The Technology I Use for Selling Digital Products and Online Courses

Is it me or does it feel like choosing the right technology as an infopreneur (aka a person that sells digital products) feels like taking a trip to the department store?

Like…

Ummm I really like this shirt, but this one looks great too. Which one should I choose?

The paradox of choice makes it harder for us to settle on one solution…Especially on the technology front.

It seems like every other day I’m getting one email swearing up and down that “This is the best _________________ to hit the market.”

All of the BIGGEST names in digital marketing are using it to do X,Y, and Z. You can get it here for just $__________.”

Ten emails and 5 product mentions later, like a moth to a flame I would buy the friggin thing. (Sighs).

What can I say… I’m a sucker for technology yall.

My Previous Technology Stack

A few months after launching this blog I used some pretty basic technology to sell products and online courses.

Since I was starting out, I didn’t think it was a good idea to invest too much money into different tools. So I decided to use tools that were pretty inexpensive.

Here is a breakdown of what I used:

WordPress – for content management and blogging

Woocommerce – to add an online store to my site to showcase the products that I offered

AWeber – the email marketing service I used to manage my email lists and send automations to subbies

Thrive Content Builder (now Thrive Architect) – a WordPress plugin to create dedicated landing pages for different funnels on my site

Gumroad – free service that I used to sell digital products from my store, accept online payments and deliver digital products to customers

Teachable – For hosting my online courses

Now:

The majority of these tech resources are free to use with the exception of Thrive Content Builder, AWeber, and Teachable

And…they worked well up to a certain point and made it easy for me to sell digital products and online courses from this blog.

Updating My Technology Stack

As I started to learn more about funnels and marketing automation I realized that I needed technology that was a little more advanced than what I was using.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve prolly heard peeps talking about sales funnels these days.

You know… where you create specific automated email sequences to send your email subbies through that have offers throughout them?

Yep..those.

Well, when I decided to get serious about implementing funnels here on the blog, it was time to do a mini overhaul on some of the technology I was using.

I needed tools that would let me do things like:

Add true scarcity to my email sequences: Not the fake stuff where someone says oh hey this offer expires in just 24 hours, but never expires.

Trigger certain email campaigns to launch based on the “action” someone takes: So for example, if I was selling an ebook and mentioned it in an email and one of my email subscribers clicks on it, then I can set up another automation to trigger and send that person a different series of emails.

Abandoned cart automations: to remind someone of a purchase they were about to make but forgot about it for some reason or another

Get out of the “Product Launch” rut. I don’t know about you… but products launches are STRESSFUL. They take a lot of bandwidth to get through. After a few rounds of launching products here I got burnt out pretty fast. It’s one thing to have a specific program that you open and close down a few times a year…but launching multiple products throughout the year = No Bueno for me. So…instead of launching new products like a mad person, I decided to put the technology in place to launch products all throughout the year (aka) Evergreen product launches.

Offer One-Time Upsells: Upsells are pretty much where you offer someone a low cost item, then upsell or invite them to another offer to add to their original order. It’s kinda like what McDonald’s does. When you go in to place an order for a hamburger, McDonald’s will ask you “Do you want fries with that”? That my friend is an example of an upsell.

Selling Online Courses and Digital Products: The Tools I am Currently Using

It took a lottt of testing, tweaking and trial and error to figure out what technology stack to use for the kind of funnels I wanted to set up.

But, I’ve finally found the perfect tech arsenal for YourChicGeek. Now I want to state for the record that your business requirements may be a lot more simple than what I am using.

If you are at a point in your business where you want to use more advanced tools for your marketing funnels like the ones I am using but you’re not sure how to set them up, I’d love to chat with you about it.

Alright….now onto the good stuff…these are the tools I am using:

1. WordPress – for content management, delivery and blogging

2. ThriveCart (Integrated with Active Campaign) – to create my checkout pages and upsells for the digital products I sell from my store.

3. Teachable – the platform that I use to host my online courses

4. Thrive Ultimatum – lets me add true scarcity to my marketing funnels and automated email sequences

5. Active Campaign – the email marketing automation that I use to manage my email list, setup advanced autoresponder sequences and deliver digital products to peeps that purchase items from my store

6. Thrive Architect – a plugin that I use to create dedicated landing pages to add to my blog with tripwire offers

7. Woocommerce – a WordPress plugin that I use to showcase the products that I sell via my store

Wrapping It Up

I have to say, I am soooo friggin excited that there are tools out there in the marketplace that can be used to truly leverage the power of marketing automation.

As I’ve stated previously in this post, I didn’t want to stay stuck in “launch mode” forever, so it was important to me to find the right tools that would allow me to transition from that model.

I would love to hear from you all…What tools are you using to sell your digital products and online courses?

Or…are you still in the process of testing different ones to see which ones work the best for your brand and biz? Either way, please leave me a comment and lemme know.

Cheers yall!

Kim G…