Just curious, how many of you guys have tried selling digital products?
How many of you feel that it’s a scam?
I find it interesting how many people in here want help making passive income and how many people share the success from selling digital products just to get told they are a “scam”.
I found digital products to be a breath of fresh air and completely changed the way I ran my business online.
Opened up a ton of new streams of income and helped me to free my time from chasing clients for paid services to making money passively from simple digital products I made years ago that still makes sales today.
Reading the entire thread (27 responses) feels like you’re preaching to the choir, that is, only people who understand “digital products” replied, talking about how great they are.
Honestly, I come to Reddit for information, inspiration for my hobbies, and news. You barely mentioned the meaning of those products, and the entire thread sounds like a giant word salad, or people giving pleasure to each other, if I can talk in old English.
Before any of you recommend me one of your courses , would you mind expanding the topic you’re discussing? I don’t want to be fed spoonfuls of heavily-digested information, because some of us are not here to make an easy buck but to learn and get inspired. Maybe some threads or themes, maybe some timelapse of your own experiences, etc.
Also, I think it would speak a lot about those capabilities of everyone else in the thread to condense, teach, communicate…get it?
In essence, don’t make me think of this thread as a scam by scammers, because it feels so.
@Andi
It’s a highly competitive market, anyone giving you concrete advice is going to be charging for it. “This is how I make a ton of money, come ruin it for me!” is not a post you are going to find here.
Linden said: @Yan
A business with so little moat that hearing about the field is enough for a newcomer to ruin it?
Sounds like a pretty shit ‘digital product’ if that’s all it takes and anyone can replicate it.
It’s digital affiliate marketing.
You trade your social standing to your friends for convincing them to click on links you get a few cents for per click or sale on certain websites. A non-scammy version of this is Amazon affiliate links, where you might write an article about, say, a digital camera, and include a link to the Amazon link to that camera.
You make more money by finding a way to scale that, and that’s where the courses come in. They boil down to “make a low effort blog, spam it everywhere, and you’ll make lots of money”.
If you really know what you’re doing, you combine it with SEO optimization and “networks” of vaguely related blogs that pollute search results.
However, the recent trend in AI LLMs have automated all this to an absurd degree, so unless you invest a lot of money or time into it, you don’t really see any returns at scale.
@Andi
Fair enough, but I have shared tons of free value on here as well as on my YT channel. I just was posing a question with this post to get some engagement, and it’s clearly working.
Keir said: @Andi
Fair enough, but I have shared tons of free value on here as well as on my YT channel. I just was posing a question with this post to get some engagement, and it’s clearly working.
I’d say it’s clearly working; I’m not sure if as intended, though.
@Andi
Maybe they don’t want to give away their secret niche. Like how people don’t give away the location of their fishing spot, or their berry picking spot.
I’m on Zazzle, apparently certain items make a lot of money, eg wedding stuff, probably because those customers are in “spend money” mode. I feel like anything outside those few niches earns pennies.
Everything is a SCAM if you don’t put the effort and attention into building the foundation. Digital products are another business. When a person listens to the ‘gurus’ promising $6500 a day with little effort on YouTube they’re going to come out disappointed when they find out getting a business started ain’t easy or 2nd nature to most folks.
100% too many people look at it as some side hustle and not a real business, then wonder why it never pays them like a business. Its a commitment and a hustle, but its one that takes less work and time than 90% of other businesses, comparatively.
Morgan said:
I’ve been selling digital products of mine, and also affiliate digital products as a full time income since 2012 so I wouldn’t say it’s a scam.
It is pretty competitive though.
Nice, that’s a good amount of time! Depending how you look at it, everything can either be competition or complimentary. I try to position my products to compliment others in the market. Most people I know aren’t loyal to just ONE brand, they want the best from all the brands. So provide value that compliments your niche and you will find your own lane that can avoid direct competition.
I sell digital products, affiliate ones too, I enjoy it and make very good money and 90% of the money I make is from products I didn’t create! I think everyone who thinks poorly of this just doesn’t understand how it works. I plan to make more of my own in the future once I can narrow down which direction to go in but for now it’s working for me, I’m helping others, continuing to learn, and like I said I love it!
@Oli
Ya I 100% agree! Why would anyone trust something they don’t fully understand? This is why I love to share insights and my experiences to help others just understand the world of digital products. Once it clicks for them, they start to get all kinds of ideas! I too have found some good success with affiliate products/offers.
Zion said:
I have a course I will sell you for 495.00 and…i will let you resell it!!!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
What a joke!!!
Lol ya the MRR products and people jumping on that train give the whole model a bad name. I always try to suggest other products long before reselling courses or MRR products. Much better options out there to build a real solid brand.
, would you mind expanding the topic you’re discussing? I don’t want to be fed spoonfuls of heavily-digested information, because some of us are not here to make an easy buck but to learn and get inspired. Maybe some threads or themes, maybe some timelapse of your own experiences, etc.
