Home Based Business

In order to sell digital downloadable goods (music, ebooks, videos etc.) online you will need your own web site where the customers find information on the items you sell and how to buy.

You must at least have two pages. First you need a Sales Page with as much information about the items as possible, pictures if available (ebooks), music examples (if music is what you sell), prices etc. On this page you should also provide customers with detailed information on how to purchase and download. A good and detailed explanation of the payment process and how the customer will get access to the download link is important to make him/her feel comfortable buying from you.

The second page you must have is a Thank You Page, whereto the customer is redirected after payment is made. Here you of course say 'thank you' to the customer for his/her purchase and - which is most important - give information on how the purchased item(s) can be downloaded. You will probably provide a download link on this page. If you don't want a download link here (there is always a possibility that other people - who have not purchased anything -  stumble over the page by chance and see the download link), you can email the customer the download link. On the Thank You page you then just inform him/her that he/she will receive an email with the link.

On the Sales Page there must be a way for the customer to actually make the purchase and do the payment.  The simplest way to do this is to use PayPal. You can put a PayPal "Buy Now" button  on your Sales Page (see here how it might look) and when the customer pays an item through PayPal you will be notified by PayPal with the customer's email address. Then you send an email to the customer with the download link and other relevant information. Be sure to include info about how the customer can get support if any problems with the downloading or other things should occur. 

With the above method there will be some manual work each time you sell an item as you must email the customer each time a purchase is made. However there are ways to put the whole selling operation on automation - taking payment and downloading included. In fact it's possible to do this with PayPal, and here's how: You'll use something called 'Auto Return' inside your PayPal account. Click on 'Edit Profile' at the top of the page, then 'Website Payment Preferences' in the 'Selling Preferences' column, then click the 'Auto Return' "On" button and follow the instructions to complete the setup.

There are also other third party's services that can be used to accomplish this, and I'll mention a couple of them here.

First, there is PayLoadz, who even offers a free option! On the free version there is a transaction limit of $100 and maximum file storage of 1 GB. If you exceed $100 of sales there is a monthly fee of $15 up to the next transaction limit which is $250; when exceeding that limit the monthly fee is $29 and so the limit amounts and fees are increasing in steps (click the link above and see for yourself). Even better, you can both list your stuff on their site and sell the same stuff on your own web site and put the whole process on automation. Signing up with PayLoadz is free. In order to use this service on your own site you need a PayPal account, which you can get here for free if you don't have one.

Second, there are one payment solutions like eDownloadCart (from $67.00) and DLGuard  ($127.00).

Third, I also recommend the following all-in-one provider: WebBusinessWizard.  It's very easy to use, but it requires recurring payment of $99.00/month.

Selling on Clickbank: Clickbank is a company that specializes in selling downloadable digital goods. You can sell your goods through them, and they also have an affiliate system that allows people to promote your product(s) - of course in return for a share of the profit. In order to sell through Clickbank you must sign up with them and they claim a one time fee of $49.95.

(Being an affiliate with Clickbank and promoting other people's products is free.)

Another company similar to Clickbank but with different options is PayDotCom.  Selling with them costs less than Clickbank and setup is easier, but Clickbank is bigger and gets more visitors.