How to Build Digital Products and Courses Quickly for Long-Term Profits

Published Date:  07 Aug, 2018 | Updated Date:  05 Nov, 2024

Presenting: the ultimate, most complete, and implementable guide on how to create high-value digital products and courses the quick and easy way. Use it to grow your business and launch new digital product ideas or add a new revenue stream.

If you’ve been looking for a way to make recurring revenue for your business, then it’s time to establish the ONE skill that’s going to help create that passive income source you’re looking for.

What is that skill you ask?

Learning how to build high-value, sellable digital products and courses in your business niche. There’s really never been a better time to jump into the business of selling digital products!

That’s because the digital market – which is a market based on knowledge capital – is growing at an incredible rate.

What that means for you is, any expertise or knowledge you can add to this growing ‘bank’ will not only help you stand out and extend your own subject matter knowledge, but also share that knowledge with students eager to learn!

how-to-create digital-products-and-courses-quickly-for-long-term-profits

The proof is in the numbers.

According to financial forecasts in 2023, the global market for digital marketing and product development is estimated to land at about $1.5 Trillion by 2030.

That’s a 13.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from now until then!

Bottom line, the future of online education through digital product and course creation looks incredibly promising.

Not to mention, it’s easier than ever to create and sell your own digital products online.

How to easily create digital products and courses for your business

Thanks to popular developments in digital sharing technologies, like online Learning Management Systems, creating a digital product that you can then sell for recurring revenue is more possible than you think.

All you have to do is capitalize on your subject matter expertise in a way that caters to your target audience, then create a solid digital product that adds value to their own learning journey.

Chances are, you already have a few assets that will work just fine. These are the elements of intellectual property (IP) currently being utilized within your business that can then be formatted, produced, launched, and sold–potentially doubling your income.

Just imagine how it would feel to generate six figures (or more!) in the next 12 to 18 months with a digital product you already have.

How Jen Gilchrist Created a Six-Figure Training Business in

20 Months


SEO Success Story




All it takes is one great product. Success breeds success, so if you start selling a product within the first year, then you can bank on selling more in the second and third years, and beyond.

It may feel like alchemy to take information you know like the back of your hand – or information that took only a little research – and package it into a video, audio, or guide that actually sells.

Still, it’s happening everyday for a fast-growing number of information experts already jumping into the game of selling digital products.

And if your membership coaching, course, or consulting business is already thriving, this is a no-brainer business opportunity that is completely within your wheelhouse.

9 Reasons to add Digital Products and Courses to Your Revenue Stream

There are many reasons why you should be in the business of selling Digital Products as your side hustle, full-time business, or additional revenue stream to your existing business.

Here are the top nine reasons we recommend you add digital products and courses to your revenue stream:

  1. Online learning. eLearning is growing, and if you look back at history, those who were early adopters of growing industries prospered. Many people enjoy online events, workshops, and training events that don’t require time and money associated with traveling.
  2. Secondary income. With the job market being more unstable than ever in American history, everyone is essentially their own boss. So even if you have a full-time job, you can’t depend on it to last forever. If you run a successful business, would you say no to an extra revenue line on your income statement?
  3. Added expertise. You certainly have skills and knowledge that other people will want to know, and growing those skills will make you more money. It’s like getting paid to research!
  4. Investment leverage. You’ve already paid to train your team and develop a world class product or service. Now you can double dip by packaging and selling your know-how while continuing to elevate your market position as the defacto #1 expert.
  5. Cost savings. Production costs tend to be low in comparison to launching other types of new products and services. This makes them an ideal candidate for top returns on investments.
  6. Semi-passive business opportunity. Once you create a product or course, all you have to do is focus on marketing and providing any level of customer support you choose. So this business can be semi-passive or highly active, depending on your personal preferences and goals.
  7. Remote work. The overwhelming majority of people operate their digital product and course businesses from home and with remote teams that minimize overhead costs.
  8. Work-life balance. Selling Digital Products for a living is as close to pulling money out of the air as one can get. You can create your products and sell them from and to anywhere in the world. There are people operating their business selling Digital Products from wheelchairs, hospital beds and there’s at least one highly successful quadriplegic digital product entrepreneur.
  9. Affiliate partnerships. Distribution costs pennies which gives you plenty of room to compensate highly motivated affiliate partners.

Who can sell digital products and courses online?

how to create digital products and courses

Wondering whether your business is the kind that can make money on the digital market?

Here are just a few characteristics of online business entities have been successful when creating digital product, course, or membership websites:

  • Businesses with industry and career history. When you’ve been in business a long time, you’ve likely collected some pretty great training material to help deliver knowledge and/ or education to others in your industry–or who are trying to break into your industry.
  • Authors, public speakers, and educators. People who are already delivering knowledge capital can leverage the visibility and credibility books and speaking engagements to improve credibility. It is often possible to use your existing material as the outline for a deep dive course which will be a natural progression for your fans. Review our article on Sales Funnel Stages to find out how to execute this strategy.
  • Coaches and consultants. As you work with clients, take notes of patterns as to the types of problems you solve. Use this to create group programs, on-demand courses, ebooks, paid webinars, and memberships to serve more people with a lower time commitment from you.
  • Spiritual teachers and wellness professionals. Because this niche is relatively less ‘mainstream’, repeatable, foundational content with opportunities for advanced teaching experiences are a great way to draw leads to your expertise. For example, our client drsheel.com uses a prerequisite course to engage with those who want to learn the modality, and then provides access to advanced training and certification options once that initial training is complete.
  • Different personality types. Introverted people may feel like extroverted people have better luck selling digital products. After all, they are more likely to be entertaining, right? Wrong! Introverted, extroverted, feeling, thinking, intuitive, sensing… No matter what your particular personality makeup, you can be successful selling Digital Products. You can choose a media type that suits your personality. When using video and audio, you can also have other people from your team do the recording.
  • Different abilities and identities. What differentiates you online, including age, race, religion, political background, negative past experiences, or anything else, are not factors that will keep you from being successful as a digital product or course creator. They are actually unique characteristics that can be leveraged to attract niched audiences.

What you need to know about creating digital products and courses online

Although this article can act as a complete guide to easy course and product creation for your digital business, we want to quickly share a list of free companion resources that you can use to build stronger digital products.

These resources and quick-guids are what will make your first few digital products even more valuable as you continue to grow your business to six or even seven figures!

Still, as you dive into the world of online course and product creation, you may still be thinking: am I really ready to create courses online?

We’re here to tell you: YES, you are. That’s because you can create course content no matter your current tier of business or income.

In fact, we’ve constructed this article as a sort of playbook for business who are:

  • At the launch stage. At this beginning stage most people want to learn how they can make money selling their ideas. Creating a high-quality digital product is a perfect way to start off.This guide will prove to be invaluable to you in the coming days, weeks, and months of launching your successful content creation, coaching, or consulting business.

    At The Digital Navigator:The launch stage strategy we employ with clients first involves getting their website right, since this is what acts as a homebase for everything they do. This gives our clients a ton of leverage when it comes to multiplying their growth over time. It also helps them avoid the pitfalls of spending 1000s of hours on social media development–only to come out with almost no email list and even less website-specific content.

  • At the $100k to $300k level. This level is the most challenging time for many because you’re really busy serving the needs of clients, which exposes the lack of systems you have in place to meet the demands of a growing customer base.At this stage, we usually see online content, coaching and consulting business owners start using more automation tools, advanced marketing strategies and developing a roadmap for future growth.This guide will give you tons of ideas for developing Digital Products that could be far more scalable than one-on-one coaching services or consultative services, which you may currently offer.

    At The Digital Navigator:For this tier of business development, clients are already producing heavy volumes of content, so our plans at this tier support a focus on content marketing. We ensure their site is optimized for search engines, reformat existing content to contain proper search terms, and do regular email blasts to cultivate their client list. We also publish curated content to their site based on what’s published elsewhere. Here, clients can do a launch event, usually a new lucrative funnel webinar with a marketing campaign offer attached.

  • At the $351K+ level. At this more advanced stage of business, we see people focused on optimizing their systems and processes, sales and marketing strategies, decreasing cost per lead, getting a stronger handle on analytics, and more.This guide will help you refine your current business model to include Digital Products that are well-crafted so you can grow even faster than ever before. It is also meant to assist you in optimizing your current offering and repackaging your existing products and services to expand your business.

    At The Digital Navigator:By this point, clients have a ton of content and a well-established marketing strategy, so our plans come in to provide support on more launches or evergreen campaigns for existing launches. We also take the time to double down on SEO and content marketing to help clients expand into other ad channels–from Google Ads, to LinkedIn Ads, and more.

As we offer answers to the questions of people at beginner, advanced, or expert stages, let’s start with the basics: What are digital products? What kind of digital products are there? And what kinds of digital products can I sell online?

What are digital products?

When we talk about digital products, we’re talking about tools that are created, published, stored and distributed online.

The beauty of these is that you can create them once and sell it forever, benefit from infinite inventory, and usually pay minimal costs for storage.

Digital Products are also called online products, information products, content products, etc. People in the business of selling information are called ‘information marketers’ by some, and ‘course creators’ by others.

As we discussed before, this group can include almost any type of business, including…

  • Real estate investing coaches
  • Yoga instructors
  • Business operations consultants
  • Thought leaders
  • Fitness trainers
  • Meditation and spiritual teachers
  • Wellness professionals

…and everyone else who has specialized knowledge that some audience segment wants to consume!

Almost any kind of expert in their field has the potential to easily make additional income by selling their own digital product.

What kind of digital products are there?

We talk a lot about content creation for digital products and courses, since that’s most often what we help our clients sell.

So when we’re looking at the kinds of digital products and course services you can create, the list is long!

For example, in our Expert Guide to Content Creation, we talk about the kinds of products content creators can make, such as whitepapers or podcasts, as well as the kinds of business models content creators use to make more money.

Here’s a short excerpt from that guide to help you understand the four most popular digital products you can make as an online business:

  1. Online courses and eLearning products. This type of content is incredibly successful for content creators, with the market in the US set to grow by more than $12B by 2024! We also believe that online course material is one of the best ways to ‘set it and forget it’, since you only have to create and establish the material one time, and watch the sales roll in forever-more! (This is truly how to make money as a content creator).
  2. Members-only Content. Although this isn’t the best place to start for content creators new to the market, developing and delivering ‘members only’ content is an excellent way to increase revenue streams for content creators in the $60K to $100K range. Think of it this way: if you have some serious street cred, you might be ready to start delivering members-only content. (We’ll expand on how to set up membership content in the next section.)
  3. Blog Posts and Articles. To be honest, this type of content doesn’t normally generate money unless the content creator is an established author, writer, journalist. Ad revenue from these articles is typically small unless content comes from a major publication. However, this type of content – when provided for free to your audiences – becomes a marketing investment. They help you establish authority, and can include things like sign-up forms for free resources. Best of all, blog posts and articles help generate search engine optimized content to boost your brand reach.
  4. Podcast Content. Similar to blogs, podcasts don’t often have a huge revenue potential, but can be really successful when paired (perhaps as a bonus offering) with existing products and services you offer. Be clear about how your podcasts will blend into your monetization strategy, and make sure to publish podcast transcripts (and the audio itself) on your website to further leverage the benefits of visiting your blog.
  5. Youtube/Tik Tok Videos. Typically tied to influencers, these types of video content and production tasks help creators and coaches focus on a niche and dive down to explore every nuance of their trade. Through paid videos, posts, product placements, and other ad revenue opportunities, the chances of success and good revenue are relatively high–though incomes of more than 10K monthly are extremely low.

What other digital products can I sell online?

Depending on your strengths, you may want to test out other digital products online such as ebooks, photography, or pre-recorded workshops.

Otherwise, here’s a second quick look at digital products you can create online as an entrepreneur:

  • Multimedia (video, audio, document, forum, members’ area, etc.) courses
  • eBooks
  • Paid webinars, masterclasses and training
  • Virtual Summits and conferences
  • Group coaching (live or recorded)
  • Certification programs
  • Continued education self-study programs (webinars, video lessons, quizzes, exams)
  • Online memberships
  • Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
  • Paid newsletter
  • Regular office hours, ask anything and featured expert sessions
  • Execution plans
  • Audio recordings (training, meditation recording, paid private podcast)
  • Memberships (Ongoing or a course delivered on drip such as 52-week course)
  • 6-week course (or other time period)
  • Whitelabel existing solutions and training
  • Affiliate products such as Clickbank or value-added reseller software
  • Specialized lists and directories
  • Infographics and cheat sheets
  • User generated content and private communities
  • Recording in person workshops and events to sell digital or make a course – be sure to get consent if other people are in the recording
  • Zoom or videoconference live program recordings sold as is or repurposed as a bonus to increase sales of your other products and services

Keep in mind, this is not an exhaustive list of digital marketing content types you can deliver. Allow your creativity to flow and see what comes naturally as a product offering in your trade or niche.

What makes a truly great digital product idea?

how to create digital products and courses

When it comes to making sure you create a blazing hot digital product, there are a few simple metrics you can use to measure the success of your digital product or course idea.

Always remember the three Es to digital product creation: Educate, Entertain, and Encourage.

Education

Make sure you always keep the true goal of this process front of mind during course creation. Sales are exciting, but you really want to encourage learning in your clients or students.

That also means teaching them what you’ve promised you’ll teach them. Deliver exactly what you’ve said you will. If you’ve promised a 45-minute beginner’s yoga session with video follow-along, deliver that.

Here, you want to make sure you’re defining the scope of what you’ll be selling on your landing pages and marketing for the course.

Entertainment

Don’t forget the fun of learning in the delivery of your products. As you build your capacity to hold a student’s attention, you’ll inevitably sell more.

Plus, no one wants to go to class with a drill sergeant!

Think about your favorite teachers in school, and what it was that made them stand out for you. Was it a certain type of attention or care? Or was it that they didn’t take themselves too seriously.

While the information and education you are sharing are important, it won’t ‘stick’ with students as well if it’s as tasteless as chewing cardboard!

Encouragement

What else will keep students coming back to learn more from you or your brand? Inspiration and motivation. In other words, encouragement!

If you inspire people enough with your content – and if you deliver the results promised (say, the ability to submit an awesome job application that actually gets you the job) – you’ll benefit from a truly rare type of marketing in the online world: word of mouth!

That means more returns through testimonials, rave reviews, and other positive, conversational feedback from happy students.

What’s important here is that you remind these students throughout each module, section, or chapter that they can be successful if they implement what you teach. The best way to do this is to break your content into smaller content chucks of five to 15 minutes each.

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The easiest ways to create digital products and courses for your business

The simplest method to creating a new digital product or course is by creating an Entry-Point Offer or EPO.

Here’s how we describe this type of offer in our Expert Guide to Building a Sales Funnel:

EPOs are your best way to capture a prospect’s contact information; namely, their email, first name, phone number, or social media tag. An EPO is therefore when you offer something with more perceived value in return for that contact information.

 

When you encourage a click with a gift, you build a relationship based on reciprocity: a great first footing for the long-term customer journey you intend to build with your sales funnel stages.
Ideally, site visitors have landed on your site because of the expert resources you’re providing on a certain topic. The most effective EPOs will be naturally appealing to your ideal customer, are ultra-specific, and easily consumable.

There are a few types of entry point offer you can create to draw attention (and drive traffic) to your larger course or product offerings, including:

  • Checklists
  • Case Studies
  • Roadmaps
  • Recipes
  • Whitepapers
  • Mini-Course
  • Reports
  • Free + Shipping Offers
  • Cheat-Sheets
  • Guides
  • Email Newsletters
  • Guided meditation

That’s the advantage of EPOs, after all. Digital content products and courses can be more easily sold once you’ve gained a small commitment from your potential buyers.

They also make a great starting off point for newer businesses, since these will lead buyers and students toward your more profitable offerings.

Regardless of where you place them in your sales and marketing cycle, you will benefit from adding a digital offering to your business model.

Another simple way to help support how you build digital products or courses is by creating a quick-start guide.

This is a guide that tells people how to navigate larger product offerings so they can choose the best product offerings for them.

This is important if you’re selling a multi-hour course or product package that can be broken down into smaller parts. If there is an opportunity for a student to purchase one of these ‘sub-modules’ on their own as they go through the quick-guide, these smaller agreements may again be leveraged into your bigger service offerings later down the line.

How much does it cost to create digital products and courses?

If you have a good picture of what’s expected of you to do in every stage of the creation of your digital product then any fear or procrastination can be minimized. After all, there’s more fear in the unknown.

Right off the bat, it’s important to remember that you should always aim for the highest quality production within your budget.

The great news is that though you have six, multiple six and even seven figure potential with some digital product types, it may only cost a few hundred dollars, and certainly less than $1,000 for you to create a professional-grade digital product.

This includes the cost of all the tools you’ll need to create your digital product. Pretty amazing night?

Just make sure you’re also factoring marketing and website maintenance costs into your budget to get a truer picture of what you’ll be spending.

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How to Create Digital Products and Courses in 9 Simple Steps

Just like the development of any finished product, there is a typical process to building digital products and courses.

This is where you become a bit of a project manager to help move yourself, and your team, through the stages of product creation, from digital product idea to publication.

You’ll not only be assembling the assets that go into the final product, but you’ll also be in charge of the tools you need to get these assets online.

That’s why in this next section we are going to walk you through our proven steps to product creation:

how to create digital products and courses

Then, once you’ve got a good idea of how to move forward, we’ll share what tools we use to help our clients create digital products and courses for the maximum possible revenue.

First thing on the list: Brainstorming.

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Brainstorm

Brainstorming is one of the more exciting stages of any endeavor. This is where you get to let your mind run far and wide as it possibly can.

It is the stage where you get to use your creativity to imagine what your course or product is going to look like.

Yet the true secret to brainstorming is to avoid becoming too judgmentmental, or engaging in self-censorship. Ignore your inhibitions for a moment to avoid stifling your creativity. Get your team or peers involved for better results.

Remind yourself that at this stage, nothing needs to be set in stone. It’s all about exploring your business, product, or course potential.

To start, we recommend brainstorming about your Digital Products by thinking about the lifestyle you want, how much money you want to make and what your most marketable knowledge base is.

In other words, ask yourself, “What knowledge do I have that people will pay me the most money for? What is an urgent problem that I can solve?”

As soon as you feel that moment of great inspiration and direction about what Digital Products you want to create, it’s time to move on to the next step: research.

Research

Now that you have a set idea of what you want to create, it’s time to scour books, magazines, websites, industry reports and any other source of information you can find to see how best to implement and sell your product, course, or service.

This also means spying on the competition. You don’t want to create an exact duplicate of another Digital Product being sold out there to your same audience, particularly if they are the market leader in your niche.

Keep in mind that you’ll want to answer some specific questions as you research, so while you take notes (and taking notes is a MUST) we recommend answering the following questions:

  • Who is my target audience?
  • What challenge or problem does this target audience face that I can solve?
  • What solution does my product offer?
  • How does that solution target the problems of my target audience?
  • How does it make the life of my target audience better?

Bookmark this article for later:

How to Create Unique Content for Your Website

Here at home, we use the Ask MethodTM developed by Ryan Levesque to provide clients (and ourselves) with great success at this stage.

It involves a survey structure to discover the #1 challenge of your target market to adapt your product, offer, messaging, and communication style to use your market’s language.

If you want to learn more about this process, schedule a call with us and we’ll take the time to answer your questions.

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Plan

Remember when we said taking notes about your research is important?

That’s because these notes are key to giving your digital product or course a physical (or digital!) form during the planning stage.

However, we’ve noticed that some business owners – even those who have created digital products before – flounder during the planning phase.

We suspect it’s because not everyone knows the steps and phases that go into product development.

Outlining these steps now will help you build a greater foundation as you start to dive in and turn your brainstorming phase into a reality.

Then you can fill in the blanks, and build a kind of outline for how you will complete the development of your product or course.

“If you’re a visual person, try planning using post-it notes on a whiteboard, or a project management software to help implement your planning phase.”

 

– Pol Cousineau, Founder The Digital Navigator

So what are steps to planning a digital product or course that you can sell online?

3 Steps to Support Your Planning Phase for Product & Course Development

  1. Choose Product/Course Format. Ask, what is the best format to deliver this transformation product in (ebook, course, workshop, including Q&A calls, etc?)
  2. Address Market Need. Create a valuable product that fills a market need. To sell your product, you need to be able to make a big bold promise, which means the product needs to actually fill a real market need. You need to provide a transformation process and end goal that your target audience really wants.
  3. Choose program or service length. Determining the length of your program is a big consideration. This is another reason why looking at the competition is a good idea in the research phase.

A note on determining the length of your product or course:

If you know how long the other top selling programs are, you don’t need to deviate from that in your product.

You want customers to consume digital products, and making it too long can prevent this type of prolonged engagement.

But length is also very relative. We don’t consider the tens of thousands of hours one needs to put in to study to become a heart surgeon to be “too long.”

On the other hand, it should not take tens of thousands of hours to teach someone how to make cilantro chicken fajitas with homemade salsa.

During your planning process, don’t be afraid to create multiple shorter products each with their own objective. Actually this is one of the methods we use ourselves to help clients develop great sellable courses and products online.

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SALES FUNNEL TEMPLATES

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As a general rule of thumb, we recommend asking yourself: What is the shortest amount of time required to give measurable results to my customers? You want to find the minimum viable product before you begin adding on too many bells and whistles.

 

– Pol Cousineau, Founder The Digital Navigator

As you plan to build your product or course to sell, keep in mind that this ‘outline’, when systemized, can be repeated to help you create great products in the future.

Outline

Now that you have a clear idea of how you will create your product, it’s time to refocus your attention on the product (or course) you plan to create by building an outline for what your product will entail.

A perk of building this outline is that it can also be used to create the helpful quick-start guide we mentioned earlier.

So how does one build a great outline for product and course development?

Just as any book, screenplay, or song requires its own style of outline, course and product development has its own proven process for success.

Here are the 3 things we believe you should always include in your product or course outline to make sure you’re creating a truly sellable product:

3 Steps to Help Build Your Digital Product or Course Outline

  1. What is included in your product? Your outline should include all the lessons, parts and topics that come with your product offering. So if you were selling a video course that included 10 modules, the modules will be the lessons, the teachings in those lessons would be parts, and the expertise you need to make each part would be your topics. Here we recommend using the same organizational structure of popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) like LearnDash which is a plugin for WordPress.
  2. What assets do I need, and where will they be saved? Be sure to include all of the necessary assets you will need to gather in your outline. That way you can place them in the appropriate spots that align with the content being presented. This includes PDFs, checklists, quizzes, audio files and videos.
  3. Does my digital course or product stream naturally flow? By outlining your products, you have the opportunity to ensure that your content logically and seamlessly flows from one topic to the next – and from one product to the next – to ultimately present a complete sales funnel process. This clarity will in turn increase your success rate and the motivation of your participants as they move through your new product stream.

Produce

Once you have a rock-solid outline it’s time to produce.

If you have a multimedia product that you are creating, it means you need to film in your videos, write your written content, and put all the pieces together.

You may have content that you need to curate, get approval to use and/or create. All of your filming, writing, recording, curating and the like happens during this phase.

Yet this is also the phase where you will be setting up certain delivery systems such as a Learning Management System, or a way for clients to access on-demand digital content.

P.S. If you don’t already have a great system established for product production (or delivery), or if you’re creating your very first content or course products, then we recommend optimizing your product production phase using the tips we outline in our expert guide on How to Make Money as a Content Creator.

Edit

Now that you’ve created some rock-solid content, it’s time to hone that content to its final form.
Are there things that you need to improve now that you’ve had a chance to review the material all together?

Could your written content do with some external feedback from a professional?

We believe investment in the editing phase of your product or course development is crucial to building a polished end-result, and is worth the initial investment.

Even if you hire someone to help you edit your first few products, you can learn about the mistakes you may be making from their corrections, and eventually begin editing your products on your own!

That being said, if you are watching the cost of your product development, we suggest finding a team who can help you set up a great learning management system, as well as curate, edit, and publish your digital product content.

Usually, the packaged nature of these services can end up being cheaper than hiring individual editors, developers, and creators, and can end up saving you a ton of time.

If you are looking to invest a little bit in a team that’s willing to do most of the technical legwork for you – relying on your expertise and creativity in your niche – then we suggest you reach out to chat with us. We’d be happy to help!

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Design

You may have noticed that, during your product or course development phase, you needed to design a few creative assets to go along with your main product.

What we mean is, you may discover you require graphics and landing page assets to help sell your product.

These are the types of supplementary ‘products’ that will help your product offering feel more concrete and ‘buyable’ to prospective customers, so don’t skimp out on these.

Whether you have the knack to create them yourself, or you hire someone (like a VA or landing page designer) to help you build them, these little design features will help boost your sales and marketing overall–plus they can be used over and over again. They’re yours after all!

Illustration of a man holding a giant magnet attracting emails

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Develop a Fulfillment System

Depending on the product that you are creating, and if you didn’t already do this during your production phase, it’s time to plug your assets into your fulfillment or delivery platform.

For example, if you are selling an eBook product, this means publishing your eBook asset through Kindle (as a PDF document), or through other marketplaces like ClickBank.

If on the other hand you’re selling video courses or products, you might have to input them into your online store, or into the learning management system you are relying on to sell your products. Many of our clients deliver their products directly on their WordPress website using a content protection and membership plugin such as ActiveMember360.

Publish

After doing all the tough work of product creation and development (believe us, we know it can take a lot of work before you have all your systems in place), it’s time to reap your rewards!

In other words, if everything is loaded and ready to publish, then it’s time to do so.

Then you can start promoting your product, making actual sales, and cashing in on your well-earned revenue.

What tools do I need to create digital products and courses?

how to create digital products and courses

Determining what tools you need before you start creating your digital products and courses can prevent you losing momentum when you actually begin your development phase.

The type of digital or information product you create will dictate the equipment and specific approach to packaging it for sale.

Every product is one or a combination of audio, video, written and/or other materials, as well as live streaming.

To help, here is a list of what tools you might need to successfully create an amazing digital product or course!

Software Tools for Digital Product & Course Creation:

  • Video editing software. There are many options for video editing purposes. These options come in different price ranges and a variety of features that make your video editing experience uniquely your own. For instance, one classic video editing software is Camtasia studio by Techsmith which offers a great free trial.
  • Audacity. This is a long standing, highly popular audio editing software that can be use for free.
  • Snagit. This is a great screen capture tool also published by Techsmith. It is great for how-to tutorials, software demonstrations or adding visual snippets to your content.
  • VoiceMeeter. This is a software that is a virtual mixer to improve sound quality. This is especially useful if you do interviews as it allows you to control their volume level to match it with yours.
  • RIOT Radical Image Optimization Tool. This is a tool for compressing image quality which you can download free at https://luci.criosweb.ro/riot/. This PC only tool will reduce the image size of your content to improve the download time of your materials and speed up your webpages.
  • WordPress.org. For building courses and membership sites. There are some great plugins you can use in order to add membership and content protection features, and Learning Management System (LMS) features to your WordPress site.
  • ActiveMember360. This is a tool for ActiveCampaign users to sync your data between your website and your email system while controlling content access to enable membership and content protection functionalities.
  • iMember360. This is a tool for Infusionsoft users which serves the same purpose as ActiveMember360.
  • WP Fusion. This WordPress plugin integrates your site with most email marketing systems and CRMs, provides content protection similar to ActiveMember360 and iMember360 and helps keep in sync data between your different systems.
  • Other Membership Plugins. These include plugins such as WishList Member, MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro, and a myriad of other options to suit your preferences.
  • Checkout System. You can collect payments from your clients while providing instant access. We prefer WooCommerce due to its flexibility, integration with WordPress and fast performance when properly configured. Other popular options and worthy contenders ThriveCart are and SamCart, although ThriveCart has become less reliable and more buggy over the years. For a barebone setup you can use PayPal with payment buttons but you will have to manually provide access to your content when sales are made.

Webinar and Video Conferencing Software for Digital Products & Courses

  • Zoom. Host real-time video conferences, webinars, and group programs while taking advantage of a simple recording feature. You can even record a solo meeting to record course content!
  • EasyWebinar. This tool is preferred over WebinarJam and EverWebinar due to having less latency. Unfortunately it is a little old and shows compatibility issues on the user side (especially for mobile), doesn’t have the best data tracking, and high instances of lag.With EasyWebinar, you can switch between live and pre-recorded (evergreen) webinars at the click of a button. It integrates with most email marketing systems and is our top pick for a webinar platform. We also recommend checking out Zoom Webinar and then using AddEvent for calendar notifications.

Software Tools for Online Customer Support

  • LiveChat. As you start to get more traffic to your website, you may want to add LiveChat, Intercom, or a similar tool to boost customer satisfaction while adding a new channel for sales conversations. You can use these software types as a ticket system in addition to its chat functionality, or you may want to explore others like Crisp.chat, Freshdesk (which we use for larger organizations), or Help Scout.
  • Amazon AWS S3. This is a good download solution for audio, PDF documents and other file types. It isn’t recommended to host these files directly on your website as it will slow down your server and is against the terms of use of several hosting providers.
  • Vimeo. We recommend you explore the differences between the various video hosting sites, primarily YouTube and Vimeo. We have an article about the other video options you have for your business online (besides YouTube), but know that one concern we have with YouTube is that – based on our understanding of the terms of use – you give them the rights to your video and intellectual property when you use their platform. As always, consult a lawyer to receive legal counsel as this shouldn’t be interpreted as legal advice. Wistia is another popular option, but we like Vimeo best.

Hardware Tools & Equipment for Digital Product & Course Creation:

You will have access to different brands and styles based on your preference, but here are the basic tools you will need to create high-quality digital products, and specifically courses and videos for sale online.

We’ve included our brand recommendations as well, but don’t hesitate to research options that are closer to your budget.

  • Microphone. Audio-technica ATR2100-USB, Blue Yeti, Lapel Mic, Rode Mic and more are all great options. Check out this list for the latest great options.
  • Mixer. Xenyx Q802USB or Xenyx Q302USB by Behringer. You plug your mic in it and hook-up your mixer to your computer. This gives you more granular control of your audio settings.
  • Camera. A Logitech C930e Pro for computer recordings (or the C920 if you’re on a budget), or a DSLR camera by Canon, Nikon, or Sony are both great options to start looking at for more elaborate production needs.
  • Backup storage. External hard drive, iDrive Cloud Storage, OneDrive Cloud Storage, and Google Drive with Google Vault are all worthy contenders to safeguard your work.
  • Lighting. Neewer Photography Dimmable LED Light and Abeststudio Photography Studio Softbox Lighting Kit Backdrop Umbrella Background Light Stand Set are good budget setups. You can do an Amazon.com and Ebay.com search for lighting kits to find the best options.

Worried that the costs of creating digital products are too high?

Believe it or not, you can have all high-quality tools for right at or just under 1000 bucks if you shop well and look for the best deals on this studio equipment.

If you’re unsure of how to accomplish your product creation within your set budget, reach out to us and we can give you a few pointers on how to move forward.

FREE Sales Funnel Template

What is the quickest and easiest way to create digital products and courses?

how to create digital products and courses

Time is money, and creating digital products can be time consuming…

…but it doesn’t have to be that way. Consider doing lower priced products and beta launches of rougher versions of your final product to confirm market demand.

This means starting out with a minimum viable product, like we hinted at earlier.

To help get you on the right track, here are some product ideas that won’t take you too long to produce, publish, and sell. For example you can…

  • Record your live training sessions, get consent from live training participants, and then sell the recordings for repeatable value.
  • Record workshops, conference speakers, and other local events, then provide your own supplementary content to gain traction.
  • Create one piece of your sales funnel, and offer special beta pricing for the early program that you have developed, with the promise of the full-fledged program at no extra cost.
  • Create a video course without all the branding elements and with minimal editing
  • Build a paid podcast audio series or teleseminar

Some of these digital products and courses can also be produced in their final format without incurring heavy expenses and post-production editing.

Some of the products that are known to have low post production editing include:

  • Live streaming in-person conferences
  • Interview style virtual summits
  • Live classes, coaching calls, and consulting sessions through video-conferencing

These are relatively easy to set up, and can help you build the capital you need to fund the creation of lengthier programming, or more valuable digital content online.

What courses and digital products sell best online?

We already talked about what kinds of digital products ideas you can create to make money, but which digital products are best-sellers online?

To answer that question, here is a short-list of the 4 best-selling digital content, training, and course products we see from our clients:

4 High-Return Digital Product Ideas

  1. eBooks. That’s right, eBooks have always been one of the first and most popular digital products online, and they still are today. According to WordsRated, as of 2021, eBook sales even accounted for 18% of all book sales online!
  2. Online Training Courses. Creating these kinds of courses are incredibly profitable because a fast-growing number of people are adopting e-learning for their education. Plus, you can charge anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for your courses! After all, these types of masterclasses and course series sales have led to an increase in income for 42% of US organizations, according to TechJury.
  3. Online Coaching Programs. These types of programming bridge the gap between do-it-yourself (DIY) online courses that have higher student drop-out rates and 1-on-1 personalized coaching and consulting, which is time consuming. Here, you can choose to offer group coaching calls which include recordings for people that can’t make it to a live session, or mix pre-recorded training content mixed up with live Q&A sessions.
  4. Membership Sites. Membership sites are always growing in popularity among content creators. They are a vital piece of the puzzle for some information experts because they provide monthly continuity income. However, they require a bit of an understanding for how to make money using a membership-based service offering. You can read more about membership course services, and building your own, here.

How do I get more sales for my digital products and courses?

To get more sales online for your digital content, you need a great online marketing strategy.

If you don’t promote your products online, it’s likely all the great work you’ve been doing will add up to zilch!

Now that your digital products and courses have been created, your biggest job (and challenge) will be to market those products to your target audience.

This is how you truly build that passive income business of your dreams, or grow a new revenue stream or your existing business (digital or not).

We’ve talked a LOT on our blog about content marketing and how to market your digital content online for more sales, but we figure these lessons are worth repeating here. For example…

There are several ways we can lend a hand in increasing your sales and traffic.


Free On-Demand Masterclass

4 Steps to Build a Lucrative Marketing Funnel for Course Creators, Coaches and Spiritual Teachers

A Girl Sit front of computer and filling a multi step form




First, you need a detailed game plan for marketing your digital products. The good news is, if you use our sales funnel template to create your digital products, your marketing strategy will grow naturally from that.

We recommend you bookmark our Free Marketing Funnel Template to help you develop a foolproof content marketing plan to align with your sales strategy.

Next, you need to have another plan in place for what you’re going to do when your marketing efforts succeed.

If you’re pulling a ton of new traffic to your website and products, you’ll need to make sure you have a great plan to convert those leads into sales.

For that, we’ve created a free masterclass to help you create lucrative marketing funnels, as well as teach you simple strategies to capture leads and close your most important sales.

Finally, you’ll want to do everything you can to maximize the sale of your digital products, especially when it comes to creating a well-oiled content creation machine! That means…

    1. Making your product tangible. The very nature of a digital product feels intangible. You can’t touch it, feel it, smell it or taste it…So, we want to make it as tangible as possible and you can do this by adding good product visuals as discussed earlier. Mailing hard copy documents or including a physical widget in your offer are also known to improve your sales conversion rates.
    2. Reducing consumer risk with strong guarantees. When selling things through any sort of media, whether magazine, radio, television or the Internet, it is a great practice to provide strong money back and risk-free guarantees–again due to that intangible nature. Big-box retailers do this now even though you can investigate items with your five senses. At Walmart you can bring items back and get a store gift card, at least, even if you don’t have a receipt–see if there are ways to incorporate this practice into your product offering. There are definitely more than a few good reasons why:
  • A risk-free atmosphere only encourages people to spend more money. It has been said that offering a strong guarantee can increase sales by 50% and only increase returns by 5% – roughly. If this is true, you have more to lose by not offering a money back guarantee than by offering one.
  • When you have a quality product that you can stand behind the risk of returns is minimal while the increase of sales may double. So, it would be throwing money down the drain if you did not offer an industry leading warranty.
    1. Providing lifetime access whenever appropriate. If you can offer lifetime access to a product without too much cost incurred for storage or hosting fees, we recommend doing so. Lifetime access is so powerful that it is sometimes sold as an upsell. For example, if an online course is offered with one full year of access, then you might offer a lifetime access option for 10 to 15% more. These ‘time-limited’ terms for membership access is a great way to draw attentive students to your products, as they will get notified when their access is coming to a close–making them more likely to re-engage with your content.
    2. Selling the benefits not the features. The purpose of the features is to deliver a desired end result. Never forget this. When writing your sales message, lead with the benefits and support them with the features. The transformational language is so important that we always nail down the before and after transformation when working with new clients in our Marketing Makeover Intensive.
    3. Commit to other marketing initiatives to boost your sales. This could mean investing time and money into:
  • Hosting Webinars
  • Blogging
  • Vlogging
  • Posting on Social Media
  • Using Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
  • Hosting Live Events
  • Guest Podcasting
  • Guest Blogging

Create Digital Products & Courses You and Your Students Love

how to create digital products and courses

When we first met one of our top clients – Jen Gilchrist – she wanted to pivot her business because she wasn’t enjoying the content creation process she had built.

That’s why we always say, if you aren’t having fun creating the actual course material (and are too caught up in what it takes to produce the course and set it up for sale) then it might be time to pivot your business, just like Jen did.

The easiest way to do this is to imagine your ideal work-life balance, and then build a content production schedule around that.

Alternatively, you could hire a team to take care of the dirty work for you, freeing up tons of time to create the courses you like, with direct input on what to create, and when to put it up for sale.

Responding to the needs of digital entrepreneurs and course creators – whether they’re just starting out, or producing more than $100K in annual income – is why companies like The Digital Navigator are on the rise.

Using just your expertise, and the power of our team of digital experts and marketing strategists, all you’ll have to do is create your courses, and be there when your students need you.

It’s really that easy to create a great income by sharing the information you’re passionate about–selling your expertise can literally afford you the life of your dreams!

This is truly your chance to make a difference in your own life, and in the lives of your future students, customers, and members–and we’re proud to say that the way has already been carved for you!

All you need to do now is come up with your next digital product idea using the steps and tricks we have outlined in this article.

You can also visit our blog to explore more tips specifically for businesses who want to know how to create digital products and courses online.

Just remember, if you hit a roadblock at any stage of your planning and creation process, we’re here to help. There is no obligation from us, we just want to help you get the advice you need to move forward.

Simply schedule a consultation and we’ll be right there with our technical expertise at the ready!

Until then, we wish you the best as you continue your journey toward incredible digital business and content creation online.

We’re so proud of how far you’ve come already, and can’t wait to see what you create!

PS: we’d love to hear your latest digital product ideas–we’re sure we can provide some great feedback about how to optimize that product offering to get more sales!

Get Help Creating Digital Products & Courses

 

FAQ

How many digital products or courses do I need to create?
All it takes is one great product. Success breeds success, so if you start selling a product within the first year, then you can bank on selling more in the second and third years, and beyond.
Why should I sell digital courses or products online?
Aside from gaining a secondary income, you’ll also add expertise to your repertoire, have investment leverage, save a ton on production costs, be available for remote work, and improve your work-life balance.
What kinds of businesses sell digital content online?
There are 6 main business types that sell digital content online, including businesses with industry and career history; authors, public speakers, and educators; coaches and consultants; spiritual teachers and wellness professionals; different personality types; and those with different abilities or identities.
What does my digital product or course need to be successful?
According to our data, your product or course needs to educate, entertain, and encourage customers every step of the way.
What is the simplest method to creating a new digital product or course?

The simplest method to creating a new digital product or course is by creating an Entry-Point Offer or EPO. Read this article to learn more about Entry-Point Offers.

What courses or digital products sell best online?
According to our data, eBooks, online training and coaching programs, and membership sites provide the greatest ROI when selling digital products and courses online.

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4 Steps to Build a Lucrative Marketing Funnel for Course Creators, Coaches and Spiritual Teachers

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