Have you ever thought about opening your own online store? How can you start your own e-commerce portal on WordPress and sell eBooks or other digital downloads on your WordPress powered blog/website?
In the past, setting up your own digital download store seemed impossible, but thanks to various online WordPress plugins, now anyone can open a digital download store on WordPress and start making money.
Don’t let the term “digital download store” mislead you as it is just a buzzword in the business industry. To bloggers like you and me, it means:
- You can sell eBooks, plugins, or themes on your blog. (You need to have your own product or work with others to sell their products.)
- Musicians can sell their music.
- Graphic designers can sell graphics or .psd files.
- Any digital product (images, sounds, videos, templates or any other digital files) can be downloaded for a fee.
- You can provide consultation and charge a fee.
Previously, I was selling e-books on Instamojo and Gumroad . However, I needed a more reliable solution to sell my e-books internationally, as many Shouters complained about not being able to buy them outside of India.
After a lot of thinking and research, I decided it was time to sell eBooks directly on SidelinePlay. That’s when I stumbled upon a popular WordPress plugin called Easy Digital Downloads (free to use).
Another question before launching your store is:
Should I launch SidelinePlay Store on a subdomain or the main domain?
At first, I wanted to open a store on a subdomain, but then I gave up on that idea and opened the store on the main domain (Sidelineplay.com)… 🙂
In this tutorial, I’m going to share everything I’ve learned about this awesome plugin called Easy Digital Downloads.
What is EDD (Easy Digital Downloads) and how does it work?
It’s basically the WooCommerce version of digital goods.
With Easy Digital Downloads (also known as EDD), you can easily set up an online store (e-commerce store for digital downloads) in just a few hours. EDD is easy to configure and as an end-user, you can easily manage things like:
- Add or remove new products.
- Set your pricing.
- Set up a payment gateway.
It makes it easy to manage everything from your WordPress dashboard, and even adds a “Download” post type so you can easily create new entries.
What I like most about EDD is how it integrates with all the popular WordPress plugins like AffiliateWP , GravityForms , and many other popular products.
What’s more, this is a free plugin that you can try right now.
EDD offers paid add-ons, and that’s where they make their money. These paid add-ons enhance the functionality of your store, and I must say, some of the EDD add-ons are pretty significant.
Initially, I was overwhelmed by the number of add-ons and was about to purchase their add-on bundle. Fortunately, I changed my decision and only purchased the add-ons I needed.
I recommend you to choose the bundle only if you need all of these add-ons, otherwise you are better off buying the add-ons individually.
Here are the Easy Digital Downloads add-ons I purchased for my SML store:
- 2checkout Payment Gateway
- Stripe Payment Gateway
- Recommended products
- Email attachments
- PDF Stamp (can automatically print the buyer's name on the inside pages of the e-book)
Note: Indian users whose primary audience is in India should use a gateway other than PayPal due to PayPal's limitations. (Indian PayPal users cannot send or receive payments to other Indian Paypal users.) I recommend you look into other payment gateways like 2checkout and Instamojo .
The most important thing: choose the right payment gateway
The biggest challenge is choosing the right payment gateway. Depending on the country you live in and the geography of your target audience, you should choose a payment gateway that supports most payment acceptance points.
For your reference, here are the most popular payment gateways:
- Stripe (available in most countries)
- 2checkout (also supports many countries)
- Instamojo (Indians only)
- PayPal (most popular)
- Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway
EDD has built-in support for PayPal Basic, which is a great place to start if you don't want to spend money on paid add-ons.
If you want to save money right from the start, here’s another tip…
You should browse the WordPress plugin repository for free EDD plugins . Many developers have released free EDD plugins that would otherwise be paid for in the EDD Add-on Store.
Since this plugin is free, you must try it out to see what new possibilities it opens up for you. If you don’t want to test it on a live site, you can create a staging site or test it on a local WordPress installation.
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Easy Digital Downloads Review – Is It Worth It?
EDD is a great choice for all those who want to take their blogging business to the next level.
You can create your first eBook or eCourse or any digitally downloadable content and start earning money. I have been using EDD plugin for more than a year now and it is a great plugin to start a digital store on WordPress.
The team behind EDD is one of the best because they have great support if you have any questions and they always push out updates promptly.
The price of the add-on might seem a bit high from a getting started perspective, but considering the possibilities it brings to your eCommerce portal, the price is worth it. Also, my advice is to slowly add add-ons as you discover your needs.
If you have any more questions about the EDD plugin, please let me know. What and when do you plan to launch your WordPress-based digital download store?
If you liked this review of Easy Digital Downloads, please share it with other beneficiaries!
Here are some handpicked guides for you to read:
- How to Set Up the Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin [Updated]
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- AffiliateWP Plugin: Create a High-Converting Affiliate Program
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