Digital Etsy: How To Make Money Without Ever Using A Stamp! Part 1

We as a society are in the "Information Age: characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously." (credit)

More than any other time in the history of the world, our ability to share information has been made so easy and accessible, that it is one of the great defining characteristics of our era.  This is to our great advantage and can be made profitable if used correctly.

To "transfer information freely" is to be allowed to share our information with others without having to jump through loops to get the OK from authorities "above us".  (The only thing that could be considered a "catch" is if you make money from sharing information, you still have to pay taxes ;-)

Information products are a powerful tool to any business.  They have a lot of great, distinct advantages:

• You don't have to remake it (re-write a book, pattern, ...) every time you sell it.  You do have to re-make a physical product every time you want to make a sale.
• Delivering the information product can be done for free through free e-mail services while physical products have to be shipped.
• Information products can be made at no cost to you other than your time and labor while physical products require the up-front cost of materials.
• Information products can be put on into an automatic delivery system for a small monthly rate so that you don't even have to be involved every time somebody makes a purchase.  (Etsy, Artfire and other similar sites don't have this feature at this time, but other companies like e-junkie do.)

Information is one of those things that keeps on giving long after it's purchased.  You can eat a cupcake once or use toothpaste till it runs out, but information can be used and read over and over.

I love physical handmade goods, no doubt about it.  Nothing is better than getting a quality handmade lip balm or delicious food item in the mail.  We need sellers who are good at and like to make physical products to keep on making them.  There is no reason, however, that they cannot benefit from selling  information products as well.

Adding an information product to your business is a great way to increase profits without having to increase labor and monetary input over time.  Make it once, sell it forever.

In this series I will be teaching you about how you can make your information products starting with:
Choosing a topic or product that will work for your business,
What programs you can legally use to publish your commercial work,
Where you can find free images for commercial use,
And more!

To be continued next week...

photo credit