I have officially been a Squarespace user for over two years, and switching over to them still feels like one of the best business decisions I’ve made.  There are many reasons why I love Squarespace (here is a post all about it), but one is that you can sell not only physical products, but digital products and services, too!  This is a great feature for those selling things such as workbooks, e-books, email courses, coaching packages, etc. The beauty of Squarespace is that you pay one fee for your site and can also incorporate e-commerce, so you don’t have to subscribe to another service for digital sales (Sam Cart, DPD Cart or Gumroad)!  There are various benefits to selling digital products on your website, and I will be sharing my top three.

1 / Passive Income (AKA sleep coin)

This is the best thing about digital products, so I’m talking about it first!  Passive income means you are making money without having to be present. You get the dings on your phone for new sales in the middle of the night (hence, sleep coin as Nicole Walters so lovingly calls it) and wake up to money!  Since a digital product is something that can be purchased over and over, your investment is time up front for creating the product. After it’s complete, there’s nothing else to manage only customer service. Passive income is a goal for many as of late, and I totally understand why (it’s one of my goals, too!).  Passive income opens up your world. You can work from anywhere, travel whenever and live anywhere. You don’t have to look for a home close to your job because your job rolls with you.

Don’t get me wrong, passive income sounds like a sweet deal, but there’s still hard work involved.  As I mentioned, you have to put time into researching, creating the product, testing it out, improving it, setting up tech, etc.  After all that, there’s the promotion. You must constantly promote your products to attract new customers. You have to set up systems and email funnels (depending on the type of digital product) to encourage people to buy your products.  This is no different from selling physical products - people have to hear about or see your products somehow. The difference is that you aren’t required to be as present as you are when selling physical products.

2 / Low maintenance, low cost

When you sell physical products, it often requires you to carry inventory, ship the items yourself, purchase supplies, etc. There is much more to maintain and keep track of. When it’s digital, none of this applies.  All you need is a computer and whatever program(s) you use to create the digital item. Think about an actual book vs an e-book. For the physical book, you have to pay for an editor, designer, printing, carry inventory, pay for shipping supplies, ship the books out and notify the customer of shipping & tracking information (unless you are selling on Amazon).  You may also have to deal with returns, exchanges, damages, etc. This is just another piece of the puzzle when selling physical products. With an e-book, you still need an editor and designer, but that’s all!

Since digital items aren’t things that can be “returned”, you just need to state in your return policy that all digital items are non-refundable due to the nature of the product.

3 / Instant gratification for customers

We are in an age where we want things not now, but right now.  Digital products provide that instant gratification that a physical item that needs to be shipped cannot.  For example, someone may choose to purchase a video masterclass over purchasing an event ticket for an in-person masterclass because they don’t want to have to wait for the day of the class.  Another example is that someone may choose to purchase a workbook that they can print at home rather than waiting for it to arrive in snail mail.  The quicker you get an item, the quicker you can begin using it, especially while the momentum is still there!

Squarespace makes it to easy to get up and running selling digital products in no time.  With digital products, after the purchase is made, customers receive a secure link to the file lasting 24 hours after the first download.  This is also generally how other e-commerce platforms that support digital product sales works.

Now, some ideas for digital products that you can sell to get your ideas flowing:

• Checklists

• Worksheets

• Cheatsheets

• Exclusive Podcast

• Audio Training

• Music

• Tutorials

• E-Courses

• E-Challenges

• E-Books

• Stock Photo Library

• Photoshop Actions

• Art Printables

• Recipes/E-cookbook

• Video Training

• Webinar Replays

• Email Swipe Copy

• Patterns

• Pocket Guides

• Access to Private Facebook Group

• Business Card Templates

• Webinar Slide Templates

• Trello boards

• Thank You card template

• Save the Date template

• HTML/CSS Code

• Background music for videos/vlogs

• Mobile Photo Editing Guide

• Shopping Lists

• Coloring sheets

• Financial spreadsheets w/built in formulas

• Time management spreadsheets

• Automation Recipes

• SEO training

• Intro software training

• Meal Plans

• Style Guide

• Cleaning Schedule

• Weekly Planner Sheets

• Blog Templates

Now that you know my top 3 reasons to sell digital products on your website and you also have some ideas of what to sell, it's time to get started!  If you are a Squarespace user or considering switching to Squarespace, there are only 4 things you need to have to start selling digital products:

• Squarespace Business or Commerce account- Commerce and payment processors are Premium features available in the all Business and Commerce plans and Legacy personal plans (not available for new subscriptions or trial sites).

• PayPal and/or Stripe account linked in your Squarespace account. If you are linking PayPal, it must be a PayPal Business account.

• Digital product already created (pdf, jpg, png, etc.) or Service details already outlined.

• Graphic/Image representing the product.

I have created a digital guide on how to sell digital products in Squarespace (it's free!).  Haha, a digital guide on how to sell digital items...so meta!  Click below to get the guide!

Have you ever sold or thought of selling digital products?  Let's discuss in the comments!