10 Lessons From Creating 10+ Digital Products

And generating $300,000+ in digital product sales.

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Over the past few years, I’ve created more than a dozen digital products and generated multiple six figures in digital product sales.

I’ve created everything from e-books, 30-day challenges, digital templates, Notion databases, and online courses.

I first started doing this in the productivity space with my business, Peak Productivity.

Now I’m doing the same thing here at Write • Build • Scale, where we focus on helping creators build a thriving online business.

And while I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way (trust me, more than I’d like to admit), I now feel confident saying that I know how to build a digital product people actually want to buy.

So in this article, I’m sharing 10 key lessons I’ve learned from building and launching 10+ digital products.

Lessons that will help you skip the mistakes, move faster, and turn your knowledge into real revenue.

Let’s dive in.

#1: Keep It Simple

If you’re working on your first digital product, start small and keep it simple.

You don’t need to create the ultimate product right away. In fact, I’d strongly recommend that you don’t.

Start small instead.

What does that look like?

• Instead of a 200-page e-book, write a focused 50-page guide

• Instead of a 30-day challenge, begin with a 7 or 14-day challenge

• Instead of a giant signature course, create a mini-course that teaches one specific skill in under 2 hours

When you start small, it’s less intimidating to create. You’re way more likely to actually finish (and launch) it.

So many creators get stuck in perfectionism or overwhelm because they try to do too much with their first product, and they never end up releasing it.

Don’t fall into that trap.

Also, lots of creators think that “more = more value.” But that’s not true.

Your audience is busy. They don’t want 100 videos or a 300-page book, they want results as quickly as possible.

In many cases, a short and focused product that solves a specific problem fast is way more valuable than a bloated, all-in-one program.

So if you’re building your first digital product, resist the urge to go big. Keep it small and keep it simple.

Your goal should be to launch it quickly, so you build momentum.

#2: Offer a Clear Transformation

One reason why many digital products flop is that the transformation isn’t clear enough.

You might understand how valuable your product is.

You know how much time, energy, and insight went into it.

But that doesn’t matter if your customer can’t clearly see what’s in it for them.

That means you need to answer three crucial questions:

• What problem does this product help solve?

• What challenge does it help people overcome?

• What result or outcome does it help them achieve?

This is what makes your product valuable.

Not how long it is, not how many lessons or downloads it includes. It’s about the change it creates in someone’s life or business.

Remember, people don’t buy digital products for the information. They buy them for the transformation.

Give them a transformation worth paying for.

#3: Validate Before You Build

Here’s a painful lesson I had to learn the hard way: Just because you think your digital product idea is amazing doesn’t mean other people do.

One of the biggest mistakes I see new creators make is jumping straight into building mode without first checking if anyone even wants what they’re building.

And that’s how people end up spending weeks creating a product… only for it to flop on launch day.

So before you build anything, validate that there’s actual demand. How you validate demand depends on whether or not you already have an audience.

If You Don’t Have an Audience Yet:

Your best strategy is to do market research. Look around and see if your idea already exists, and if it’s already selling.

If other creators have been selling the same ebook, course, or template for a year - and still promote it - that likely means it’s profitable.

People are buying it. There’s demand. That’s your green light.

Now you might be wondering:

“How can I compete with them if the product already exists?”

Well, even if your product idea isn’t 100% unique, your approach, your teaching style, your story, your beliefs, and your way of explaining things might be.

People will buy your product when they trust you and feel connected with you, even if the same exact product is already created by someone else.

If You Do Have an Audience:

If you already have an online audience, validating demand becomes easier.

• Build a waitlist: Create a quick landing page describing your idea and invite your audience to join the waitlist to get an early-bird discount when it’s released. If you get a lot of sign-ups, it’s a strong signal of interest. If barely anyone signs up, that’s also valuable feedback.

• Run a pre-order campaign: Create a basic sales page before building your product. You explain the concept, promise a launch date (say, 30 days from now), and offer a big discount or bonus for people who buy now. If you get enough sales: great, the idea is validated.

All in all, always validate your product idea.

Don’t confuse personal excitement for market demand. Just because you think it’s a brilliant idea doesn’t automatically mean people will pay for it.

Validate first. It could save you a lot of time, energy, and frustration.

#4: Use The Right Tools

The right tools and software can help you build your digital product faster, easier, and make it more profitable.

Here are the exact tools I use to build, sell, and automate my digital products:

• Loom – I use this to record video lessons for my online courses. Super quick and easy.

• Canva – This is where I create slides for my videos and design workbooks, checklists, and templates. No design background needed.

• LeadPages – My go-to tool for building high-converting sales pages.

• Thinkific – I use this to host all of my courses and digital products. It also handles payments and gives buyers instant access.

• Kit (previously ConvertKit) – This is where I set up automated email funnels that sell my products on autopilot.

• ChatGPT – From outlining digital products to writing scripts, brainstorming, writing sales copy, and even creating bonus resources, ChatGPT speeds up everything and takes a lot of the mental friction away.

Now, if you’re just getting started and want a low-cost option that does almost everything in one place, check out Gumroad.

It’s beginner-friendly, free to get started, and it handles sales pages, payment processing, and hosting for your digital products or courses.

They just take a small cut of each sale, which is perfect when you're new and not ready to pay $99/month for every tool under the sun.

#5: Learn Copywriting

Copywriting is one of the most important skills for any digital creator.

You can have the best course, the most helpful e-book, or the most valuable set of templates out there, but if you can’t communicate the value of it clearly and persuasively, nobody’s going to buy it.

Without copywriting, you won’t be able to:

• Write a sales page that actually converts

• Write marketing emails that build excitement and drive sales

• Describe your product in a way that makes people say, “I need this”

One of the most valuable copywriting lessons I learned is to focus more on the benefits of your offer, and not so much on the features of your offer.

But most product creators do the reverse.

They’ll say things like:

• This course includes 17 lessons and 5 hours of video

• This e-book is 187 pages long

• This product took me 3 months to create

That’s good to mention once, but it’s not what people really care about. If most of your marketing message is on the features, you’re not going to sell much.

Instead, people care about:

• Will this help me solve the problem I’m struggling with?

• Will this help me get the result I want faster or easier?

• Will this give me the transformation I’ve been chasing?

That’s the real value. And that’s what your copy needs to highlight—on your sales page, in your marketing emails, in your social posts. Everywhere.

So if you’re serious about making money online, take the time to learn the basics of copywriting.

You don’t need to be a master. But you do need to know how to talk about your product in a way that makes people want to buy.

Because if your copy doesn’t spark interest, it doesn’t matter how great your product is. No interest = no sales.

#6: Different Format = Different Price Point

You can teach the same thing, solve the same problem, and offer the same transformation, but the format you choose for your digital product will drastically change how much you can charge for it.

Say you package your knowledge into an e-book. Unless you’re incredibly famous or your book has gone viral, you’re going to have a hard time selling it for more than $20.

(And even $20 is on the high end for most e-books.)

Now take that same content, but package it into a mini-course—with videos, slides, maybe a workbook—and suddenly, you can price it at $50, $75, even $100+.

Why?

Because the perceived value of an online course is much higher than an e-book, even if the actual content is pretty much the same.

And this applies to other formats too:

• A 30-day challenge might sell for $27–$47

• A toolkit or template bundle could go for $19–$49

• A cohort-based program might sell for $300–$1,000+

Same core content. Different format. Way different pricing.

That’s why for my productivity business, I focused almost exclusively on creating online mini-courses.

I knew I could charge $97 for something that might only be worth $15 as an e-book.

Same outcome. Same content. Just a more profitable delivery format.

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t create e-books. If that’s your preferred style, go for it.

But just know: your format determines your price point. And your price point determines your profitability.

#7: Have Upsells Available

It’s way easier to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one. In fact, studies show that someone who’s already bought from you is 76% more likely to buy again.

That’s why every time you sell a digital product, whether it’s a $49 mini-course or a $19 template, you should have an upsell ready.

Say someone buys your online course. Awesome.

But what if, on the checkout page, you offered a relevant add-on (like a bundle of templates, a toolkit, or a workbook) for $15 or $25?

That’s called an order bump, and it works like magic. It’s a no-brainer, impulse-buy that increases your average order value with almost zero extra effort.

Then, after the sale, either in the confirmation email or a follow-up email sequence, you can introduce a higher-ticket upsell.

This could be:

• A 1-on-1 coaching call

• A more in-depth digital product

• A VIP experience or group consulting package

The idea is simple: don’t stop at one sale.

If you’ve already earned someone’s trust and they’ve paid you once, why not offer them something else that provides additional value to them?

So when you’re creating your digital products, ask yourself:

• What’s a low-ticket add-on I can offer as an order bump?

• What’s a premium offer I can make on the back end?

More value for them. More revenue for you.

Win-win.

#8: Build a Simple Sales Funnel

A sales funnel might sound complicated and intimidating, but it’s not.

All a sales funnel really is, is a system that helps people go from discovering you to buying your digital product.

Let me break down a few simple ways to do this.

The Content Funnel:

This is the easiest funnel to set up.

You just link to your digital product inside your content, whether that’s a Substack post, a newsletter, or a blog article.

This works great for low-ticket products (think $7 – $97). Something that people can buy impulsively without much hesitation.

So, if you’re writing a post about productivity, and you have a mini-course on deep work or time-blocking, simply drop a link to that course somewhere in the post.

Do this often enough (without spamming the link, but placing it strategically), and you’ll make sales.

The Email Funnel:

This one takes a bit more time to set up, but it can generate sales for you on autopilot.

Here’s how it works:

1. In your content, promote a freebie (like a helpful PDF guide, an email course, or a checklist)

2. People sign up with their email address to get it

3. Then you add them to an automated email sequence (via Kit, for example)

4. A few emails into that email sequence, you introduce your digital product

This system works especially well for mid-tier products ($97 - $497), where people need a little more warming up before they’re ready to buy.

The beauty of this is that once you’ve set it up, it runs on autopilot in the background.

You can simply focus on creating content and building your audience, while your email funnel turns new readers into paying customers without your active involvement.

#9: Collect and Leverage Testimonials

You saying your digital product is awesome is one thing. But when other people say your product is awesome, that’s when trust skyrockets (and sales follow).

Think about your own buying behavior. When you're on Amazon or booking an Airbnb, what’s one of the first things you check?

The reviews.

Well, your potential customers do the same thing.

They want to hear from real people who bought your product, used it, and got positive results.

That’s why collecting and sharing testimonials is one of the smartest things you can do to increase your conversions.

Whenever someone buys your digital product, follow up:

• Send them a quick email or DM after a few days

• Ask them how they’re enjoying the product

• Ask if they’d be open to sharing a few lines about what they liked or what result they got

You’d be surprised how many people are happy to share something when you just ask.

Once you’ve got those testimonials, use them:

• Add them to your sales page

• Share them in your marketing emails

• Sprinkle them in your content (the occasional Substack Note, for example)

Testimonials build trust. And trust converts.

#10: Improve Your Digital Product As You Go

Your digital product doesn’t have to be “perfect” when you launch it.

In fact, it won’t be. And that’s totally okay.

Perfection is the enemy of progress. If you wait until every module, every design, every sentence is “perfect,” you’ll never hit publish.

What really matters is that it helps your customer go from A to B. When that’s the case, launch it.

Once you’ve made your first sales, you’ll start getting real feedback from real customers.

They’ll tell you:

• What they loved the most

• What confused them

• What’s missing

• What could make it even more useful

That feedback is gold.

Use it to upgrade your product. Improve your examples. Add bonus lessons. Re-record a video or two. Polish the workbook. Tweak the onboarding process.

Version 2.0 and 3.0 of your product will be way more impactful, simply because you’ve built it around what your customers actually want.

And the better your product becomes, the more confident you get in selling it.

When you know your product delivers, you’ll feel more comfortable promoting it, raising the price, running a launch, adding it to your funnel, etc.

So don’t fall into the perfection trap.

Just launch. Get it out there. Improve it as you go.