How to Create a Product Online and Monetize Your Biz
The secret that many bloggers and online business owner know is that one of the best ways to monetize a website is by selling products. Yes, you will see tons of influencers touting other ways to make money online – but usually the number one way to maximize revenue online is to have something to sell. That’s why today we’re going to go through how to create a product online and monetize it.
I know creating a product online can seem scary – but it doesn’t have to be. We have a template and will walk you through it step by step.
Because at its core, creating an online product is simply creating something that will make life better for your target customer.
First off, what are the steps to create a product online?
- Grow your traffic and email list
- Brainstorm potential product ideas
- Select your product idea
- Create a website landing page
- Write your sales content
- Launch your product
Let’s walk through each of these steps together.
Step 1. Grow Your Email List
The first step on your journey of creating a product online is to grow your email list.
But first thing’s first: why do you need email subscribers to launch a product anyway?
Because email subscribers are the people most likely to buy from you.
They’re the ones you have started a relationship with. The ones who have expressed interest in your brand and who have taken the effort to sign up. That shows that they’re interested, and they’re willing to give you something in exchange for what you offer already.
Typically, only a very small percentage of people will buy from you (usually less than 2%). So, having at least 1,000 people on your email list is the best way to maximize your chances of getting sales.
If you don’t have 1,000 subscribers yet, that’s okay. Focus on growing your business first in the GROW section, and get that subscriber count up.
There are some great hacks there, like offering freebies / lead magnets as an incentive for people to sign up.
Step 2: Brainstorm Product Ideas
I know it can seem overwhelming coming up with an idea – but it so doesn’t need to be. We’ll break it down step-by-step for you.
First, think through what will help your target audience most. The best way? By simply asking them!
Create a survey of max. 10 questions that are included in your welcome email series, that asks them what they need. You can do this easily in a free tool, like Google Surveys.
Sample questions:
- What stage in <input you niche here, like SEO, twin parenting, or camping tips> are you?
- Why do you want to do _____?
- What’s the biggest issue relating to _____ for you?
- What have been your biggest sources of stress recently?
- What frustrates you most about _____?
- If you could snap your fingers and magically fix something about _____, what would it be?
- What have you been Googling lately related to _____?
- What would success look like to you relating to _____?
- Is there something that would make your life easier with _____?
- Are you considering buying something relating to ______?
- What would give anything for an easy solution to?
From here, you’ll get a sense of a) the biggest problems your target customers are facing, and b) what solutions might work for them.
Next, check out what competitors in your space are doing.
You do NOT want to copy them entirely. You need to create your own product, with your own expertise, your own take, and your own unique viewpoint.
That said, knowing what kind of products are selling in your field is important. This will also help you set a price point after you have your product ready.
| COMPETITOR | PRODUCT | PRODUCT PRICE | PRODUCT DETAILS |
Finally, think about how to package the product idea.
Here is a list of some popular online product ideas:
- eBook – exactly what it sounds like. It can be 20 – 400 pages, but shares your expertise with your audience.
- Printables / templates – whether it’s spreadsheets, PDFs, workbooks, recipes, craft printables, or more, these are easy-entry products that people are eager to buy.
- Digital Course – often the most profitable, digital courses help teach something to the world. You’ll usually have a learning path prepared, videos, and documents to help people learn.
- Membership – here, you’ll offer a mix of services to people to pay on a regular basis. It can include private groups, virtual meetups, coaching check ins, 1-on-1 calls, or more.
- Service – whether it’s consulting, photography, graphic design, software services, web design, coaching, or more, this one is offering your time for money.
- Physical product – the list isn’t complete without a physical product. Whether it’s a shirt, mug, notebook, bag, book, art, or other product, it’s something physical that they can hold.
- Other – finally, think outside of the box. You can offer tours, stock photography, software, games, apps, music and audio, etc. The sky is the limit, friends!
Again – you’re not narrowing down yet, or selecting one.
Try to brainstorm a few options in each category if possible. The more the better at this stage!
Step 3: Select Your Product Idea
Now that you have feedback from your potential customers, competitive research done, an email list set up, and ideas of how to package it up, it’s time to come up with a few ideas for online products.
I typically like to advise stating with one low priced item (like an e-book or printable) and one higher priced item (like a course, coaching program, or membership).
That way, you can both maximize your revenue, and increase the likelihood of purchases.
Once you have your product idea ready, it’s time to move on to the marketing side of how to create a product online.
The great news? You can even do this before your product is even ready!
Step 4: Create a Website Landing Page
Think of your website landing page as your storefront.
It’s the place where you highlight all the benefits of the product in a clear, simple way that makes your customers eager to buy.
This is a super important part of the process, so you want to get it right.
The good news? We’ve created a template to make it easy for you.
We’ve looked at the UX research, tracked the latest marketing trends, know the conversion benchmarks, and prepared this template – all so you don’t have to.
A tip for using this template: go big on the visuals, light on the text.
People will simply ignore long boxes of text. We’re talking 1-2 sentances at a time, bullet points, and lots of visuals.
Also, be sure to create a visual that walks someone through the process of what they’re going to learn. It’s called “showing the intangible” and helps people understand what they will actually be experiencing after they part with their hard-earned money.
For example, if your course has 7 modules, create 7 icons & titles in a pretty visual map, so people can conceptualize what they’re going to learn.
Here is the template to create your online product landing page:
Step 5: Write Your Sales Content
Okay – you’ve got your audience established, your product idea ready, your website landing page designed. The next step in how to create a product online and monetize it is writing your sales content.
This basically means all the ways you’ll talk to your audience about your product.
Typically, the main platforms are via your email list and social media, though they don’t have to be limited to those.
Because launching a product can seem overwhelming, we created a template showing you a sample promotional schedule:
| TIMING | SOCIAL | OTHER | ||
| PRE LAUNCH | -4 wks | Product finished | Pinterest pins & Social ads ready | |
| -2 wks | Email copy finished | Daily high value posts ready | Reach out to influencers | |
| -7 days | Turn off regular emails | |||
| -4 days | Send email #1 – announcing launch | Post + Stories: Announce launch | ||
| -1 day | Send email #2 – launch reminder & overcoming challenges | Stories: Launch reminder | ||
| LAUNCH WEEK | Day 1 | Send email #3 – doors are open | Post + Stories: Announce launch | Influencer reminder |
| Day 2 | Send email #4 – why I created this product | Stories: Poll Post: Overcoming challenges | ||
| Day 3 | Send email #5 – FAQs | Stories: Q&A | ||
| Day 4 | Send email #6 – flex your expertise | Stories: Details Post: Living best life | ||
| Day 5 | Send email #7 – last day reminder | Stories: Final reminder | ||
| Day 5 | Send email #8 – doors are closing in 2 hours |
Does this seem like a lot?
I get it.
What you need to remember is you won’t be doing this very often.
Honestly, the main reason you created an email list was twofold:
- The altruistic reason is to add value to your customers. This is a real reason why you started your business in the first place.
- The other reason was to generate sales. If that’s one of the main reasons you created an email list in the first place, this is the only time that it will be used for this reason.
When I first started marketing, I worried sending 8 emails in less than two weeks would be bugging people.
Ultimately, I learned this: people are busy, distracted – and if you don’t share your product with them, you are depriving them of the opportunity to benefit from it. You’re depriving them of the opportunity to make their lives better.
People have busy lives, and many of them will miss emails, will miss social posts, or things will go to their junk folder.
One week of heavier than normal emails will not break your relationship with them. And when you’re on your path for how to create a product online, it’s the time to leverage this relationship.
So go ahead, shout it from the rooftops that you’ve made this awesome product, and be proud of it.
Step 6: Launch your Product
Remember, up until this point, you really haven’t risked much.
You wrote things, you designed things, you prepped things – but you haven’t really put anything out there.
The time eventually comes to press “launch”.
This is when your first email goes out, your ads start sending, and your announcements go live.
I’m not going to lie – it can be a little scary to put yourself out there. So here is my pump up speech for you.
If you want to get something more than the average person, you have to do something more than the average person.
You have to take risks others are not willing to take.
Now, I’m not going to tell you your product is risk-free. Personally, I wanted to have my business incorporated before I launched, for the limited liability behind it. It helped me be a bit more confident in pressing launch.
You can even create a list of worst-case scenarios and brainstorm a solution for each of them.
But ultimately, it’s never going to be risk-free.
You need to take a deep breath, be confident that you created a great product that didn’t exist before and offer it up to the world.
Maybe go outside, take a deep breath. Think of what your future could look like if this is successful. Think about how society typically favors the brave.
Then be brave, and click “launch”.
Chances are, you’ll be pretty proud that you did.
Creating Your Product
There you have it: how to create a product online, in six clear steps.
Not it’s not necessarily easy – but it is simple. It’s a six-step program that you can follow to launch your first product online.
Remember, up until the last step, you’re risking very little. Don’t let fear get in the way of moving forward. Brainstorm ideas, survey your audience, write the emails, create a social post. You can get everything ready in advance before you click “post”.
It risks nothing to put fingers to keys and prep an email, get everything ready. So do it. Check of step, by step, by step.
Then, you can take some time to make sure you’re ready before clicking “launch”. By that time, you can look back on all the work you’ve done and content you’ve created, and be proud that launching is the right thing to do.
But you won’t get there unless you write it in the first place.
So – get to work, start checking off the steps, and make it happen my friend!
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