One of the best ways to make money online is to sell digital products. You create them once, and you can sell them over and over again as they are downloaded. All you need to do is make occasional updates to ensure that everything remains fresh.

If you are looking for a way to sell digital products on a WordPress site, consider using the WordPress eStore plugin. This plugin is designed to help you quickly and easily sell any digital product or serve from a web site powered by WordPress. The eStore plugin automates the entire process so you don’t have to worry about what’s next. I just set this plugin up of five different sites in the past month, selling everything from digital items like ebooks and membership courses to physical products like books and CDs.

Features of WordPress eStore

There are a number of helpful features with this plugin. Many of the eStore plugin features are designed to make the whole process smooth for your customers, as well as for you. Here are some of the features that come with WordPress eStore:

  • Ability to automatically sell services, as well as products, from your web site. This includes non-tangible things like web hosting and subscriptions, as well as the tangible items like tickets and photos. A very popular item to sell is the digital download, usually as an ebook or course. I serve my downloads from Amazon S3, making the download process a little smoother for customers and taking any strain of my own server.
  • Amazing security. Many people worry about the security of their digital product. The eStore plugin not only provides instant delivery on payment, but it also does so in a way that the location of your product isn’t shared with the customer. It’s completely secure. You can also secure your download link from massive sharing by limiting the amount of downloads a customer can do and setting a time limit to that link.
  • Simple shopping cart and checkout process: You don’t want to lose sales due to frustrated customers. This plugin comes with a simple checkout process that allows you to set up through PayPal, 2Checkout, or Authorize.net. It’s even possible to choose manual payment. Everything is streamlined and easy to use.
  • Integrate with autoresponder. If you are using an autoresponder program, WordPress eStore Plugin can work with it. You can have customers automatically signed up for your email list, making it easy to add them to your products. All my eStore setups are integrated with Aweber, some just straight to a regular newsletter email list for that site, others have custom lists to email only buyers with update notices or special offers.
  • Integration with membership plugins. WP eStore will email out a custom registration link after purchase by integrating with plugins like Wishlist Member and WP eMember.

There are other technical and support features that make the eStore plugin a great choice. Whether you are collecting membership fees, or selling an online course, this plugin is a solid way to handle transactions automatically. That means that you can be making money online day or night, no matter where you are.

How Much Does WordPress eStore Cost?

If you want high-quality, you have to pay. However, the eStore plugin doesn’t cost as much as you think. It costs $49.95, and you only have to make one payment. That covers support, as well as free future updates. You also receive a multi-site license, so one purchase covers all of your web site download products. That $49.95 is a really good value.

WordPress eStore isn’t going to be able to handle complex shipping arrangements (using PayPal as the payment gateway solves most of the issues), but it is ideal for digital products. It works great after making the initial settings, but there are loads of custom tweaks (like url shortners and dealing out serial numbers) you can make with the tips over at their site. If you are serious about providing digital products, and you want the process to run smoothly without the need for you to do much beyond create the products, WordPress eStore is a good choice for handling those transactions.