Have you ever bought a product that you can’t touch? In this digital age, many pieces have undergone the process of digitization. These include books, art crafts, music, painting and photographs, magazines, and more. All these items are called digital products and while you cannot physically hold them, you can buy and own them.
A digital download has various types and formats. For example, in the past, you’d normally have to buy a physical CD to listen to a new album. Today, all it takes is a click of a button to legally buy songs and store them in your smartphone.
If you’re still trying to get a grasp of what a digital download is, you’re in the right place. In this blog, we’ll go over what a digital download is and its best formats. We also curated a list of some of the best websites to host digital products. Finally, we’ll give you an introduction to how to sell digital downloads using a fantastic website builder.
What is a Digital Download
A digital download refers to any product that has been digitized for online purchase. Digital downloads are sold for a variety of reasons. For example, if you want to buy a photography magazine but you want to save on physical space, you can subscribe to a digital version.
Another great example is music. If we look at the way we consume music, platforms and services continue to transform. Today, there’s YouTube premium that allows limitless listening to music for a monthly charge. There are also digital albums and songs available on the Apple Music Store. There are also platforms that sell adobe digital editions download (with a legal license to sell).
Why would you want to sell a digital download? First of all, it’s an infinite inventory. You can never run out of digital products as long as you have the original copy and database. Second, it’s cheaper and definitely easier to manage compared to physical goods. Third, consumers nowadays and shifting to the online space. It’s a perfect time to look for digital products to sell.
Where to Host Digital Downloads
If you want to sell digital products, you need a website that will host your products for you. Even better, you can create your own website to sell digital downloads. Before we get into creating an online website for digital downloads, here’s a short list platform where you can host a digital download store:
- SendOwl
Image taken from SendOwl
SendOwl is a popular platform among entrepreneurs who sell digital products. As one of the most highly recognized platforms in digital download, it is packed with several features that you can enjoy and use to increase sales.
For many creatives who want to sell their products, they can upload their pieces and set their prices on SendOwl. They can also integrate a membership feature into their products. This is great for subscription-based services like entertainment.
One of SendOwl’s most unique features is that customers are allowed to set their own prices. They also offer affiliate marketing systems to boost potential revenue and increase market visibility.
SendOwl also allows various types of payment methods such as PayPal, credit cards, and Bitcoin. This is also a great platform for those who want to target mobile users.
- Easy Digital Downloads
Image taken from Easy Digital Downloads
Easy digital downloads live up to its name. This platform is designed to simplify the way consumers buy a digital download. If you’re familiar with WordPress, then you’d probably heard of this platform before, as they offer plenty of WordPress plugins to users.
Apart from those, you can also host a variety of digital products like eBooks and PDF files. Easy Digital Downloads also allow their users to put multiple items into their cart. This is great if you want to encourage potential customers to buy more from you.
If you choose Easy Digital Downloads to host your digital download items, you’ll have access to a customer management function. This feature allows you to monitor the purchasing pattern of your customers. This can be extremely essential when building your next marketing strategy.
- Podia
Image taken from Podia
Podia is a wonderful platform for those who want to sell online courses. If you’re an instructor for a certain field of study, consider selling a digital download of your courses. The best part about selling your digital download with Podia is that you don’t have to pay a commission or hosting fees.
They also offer other marketing and customer service features. These include creating an email list or adding a messaging tool to your services.
How to Sell Digital Downloads
Selling your digital download through any of the platforms we mentioned is great. But you can even be greater if you can create your own website to host your digital downloads. If you’re wondering about its advantages, having your own site gives you full control. You also wouldn’t have to pay any hosting fees to sell your digital products.
But isn’t building a website expensive and time-consuming? Fortunately, there’s Strikingly. Strikingly is a free website builder that has most of the features and functions you need to sell digital products. As a builder, we offer plenty of tools and templates to ensure that you and your audience get the best experience.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Strikingly is also very easy to learn. Just give yourself a couple of minutes to familiarize yourself with each setting, If you encounter trouble along the way, don’t worry. We have plenty of published blogs here to help you out. You can also refer to the support center to find answers.
Before you can start selling your products, go to Strikingly.com to create your account. This process is absolutely free. To start selling, refer to the steps below:
- Choose a Website Template
Image taken from Strikingly product
You can’t get started without a website template. After creating your account and clicking on “Create New Site”, you must select a template that you think is best for your digital download store. For this example, we used "Remote Joy" template. All of the templates in Strikingly have built-in features, but you can easily edit them and add more sections if you want.
- Add a Store Section
A store section is a page where customers would purchase your digital products. From this page, you can start selling a lego digital designer download, ebooks, online courses, etc.
Image taken from Strikingly product
To add a store section, click on “Add New Section” from the left-side menu. Then choose “Store and Products”. Finally, select “Simple Store”. Once you start adding digital downloads, they will appear in your store.
- Add Digital Downloads
Uploading a digital download is extremely easy on Strikingly. Just hover your mouse over your store section, and you’ll an “Add Product”. Click on it, and you’ll see the window displayed on the image below.
Apart from digital downloads, you can also sell physical goods and services with Strikingly. Make sure to select “Digital Download as Product Type”. Be guide by the following formats when uploading a digital download file:
- Document: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .odt, .odp, .epub, txt, key, numbers, wps
- Image: .jpg, .png, .gif
- Audio: .mp3, .mp4, .wav, .flac, .m4a
- Zip Files: .zip, .zipx, .7z, .rar
Image taken from Strikingly product
As you can see in the image above, you must also add the product name of your digital download. You must also add the product image and write a short yet specific description. After that, add the price of each product. If you want more features like adding product categories, consider upgrading to a Pro account with Strikingly.
- Set Up Payment Options
Finally, you need to set up payment options for your digital downloads. Strikingly supports PayPal, Stripe, and even offline payments. (For digital products, please opt for an online payment channel to avoid scams).
Image taken from Strikingly product
You can also set your store’s currency so you can localize your products. Once you’re happy with all your settings, you can look back and check if you completed every step.
If you’re satisfied with the design, structure, and layout of your website, just hit “Publish” and your digital download site is good to go.
Best Format for Digital Downloads
As a bonus tip, we’ll also talk about the best formats to use for digital downloads. What do you think is the best format to use when selling digital products? Quick answer - it depends.
First, it depends on what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling music, you can use formats like .mp3 or .flac.
Second, it depends on the type of device your customer uses. For example, a .mp3 file may work for android users but not for iPhone users.
Third, it depends on the type of platform you use to host your digital downloads. This is why we recommend using Strikingly to host a digital download product due to the variety of formats it allows.
With that in mind, make sure to use a digital download format that is flexible and accessible.
Selling a digital download is a great way to earn revenue these days. If you want to sell your own digital products, head on to Strikingly so you can create your site and start selling your creative works online.
