Digital products are more than just courses

Hey Reader,

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, Threads or LinkedIn, you may have seen my 22 days of digital products campaign.

I shared my guests’ products in the order they appeared on the show, but I wanted to talk about the types of products that these business owners have created.

Hopefully you’re inspired for your own digital product journey in 2024. 🙌

Community

I don’t consider community or memberships digital products, however many business owners start with digital products or courses and based on the additional needs of their customers, they create a community or membership.

This is the case with Kristin (The​ Financial Fitness Academy) and Kay (ActiveCampaign​ Academy). And interesting that both of their communities have academy in the name!

Another way to dip your toe into digital products is to run workshops, possibly live and to offer replays later. Emily also has weekly office hours and the content from those could become a digital product in the future.

Courses

I don’t recommend courses as a first product because they are a big time investment, but there are many ways to do courses.

Like smaller courses! Joe’s self-paced mini course is about getting your first podcast sponsor. Sara’s 1 Hour SEO helps wedding professionals jump 6+ pages on Google in one hour even if you have no clue where to start with SEO.

Gill has a new course, Business Soul Searching, but also checklists and an ebook.

And Angela’s second longer course, The Flourishing Affiliate, also has a community component.

Ebooks

Ebooks are a great way to share your ideas.

Alastair has several quick guides about content creation. And Kristina has a book about recurring revenue called The Revenue Relationship.

Guides, Manuals, Toolkits & Workbooks

This category is a bit more open – I’m grouping guides, manuals, toolkits and workbooks together. The possibilities here are endless.

• Liz has a Thanksgiving​(holiday)​ cookbook and weeknight meal planning guide for people with allergies
• Kyle’s website owner’s manual helps you educate, negotiate, persuade, and sell your clients on recurring monthly website maintenance plans
• Jolene’s comprehensive guide and video with a real-life house sitting experience in Ireland will show you how to start house sitting
• Shawn’s Design Your Bravest Business Year Yet workbook is a self-led visioning & planning program made for visionaries and entrepreneurs who want to push themselves to be braver than ever in the new year
• Kim’s content planner gives you a strategy to create the right content, for the right platforms, and supports your business goals
• Maggie’s plan for quarterly retreats give you a framework to envision the future you want and create a plan for that growth
• Kathleen’s Quizillionaire Toolkit will help you launch your highly-converting online quiz

Software

I‘m on the fence whether I’d categorize software as a digital product (yes, it’s digital and it’s a product), but because of the ongoing support requirements and updates (new versions), I think it’s in a different category than the rest of the products in this email. I think of a good digital product as having very little time requirements on and after delivery, unless you want to package it with a live, group or 1:1 component.

That being said, if you have a website or a digital product, you need policies, so check out Termageddon.

Templates

Templates are great products because they are often easy for business owners to implement, leading them to a quick win.

• Erin of Design Bread has a fantastic set of email templates specifically for sticky client situations
• Sara is the expert at systems and loves Notion for your business. Check out her templates including her goal tracker and proposal tracker
• Nathan’s MonsterContracts are for WordPress freelancers, solopreneurs, teams or agencies who build and manage websites for clients
• Paul created the Essential Web Designer’s Documents Pack with all the core documents you need to secure new business, like a proposal template, client questionnaire, onboarding email and more
• Bridget’s Launch With Words allows you to add pre-written content to your new websites immediately, plus schedule posts

Check out all of the stories behind these products on YouTube or in your favorite podcast player and stay tuned for more in season 3.

Cheers to an amazing 2024!
Rene