Having explored and made a good bit of money in the digital product space for a bit over a year now, there’s some common pitfalls that I see people, especially beginners constantly fall into, which makes it impossible for them to actually make money. 

Believe it or not, digital products are actually one of the best and most profitable sources of semi-passive income available right now. I know people that literally make thousands overnight when releasing new products, and the best part is that unlike dropshipping etc. your profit margins are always pretty much 100%. 

And most crucially, the skillset you learn with digital products (copywriting, offer creation, content) is always going to be in-demand and high-value, in case you want to switch to something else later.

But, for most people, they’ll barely ever make any money selling digital products. Here’s why.

Disclaimer: In all my posts, including this one, when I talk about digital products I’m referring to problem solving PDF-format guides, like the one I have listed on my profile. I’m not talking about stuff like templates, swipe files etc. 

Mistake 1 - Shitty marketing

If you look around at typical “digital product gurus” on most platforms, even here on Reddit, most times their idea of a great marketing plan is this:

1. Spam all comments with links to my shitty product
2. Make shitty, low-value posts, that are filled with links to my still shitty product (most likely with shit copywriting)
3. Post screenshots of photoshopped stripe notifications
4. Wait for buyers to magically come and pay you..? (this part never happens)

Don’t laugh. This really happens, look anywhere on money-related subreddits and you’ll find hordes of these people, spamming their links everywhere…

If you’re using organic marketing to advertise your digital products (or anything else for that matter), here’s the most crucial thing to understand.

The value formula: 

Upfront value * Trust + Execution = Sales

Upfront value means how much value your posts and content have given the potential customers before they’ve paid you anything. The more value, the more they will also trust you, hence the multiplication! 

After that, comes execution, aka how well you’ve actually positioned your product and offer. Here’s where stuff like copywriting, testimonials etc. come in. 

If you can consistently nail the value formula in your posts, you will start to build trust with potential customers, and start bringing in sales. 

This goes for any platform btw. Whether you’re making TikToks, Youtube videos, writing on X, Threads or Reddit, a general rule to follow is that the more value you can give for free, the more sales you can make. 

Most people are afraid of giving away too much value, since “what will people pay me for then???”

This is a mistake. If you have a digital guide that’s around 50 pages, like most of my digital products are, it’ll be impossible to give away all your secrets in one post. More value = more sales, that’s it. 

Mistake 2 - Bad execution

Since I’m involved in this space, I’ll often take a look at other people’s product pages and link-in bios when they’re making these shitty posts all over reddit. 

A common occurrence is that in their link-in bio, they have 10 different digital products they’re selling. All of them, very obviously, just ones they’ve bought and are reselling like a pyramid scheme. 

If you go to a restaurant and they offer pizza, sushi, wings, steak, burgers and milkshakes, you know that none of those will be especially good… Master of all means master of none. 

This is why you NICHE DOWN.

Get really good and in-depth into one topic, and sell ONE product around that topic. No-one is taking you seriously when they see that you offer a buffet of generic, resold digital products you didn’t even make. 

Remember that to make money you have to offer value. Read that again.

When you’re reselling shitty digital products (and doing shitty marketing) you’re offering 0 value. Absolutely none. 

This is also where stuff like bad copywriting comes into action. If your sales page looks like it was written by a kindergarten student, who the hell is going to take you seriously and pay you? 

Don’t treat digital products as a quick get-rich-quick scheme. If you treat it like a real business, you’ll start making money like a real business. 

Mistake 3 - Bad products

The era of ChatGPT written slop is among us, and a lot of people see that as an opportunity to quickly pump out a ton of generic, AI-written content to make a quick buck. 

If you actually respect your customers, you’ll want them to get blown away by the amount of value they receive in their product.

If they pay you 30$ for a guide on how to close more freelance web-dev clients (hypothetical example) and they get a 30-page AI written, generic pile of shit, they’ll hate you.

Yes, hate you.

They won’t be slightly disappointed, no. They will feel like you’ve cheated them out of their hard earned money. This is where you’ll start getting disputes, refund requests, people blowing up your email and dms, downvoting and shitting on your posts and your payment processor will probably just close your account. 

Not worth the headache. Just make a fantastic product once, then you can sleep with a clean conscience knowing you aren’t selling bullshit. 

Most of my products take weeks, sometimes over a month to make. Yes, really. But it’s worth it. Once they’re done, I’m fucking fired up to sell them, since I know they have actual value… Nothing feels better than receiving DM’s from happy customers, seriously. 

Oh, and NEVER EVER buy and sell PLR or MRR products. For those unfamiliar, these are digital products you buy from other people to then resell. Common examples include “Digital marketing” guides, they seem to be the latest fad in shitty PLR products… In short, they’re a pyramid scheme. 

Conclusion

Digital products are probably the easiest and fastest way to make your first 10,000$ online.

But, just like any other business, there’s no free lunch. You have to put in that initial legwork, after which it becomes smooth sailing, making a few posts per month and collecting revenue passively. 

I hope you learned something from this post. 

If you have no idea what digital products even are or want to get started, I have a couple of banger posts that recently blew up on my profile, check them out if you’re interested! Till next time