Five questions · An afternoon’s work
> Build your first digital product
Five questions, in the order they matter. Answering them is the difference between a product someone buys and a folder nobody opens.
01
What do you already get asked about?
The reliable starting point is not what you could make, it is what people already ask you. The question you have answered three times in your inbox is a product; the one you find interesting but nobody has asked is a hobby.
02
What have you already made?
Most first products are things that already exist: the spreadsheet you built for yourself, the checklist you run every time, the deck you reuse. Packaging something finished takes a weekend. Building from scratch takes a month and usually does not ship.
03
Will anyone pay for it?
Before you build the polished version, test the idea. Ask ten people who match your buyer, describe what they would get and what it costs, and count how many ask how to pay. Enthusiasm is not a signal; a payment question is.
04
What exactly do they receive?
Decide the format before the price: a PDF reads differently from a spreadsheet, and a template that needs a tool they do not have is not a product. This is also where you choose how it is delivered and whether access should expire.
05
What do you charge, and where do you sell it?
Price against what the market already pays for comparable work, not against how long it took you. Then pick the smallest thing that can take a payment — for most first products that is one link rather than a storefront.
> Once you have something to sell
Upload the file, set a price in USD, GBP or EUR, and share one link. There is no storefront to build, no listing to wait for, and nothing to pay until it sells.
> If you already know the format
Skip to the guide for what you are making. Each covers how to build it, what it sells for and who buys it.
> Watch someone build one
The Build This Product series takes a single product from “what is it” to “what do I charge”, with the real decisions written down rather than summarised.
Build This Product: A Budget Planner
A spreadsheet people buy to fix a problem they already admit to.
Build This Product: A Stock Photo Pack
Selling work you have already shot, to a market that buys in packs.
More in the series are on the Build This Product page.
> Have the file already?
Then the hard part is done. A link takes about five minutes, and you can take it down whenever you want.
Create your first paid drop