When I first got into the digital space, I wasn’t selling digital products. I actually built my first website for a ‘real world’ business. By that I mean, it wasn’t a traditional ‘brick and mortar’ business. It was a design business that I was running from home.

My first website was an e-commerce site that I built for that business. It didn’t have a blog attached. It was simply a site that potential customers could go to, go see and purchase products.

Fast forward 3 years, and that business had completely drained me. I was making the products (handbags), and rather than selling online, I had managed to get my little business an agent (2), and those beautiful agents managed to get my handbags into 14 stores (which is a LOT for someone who’s doing all of the work by herself).

In addition, I had 3 young children. On top of that, I had recently gone through a separation/divorce. So as you might imagine, my life was hectic. And stressful. Making ends meet was critical, and now everything was 100% my responsibility.

The handbag business quickly burned me out. It got to the point where every season, I cringed at the sound of my fax machine chirping with new orders from stores. It made me physically ill. I used to cry over it. It got to the point where I wasn’t sleeping, and I wasn’t eating. And when you have little kids, AND you’re not getting any sleep? Disaster.

So after much thought, I decided to pack in the handbag business. I had no idea what I was going to do for money, but the relief that I felt when I let my agents know about my decision, was enough to let me know that I was doing the right thing.

So I thought I’d try my hand at blogging. Well…it was blogging with some affiliate marketing mixed in. My first affiliate marketing payment came by complete accident. I bought an ebook, and because I enjoyed it so much, I set up a one page blog post, telling others how much I liked it, and what to expect if they bought it. I included an affiliate link for the book in that post.

That page was up for about 3 days, when I saw my first affiliate payment. It was for $7. It might as well have been a thousand dollars. I was dumbfounded.

“It works!”

I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t have to leave my house, I didn’t have to buy an expensive product. And all I did was tell the truth about how it had helped me once I read it. (I wish I could remember the name of the book!)

That was back in 2007 (ish).

I did affiliate marketing for about 5 or 6 years. That’s when digital products came along. I should be specific when I refer to my own journey with digital products, because I’ve always leaned toward creating eBooks more than anything else. I have no idea why. I just really like the thought of buying a book that I can immediately download, AND I feel like they’re less work than templates, journals, etc.

As a single mom, eBooks have allowed me to be as creative as I want to be, write about just about anything I want (as long as I can find a market for it), and not have to go out and work for someone else. (Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, I’m a great employee, I just don’t LIKE being an ’employee’.)

So I dove headfirst into creating eBooks of every kind you can imagine. At first, finding that ever elusive market for a particular product was difficult, but I figured it out. You could use Facebook to find customers. But this was back when you could have a Facebook account, and whatever you posted was automatically pushed to your ‘followers’. The game is MUCH different now, but I resisted it for a very long time. Now, the rules are that you’ve gotta ‘pay to play’. The ‘petty’ in me stayed pissed about that for awhile. Not just because we now had to pay for exposure, but maybe I’ll do another post about that.

But once I started creating and SELLING digital products, I was hooked. Not only could I make money without leaving home, but I could create one product, and sell that thing over, and over again, without having to do any additional work.

It was a game changer. Still is.

If I haven’t said it before, I’ll say it now; creating digital products is the easy part of this business. Finding and selling to your perfect customer is something else entirely. This business operates on a type of ‘loop’. You create a product, find your customer, sell that product, start over again.

But there’s more to it than just creating and selling.

I’ve managed to get from scraping by monthly, literally relying on coupons to feed my kids, to making $30K a month, and not having to leave the house to do that. I went from driving around with my daughter, looking for those coupons that are attached to the receipt at some gas stations where we used to live, to creating products that people (who aren’t related to me) actually BUY! It really chokes me up sometimes.

Anyway, to that end, this is why I create products that help moms in my previous position, make money without having to leave their kids. Having to go out and get a job actually costs money! Sure…you’re making a paycheque, but what’s it costing you to get to and from work? What are you paying for daycare? It just doesn’t end!

I built this business because I was there. And at that time, the only way to learn this business was to pay for very expensive courses (I’m talking like $1200+), or tough it out, and learn it myself.

I chose the latter. I didn’t have $12 let alone $1200 to spend on a course that I didn’t know would or would NOT help me level up financially.

Those memories are why I teach other moms to start digital businesses. I share how I started my own business, and help them avoid the pitfalls that I did not.

Some of those pitfalls were costly, I’m not gonna lie.

But I’m out of that financial environment, and besides making sure that I never go back there, I can only help other moms make that escape.

I created a step by step guide to starting a digital products business, and scaling to $30k/month (and beyond). The intention is that moms (and non-moms) who are in my previous financial position will benefit from my experience and my instruction. As in most of my endeavours, I don’t cut corners, I don’t  It’s an easy $27 ebook, OR you can opt for the $47 course (no $1200 courses here).

Anywho…if you have no idea what type of digital product you could create and sell, check out my free list of 100 digital products that moms can create and sell! 😉

Happy creating!

Deb.