How to start a digital products business

By John Bekian
Posted Friday, August 27, 2004

During the past decade the American economy has transformed from an industrial to an information economy. Digital products businesses are thriving o­n the Internet This article is designed to briefly explain how this type of business operates and how to set it up.

A digital products business involves the sale of software and ebooks. When considering a business opportunity, o­ne must consider the initial cost of setting up the business and the o­ngoing costs of running the same. Low costs are o­ne of the advantages of selling digital products that make this type of a business so attractive. A resale website that sells downloadable software does not require shipping or physical inventory. The o­nly inventory is the digital files for each software that are stored o­nline and require very little maintenance and storage costs. In addition, the process of electronic delivery can be automated so that no human assistance is necessary when a customer purchases the software and receives the link for downloading it.

But where do I get the software to resell? I recommend obtaining a software package with resale rights. When you purchase a product with resale rights, it usually means that you can resell that product and keep 100% of the profit, without owing anything to the publisher. But, buying individual software or ebooks for the full price in order to create a digital inventory for a resale website would require a large investment. It is wise to keep the initial investment to a minimum, thus buying a package with resale rights containing a large number of software or ebooks is desirable, since they are an affordable way of obtaining digital products to resell. There are many sellers of such packages o­n the Internet, but I recommend the software package from (www.infomoon.com), where you can get a package of 50+ quality software for $24.99. Each software comes with mini websites that can be used to promote the products. Not a bad deal, since obtaining a digital inventory for around $25 is consistent with our goal of keeping the initial investment to a minimum.

Now o­nce you have your digital inventory of software or ebooks, you can begin to resell them. Since you have resell rights to these products you can sell them individually or bundle them together and sell them in packages. You can sell them o­n ebay, promote them using the mini websites they come with, or create a brand new website to list the products.

As a new business, you should begin by using Paypal in order to accept credit cards. Since a Paypal account is relatively easy to set up and does not carry the start-up fees and headaches associated with merchant accounts. But o­nce your business picks up, it is recommended that you switch to a merchant account. For the digital delivery of the software or ebooks that you sell to a customer, I recommend using (www.payloadz.com). The service basically enables you to set up your business in a way that after a customer purchases the digital product, and the money is deposited into your Paypal account, an e-mail is sent to the customer with a link for downloading the product.

It may seem difficult in the beginning, but o­nce a digital products business is set up, it is an automated operation and o­nly requires promotion. Promotion is beyond the scope of this article and I will discuss it in my upcoming articles. I hope this information was helpful for those interested in starting a home business or adding digital products to their existing website. Good Luck..

About the Author
John Bekian holds an undergraduate degree in International Business. He enjoys writing and teaching about Internet businesses and conducts individual and group tutoring sessions o­n various business topics. His next Internet seminar is called “How To Start an Electronic Publishing Company.” John can be contacted at JohnBek2003@yahoo.com.