Morgan Franklin: The world of digital products is a magical
and mystical place. It's the passive income we dreamed of.
It's making money while we sleep. It's confusing. Welcome
to pod School. Today's lesson is going to be about how to make
and sell your first digital product when I think about the
most impactful and accessible ways for podcasters to make
money from podcasting, especially within that first
year, it's having a digital product. Most of the time, your
first digital product can be created with minimal time and
very limited overhead, so you don't need a lot of time or
money. And I think that that's why this is so appealing for new
podcasters. But of course, the big question is, what are you
gonna make and how are you actually going to sell it. Hello
and welcome to podcast for profit. My name is Morgan
Franklin. I'm a Podcast Producer, strategist and
educator. This podcast will help you create and grow a podcast
that cuts through the noise of social media and speaks directly
to your target audience. If you're ready to create a podcast
that will align you with the experts in your industry,
position yourself as a trusted leader and create another source
of revenue for your business. You're in the right place in
this episode, we'll talk through those two specific questions,
what kind of digital product will you create? What could that
look like for you in your podcast? Then how will you sell
it? How can you take this idea and actually turn it into a
product that your audience wants to buy? About a year ago, I
started my own journey trying to figure out what digital products
I'd sell from this podcast, from my own podcast, and despite the
glitz and glamor and excitement, I realized that this was not
gonna be as easy as I thought it was gonna be. First of all, I
had no idea what I was gonna sell. One, what would people
actually want to buy from me? And two, how was I actually
going to create that thing and sell it. Digital products can be
anything, and I want to take a small step back here to talk
about digital products and what they are before we really get
into the episode. Product folio says that a digital product is
any product or service that is primarily based on digital
technology, existing in a non physical or intangible form.
Okay? What does that mean, right? Basically, that means
that this is a virtual product or service that someone can buy
and use in a virtual space. Again, what does that mean? For
example, I think of one of the first digital products that I
ever bought, which was songs on Apple iTunes to play on my
iPods. Now, obviously, most of us will not be selling songs or
any kind of audio like that, but another product that I remember
buying early on was presets for Photoshop and Lightroom to edit
photos. I'd buy these from independent sellers and use them
in conjunction with my Adobe software. And again, you might
not have this kind of digital product either, but look on how
to achieve the same results that you've been able to achieve, or
maybe a calendar or a Canva template, or hundreds, literally
hundreds of other things. There are endless possibilities on
what you could create and sell. But as I'm sure that you know,
especially as a podcaster, endless possibilities does not
always help you figure out what you should be doing or what you
need to create, and that's why I made the most incredible tool
for all my podcasters, for you, so that you can figure out what
kind of digital product that you could sell and what your
audience actually wants to buy from you. It's a form, and it's
going to be linked in my episode description. And how it works is
basically you put in the information about your podcast
and your audience, and if you have any digital products
already, and it'll just instantly email you 10 ideas for
products you can sell. I've been working on this tool for several
weeks, and I am just so excited for you to use it. I cannot wait
to hear what you have to say, and all you have to do is take
about a minute and a half to fill out everything about your
podcast and audience, and the ideas will be emailed directly
to you. It is that easy. Figuring out what kind of
digital product that you should create is a lot like figuring
out what your podcast should be about. That's what it reminds me
of so much, because it needs to be at the intersection of your
own knowledge and what you have to provide already and what. The
audience wants to hear from you or to buy from you, there has to
be that like even balance of what we can create and what
people actually want. My best suggestion for starting out is
to look at what you've already made for yourself or your
clients. I'll use myself as an example. I was producing
podcasts professionally for about three years before I
started thinking about what I was gonna sell or any kind of
digital product. So when I was brainstorming, I took a look at
all the things that I had already created for my clients.
What was I already using on a day to day basis to make this
podcast production work? And my two digital products that I
launched with and that I'm still selling are my podcast media kit
and my podcast guest questionnaire template. And I'd
made both of those and perfected them to the point that I thought
when I'm thinking about what I think podcasters need and what
they would need to produce their first podcast well. And I
thought, okay, if this works well for me, I think other
podcasters would love this too. Take a look at what systems and
tools that you already have in place, and figure out if there's
any way that you can package those up to sell them. I know
that might sound a little bit confusing, but I think about a
client who I'm working with currently that is in the primary
education space, so teaching parents and students about ages
K through fourth grade, so five to 10, there are so many
worksheets and templates and calendars that they could sell
online. And even better, if all of those came with a video or a
podcast episode or a private podcast episode to accompany
them, that would be so incredible for a parent who's
trying to help their student in the classroom, or what about
somebody that's an accountant or a lawyer or a business coach?
There are just so many worksheets and templates and
guidelines that you could make to sell to people is insane. But
again, figuring out what to sell is only half the battle, because
maybe you have a great idea for a template or even a live
coaching seminar. How do you make sure people really want it,
and how do you get it out there for them to purchase? This is
where I think waitlists are such a practical and important tool.
A waitlist can be really easy. I use kit, formerly known as
ConvertKit, as my email management software. They
literally have a free landing page like you don't have to pay
for anything or for any of their services. They have a free
landing page where you can set up a wait list and start
collecting people's emails. Also, I want to clarify when I
say waitlist, I mean that you are just collecting people's
contact information that are interested in an idea that you
have. The you explain is coming out or is in development. That
way, when you finally launch the product, you already have a list
of people that you know are interested in it, and you can
gage the interest of the people signing up on that wait list,
because you would rather make a wait list that doesn't get any
sign ups, then create an entire course that takes you months and
hundreds or 1000s of dollars to make, and then no one buys it.
So think about setting up a wait list to get people excited for
any kind of products that you're even thinking about making, that
way you can gage, okay, are people actually as interested in
this as I am making it. The next thing is ask the people who are
already working with you. Just say, hey, I really value you as
a client. I value you as a listener. I want to know what I
could do to make your life easier. What problems are you
having right now? Then go from there. You don't have to guess
what people need or what they want. Ask them what they need.
And think about what people ask you the most. Like, literally,
what are the questions that people ask you the most? What
are people paying you to do the most often? What are your most
listened to episodes? Think beyond your podcast again, what
are you hired most frequently to do, what's the information or
tools that you're giving to people that they value the
most?Again? And if you're having any questions about this or
thinking, oh my gosh, I have no idea what people ask me. I want
to plug again, the tool that I made for you. It is linked in
the episode description, and it takes account of all of these
questions. All right, so let's say that you have an idea of
what you want to do. Let's say that you're a cake decorator,
and you help other cake decorators to book out their
entire calendar year. You're selling a digital calendar, a
profit and loss sheet, and a Canva template set that's
customizable social media posts for their business. You already
have a podcast about the same topic, helping cake makers make
money and book their full calendar year. So now what we
need to think about is, how are you going to take this idea to
reality? The first things first, I would make a wait list and.
There that's on your website or through your email. Hosting
doesn't really matter. Start a wait list page and mention it in
every episode. So say, Hey, I'm launching these digital
products. Here's what they are going to be loosely here's who
it's going to help sign up for the wait list and be the first
one to know about the launch. And maybe you have a promotional
deal or something, and then put the wait list in every single
episode description, so that people can easily sign up if
they are interested Next, you're gonna figure out what you
already have and what you need to create. So maybe you already
have all of the things and you're using them for yourself.
In that case, it wouldn't really take that much work, but maybe
you haven't. Maybe you have a really rough profit and loss,
maybe that you're trying to design some of these things for
podcasters who are just a one person show. This is where
things like Upwork and Fiverr are going to be your best
friend. Look for people and vendors that will help you to
design these digital templates is there are hundreds of people.
This is all that they do. They help people make digital
products to sell. So type in what you're looking for and take
the time to look at what these different vendors have done.
Read the reviews. This is not something that you just want to
pick the first person that pops up. Make sure that you're hiring
someone, that you know what they are going to be giving you and
that you like what they are giving you, because think about
it. I mean, after that, you are going to take what they give you
and sell it to somebody else. So make sure that the people that
you are working with are creating things that you would
be proud and excited to sell. Then from there, and whether
you're cleaning up your own stuff or you've got your PDF or
Excel or Canva links that you've bought and helped work with
another person to make these files are going to be ready for
you to start selling to buyers. So how does that process really
work? This is the part where you can go a lot of different
directions. Personally, I use Shopify. This is not sponsored
by Shopify, but I wish it was if you have a Squarespace website,
I believe that they do have an E commerce capability. Basically,
you just need a place to have a digital storefront to sell this
product. There are hundreds of ways to do this. If you have a
link tree, even in your Instagram description, I know
that they just launched a digital storefront, and most of
the time it is as easy as uploading the document that you
want to sell. You fill out the information about it, and then
you just start selling. There's a lot of different options, but
my best advice is to do some research and see what's going to
serve you the best for the amount of money that you're
putting into it. No one wants to lose money on just hosting their
digital product and not making any sales, because I've seen
that happen too. So if I were you, I would start with a really
low cost option, and especially if you only have one or two
products, so that you're not spending 5060, $70 a month and
then maybe not even making that return. Try to go for something
free or under $20 a month. All right, so now we figured out
what our product will be. We have a place where people can
buy it, and now we are tasked with making sure that people
know why and how to buy it. That's a million dollar
question, right? That's why every marketer has a job. But
let me just say, as a podcaster, you already are so far ahead of
the curve, you already have an audience that is coming to
listen to you. However, this is still a delicate balance. I've
read hundreds, probably 1000s, of one star podcast reviews
complaining about how the host is always selling, and it's so
annoying that this podcast is just one long ad. So again, we
have to make sure that we're always putting our listener
first, because if they aren't listening, it doesn't really
matter how amazing the product is or how great of a job we've
done at marketing it on our own podcast. If no one's there to
listen, it really does not matter. Listeners want value,
and I think as podcasters, that we should focus on that a little
bit more when we're trying to sell our own products on our
podcast. How is this product going to bring value to your
listener? How can you explain how it works? How can you
explain how you've used it? How can you explain why you made it
sell the benefits of this product and not the features?
How is it going to improve the listener's life? You know what
to do if you want to sell a digital product, but you still
aren't sure what it could be. Use my free tool. It's linked in
the episode description. It'll take information about your
podcast and your audience and a little bit of magic from me and
email you 10 digital product ideas that are made specifically
for you and your podcast audience. It's the most amazing
tool that I have ever made for podcasters, and I'm so, so proud
of it. I can't wait to hear what you think. Like I said, should
take a little bit less than two minutes to use. So go ahead and
give it a try. If you want some one on one, help from me. On how
to create products to sell on your podcast, or how to sell the
products that you already have on your podcast. My contact
information will be in the episode description. You can
schedule a free exploratory call with me, and as always, I can't
wait to listen to your podcast. Hey, thank you so much for
joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed the podcast and
you'd like to hear more episodes like this one, go ahead and
subscribe to the show. New episodes air every Monday
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start making money on their podcast.