I promoted other people’s products as an affiliate for many years. It was fun making commissions but it was also/ very stressful and draining. I had to make a change. One that spoke to my introverted self. I decided on selling my own digital products in the form of PDF files (a.k.a eBooks.)
Burning Out as an Affiliate
For years I preached the benefits of affiliate marketing. The common ones like:
- Never needing your own product
- No payments to process
- Work from anywhere
- Nothing to ship
And the list can go on. However, there are also downsides to being an affiliate:
- Affiliate programs can change or go away
- Commissions are usually paid out 30-45 days later
- You never own the product(s)
Plus, I had to be the brand so in order to recommend a product, I had to be the face of my brand.
Building trust with your audience requires putting yourself out there on social media on the regular.
It got to the point where I was so burnt out, I had to step away from affiliate marketing for awhile.
Creating My Digital Information Product
That break led me to thinking about the type of online business I really wanted. One that was introvert-friendly and didn’t require putting myself out there as the brand.
I also wanted my online business to be fully automated. In order to that, I needed a product. I chose information products because they are easy to create.
Automating my business required a marketing funnel and there are plenty of those to choose from. One of my favorites is Systeme.io because it is low cost and has all the functionality I need.
Using AI to Help Me Create My eBook Faster
I used ChatGPT to help me brainstorm topics and to create an outline for my eBook.
Once I had those things, I typed up my eBook using Google Docs and exported the file as a PDF.
I created my eBook cover in Canva. Before I knew it, my first digital product was complete.
If you put in the time, you could have your digital info product created and ready for sale in one weekend.
Choosing a Platform to Sell Your eBook
eBooks are one of the easiest and low-cost digital products that you can make.
Selling your eBook doesn’t have to cost you anything up front. There are many platforms that let you sell digital products for free.
They take a small percentage of each sale. Good options include:
- Payhip
- Gumroad
- Lemon Squeezy
If you prefer to build an email list as you sell your eBook, you’ll need a marketing funnel.
Some platforms like Payhip will let you build an email list. You have to pay for a separate email marketing software.
Or you could use an all-in-one marketing funnel such as:
- Systeme.io
- Kartra
- Clickfunnels
You’ll also need a payment processor such as Stripe to connect to most sales platforms.
After you have it all set up, the next step is marketing your digital product.
Marketing for Your Digital Product – The Introvert Way
Posting consistently on social media is a quick way to burn out for an introvert.
If you don’t have a budget to run paid ads, then content creation is the next best thing.
The good news is that you don’t have to post on social media platforms every day.
You can use more introvert-friendly options such as:
- Creating a blog
- Writing on platforms like Medium and Substack
- Posting to Pinterest
The benefit about posting on the above platforms is that your content will last longer, for years in some cases, versus the short timespan of a social media post.
Conclusion
I couldn’t more happy with selling my own digital product. I still promote affiliate offers on the backend with my email list.
It has alleviated a lot of stress and I don’t deal with the burnout that I did before.
Want to dive deeper into creating your own digital product and selling it?