The Beginner’s

Guide to Digital
Marketing
How to Profit From Creating and Selling Digital Products
Online

Christine John
Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved.
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The Beginner’s Guide to Digital Marketing: How to Profit from

Creating and Selling Digital Products Online. Published by
Christine John Books.

Copyright © Christine John, 2021

https://ChristineJohnBooks.com

All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be

reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical,
photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written
permission of the publisher. For permission requests, write to the
publisher, at the email address below.

Email: christinejohnbooks@gmail.com

Disclaimer

Although the author has made every effort to ensure that the
information in this book was correct at press time and while this
publication is designed to provide accurate information in regard to
the subject matter covered, the author assumes no responsibility for
errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein
and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage,
or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or
omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

This publication is meant as a source of valuable information for the

reader, however it is not meant as a substitute for direct expert
assistance. If such level of assistance is required, the services of a
competent professional should be sought.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 3
COME UP WITH A PROFITABLE BUSINESS IDEA ..................................................... 6
DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SELL ............................................................. 11
BUILD YOUR E-COMMERCE WEBSITE (ONLINE STORE) ....................................... 29
WRITE OPTIMISED CONTENT THAT SELLS............................................................ 42
ENSURE THAT YOU COMPLY WITH ALL THE ONLINE BUSINESS LAWS ................ 55
SET UP SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS FOR YOUR BUSINESS ..................................... 62
DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE....................................................................... 65
USE EMAIL MARKETING TO GAIN SUBSCRIBERS AND CUSTOMERS .................... 78
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 108
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.......................................................................................... 110
OTHER BOOKS BY CHRISTINE JOHN ................................................................... 111
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 112
RESOURCES ........................................................................................................ 115
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INTRODUCTION

Did you know that you have the potential to earn a living online with
digital marketing? There are plenty of ways to generate online
income from creating YouTube videos and writing e-books to
recording audio and creating graphic and digital art. There has never
been a better time to get into digital marketing than right now. If you
have ever considered starting an online business, this is one of the
best ways to do it.

So what is digital marketing and how do we make it work for us?

Digital marketing is a type of marketing that uses the internet and
other technological devices and software to promote products and
services. We use laptops, mobile phones, desktop computers and
other devices to access the internet. We use software such as
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Photoshop, Camtasia, etc. to
create digital products. We also use online platforms such as
WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify, Amazon, and Udemy to
promote and sell products. Digital marketing is simply using the
internet to communicate your marketing message to customers
through email, social media, and other platforms.

It takes a lot of work and dedication to create and sell digital

products online, from choosing a product that will sell to increasing
your online presence. Starting a digital marketing business may be
challenging, but it is not impossible.

The opportunity to create and sell digital products is open to anyone,

no matter how old you are, where you live or what level of education
you have. As long as you have a reliable internet connection and
access to a laptop, smartphone or tablet, you can create a profitable
digital marketing business.
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Here are the top five reasons why it is beneficial to sell digital
products:

1. Digital products have low production costs. They do not need

to be stored in a warehouse and they do not require packing

or shipping.

2. A digital product is easy to deliver. It is an intangible product

which totally exists in cyberspace. The item is easily accessible

by downloading it or viewing it on a web page.

3. You can sell digital products all over the world and you can

accept payment in any currency. With the internet it is

possible to reach a global audience and do business anywhere

in the world as long as you and your customers have a reliable

internet connection.

4. You do not have to worry about running out of stock. Digital

products are immediately available for purchase and can be

sold for many years which can generate passive income for

yourself.

5. Technology has made it easier to manage, sell and deliver

digital products. The only two things digital products require

are digital storage and a content management system to keep

things organized which saves a lot of time. Making online

purchases of digital products is also very easy and fast.

Customers also don’t have to wait days or weeks for delivery.

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Digital products can be downloaded immediately after

purchase. Giving refunds is also easy to manage because you

don’t have to wait for the customer to return the product.

From the list of benefits identified above, we can conclude that

digital marketing is a great way to make a living online.

So if you’re ready to start creating and selling digital products, then

read on to find out what products to create and sell, how to build a
website and an online store, and how to use social media and email
marketing to attract and keep customers.
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COME UP WITH A PROFITABLE BUSINESS IDEA

For entrepreneurs, coming up with a profitable business idea is the

first step to starting a digital marketing business, but it is also the
most difficult. If you want your online business to be successful, then
you need to start by looking for a problem that needs to be solved.
Your business could be the one that solves that problem. Here are
five ways that you could come up with a profitable business idea
that helps to solve a problem.

1. Find potential business ideas by listing your skills, interests

and network.
2. Solve your own problem.
3. Think of something that you love (a hobby or your passion).
4. Think of something that other people need.
5. Do market research.

1. Find potential business ideas by listing your skills, your

interests and your network.

You can find potential business ideas by considering your skills,

your interests and your network. It is possible to come up with a
good business idea from your own experiences and from what you
already know and love.

Let’s start with your skills. List all of the things that you have learned
or that you are naturally good at. For example, you may be good at
drawing cartoons, planning parties, or writing speeches. Or you may
have learned how to create spreadsheets, design a website, or care
for a pet.
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Think of the qualifications you gained from college or university,

any vocational skills you may have learned such as plumbing or
construction, or any business skills such as administration,
marketing or sales. You may even have some type of special
knowledge that other people may need. For example, you may be a
psychologist, a dentist, a counsellor, or an electrician. You could
build an online business based on these specialised skills that you
possess. You could write e-books, make video demonstrations, or
create an online course. Just think of the different ways you can use
your skills to create an online business.

You can also use your network to help you come up with a good idea
for an online business. Your network is the people you know such as
your friends, colleagues, or even your family members. You can also
utilize your online network to help you to brainstorm some business
ideas. Do you know anyone who may have a special skill or interest
that you can combine with your skills to create an online business?
Write down who you know and what their skills or hobbies are and
see if you can use that to find a profitable idea for your online
business.

2. Solve your own problem.

One of the easiest ways to come up with a business idea is to solve

any problems you have. Think of all the things that frustrate you and
think of how you could solve that problem. Whether you’re at home
or at work, as you go about your daily activities try to identify any
items you have or tasks you may be doing that is making life difficult
for you. Then think of how you can solve those problems.

For example, what if you just finished university and needed to start
applying for jobs? You would need a professional-looking CV and
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cover letter. You search on the internet but it is hard to find sample
CVs and cover letters that you can download and edit to make it
your own personal CV. How would you solve this problem? The
solution would be to create CV and cover letter templates. You
probably know other college and university students who may have
the same problem and would find this solution very beneficial to
their job search.

Start getting into the habit of finding problems as you go about your
daily tasks and think of how you can solve them. Every problem that
you discover is an opportunity to create a new product or service
that could help others too.

3. Think of something that you love (hobby or passion).

Do you have any hobbies or interests that you feel passionate about?
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Do you like to fly kites,
play the guitar or collect stamps? Do you love to play golf, play
computer games, or teach your dog new tricks? Do you enjoy
sewing, knitting, or cooking? Whatever you are interested in or feel
passionate about, you have the potential to turn your hobby into a
profitable online business. Write down all the things you are
interested in that you enjoy doing and think of how you can come
up with a profitable business idea.

For example, if you have a hobby like baking you can easily turn this
into a profitable online business. You can offer an online course that
teaches people how to bake and decorate cakes and cupcakes. You
could also create an e-book in which you sell your recipes for baking
and decorating cakes.
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4. Think of something that other people need.

Your friends, work colleagues and family members have problems

that need to be solved too. Ask them what they need that they can’t
get or if there is anything that frustrates them. Find out what people
are interested in and what they need. Ask people what they wish
they could find in the marketplace. I’m sure your friends and family
would be willing to tell you about some of the challenges they face
when doing certain tasks. Maybe you might be able to come up with
a business idea that helps them to overcome their challenges.

You could also think about a business idea that could improve the
lives of others. Think about creating a product that would have a
positive impact on a mother, a father, a son, a daughter,
grandparents, students, etc. For example, there is an online tool
called RefME which is a web and mobile tool that helps students to
easily generate citations, reference lists and bibliographies for their
writing assignments.

5. Do market research.

It is important to do proper research to ensure that the business idea

you come up with is a viable one. You want to make sure that there
are people in the market who will want to buy the product you create
at the price you want to sell it to them. One way to find out what
products people are interested in is to use Google’s free keyword
planner.

First, go to Google Ads and sign up for a free account. Enter

keywords that are relevant to your business idea. On the keyword
results page, you will see a big list of keywords that are most relevant
to the keyword you entered and you will see the average number of
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searches for each keyword. The higher the average search volume
means that it is possible that you may have a profitable business
idea.

When you have come up with a few business ideas, write them all
down on a sheet of paper or in a notebook. Examine all the ideas you
have produced and narrow them down to the simplest ones that you
feel can be converted into an online business. Once you have chosen
your business idea, we can move on to the next chapter which is
deciding on what you are going to sell.
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DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SELL

Now that you have come up with a profitable business idea, the next
step is to decide on what you are going to sell. You can either sell
physical products or digital products.

Physical products are tangible goods which you sell and ship to
customers such as clothes, electronics, sports equipment, etc. It is
possible to make a lot of money with physical products, but there are
also a lot of costs involved which can be a headache if you do
everything yourself.

Digital products, on the other hand, are intangible products which

can be sold and distributed to customers immediately online without
the need to replenish inventory. Examples of digital products
include audio, e-books, videos, online courses, etc.

Assuming that this is your first attempt at starting an online

business, I would highly recommend that you start by selling digital
products. There are a lot of benefits of selling digital products over
physical products. Besides the fact that digital products take less
effort to maintain, there are other reasons why many entrepreneurs
prefer to sell them:

1. Selling digital products does not require physical storage,

manufacturing, packing, shipping or handling costs. You also

don’t have to pay rent, travel expenses, accounting fees,

utility bills or staff. Therefore, less overhead costs.

2. With a digital product store you can easily automate customer

orders, delivery and communications.

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3. Running an online store allows you to reach a global

audience.

4. Digital product stores allow you to do business anywhere in

the world.

5. The sale of digital products yields high profit margins.

6. Digital products last forever. They do not deteriorate or

become obsolete through wear and tear. They may become

less relevant over time as technology evolves, but they can be

updated easily.

7. Digital products are easier to sell, manage and deliver than

physical products. They only require digital storage and a

content management system to keep things organised.

8. A digital product store can be run by just using your laptop

or your phone with internet access.

9. No one needs to travel anywhere to get your products, and

they don’t have to wait days or weeks for delivery.

10. Selling digital products online gives you the ability to

communicate directly with your customers.

Digital Products You Can Sell Online

With a little creativity and your imagination, there are so many

digital products you can create and sell online. Easy digital products
that anyone can sell online include e-books, video, audio,
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photography, graphics and digital art, documents, and courses.

There are other digital products you can sell online, but I have
decided to list these seven products because they are the easiest to
produce.

E-books

The term e-book is short for electronic book and is one of the most
popular digital products because they are simple to create. E-books
are popular among both the creators and the customers. An e-book
can be created easily using Microsoft Word. You can save it as a PDF
and upload to your online store to sell or submit it to an online book
seller such as Amazon, Apple or Barnes & Noble in the format they
require. They are easily downloaded by customers and read on e-
readers, tablets, phones, or laptops.

You can write about anything in text form and include some relevant
pictures. You can write a novel or a nonfiction book. You can create
a book of poetry, short stories, an autobiography or a picture book.

How to Write an E-book

Do market research. Choose a topic that you’re interested in and

find out if other people share the same interest. Do a search on
Amazon to find out which are the bestselling books in the category
you are interested in writing about.

Create an outline of your book. One method of outlining is to create

a mind map. A mind map is a diagram which consists of one central
idea surrounded by connected branches of subtopics that are
associated with that central idea. The other method is to outline your
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book chapter by chapter. Write down a list of chapters you want to

include in your book and write in point form a list of all the things
you want to cover in each chapter.

Figure 2.1 Example of a Mind Map

Write your book. There are two ways that you can write your book.
One way is by writing freely which helps you to get all of your
thoughts down on paper. You simply write continuously for about
10 to 15 minutes. This is a very effective method which can help you
to overcome writer’s block. The second method is to use a voice
recorder. Sometimes we may get inspired and may not have access
to a pen and paper or a computer to write down our ideas. So the
next best thing to do is to record your ideas. You can use the voice
recorder on your phone and then type out the words later.

Edit your book. This step is very important which you should not
neglect. You need to edit your book to ensure that there are no
spelling or grammatical mistakes. You also need to make sure that
your sentences flow smoothly and that the information you have
written is relevant to the topic of your book. If you are using
Microsoft Word, use the spell checker to correct any spelling or
grammatical errors. Also print a hard copy of your book so that you
can read through and write down in the margin any corrections you
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want to make. If it is possible, try to get someone else to proofread

your book. A fresh set of eyes that is reading your book for the first
time may be able to identify mistakes that you missed. Then go back
on your computer and make the necessary changes to completely
finish editing your book.

Create your book cover. There are several ways you can create your
book cover. If you know how to use Photoshop, you can use that
software to create your book cover. Another way is to use Canva
online. Canva is a free graphic design platform that you can use to
create book covers and other designs such as logos, business cards,
and social media graphics. Canva is very easy to use. Simply upload
the picture you want to use and then use Canva’s drag and drop
features to design your book cover.

If you want to learn more about how to write a book, download the
book How to Write a Nonfiction Book That Sells from Amazon, Apple,
Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Scribd.

Video

Video is a great way to share your message online. The number of

users on YouTube is 1.3 million people and they watch over 5 billion
videos a day. Video is a very popular way to deliver content online.
Some people prefer to watch videos than to read text because it is so
easy to just press the play button and to start watching.

You can use videos to start a video blog, or vlog as it is popularly

called, and you can create a video course. If you enjoy sharing your
thoughts on video or are great at public speaking, then you can use
these skills to sell videos online.
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How to Create a Video

You don’t need any expensive equipment to make a video. You can
use your mobile phone to make a video or a simple video camera. If
you decide to use your computer, you will need a web cam,
microphone and headphones to properly record your voice.

Choose a topic that you can make into a video. It can be a solution
to a particular problem that many people are experiencing. For
example, you could make a video about how to treat acne or how to
remove stains from clothes. Or you could make a video that shows
your audience how to use a particular software to design a t-shirt or
create a website, or you could make a recipe video or an arts and
crafts video. Try to think of a popular topic that your customers
would be interested in.

Choose a title that will attract your audience. The title of your video
should let your audience know immediately what your video is
about to entice them to continue watching your video. You should
also include a very interesting image at the start of the video to grab
the attention of your audience.

Give instructions that are easy to follow. Your instructions should

be short and simple that makes it easy for your audience to follow.
This will help your audience to understand your instructions and
they will continue to watch your video right through to the end.

Include lots of images and video clips. It is better to show rather

than tell your audience how to do something. Adding lots of images
and video clips will make it easy for your audience to understand
and follow your instructions. When your audience sees a
demonstration of how easy the process is and the outcome, then it
will help them to feel that it is something that they can achieve too.
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Audio and Music

There are many different types of audio digital products that you can
sell online. You can create audiobooks, record a lecture, create sound
effects, make music tracks, or teach people to speak a foreign
language. You could also record yourself reading poetry, record
soothing background noises, or record yourself singing popular
songs.

Audio is a powerful medium you can use to communicate your

message. People listen to audio while they are driving, on public
transport, or while doing certain daily tasks. Audio is the perfect
digital product for people who don’t have time to read hundreds of
pages of text.

How to Create Audio

The easiest audio to create is a voice file. You will need a microphone
to attach to your computer if you don’t have one built in. Follow the
steps below to create an audio file.

1. Connect the microphone to your computer.

2. Use Windows Sound Recorder. If you are using Windows 8,

click on the Windows Start button, click on the Search icon

located at the top right of the screen, and type Sound

Recorder in the search box.

3. In the Search results, select the Sound Recorder application.

It should be the one with the microphone icon.

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4. Record your message. Click on the microphone button and

begin speaking. You can click on the Pause button if you need

to take a break. Click the Pause button again to resume your

recording. Then click the Stop button when you are finished.

5. Save the file. Your audio file is automatically saved as

Recording in the Recordings list on the right side of the

screen. Right click on the saved file and click Rename at the

bottom of the screen to change the name of the file. Type a

new name of the file and click Rename. The recording is

saved as an .m4a audio file on your computer.

6. To hear your recording, click on the audio file saved in the

Recordings list and press Play. You may find that you make

a few mistakes the first time you record your voice. If that

happens, simply start over again and make a new recording.

Unfortunately, Sound Recorder does not show the exact location, or

folder where your recordings are saved. To find your audio files,
follow the steps below.

1. Click on the Folder icon (File Explorer) and click on the View

tab. Click on the Show/Hide button and check the Hidden

Items box. To find the Recordings folder, do the following:

2. Double click on the C drive, i.e. Local Disk (C:) and double

click on the Users folder.

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3. Double click on the folder that has your user name and double

click on the AppData folder.

4. Double click on the Local folder, scroll down until you get to

the Packages folder and double click on it. Scroll down and

double click on

Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder_8wekyb3d8bbwe.

5. Double click on the LocalState folder and double click on the

Indexed folder. In this folder you will find the Recordings

folder. Right click on Recordings and select Pin to Start. The

Recordings folder should be included in the Windows Start

screen.

To summarise finding the location to your Recordings, do the

following:

Local Disk (C:)\Users\your

username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsSoundR
ecorder_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Indexed\Recordings

Convert the file to an MP3. Unfortunately, your computer does not

come with a built in MP3 converter. You will have to download one
from the internet.

1. Go to Download.cnet.com and download the free M4A to

MP3 Converter software. Follow the instructions on how to

install the software.

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2. Once the software has installed, open it and click on the Add

Files tab and click Add Files again. Navigate to the

Recordings folder and select the audio file you want to

convert and click Open. Your audio file will appear in the

Input Files list.

3. At the bottom of the screen in the Output Folder section,

select Specify folder and click on the folder icon on the right

side of the text box. The Browse for Folder box will open.

Select the folder where you want to save your converted

audio file and click OK.

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4. Select the audio file in the Input Files list and click Play to

play the file and then click Convert. It will only take a few

seconds to convert your M4A file to an MP3.

5. A Result box will pop up showing that the process has been

completed and it shows the location where your converted

file has been saved. It gives you the option to open the folder

where your MP3 file is saved or you can simply click OK.

6. Double-click the MP3 file to test it. Double click on the MP3

file to open it and to see whether the conversion worked. The

file will play in Windows Media Player. As a result, you

would have successfully converted your M4A file to an MP3.

Photography

If you are good at taking pictures then photography is a great digital

product to sell online. Individuals and businesses are always in need
of images, whether it is for commercial use, for school assignments
or for personal use. Images are needed for websites, blogs, books,
and online ads.

You can either sell your photos from your own website or upload
them to a stock photo site. If you decide to sell from your website,
you can at least sell your images for the price you want. You will
definitely need a website to showcase your images and to raise your
profile. Make sure that your photos are high quality so that you can
make huge profits.
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In order to take professional-looking photos, you will need a high

resolution digital camera or a smart phone and photo-editing
software.

Instead of just selling photos from your website, you can also sell
print-on-demand products. These are products which are printed
only when a customer buys them. So you don’t have to worry about
storing any stock. All you have to do is take photos and store them
on your hard drive until you are ready to sell them.

There are plenty of print-on-demand products you can sell online

from your website such as t-shirts, personalised gifts, calendars,
book marks, business cards, etc. There are also many websites that
will do all of the producing, printing and posting for you, so all you
have to do is take the photos! Café Press, Zazzle, and Spreadshirt are
some of the websites that offer print-on-demand services.

You can also use your photos to create a photo book. You can create
a children’s picture book, a memoir photo book, a family photo book,
a baby photo book, a travel photo book, cook book, a wedding photo
book or a portfolio. The best way to get started creating a photo book
is to use Blurb, a self-publishing and marketing platform that helps
you to create, publish, promote and sell high quality, professional-
looking books and e-books. Visit the Blurb website to get started.

Graphics and Digital Art

If you are an artistic person, then you can sell graphics and digital
art from your online store. There are so many digital products you
can create such as logos, business cards, PowerPoint themes, website
templates, drawings, paintings and sketches. Customers can
purchase these digital products for download to print, to design
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websites, to make their blogs more attractive, or to add a logo to their

website.

Opening an online store is a great opportunity for graphic designers

and digital artists which removes the overhead costs and the hassle
of trying to open a physical store. They also don’t have to worry
about printing and shipping goods to customers. Their artwork can
be sold as digital products which the customer can purchase and
have immediate access to them.

As a graphic artist, you can create social media graphics, logos,

patterns, flyer templates, and PowerPoint templates. If you are
interested in creating and selling digital artwork, some examples
include digital paintings, vector drawings, and illustrations.

If you want to learn more about designing and selling graphics and
digital art, go to Easy Digital Downloads and read more about
selling graphics and artwork.

Documents

Documents are digital products which can be sold as reports,

manuals, how to guides, and templates. You can sell newsletters,
flyers, invoice and brochure templates, letterheads, legal letters,
instruction manuals, industry reports, or proposals.

You can create documents which are password protected, some may
contain large files, and you can also create variations on some
documents to be written in other languages and some may have
different colour schemes.

You can read more about how to sell documents online at Barn 2
Plugins.
 24

Courses

Online learning, or e-learning, has become increasingly popular as

more people prefer to do an online course where they can study at
their own pace at home rather than sitting in a class room. Online
courses are convenient, cost less than traditional education, and are
immediately accessible once payment is made.

Courses can be sold the same way digital products are sold: from
your own website or through an online course selling platform such
as Udemy or Teachable. Customers can download the learning
material as a one-off course or as a collection of courses. Customers
can also pay a monthly subscription fee to a website to gain access to
course materials that are not available to the public.

If you have specialized knowledge or expertise in a particular subject

such as Maths, a foreign language, or computer software, then you
can create an online course to share your knowledge. An online
course may consist of videos, audio, and e-books.

Pick a course topic. The course topic you choose must be something
that you love and feel passionate about. If you are trying to create an
online course about a topic that you are not really interested in, your
course will flop. No one else will be interested in your course either.
Think about your hobbies, your talents and skills, and the challenges
you faced and how you overcame them. Some possible course topics
include computer programming, wellbeing, dog training, cooking
your favourite recipe, overcoming the death of a loved one, financial
accounting, getting out of debt, or decision making.
 25

Do market research on your course topic. You want to make sure

that your course topic is in demand or not. You can tell if your course
is in demand according to the competition. If there is a lot of
competition, then your course topic is in demand. If you can come
up with something unique that makes your course different from
competitors who are offering courses on the same topic, then there
is a high probability that there will be strong demand for your course
idea.

Use social media to do your market research. Type a keyword into

the search box on Twitter or Facebook to find out whether people are
talking about it or are asking questions about it and what the
competition is offering.

Create learning outcomes of your course. You need to explain to

your students how your course is going to help them. Clearly explain
what the learning outcome will be if a student purchases your
course. Explain what they will know and how they will feel after the
course. What new skills will your students obtain or how will they
be able to demonstrate their new talent when they finish the course?
Including clear learning outcomes in your course will ensure that
you attract the right type of students to do your online course.

Collect relevant course content. It is easy to procrastinate and feel

overwhelmed when it comes to gathering and structuring your
course content. Not only do you have to think about what to include
in your course, you also have to consider what should not be
included. Only use content that is relevant to achieving the learning
outcome. Also ensure that your course content provides answers to
 26

the questions your students have asked and that it fills in gaps that
were left out by your competitors.

Organise your content into modules. When you write a book, the
information you gathered is usually divided into chapters, but when
creating an online course, the content is divided into modules. First,
decide how many modules your course will contain. If you are going
to include videos, make sure that the videos are not too long and
keep it simple. Each video should cover one key point and should
answer a question or solve a problem. You also need to decide if you
will include lectures in each module and how long they will be. Then
arrange the modules into a logical sequence.

Choose the best and most effective delivery methods for each
lesson. Now you need to determine how you will deliver your
course content to your students. Everyone has a different way of
learning. So your course content should be a combination of videos,
audio, reading content and an activity at the end of each lesson.

Film, record, write and edit your online course. This is the stage at
which you begin producing your online course. You can create your
video by using your webcam or smart phone to film yourself and
you can use video editing software to edit your video. You can either
use a free editing video software such as VideoPad or a paid video
editor such as Camtasia.

When you write your course content, you can save it as a short e-
book in PDF format or as a Word document. Ensure that you read
 27

through your content and correct any spelling or grammatical

mistakes.

Determine how you will distribute your online course. There are
two methods you can use to sell your online course. You can sell it
on your website or through online course marketplaces or both.
Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific, and Shopify are some platforms
where you can sell your online course.

Determine the price of your online course. The price of your course
depends on what type of course you are delivering to your
customers. The best way to come up with a price for your course is
to study the prices your competitors charge for courses which are
similar to yours. Then consider how you can differentiate your
course from those of your competitors and make it better. Then you
will be able to charge a slightly higher price.

Launch and market your course. Now that you have completed
your online course, the final step is to come up with a launch and
marketing strategy to promote your course and to enrol students.
There are plenty of ways to promote your course such as running
ads on social media, offering a discount, or marketing to an email
list.

If you are starting an online business, it is highly recommended that

you start by selling digital products rather than physical products
because they are easier to sell, manage and deliver to the customer.
 28

Running a digital store means that you can reach a global audience
and you can do business anywhere in the world. Digital products
become available immediately once the customer has paid for it.
Selling digital products also means that you gain high profits from
your online store.

Now that we have discussed what products you can sell, the next
step is build your e-commerce website.
 29

BUILD YOUR E-COMMERCE WEBSITE (ONLINE STORE)

In this chapter, you will learn how to create an e-commerce website

so that you can start selling your digital products. Before you buy
your domain name and set up web hosting, the first thing you need
to consider is what your business model will be.

A business model is similar to a business plan. You decide on how

you are going to make your online business successful by
determining how your products will be distributed, how you will
generate revenue, and how your customers will pay you.

There are two types of business models that you can use to help your
online business to make a profit. You can either sell only through
your e-commerce website, or you can sell your digital products on
popular online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay or Etsy.

The third option is to sell your products on both platforms as the

same time. It is better to use both platforms because while you are
working on increasing traffic to your website, you could start selling
your products immediately on other marketplaces.

The next step is to choose a business and domain name and set up
web hosting. It is very important that you choose a domain name
that works for your business. A domain name is simply the online
address where people can go to visit your website. For example,
Amazon.com is the domain name and online address where people
can visit to buy books and other products.

When choosing a domain name, think in the long term what you
plan to do with your online business. For example, if you sell
printable birthday banners, you may also decide to expand your
business into other markets such as weddings, funerals, and public
 30

holidays. Therefore, your domain name should reflect what your

business does.

There are other things that you should consider when choosing a
domain name:

1. Your domain name should be short, easy to pronounce and

easy to memorise.

2. It is recommended that you use the .com extension for your

domain name as it is the most popular. If it is not available,

you can use .net or .org.

3. If you plan to operate your business in a particular country,

then you can use a local country based extension such as

.co.uk if you live in the United Kingdom, or .ca if your

business is located in Canada.

4. Make sure that the domain name you choose is not another

company’s trademark. For example, you cannot use Coca

Cola or Nike in your domain name as it is illegal. Infringing

on someone else’s trademark would cause serious legal

problems for you and your business.

Once you have chosen your domain name, you need to register it.
There are thousands of domain name registration companies that
you can choose from online, but the best ones are Domain.com,
BlueHost.com, GoDaddy.com and NameCheap.com. Once you have
chosen which site you will use, follow the instructions on how to
select and purchase your domain name.
 31

1. Go to the website of your chosen domain registering

company, e.g. Domain.com.

2. Type in your desired domain name in the Search box to find

an available name for your website.

3. The search results may show that your domain name is not

available. If this happens click on the back button and start

again.

4. If your desired domain name is available, it will be added to

your shopping cart. Review your shopping cart and click on

any items so that they may be removed. The only thing you

need to purchase at this point is your domain name.

5. Click on the Proceed to Billing button and this will take you

to the billing and payment page. On this page, enter your

contact details, choose a payment method and then click the

Purchase Now button.

6. Follow the rest of the instructions to complete your purchase

and to register your domain name. Then check your email to

verify and confirm your new account and registration of your

new domain name.

In addition to registering your domain name, you also need to set

up web hosting. A web host is a company which helps to make your
website visible and easily accessible to internet users. Most web
hosts offer a service in which you can both register a domain and set
 32

up web hosting with the same company. Some popular web hosts
include BlueHost, JustHost, HostGator, and GoDaddy. Go to any
one of these sites and follow the instructions on how to purchase and
set up web hosting.

1. Go to your chosen web host, e.g. JustHost.com, and click on

the start button to open a new hosting account.

2. The web host may offer different hosting packages or plans.

It is best to choose the basic plan which allows you to have

one domain name and one website. You can always upgrade

later when you have gained more experience.

3. Next, set up your domain name. If you registered your

domain, enter it in the section for existing domain names. On

the other hand, if you decided to set up your domain name

and web hosting with the same company, enter your desired

name in the section where it says that you need a domain

name and click to go to the next page.

4. On the account information page, enter your contact details

and select which monthly account plan you want to purchase.

5. At this stage, the only thing that you need to purchase is web

hosting, so you can remove or uncheck all the extra items that

the web host is offering.

6. And finally, enter your payment details, check the terms and

conditions box and then click Submit. The web host will send
 33

you a confirmation email with your login details and other

information such as its Nameservers which you need so that

you can link your domain to your web host.

If you registered your domain with a different company, you need

to connect your domain name to your web hosting account.

1. Go to the site where you registered your domain name, e.g.

Domain.com. Enter your login details and click log in.

2. Select the domain you want to edit in Domain Central.

3. Click on the Nameservers and select to use different

nameservers which will allow your domain to work with

your web host.

4. Click Save to save the changes you made to the Nameservers.

Allow up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect.

Install SSL Certificate to secure your website. If you’re going to be

selling digital products from your website, it is essential that your
website is secure. One of the ways to ensure the security of your
online store is to install an SSL certificate. SSL stands for Secure
Sockets Layer and this is technology which encrypts and secures all
data that is entered on your website and it ensures that the data
entered remains private.

When you visit a website you may notice that the URL starts with
https://. That extra “s” comes from the SSL technology that makes
your website secure from hackers. There are three ways you can tell
if a website has SSL.
 34

1. The URL should contain the extra “s” such as “https//”.

2. A little padlock icon is displayed in the URL bar.

3. The website’s certificate is valid.

If you are using Chrome, click on the three vertical dots at the top
right of the screen, select More Tools and click Developer Tools.
Click on the double arrow next to Network at the top and select
Security. This will tell you whether the page is secure and if the
certificate is valid.

The easiest way to install the SSL certificate on your website is to do

it through your web host. Your web host will have the knowledge of
the technical setup of your website and will be able to install SSL for
you. SSL certificates expire every 90 days, so you need to ensure that
your certificate stays up to date.
 35

Install a website builder through your web host. In my opinion, the

best software you can use to build your website is WordPress. It is
free and easy to install and you don’t need to have any technical
knowledge to create a website. The following instructions will show
you how to install WordPress.

1. Log in to your web host account, e.g. JustHost.com.

2. Navigate to the Helpful Links section and under the

WordPress column, select Create New Site.

3. Scroll down to WordPress site builder and click the Start

Building button.

4. Under Site Name, type in a name for your new website and

under Site Tagline, type in a brief description of your site. If

you are not sure what your tagline should be, you can always

change it later in the settings on your website.

5. You should see your domain name under Domain. Select

your domain to install WordPress.

6. Your web host may offer some free plugins to include on your

website. These plugins are not necessary so uncheck each box

and click Next.

7. WordPress will be installed on your domain in a couple of

minutes. When the installation is complete, your web host

will send your installation details to your email address. You

will also be able to see the installation details on the screen.

 36

8. Click on Go back to My Sites so that you may return to your

web host account. This will show a preview of your new

WordPress site on your domain.

9. Hover your mouse over the website preview and click Log

into WordPress. This will take you directly to your new

website and you will be automatically logged in to your

WordPress Dashboard.

Install an e-commerce software to build your online store. This can

be done by installing a plugin. A plugin is a WordPress tool that
helps your website to function better. There are hundreds of e-
commerce plugins you can choose from, but I would recommend
installing WooCommerce because it is easy to use. The following
instructions will show you how to install WooCommerce.

1. Login to your WordPress website, click on Plugins on the

admin panel and click Add New.

2. On the Add Plugins page, type in the keyword

WooCommerce in the Search box and press Enter on the

keyboard. WooCommerce should be the first plugin you see

on the results page.

 37

3. Click on More Details to read the description of the plugin,

to get the installation instructions, and to view screenshots of

the plugin among other things.

4. When you are finished reading about the plugin, click Install

Now. WordPress will instantly install the WooCommerce

plugin and will be added to the other plugins already

installed on your website.

5. Click Activate to start using the plugin to create a fully

functional online store where you can list and sell digital

products.

6. WooCommerce will also appear in the admin panel where

you can easily go to set up your online store.

Design your ecommerce store. The first thing you need to do is

create the main pages of your online store. You can do this using the
WooCommerce wizard. You will need a Shop page where you will
display your digital products, a Shopping Cart page where you
customers can save and edit their orders before they checkout, a
Checkout page where your customers can pay for their purchases
 38

and choose the delivery method to receive them, and a My Account

page for registered customers where they can view their orders and
manage their account and other details. Click Continue in the
WooCommerce wizard and these pages will be set up for you.

Decide on the location of your online store. Under Store Locale

Setup, enter all the details of where your store will be based and
what currency you will be accepting. Also choose which units will
be used for product weight and dimensions. Then click Continue.

Choose a payment method. If this is your first online store, then

PayPal is the recommended method to accept payments. You can
also select other payment methods that you feel will be required for
your online store. Then click Continue.

Add your first digital product. Go to the admin panel in the

WordPress Dashboard and under WooCommerce, click Products
and then Add Product. Enter the name of your first product and
enter the full product description below. You can put as much
information about the product as you want. You can include images,
videos and other content.

In the product data section, indicate that the product you are selling
is a downloadable or virtual product. Also in this section, click on
the tabs to set up pricing and taxes, linked products that customers
would also buy, and the attributes of the product such as alternative
colours or sizes.

There is also a section where you can write a short description of the
product. This is a short summary of the product and is usually
displayed on the product page under the name of the product.

In the product categories section, products that are similar can be

grouped together. For example, if you’re selling business e-books
 39

you might include the following categories: Careers, Finance,

Investing, Marketing & Sales, and Small Business &
Entrepreneurship.

You can also tag your products using product tags. These work just
like WordPress tags in which you can further organise your product
database.

In the product image section, upload the best image of your product
so that your customers can see what they are buying. In the product
gallery, you can also include additional product images where the
pictures are taken from different angles or in different positions.

Once you have completed all of the sections, click the Publish button
and your first product will be added to your online store.

Choose a theme for your ecommerce store. When you install

WordPress, a theme is already installed on your website. However,
you can change this theme to something more appealing. The theme
should be able to work with your WooCommerce plugin. Actually,
WooCommerce should be able to work with almost any WordPress
theme. You could either install a free theme from WordPress.org or
you can choose a theme that is designed specifically to work with
WooCommerce.

Follow these instructions to install a WordPress theme:

1. Go to Appearance on the admin panel of your website’s

dashboard and click on Themes.

2. Browse through free WordPress themes by clicking on

Popular or Latest.
 40

3. Once you have found a theme click on the Preview button

which will give you an idea of what your website will look

like if you use that particular theme.

4. If you like the appearance of your website with that theme,

click Install and then click Activate.

5. You will then be returned to the Themes screen and a

message will appear which reads “New theme activated. Visit

site”. Click Visit Site to see how your website looks with that

particular theme.

If you would prefer to install an official WooCommerce theme, then

it is recommended to install a theme called Storefront. You can find
this theme at WooCommerce.com/Storefront. Click on the button
“Get WooCommerce Storefront” and follow the instructions to
install this free theme onto your website.

Install plugins to help with SEO, social media, security and contact.
You can make your online store even better by installing other
 41

WordPress plugins. Consider adding the following plugins to your

website:

Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack – Use either one of these SEO
plugins to improve the SEO of your entire website.

Contact Form 7 – An easy to use contact form that your customers

can use to contact you directly.

Updraft Plus – Use this plugin to back up your whole website

including content, products and other data.

Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons – This plugin
allows you to add social share icons for various social media sites
such as RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.

StatCounter – a powerful web analytics tool that helps you to track,

analyse and understand visitors to your website.

iThemes Security – a security plugin that helps you to secure and

protect your WordPress website.

W3 Total Cache – This plugin speeds up your website and it also

improves the SEO and performance of your site.

Now that you have installed the WooCommerce plugin and added
digital products to your online store, the next step is to write
optimised content that sells. This will be discussed in the next
chapter.
 42

WRITE OPTIMISED CONTENT THAT SELLS

In this chapter, you will learn how to write a compelling product

description and content to sell your digital products from your
website. A product description is simply text that you write to
persuade your customers to purchase your products.

Your product description should be well written without any

spelling or grammatical errors and it should explain clearly what
type of product you are selling. The product description should tell
the customer everything they need to know about the product.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when writing your
product description:

First, know who your target audience is. Your target audience are
the customers you will be trying to persuade to buy your products.
For example, if you are selling a web design online course, your ideal
customer might be someone who has basic computer skills and may
not know how to design a website. So in your product description,
you might include the benefits of learning web design, the content
of the online course, and what the customer might achieve upon
completion of the course.

Secondly, turn the features of your product into benefits. You can
list the benefits in bullet points which allows your potential
customers to skim through the text easily. Continuing with the
example of the web design course, some of the features may include
that it is 4 weeks long, it is an online course, it is low cost, and it
requires very little technical knowledge. You can turn these features
into benefits by explaining how the features of the web design course
addresses the needs of the customer. For example:
 43

 This online course is only 4 weeks long so you can learn web
designing in a short amount of time.
 The entire course is online so it is convenient and you can
learn at home.
 It is low cost, which means that it is affordable.
 It requires very little technical knowledge, meaning that
anyone with limited internet skills can do this course.

Your product description should also address the problems, needs

and worries of your potential customers. Your product should solve
their problem. Your product should also answer any questions your
customers might have. The following questions are some examples
of what your customers might ask about your online course:

What are the requirements to do the online course?

What makes your course different from your competitors?

What costs are involved to complete this course?

Once you are able to address the concerns of your potential customer
about your product, this will put their mind at ease and they will be
persuaded to buy your product.

Educate your customer about the product. It is important to educate

your customers about your product so that they understand what
the product does, how to use it, and how it will benefit them. You
can create a video that demonstrates the product in action and you
can place the video on your product’s sales page.

You can also include a case study on your product sales page. A case
study is a record of research done by a particular customer who
shares the problems they faced and how your product helped them
to solve their problems.
 44

Make sure your product description tells a story. Did you discover
a problem that other people were experiencing and decided to create
a product to solve their problem? Or were you facing a challenge that
did not have any existing solutions and decided to come up with
your own? This is a story that you could tell your potential
customers. Think of how you can come up with a compelling story
to entice your customers to buy your product. Write your product
description as if you were talking to a friend.

Optimise your product description for SEO. You need to optimise

your product pages so that you can make sales faster. The best way
to do this is to use search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to
ensure that customers are able to find your products.

Before you can optimise your product pages, you need to know what
words customers use to find your products. You can do this by doing
some keyword research using the Google Keyword Planner.

1. Login to Google Ads Keyword Planner (you must have a

Gmail account).
2. Click on “Discover New Keywords”.
3. Enter your keyword or keywords into the search box and click
Get Results.
 45

The Keyword Planner shows results of other relevant keywords in a

list and it also displays average monthly searches, competition and
suggested bids if you plan to use Google Adwords. From the search
results, you can use the keyword suggestions to incorporate into
your product description pages.
 46

Optimise the title and content of your product pages. When

customers visit your website, you want them to be able to find your
products. The best way to do this is to incorporate the relevant
keywords you found in the keyword planner.

You can place relevant keywords in the title of your product page.
For example, you can enter the title “Personalised Christmas Return
Address Label Designs” on your product description page. The
keyword “return address label” was included to optimise the title so
that people who search for these keywords will be directed to your
product page. Keep in mind that the title should only contain up to
60 characters as this is what will appear in the search engine results
when people search for this key phrase.
 47

The content of your product page should also contain relevant

keywords. But do not make the mistake of overloading your product
sales pages with a lot of keywords because search engines do not like
that.

Your product description should be readable and useful. For

example, if your product page contains four paragraphs you should
place relevant keywords once in the introduction, once or twice in
the body and once in the conclusion. You can also place the
keywords in the sub headings of your product page.

Optimise product categories and descriptions. Categories help

customers to navigate your product pages. The goal of a category
page is to display relevant products to that particular category and
to provide necessary information about the products to entice
customers to click through to the products’ pages. Each category
should contain a keyword that helps customers to find the products
that they need.

You can also include a description on the category page. Including a

description is very useful in that it helps Google to understand what
the page is about and it is also useful to the customer visiting your
website. You can also add internal linking to other pages in the
description. Your description should also contain relevant keywords
that provide additional information about the products listed on the
category page.

Optimise the product images. It is very important to include images

on your product pages so that your customers can have an idea of
what your digital products look like before they buy and they also
help to improve your site’s SEO.
 48

Images can be very large and can take a long time to load on a page.
The best thing to do is to load an image file type in which you can
adjust the file size and which allows all colours to show in an image.
Fortunately, Jpeg images allow you to do both. So if you want to
upload a product photo that is easily adjustable and colourful, you
should go with a Jpeg image.

Another way to optimise your images is to change the name of the

files to improve SEO. Wherever you get your pictures from, whether
from your digital camera or smartphone, or downloaded it from a
free image website, you need to change the name of the file from the
random number or generic name to a relevant file name that
represents the image. The image name should contain the keyword
of the image. For example, you can change the file name inspiration-
5034857362 to “inspirational quote”.

Alt text are also very helpful in improving your site’s SEO. Alt text,
short for alternative text, are used to describe an image which
appears on a page. The alt text appears when you hover your mouse
over an image. Include relevant keywords in the alt text of your
image so that your site ranks better in the search engines and so that
people will be able to read the text displayed in place of an image if
the image file cannot be loaded.

Link to internal pages. This is also known as internal linking. This

means linking one page to another page within your website. You
can also place a hyperlink on your blog post to link to another area
on the same page or link to a different page on the same domain.

If you have written a blog post and you want to link it to another
blog post that you wrote previously, follow the instructions below to
link to an internal page on your WordPress website.
 49

1. Login to your WordPress website and click Posts on the left

admin panel.

2. Scroll down to the blog post and click Edit underneath it.

3. On the edit post page, highlight the word or phrase that you

want to add an internal link to.

4. Click on the Link symbol at the top and enter the website

address of one of your old blog posts and then press Enter to

add the link. The text will then become a link to another page

on your website.

5. Click Update to save the changes.

When you click the View Page, you will see that the internal link has
been added and if you click it, it will take you to another page on
your website.
 50

Build quality backlinks. When an external website links to a page

on your website, this is called a backlink. The purpose of backlinks
is to boost search engine traffic back to your website. It is very
important to build good quality backlinks to your site because
Google will give your site a high ranking based on the number of
backlinks you get. So if your website has a lot of backlinks, search
engines like Google will give your site priority in search rankings
over those that have less. In other words, your website will be more
likely to show up on the first page of search results if you have a lot
of high quality backlinks.

In order to get quality backlinks, you need to start by creating high-

quality, compelling, and authoritative content. You should motivate
people to share your content through a link. Make sure that your
content is clear and easy to read. It should contain images, tables and
graphics which helps your readers to understand what your content
is about. It should contain useful information which solves their
problems. You should have at least 10 to 20 blog posts published on
your website before you can start building backlinks.

Since your online business is new and unknown, one of the ways to
get backlinks is to ask people you know to link to your website. Ask
people who already have established websites to link back to your
site. Your website should be related to what they do, so send them a
link to your content that’s relevant to their business.

Another way to build quality backlinks is to answer questions on

Q&A websites such as Quora. People use sites like Quora to ask
questions and find answers to their problems. Look for questions
that are relevant to your business and give thorough, helpful
answers. You should write at least two paragraphs to answer their
questions and include a link to a page on your website where they
can get more information.
 51

Social media can also help you to get backlinks. LinkedIn, for
example, is a professional network where people go to find jobs,
learn new skills, and where they go to build and strengthen
professional relationships. LinkedIn has a section where you can
submit articles. Create a free account on LinkedIn and click on the
Write Article link. You can copy and paste your article and include
a link back to your website.

On Facebook, you can create a Facebook page where you can

promote your digital products. When you create a new blog post,
copy and paste the link to your post on your Facebook page and
publish it. Then people will click on the link which will lead them
back to your website. You can also post a link to your website on
Twitter.

On your website, you can install social media buttons so that people
can use them to share your content on social media sites. In addition
to Facebook and Twitter, you can also add Pinterest, Tumblr, Email,
WhatsApp, Reddit and StumbleUpon.

Include a Blog

I mentioned above about writing blog posts and getting backlinks to

your website. Your site should contain a blog in which you share
articles about your business, your products, or other related topics.
For example, if your website sells inspirational quotes that people
can download and print, you can write a blog that focuses on
inspirational and motivational content.

There are plenty of reasons why you should start a blog. Starting a
blog allows you to share your knowledge, passions and to express
yourself. You can use your blog to share your interests, ideas and
 52

thoughts on various topics. Blogging gives you the opportunity to

share your passions and interests with other likeminded individuals.

Blogging shows you as an expert and builds your reputation in your

chosen sector. For example, if you are an expert in photography,
your blog will show people how knowledgeable you are in your field
and it will show that your blog provides useful information to help
people to solve any issues they may have in taking good quality
photographs.

Additionally, your blog posts will be picked up and listed in the

search engines. How it works is that search engines use special
automated software called spiders or robots to crawl the internet.
These robots and spiders discover new websites and they also detect
when existing websites update their content. The spiders and robots
collect information from the websites they visit and send it back to
the search engine for processing and indexing. Then when a person
performs a search on Google or Bing, the search engine will produce
results that are based on the person’s query. If your website contains
the right keywords and relevant content, then your site will appear
in the search results.

Running a blog also keeps customers on your website for longer.

Having an online store is great but what will make your website
stand out even more is if you started a blog that contained useful
information about the products you sell on your website that would
be beneficial to your customers. This helps you to talk about your
products in a less salesy way. Your blog should contain articles that
help people to solve their problems. These type of blog posts will
keep customers on your site longer and will also compel them to
return to your site for new updates.
 53

How to Start a Blog on Your Website

Starting a blog is very easy when you’re using WordPress to build

your website. Because you created an online store, your home page
should be a static page on your site which displays your digital
products and you should create a separate page for your blog posts.

To create a blog on your website, follow the instructions below.

1. Click on Pages on the left navigation panel and then click Add

New.

2. On the Add New Page screen, enter a title of your new page.

In this case, the title of your page should be Blog because you

want to create a page for your blog posts.

3. Click Publish and then click Publish: immediately so that the

page will be live on your website.

4. Go back to Pages and create another page and put Home as

the title of the page and click Publish.

5. Next, click on Settings on the left navigation panel and click

on Reading.

6. To create a static page on the front page of your website, select

“A static page (select below)”.

7. For the home page select “Home” and for the Posts page

select Blog.
 54

8. Navigate to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

A message will appear at the top “Settings saved”.

Just like your product description, your blog posts should be clear
and easy to read and understand by your customers. Your blog
should also contain relevant keywords and optimised images so that
the search engines can find and index your site.
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ENSURE THAT YOU COMPLY WITH ALL THE ONLINE

BUSINESS LAWS

If you are going to sell digital products online, you must comply
with several different types of internet business laws such as GDPR,
privacy regulations, e-commerce, and consumer protection
regulations. This chapter is just a guideline informing you of the
online business laws that you must adhere to if you are going to sell
goods and services online. I am not a solicitor, so if you need expert
advice on how to comply with online business laws then you need
to speak to e-commerce and online business solicitors. You can also
find information on the government website. The information below
is what was gathered from doing online research.

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was implemented

on the 25 May 2018. The purpose of GDPR is to protect the personal
information of individuals and consumers and it changes the way
international businesses and other organisations handle the
information of people that interact with them. Organizations around
the world have to comply with GDPR if they are supplying products
and services to European consumers or organizations.

GDPR applies to personal data which can identify an individual such

as the individual’s name, ID number, and address. It also applies to
sensitive personal data that uniquely identifies an individual which
includes genetic data which refers to the individual’s health and
biometric data which refers to fingerprints and facial recognition.
 56

Principles of GDPR

In the GDPR’s legislation, there are seven core principles by which

businesses must comply, but we will summarize three of them. One
of the principles that organizations need to follow is the Data
Minimisation principle. Organizations are allowed to collect only the
amount of personal information that they need from individuals to
fulfil their purpose. This ensures that organizations don’t go too far
collecting unnecessary data from people. For example, when a
person signs up to receive notifications about new book releases, the
book promotion website should only need to collect the individual’s
name and email address and not the individual’s phone number or
date of birth.

Security was another principle outlined in the GDPR legislation.

Organizations must put security measures in place to protect
people’s personal information from hackers and to prevent a data
breach in which people’s information accidentally gets leaked out.

A new principle under the GDPR policy is accountability.

Organizations need to document how they handle people’s personal
information they collect and what procedures they have put in place
to ensure that only certain people should have access to some of the
information collected.

How to Make Your Website GDPR Compliant

To ensure that your website and online business are GDPR

compliant, your website needs to have an up-to-date privacy policy.
Your privacy policy should be clear about what type of data you
collect, how you use that data, and what security measures you have
put in place to protect it. You should also include in your privacy
policy if there are any plugins that you use on your website to collect
 57

data. Search online in Google for a free privacy policy to create for
your website.

Your website should display a cookie policy in which the user must
give clear consent for your website to place cookies on the user’s
computer and track them. Cookies are small pieces of data that the
web browser saves on your computer’s hard drive whenever you
visit a website. They keep records of your browsing activity, which
sites you visited, and what ads you clicked on. Sometimes the
company that displays ads on your website are the ones who set up
cookies. They collect the data through the use of cookies when you
visit a website. This helps them to display targeted advertising to
you and they measure its success. You could place a popup on your
website which requires the user to give consent or to decline the use
of cookies.

Some plugins may collect personal data, so you need to ensure that
the plugins you have installed on your website also comply with
GDPR. Make sure that you find out which plugins collect personal
data and what they do with it. This must also be included in your
privacy policy and the user must give consent.

If you collect people’s personal information through a submission

form, make sure that you only collect the data you actually need for
processing. Do not keep for longer than is absolutely necessary.

If you have a mailing list on your website, include a double opt-in

for your list. What this means is that after the user has provided their
email address to sign up for your mailing list, you send them an
email which contains a confirmation link that the user has to click on
to confirm and finalize their subscription to your website.

You should also have a procedure in place in which the user can
request for you to delete their personal data. For example, you can
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implement an unsubscribe link that the user can click on to be

unsubscribed from your website or newsletter. If the user makes a
request for you to remove their data from your website, then you
must comply.

All of this information about the GDPR regulation is just a guideline.

I am not a solicitor so you should seek legal advice to ensure that you
are compliant with the law.

The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002

If you are planning to start and run an online business, then you
must comply with the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive)
Regulations 2002. These regulations were put into force in August
2002 which help to clarify the rules regarding online business and e-
commerce and to increase consumer confidence in the EC Directive.
These regulations apply to companies that sell goods and services to
other businesses and consumers over the internet, by email or by text
messages, businesses that advertise on the internet, by email or by
text messages, and businesses that transmit or store electronic
information for customers or provide access to a communication
network.

The EC Directive exists not only to protect consumers, but also to

protect businesses. For example, your online business will be
protected if a customer cancels an order they made on your website,
tries to take you to court, or sues you for breach of statutory duty.
The term ‘statutory duty’ refers to the laws that an organization must
obey. So in this case, your business will be protected if someone sues
you for disobeying a particular law.
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How to Comply with the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive)

Regulations 2002

You should provide the following information on your website: the

full address of your business, your email address and telephone
number and the details of any trade organizations which you joined.
An example of a trade organization is The Federation of Small
Businesses. You should also provide a list of any professional
qualifications you may have been awarded which are relevant to
your online business. If you have signed up for VAT (Value Added
Tax), you should also include your VAT number on your website
and the prices of your products should be clearly displayed
including delivery and any tax charges the customer may have to
pay.

Processing Customers’ Orders

If customers are allowed to purchase from your website, they must

be notified of the following before they can place an order: step-by-
step instructions on how to place an order online, whether your
business will process the order and if the customer can have access
to it, a description of how the customer can correct any errors they
make when they place an order, if your website supports other
languages so that the customer can order in their language, the terms
and conditions of purchasing from your website, and a description
of the codes of conduct to which your business abides by. When a
customer places an order, you must send them an email immediately
to acknowledge receipt of the order.

Electronic Commercial Communications

If you send out emails to promote your goods and services, then you
must clearly indicate this in your message. The person or business
who is sending out these type of emails must clearly identify
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themselves. You must also clearly identify any promotional offers

you advertise such as competitions, discounts, or gifts. You must
clearly explain the conditions involved regarding these offers.

These guidelines should help you to comply with The Electronic

Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. However, you should
seek legal advice regarding this directive.

The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000

The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000

protects the rights of consumers. It provides legal protection for
consumers who purchase goods and services online, by television,
by catalogue and by phone. Organizations that sell online must
allow their customers to have a 7 working day cooling off period
from the day they made their purchase. During this time customers
have the right to cancel their purchase. If an organization has not
given the 7 working day cooling off period, then the cooling off
period would be 3 months.

Information Organizations Must Provide to Consumers

As a business owner, you must provide clear details about the goods
and services you are selling and clear information about your
business so that consumers can decide whether or not they will
purchase from you. The information you must provide must include
details about your business, a clear description about the goods and
services you are selling on your website, clear information about
how customers can pay, and how the goods will be delivered. You
must also include the 7 working day cooling off period within which
customers can cancel their orders, how customers can get a refund
and how they can return goods.
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All of these regulations have been put in place to protect both

businesses and consumers. When you start selling digital products
online, you must ensure that you comply with these online business
laws. They are there to protect you and your business.
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SET UP SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

The next step in setting up your digital product business is to create

a business account on social media to promote your products.
According to Datareportal.com, at the start of July 2020, the total
number of active social media users has grown by more than 10%,
which the global total is now 3.96 billion! In other words, more than
half of the world’s population use social media. With this data in
mind, it is essential that you make social media an important part of
your marketing strategy.

The seven most popular social media platforms are Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit and Snapchat. There
are plenty of opportunities to get your business in front of potential
customers on these platforms. However, you should do your
research on each social media site to ensure that you use the platform
that is best for your online business.

There are a few things that you should consider that will help you to
choose the best social media channel for marketing your digital
product business:

1. What do you hope to gain from using social media? Think

about your business and the objectives you want to achieve
from selling products online. If you want to raise awareness
of the existence of your digital product business, then you
should use a platform that is well-established and has
millions of members. You may also need to consider paid
advertising to promote your business. Facebook is a very
good example of a site that is well-established and offers paid
advertising options. This can help to increase awareness of
your business and it can also boost sales of your products.
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2. Understand who your target audience is. Before you can pick
a social media platform to market your business, you first
need to ask yourself, who is your ideal customer? Who do you
wish to target your digital products to? It is essential that you
use social media demographics to help you plan your
marketing strategy. For example, if you were considering
using Facebook or Twitter to market your digital products,
think about who your ideal customer would be.
3. Find out where your target audience spends their time
online. For example, if you were targeting millennials who
live in America, i.e. people who were born between 1981 and
1996, then you would need to know which social media
network is being used by millennials. Research shows that
since 2012, 84% of millennials use Facebook.
4. Which social media sites are your competitors using? Not
only do you need to find out where your target audience
hangs out online, but you also need to know which social
media channels your competitors are using. Find out if your
competitors are very active on social media and what content
they usually post. Look at how the competition engages their
audience and how they promote their products.
5. What kind of content do you want to share on social media?
There are many different types of content you can create and
share on your social media channel. You can share videos,
links to your blog posts or articles, podcasts, images, and e-
books.
6. How many social media accounts can you handle? Social
media can be very demanding on your time, especially if you
have multiple accounts. It can also be very costly if you decide
to pay for advertising. If you are starting your own digital
product business, the best thing to do is to start with one
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social media account. When you have mastered that account,

then you can consider starting another account to reach a
wider audience. If you do wind up with multiple accounts,
you can use a social media management dashboard like
Buffer to handle all of your social media accounts in one place.

Many businesses rely on social media to promote their products and

to gain new subscribers. But in order for you to use social media
effectively, you need to have a plan of how you are going to reach
your target audience and grow your digital product business. Start
slow and choose at least one or two social media channels to start
with. As your channel starts to gain popularity, you can expand your
reach to other channels.
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DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE

Driving traffic to your website can be a challenge, especially for

newly established websites. But in order to attract visitors to your
site and generate sales, it is critical that you come up with a way to
boost web traffic. Here are five simple tips to help you start attracting
customers to your online store.

Make sure you have a mobile friendly website.

Most online users access the internet on their mobile devices such as
their smartphone, tablet, or iPad. It is important that your website is
mobile friendly to ensure that your pages adjust to fit the screen of
any mobile device. It is critical that mobile users are able to access
the content on your website. A mobile-friendly website should
contain text that is easy to read, a menu button that can be tapped
with a finger to navigate the website, and it should look appealing.

You can easily ensure that your website is mobile friendly by

designing your site with a WordPress mobile-friendly theme or
template. You can find WordPress themes on WordPress.org/themes
or you can search for mobile-friendly themes through your website’s
dashboard. There are also many websites that offer free themes that
you can easily download and install on your site.

Install a Sitemap to Your Website

As soon as you have created your website you need to submit it to

search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. A couple of years
ago, all you had to do was enter your URL (website address) on
Google’s submission tool, but Google dismantled its URL
submission tool in July 2018. The only other way to submit your site
to Google is by creating a sitemap and adding it in Google’s Search
 66

Console. Follow the steps below to submit your site to the search
engine.

1. Login to your WordPress website’s dashboard.

2. Click on Plugins on the admin panel and click Add New.
3. Enter a keyword in the Search box on the Add Plugins screen
and press Enter on the keyboard. In this case, enter the
keyword sitemap and press the Enter key.
4. In the results, click on the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.
Click the Install Now button to add the plugin to your
website.
5. Click Activate to turn on the plugin. It will work in the
background to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of
your website so that it can be indexed by search engines such
as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

6. On the Plugins screen, click on Settings in the Google XML

Sitemaps section and make changes to your sitemap.

For example, click on the content that you want included in your
sitemap such as categories and posts. You can also make changes to
the frequency that search engines crawl your web pages. For
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instance, if you update your posts on a weekly basis, change the

frequency to weekly next to your posts.

7. When you are finished, scroll to the bottom and click Update
Options to save the changes.

Submit Your Website to the Search Engines

For people to be able to find and visit your website, it has to be visible
to the search engines. Google is considered to be the most popular
search engine on the Web so it is highly recommended that you get
your site indexed by Google.

1. First, sign up for a Google account if you don’t already have

one.

2. Go to Google Search Console and click the Start Now button.

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3. In the section, URL prefix, enter your website address. I

entered my website address: https://christinejohnbooks.com.
Then click Continue.

4. In the Verify Ownership pop up box, scroll down to Other

Verification Methods, and select HTML tag. This is the
easiest way to verify your website because all you have to do
is add a Meta tag (HTML tag) to your site’s home page.
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Depending on the WordPress theme you chose, you may have to

install a plugin so that you can add the Meta tag to the <head> section
of your site’s home page.

5. Return to your website and on the Plugins screen, click Add

New.

6. Enter “Insert Headers and Footers” in the Search box.

7. Select the plugin “Insert Headers and Footers” by

WPBeginner and click Install Now. Once the plugin has
installed, click Activate.
 70

8. Back on the Plugins screen, you will see two messages

confirming the installation and activation of the plugin. Click
on the link “Click here” in the message: Thank you for
installing Insert Headers and Footers! Click here to configure
the plugin.

9. Go back to the Google Search Console page and in the Verify

Ownership box, copy the Meta tag.
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10. Go back to your website and on the Insert Headers and

Footers >> Settings screen, paste the Meta tag into the
“Scripts in Header” section and then click Save at the bottom
of the screen.

11. Go back to Google Search Console and click Verify.

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12. Google will take a few seconds to verify your website. When
the process is complete, a pop up box will show Ownership
Verified. Click Done. You must keep the Meta tag in your
website so that it can stay verified.

It will take a couple of days for Google Search Console to process the
data, but you can click on the Main Menu in Google Search Console
to see an overview of the performance of your website.

Make it easy for people to share your content.

Another way to drive traffic to your website is to get people to share

your content. When you publish a new blog post, make it easy for
people to share your post on social media. The way you can do this
is by using social media share buttons.

There are plenty of social media share plugins to choose from such
as Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons and MashShare
Social Media Share Buttons. These social media buttons can be found
by entering the keywords “social media share buttons” in the Search
box on the Plugins screen. Then simply install and activate the
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plugin that you find suitable for your website and then follow the
instructions to configure the settings. You can choose which social
media icons you want displayed in your blog posts such as
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. This should show the
social media icons on your blog posts so that people can share your
content.

You can add click to tweet boxes in your WordPress posts to drive
more traffic to your website. The click to tweet quote boxes are very
effective in getting more people to share your blog posts on Twitter.
The following instructions will show you how to add click to tweet
boxes in your WordPress posts.

1. Go to the Plugins screen and search for the Better Click to

Tweet plugin. When you find it, click Install and Activate to

switch on the plugin.

2. Upon activation, you will be taken to the plugin’s set up

wizard. Enter your Twitter handle, e.g. @CejohnBooks, which

will be added to all tweets as a default. Click Next.

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3. On the Usage page, it explains how to use the Better Click to

Tweet plugin. If you are using the WordPress 5.x+ editor use

the command /tweet to add a Better Click to Tweet block. If

you are using the Classic WordPress editor, use the shortcode:

[bctt tweet="Meaningful, tweetable quote."]

4. The Content page directs you to a web page that contains a

guide that teaches you how to get your readers to share your

content on Twitter. Press the backspace button to return to the

Better Click to Tweet plugin settings page. Then click Next.

5. On the Grow page, you have the option to enter your email

address to subscribe to the Better Click to Tweet plugin

newsletter that provides information on how to improve your

content so that your readers will share it. You can unsubscribe

any time. Enter your email address and click Subscribe. Then

click Finish.

6. Click Back to WordPress Settings to return to your website’s

dashboard.

7. To add a click to tweet box to your posts, first go to the edit

page of one of your posts which you have already written.

8. Copy the Better Click to Tweet shortcode: [bctt

tweet="Meaningful, tweetable quote."] and paste it in your

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post. Replace the phrase “Meaningful, tweetable quote” with

a sentence from your post.

Then click Publish if you are publishing a new post or click Update
if you are updating an existing post. The click to tweet box will be
displayed in your blog post on your website.

Answer questions on Quora.

Quora is a question and answer website where people can share their
knowledge with others. People answer questions posted by other
users on the platform. People ask all kinds of questions from the very
personal to the very technical. Quora covers all different types of
topics.
 76

The benefits of using Quora are that it helps you to drive quality
traffic to your website and it also helps you to show the Quora
community that you are an expert in your niche. When you provide
educational answers to people’s questions, you will be seen as an
authority in your niche and you will grow your profile.

Be careful how you answer questions. If you constantly promote

yourself or keep putting the same link to your website, you may get
your account banned. Don’t link to your website or blog unless it is
relevant and it helps to answer the person’s question.

When answering questions, write long answers, at least 300 words

long, and provide images and screenshots that are relevant to your
answers.

There are plenty of tutorials that you can use that show you how to
drive traffic to your website using Quora. In Google, enter the key
phrase “how to use Quora to drive traffic” without the quotes and
you will find in the results a significant number of websites that
provide an in-depth tutorial on how to use Quora.

Post to social media and use hashtags in your posts.

 77

Social media has grown in popularity over the years. According to

Backlinko.com, in 2020 there are currently 3.81 billion people in the
world who are actively using social media. Sharing your content on
social media networks helps you to reach a global audience. If people
like what they read, they will share your content with their friends
and may also go on to read your other blog posts and content on
your website.

To make your posts more visible on social media, you can use
hashtags (#). A hashtag is the pound symbol found on your
keyboard. People use hashtags to connect their content to a specific
topic or theme on social media. Before hashtags were only used on
Twitter, but now they are widely used on other social media
platforms.

Adding hashtags to your social media content is very easy. Hashtags

start with the pound symbol # and they don’t have any spaces,
punctuation or symbols. For example, #kindlebooks is a hashtag you
can use if your content is about Kindle books. You can make up your
own hashtag, but don’t string too many words together or else it will
make it very hard for people to remember it. Hashtags should be
short and easy to remember such as #mindfulness,
#writingcommunity or #NewYear.

Make sure that you use hashtags that are relevant to your content so
that others may be able to find your content and use specific
hashtags that other social media users would be likely to use. And
finally, you don’t have to use a lot of hashtags with your content. The
use of two or three hashtags in your post is enough. Using a lot of
hashtags in your post makes it look like spam.

In the final chapter, you will learn how to use email marketing to get
people to subscribe to your mailing list and to gain new customers.
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USE EMAIL MARKETING TO GAIN SUBSCRIBERS AND

CUSTOMERS

People use email marketing to advertise their businesses, to promote

products and services, to broadcast their newsletters, or to make
donation requests. People send out these messages to their audience
by using email. You can use email marketing to attract new
customers and to convert first time buyers into recurring customers.

Research shows that email marketing is the most effective marketing

tool to use to drive traffic to your website and to generate sales. The
reason is because most people use their email more than any other
platform on the internet.

In this chapter, you will learn how to start an email marketing

campaign to gain subscribers and customers.

Step 1: Build your email list.

There are many ways you can build a large email list. You can offer
something for free such as a free e-book or video or a free
subscription to a newsletter or product updates. Whatever your
incentive is, you need to get people interested in what you are
offering so that they will be willing to exchange their email address
for the free gift you are offering them. Tell people who you are,
explain what kind of emails you will be sending them and how
receiving your emails will benefit them, and then entice them with a
free gift. Also include a strong call to action to get people to
subscribe.

Some free offers internet marketers use to entice visitors to subscribe

include:
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A free PDF – a short report or a brief guide that shows the reader
how to do something or to gain an advantage in something.

Free audio content – you can turn your written content to audio and
offer it as a free incentive.

Free video – some people prefer to watch a video than to read

content. You can offer a free video download that demonstrates how
to use a particular product or it could be an interview with someone
who is an expert.

Free tips – give your audience a long list of tips that help to develop
or improve some aspect of their lives, for example, “100 tips for a
better life”.

Excel spreadsheets – give away a spreadsheet that makes it easy for

your audience to stay organised and focused on their goals.

A free buyer’s guide – you can write an in-depth guide as to which

is the best HP laptop to buy. You can list the pros and cons of buying
an HP laptop, include product comparisons, customer reviews and
the features of each product.

A coupon or a discount – you can offer your customers a coupon or

a discount off their first order when they subscribe to your email list.
This incentive entices customers to subscribe and it also encourages
them to make a purchase.

Checklist – you can offer your prospective customers a free checklist

to help them perform certain tasks quickly. For example, you can
create a book marketing checklist for authors, a moving house
checklist or a wedding checklist.
 80

Free Preview – as a free incentive for subscribing to your mailing

list, you can offer your prospective customers a download of the first
chapter of your book for free.

Provide a solution to a problem – your customers visit your website

because they are looking for solutions to their problems. As a free
incentive, you can give your customers content that solves a
particular problem they are experiencing. The solution can be in the
form of a PDF, a video, or a how-to guide.

Talk about mistakes that people make and how to avoid them –
describe each mistake that people tend to make and then explain
how these mistakes can be avoided. For example, you can offer a free
e-book called ’10 Most Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes and
How to Avoid Them’.

A free workbook – your customers can download and print

workbooks about self-employment, self-development, investing, or
relationships. People love to make notes while they learn. This helps
them to stay focused on the lesson and it helps them to retain what
they have learned.

Once you have created a free incentive to offer your prospective

customers, the next thing you need to do is start building your email
list. You can do this with an email marketing automation tool called
Aweber. Use Aweber to build a relationship with your customers.
You can get started for free if you have less than 500 subscribers or
don’t have an email list yet.

Visit https://www.aweber.com/academy/getting-started.htm and

click on the green ‘Get Aweber Free’ button to get started.
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Fill out the form by entering your first name, last name and email
address and click Sign Up.

A confirmation email from Aweber will be sent to your email

address. Click on the Get Started button to verify your email address
and to start using the marketing tool.

You will be taken to Aweber’s website where you need to enter your
contact details, i.e. the name of your business, your website address
and your mailing address in the first step. Then click Next.

In the second step, you need to name and describe your email list.
Enter the List Name and the List Description. This information can
be edited later once your free account has been set up.
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In the final step, you need to approve your confirmation message.

Some of the fields have already been prepopulated. In the Language
field, English has already been pre-selected. In the Subject line field,
you can either enter your own subject line or request one that is
custom-made. The subject line is what people will see when they
receive an email from you asking them to confirm their subscription
to your marketing list.

The Message Preview section displays the confirmation message

that people will receive when they sign up for your list. Click ‘Edit
message content’ to change the confirmation message. You can edit
the header, button text and signature fields. Once you are satisfied
with the changes made to your message, select Preview. Then click
Complete Setup.

Once you have completed the setup, Aweber will then ask you a
couple of questions to help you quickly setup your email list. Then
you will be taken to Aweber’s dashboard where you can start
building your list to connect with your audience.

The next step is to create a sign up form. This will help you to invite
people to join your email list. You can add your sign up form to your
website once it is complete.

1. Log in to Aweber and on your Account Dashboard, click

‘Create a signup form’.
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2. On the Signup Form page, ensure that the Sign Up Forms tab

is selected on the navigation menu. Click on the green ‘Create

a signup form’ button.

3. In the Template Gallery, select a template for your signup

form. Click on the Show More option to see more templates

in other categories. Since you are new to email marketing, let’s

start with the Shadow template.

 84

4. Click on the template you want. Some templates may have

more than one colour scheme that you can choose from. Select

the colour scheme that you want and then click ‘Load

Template’.

5. Click on the Header button to add text to the header of your

signup form. This will help people to understand what

information they will receive when they sign up to your list.

 85

6. When you have finished editing your signup form, click ‘Go

To Step 2’.

7. On the Settings page of your signup form, enter a name for

your form. No one else will see the name of the form, it just

helps you to identify this form from others that you may

create in the future.

8. Next, for your Thank You page, choose where you would like

your subscribers to go after they have completed and

submitted your signup form. You can choose a basic thank

you page, a customized page with your own URL, or you can

have your subscribers remain on the current page and have

no thank you page at all. In this case, choose the Basic Version

of the Thank You page.

 86

9. When you are done, click ‘Save Your Form’ and then click ‘Go

To Step 3’.

10. In the final stage, you can now publish your form to your

website. You can either install the form on your website

yourself, get your web designer to do it for you, or you can

use the signup form as a landing page and link to it from your

website. The easiest one is the first option: I Will Install My

Form.
 87

11. Login to your WordPress website. On the right navigation

panel click Appearance and then click Widgets.

12. Select the Custom HTML widget and drag it to where you

want to place the widget on your website, e.g. the sidebar.

13. Go back to Aweber on the Publish page and click on the first

option I Will Install My Form. The Javascript snippet should

be pre-selected. Copy the javascript and then go to your

WordPress website.
 88

14. On the Widgets page of your website, paste in the Custom

HTML widget. Give the widget a title, e.g. Subscribe and click

Save and then click Done.

15. Then go to your website’s Homepage. The widget containing

your sign up form should be displayed in the sidebar or in the

space you chose on your site.

You should now have a sign up form on your website where visitors
can sign up to receive your newsletter. Test out the form by entering
your name and email address. Then click the Submit button.
 89

Ensure that You Follow Email Marketing Laws and Regulations

Don’t be afraid of the legality of using email marketing to promote

your business. You just need to make sure that you follow the rules
and regulations set by the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR.

Under the CAN-SPAM Act, here are a few simple requirements that
you have to follow:

 The information contained in your emails should not be false

or misleading. Your domain name and email address must be

accurate and must identify the person or business who

created the message.

 90

 The subject line of your emails must reflect the content written

in the message.

 Your email message must be identified as an ad.

 You must include a valid postal address in your emails. This

could be a street address where your business is located, a

post office box you have registered with the postal service in

your area, or a private mailbox you have rented with a

mailbox rental service.

 Include an option of how recipients can stop receiving future

emails from you. It must be clearly stated in your message

how people can easily opt out of getting future emails from

you. The notice should be written in a way for people to read,

recognize and understand. You could provide a return email

address or include an unsubscribe button that people can

easily click on to be removed from your mailing list.

 If a recipient chooses to opt out from receiving from you any

future emails, you must honour their request promptly within

10 business days. You could send an automatic email

notification that confirms that they have successfully

unsubscribed from your mailing list.

 If you hire a company to handle your email marketing on

your behalf, you still need to monitor what they are doing
 91

because you will still be legally responsible for complying

with the law.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rules are about the same
as those of the CAN-SPAM Act. In particular, under GDPR rules:

 You must get specific consent from a customer to send them

marketing emails.

 Also, you can send marketing emails to an existing customer

if they purchased a product or service from you in the past.

 You must give the customer a simple and easy way to opt out

of any future email marketing messages when you first collect

their contact details and in every email message that you send

to them.

Step 2: Create an Email Marketing Plan

To have a successful email campaign, you need to provide great

content relevant to your customers’ needs, a strong call to action, and
you need to be consistent with follow-up emails. You also need to
decide how often you plan to send email messages to your customers
and what message each email will contain.

There are different types of email messages that you will send out to
your subscribers. These are:

 Welcome email
 Free incentive promotion email
 Free incentive delivery email
 92

 Free incentive follow-up email

 New blog post email
 Newsletter email
 Discount offer email
 Testimonial review request email
 Product launch email

These are some of the different types of campaigns and how they can
help you achieve your email marketing goals.

Welcome Email

A welcome email is the first email message that a customer receives

after subscribing to your mailing list. This type of email is usually
sent after a customer makes a purchase or when they subscribe to
your newsletter or mailing list. A welcome email should contain the
following:

A short and catchy subject line. Since the initial email is a welcome
email, your subject line can simply say “Welcome to [name of
business]!” or “Thank you for subscribing to [newsletter/blog
name]”.

A thank you message. This can be in the form of an image, a GIF, or

a simple line of text. You should start your initial email message with
“thank you” to show the customer your appreciation that they
subscribed to your email list.

An introduction to your business. In the welcome email, you should

share a bit more information about who you are and what your
business does. The customer should know who you are by easily
spotting your name in the “From” section of the email.
 93

Information about the frequency of your emails. Let your

customers know how often they will receive emails from you. Inform
them that they can expect to receive emails from you once a week,
once every two weeks, or once a month. If you do not deliver on
what you have promised, you can be sure that the customer will
unsubscribe or make a complaint.

Relevant marketing information. Focus on marketing information

that will encourage your customers to make a purchase. You can
send them an email about a special discount, tips and tricks, new
releases, and special promotions.

Personalized email message. Personalize emails based on the

information the customer provided about themselves. For example,
if your customer subscribed to your email because they wanted to
purchase inspirational digital printouts, then the follow up emails
should contain inspirational messages and other inspirational
products they can purchase. You can also ask your subscribers what
content they prefer to receive in future marketing emails from you.

A clear Call to Action. Write a clear Call to Action (CTA) in your

emails. What do you want the customer to do? What is the next step?
Make this clear in your message. For example, a publishing company
wrote an email about how a writer can submit their article to a
magazine. They were offering a free step by step guide to article
submission. Their CTA was that they wanted their subscribers to
click on the button provided in the email to view their free article
submission guide. Your call to action could be for the subscriber to
read an article, download a free e-book, watch a video, or purchase
a product/service.

Links to relevant content. Your emails should not only be about

getting the customer to buy something from you. They should also
 94

contain links to relevant content that your customer would be

interested in such as blog posts, videos and practical guides.

Links to your social media channels. Include links to your social

media channels. Give your subscribers the opportunity to connect
with you on other platforms. Provide a link to your Facebook page,
your Twitter handle, your LinkedIn profile, and your YouTube
channel if you have accounts on these social media networks that are
part of your business.

Your welcome email does not need to contain all of the elements
above. As long as the customer understands what your business
does, the type of content and frequency of the emails they will find
in their inbox, and how they can contact you and unsubscribe from
your mailing list.

Here is an example of a welcome email:

 95

Free incentive promotion email

The free incentive email, also referred to as a lead magnet email, is

one which is used to entice prospective customers to subscribe to
your mailing list in exchange for a free offering. As mentioned
previously, a free incentive or a lead magnet could be an e-book, a
video, a checklist, a report, or a cheat sheet. Whatever your free
incentive is, you can use it to encourage people to subscribe to your
mailing list. Here is an example of a free incentive promotion email:

Subject Line: Free Video “The Top 10 Self-Publishing Mistakes to

Avoid”

Body:

Hi [name],

I wanted to thank you for subscribing to my mailing list by offering

you a new video called “The Top 10 Self-Publishing Mistakes to
Avoid”.

In this video, you will learn what authors do wrong to self-publish

their book and what you can do to avoid these mistakes. You will
also learn the best way to succeed in self-publishing your book.

Click here to access the video “The Top 10 Self-Publishing Mistakes

to Avoid”.

If you know anybody else who would benefit from watching this
video, please forward this email to them.

Let me know if you have any problems accessing the video by

replying to this email. I will respond ASAP and ensure that you gain
access to it immediately.

To your success,
 96

XYZ Company

Here is another example of a free incentive email.

Free incentive delivery email

Once a new subscriber signs up to your mailing list to get your free
incentive, the next email you send them will be the free incentive
delivery email. In this email, you are giving the subscriber instant
 97

access to your free offering. The following is an example of a free

incentive delivery email.

Subject Line: Here is your free video

Body:

Hi [Name],

Thank you for signing up for the free video “The Top 10 Self-
Publishing Mistakes to Avoid”.

In this video, you will learn what authors do wrong to self-publish

their book and what you can do to avoid these mistakes. You will
also learn the best way to succeed in self-publishing your book.

Click here to gain immediate access to “The Top 10 Self-Publishing

Mistakes to Avoid”.

If you have a problem accessing this video, please let me know by

replying to this email. I will sort it out for you ASAP.

And if you need help with self-publishing your book, please check
out this page Yourdomain.com/services.

I have helped several people with self-publishing their books. Here

is a link to a case study Yourdomain.com/case-study.

Thank you.

To your success,

XYZ Company

Free incentive follow-up email

 98

This email should be sent only if a subscriber hasn’t opened the free
incentive delivery email or if they haven’t clicked on the free
incentive link, i.e. lead magnet, to access your free offering. If your
email service provider has this tracking option, then you can send
out this follow-up email to your mailing list. Here is an example of a
free incentive follow-up email.

Subject Line: Don’t forget about your free video

Body:

Hi [Name],

I noticed that you haven’t accessed the free video I sent, so I’m
sending it again.

Click here to check out the video “The Top 10 Self-Publishing

Mistakes to Avoid”.

To your success,

XYZ Company

Product launch email

Whether you have published a new e-book, created new website

templates, or written a new song, you will want your customers to
know about your new product. Therefore, you inform your
subscribers of your new product by sending out a product launch
email. You can use the same format as the example below.

Subject Line: It’s finally here! The Digital Marketing training course.

Body:

Hi [name],
 99

I hope you are having a great day!

Everybody has been talking about making money from selling

digital products.

Maybe you’ve heard of it before, or maybe you haven’t.

Basically, a digital product is any product that is intangible. It

doesn’t have a physical form. Instead, it exists in digital form.

Examples of digital products include video, digital art, online

courses, e-books, PDF documents, software, games and
photography.

This online course will teach you how to make huge profits from
creating and selling digital products online.

To learn more about the Digital Marketing training course, click

here…

Make sure you buy it before midnight tonight or else the price of this
online course will go up.

Take advantage of this special introductory offer now, while you still
can!

If you have any questions about this online course, please respond
to this email and we will reply ASAP.

To your success,

XYZ Company

New blog post email

Send an email to your subscribers when you have created and

published a new blog post. To let your readers know about your new
 100

blog, send out a new blog post email. In the email identify the
problem your readers are struggling with and then promise how
your blog post will help them to solve their problem. Include a clear
call to action for your readers to click on the link to read your blog
post. See the example below.

Subject Line: New Post: Don’t Know What to Write? How to

Overcome Writer’s Block

Body:

Hi <Name>

Are you struggling with your writing?

Do you feel like you’ve lost your creativity?

Every writer goes through this phase at some point in their lives. But
there ways to overcome writer’s block and get your creativity back.

I just published a new post on my blog that gives you tips on how to
overcome writer’s block that I am sure you’ll find very useful.

In this post, you’ll learn [describe in 2 to 3 lines].

 What is writer’s block

 The common causes of writer’s block
 The solutions to overcome writer’s block

Click here to check it out

Please share it with your friends if you feel they will find it useful.

Thank you,

[Your signature]
 101

Newsletter email

A newsletter email is used to inform your subscribers of the latest

news, tips or updates about your business or your products. Make
sure that your newsletter email contains information that adds value
to your subscribers’ lives. You can email your newsletter to your
audience once a week or once a month.

Subject Line: Here are some things you will find useful

Body:

Hi [Name]

Here’s a summary of the latest content from our blog:

Self-Publishing: How to Effectively Promote Your Kindle E-book

I have just completed the first draft of my new e-book which I plan
to publish using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Even before I
publish my e-book, I have already started thinking about how I’m
going to promote it to generate sales. There are plenty of things you
can do to make your readers aware of your new book. Click on the
link above to find out the top 5 tips to effectively promote your
Kindle e-book.

Inspiration/Motivation: How to Create an Inspiring Work

Environment in the Midst of a Pandemic

Working from home may be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be a

complete nightmare. There are things that you can do to make your
work environment a little more comfortable. What you can do is
create an inspiring work environment for yourself.

Personal Development: Step Out of Your Comfort Zone: Stop Living

in a Bubble
 102

For years I stayed in my comfort zone. I was living in a bubble. I

made sure that I was safe, comfortable, and in control of my life. I
stayed in the same job for over four years, took the same route to
work, and ate the same food for breakfast.

To put it simply, my life was very predictable and boring. I was

living my life in a bubble. I was stuck in a rut! I got tired of doing the
same mundane tasks. I wanted more out of life! I wanted a new job,
more opportunities, and I wanted my life to be a bit more exciting
than it was. I needed to step out of my comfort zone!

Current Affairs: Time to End Racism

Coronavirus has exposed many things that have been happening

around the world. Because of the covid-19 pandemic, we have
become more aware of domestic violence, homelessness,
unemployment, poverty, and the challenges faced by the healthcare
system.

But most importantly, the pandemic has exposed racism in all its
ugliness and police brutality on people of colour, particularly, black
people.

Thank you,

[Your signature]

Step 3: Analyse Your Emails.

As a new email marketer, it is important to use the data gathered

from your email campaigns to understand what attracts customers
to your website and what makes them purchase from your site. Most
 103

email marketing sites include analytics to help you to determine

what works and what doesn’t. Email analytics can show you how
many people opened your emails, how many clicked on the link in
your email message, and how many customers purchased products
from your website.

Email marketing analytics tend to provide large amounts of data,

and it can be difficult to figure out what part of the data you should
be focusing on to ensure that you reach your goals. If you are new to
digital marketing and plan to use your website to sell digital
products, then the data you should be focusing on are the conversion
rate, average order value, add-to-cart rate, e-commerce revenue, and
return on investment (ROI).

Conversion Rate

In e-commerce marketing, your goal is to convert your site visitors

into paying customers. The conversion rate, therefore, is the number
of conversions divided by the total number of visitors to your
website. For example, if 100 people visit your website in a month and
25 people purchase products from your site, the conversion rate
would be 25 divided by 100 (25/100), or 25%. In this case, to increase
the conversion rate, you will need to increase the number of buyers
to your website.

Here are a few tips to help you get started in increasing your
conversion rate.

1. Make it easy for your customers to contact you.

To sell your digital products, the first thing you will need to do is
build a relationship with your customers. In order to do that, they
need to be able to communicate with you. So you need to make it as
 104

easy as possible for your customers to contact you. Everyone has

their own communication preferences, and therefore, you need to
ensure that you offer various channels of communication for your
customers to contact you. To make sure that you are available, you
could provide all sorts of communication channels such as providing
your business email address, a contact form on your website,
through online apps such as whatsapp, or through social media such
as Facebook or Twitter.

2. Include clear Calls to Action

You need to make it clear what action you want customers to take
when they read your emails, visit your website, or when they browse
your social media channels. It is crucial to use a clear call to action to
convince your customers the action you want them to take. To
improve your conversion rate, use links, buttons, images and
animation that will effectively convert visitors into buyers.

3. Be active on social media.

Social media networks are an important part of your digital

marketing strategy. But having numerous social media accounts will
not help your conversion rate if you do not actively use them. To
convert more visitors into buyers, you need to have a plan for each
of your social media channels as to how you will use them to attract
more paying customers to your website.

4. Create a sense of urgency.

Creating a sense of urgency usually works when you have placed a

time limit on the availability of your digital products. This also
works when you offer a discount on selected products. When
informing your customers of special promotions you have running,
make sure to use phrases such as ‘last chance’ or ‘limited availability’
 105

to give your customers the extra push they need to purchase your
product NOW. When you use these terms in your email marketing,
you will see how this affects your conversion rate.

E-commerce Revenue

The goal of every digital marketer is to generate revenue from their

websites. E-commerce revenue, therefore, is the total amount of
money you make from the sales of your digital products. Here are a
few tips that you can use to boost your e-commerce revenue.

Identify your target market.

Understand who the people are you will be selling to. You need to
know your target market, know how to reach out to them, gain
understanding of what kind of product they are looking for, and
learn how they search for what they want. It will take an element of
guesswork to determine who your prospective customers are. Are
they male or female? Do they own their own home? How much
income do they earn per year? What hobbies or interests do they
have?

Keep in contact with repeat customers.

Although it is important to acquire new customers, you should not

forget the customers who purchased from you. Your repeat
customers are the ones who make your business more profitable.
Ensure that you keep in contact with your loyal customers. Send
them emails when you have information that may be valuable to
them or when you have new products to promote. Personalise your
email messages by sending them birthday greetings. Show them
how grateful you are for being regular customers.
 106

Provide customers the option to checkout as a guest.

Customers should have the option to purchase your products

without having to create an account first. If customers are forced to
register first before checkout, they may leave your site and buy from
your competitors instead. Your goal should be to make sales rather
than grow your mailing list. When customers are ready to checkout
provide an option for them to proceed as a guest.

Include product reviews.

Customers who are a bit sceptical about buying a product from your
website can be easily converted if they were able to read a product
review. Including product reviews shows that the item is worth
purchasing. You can gather reviews by including a thank you note
whenever your customers download your digital products, send an
email message to your customers 24 hours after their purchase to ask
them to review their items.

Make sure that your site is secure.

Nowadays people have become more internet savvy that they will
not purchase from a website that is not secure. They can tell whether
your site is secure by the little lock symbol next to the URL, or by
checking that your web address starts with HTTPS. Your customers
need to feel confident that your site is secure before they make a
purchase. One of the ways you can increase your website’s security
is to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) provided by security badges such
as PayPal, VeriSign, Truste, and McAfee Secure. You can purchase a
security badge from your web host. Just Host, for example offers the
 107

SiteLock badge that you can display on your website to ensure

customers feel safe shopping on your website.

Use receipts in your email marketing.

When a customer makes a purchase from your website, make sure

that you send them a receipt email. Use receipt emails to pitch other
products at a discount in the Recommended Product section. Include
your company logo and a personalised thank you message.

Offer a money back guarantee.

If your products are really good, then you should have no problem
offering a money back guarantee. Offering customers a money back
guarantee in case the item they purchased did not work out for them
will make them feel secure knowing that they can easily return the
item and get their money back.

You need to present great content, have a strong call to action, and
be consistent with your email follow-ups to ensure that you gain and
keep new customers. This can be done with email marketing. Create
email marketing campaigns to build a relationship with your
customers and boost sales of your digital products. Then use data
analysis to help you get the results you desire.
 108

CONCLUSION

Creating and selling digital products is one of the best ways to

generate income online. Digital products are easy to make and
simple to sell.

After reading this book, you should now understand the following:

 Have an idea of the type of online business you want to build.

Your business idea should be based on a problem you have
identified and a solution you have discovered.
 Decide on the digital product you want to create such as e-
books, video, audio, photography, graphics and digital art,
documents, and courses.
 How to build your own e-commerce website (online store).
Register a domain name, set up web hosting, and install
WordPress to create the website and WooCommerce for the
online store.
 Have an understanding and comply with all online business
laws such as GDPR, the Electronic Commerce Regulations
2002, and Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations
2000.
 Set up social media channels to promote your business and
your products such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn,
etc.
 Drive traffic to your website using Sitemap, submitting your
site to the search engine, social media, and answering
questions on Quora.
 Use email marketing to gain subscribers and customers. Build
an email list, use an email autoresponder, and plan an email
campaign. You should also know how to analyse your emails
 109

to see how effective email marketing is in attracting

customers and making sales.

Now that you know what you need to do to start your digital
marketing business, I suggest that you get started building your
digital product business by first writing down your ideas of what
type of digital product you want to create and how you are going to
sell it.
 110

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hi, I’m Christine John and I write nonfiction, romance, short stories
and poetry.

I also write books about personal development, job hunting, self-

publishing, web designing, and online business.

I like to write books that help people to learn new topics in a way
that is simple and easy to understand.

At the moment I am a work coach and I help people to find the jobs
they want. In my previous jobs, I was a business administrator at a
prison, a secretary in the tourism industry, a telemarketer, and a
preschool teacher.

Currently I live in the UK.

How to find out more about me and my books:

https://ChristineJohnBooks.com
 111

OTHER BOOKS BY CHRISTINE JOHN

Self-Publishing Success: How to Successfully Write, Publish and

Promote Your Book

How to Write a Nonfiction Book that Sells

How to Publish a Nonfiction Book for Free Using Kindle Direct

Publishing, CreateSpace and Smashwords

How to Make Money Promoting and Selling a Nonfiction Book

WordPress 2019: The Beginner’s Complete Step-by-Step Guide to

Creating a Mobile Friendly Website with WordPress

WordPress for Beginners: The Easy Step-by-Step Guide to Creating

a Website with WordPress

Never Give Up: 20 Life-Changing Steps to Help You Get What You
Really Want

How to Start and Run an Online Business

How to Get the Job You Want

The Runaway Bride

Last Chance

Short Stories for Teenagers

Poems About Life

 112

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https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/index.html?kw=free%20vi
deo%20editing%20software&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzN71BRCOARIsAF8
pjfh6cwxlJewOrsrrhLnX-
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Privacy Policy: https://www.rocketlawyer.com/gb/en