Most people approach this backwards.
They spend six months figuring out what platform to sell on.
Then three months on what the product should be.
Then another month on what to name it.
Eighteen months later: nothing sold.
The market has been waiting this entire time.
Here’s the short version of what sells online.
Solved problems.
That’s it.
Not “content.” Not “value.” Not “your unique perspective.”
A solved problem. Packaged so someone can consume it without you in the room.
If someone has a problem and your thing makes it go away — or gets them meaningfully closer to away — they will pay for it.
Everything else is aesthetics.
The best digital products share three things.
One. They’re specific. Not “how to get healthy.” How to lose 20 pounds when you work night shifts and can’t meal prep. The specificity is the product. Generic advice is free and worth exactly that.
Two. They’re based on lived experience. Not research. Not aggregated tips from other blogs. Something the creator actually did, failed at, fixed, and documented. The failure is part of the product. It’s proof the creator was in the same situation.
Three. They’re priced for a decision, not a commitment. $17–$97. Low enough that the buyer doesn’t need to think about it for three days. High enough that the creator isn’t working for pennies.
The options.
Ebooks and guides: the fastest thing you can ship. Write what you know. Package it as a PDF. Sell it on Gumroad. Done in a weekend if you stop overthinking it.
Templates: if you’ve built something that works — a system, a spreadsheet, a process — package the template. People pay for the shortcut.
Courses: longer, more work, higher price. Only build this if people have already paid you for the ebook version and want more.
Coaching: the highest-margin, most time-intensive. Trade time for money. Works while you build the passive version.
Start with the ebook. Build the rest from what customers ask for next.
Here’s the thing nobody says clearly.
You don’t need expertise. You need to be one step ahead.
The nurse who survived her first year of night shifts has a product. “How I Didn’t Quit My First Year of Nights” is a guide every new night shift nurse will buy.
The person who paid off $40,000 of debt on a teacher’s salary has a product. Their actual spreadsheet. Their actual sacrifices. Month by month.
The 47-year-old who finally learned to sleep properly has a product. The three things they changed. The things that didn’t work. The thing that finally did.
None of these people think they’re experts.
All of them are.
What you should not sell: someone else’s framework, renamed and repriced. The market can smell that. It’s also not yours to sell.
What you should sell: the thing you actually figured out, for the person who’s one year behind you.
I held my first guide for two weeks because I wasn’t sure I was qualified.
Then I looked at what was already out there.
Mediocre content. Clearly written in an afternoon. Thousands of downloads.
I posted mine.
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