Sell Digital Products Online

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

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 to sell digital products online 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.

Side Note: An advantage with emailing the download link, is that you have the opportunity to get the customer on your email list. That way you can email them later offering other products you may be promoting. In fact email marketing is one of the best ways to sell digital products online.

Payment and downloading system
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, and when the customer pay 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.

More about selling with PayPal.

With the above method there will be a 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.

Sell digital products online on automation
Even though it's possible to do this with PayPal, there are simpler solutions. Several online services are offering easy and simple solutions for selling digital goods on automation.

If you will be using E-Junkie as your shopping cart, feel free to download this free Quick Start Guide (right click on the image to the left and choose "Save Link As...").

Another good and reliable service is PayLoadz, who even offers a free option to sell digital products online. 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 on in increments.

PayLoadz too uses PayPal for payment processing, and you need a PayPal account  (it's free) to use it.

ClickBank  is a company that specializes in selling digital downloadable goods, and is the most reputable of them all. You can sell your products 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 have to pay a one time fee of $49.95. In addition there are transaction fees when products are sold.

Another company similar to ClickBank but with different options is PayDotCom. A selling account with them is free; however you have to pay a one time fee of $29 to sell more than one item. Then there are transactions fees when items are sold. So, selling with PayDotCom is cheaper, and setup is easier, but Clickbank is bigger and gets more visitors.

Plimus.com  is yet another e-commerce platform for selling digital downloads. They provide all the tools you need to sell digital products online, including several payment options (credit cards, e-checks, PayPal and more).

There is no setup or start-up charges at Plimus, you only pay transaction fees when you sell and earn. For example, if you sell for $50 a given month they charge 9% commissions, if you sell for $100 they charge 6%. Minimum fee is $0.75 (for sales up to $5).

As you can see, there are many services that can help you sell digital products online, so just choose the one that suits your needs and get started!

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