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Digital products are everywhere you look. Even “physical” products like CDs and DVDs are, in essence, digital because the tracks and other information stored on them is in digital format. But increasingly products like books are being turned into digital products with devices like the Kindle.

Digital products have the advantage that they are cheap to deliver, costing only a few cents in bandwidth.

But if you want to create them, you need a system otherwise they will be chaotic and you won’t be likely to get repeat orders.

Here are the basic steps for your digital product creation system:

1. Make an outline

This can be in any format you want. A Word document, a spreadsheet or a mind map.

Play with each one and see which works best for you. Personally, I find spreadsheets easy to work with as each section of the product can be in a column with the subsections in the rows below it.

For more complicated products, I find a series of mind maps is also easy to use and can be more “at a glance” than a spreadsheet.

2. Decide on a format

This may sound as though I’m teaching you to suck eggs but take a step back and think how your information is best presented.

A PDF book can be good if your subject matter is fairly complicated. But in common with its physical counterpart, it tends to be the lowest retail price.

Audios are next in price value and can be convenient for your customers as they’re not locked into using their computer to listen to your product.

Videos are typically highest price and with screen capture programs such as Screencast-o-matic they’re inexpensive to produce. Or you could use your webcam or the video on your phone.

3. Create your product

Using your outline and preferred format, start creating your product.

Especially if it’s a written product, treat the writing and the editing processes as entirely separate. They use different parts of your mind and if you succomb to the temptation of editing as you go along, you’ll reduce the creativity of your product and it will run the risk of sounding more like a text book than something people want to read.

Save the sections of your product with different file names. Ideally ones that will make sense in a few months time when you go back to create an updated version!

4. Create a sales page

The complexity of your product and where you’re selling it will jointly determine how long and how “flashy” your sales letter needs to be.

There are free sites out there which will help you to create a passable sales letter without too much blood sweat and tears. There are also software programs available which will take this to a higher level. Or, if your product is likely to sell in quantity, you may prefer to use a copywriter.

Once your sales letter is written, you’ll need to upload it to your web host along with any associated images.

5. Upload your product

Use the control panel in your web host or WordPress or an FTP program to upload the files to your website host.

Depending on how paranoid you are about people stealing your product, you may or may not decide to include some form of protection for this. Remember that Hollywood have a much bigger budget than you and they can’t stop piracy so don’t put in so much protection that you annoy your purchasers.

6. Promote your newly created digital product

Promotion of your product is essential!

You can drive traffic to it in lots of different ways including articles like this one, forum posts and signatures, a Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile, pay per click advertising, affiliates and much more.

I really enjoy helping people create information products that can eventually create more time and freedom for them by duplicating their efforts. Many times they have heard conflicting ideas about creating products or have seen programs that promise instant and effortless product creation. Let me share with you the top three product creation lies.

Lie #1 You Can Create or Buy Instant Products with Little Effort.

If you want to sell virtually worthless and low quality products, this might be true. But if you want to actually share your knowledge, information, gifts, talents and inner voice with the world, there is no instant about it. It can be a fast process, but there is effort involved. I believe when you create a product, you are actually sharing part of yourself and your light with the world.

Lie #2 You Must Take Years to Create a Quality Product.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is also no need to spend months and months or years to create great, high-value products. I believe the best way to create products is to first set a start date. Then set an end date for completing your product or you could end up trying to tweak and perfect your product forever. When you use my quick and effective tips to create quality products that do not require years of your life, you can become a product creation machine too.

Lie #3 There Are Already Too Many People Creating the Kind of Products You Want to Create.

Instead of being discouraged if someone else is already teaching what you want to teach or creating those types of products, ask yourself how you can differentiate yourself from the crowd. There is a segment of the population who will resonate with you as a teacher waiting for you and your products. And if you see competition out there, think about how you can collaborate with them. There is more than enough room for everyone and the internet makes collaboration extremely easy.