How to develop a great digital product?

Hi. Digital products come in a lot of forms, such as ebooks, online courses, reports, audios, videos, apps, software, etc. However, the basic development methodology for all digital products is more or less the same. Let’s discuss this.

Before proceeding further, let’s have a glance over some basic concepts relating to digital products. Assuming that you are aware of the basics, I will not be going into too much depth. 

Of course, this is going to cost you effort and time. Consider this the trade-off for the fact that digital products have no:

• Manufacturing Cost
• Shipping Cost
• Inventory Cost
  

Every sale is pure profit. I’d say that’s worth a little elbow grease, right?

No doubt, developing a digital product is not really difficult, in comparison to developing and launching a physical product. But that doesn’t mean it’s effortless or that you’ll succeed without a tried and tested game plan.

Anyone with basic knowledge can make a digital product, but if you want to make money out of the operation, there is a particular set of rules you need to follow in order to turn that product into a profitable business. Everyone these days is looking for passive/extra/side hustle income, the combination of a great digital product and automated sales. But most people fail to make it work, because they don’t take it seriously enough to follow some important steps.

Here are five steps in which you can create a digital product that actually has a chance of selling:

Step 1: Find out your target audience, and create surveys to find problems that your digital product would solve. If you already have an email list, that works. You need to start at the ground floor with your ideas and make sure you are making something based on a pressing, current problem people have.

That doesn’t mean people will like your solution and want it immediately. Don’t come at it from “Here’s my product idea, what do you think?” A lot of times, we as people don’t know how badly we needed something until we try it. So you can’t show your product idea and expect reliable feedback first. Instead, just make sure you are coming at this from your target audience’s needs, fears, and problems. If you know people would pay money to fix a certain problem of theirs, you just have to come up with a product that does that. You’ll design it and show it to them later.

Step 2: After you have received suggestions from your audience, or you have researched the market, then pick a particular problem that your product would solve. Be cautious in selecting the niche. A bigger niche usually has a lot of products to compete with, whereas a smaller, tighter niche has more chance for success, provided it has sufficient buyers.  Pick a niche that interests you, and also seems profitable based on your surveys.

I recommend picking a niche in that context, people with a clear problem. For instance, in the weight loss world, “men who want to lose their beer guts and get a six pack” is a specific, problem-focused niche that I could sell a very specific product to. That’s a lot more reliable than basing the product around the “fat loss” niche, which is nowhere near as specific and does not touch on the real problem, the pain your product is meant to erase.

Step 3: Start collecting content for your product, and organize it into the right format. It can be an ebook, online course, etc. Picking the right product type is crucial and requires multiple considerations. While deciding the product, you should consider points such as the best format to convey information to your audience.

This largely comes down to your niche again, and your customers. For instance, self-improvement type businesses usually get by on selling ebooks, but if you are explaining something very technical, a video course might work better.

Step 4: Share your product with beta testers to get honest feedback on your product. Ideally, said people are already fans of your brand, but if you’re not that far yet and this is a first for you, you could use your friends, family members, or anyone whom you trust. Depending on that feedback, you can make changes and then finally decide to launch the product.

Step 5: Your product is ready. Start promoting on various platforms. There are many apps, websites, etc. where you can promote and sell your product. I strongly recommend having your own website and selling from there, with your promotion all pointing back to it.

An important point here is that the above steps are general. There are specific steps, say, for developing an ebook, online course, etc. and you’ll need to study those to make your product competitive.

If you want to learn the basics for developing digital products, and want to make something that practically sells itself and gets you money, then I would recommend implementing a specialized method: Perfect Product Creation(PPC). I have been implementing elements of that for my next digital product.

In conclusion, developing a digital product is a simple process. For making great digital products, one should implement specialized methods, devote enough time to research and content development, and don’t be afraid to release it when you think it is ready. Chances are, down the line, you will want to make another product, one that’s even better, and you’ll make more money with that one, and so on. Once you’ve done all this once, the process feels very natural and easily repeatable to expand your passive income potential. Especially once you gather a following of fans who come back again and again for future products you create.

Please feel free to reply to me if you have any questions.

Good Luck!

Thanks,

Cleo