Have you ever wondered how you can have a 9-5 and still make money selling digital products?

One major challenge 9-5ers have is looking for an extra income while they have their 9-5 especially if you are working in tech. A couple of weeks ago we had a Twitter space conversation with Peace itimi and Mitchelle Chibundu.

Peace itimi is a growth marketer at a tech startup and has created over three digital products while at it.  And also, Mitchelle has done great work with her digital products while being a designer at one of the top fintech companies in the world.

This article will show you exactly how they did it and will give you a first-hand experience on the Twitter space we had with them.

Read below a transcription of the Twitter space we had with them.

Tell us about yourselves?

Peace: My name is Peace and I generally identify as a baby girl for life. Professionally, I lead growth for a fintech startup called over. That’s like an intersection between product and marketing. I am also a content creator.  I create videos on YouTube and yeah, I have sold one or two books in my life.

Mitchelle: My name is Mitchell. I’m a product designer, creator, and author living in London. I currently work at wise where I’m designing the support experience. What this means is that, I work with a team of people and we help our customers help themselves. Before that, I worked at Flutterwave. That was where I started my career as a designer and I was the mobile design lead up until I left. I am also a creator, I teach about design and career on social media. The part of me that relates to this space is that I’m an author of two books. Clueless to designer ( a beginner guide to product design) and dear designer ( a design journal) 

At what point did you know about creating digital products and what was your first thought when you found out about that especially because you guys are in very professional careers.

Mitchelle: I started creating content and teaching on Instagram in 2019 but something I noticed while doing that is that people were always asking me questions about almost the same thing. Questions like, how did you get into design? What resources can I use? Do I need a mentor? And I will always answer them and send the same “message” to different people because they are asking me the same thing. I sort of have a template to answer these questions. At a point, I realized it was no longer sustainable for me to keep uploading the same messages and sending them to different people. I started to play with the thought of solidifying that into a blog post and share with everyone. I thought about it again and I was like “maybe I should write a book about these things because that will make it much more of a big deal and also demand more content from me than just writing a blog post.” That was actually how I thought about writing a book.

Peace: My first ebook was in 2016. I had just finished a WhatsApp masterclass and I got a lot of feedback. And I thought of putting it together in a Microsoft document and share with the people who attended the class. By the time I was done, it was really long and the next thing I know is that I was designing it and I realized that there are places on the internet where I can put it up for download as an ebook. That was literally my very first digital product. I did like two or three more the year after. I have been in touch with digital products for a while. If you are very in touch with the creator economy, you will know that we didn’t start to really classify a lot of things with the term digital products until like two years ago. My favorite thing about digital products is that there are little to no limitations to producing them and to distributing them.

How long did it take you in writing your first book?

Mitchelle: I started writing it in August and I was done by December.

Peace: My first book took me just a weekend. I was jobless at the time. I had just finished university and I had this gap year between graduating from university and nysc, so I was at home. The last book I wrote took me three months and I don’t think it’s because of my full-time job. I think it’s the type of value and quality that I want to give out. Quality does take time.

Did you ever think about if you were going to make sales? I understand that Mitchell had people sending her tons of dms and you wanted to find a sustainable way to keep answering them but a lot of people just have an idea of something they want to make into a digital product and not necessarily people sending them dms about it. What’s your advice to people like that? How can they get their digital products out?

Mitchelle: I know that I said I had people sending me tons to dms but the thing is, if you are going to create a digital product, I would advise you to build an audience first. You don’t have to build an audience with a digital product. You can build the audience from anywhere you are comfortable with. It could be Instagram, Twitter, newsletter, podcast, YouTube or any other platform you are comfortable with. I built my own audience on Instagram. You need to show up consistently to a particular set of people because when you release your product, you can’t just show up in their face and tell them you are an expert at that thing even if they don’t know you. What you are doing instead is saying, I have shown up consistently as this person and I have given you from A-B. This is a product that will give you more from me. People who have experienced you from point A-B can vouch for the value you give and the quality of work you put out. People need to trust you before they buy from you. Showing up consistently helps them trust you.

Peace: I will slightly disagree with Mitchell. I agree with her that the easiest way to sell your digital products is having an audience already. However, when I released my first book in 2016, nobody knew me. I just put it out there and it worked. People began to know me because they read my book.  If you want to blow with your first digital products, it makes a lot of sense to build an audience first. All you need to do as someone who doesn’t have an audience before creating digital products is to package your product in a way that it can sell itself. If you are known, you can sell bullshit and people will buy because they already know and like you but if you are unknown, the most important thing becomes the quality of your digital product.

How do you stay motivated to keep writing?

Mitchelle: Motivation is an interesting concept because I hardly wait for motivation because sometimes it just never comes. I hardly ever get motivated to do things. I think the thing that makes me keep late nights writing the book and designing the book is more about what I want to do. The thought that people might really need this product is one of those things that keeps me going. The motivation comes when I’m already at my desk writing. If you don’t push yourself to start, you might not get the motivation that you need. If you don’t take the bold decision or break free from the resistance of not doing and going ahead to do something. When you have a vision of what you are doing and why you are doing it and also the value that it’s going to provide, it becomes a bit easier to keep writing. I also tell my friends about it. They are very supportive and they keep pushing me to get it done. Something else that helps is writing down my ideas. I’m very good at speaking and articulating my words so I make a recording talking about it very casually. And, when I’m ready to write, I go back to my recordings, I listen to them and write from them and I make it perfect from that. You need to find what your strengths are and play into your strengths. I also know that I work best during the day so I try to get the most of my day. 

Peace: Money is what generally motivates me. At first, it was giving out knowledge. I just wanted people to know something and also impact them but the thought that I’m going to make money from it is what keeps me going. I have also been able to build systems around most of the things that I do. I have somehow managed to build a team for myself so that when I have an idea, I have people that can support me in making it a reality.  It helps me do stuff a lot faster.

How do you market your books?

Mitchelle: The first thing that I have done in terms of marketing is a pre-launch. I put up a post on Twitter and Instagram and told my audience that I was making a book and if they are interested, they should join the waitlist. In less than a week, over 500 people signed up for the waitlist. When I was done with the book, I launched it and sent out a mail to the people who signed up and told them the book was ready. I also gave them a discount code because they were early signees. That was how I sold the first two hundred.  You don’t have to do a waitlist because for the second book, I didn’t do a waitlist but I would advise that you do a waitlist because it helps you gauge the numbers of people interested in it.  For my second book, I’m using storytelling to get in the face of more people.  You can’t get exhausted talking about your work. I’m not shy when it comes to my work. I don’t downplay my work. 

Peace: Paid advertising works. Not everybody can afford it but you can do it in a little way. You can also do influencer marketing. I’m an advocate for micro-influencers. For example, Mitchell is a designer. She can reach out to her designer friends to help her talk about the book. Collaboration and Influencer marketing is tapping into the audience of people who already have an established connection with their audience. When using influencer marketing, you don’t have to do any extra work because the influencers are going to do that for you. People might not know me and not trust me but they trust those influencers and also listen to them.  You can also do giveaways. Giveaways are like free trials. A lot of people sign up for a product because they give them two weeks free. There is the hope that when people get your book for free and they get value from it, they are going to buy your next book.

People also share the word when they get something valuable.

How do you guide your intellectual property? I mean, how do you guide people sharing your book to those who didn’t pay for it. 

Mitchelle: For the first and second book, I had to speak to some lawyers and get intellectual property copyrighted. You have to speak to your lawyers and get them to tell you the things that you would need. 

 Douglas: We have an option on Selar that allows people to read books without having to download them. That way people don’t get to share it.

You can sign up on Selar here.

One more thing Mitchell, are you going to explore making other kinds of digital products like email templates, designs, etc or what can we expect from you next?

Mitchelle: I have a course that I already recorded but I haven’t published it because I’m waiting for the right time. The right time means the time that works with my plans, goals, and community. I also have some other products I want to create. The next thing you are going to see from me is a course.

I hope you find this post helpful. And, if you are still wondering how to get started selling your digital products like Peace and Mitchelle? Worry no more! At Selar, our goal is to make selling digital products and services easier for all creators.  You can get started on Selar here.