How to Sell Digital Products – A Beginner’s Guide

Summary

This video script offers a comprehensive beginner's guide to selling digital products online. With personal experience transitioning from physical to digital sales, the speaker highlights the benefits of digital margins, automatic fulfillment, and global accessibility. The guide outlines a four-step process, from identifying skills-based niches to leveraging SEO for Etsy listings. It also discusses avoiding low-skill niches, pricing strategies, and various marketing techniques, emphasizing the importance of experimentation and learning from each venture.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker has been selling online for over 3 years, transitioning from physical to digital products, and has found the shift to be highly beneficial due to better margins and automatic fulfillment.
• 🛍️ The speaker emphasizes the importance of choosing a niche for digital products that one is familiar with and passionate about, as this leads to better product creation and customer engagement.
• 🔍 The speaker advises against relying solely on third-party tools for finding niches and suggests using personal skills and interests as a starting point for product ideas.
• 📝 The speaker recommends listing personal skills and interests to identify potential digital product ideas that can be improved upon or created from scratch.
• 🚫 The speaker warns against entering low-skilled niches and selling products for less than $10 due to high competition and low profit margins.
• 💡 For idea generation, the speaker suggests browsing the intended selling platform and identifying products that interest them, then considering how they could improve these products.
• 🎯 The speaker shares a pro tip for finding best-selling products on Etsy by using a private browser and sorting search results by 'best seller'.
• 🛠️ The speaker advises building products quickly and launching with at least 10 different products to increase visibility and provide variety for customers.
• 🔄 The speaker simplifies SEO by recommending the use of long-tail keywords in product titles and copying successful tags from competitors for better search visibility.
• 📷 The speaker stresses the importance of having a standout main product photo that is different from competitors to catch the customer's eye in search results.
• 🔄 The speaker encourages testing SEO effectiveness by searching with the same terms used in product listings and seeing where the products rank in the search results.

Q & A

What is the main advantage of selling digital products according to the speaker?

The main advantage of selling digital products is the better margins, automatic fulfillment, and the ability to make money from anywhere in the world.

How long has the speaker been selling digital products and what impact has it had on their business?

The speaker has been selling digital products for about 4 months, and this shift has been game-changing for them.

What is the speaker's opinion on using third-party tools like Marmalead or Everb for finding profitable products to sell?

The speaker has not used these tools personally and does not know how effective they are, as they prefer to come up with ideas based on their own needs and skills.

Why does the speaker believe that choosing a niche based on personal interest or need is better?

Choosing a niche based on personal interest or need is better because you'll be more familiar with the problem your product is solving and you'll care more about it, which can lead to a better product.

What is the speaker's suggestion for finding a niche for digital product selling?

The speaker suggests looking at the skills you personally have and finding products that can be improved upon with those skills.

What is the speaker's view on the importance of listing multiple products in an Etsy store before launching?

The speaker believes it's important to have around 10 products in your store before launching to increase visibility and appeal to a variety of customer interests.

What is the 'sweet spot' price range for digital products that the speaker recommends?

The speaker recommends a price range of around $10 to $20 for digital products, as it provides a good balance between customer willingness to pay and profit margin.

How does the speaker approach building a product for sale?

The speaker advises building a product as fast as possible, focusing on progression over perfection, to get customer and market feedback quickly.

What is the speaker's strategy for using Etsy's item tags to improve search engine optimization (SEO)?

The speaker's strategy is to copy what's working for other successful stores by noting common tags on products that appear on the first page of search results and using those tags for their own products.

How does the speaker approach marketing for a new digital product store?

The speaker suggests starting with free marketing methods, such as leveraging Etsy's algorithm and engaging with target communities online, before moving on to paid marketing options.

What is the speaker's advice on dealing with unsuccessful products in terms of sales?

The speaker advises discontinuing products that do not get sales within the first 4 months, as it is unlikely they will sell later, and to learn from the experience to improve future attempts.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Transition to Digital Product Sales

The speaker reflects on their three-year journey of online selling, starting with physical products on platforms like Etsy and Shopify, and transitioning to digital products. This change has significantly improved their margins and sales process due to automatic fulfillment. Drawing from past experience, the speaker shares a four-step beginner's guide to selling digital products, emphasizing the importance of identifying profitable niches based on personal skills and interests rather than relying on third-party tools like Marmalade or Everb. The speaker advocates for creating a product that solves a problem you understand and genuinely care about, rather than entering a niche solely because of market data.

05:05

🤔 Finding Your Niche Through Personal Skills

The speaker discusses the process of identifying a niche for digital products by leveraging personal skills and talents. They suggest creating a list of one's abilities and considering how they can be applied to improve existing products or create new ones. The speaker emphasizes the importance of passion and familiarity with the product niche, as this leads to better product development and customer engagement. They also mention unconventional skills and encourage thinking outside the box to find unique digital product ideas, such as game walkthroughs or recipe organizers.

10:06

🛍️ Exploring the Market for Digital Product Ideas

The speaker shares strategies for finding digital product ideas by researching the market, specifically using Etsy as an example. They recommend browsing the platform to identify interesting products and considering how one's skills could enhance them. The speaker provides a pro tip for finding best-selling products by using a private browser and manipulating search filters to reveal top sellers. They caution against copying successful products directly, instead suggesting improvements or unique twists to stand out in the market.

15:06

💡 Building and Optimizing Digital Products for SEO

The speaker outlines the process of building digital products and optimizing them for search engine optimization (SEO) on platforms like Etsy. They recommend starting with a minimum of 10 products to increase visibility and adhere to Etsy's SEO best practices. The speaker explains the importance of using long-tail keywords in titles and copying successful tags from other products to improve search ranking. They also touch on the significance of detailed descriptions and compelling main photos to stand out in search results.

20:09

🔍 Testing SEO Effectiveness and Marketing Strategies

The speaker discusses the importance of testing SEO effectiveness by searching for long-tail keywords and tags associated with the product listings. They mention the satisfaction of appearing within the first 3 to 5 pages of search results and the natural decline in ranking for unselling items. The speaker transitions into marketing strategies, advocating for free marketing methods initially, such as leveraging Etsy's algorithm and reaching out to people who might benefit from the product. They also suggest joining online communities to subtly promote the product without spamming.

25:09

🎯 Advanced Marketing Techniques and the Importance of Persistence

The speaker delves into more advanced marketing techniques, including paid advertising on social media platforms and influencer marketing. They emphasize the importance of content creation and the potential of platforms like Pinterest for driving traffic to the store. The speaker also discusses the use of Etsy ads for promoting best-selling products and the need for careful monitoring of return on ad spend. They conclude with a metaphor of a spinning wheel game to illustrate the importance of persistence in finding successful ideas, emphasizing that every attempt, whether successful or not, contributes to growth and learning.

Keywords

💡Digital Products

Digital products refer to items that are intangible and delivered electronically, such as e-books, software, or online courses. In the video's context, the speaker emphasizes the shift from physical to digital products, highlighting benefits like better margins and automatic fulfillment. The script mentions the speaker's transition to selling digital products on platforms like Etsy, noting the game-changing impact on their business.

💡Fulfillment

Fulfillment in e-commerce denotes the process of processing, packaging, and delivering orders to customers. The script discusses the advantages of selling digital products, where fulfillment is automatic, implying no physical shipping is required, thus saving time and resources.

💡Margins

Margins in business refer to the difference between the cost of a product and its selling price, indicating profitability. The video script mentions that selling digital products has resulted in better margins for the speaker, suggesting higher profits due to lower production and distribution costs.

💡Niche

A niche is a specialized segment of the market that has specific needs or interests. The script advises identifying a niche based on personal skills or interests to find digital product ideas, emphasizing the importance of familiarity with the problem the product solves.

💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the practice of improving a website's visibility on search engines. The video script simplifies SEO for Etsy, discussing the use of longtail keywords in titles and tags to increase the discoverability of digital products and improve sales.

💡Longtail Keywords

Longtail keywords are specific, longer, and more conversational phrases used in SEO to target niche markets. The script describes using longtail keywords for product titles on Etsy to capture less competitive search terms and attract potential buyers.

💡Third-Party Tools

Third-party tools are software or services provided by entities other than the primary service provider. The script refers to tools like Marmalade or Everb that search Etsy for profitable keywords, but the speaker has not used them, instead relying on personal insights for product ideas.

💡Mashup Ideas

Mashup ideas involve combining elements from different sources to create something new. The script suggests using this approach to improve existing products or apply successful concepts from one niche to another, as a strategy for generating unique digital product ideas.

💡Low-Skilled Niches

Low-skilled niches are areas of business that require minimal expertise or training to enter. The video script warns against these niches, citing AI-generated art as an example where low barriers to entry can lead to oversaturation and reduced profitability.

💡Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is a strategy where businesses collaborate with influencers to promote products. The script briefly mentions this as a paid marketing strategy, suggesting that partnering with influencers, even those with smaller but engaged followings, can drive traffic and sales to a digital product store.

💡Etsy Fees

Etsy fees are the charges associated with selling on the Etsy platform. The script discusses the importance of considering these fees, which include transaction fees and payment processing fees, when pricing digital products to ensure profitability.

Highlights

Transition from physical to digital products on platforms like Etsy and Shopify has been a game-changer due to better margins and automatic fulfillment.

Skills and personal interests are foundational to creating digital products that stand out in the market.

Third-party tools like Marmalade or Everb can identify high search volume, low saturation keywords but the speaker prefers personal experience in choosing products.

Creating digital products based on personal needs or improvements over existing offerings can lead to a more passionate and successful business.

Skills such as graphic design, photography, math, writing, and even unconventional ones like lawn care or fantasy hockey can be the basis for digital products.

The importance of choosing a niche where one is knowledgeable and passionate to ensure the product effectively solves a problem.

Using Etsy's 'best seller' filter to identify successful digital products and potential areas for improvement.

Avoiding direct copying of successful products and instead improving them with unique skills or interests.

Mashing up ideas from different niches to create unique digital products.

Avoiding low-skilled niches and products priced under $10 due to high competition and low profitability.

Understanding Etsy's fee structure is crucial for pricing digital products effectively.

The sweet spot for digital product pricing is around $10 to $20 to balance customer willingness to pay and profitability.

Building a product quickly and focusing on progression over perfection to gain early market feedback.

Having at least 10 products in an Etsy store before launching to improve visibility and SEO.

Using longtail keywords and observing competitors' tags on Etsy to optimize product listings for SEO.

Creating compelling main product photos that stand out from the competition to attract customer clicks.

The importance of thorough product descriptions and using all available photo slots to showcase the product from multiple angles.

Testing SEO effectiveness by searching with the same terms used in product listings and observing search result rankings.

Free marketing strategies such as leveraging Etsy's algorithm and engaging with real-life networks to gain initial traction.

Paid marketing should be considered after establishing product demand and includes Etsy ads and influencer marketing.

The importance of viewing the business as a game of spinning the wheel, where persistence and learning from each attempt are key to success.

Transcripts

I've been selling stuff online for over

3 years now I started with physical

products on Etsy and Shopify and now

I've moved on to selling digital

products I'm only about 4 months into

selling digital products but this shift

has already been game-changing for me

the margins are better the Fulfillment

is automatic and I'm able to make money

no matter where I am in the world when I

started I found that a lot of the things

that I've learned from running my

physical shop transferred over to my

digital shop and I think it gave me a

head start so today I'm going to be

taking everything that I've learned over

the past 3 years and I'm going to be

organizing it into a four-step beginner

guide to selling digital products let's

get right into

[Music]

it when it comes to ideas I get a lot of

questions about third party tools like

marmalade or everb if you're not

familiar with these what I think they do

is search Etsy for keywords that have a

high search volume and low saturation in

the market my impression of what they're

trying to do is trying to find products

that they think would be profitable

based on a set of criteria I don't

really know how effective these tools

are because I've never actually used

them my ideas so far have come from

things that I've actually wanted or

needed myself these are things that at

some point I was looking to buy and

found that one I didn't really like what

was being offered and two thinking that

I personally had the skills to make

something better I feel like choosing a

niche in this way is better because

you'll be more familiar with the problem

that your product is solving and you'll

actually care more about it if I was

using one of these tools and it told me

that digital golf log books were good

niche to get into I don't think I can

make it work even if there were a lot of

people searching for it and the

saturation in the market was low I don't

think I could do a good job because I

don't know anything about Golf and I

have no real desire to learn anything

about it so that's a niche that's

probably better left for someone else

for me one of the biggest appeals to

side hustles is that you can actually

choose what you want to do you're not

forced to do anything that you don't

want

to one of the most simplest ways that

you can find your Niche is to look at

the skills that you personally have and

try to find products that can be

improved upon with those skills to get

started I recommend actually sitting

down and writing a list of things that

you're good at or skills that you

currently have for me this would include

things like graphic design photography

math writing but it can also include

unconventional things like Lawn Care

drawing puzzles fantasy hockey or Mario

Party try to be creative after you made

your list you want to base your business

on one of these skills because here's

the key

skills are the foundation to making

money your skills are the reason someone

will pay you because if they could do it

themselves they would the only reason

people pay for something is for having

something done that they can't do

themselves or they don't want to do

themselves and before you comment and

say hey Tim I have nothing I'm good at I

have no skills you do everyone is good

at something sometimes it can be hard to

come up with a list because we tend to

undervalue things that we're naturally

good at but that's a mistake think of

things that you you were good at when

you were a kid or in school or things

that people are always asking you for

help with again it doesn't have to be

conventional if you're good at video

games a digital product idea could be a

walkthrough or guide for a game that

people find hard or if you're good at

cooking maybe you could make a baking

course or a template for organizing

recipes if you take your time and you

think outside the box I'm sure you can

find something that you're good at and

if not it might be time to invest some

of your energy into learning something

new

[Music]

at this point you might already have an

idea or a niche in mind or you might not

that's okay ideas are kind of a funny

thing they come more naturally to some

than others if nothing's coming to mind

what I would do next is go on the hunt

for ideas for this what I find helpful

is actually going shopping on the

platform that I'm planning on selling on

if it's Etsy take an evening and

actually browse what people are selling

on there does anything interest you

whenever I do this I always find

products that I actually want and if I

have the skills to make that product

better that's something that I add to my

list of potential ideas here's a pro tip

for finding the best selling products on

Etsy so first things first you want to

open up a private browser this is just

to make sure that your search results

are clean and you'll be seeing something

similar to what everyone else is seeing

if when they're searching for the first

time let's say you're the opposite of me

and you actually love golf so we'll put

in golf and since we're looking for

digital items here we'll type in

download okay so here's what Etsy is

giving us what you want to do is click

on on filters here and then click on

Star

seller what this is going to do is

filter out all the stores that are not

star sellers which is not necessarily

what we want so if we go to the URL up

here and change is star seller equal

true to best seller so is best seller

equal true so yeah now what you're

seeing here is all the best sellers

under this search term and you can

gather your ideas this way this is how I

find winning products and it's a big

reason why I never found the need to use

those third party tools that I mentioned

earlier the mistake that a lot of people

make in this point is seeing a

successful product and straight up

copying it again my suggestion instead

would be to try to improve on what's

being offered using your skills or

interest in some way if you copy an

existing product exactly there's no

reason for a customer to choose your

product over what already exists since

existing stores have more sales and a

better track record than you customers

are just going to end up buying from

these established drawers and Overlook

yours some people who copy will try to

get around this by undercutting the

competition on price but over time as

more and more people start doing this it

leads to rock bottom prices where nobody

is making profit if you're having

trouble coming up with ideas on how you

could improve on a product or offer

something different one of the easiest

things that you can do is mash up ideas

take a product or service that's working

in one Niche and apply it to a different

one for example one one of the ideas

that I gave in my idea video a couple

months ago was personalized ketchup

labels instead of making a shop that's

exactly this think of other labels that

you could potentially personalize maybe

you're into a specific candy you could

personalize a label for that or maybe

it's board games or notebooks mashing

things up is an easy way to be creative

when you're having trouble coming up

with an

idea I've been doing this for a long

time now and after trying a bunch of

different business ideas niches there's

two things that I personally try to

avoid the first one is low- skilled

niches if you've been browsing Etsy over

the last few years you notice a huge

uptick in AI generated art all it takes

to make these is entering a prompt into

a text box and because it's so easy and

everybody is doing it there's a limit to

how much you can charge for these people

are selling this kind of art for $1 to

$2 and often even less than that low

skill opportunities are ones that

anybody can do they seem tempting at

first because it's so easy to get

started but the problem with that is

since anybody can do it everybody will

and when everybody's doing it it's

really hard to make money the second

thing that I personally avoid is

products that sell for less than $10 I

like to browse SE Community forums from

time to time and whenever I do I always

come across these threads that are

complaining about how high Etsy fees are

there will be people saying that they

sold $100 and Etsy took $90 or more in

fees I didn't really understand this at

first because I know what etsy's fees

are and they're not 90% so I kind of

just wrote them off as people who didn't

know what they were talking about but

when I started selling digital products

and I saw how people were pricing their

products I finally understood what was

going on here when you're selling on

Etsy you have to be aware of two types

of fees etsy's transaction fees go to

Etsy it's what they charge for giving

you access to their customer base it's

6.5% plus 20 cents per listing there's

also a payment processing fee which goes

to Banks and credit cards this varies

from country to country but if you're

using the US and Canada as an example

they charge 3% and 25 cents per

transaction to me these fees are pretty

reasonable 9.5 is about as low as you'll

see especially when you're comparing it

to other marketplaces available where

people get in trouble here is selling

things for really low prices and

forgetting that they also have to pay a

45 C flat fee if you look at this chart

here you'll see that if you price your

digital products for 50 cents you

actually make no money if you sell for

60 cents you make 9 cents in profit 84%

of the sale goes to fees as you increase

the price of your items a smaller

percent of your sale goes to fees but

even if you're selling your items for $2

you're still paying $32 in fees which is

a lot keep in mind that this chart is

the best case scenario if you're outside

the US or Canada or you're using a

different payment processor these fees

are probably much higher than what

you're seeing here but this. 50 to $2

range seems really popular for selling

digital products especially on Etsy and

it's it's something that I would

personally avoid I just don't think it's

worth it when you're considering how

large of a portion of your sale goes to

fees I'm only about 4 months into

selling digital products and I've been

experimenting with price ranges but I

feel like the sweet spot is around $10

to $20 I like this range because it's an

amount that people are still willing to

spend on a digital product and it's

still enough of a margin to make every

sale worth it for you you have to

remember that just because your products

don't cost anything to fulfill or

reproduce doesn't mean that not valuable

to the customer if you're able to

provide $10 to $20 of value to a

customer they'll happily pay for

it now that you have your idea it's time

to move on to the fun part actually

building it in my experience the best

thing you can do when building a product

is try to build it as fast as possible

while there's a time in place to spend

months or even years building a product

if you're new to this or if it's your

first time it's more important to focus

on progression over Perfection the thing

is you don't know your product is going

to be successful or not so you want to

get customer and Market feedback as fast

as possible you don't want to spend so

much time building a product and find

out later that no one actually wants

it if you're selling on Etsy

specifically you want to have around 10

products in your store before you launch

10 sounds like an arbitrary number but

when I was talking to an Etsy employee

about SEO a couple years ago they

actually said the same thing I don't

know if this is actually built into

etsy's algorithm because I do see shops

that have one to three items do well too

but they do seem to be an exception

rather than the rule if you're on SCS

you want to think in terms of launching

an entire store and not just one product

for example if you were opening a

printable birthday decoration store you

wouldn't want to just launch your store

with just one design you'd want a

variety of different designs for your

customers to choose from personally when

I'm shopping on Etsy and I see a store

that has zero sales and less than 10

products I assume that they haven't even

launched their store yet so I avoid

buying from them so that's another

reason that you want to have a variety

of products

available SEO is a subject that can

sometimes seem overwhelming and

complicated so I'm going to do my best

to simplify it as much as possible first

things first the goal of a search engine

is to help people find what they're

searching for in order to do this

companies like Google and Etsy have

algorithms that are constantly changing

what they're really trying to do is show

products that a customer might want to

buy when they are searching for specific

keywords or phrases because of this

there's no or a secret thing that you

can do to guarantee that your product

gets it to the first page it doesn't

work that way but there are some best

practices that we can follow to make

sure that we're not getting buried in

the

results for titles on SE what I found

most effective after years of doing this

is using longtail phrases that people

might actually Search longtail keywords

are phrases that are more specific than

your average keyword generally they're

three to five words long and the benefit

to using these is they're less

competitive than single word keywords so

if you're selling activity books instead

of just using activity book as your

title it's better to make a list of

longtail keywords like printable

activity book for preschool activity

book for learning ABCs animal activity

book for kids when I'm doing this I'll

come up with a list like that and order

them from most likely to get searched to

least likely to fill up the title

completely I'll use as many characters

as possible which as of today I think

Etsy allows 140 characters

item tags for Etsy are a little bit more

straightforward my strategy for these is

just to copy what's working for other

stores and here's how to do it okay so

here again you want to make sure that

you're using a private browser and

you're just going to go searching for

your product let's say you're selling

golf log books so you'll type in golf

log book and maybe maybe

digital okay so now what you want to do

is click on some of these products these

products are showing up on the first

page under this search term so their

tags must be pretty good so what you

want to do is you want to click on one

and scroll to the bottom and you'll see

here where it says explore related

searches these are the tags that this

product is using so you want to take

note of all of these you want to go back

and look at multiple items and see if

there's any common tags so we'll click

on this one too and here are the tags

for this and here are some different

tags gifts for Grandpa I think that's a

new one in a nutshell the tags that

you're most commonly seeing here are the

ones that you want to use use because

these are the tags that are getting

these products to the front

page in comparison to title and tags

item description is probably the least

important when it comes to SEO but that

doesn't mean that you should ignore them

this is where you want to describe your

product in detail you want to tell your

potential customers everything they need

to know about your product before they

get it this includes specifications

Dimensions How It's Made or how to use

it you really want to put yourself in

your customer shoes and think of any

question questions that they might have

before potentially buying your product

when a customer has a question and they

don't see it answered anywhere on the

description page a lot of people will

just move on to another product yes some

will take the time and send their

questions via message for you to answer

but if you really want to give yourself

the best chance at a sale you want to

reduce the friction and write down

everything a potential customer might

want to

know when it comes to product photos

there's two categories that you have to

consider the first one is the main photo

or the one that shows up in search

results for this photo I can't stress

enough how important it is to have a

photo that stands out one that's

completely different to what all the

other shops in that specific Niche are

doing when a customer sits down and

searches for something on Etsy depending

on what they search they might be

getting hundreds or even thousands of

pages of results the only way to get a

customer to stop and click on your

product is to stand out from the crowd

in some way so make a search for a

product in your Niche and take take note

of what all your competitors are doing

write down common themes or common

colors that you're seeing and do the

exact opposite the purpose of the main

photo is try to catch a customer's eye

that's all it is for the rest of the

photos you really want to use all

available slots you want to show your

products being made how they're going to

be packaged and in different scenarios

this is also a good place to put

information that your customers might

miss in the description if your product

requires specific information when

ordering it's a good idea to make a

photo to tell your customers this

so you've made your products and you've

added the listings to your shop with the

correct titles tags descriptions and

photos the next thing you want to do is

you want to test if everything you've

done is actually working okay to test

your SEO just like before you want to

make sure you have a private browser so

here you want to type in one of the

longtail phrases or tags that you used

in your products say one of them was

printable golf log template after that

you want to scroll until you actually

find your product where in the search

results is it showing up generally I'm

happy if my listings show up within the

first 3 to five pages nobody knows for

sure exactly how etsy's algorithm works

but I'm assuming they're showing

bestselling items more often than new

shops but in my experience with a brand

new shop and brand new listings it is

still possible to show up in the first 3

to five pages if you're following all

this best practice SEO stuff most people

looking to buy something are going to go

through multiple pages of results

anyways so I think it's not a big deal

and and the first 3 to five pages is

still pretty good from what I've seen

over time if your items don't get sales

they'll eventually drop in the rankings

but that's okay too not every product

that you make is going to get visits or

sales personally if an item goes to 4

months that Etsy gives before it expires

and it doesn't get a sale I just

discontinue it if it doesn't get a sale

in the first 4 months it's unlikely that

it will ever get sales so there's no use

in renewing

it so full disclosure out of the four

steps in this process here marketing is

probably the one that I have the least

experience in and the least natural

skill for but even with that being the

case over the years I've still managed

to gain traction and get a good amount

of sales when it comes to marketing

there's so many things that you can do

it can become easy to get lost in all of

it so I like to simplify things into two

categories the first way is the way that

I use for every project that I start in

the beginning and that's to focus on

free Marketing in the beginning you

don't know if your idea is good or not

so you don't want to waste money on paid

ads and you don't want to spend the time

to make content to try to drive traffic

to your store when you don't even know

if your product is something that people

want it's an experiment and the most

cost-effective way to see if the

experiment is going to be a success is

to see if it can grow organically on its

own this is why I'm always recommending

a Marketplace that has some kind of

algorithm that's connecting buyers and

sellers that way if you have a good

product you can benefit from the

algorithm and experience some kind of

organic growth in this case it's Etsy

millions of people are going on Etsy

every day searching for things to buy if

you're SEO is good enough you don't

really need to Market these buyers go on

Etsy they type in their keywords into

the search bar and your products will

show up and if your products are good

you will get visits and you will get

sales in my last video I shared how much

I made with a brand new shop in my first

3 months on Etsy and for the first 2 and

1/2 months I didn't spend anything on

Etsy ads I got those numbers by solely

relying on etsy's algorithm and the free

things that I'm going to be going

through

next just because your product is

digital and you're selling it on the

internet doesn't mean that you can't

sell it to real people in the physical

world if you've chosen a business idea

that you're familiar with it's likely

that you know people in your real life

that might benefit from that product too

reach out to these people and let them

know that you've made something that

might help them you might be surprised

by the amount of people who might be

interested also in General is easier to

sell to people who actually know you

than absolute strangers so if you never

sold anything before or you're new to it

it's a good way to

practice etsy's algorithm at its core

tries to connect sellers with interested

buyers but if you don't want to rely on

a company or an algorithm to do this for

you you can take this job into your own

hands the first step in doing this is to

brainstorm a list of people or groups

that might be interested in the product

that you're selling for example when I

started my sticker shop selling labels

for kids stuff my list consisted of

parents grandparents schools daycares

teachers and caregivers make a similar

list that pertains to your specific

Niche or product after you have a list

you want to find out where on the

internet these people hang out maybe

it's a specific subreddit or a community

Forum or Facebook group these are

communities that are filled with your

target audience and would be highly

likely to buy your product if they just

knew about it a word warning here don't

be one of those annoying people that

comes into a group and just spams the

message board with an ad for your

product that's an easy way to get banned

or deleted really quick what you want to

do is join these groups and actually be

a contributing member be active create

useful posts and help people with their

problems in my experience a tasteful way

to do it is to wait until someone

actually posts about the problem that

your product solves and that's when you

can reply with your answer if you're a

contributing member to a group group

it's likely that they'll want to support

you anyways because they've gotten so

much value from you in the

past next is paid marketing and before

we move on to this I want to say again I

wouldn't recommend doing this until

you've established that people actually

want your product if you've already gone

through all the previous free methods

that we've talked about and you're still

at zero sales it's unlikely that any of

this will work for you so because of

that I proceed with caution because you

might end up wasting a lot of time and

money for

nothing the first type of marketing is

the type of marketing that you pay with

your time the goal here is to spend your

time creating content that will

eventually funnel people to your store

this involves creating content that

showcases your products on platforms

like Instagram Tik Tok or Facebook if

you're able to create compelling content

that can actually get views and you link

these accounts to your store it's a good

way to get extra traffic that can

eventually lead to sales and all it

costs is your time when this works it

works really well going viral on one of

these platforms can lead to an insane

amount of sales but if you ever tried

this you know how hard it is and how

much time and effort it takes to

actually get a significant number of

views and to build a following it's

really hard to come up with videos and

images that do well on these platforms

it's a whole other skill that you have

to put time and effort into learning so

if you're new to it another platform

that I feel is often overlooked and is

much easier to get started in is

Pinterest I don't know about you but I

feel like pin is often like a forgotten

child in the family of social platforms

I don't really hear a lot of people

talking you about it but in my

experience it's also a good way to drive

traffic to your shop people go on

Pinterest for inspiration whether you're

looking for inspiration for fashion

business weddings kids activities or

really anything I would describe it as a

visual search engine whatever your Niche

is you can create content in the form of

images and Link them to the items in

your store and in my opinion it's easier

to get views on your pins than on your

videos for Tik Tok or

Instagram next is marketing that you pay

for with money instead of time and I put

it last for a reason the reason is

because if you do this wrong you could

actually end up losing money and as

someone who is pretty risk averse I

don't like the idea of that but say

you've been in business for a while

you've been doing the other types of

marketing and you're doing pretty well

you're making profits and you want to

reinvest some of that profits into maybe

growing your store faster that's when I

start looking into

this Etsy ads are kind of weird because

I feel like they don't really bring any

extra eyeballs onto your products the

people who are seeing these ads are

already on Etsy and if your SEO is good

and your products are selling well

customers should already be seeing your

products anyways what you're really

paying for here is making your listings

show up more often than usual which can

lead to more sales but it's definitely

not guaranteed if you want to try it my

strategy for Etsy ads have always been

to only promote my bestselling products

never products that I'm still unsure

about I start with a low daily spend if

you're new to this you can start with a

dollar a day I think maybe that's the

minimum on Etsy but I'll slowly increase

this over time while keeping an eye on

my return on ad spend if the return on

ad spend drops too low to the point

where it's no longer worth it that's

when you want to back off you don't want

to be one of those shops that has $100

in sales but $90 in ad spend and $10 is

going to fees with Etsy ads in

particular I don't think there's a

correct amount to set it's all about

experimentation you're going to have to

test it out and see if it's worth it for

yourself it may or may not

be I'm not going to get into too much

detail with these because I feel like

they're kind of advanced and this video

is for beginners but if your store is

doing really well I want to mention two

more ways of marketing that can be

really

[Music]

effective the first one is paid at ads

on other platforms this is where you

create an ad in the form of a video or

image and you pay a platform like

Facebook Tik Tok or Instagram to show it

to their users the good thing about

these is that visibility is guaranteed

unlike creating free content on these

platforms that might get zero views

you're paying these companies to show it

to an X number of people if your ads are

good this is going to lead to extra

traffic to your store which can lead to

sales but as you know it can be hard to

make this type of content and it's

another skill that you're going to have

to put time and effort into

learning another method of paid

advertising is influencer marketing this

is finding influencers in your Niche and

paying them to create content around

your product or your store this might

sound expensive but I've had varying

success reaching out to smaller

influencers one with 1 to 5,000

followers a lot of influencers of this

size are willing to make content in

exchange for free product and if your

product doesn't cost much to make it can

lead to a really high return with very

little risk you might be surprised on

how much influence these smaller

creators have even if they have a

relatively small following sometimes

it's not about the amount of followers

an influencer has but it's about how

engaged their following

[Music]

is imagine you're playing a game and

there's a wheel you have to spin the

wheel is divided up into slices but the

catch is you don't know how many slices

there are there could be five or there

could be a 100 but all the slices start

red when you spin the wheel and you land

on a red that slice turns green the goal

of the game is simple land on green as

many times as possible you can spin as

many times as you want and the only way

to lose is to stop spinning when you go

through all of these steps you come up

with an idea you spend the time building

it and then you spend the time marketing

it and putting it out into the world one

of two things is going to happen you're

either going to get sales or you're not

if you get sales the next step is easy

you double down on whatever worked if

you're selling wall art and the one that

you made with a rocket ship design

starts getting sales that tells you that

it's time to make more designs with

rocket ships or other space related

things if you don't get sales you're not

going to like this answer but the next

step is to spin the wheel again go back

to Step One come up with another idea or

another design and go through all the

steps again some people playing this

game are going to spin once or twice and

hit red both times they might complain

that the game is rigged and that they

probably have a wheel that has a

thousand slices and their chances are

lower than everyone else's they'll see

other people spin and hit green and

think that they must have cheated

somehow they'll convince themselves that

this game isn't worth playing and

they'll stop spinning the reality is it

doesn't matter how everyone else is

doing this is a one-player game the only

thing stopping you is yourself and

hitting red isn't a failure when you

come up with an idea and you go through

the effort of actually building building

it and putting it out into the world

even if it doesn't work it increases the

chances that it will work next time one

you'll be developing skills every time

you do this and these skills are

valuable and two you'll gain experience

and insight into why your idea failed

and you can learn from it and avoid

making the same mistakes next time I

tried a lot of different things before

my sticker shop H it off I made various

attempts to grow an Instagram following

with gaming content and photography I

tried to start a t-shirt company

focusing on nerd type apparel that got

nowhere and somewhere in the depths of

YouTube there's a failed Pokemon Channel

that I started a long time ago all of

these red spins got me to where I am

today and will play a part in whatever I

do in the future remember the more times

you spin the wheel the more green slices

there will be and the only way to lose

is to stop spinning so whether this is

your first spin or your 20th spin if

you're struggling to come up with your

next idea you can check out this video

over here if not thanks so much for

watching I hope you found this useful

take care of yourselves and I'll see you

in the next one bye