then there was iTunes. Fruity Loops is a great music software creation tool. If you donʼt want this type of software taking up a great deal of space on your hard drive, there is the alternative of creating your music with free online music generators.
HOW-TO CREATE DIGITAL CONTENT FOR MUSIC
REVERBANATION
Reverbanation is a great venue especially, if youʼre music is not just a hobby, but your bread, butter and passion. This digital platform not only allows you to sell your music, but also permits the distribution of your music to all the major music platforms (iTunes, Google, Spotify, and so many others). There are varying memberships, which range from $9.95 to $19.95. Based on a very brief visit to their website the process for getting your music sold is very minimal compared to iTunes.
Step 1: Go to reverbnation.com.
Step 2: Create an account.
Step 2: Provide some brief info about your new song or album.
Step 3: You can upload your cover art for your single or album.
Step 4: Drag and drop your album or song.
ALTERNATIVE PLATFORMS FOR CREATING DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Selz is a great tool for getting your videos out to your readers/customers. Selz, handles a wide range of digital content, is currently offering a free fourteen day trial, and the offer becomes the holy grail, because no credit card information is required.
Amazon is a huge platform for selling your digital products in video format and they also offer Ebooks, music and apps.
Shopify is well known for helping out those who are not technically inclined in building there own online web store. Shopify provides much more than just selling physical products and provides a variety of digital content to sell on your web store. Iʼve dealt with Shopify in the past and their customer service, support and ease of use is unmatched.
Do you love doodling or always had a talent for drawing? Well, if you said yes, then Shapeways is a great outlet for letting
loose. Shapeways is an online outlet, that letʼs you create and sell 3D products.
MORE COIN PLEASE:
I mention affiliate marketing in several of my previous posts. This is an extra technique to producing even more revenue from the digital content youʼre selling. Sign up with several affiliate marketing programs and mention your affiliate partners within your digital content. Try to integrate affiliate marketing content seamlessly. If not, then most likely the reader/customer will be pulled away and distracted from your digital content. So, with that being said, when integrating affiliate marketing try to keep short and as simple as possible. If the reader/customer took the effort to download the digital content, the odds are in your favor, that you will actually make your percentage cut from your affiliate marketing partners.
AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAMS
Listed below are just a few companies, that currently offer affiliate marketing
programs.
Uber
Amazon
Ebay
Shapeways
Sketch Fab
WORD TO THE WISE
The most important thing to remember is when offering digital products for sell is the ease of downloading the content and the payment method employed. The shorter the process and ease of payment from the customer means you get paid more and quicker. No one wants to feel like theyʼre taking a course just to download a file. Also, one more thing before I leave you to upvote my post and stalk/follow me, when outsourcing any part of creating or distributing your digital content always
consider the following factors:
User Interface
Free vs Paid
Support
Customer Service
Thanks for reading and upvoting.