For many Christian bloggers, creating and selling your own digital products can significantly increase your monthly blog income.
Getting started can be a bit overwhelming because there are so many options for HOW you sell your products.
I'm going to give you some of the most common digital selling platforms and explain the pros/cons of each one to help you make the best decision for your particular situation.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our full disclosure here.
Digital Sales Platforms
Once you start getting real organic traffic and seeing that your freebies are converting well to subscribers, the next step is to create your own paid products!
There are so many different ways to go about selling and delivering your digital products and you may not be sure exactly which method or platform to use.
Below, I'm going to break down the pros and cons of using 4 of the most common selling platforms that bloggers use today to help you make the best decision for your neets.
- Etsy
- Gumroad
- Payhip
- Sendowl
Etsy
Etsy is a great place to start selling your digital creations because it is a well-known platform and is really easy to use.
Pros:
- No monthly fee to use the platform.
- Etsy provides additional marketing
Cons:
- Saturated market for most products
- Only affiliate program is through Etsy (not a personal one) and it is difficult to get approved for
There is no monthly fee to use Etsy.
It costs $0.20 to publish a listing to the marketplace. A listing lasts for four months or until the item is sold. Once an item sells, there is a 5% transaction fee on the sale price (including the shipping price you set). If you accept payments through Etsy Payments, they also collect a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee when an item is sold.
Gumroad
I use Gumroad to sell some of my digital products. I love this platform because it is so easy to use. Not only can I link to my individual products in Gumroad, but I can also share a link to the storefront hosted on the Gumroad website.
Pros:
- Can sell pre-orders
- VAT is taken care of
- Customizable domain
- Start selling for free!
Cons:
- $10 payout threshold
I love it even more because I was able to start selling without having to pay a monthly fee to use the platform. Instead of a monthly recurring fee, I only pay a small fee each time a sale is made. This was perfect for me because I didn't want to start paying for something until I was sure the products would sell (and they totally have!).
Free Plan
- Start selling for free!
- Unlimited products
- 8.5% + 30 cents per sale
- Can offer an affiliate program
- VAT is taken care of
- Weekly payouts
- They take care of affiliate commission payments
Creator
- $10/month (up to 1000 customers)
- 3.5% + 30 cents per sale
One last feature that I love about Gumroad is Discover. Gumroad will actually market and promote your products in exchange for a 10% fee for any resulting sales!
Payhip
Payhip is another awesome platform for selling your digital products. This platform enables you to create really great sales pages, embed your sales forms onto your blog, and offers a storefront hosted on the Payhip website.
The biggest downfall with them right now is that when someone joins YOUR affiliate program, they must create a brand new profile (with a new email address) to join another affiliate program with Payhip. I've reached out to them about this and they said that they are hoping to overcome this issue in the future but couldn't provide a timeframe for it.
Pros:
- VAT is taken care of
- No threshold for payments
- Unlimited products
- Can offer affiliates
- Start selling for free
- Instant payouts
Cons:
- No custom domain
- Affiliates must create separate profiles to join additional affiliate programs (using a different email each time)
- You are responsible for sending affiliate commissions.
They offer 3 different pricing tiers, including a free plan. The main difference is how much THEY charge per transaction (sale). Aside from the transaction fee, you get the same features on all 3 pricing tiers.
Free Forever
- +5% transaction fee
Plus
- +2% transaction fee
Pro
- No transaction fee
Sendowl
Sendowl is another platform for selling digital products/services. But, unlike the previous 3 selling platforms, Sendowl does NOT provide a hosted storefront. That means you must have your own website to set up a “shop” page.
Pros:
- Can sell services (not just digital products)
Cons:
- No free plan
- Does NOT remit VAT payments
- You are responsible for paying your affiliates
- Must have own website to link to
Sendowl does NOT offer a free plan. However, they also don't charge for transactions since they aren't technically processed through Sendowl. They are processed through your payment gateway (Paypal, Stripe, etc).
The Basic Plan starts at $9/mo and enables you to offer up to 30 different products. If you want to offer an affiliate program, however, you must upgrade to the $15/mo plan.
Which is the Better Option?
The question of which platform is better simply depends on your specific needs. But here is my personal opinion on each of these platforms.
Etsy
Since Etsy is free to use and is a very popular platform for people looking to purchase digital goods. Also, Etsy does market your products which means you can get them in front of more people.
Because of that, I do recommend creating an Etsy shop – in addition to using another selling platform.
Sendowl
I am not a huge fan of selling on Sendowl (for those just getting started) for a variety of reasons:
- For new bloggers who are still in the trial and error stage, it doesn't make sense to start paying a monthly fee when you don't even know if your products will sell. Sendowl does NOT offer a free version.
- You can only offer an affiliate program on the $15/month plan.
- YOU have to manage your affiliate payouts.
- YOU have to take care of VAT remittance.
Gumroad vs Payhip
I personally prefer Gumroad over Payhip for a couple of reasons.
- Gumroad takes care of affiliate commission payments. With Payhip, they track them but you must log in to actually send the payments out.
- Gumroad affiliates can join as many other affiliate programs hosted via Gumroad from the same account. With Payhip, n affiliate must create new profiles for each affiliate program they join.
My advice would be to test out all of them to see which one you like best as far as the user experience and how the sales pages are designed.
At the end of the day, you want to ensure that you are choosing the best platform for your specific needs and that won't break your bank account when you aren't yet generating any income.
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