Making money selling digital downloads for free

Selz is a platform to create customizable stores to sell digital and physical products. Bundle — you can bundle a number of related products together and offer a bit of a discount on buying the larger product. Easy Digital Downloads has a built-in reporting platform for easily viewing stats, and making custom reports.

Table of Contents

In my recent Etsy affiliate postI let you know that I make purchases on Etsy often — but probably not the kind of products you are thinking. Instead, I buy digital downloads like offline marketing materials, logo design, blog and worksheet templates. There is big money to be made selling digital downloads. The earnings may not always come immediately as they do with an hourly gig, but you can create your product in your downtime and use it to supplement your finances until it takes on a life of its. Outside of a secondary income opportunitythere are several other great reasons to get involved digital product arena. If you are creating a product around your expertise, you can immediately position yourself as an authority figure. This can lead into speaking and coaching positions.

Sig Ueland

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What are digital products?

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For further information, including about cookie settings, please read our Cookie Policy. By continuing to use this site, you consent to the use of cookies. We value your privacy. A ‘read’ is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authorsclicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text.

Learn. DOI: Anja Lambrecht. Avi Goldfarb. Alessandro Bonatti. Show more authors. We review research on revenue models used by online firms who offer digital goods. Such goods are non-rival, have near zero marginal cost of production and distribution, low marginal cost of consumer search, and low transaction costs.

Additionally, firms can easily observe and measure consumer behavior. We start by asking what consumers can offer in exchange for digital goods. We suggest that consumers can offer their money, personal information, or time.

Firms, in turn, can generate revenue by selling digital content, brokering consumer information, or showing advertising. We then turn to specific challenges firms face when choosing a revenue model based on either content, information, or advertising. Additionally, we discuss nascent revenue models that combine different revenue streams such as crowdfunding content and information or blogs information and advertising. Content uploaded by Daniel G.

Author content All content in this area was uploaded by Daniel G. Goldstein on Mar 22, Content may be subject to copyright. Download full-text PDF. Other full-text sources. Content available from Daniel G. Selling Digital Goods Online? Avi Goldfarb, Unive rsity of Toront o. Alessa ndro Bona tti, Massa chus et ts Institute o f Technology. Anindya Gho se, New Yo rk Univ ersity.

Da niel G. G old stei n, M icr osof t Re sea rch. Anita Rao, Un ivers ity of Ch icag o. Song Yao, Northw estern University. Author Note : This pape r draws on discussions f rom the confer ence sessio n at the 9. Choice Symposium in Noordwij k, Netherland s, co-cha ired by the first two autho rs. We review research on revenue models used by online firms who offer digital goo ds. Such goods. Add itionally, firms can easily observe and measure.

We start by as king what consum ers can offer in exchange for digital goods. We suggest that consume rs can offe r their money, personal i nformation, or time. Firm s, in turn. We then turn. Additionally, we discuss na scent reve nue models tha t combine. We conc lude w ith a discussion of opportunities for future research includi ng. For digital products delivered online, many firms ca n charge cu stomers for a ccess to cont ent, sell.

Firms can also combine mu ltiple revenu e streams, for example cha rge customers. For exam ple, to m onetize news online e.

R evenue models for m usic. E-books e. Providers of games e. Zynga, W orld of Warc raft rely on a wid e range of reve nue models. Dropbox is offered b y subscription or on e-off purchase. The ability to select among revenue streams has broa dened and complicated a decision. First, f or many firms, the choice betwee n revenue models. Second, optim ally designing each re venue stream is comp lex. A firm that charge s. A firm aimi ng to sell inform ation about its.

A firm that aims to generate. Establishing the best revenu e and pric ing model requ ires an unde rstanding of what is. Digital produ cts present a unique. We focus on revenue models f or digital products, abstracting from settings where the internet is used merely to. Because the se. Additionally, in digital environm ents firms can relatively easily obse rve and me asure de tailed. These features of the basic economics of di gital goods suggest the strength and weaknesses.

The chal lenge of choos ing the best rev enue m odel online. Th e next section. We then point to future. We propose that the fir m has three wa ys of generati ng revenues onli ne. First, the f irm.

Second, the firm can sell inform ation abou t. Third, the firm can sell space to advertisers. This classific ation is based on the f act that in exchan ge for access to a digital good, cons umers. Here, the basic trade-of f is that moving f rom an advertisin g-only. Recent analy tical research points out that greater competitive intensity may increase profits. An a lternative. Addi tional work has foc used on free units as a sam ple of the paid pr oduct, dem onstrating.

Pauwels and Weis s show for an online content provider. Yet, Chiou and Tucker find that visi ts to an online news site. Lambrecht and M isra em pirically loo k at the trade off bet ween content su bscripti on.

They document t hat subscriptio n reduces views an d advertising revenues. They also find th at as a result of heterogeneit y in willingnes s to pay. Instea d, firms can inc rease revenue by. We know less about the balance between advertising revenues and revenues from selling. The First Sale Doctr ine permits anyone who own s an original copy of a physical p roduct to rent.

Reselling or renting digital products is particularly attractive. But i t is almost impos sible to resell or rent a digital pr oduct without first making a copy. To prevent consumers from copying, firm s create. Millenium Making money selling digital downloads for free Act. With legal resale ma rkets shut down, firms need to rethink t heir. Interestin gly, many firms use rigid pr icing structures ac ross time and conte nt, mainly.

However, Rao Despite regulatory efforts and technological advances, piracy of d igital content remains an issue. There is currently. Liebowitz and Waldfogel find evidence. In the. But when unable to commit to. Unlike the classical Coase con jecture durable good s.

Recommendations

There are simple platforms to sell basic digital goods, and there are advanced platforms for subscription systems vree secure digital management. This was the beginning of their doll clothing business. Just a computer, a sprinkle of passion and drive, and some time. It was a model that scaled very. I value the time and effort that others put into a legitimate digital product. Published on January 16, sellinb I tend to msking a new worksheet anytime I get stressed about my work so I just publish them as products as I go! Over the years I have given back a handful of dollars, but that guarantee makes people so much more comfortable to buy! Maoing for DRM, that is a function more of the file itself and not of EDD which is only delivering the file to the customers. Selz is a platform to create customizable stores to sell digital and physical products. When I started I heard this A LOT and never really paid it any mind, but as I have gone on I start noting down what people are asking about a lot and then create products to answer those needs as we go.