The online learning industry pulled in over $107 billion in 2015, proving online content and education is a viable business. After selling online products for over two years, and creating my own six figure blog, I can say that bloggers who aren’t creating their own products are missing out on a huge opportunity to build both their brand and online income.
Still, being a blogger and seller is much different than say, running a photography business with a suite of online products. Here are a few unique challenges and considerations to bear in mind if you’re a blogger considering digital products.
Blog Content is the Ultimate Opportunity to Drive Traffic to Store
Bloggers have the upper hand when promoting digital products because they have an entire library of content waiting to be optimized for selling. While most business owners often have to focus their energy on creating new content to market the product to customers, bloggers have the benefit of pre-made content.
Since most bloggers are in the industry of influencing via fresh, weekly content, it’s important to consider both old and new content as a way to drive people to your online store. Don’t be overly salesy, but if your product fits in with the overall theme of your blog, there should be plenty of natural places for you to mention your online product and store in your content.
Plenty.
Think of Other Ways to Promote Store
One place where business owners best bloggers is they have a steady influx of service customers they can then convert into digital product buyers. Bloggers have to actively market their product to readers consistently; after all it takes between six and eight “marketing touches” to get to a sale.
This is why bloggers need to think of additional ways to promote their online store, simply placing the mention or link in existing (and new) content won’t be enough. The good news is that many of the “marketing” activities for a product are things bloggers are already doing to promote their content: social media, email marketing, and leveraging affiliate relationships to name a few.
Technology and Responsiveness Are Important
There is nothing more frustrating than being a long-time blog reader, buying the product of your favorite blogger, and then having technical issues or experiencing less-than-stellar customer service. Because bloggers often build followings based on the relationship and connect they create with readers, it is especially important for them to nail the point of sale and post-sale follow-up.
Respond immediately to sales inquiries or tech emails. Bloggers with a particularly large following may want to set up a separate email to field these issues. Make sure the email address can be clearly seen on the blog and on the sales thank you page as well.
Have the proper tech in place is crucial as well. I know when I was building out my first product, The Blog Yourself Rich Workbook (which is now my full length course, Beginner Blog Accelerator), I did a full week of research on selling platforms, and also did a free trial of my top three. Yes, this was a lot of work, but it was very important to me to understand how the platforms worked and exactly what my customers saw/experienced while shopping and checking out. For those getting started, I like this step-by-step tech guide for how to turn your blog into an online store.
Conclusion
This article is, of course, just the “tip of the digital product iceberg”. My hope is that it conveys the importance of thinking through all the “little details” that are involved with becoming an online product seller. Often times, bloggers have the benefit of easily creating content because they’re natural writers, passionate about their subject matter, and already possess an existing audience of raving fans.
Creating product is the easy part, selling, while not difficult, is a much more involved process from the technology and promotion side. Still, nailing these elements is crucial if you want to ramp up income through digital products while preserving your brand equity and authenticity.