A month ago I was sharing my opinion about why companies should open an online store now.

That’s all good information for big and medium companies, but what if you’re a single person and you do your work on the web?

I have good news for you: selling digital goods is a very profitable business, and you might want to jump into this business straight forward.

It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to sell (Flash Components, Photography, Digital Art, Blog Templates, etc), as long as it’s digital content or services. Digital goods don’t require handling, storage, mail delivery and can be sold any number of times.

Users can easily download your products, and if something isn’t right with one of the products, you can fix it and the user can download it again, at no extra charge! How cool is that?

Now that I have your attention, I’d like to give you some tips and tricks, as we’re managing our online store of digital goods for almost one year now.

Tips and Tricks

1. Invest in your brand

It’s one of the best ways you can make your users remember you. Don’t do what the crowd does. Be special, be different, create an image for you business, an image that makes users feel good about your company. This will take the relationship between you and your users to the next level, making it more personal.

2. Be original

Being original helps spread the word, as you’re selling something nobody else does. Do your best to create the most extraordinary products, and customers will come.

3. Don’t neglect Customer Service

Bringing new users to your store is not the hardest thing. Keeping users inside and making sure they return is what you should focus on.

Let your users know you are listening, by answering support queries, by opening a blog for your store and even a Twitter account.

I had an excellent experience with MT last week. Our server went down, so I wrote them an email, which was automatically replied, telling me that our email will be answered in 24 hours. I needed support right away, so I contacted them through their Twitter account. And you know what? They instantly got onto the issue and fixed our server!

That is excellent customer service, and you should offer it to, as we do!

4. Open your own Store

It’s hard to be as creative as you can, when there are some boundaries you can’t pass, so my advice is to open your own store. Build your business from scratch, in your own personal way. Users will come to your store to purchase from you, not from the competition around you.

Going on the same store where all the competition is, is not a good idea on the long term. Care to guess why? I’ll give you a hint: thousands of products such as yours, flooding the customer’s attention. Quality, not quantity. This should be your motto!

5. Have fun

Managing your own store, customers and products 24/7 is something that will take a lot of your time. If you plan on going in this direction, make sure you are passionate about your work, and ready to spend a big part of your time getting the business off the ground.

Once you do that, you’ll be able to enjoy a growing business without much hassle. Good luck!