Sell Digital Planners – 3 Basic Tech Setups You Need for Success

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One of the questions swirling around in your brain as you broach the idea of making a digital planer is probably how to sell digital planners. This is totally normal!

There are 3 “Tech Things” you need to sell digital planners.

1. A Merchant Account aka Payment Processor
2. A way to use that account to accept payments
3. A secure place to store your planner PDF that is easily accessible by only your customers so they can download the planner.

So if your dreaming of turning your planner passion into profit, we need to figure this part out together.

Selling digital planners can be a lucrative venture, but the tech side can feel overwhelming. These questions about getting paid and delivering your product are common stumbling blocks for many aspiring planner entrepreneurs.

Don’t worry! This guide will break down the technical aspects of selling digital planners into easy-to-understand explanation. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, we’ll explore the top options for accepting payments and digital planner delivery once you’ve sold the planner.

Let’s dive in and demystify the process of selling your digital planner.

Once again, there isn’t a perfect choice, so the options below are there to open your mind to the possibility.

Let’s Dive into the Your Options

Getting Paid: Your Payment Options

Now that we’ve established what the challenges associated with selling digital planners, let’s tackle the first hurdle: getting paid. This is a hurdle you will need to jump so you can get paid.

There are several ways to accept payments for your digital planner. Each method has its pros and cons, so let’s break them down:

Payment Processors

Your very first step to getting paid is to setup a Payment Processor.

• What they are: Third-party services that handle transactions between you and your customers.
• Popular options: PayPal and Stripe ( I recommend setting up business accounts for both)
• How they work: These platforms provide tools and APIs to integrate payment processing into your website or sales platform.
• Pros: Wide acceptance, security, and often offer additional features like fraud protection.
• Cons: Transaction fees, potential chargebacks.

You can use a payment processor link like a PayPal button on to accept payments for your digital planners. This route feels the simplest… until you have more than one planner to sell.

Why You Need At Least One Payment Processor to Sell Digital Planners

So let me explain why you need a Payment Processor like PayPal or Stripe (or both).

To sell from any e-commerce shop including Etsy, you will need to integrate your payment processor(s) into the platform or marketplace you decide to to join to sell your digital planners.

So no matter the route you decide to go, you will need to setup at least a PayPal account. But I recommend setting up both PayPal and Stripe.

Next let’s dive into some E-Commerce Platforms.

Selling Platforms

The next step is setting up your selling platform. For this post we will focus on two different types. A traditional online shop and marketplace shops are your two options.

Because I’m all about one time fee software, I’ll be looking at those options that have a get started for free option, and this leave Shopify out of the loop. I do think Shopify is a great option. But I think there are other places you can get started without laying out the cash upfront.

E-commerce Platforms to Sell Digital Planners (Shopping Cart)

• What they are: Online stores that handle both product listings and payments.
• Popular options:
  • Self Hosted: WooCommerce
  • Cloud Hosted: Payhip, Gumroad, Ko-Fi, Lemon Squeezy, Hive99
• How they work: You create a product listing, set a price, and the platform handles the payment and delivery using your payment processor.
• Pros: Various sales tools, and often offer additional features like marketing and analytics.
• Cons: Some have monthly fees or per transaction fees, platform limitations, delayed payment*, and potential competition.

When looking at the e-commerce platforms, the important things to consider are the transaction fees, and the look and feel. WooCommerce doesn’t have transaction fees, and you get to decide the look and feel of the shop, but you do have to pay for hosting.

An e-commerce shop has a lot of images, so due to space requirements it can actually cost you more than the transactions fees of a cloud hosted site depending on your growth.

Marketplaces to Sell Digital Planners

• What they are: Online platforms where you can sell your product to a broader audience.
• Popular options: Gumroad Discover, Payhip Marketplace, Etsy, Ebay.
• How they work: You create a product listing, set a price, and the platform handles the payment and delivery.
• Pros: Easy setup, built-in audience, and often offer additional features like email marketing.
• Cons: Platform fees, potential competition, delayed payment, and less control over your branding.

Remember: The best option for you depends on factors like your tech skills, desired features, and target audience.

I think everyone has heard of selling digital planners on Etsy. It’s a hot commodity. But Etsy has fees to just to list products, and I personally am not a fan of that. Their fee structure makes me itch.

So I went searching and found out that both Payhip and Gumroad have marketplaces too. They aren’t as big, which could be a good thing.

Storing Your Digital Planner for Digital Planner Delivery

Once you’ve figured out how to accept payments when you sell your digital planners, the next step is to ensure your customers can easily access their purchased digital planner. Here are the primary methods for storing and sharing your product:

Digital Planner Delivery Using Cloud Storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive)

• How it works: You upload your PDF planner to a cloud storage platform. When a customer purchases, you generate a download link and send it to them.
• Pros: Affordable, easy to use, and offers additional features like version control.
• Cons: Manual process for sending download links, potential for file sharing issues, and reliance on third-party platform.

Digital Planner Delivery Using Your Website

• How it works: You host the PDF file on your website and provide a direct download link to customers.
• Pros: Full control over file delivery, potential for additional product information.
• Cons: Requires technical knowledge to set up, potential for website traffic issues, storage space required, and security concerns.

This is the method I use for my Woocommerce shop so I don’t need an even bigger hosting account.

As I have DropBox and a Google Drive I have plenty of space. The issue has been delivery through Woocommerce. It requires a special plugin and link to make this work. I don’t recommend using this method without research.

This method may cause a customer service nightmare – it did for me.

Digital Planner Delivery Using Storing in E-commerce Platform

• How it works: Most e-commerce platforms offer built-in file delivery options. You upload the PDF and the platform handles the download process.
• Pros: Easy to set up, often integrated with payment processing, and can benefit from platform features like customer management.
• Cons: Platform fees, potential limitations on file size and format, and reliance on third-party platform.

This is the method I use on my Payhip store.

Payhip has a very generous 5GB storage per product, and since a digital planner shouldn’t be bigger than 50 mb, there is plenty of room.

Each cloud hosted store is going to have different product file size limitations, it’s best to know your average file size and confirm in the platform of choice.

Digital Planner Delivery Using Storage in Marketplace Platform

• How it works: Similar to e-commerce platforms, marketplaces often have built-in file delivery systems. You upload the PDF, and the platform handles the rest.
• Pros: Easy to set up, potential for reaching a wider audience, and often includes marketing tools.
• Cons: Platform fees, competition, and less control over your branding, file size limits.

Marketplaces are all the rage, because digital planner creators envision “free traffic”. In my mind that traffic isn’t free you pay for it with fee’s and you need SEO skills to get that traffic.

As you choose your sales venues look for the methods that work best for you and your budget.

Choosing the right method depends on your technical skills, budget, and desired level of control.

What is the Best Storage Solution to Sell Digital Planners?

Each of these methods have pros and cons, starting out with money being top of mind, let’s look at the most cost effective options.

If you already have cloud storage with plenty of room, taking payment and delivering your file via an email automation maybe the most cost effective solution to start with.

But after running a Woo-commerce shop, Payhip shop and selling on Etsy. I am leaning toward using a “free” cloud hosted shopping cart platform and using their storage.

While Payhip takes a percentage of the sale’s it’s less costly than increasing the hosting capabilities of my site.

So starting out, it’s actually cheaper to pay the per sale transaction fee. It doesn’t have a listing fee like Etsy, and yet it has a much smaller marketplace.

Key Take-Aways

• Payment Processors are Essential: Setting up a payment processor like PayPal or Stripe is the foundation for selling digital planners. Consider having multiple options for flexibility.
• Choose Your Sales Platform Wisely: Weigh the pros and cons of e-commerce platforms (WooCommerce, Payhip, Gumroad) and marketplaces (Etsy, Gumroad Discover, Payhip Marketplace). Consider factors like fees, features, and desired control.
• Start Small, Scale Up: Beginning with a free cloud-hosted platform like Payhip or Gumroad can be cost-effective while you build your business. As your sales grow, you can explore options like WooCommerce.
• Optimize Your Delivery Method: Consider factors like file size, customer experience, and technical expertise when choosing a delivery method (cloud storage, website, e-commerce platform, marketplace).
• Balance Costs and Convenience: Evaluate the trade-offs between using cloud storage and built-in storage options offered by e-commerce platforms or marketplaces.
• Experiment and Learn: There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Test different payment processors, sales platforms, and delivery methods to find what works best for you and your customers.

By understanding these key points, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the technical aspects of selling digital planners and focus on creating amazing products.

FAQ: Creating and Selling Digital Planners

I get a lot of questions about getting started with making digital planners and selling them with different tools and platforms. I have created posts for most of those questions. ;). Let’s see if I can help you out below….

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