Some digital products are not well-suited for the Amazon marketplace – PLR, premade themes, audio files, photos, apps, software. The two big retail solutions for selling digital products are Clickbank and e-junkie. These options come at a price. While e-junkie charges only a small monthly fee, Clickbank requires an activation fee in addition to transaction and payment processing charges. This can be a deterrent to small sellers. A suitable alternative is now available: Sellfy.
Sellfy was launched in November 2011. The site allows you to easily sell digital wares via social media and shortlinks that can be embedded on your site. Other features include:
- No monthly subscription or activation fee. Sellfy keeps 5% of the sale instead.
- No limit on the number of files.
- Give customers a discount for sharing your shortlink via Facebook or Twitter.
- Communicate with customers via Sellfy’s Email Updates center.
- Easily create an affiliate program. Sellfy sends instant payments to you and your affiliates.
- Earn 1% of personal referrals’ sales.
Potential Drawbacks
Sellfy does not integrate with popular newsletter service providers. While you can communicate with buyers through Sellfy’s platform, you always want to get customers onto *your* email list if possible.
Payments are processed through PayPal. While this is the most popular way of accepting online payments, some business owners prefer other channels.
There is no marketplace at this time. Your success will depend on your personal marketing efforts. This is typically the case with any business venture however.
There is no “cart” option. If you have a number of products available for purchase, customers will need to buy them one by one.
My Sellfy Experience
The account setup and upload process was incredibly easy. E-junkie’s system makes it too easy to miss a step. With Sellfy, everything is entered and uploaded on one page.
If your product is available for $5, you should clear about $4.25 after Sellfy and PayPal fees. Whether this is the most profitable avenue for your digital products will depend on your sales volume, file size and the number of products you have available for download.
You should also take your current customer base and community into consideration. Social networks drive sales. The opportunity to offer a discount to customers for sharing could have a big impact on your bottom line.
Start selling your digital products on Sellfy today.
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About Angie Nelson
I was pleasantly surprised by how easy Sellify was to navigate and get set up. I found e-junkie to be extremely confusing and not very straight forward. This is an excellent alternative!
Thanks for this article. I haven’t previously heard of Sellfy, so the introduction to a new digital marketplace was really interesting. I like their design, and it seems quite user friendly, so I’m going to check it out!
Sounds like a pretty useful site for online sellers. I think the idea of not having to pay unless you sell something would be enticing to new sellers. That way, you can test the market for your products a bit before spending money on your online storefront.