ThemeSelection‘s journey from a marketplace-dependent vendor to an independent digital powerhouse demonstrates how the right tools and strategy can transform an eCommerce business.

Through their implementation of Easy Digital Downloads, ThemeSelection has achieved remarkable results.

Scale of Growth

• 163,000+ active users
• 196,000+ total sales
• $856,000+ lifetime net earnings
• 50+ successful products launched
• 6 years of sustainable independent operations
• $5,000-$6,000 savings per month

This case study explores how ThemeSelection successfully leveraged Easy Digital Downloads to break free from marketplace limitations and achieve complete autonomy in a thriving independent store.

ThemeSelection: Before the Transformation

As a Power Elite Author on ThemeForest, ThemeSelection had built a strong reputation for creating premium, fully coded Admin Templates and UI Kits. Their products helped developers worldwide streamline their development process and enhance productivity.

However, their success within the digital marketplace ecosystem came with increasing challenges.

Marketplace Saturation

• Increasing competition drives prices down.
• Marketing costs rose steadily.
• Profit margins became increasingly compressed.
• Product differentiation grew more difficult.

Brand Restrictions

• Limited ability to build direct customer relationships.
• No opportunity to establish a unique brand identity.
• Restricted marketing and communication options.
• Dependency on digital marketplace reputation systems.

Technical Limitations

• Inflexible licensing options.
• Restricted feature implementation.
• Limited ability to offer free and premium versions.
• Finite product update and delivery systems.

Constrained by these marketplace limitations, ThemeSelection sought a new solution. They wanted an alternative to selling on ThemeForest and other digital marketplaces.

The answer was to sell their products independently with WordPress.

“Before discovering Easy Digital Downloads, the process of building our own digital store seemed incredibly complex. We needed a platform that could handle free and pro product offerings, support different licensing models, and accept payments through multiple gateways. EDD turned out to be the perfect solution for us.”

— ThemeSelection Founder Ajay Patel.

The Solution: Switching to EDD

ThemeSelection’s move to Easy Digital Downloads represented more than a simple platform change—it was a complete business transformation.

They developed a comprehensive rollout strategy that addressed every aspect of their digital product business.

Strategic Platform Development

ThemeSelection approached its platform development with careful consideration of both immediate needs and future scalability.

Core Infrastructure Implementation

• Created a custom WordPress theme to reflect brand identity and enhance the user experience.
• Implemented EDD core plugin with carefully planned product organization and customer flow.
• Developed custom features to support their unique business requirements.
• Established direct customer communication channels.

Comprehensive Addon Integration

Transformative Results

Over the past six years, the impact of ThemeSelection’s transition from a restrictive third-party marketplace to an EDD-powered solution has been transformative across all business metrics — quantitative and qualitative.

By not having to pay marketplace fees, ThemeSelection saves approximately 30-40% of their earnings.

That money was reinvested into their own store and a new platform, creating a more sustainable revenue stream.

Plus, running their own store eliminates the issue of earning saturation, which is common on marketplaces. This autonomy has helped them avoid unhealthy competition.

Instead, they can focus on growth and long-term success without limitations.

💰 Growth & Success By the Numbers

• 163,119 total users
• $5,000-$6,000 savings per month
• 50+ products launched and managed
• 196,810+ total sales
• $856,687+ in lifetime net earnings

📈 Customer Relationship Management

• Direct communication with users led to better product development.
• Ability to provide personalized support and build lasting relationships.
• Valuable customer insights through direct feedback and usage data.

🖌 Brand Development

• Established unique market positioning.
• Built strong brand recognition independent of marketplaces.
• Created consistent brand experience across all touchpoints.
• Eliminated earning saturation common on marketplaces.

⚙️ Operational Efficiency

• Streamlined product release and update processes.
• Automated key business functions.
• Reduced administrative overhead.

“The more effort put into building an attractive store and marketing, the higher the potential for increased revenue,” explained Patel. “By moving away from marketplaces and building our own platform with Easy Digital Downloads, we’ve established a direct connection with our customers, improved our margins, and grew our brand.”

Strategic Steps to Success

ThemeSelection’s success in moving away from a digital marketplace toward an independent online store wasn’t just about the technology—it was about strategic implementation and vision.

Platform customization excellence. Rather than settling for out-of-the-box solutions, ThemeSelection leveraged its development expertise to:

• Create a unique shopping experience aligned with customer needs.
• Implement custom features for their specific market.
• Design intuitive user interfaces for both free and premium products.
• Build efficient workflows for their team.

Strategic add-on implementation. Their methodical approach to building functionality included:

• Careful evaluation of each add-on’s ROI.
• Phased implementation to ensure smooth integration.
• Custom development as needed to bridge functionality gaps.
• Regular review and optimization of installed features.

Customer-centric infrastructure. Every decision was made with the customer journey in mind:

• Simplified purchase and download processes.
• Clear licensing and usage terms.
• Automated update delivery.
• Integrated support systems.

“The ability to control our sales process, offer flexible licensing, and provide a seamless customer experience has had a transformative impact on our business. We’ve built something that truly serves our customers while growing our brand.

Best Practices & Implementation Tips

ThemeSelection’s experience offers valuable insights to anyone trying to escape digital marketplace fees and limitations.

Patel encourages users to start with the core EDD plugin. Then gradually incorporate add-ons that most align with your business needs.

He explains that EDD extensions become essential for streamlining processes, especially when you start scaling with many products.

A modular approach to the EDD addon ecosystem offers flexibility to customize your store without overwhelming your team.

Patel also recommends using opportunities to customize Easy Digital Downloads to best fit your brand. For instance, this could include using custom themes or extending plugin functionality.

“EDD has been the backbone of our digital store, enabling us to achieve our goals and grow our business significantly,” Patel said. “We’re proud to be part of the EDD community and highly recommend it to anyone looking to sell digital products with ease and flexibility.”

Start Your Own Digital Success Story

ThemeSelection’s journey from digital marketplace dependency to independent e-commerce success demonstrates the transformative potential of Easy Digital Downloads.

Their experience shows that with the right platform, strategy, and execution, creators can ditch restrictive marketplaces and build a more profitable and sustainable business.

Ready to start your own independent and successful journey? Download Easy Digital Downloads and build your online product store in no time.

You can visit ThemeSelection.com to explore their premium bootstrap admin templates, SaaS boilerplates, and UI kits. Connect with CEO Ajay Patel on LinkedIn or X for industry insights and updates.

📣 Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter/X, or LinkedIn for more WordPress resources!

The post How ThemeSelection Used EDD to Break Free from Marketplace Constraints first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

This case study explores how CEO and product configurator specialist Josu Sanz Uniz used Easy Digital Downloads to address these challenges and achieve remarkable results for WPConfigurator—the leading provider of product configurator solutions for WordPress.

Meet WPConfigurator

WPConfigurator is a user-friendly plugin for WordPress renowned for being the most intuitive product configurator available on the market. The innovative solution allows customers to customize products to their liking directly within WordPress easily.

WPConfigurator empowers businesses across various sectors—including electronics, fashion, and personalized gifts—by providing a platform where users can see their customizations take shape in real time. It enhances the user experience, as well as aids businesses in boosting engagement and sales through its interactive approach to product personalization.

Main Challenges & Goals

When choosing a WordPress-based eCommerce platform, WPConfigurator CEO Josu Sanz Uriz said the primary goals were to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of online sales for digital products and licenses.

WPConfigurator sought a user-friendly solution to streamline its sales process, ensure secure license management, and deliver a seamless customer experience.

How EDD Supercharged Sales & Satisfaction

As the best digital eCommerce plugin for WordPress, Easy Digital Downloads emerged as the perfect solution for WPConfigurators’ needs.

“What attracted us to EDD was its robust license management system, which allows for seamless activation and deactivation of licenses—a critical feature for our business model where control over digital content distribution is paramount,” Uriz explained.

EDD’s features and add-ons helped WPConfigurator address a handful of key challenges and reap significant benefits, such as the following.

Enhanced Customer Experience & Engagement

Easy Digital Downloads’ user-friendly purchase system simplifies the buying process for customers, ensuring users can easily purchase licenses with minimal friction.

This translates to increased sales and fosters customer satisfaction and loyalty. EDD offers features and tools that save both WPConfigurator and its customers time, such as Auto Register which enables customers to create user accounts during purchase automatically.

Robust License Management

For WPConfigurator, maintaining control over digital product distribution was paramount. EDD’s powerful license management system delivers complete control.

With features like seamless license activation and deactivation, WPConfigurator can ensure that only authorized users have access to their products, protecting their intellectual property.

Intuitive Backend Management

Managing an online store requires constant monitoring and oversight. EDD’s user-friendly, intuitive design and backend functionality make it easy for WPConfigurator to manage and oversee its entire operation from a single, cohesive, easy-to-navigate environment.

From adding new products and managing inventory to tracking sales data and customer information, EDD provides a centralized hub for efficient store management.

EDD + WPConfigurator: Key Results & Impact

The streamlined purchase process facilitated by EDD has demonstrably improved customer satisfaction. Customers can now effortlessly purchase licenses and access their products, leading to a more positive overall shopping experience.

WPConfigurator has also experienced enhanced operational efficiency as EDD’s user-friendly interface has simplified store management. 

“Our choice of EDD was driven by our need to increase online sales while ensuring a smooth operation and superior management of digital product licenses,” explained Uniz. “EDD has proven to be the best system for achieving these objectives on the WordPress platform.”

WPConfigurator Winning Strategies & Tips

There are various strategies and tools WPConfigurator highlights and attributes to their success with EDD. For instance, prioritizing the customer experience with a user-friendly purchase process and embracing secure digital product and license distribution.

Below are a few additional tactics, tips, and insights from WPConfigurator that “could help other EDD users shorten their learning curve and achieve better results with their digital stores.”

1. Implement a strong SEO strategy

Regarding WPConfigurator’s experience with Easy Digital Downloads, Uniz said that focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and optimizing their website for search engines has been one of the most impactful strategies.

It’s significantly reduced their dependence on paid advertising and generated organic traffic and a steady stream of qualified leads, ultimately boosting sales.

2. Invest in EDD Pro add-ons

Another strategy that has been crucial to WPConfigurator’s success is investing in premium EDD extensions, which enhance the functionality and efficiency of stores.

WPConfigurator uses EDD extensions that provide features that aren’t available in the standard lite version, such as:

• Invoices provides automated invoice generation for purchases.
• All Access, Content Restriction, and Hide Download to easily control content and product access based on license ownership.
• Discounts Pro and Free Downloads to offer targeted promotions and free product giveaways, fostering customer engagement and driving sales.

“The added capabilities help us tailor the customer experience and streamline operations, which in turn boosts our sales and customer satisfaction,” Uniz explained.

🔎 Learn more about EDD Free vs Pro

3. Automate license renewal reminders

Customer retention is crucial for recurring revenue generation. WPConfigurator leverages the power of EDD’s email system to send automated license renewal reminders at strategic intervals—specifically 1 month, 15 days, 10 days, 5 days, 2 days, and 1 day before a license expires.

This proactive approach ensures that customers are informed about expiring licenses and encourages timely renewals, resulting in a stable revenue stream.

Replicate WPConfigurator’s Growth With EDD

WPConfigurator’s experience serves as a blueprint for businesses selling digital products online. It demonstrates how Easy Digital Downloads can empower businesses to streamline sales, manage digital products effectively, and enhance customer experience.

To learn more about WPConfigurator, feel free to visit their website at https://www.wpconfigurator.com. 

If you haven’t already, grab your pass to get started with Easy Digital Downloads today:

📣 P.S. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook or Twitter for more WordPress resources!

The post How WPConfigurator Uses Easy Digital Downloads to Grow Revenue Through Licensing & Efficiency first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

That’s what motivated Set Sail Studios to find and begin using Easy Digital Downloads in 2016.

In this case study, I’ll explain how type-foundry Set Sail Studios has used Easy Digital Downloads to drive revenue (over $236,000 in sales!) and boost downloads.

Meet Sam Parrett

Set Sail Studios is a type foundry owned and operated by U.K. designer Sam Parrett.

After Parrett he honed his design skills as a freelance designer in the music industry, he has since created a flourishing, world-renowned font foundry business that includes more than 100 typefaces used by some of the biggest brands and agencies worldwide.

Setting Sail With Ambition

Prior to Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), Parrett wasn’t content with the restrictions of third-party font vendors.

With the vendors in decline and taking more commission from font designers (at least 50% per sale), he envisioned a direct connection with the designers—the ability to offer his unique fonts without hefty commissions or limited control.

Enter: Easy Digital Downloads.

Since creating his EDD store in 2016, Parrett’s been able to rely less on third-party vendors and more on his own store, “which I have full control over and receive the full sale amount only minus transaction fees.”

Achieving Digital Selling Success

Choosing EDD wasn’t a random choice. Parrett needed a platform that was user-friendly, seamlessly integrated with WordPress, and catered specifically to digital products.
EDD ticked all the boxes, offering:

• A smooth WordPress integration: The familiar WordPress environment eased the learning curve and allowed Parrett to focus on the creative aspects of his store.
• Flexible sales management: EDD offered complete control over pricing, promotions, and product configurations, giving Parrett the freedom to tailor his offerings to his audience.
• Streamlined download delivery: Secure and automatic downloads ensured a smooth experience for customers, minimizing technical hiccups.
• A treasure trove of add-ons: EDD’s library of add-ons provided powerful tools to enhance the store’s functionality.

From 2016 onwards, Set Sail Studios has charted a remarkable course with EDD as its compass. Here are some key milestones:

• Over $236,537.80 in earnings generated, showcasing the platform’s ability to drive sales.
• 77,776 downloads, including free offerings, demonstrating strong customer engagement and brand awareness.
• Ability to bypass third-party vendors to keep full control over pricing and enjoy higher profit margins.
• The Free Downloads and MailPoet integration resulted in a 15,000-strong email subscriber list, fostering communication and nurturing leads.
• The Multi Currency add-on removed barriers for international customers, expanding Set Sail Studios’ reach and appeal.

Beyond the Horizon

Parrett’s journey with EDD isn’t over, as he continues to explore new features and strategies, such as implementing AffiliateWP to further boost customer acquisition and SEO.

But Parrett’s success story offers valuable insights for aspiring digital creators.

Embrace the free download to email marketing funnel

The Free Download and MailPoet integration has helped Set Sail Studios secure an ongoing stream of new customers and increase repeat purchases through email marketing. You can use it to attract new customers, build relationships, and convert them into paying fans.

Leverage the power of add-ons

Tailor your store with features that address specific needs and enhance your selling strategy. For instance, in addition to MailPoet, Free Downloads, and Multi-Currency, Set Sail Studios also uses Amazon S3 add-on as a simple solution to integrate and manage their database of fonts.

Don’t be afraid to chart your own course

EDD empowers you to take control, experiment, and build a business that reflects your vision. There are plenty of premium extensions, features, and integrations to choose from to suit your specific needs and enhance your eCommerce success.

Start Your Online Store With EDD

Set Sail Studios, with the help of Easy Digital Downloads, continues to conquer the digital selling seas, offering unique fonts and building a loyal community of design enthusiasts. Their story is a powerful testament to the potential of creativity, technology, and the right tools coming together to chart a course toward success.

To learn more about Set Sail Studios or explore their stunning fonts, visit their website at https://www.setsailstudios.com.

Want to experience the power of Easy Digital Downloads yourself? Grab your pass today:

Grab an Easy Digital Downloads Pass

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The post How Set Sail Studios Earned $236K+ in Sales With Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

That’s exactly what Escape Room Geeks was looking for when they began using Easy Digital Downloads (EDD).

In this case study, we’ll explore how Escape Room Kits used Easy Digital Downloads to achieve significant revenue growth (over $390,000 in sales) and improve customer satisfaction.

Meet Escape Room Geeks

In the thrilling world of escape rooms, Escape Room Geeks stands as a pioneer, offering printable digital games that unleash the mysteries and excitement of escape experiences right at home.

What once started as a fun apartment game idea among friends is now a global online business offering print-and-play escape room kits for all ages. Escape Room Geeks’ immersive and exciting puzzles make it easy to transform any place into a thrilling adventure.

Users can use the website or mobile app to explore and choose from dozens of high-quality, world-class escape room kits.

Unlike other types of escape room games, customers can download and play them immediately. Games can be personalized and adapted based on group size. They’re also available in 7 languages spanning 6 continents.

Escaping from Checkout Chaos

Prior to Easy Digital Downloads, Escape Room Geeks faced a critical obstacle – a clunky, inconvenient checkout process that threatened to hurt sales and customer satisfaction.

Escape Room Geeks Growth Marketer Nikola Gulevski was looking for a solution to deliver a hassle-free checkout experience and an intuitive download section to give users easy and convenient access to their purchased games.

With the goal of streamlining the checkout, enhancing user satisfaction, and improving operational efficiency, Escape Room Geeks turned to Easy Digital Downloads.

Unlocking Efficiency via Easy Digital Downloads

As the leading WordPress eCommerce solution for digital selling, Easy Digital Downloads helps online sellers start and grow their businesses.

For Escape Room Geeks, Easy Digital Downloads’ intuitive interface ensures frictionless transactions. Accessing purchased games became a breeze, with user-friendly download sections putting players in the heart of the action.

Utilizing EDD to manage digital sales also gave the Escape Room Geeks team more freedom to focus on crafting new puzzles and escapes.

Escape Room Geeks doesn’t just use EDD, they’ve mastered it. They strategically deploy a suite of EDD addons to further enhance their success.

• Commissions and AffiliateWP fuel a network of content creators and affiliates, expanding Escape Room Geeks’ reach and unlocking new audiences.
• Variable Price Switcher and Discounts Pro provide flexibility and empower players to choose prices and benefit from targeted discounts.
• Multi-Currency helps facilitate global transactions to welcome players from around the world.
• ConvertKit is useful for nurturing customer relationships and keeping players engaged and eager for their next digital escape.
• Recapture helps recover and reduce abandoned carts, turning lost leads into loyal players.

“The strategic use of these addons has not only streamlined our operations, but also positively influenced our revenue and market expansion,” Gulevski explains.

A Treasure Trove of Success

The impact of EDD is nothing short of game-changing.

• $390,000 in Sales: EDD unlocked a treasure chest of revenue, exceeding expectations and fueling Escape Room Geeks’ growth.
• 16,800 Individual Transactions: Customers flocked to join the digital escape room revolution, with purchases soaring like an enthusiastic high five.
• 16,000 Annual Downloads: High download rates confirm that players are engaged and immersed in the games, unlocking clues and conquering challenges with gusto.
• 50% reduction in abandoned shopping carts demonstrated the effectiveness of the Recapture addon.

Escape Room Geeks’ Nuggets of Wisdom

Escape Room Geeks’ journey offers valuable lessons for using Easy Digital Downloads and conquering the digital sales landscape. Below are some key tips Gulevski has for other online sellers:

• Prioritize checkout simplicity. Make purchasing as smooth as possible to drive sales and improve customer satisfaction.
• Combat abandoned carts. Tools like Recapture can be your secret weapon against lost sales and contribute to significant revenue boosts.
• Embrace the EDD ecosystem. Explore and integrate various EDD addons like Commissions, AffiliateWP, and Discounts Pro. Each serves a unique purpose, from expanding your marketing reach to incentivizing affiliates and offering flexible pricing.
• Cater to a global audience. Utilize the Multi-Currency addon to make your products accessible and appealing to customers worldwide.
• Engage beyond the purchase. Keep the adventure alive with post-purchase communications using tools like ConvertKit.
• Learn from the community. Gather valuable insights, strategies, and solutions from the engaging EDD community.

Gulevski also notes the importance of “regularly reviewing your sales data and customer feedback. Understanding what works and what doesn’t allows you to adapt your strategy for better results.”

Elevate eCommerce with Easy Digital Downloads

Escape Room Geeks’ success story is a testament to the power of Easy Digital Downloads. By harnessing EDD’s flexibility and potential, they’ve not only conquered the challenge of digital sales but also unlocked a world of adventure, excitement, and rewards (like $390,000 in revenue).

To learn more about these ready-to-play escape room kits, check out the Escape Room Geeks website at https://escaperoomgeeks.com/.

Ready to embark on your own digital sales quest? Let Easy Digital Downloads be your guide, and prepare to unlock a trove of online-selling success!

Grab an Easy Digital Downloads Pass

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The post How Escape Room Geeks Earned $390K+ with EDD first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

To showcase some of its power, we’ll highlight how plugin developer Adrian Tobey utilized EDD to help grow a sophisticated and impressive network of WordPress marketing automation & Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.

Let’s dive in.

Meet Adrian Tobey, Founder & Lead Developer

Adrian Tobey is the founder and lead developer of Groundhogg Inc., a suite of digital marketing and sales plugins for WordPress, including:

• Groundhogg (CRM and Marketing Automation)
• MailHawk (SMTP and Email Delivery)
• HollerBox (Popups and Lead Generation)
• FormLift (Infusionsoft Forms for WordPress)
• WP Simple Chat (Live Facebook Chat Plugin)

Adrian utilized EDD as a crucial platform to optimize his online stores. He was initially drawn to Easy Digital Downloads back in 2018 while setting up his first store on FormLift.net.

Seeing other successful plugin developers using EDD, he recognized it as the optimal solution for his eCommerce needs. His primary aim was to increase sales of digital products and streamline the selling process.

“Ease of integration was paramount. As a developer building marketing tools, I need to be able to easily access data. Fortunately, EDD has always been very developer friendly.”

The ease of integration with EDD, particularly for developers, allowed him to access vital data and make informed marketing decisions. Additionally, the ability to serve plugin updates through EDD and pull updates directly from GitHub provided a unique and efficient solution, reducing logistical overhead.

Key Results and Business Impact

The combined stores of Groundhogg Inc. (FormLift.net, Groundhogg.io, MailHawk.io, and HollerWP.com), have successfully served over 6,000 customers from more than 65 countries.

This impressive customer base has resulted in generating mid-six figures in revenue annually. Easy Digital Downloads has played a pivotal role in achieving these markable results.

Using EDD Add-ons to Enhance Online Selling Strategy

Adrian leverages various Easy Digital Downloads extensions to enhance his online selling strategy. For serving WordPress plugins, he uses addons like Software Licensing, GitHub Repo Integration, and Recurring Payments. Stripe Pro and PayPal Commerce provide secure and reliable payment processing.

“We heavily rely on our Groundhogg Integration with EDD to manage our customers and collect leads.”

The integration of Groundhogg with EDD fuels effective customer management and lead collection. Groundhogg segments customers based on their purchase history and activity, facilitating targeted marketing campaigns for new products.

It also aids in excluding existing customers from sales and promotions intended for new customers. Groundhogg’s drip email series successfully onboards new customers, reducing refunds and cancellations.

HollerBox is used to boost lead generation. An exit intent popup on the checkout page offers a 15% discount code, which has proven highly effective. The popup itself converts at 11%, and those who receive the discount code convert at approximately 25%, showcasing its value.

Groundhogg integrations include other tools backed by the same family company as EDD, such as MonsterInsights and AffiliateWP.

MonsterInsights is used to track and collect detailed web analytics, gathering key data about where customers come from and accurately project revenue. The MonsterInsights integration with EDD makes it super easy to correlate revenue with Adwords and SEO initiatives.

Affiliates play a vital role in Groundhogg Inc.’s inbound lead strategy. The seamless integration of AffiliateWP with EDD ensures proper revenue attribution and streamlined payout of affiliate earnings.

Adrian’s Valuable Tips & Insights for Online Sellers

Based on his experience using Easy Digital Downloads, Adrian shares valuable insights to help others optimize their online selling:

• Have a clear and generous refund policy to instill customer confidence and increase sales. Highlight a money-back guarantee wherever possible on the website.
• Utilize the EDD Stripe Pro addon to avoid transaction fees and optimize payment processing.
• Incorporate a few reviews on the checkout page to establish trust and credibility.
• Consider creating multiple products instead of relying solely on price variations, particularly when selling plugin licenses. Price variations can limit integrations and reporting capabilities. Reserve price variations for updating product prices to ensure a smooth transition for existing customers.
• Offer discounts generously, ensuring they provide value both for the business and customers.

Enhancing eCommerce Experiences with EDD

Easy Digital Downloads has been instrumental in empowering Groundhogg achieve results selling digital products online. By leveraging the various EDD add-ons and implementing effective strategies, they have successfully increased sales, streamlined processes, and provided a seamless user experience for their large customer base.

Adrian’s experience and insights are valuable lessons for other online sellers looking to maximize their potential with Easy Digital Downloads. To learn more about Groundhogg’s powerful and impressive suite of marketing tools, visit their website at https://www.groundhogg.io/.

You can also give Easy Digital Downloads a try and see for yourself how it can help take your eCommerce business to the next level!

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The post From Startup to Success: How Easy Digital Downloads Helped Groundhogg Thrive first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Sarah runs a website called The Arty Teacher – a blog and digital product store that provides downloadable lesson plans, worksheets, and units of work to art teachers around the globe.

On Sarah’s website, teachers can find everything from drawing lessons and image banks, to classroom activities and blog posts with plenty of inspiration.

“I wanted to develop resources that would help teachers to bring out the best in every student in every class,” she says. “I also wanted to free-up staff from time-consuming lesson preparation to let them focus instead on delivering exciting, motivating, dynamic lessons, supported by excellent resources.”

With over 20 years of experience as an art teacher, Sarah says she loves being in the classroom. But, maintaining a regular teaching schedule while creating educational resources and running a website at the same time is a tall order for one person.

Fortunately, Easy Digital Downloads makes it possible.

“My website and EDD provides the automation I need so that I can still teach and grow a business that has made my website the number one place to go for art lesson plans created by a UK art teacher,” she says.

The Arty Teacher is a good example to show how people in traditional professions like education can expand their income avenues, find new outlets for their skills, and help others through selling digital products.

In Sarah’s case, her teaching skills are highly transferable to digital products – and they’re more needed than ever.

Coronavirus and digital downloads

With schools closed all over the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers have had to adapt to entire schedules of remote teaching and all of the challenges that come along with it. As a result, digital resources have become essential to education systems everywhere.

With this in mind, Sarah decided to put together a whole section of “home and hybrid learning” resources created – and curated – specifically for these teachers.

“This home learning page was created as a result of school closures due the coronavirus pandemic,” Sarah says on her website. “COVID-19 certainly created a unique set of challenges for art teachers.”

Sarah’s resources not only make it possible for teachers to cope with the increased pressure to keep students engaged from a distance; they are crucial for many.

“In these high-pressured COVID times my resources have been described as sanity-saving,” Sarah says.

Indeed, as the work, school, and social lives of so many have become largely digital in nature, digital products are certainly more important than ever! 

Putting it all together

Sarah’s products are predominantly documents and photos, both of which we’ve written about in our posts Selling documents and Selling photographs. 

She tells us:

“Teaching resources is a highly competitive market and flexibility is essential.”

It’s true: Documents are one of the most popular types of digital products out there. In fact, at EDD, people selling documents make up our third largest audience segment!

And as for photographs? They’re also on our top 12 list.

With such large markets that have plenty of competition and low barriers to entry, people who sell documents and photographs need to find a competitive edge. For Sarah this means giving her customers options.

Subscriptions change the game

“Being able to create different types of subscriptions with the Recurring Payments add-on has been the most useful tool in EDD,” she says. “It has enabled me to attract a wide range of customers.”

Not only does Sarah appeal to a wider audience with subscriptions; She also uses it in her marketing strategy.

More specifically, she offers a free subscription that allows art teachers to sample specific lessons, and promotes it on social media to attract new customers. Often, free subscribers end up purchasing single resources and becoming paid subscribers.

This is one of the most effective strategies when it comes to the subscription model in general. If you’re looking for more information about different digital product store business models, check out this post.

Beyond the free content, Sarah’s customers can choose a paid subscription and get access to 10 resources per month.

“Initially, I only offered an annual subscription, which was too expensive for some art teachers,” she says. “Being able to also offer a monthly subscription has seen my number of subscribers grow.”

Sarah says she’s working towards having a core of subscribers from every English-speaking country in the world.

“With Recurring Payments, this is a realistic goal,” she says.

Other useful extensions

To run The Arty Teacher, Sarah uses a variety of extensions and add-ons to manage everything from product reviews to credit card payments, including:

• All Access
• Conditional Emails
• Currency Switcher for Easy Digital Downloads
• Mailchimp
• Recommended Products
• Recurring Payments
• Reviews
• Stripe Payment Gateway

Sarah says that using the Stripe Payment Gateway extension in particular has resulted in massive revenue growth for her website.

“Initially I just used Paypal. Adding Stripe so that I can accept card payments has meant that I now turnover double in Stripe compared to Paypal each month,” she says.

And when it comes to email marketing, Sarah says that the Mailchimp extension has given her useful data she otherwise wouldn’t have had.

“I had had no idea that my weekly newsletter was the most valuable part of my marketing strategy,” she says. “More importantly, this new data revealed that many of my customers were converting to paid subscribers after receiving my newsletter.”

We wrote a whole post about digital product store newsletters over here.

How it’s going

We asked Sarah if she’d share some figures with us on the success of her EDD store, and she said that both her turnover and new subscriptions have quadrupled in the past year alone!

She continues:

“I have more than doubled the traffic to the website comparing this year to last year. I’m delighted to say a massive 87% of annual subscribers choose to let their subscription renew.”

And this, Sarah says, is how she measures success.

“It tells me they value the resources and information I have been providing,” she says, “and it makes me feel that I am doing the right thing in creating resources that I would enjoy using myself.”

The art of work-life balance

For people like Sarah, managing a day job while running a digital product business can mean a lot of extra working hours. Even when things are going well – perhaps especially when things are going well – it requires a concentrated effort to create and maintain a work-life balance.

Often, there’s simply not enough time in the day to do everything, and something has to give. If the goal is growth, there may come a time when the digital product business overtakes the day job.

For many people, this is the goal.

“I would like to achieve more of a work life balance by teaching less in the future,” Sarah says. “I don’t want to stop teaching, but I’d like to devote more time to my website.”

It’s clear that Sarah is passionate about teaching, and we are glad that EDD helps her monetize her expertise and support art teachers around the world with her products. Selling digital products can be truly life-changing for creators, but the effects can be felt throughout entire communities as well.

More community, more creative outlets, and more lifestyle freedom – that’s what The EDDge is all about!

Do you have your own EDD success story to share? Email us at support@easydigitaldownloads.com and tell us how Easy Digital Downloads gives you The EDDge!

The post The Arty Teacher: Supporting art teachers around the world with digital products first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

He says himself:

“designing, building, launching, and scaling products is my jam — especially WordPress products.”

And he’s right. His latest product with Philippines-based WordPress specialist Jeffrey Carandang is called Iceberg, and it is yet another beautiful EDD use case that deserves the spotlight.

So, in this edition of our customer showcase series The EDDge, we take a closer look!

South to north and back again

A creative and industrious person by nature, Rich began his career in 2011 as a designer at a small marketing firm in North Georgia. But his skills would soon bring him to New York City, where he worked in UI design for web, iOS, and Android apps.

“I’ve pretty much always had a knack for making stuff: websites, WordPress themes, WordPress blocks, Photoshop resources, and the like,” he says.

And make stuff he did!

During his time in the city, Rich founded his popular WordPress theme store ThemeBeans using EDD. Then, in the years after moving back to North Georgia in 2014, he went on to create Merlin WP (on-boarding wizard), Block Unit Test (plugin), and co-found Gutenberg block plugins CoBlocks and Block Gallery – the latter of which won first place in the 2018 Automattic Design Awards for Best Solution.

With such a portfolio, Rich exemplifies one of the best things about the WordPress scene:

The limitless creative possibilities.

In 2019, he sold ThemeBeans, CoBlocks, Block Gallery, and Block Unit Test to domain registrar juggernaut and web hosting company GoDaddy and became their Senior Product Manager of WordPress Experience, too.

Wow. Did you catch all of that?!

As for 2020? Welcome, Iceberg.

What is Iceberg?

Since WordPress launched its new block editor Gutenberg, a lot of people have either loved or hated the user experience – with many wishing for a simpler solution more similar to a standard word processor.

This is especially true when it comes to writing long-form content like blog posts and articles. So, to give people writing long-form content a more elegant, streamlined experience, Rich and Jeffrey created Iceberg.

In their own words:

“Iceberg is a beautiful, flexible, and entirely theme-able markdown editor for crafting articles with the new WordPress block editor. The plugin allows you to write within WordPress in a way that feels much more natural – and enjoyable – than working with blocks.”

“Our goal is not to remove blocks, but rather to deemphasize them – and any non-essential elements within the editor – to promote a focus on writing.”

Want to make Iceberg your own? You can!

“The best part of Iceberg is that every aspect of the editor is entirely customizable. From colors, fonts, line width/height, markdown support, shortcuts, interface display options, and more. Require a higher contrast ratio? Check. Bigger font sizes for improved readability? Done. A hot pink accent color, because it’s on brand? Too easy.”

It’s obvious that Iceberg is modern, beautiful, and functionally solid, but what makes it an interesting EDD use case?

Well, consider that people who sell WordPress plugins account for about 13% of our customer base at EDD.

That’s huge.

Plugins are one of the most popular types of products to sell online, in fact. So, let’s look at the specifics to see what Rich and Jeffrey have used to make Iceberg a winning choice for consumers.

A bulletproof EDD extension stack

Having built a number of EDD-powered shops between the two of them, Rich and Jeffrey have used the following suite of extensions in essentially every case:

• Mailchimp
• Manual Purchases
• Recurring Payments
• Software Licensing
• Slack

“Mailchimp connects our customers to our email list (if they’ve opted-in on our custom checkout view of course). Manual Purchases is a must-have for easy testing/purchase creation. Recurring Payments lets us run annual subscriptions for our software, keeping Iceberg a healthy and viable product that our team can afford to maintain and enhance.

The Slack extension is useful for logging purchase notifications within our private Slack sales channel. I find it particularly helpful being able to reference sales quickly and scan for any potential issues with sales. It’s also fun and motivating getting fun notifications for incoming sales.”

But above all, software licensing is perhaps the most essential functionality required for selling plugins like Iceberg.

Rich says:

“The EDD Software Licensing functionality is an integral facet of Iceberg. Without it, we’d likely have found another solution to provide those mechanisms. But, having worked with the extension quite a bit on previous projects, we knew how simple it’d be to integrate properly within Iceberg, though naturally we wanted to take it a step further — which Jeffrey and I are known for doing.”

They wanted to create a seamless experience that required no page reloads, allowing the user to do everything within the editor – even license activation.

“We wanted to bring the license activation flow within the Gutenberg editor, as part of the Iceberg settings modal. That meant designing a proper UX flow, and a corresponding React component to fire off the requests. It was a bit challenging, but we’re quite proud of the simplicity offered by keeping the entire Iceberg experience focused within the editor.”

In layman’s terms? It’s sleek and very easy to use!

Real-world results

So, what’s the outcome of all of this?

Rich says:

“Iceberg launched late May and currently we are averaging about $2,500 a month. When we launched we decided to roll with a lifetime purchase option at $199, along with two subscription-based pricing tiers: $49 annually for one site and $99 for unlimited sites. Interestingly enough, 34% of customers opt for the lifetime option, while the remaining 66% are on an annually renewing subscription. Not too shabby.”

A focus on the future

With products like plugins, themes, software, and web-based services, the work is never truly done, as there are additional elements like updates and support to consider.

But, when you’re passionate about what you do, that’s not a big problem!

“While the initial release of Iceberg is markedly an improvement from the writing experience within WordPress, we still have a lot of ideas to execute in order to continuously iterate and improve upon the foundation we’ve launched. That saying, our primary goal is to empower publishers with the tools to better share their thoughts with the world.

In addition, we want to continue building a sustainable and profitable business while having fun making great software.”

The bigger picture

“Down to its core, I personally define success as a measurement of happiness and fulfillment in their purest forms. I feel on top of the world if I’m doing what I love and find fulfillment in what I’m doing.”

Rich Tabor (Co-founder, Iceberg)

We like to think that enabling creators like Rich to do what they do best with tools like EDD has far-reaching effects; When you can experience fulfillment in what you do, you’re better able to create things that help and inspire others.

In this case, products like Iceberg are born – enabling many people using WordPress to optimize their own experience creating content, which then affects consumers of that content, and so on!

Plus, at the end of the day, selling digital products often means more time to spend with the ones you love, and more freedom to create the life you want.

We are so proud of our customers at EDD, and seeing what Rich has created over the years is inspirational. We hope that this post has given you some food for thought – especially if you sell WordPress plugins yourself!

Do you have your own EDD success story to share? Email us at support@easydigitaldownloads.com and tell us how Easy Digital Downloads gives you The EDDge!

Illustration by Jessica Johnston

The post The EDDge: Rich Tabor and his latest digital product Iceberg first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Scott Deluzio is the founder of Amplify Plugins, and an experienced developer known for popular WordPress plugins like WP1099, a product he designed to ease the burden of 1099-MISC reporting for multi-vendor marketplace store owners and managers of online affiliate marketing programs.

Scott also served in the Connecticut Army National Guard (including deployment to Afghanistan) and worked for 6 years in accounting and finance, giving him an attention to detail and unique perspective that informs his development work to this day.

But, let’s rewind to 2000, where it all started!

The best motivator is necessity

Hailing from Arizona, Scott got his start in web development in college, when he decided to build a website for his dad’s consulting business. With no experience to start, Scott picked up an HTML book and taught himself all of the basics he needed to make a functional website.

Seeing the real-world results that came from this work planted the seed that would eventually grow into a full-time website design, maintenance, and support business – and ultimately, Amplify Plugins.

However, this journey wasn’t exactly linear, and it wasn’t without obstacles.

From the grind to the genesis

Scott has a story that’s relatable to a lot of freelancers and digital product creators out there – he’s no stranger to the struggle.

“I have had jobs in the past where getting out of bed in the morning was pure torture. I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy what I was doing, but I did it anyway because there were bills to pay,” he says.

Sound familiar?

The truth is, it’s not easy to find that sweet spot between engaging your passions and making money – and there’s no magic wand to make it happen overnight. But, Scott managed to transform his career (and his lifestyle) using Easy Digital Downloads to sell his products.

For many digital product creators, this all sounds like a far-off dream. What does it really take to make that switch? It can all be a bit…intimidating, to say the least.

For Scott, it started with solving his own problems.

“During some of the slower periods of the freelance work, I would build plugins that would make my own life easier. I guess you can say I was ‘scratching my own itch’,” he says. “I figured that I wouldn’t be the only person in the world who would want some of these plugins, so I put them up for sale.”

But, Scott needed an infrastructure that would allow him to sell digital products. Enter EDD!

Building a digital store

One of Scott’s earlier products was an “add-in” for Microsoft Excel. Although the add-in was technically a desktop product, he still needed a way to sell per-user licenses. With the help of EDD’s Software Licensing extension, Scott was able to do this – and dramatically increase his revenue in the process.

“While other alternatives existed, EDD provided the simplest approach to getting a shop set up quickly.”

Scott Deluzio

“I was originally selling the product as an unlimited use product. Essentially, I had no way to track how many times it was installed, so I couldn’t really sell it any other way. Once I added EDD’s Software Licensing extension to it, I was able to sell multiple licenses to the same customer, which was very handy when large organizations wanted to purchase it for their entire accounting department!”

The good news: Sales were coming in! Making any money at all from his creative output was exciting, especially with very little marketing.

“I wasn’t getting rich at the rate that they were selling, but considering the minimal effort I put in, I was doing OK.” 

But, there was potential to grow something bigger.

“About a year after I got started selling on EDD I realized that very few of my customers were renewing. This meant that I had to struggle on day 365 just as hard as I did on day 1 for every single sale. Realizing that this wasn’t a very sustainable business model, I quickly grabbed the Recurring Payments extension. […] I implemented recurring payments in September 2016, so the first renewals started coming in about a year later. That coupled with a focus on marketing the products I’m selling resulted in about a 140% increase in sales between 2016 and 2017.”

“I make more in recurring revenue each month now than the annual license for Recurring Payments costs.”

Scott Deluzio

Ultimately, EDD was a game-changer for Scott, who now has a thriving eCommerce business.

“If it weren’t for Software Licensing I probably wouldn’t be able to have a sustainable business that sold plugins. It would be a side project at best.”

More than just work

WordPress is known for its community; Developers, designers, content creators, and many others all converge to network, help each other, and nurture an ecosystem that is growing and changing all the time.

Having spoken at events like PressNomics, LoopConf, and various WordCamps around the U.S., Scott enjoys being a part of, and giving back to this community.

Talking to other developers and business owners in the space has really helped push me outside my comfort zone. Without the support of the community, I may not have taken the leap into doing what I do now.

Scott Deluzio

For Scott and many other digital business owners, it’s not just about making money – it’s a way of life.

“The bills haven’t gone away (if anything they’ve increased with 3 young kids), but the job I do has certainly changed. To me, success is being able to do something where you can jump out of bed and get excited about going to work.”

And a big benefit to running your own digital store is having the freedom to spend time with those who matter most to you.

“If you don’t have someone to share your working success with, whether it’s friends, family, neighbors, or whoever, is your successful career really all that important? I’ve had a successful week when I’ve been able to do my job, make some money, and come spend time with my wife and kids. Whether we’re playing outside or reading a book together, I feel that having family time is important.”

At EDD, we have a deep appreciation for the human element, and Scott Deluzio is a great example of how independent creators can follow their passions and create sustainable businesses that enable them to live life to the fullest.

“I couldn’t be happier with the work that I do now, and get up every morning excited to get started on a new challenge.”

Scott’s advice

So, how can you apply the lessons from this story to your own journey in digital business? We asked Scott if he had any advice for first-time product sellers or people transitioning to product sellers.

Here’s what he had to say:

Hopefully this customer showcase has given you some inspiration! Do you have your own EDD success story to share? Email us at support@easydigitaldownloads.com and tell us how Easy Digital Downloads gives you The EDDge!

Illustration by Jessica Johnston

The post The EDDge: Customer showcase with Scott Deluzio first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

You’ve probably heard of Katie and Andy Keith, who, tucked away in the rolling hills of coastal Devon, England, have spent the better half of a decade fine-tuning the direction of their company, Barn2 Media. Earlier this year they featured on Indiehackers, and have recently appeared on other blogs as well. We spoke with Katie who was extremely kind to share the major facets of their success with us.

The story

In 2009, the desire for a self-employed lifestyle tempted the pair, and the budding WordPress market prompted Andy to boldly quit his day job to launch their design and development business. As the technical lead, he had a huge amount of work on his hands with the growing business. Fortunately, Katie’s flexible schedule with her previous job permitted her to spend time working alongside Andy to take care of the day-to-day management. The flourishing business meant that after her maternity leave in 2011, Katie had no need to return to her old job, instead assuming the full-time role of Operations Director (encompassing support, marketing, and business development).

But with a client-based service business model came struggles. Growth was coming from the wrong direction. The success of designing websites brought in so much work, it started eating time away from their underlying interest in product development. After some thought, the decision was made to focus on building and selling WordPress plugins. Katie elaborated on this major step-change in their business model: 

“Until 2016, we were a typical WordPress design and development shop, spending most of our time designing clients’ websites. However, we always dreamed of a more ‘scalable’ business model selling product instead of services. This fit better with our lifestyle goals such as a better work-life balance. In early 2016 we made the transition to selling plugins, and never looked back.”

This pivot would become a crucial turning point in Barn2 Media’s journey. Katie and Andy tuned in to what customers were looking for and started creating unique WordPress plugins that solve specific problems for store owners. The next step was to start selling their plugins, and as their preferred choice, Easy Digital Downloads offered them a quick route to market:

“As Barn2 Media’s sole developer, Andy needed to spend his time developing plugins rather than building our website. EDD and its extensions had all the functionality we needed, allowing us to start selling plugins more quickly.

“…Easy Digital Downloads was the perfect solution because its core eCommerce plugin offered the main features we needed while still being lightweight and simple to use. It was easy to customize the templates to suit our brand and the way we wanted to sell.

“With over 6 years experience building WordPress sites, we had worked with many plugins of varying quality. We were painfully aware how important – and how difficult – it is to find robust, well-coded plugins that you can rely on. While we hadn’t used his plugins before, we were aware of Pippin’s reputation as an excellent developer with a strong commitment to quality code. This made EDD a very attractive option.”

Through their client-based work, they’d also seen some of the issues feature-heavy plugins can cause:

“Our experience of building WordPress sites had also shown us the pitfalls of bloated plugins with too many features. We liked the fact that EDD only sells digital products, so it doesn’t contain features we don’t need such as physical products and shipping options. This is a major reason why we chose it over WooCommerce. We also liked the fact that it’s lightweight and wouldn’t slow down our site.

“We hoped our new plugin business would be successful and grow over time. We wanted an eCommerce plugin that would meet our needs now and into the future, both through its core features and official extensions. EDD has many excellent extensions and is well-established, so we felt confident that it was a solid long-term decision.”

Barn2 Media’s EDD extension stack

Barn2 Media use 11 official Easy Digital Downloads extensions, as well as a few third-party extensions. By implementing extensions such as Software Licensing, Recurring Payments, Reviews, PayPal Express & Stripe Payment Gateway, and Per Product Emails (to name a few), they have created a custom store that is efficient and scalable as they continue to grow. Katie shared with us the extensions that have had the most impact on their success, and how they use them.

As a business that sells software, it of course makes sense that the Software Licensing extension is at the foundation of their stack. Katie explains why it’s important for their plugins:

“Since we sell WordPress plugins, they have to be GPL compliant. However we still need to protect our products where possible, and EDD’s Software Licensing extension helps with this. The Software Licensing plugin lets us use license keys to protect our plugins from unauthorized use. [Customers] also need a valid license key to install plugin updates and receive support.”

When it comes to purchasing online, credit card is king. For safe, swift spending, Barn2 Media’s store caters to various payment preferences to ensure there are no barriers to purchase:

“We use EDD’s PayPal Express and Stripe Payment Gateway plugins. Customers are less likely to buy from us if we don’t support their chosen payment method, so I think it’s important to give them a choice. 60% of our sales use Stripe (our default gateway due to the lower fees!) and 40% use PayPal, which suggests that both options are important to our customers.”

Barn2 Media use annual subscriptions for their plugin licenses which automatically renew on the anniversary of the original purchase date – known as recurring revenue. Recurring revenue is one of the most effective ways to retain customers and boost profit, and Recurring Payments has helped them achieve. And we think Katie might be a just a little bit of a fan:

“This is the number one plugin that I believe all EDD stores should install! Everyone knows that it’s easier to retain an existing customer than to recruit a new one, and ongoing revenue is essential to this.

“When a customer buys one of our plugins, they are signed up to an annual subscription which is renewed automatically each year. Statistics show that far more people will renew with this method than if you ask them to do it manually, and this is supported by my own experience.

“Here’s the proof: We installed the Recurring Payments plugin in October 2016. This means that our customers’ subscriptions first started to auto-renew in October 2017. Before October 2017, hardly anyone renewed their plugin license key – we received a couple of hundred dollars in renewal income each month. Within 2 months of the automatic renewals kicking in, we were making a couple of thousand dollars per month from renewals alone!

“The Recurring Payments extension also helps us to predict future revenue and iron out any temporary drops in sales. And the best thing is that the more our sales increase, the higher our recurring revenue will be in a year’s time!”

In the age of word of mouth, social media, and savvy buyers, social proof is the most effective form of marketing. The Reviews extension helps Andy and Katie easily collect feedback from their existing customers and display it on their website. Real reviews from real customers further boost their already reputable products, and instil confidence in potential new customers.

“We’re not a high profile company. Since we sell such niche plugins, the vast majority of our customers have never heard of us before. This means that our website needs to reassure them that we are a genuine, reputable company with high quality plugins they can trust. Reviews are an important way of adding social proof. We use EDD’s Reviews extension to add star ratings and reviews to our sales pages, along with a facility for customers to leave a review. This shows customers that our plugins are popular and that people like them, which I think makes a big difference to sales!”

With several plugins for sale, Per Product Emails allows Barn2 Media more control and customization over the confirmation emails sent to a customer after purchase. According to Katie, this not only decreased their support load, but has also made onboarding a better experience for their users.

“When we first started selling WordPress plugins, we received a lot of support requests from people who didn’t know how to start setting up the plugin. Since we sell more than one plugin, it soon became obvious that we needed to send a different order confirmation email for each plugin. Per Product Emails was the perfect solution.

“We use Per Product Emails to disable the default global email that customers receive after a purchase. Instead, we’ve created a unique email for each plugin. The email contains the download link, license key, PDF invoice (provided by another EDD extension), plus getting started instructions with links to the knowledge base. This helps with the onboarding process, giving customers to the right information when they need it so that they enjoy setting up the plugin and are less likely to request a refund. It also reduces support time for us.”

Barn-d for greatness

Today, the husband and wife team make over 300 sales per month between subscriptions and new licenses, bringing in a monthly revenue of over $30,000. And with five commercial plugins and three free plugins, their products are helping 5000+ businesses in over 75 countries succeed as well.

We asked Katie how she defines their success:

“Part of this is financial because a business needs to bring in enough income to allow you to take a step back and pursue a better lifestyle. However, it’s much more than that because the most important thing in life is to be happy. This means that a truly successful business must be structured and managed in a way that allows you to work when you want, but not all the time. The rest of the time, you need to be able to do other things that are important to you, such as spending time with family and friends.

“I can’t imagine going back to a traditional 9 to 5 job, with no choice over when or where to work. I work hard, and even do about an hour of work per day while I’m on holiday to keep on top of plugin support! However, I also have the freedom to take time out when I choose to. I hope I never have to give that up!

“In the future, I hope to continue moving in this direction so that the business can run more and more without me. I enjoyed Pippin’s 2017 Year in Review where he talked about successfully hiring himself out of a job. However, I share Pippin’s mixed feelings about this. After all if you enjoy your work and love your company, then you will want to stay involved even when you no longer need to! So success isn’t giving up work completely – it’s having the freedom and flexibility to choose your work and not be a slave to it.”

Barn2 Media is the epitome of an adaptive business, and we’re stoked that Easy Digital Downloads is helping Katie and Andy create their own success. If success, like Katie says, is having freedom to work on what you love in a way that fits your lifestyle, these guys have nailed it. They’re successfully growing their business, successfully delivering digital products that make a difference, and successfully living a lifestyle they dreamed of in beautiful Devon. And that, my friends, is The EDDge.

Do you have a story like Barn2 Media’s? Email us at support@easydigitaldownloads.com and tell us how Easy Digital Downloads gives you The EDDge!

The post The power couple behind Barn2 Media first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Sonya Mosimann and Chris Luescher, founders of mindTV, reside in a Swiss town near Zurich with Sonya’s two kids. Her children were healthy and happy, but things took a turn suddenly when her son started having trouble fitting in at school, and his behavior started to change. Noticing that this was out of the ordinary, Sonya sought out professionals to try and help define the underlying issue with very little success.

Through the need to help her own son, Sonya learned that other parents were facing the same issue. Realizing that existing therapy methods weren’t helping both her son or other kids, she became a children’s therapist herself. Over time, and through thousands of sessions with kids, it became increasingly clear that a child’s imagination was an incredibly powerful tool.

Sonya developed visualization methods to help children use their imagination to turn bad feelings into objects and remove them from their life. Also, seeing Delta 8 is the newest trend in vaping she taught them how it can be beneficial for some and how it can be harmful to some. She wanted to pass this information on to other people so they could also help kids with negative and troubling feelings. And thus, mindTV was born.

Sonya shares a story on the mindTV website; “It started with a six year old boy. When I was working with him I asked him to tell me about his feelings and he said, ‘What do you mean feelings?’ I said, ‘You know, the bad feelings.’ I even tried to change my voice to explain it to him. Every angle I came at, he said he didn’t know. All of the sudden I had this idea, ‘Okay I’m going to ask him to go see what the feeling looks like,’ and the funny thing was that straight away he knew exactly where it is, exactly what the color is. I thought this was brilliant and maybe now that he knows what it looks like, we can go back and see where it all started.”

Instead of verbally describing the challenges or feelings that the child might be harboring, Sonya coaxed the child to visualize the feeling into an object and trace it back to the original manifestation. Then, by properly identifying the issue and working up the timeline she would ask the child to throw away the object, thus effectively removing the issue and enriching their life. Essentially, creating TV in the child’s mind.

“I work with the imagination of your child to turn his worries into objects – and remove them permanently.”

Over the course of five years, Sonya perfected her method. Recognizing there was a need in their community to help other children, Chris helped Sonya structure the knowledge she wanted to share into a professional training program.

With the intention of educating coaches, therapists, and providing schools with these resources, mindTV needed a solid platform to get their digital business rolling. With Chris’ background in business, and his experience with building hundreds of WordPress-based websites, he knew that a simple, effective platform would help them distribute this knowledge to their target audience. For this reason, they choose Easy Digital Downloads as their digital eCommerce foundation.

Chris recounted his first experience building a website using EDD, and how it changed his perception of web development, and ultimately, his career. “It was the moment I realized I wanted to build my own company instead of working for clients. So, when I kept reading emails from parents, teachers and doctors, thanking Sonya for what she had done for them, I realized, this was our chance. And here we are, years later, with tons of experience and finally, a promising business that actually makes a real difference.”

When explaining why EDD was the right fit for them, he starts, “Since we are planning long-term, it was crucial to us that the software we run comes from a company that also plans to be around for a while.”

“As interested readers of Pippin’s yearly reviews, and having followed him for years, it was an easy decision to go with EDD. In fact, in all our planning, we even made sure that our concept would always be tailored to fit the EDD features.”

Chris continues with his reasoning; “Experience has shown it’s best to go with premium players in the WordPress world. They keep their plugins up to date, ensure best possible compatibility, invest into security and provide support.”

“As a business, we really have this gut feeling, that if at any point, something would really go wrong, EDD would be there to help.”

mindTV primarily offers training courseware for therapists. By utilizing a handful of EDD extensions such as Content Restriction, Recurring Payments, Multilingual, Stripe Payment Gateway, Manual Purchases, and Downloads As Services, they were able to tailor a store to suit their current market, but also structured to handle a wider range of customers as they grow.

Chris opted to use Content Restriction easily control access of training material to all paying customers. When speaking of their pricing model, he explained, “After careful evaluation, we chose to go with a simple one-time fee instead of monthly or yearly subscriptions. Also, we opted not to drip. The client pays once and has unlimited access immediately. So, we run EDD with the Content Restriction add-on.”

Since mindTV’s products are currently geared for professionals, the course materials might be a little pricey for those on a budget. The mindTV website uses Recurring Payments to offer payment plans and currently 20% of clients have opted for this payment option. And for those clients wishing to pay through their banks, Manual Purchases resolves this issue. These curated extensions make a significant difference to the bigger picture when offering payment options to new clients.

“One of the most troubling downsides of being a non-coder and running digital platforms is dependency on developers. With every customization, this dependency grows. With EDD we were able to build everything without a single line of custom code.”

mindTV is still young. Launched in January of 2017, they have established a solid foundation in their home market of Switzerland, and also Germany. When we spoke to Chris recently, over 160 trainees had sign up to their courses. Since launch, they’ve earned over $240,000 USD selling their courses on their website. Excluding salaries, operation costs come to around 20%. And they’ve barely scraped the surface of their potential global audience.

Now, they’re preparing to bring their program to the English-speaking world and other countries where they’ve already established relationships, such as Brazil. The Multilingual extension works wonders by allowing them to run the entire platform in multiple languages and sell to all corners of the world. Their main goal, however, is to create products that will benefit families in the home, and teachers at schools, with big things happening later in 2018.

When asked how they define success, it’s clear in the overwhelmingly positive feedback they receive on what they have created.

“Success is…

When practitioners share their most touching stories.
When parents call to thank us for the changes in their children’s lives.
When children even years later send drawings and postcards of gratitude.
When practitioners call mindTV the best investment they have ever made.

Success is when something we have worked so hard to create, is making a huge difference in the lives of practitioners, parents and kids.”

mindTV’s success is also remarkable. Once, they almost had a refund request, but that customer later booked a session with Sonya and was so happy that she went home and signed up again. Although it is impossible to prevent a refund 100% of the time, this proves that if a course exceeds expectations and delivers the results it promises, only rarely will someone ask for their money back.

Chris told us, “All of this would not have been possible without EDD. So, in some way, all of our success is somewhat connected to yours.” We’re honored that Easy Digital Downloads has helped mindTV springboard their unique vision, and we’re excited to watch their continued growth and accomplishments.

A wise character known as Spongebob Squarepants once said, “Squidward, we don’t need a television. Not as long as we have our imagination.” With mindTV methods, kids can use their imagination to make television in their minds, and learn how to remove bad thoughts and feelings to enjoy a mentally healthy childhood. From a deeply personal need, to a now thriving business, Sonya and Chris are fearlessly driving mindTV into the future.

Frustration started it. Determination fuels its development. Heartwarming stories keep it going.mindTV

And we reckon that’s The EDDge.

Do you have a story like mindTV’s? Send us an email at support@easydigitaldownloads.com and tell us how Easy Digital Downloads gives you The EDDge!

The post The greatest gift you can give a child is an imagination first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Like the crags and cruxes she encounters in her bouldering adventures, one of the more interesting routes she’s had to navigate has been moving her personal brand online.

Kate is driven by the desire to share her knowledge and experience to help others to achieve their own health and wellness goals, so they too can pursue their own dreams and ambitions, pain-free. With Easy Digital Downloads as the foundation to her websites (yes, there are two!), she has been able to do just that.

Meet Kate!

Through her years as a fitness trainer, chiropractor’s assistant, and a gym coach, Kate often heard people say they had been told over and over that it was normal to feel worse as they aged. This, she says, is a lie.

In her own words, Kate says “I help people move their bodies better.”

I teach you stuff to help you heal your parts that don’t feel or function well, I assist you building unbreakable strength for whatever pursuits your heart desires, I do my best to show you an alternative view of how your future life could be…

Because here’s the deal – if you’ve been told it’s normal to feel worse and do less as you get older, you’ve been lied to.

And isn’t it exciting to imagine a life where the future is whatever you want it to be, aches and pains be damned! I think so – and even if you don’t yet believe that really is a future that can exist for you, if you hang out around here long enough, you just might start believing it. Kate Galliett

Kate runs two websites, Fit For Real Life and The Unbreakable Body. Through these sites she is able to work remotely by offering numerous digital products for sale to new and existing clients.

She sells online video workshops, downloadable eBooks, and occasionally puts on in-person workshops around the country, all of which are built with the goal of helping people to move freely without pain.

With 15 years of experience in the health and wellness industry, Kate had plenty of knowledge that helped her choose the direction and purpose of her websites.

Kate’s clients have strong words of appreciation for the skills and knowledge that she shares:

When I first started working with Kate, I had been suffering with significant shoulder pain and limited range of motion from a wake boarding injury 6 months earlier. I had a difficult time raising my arm, and even getting dressed was a challenge…

…Eight months later, I have been pain-free in both my hip and shoulder for weeks, I am training for a 5 k, have gone for a 20-mile bike ride, and am starting to do progressive resistance training for my shoulder – like push-ups!

Kate’s knowledge and skill are unparalleled, and her eye for details are impressive. More than that, Kate gave me back my confidence. She never pushed me too far, but was a great encourager and cheerleader. After living with pain and limitations for so long, and I can literally say Kate gave me back my life!Cassie Laymon

Through her online platforms, powered by Easy Digital Downloads, Kate has been able to make a positive effect on people in pain while simultaneously achieving the freedom to live out her own adventures.

In talking to her, Kate explained that one of the most important parts of running her business was having a system she could rely on to do its job and then get out of the way so she could do her work.

Knowing EDD will just work once it’s set up means I can feel good about going out to play, and knowing that if someone wants to buy a product of mine, they can, and it will be easy and effortless.Kate Galliett

Along with providing downloadable eBooks, Kate has found that sending her customers a series of follow-up emails using Zapier and Active Campaign to be an exceptionally effective way to strengthen her core business. Kate told us:

I hated the other digital download selling options out there. They were either complicated, or expensive, or complicated AND expensive. With EDD strung together with Zapier, I’m able to send customer information over to Active Campaign to put [customers] into a ‘customer follow-up’ email series. And it wasn’t even complicated to figure out!

Kate’s use of Easy Digital Downloads and the Zapier extension allows her to keep in touch with her customers and clients as she needs to, as well as sell her digital products easily and efficiently.

Whilst a monetary figure or some other growth indicator is one measure of success, it isn’t everyone’s ultimate goal. Kate’s personal definition of success is motivated by helping as many people as she can to achieve a healthy, strong, unbreakable body.

Kate mused on her own personal concept of success: “Success, to me, means I help as many people as possible realize that it’s not normal to feel crummy as you get older, and to help them take action in changing their bodies to be able to support them for the long haul. When people feel better at 55 than they did at 35 because of coaching and education they’ve gotten from me and my products – that’s a success.”

Whatever your goals are, having a clear path for growth and the appropriate tools to pursue them is important to realizing your success. We’re thrilled that Easy Digital Downloads has helped Kate find success as a tool she can set and forget. As a result, she can focus on helping others succeed with their own health goals, whilst allowing her to live her life the way she wants to. Now, the only problems she has to figure out are the ones on the indoor climbing walls or Utah rocks!

Do you have a story like Kate’s? Send us an email at support@easydigitaldownloads and tell us how Easy Digital Downloads gives you The EDDge!

The post How Kate’s clients got their groove back first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

1. What about Easy Digital Downloads made you choose it as a platform to sell your theme?

I was specifically interested in the Software Licensing add-on since we would be selling WordPress themes. We wanted to deliver automatic updates for our themes and price access to these updates on a per site and per year basis. It looked as though Easy Digital Downloads would let us do these things and sure enough that was the case.

Seeing interviews on this very blog with the guys behind established WordPress theme shops like Organic Themes and Mint Themes was also encouraging. The fact that you yourself use the Software Licensing add-on in a very similar way to how we wanted to use it was icing on the cake. Sometimes you get a list of features but with EDD I felt like I was getting proof of a solution that works.

2. Are there features in Easy Digital Downloads that you find indispensable?

The developer features. Its filters, actions and template overrides are indispensable. I like seeing different implementations of EDD because the checkout pages are so different. That says a lot about how customizable and flexible EDD is for developers.

The Software Licensing addon has also been indispensable for a business like ours. I looked at other solutions and there are none that come in a nice neat package that is ready to use like this add-on. There are none that have been proven like this.

The cart and checkout process is indispensable but that one’s obvious!

3. How was your experience setting up and configuring Easy Digital Downloads for your site?

Once I got serious, I was pleased to find nearly everything I needed in the documentation and forums to put together a customized implementation of EDD with various add-ons. The most pleasing part of setting things up was that it did the things I wanted out of the box.

The settings provide a lot of flexibility. We’re in Texas so we must collect sales tax for those residents. EDD has that figured out already. We’re a theme shop and want our own site to look pretty. EDD let us disable the default styles and have at it so that the plugin’s output melted right into our own theme. The shortcodes for logging in and editing the profile were also very handy. If we had to develop that ourselves, it would have taken more time.

It’s work to build an e-commerce site but Easy Digital Downloads provided for us many features and resources to make that process easier and quicker. I would say the setup experience was a very good one overall and did not take any longer than I hoped.

4. Are you using any Easy Digital Downloads extensions? If so, which ones?

Yes, in addition to Software Licensing, the major ones we rely on are Stripe and MailChimp. It’s a joy to deal with Stripe and a huge plus to collect willing customers into our mailing list while checking out. We also use Manual Purchases and User History for added convenience and insight.

5. What’s a feature you wish Easy Digital Downloads had but doesn’t?

The truth is Easy Digital Downloads has everything we absolutely must have, and more. I can only request a minuscule improvement, not even to the EDD core itself, but to an add-on.

With Software Licensing, the ability to edit the activated Site Count for a license via the admin area would be useful. We limit updates to one site per theme license so when a user moves their site but forgets to deactivate the license beforehand, we manually reset the count for them. We’re able to do this with our database client so this is no deal killer.

6. Your turn: tell us anything about EDD that you love or hate.

One thing I love is that it is so very actively developed, has a repo on GitHub for contributions and reporting issues, and that there is a massive and growing ecosystem of add-ons. There’s strength in numbers. The documentation is also very thorough and that is something to be thankful for.

The greatest thing about Easy Digital Downloads though is how much time it has saved us. I’ve been building on the web for a long time and turn-key solutions as good as EDD did not always exist. You had to build it yourself much of the time. churchthemes.com would not be online for another six months if I had to integrate with a payment processor and build a backend for managing customers and products myself. It wouldn’t be as complete as it is either.

Time really is money when you’re doing business so the cost of purchasing a few premium add-ons is small compared to what we’ve saved and hope to earn.

The post Churchthemes.com Launches on Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

1. What about Easy Digital Downloads made you choose it as a platform to sell your theme?

Social proof played a huge role in choosing EDD for launching my themes site. A developer friend of mine was excited to use it for a future project of his. So when it was time for me to find a way to manage and distribute my WordPress framework, he was more than willing to suggest what he had already decided on.

After checking it out, what I really loved about it was the extensions. I was “hovering” around EDD trying to decide if it was right for me or not when I saw the Software Licensing extension. At this point, my WordPress framework didn’t have an automatic update system, something I both wanted and needed. Once I saw the capabilities of that extension, I was sold.

2. Are there features in Easy Digital Downloads that you find indispensable?

I think the way EDD was coded makes the entire plugin indispensable. Sure, I love the pricing options, the use of Ajax, and the email system, to name a few features. What really stands out to me, though, is the fact that you are not locked into a default EDD experience.

Extensions, actions, filters, and functions make EDD the perfect platform for building unique systems. EDD would be a great plugin with just its core functionality. But if I had a say in its future, I’d make sure that its flexibility was never muffled or removed.

3. How was your experience setting up and configuring Easy Digital Downloads for your site?

Setting up EDD was a breeze. After installation, it was easy to notice the new admin menu item. All of the options were kept in one place, which I really like. I simply started with the first tab on the settings page and read the descriptive labels for each option.

The options require very little thinking as most of them are simple on/off selections. Using the Downloads system was even easier. It felt no different from creating a WordPress Post or Page with a few extra, self-explanatory options beneath the editor.

4. Are you using any Easy Digital Downloads extensions? If so, which ones?

I am definitely using EDD extensions. The main extension that sold me on the plugin was the Software Licensing extension. Because of that extension, I was able to integrate the automatic updates system right into my WordPress framework. That was a crucial feature I had given up on for its release until I discovered this extension.

I also use the Affiliates Pro Integration Pack for managing my entire affiliate program. I loved not having to integrate my system with a third party script. Though it still had to be done, EDD handled it for me.

Lastly, I use the Manual Purchases extension. Creating purchases at will allows me to distribute development copies of my downloads without having to sacrifice download history or user accounts.

More importantly, I recently decided to remove a pricing option and associated file from one specific Download to its own separate Download. Because of this, the purchase histories of my customers were altered. They wouldn’t have access to downloads they had purchased now that the pricing option and associated download file was moved. Thanks to Manual Purchases, I was able to manually create mock purchases which placed the moved files in their purchase history. Awesome.

5. What’s a feature you wish Easy Digital Downloads had but doesn’t?

Honestly, I can’t really think of anything. The plugin itself was built with intent and covered all the bases needed for a well-rounded digital downloads solution. If there’s something else that I need, I’ve learned to replace “there’s an app for that” with “there’s an extension for that.” So far, it’s worked for me.

6. Your turn: tell us anything about EDD that you love or hate.

Man, we’ll be here for days if I say everything I love about EDD. I use it on two websites. The themes site is the one putting EDD to the test. It’s the core of my entire themes business and is responsible for one of the most crucial features of my framework, the automatic updates.

The other website is where I sell very simple files. I use just the base plugin with no extensions and it has met all of my needs.

Again, the greatest thing about EDD is its flexibility. It’s obvious that EDD focuses on the right options instead of options for the sake of options. I’m the kind of guy that likes to dig in and learn systems to get the most value out of them. EDD was ready for me.

I have absolutely no complaints.

The post Volatyl Themes Launches on EDD first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

They were kind enough to answer a few questions for us about their experience.

1. What about Easy Digital Downloads made you choose it as a platform to sell your plugin?

Our decision to use Easy Digital Downloads really came down to ease of implementation and customization. We spend thousands of hours building our products and when they’re ready for the public we don’t want to spend one more minute than necessary getting them live. The features available in the base plugin and the extensions such as licensing, content restriction, manual payments, etc. all factored into why we thought Easy Digital Downloads was the best option for us. And I’m glad to report that we were right.

I will say that another contributing factor was you yourself, Pippin. I’ve read your blog and used other plugins of yours. Your code is extremely well written and you have been very responsive to questions anyone has ever asked. Since support is such a huge part of a great product and something we take very seriously we wanted to use a plugin that was really backed by great developers that we felt like we knew on some level.

2. Are there features in Easy Digital Downloads that you find indispensable?

I can’t think of one feature that we use that is more indispensable than another. I will say that the being able to extend the plugin for our situation was crucial and something so many other eCommerce solutions lack. For instance we wanted to serve our products and automatically update then through our own SVN where we do our development. Easy Digital Downloads was built in such a way that we were able to hook into all those processes very easily. When we update one of our products the licensing extension checks our repo and zips and serves the current stable version. I can’t even begin to explain the hours this saves us as our product offerings increase.

3. How was your experience setting up and configuring Easy Digital Downloads for your site?

Easy Digital Downloads couldn’t have been easier to implement. We had been selling a few plugins with a homegrown eCommerce solution that was riddled with issues. The frustration was that as crucial as the selling piece was we didn’t have the time to take away from our products to fix it. When we got ready to launch our 2.0 of our main plugin we were also changing our entire structure. We had hundreds of customers that need to be converted into the new structure as well as twice as many products because of this new structure.

Easy Digital Downloads made this process extremely easy. The best part for me as we extend our products is that it scales. I know that regardless of what we decide to build next that Easy Digital Downloads if fully capable of handling even the strangest of edge cases.

4. Are you using any Easy Digital Downloads extensions? If so, which ones?

Absolutely! In fact, this is one of the things I love about Easy Digital Downloads. We loved it so much that it’s the direction we went with one of our own products. Currently we use Content Restriction, Manual Purchases, PayPal Pro & Express Gateway, and Software Licenses. We plan on using a few more in the future.

All of these extensions are crucial to our work flow. The great part about extensions is the removal of unnecessary bloat that comes with many plugins. Instead of having to navigate every option someone could possibly think of you can add just the ones that are necessary for you.

5. What’s a feature you wish Easy Digital Downloads had but doesn’t?

This is tough because I thinks it’s very dependent on my own uses cases and not something everyone might need but I can think of two things right off and one of which I believe is in the works in one way or another.

The first would be the ability to bundles products so you could offer several of them together at a discounted rate and allow each to still have an appropriate license. We would love to offer a discount to customers who buy all our extensions at once and although we can work around this a bit with discounts an actual official bundle would be ideal.

The second feature is more unique to us perhaps. While Easy Digital Downloads does include some reporting for sales tax it’s not ideal for my situation. Right now it’s kind of an opt-in option that adds tax to the total purchase. If I were that customer I would never opt-in to pay more and therefore I’m never really appropriately reporting sales tax I am responsible for.

I would prefer the option to have customers required to include their address and calculate how much sales tax I would need to report on their purchase based on my fixed price. That way the customer pays the same and I take on the burden of the sales tax. Again, this is really probably an edge case that would be awesome if it were an option but doesn’t make or break the system in any way.

In the end, Easy Digital Downloads is the only WordPress plugin I would recommend if solely selling digital products. There simply isn’t a better solution available. And it keeps getting better.

The post WP Ninjas Relaunches on Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

What about Easy Digitial Downloads made you choose it as a platform to sell your plugin?

It’s ability to be extended and customized to any situation. I had previously used Cart66 for Soliloquy, and after it taking down my site for nearly a week, I made the migration over to Easy Digital Downloads to handle everything. I have hooked, filtered, unhooked and the like in tons of areas of the plugin, and I love the results. The custom checkout page looks awesome, and my conversion rates have increased dramatically since switching to EDD. It’s super easy to use and setup, and I wouldn’t recommend anything else if you are selling digital downloads through WordPress.

Are there features in Easy Digitial Downloads that you find indispensable?

Hooks and filters. Every plugin should be using the core WordPress API in its ecosystem, and EDD does a superb job at this. There is always a hook or filter right where I need one to be. Because of that, I can turn EDD into whatever type of selling mechanism that I want.

How was your experience setting up and configuring Easy Digital Downloads for your site?

Migrating from Cart66 was a bit of a pain, but setting up EDD was really easy. It didn’t take long to get my products in place, get discount codes ready and integrate other payment systems into the plugin. Pippin was right there to help with any issues that did pop up, and I was even able to contribute back to the plugin with some fixes of my own. You won’t find anything easier to setup than EDD.

Are you using any Easy Digitial Downloads extensions? If so, which ones?

Sure am. I’m using the PayPal Pro/Express, Zendesk, Sharesale (which I built!), Email Templates and Manual Payments addons. They all rock and are an integral part of the success of Soliloquy. Each one plays a unique role and I am super grateful that they are available for me to use.

What’s a feature you wish Easy Digital Downloads had but doesn’t?

A Membership module. Membership is tough, but it makes sense to have a membership module available for those who buy the products. I built my own makeshift membership module for Soliloquy, and it would be great to have a generalized and distributable option for EDD sometime in the future.

After responding to these interview questions, Thomas was made aware of the Recurring Payments extension that provides integral membership features.

Check Out Soliloquy WP

The post Soliloquy WP Relaunches on Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Why did you decide to use Easy Digital Downloads for Mint Themes.

Over the years we have used many different systems on Mint Themes and on our other website brands. We’ve used Cart66 and aMember primarily, and we tested a few others, but could never find a solution that worked for all of the needs we have. We found that most of the other eCommerce/Membership scripts & plugins think of digital eCommerce as more of an afterthought and there isn’t as much attention to all of the needs of a digital store. This is why we settled on Easy Digital Downloads.

With ease of use, not overly complex setup, and the ability to create extensions, EDD is an extremely powerful tool for our business. We’ve significantly improved our checkout process and members area. Our customers have already given us praise on the new layout/system.

How was the experience customizing your site with Easy Digital Downloads?

It was really impressive. EDD is very flexible and gave us room to customize it like crazy – while still maintaining it’s solid foundation.

As a designer I spent lots of time reading articles on customer behaviour when it comes to checkout design and the little things that make a difference when creating a high converting checkout page. One of the main goals was to ensure that the new checkout page design was using a one step checkout process and adding a feeling of trust for the buyer. One way we did that was to darken the credit card field area and include a large padlock icon in the background.

All of my design changes were able to be integrated into the EDD checkout with help from Pippin and we will be able to update the main plugin without fear of the checkout page breaking in the future which is a huge bonus.

Are you using any extensions for EDD? If so, which ones?

Yes. We are using around 15 different EDD extensions – almost too many to mention. But some of my most favourite that we use on our production site would be the sales notifications that push to our iOS devices using the pushover extension and the single support sign-on extension for ZenDesk so that the customer doesn’t have to create a ZenDesk account.  It also auto signs them into ZenDesk.

We’ve also made a number of extensions that are being sold on the EDD marketplace.

Any advice or guidance you’d give someone considering making the switch to EDD?

I would say that there really isn’t any other plugin out there with the capabilities, organized and robust code, and overall ease of use that Easy Digital Downloads has. And also, even if you are doing a re-launch of a site that has thousands of users, which might sound really complex and time consuming, it actually wasn’t very difficult at all. With help from Pippin and the EDD development community it made the process of moving away from Cart66 to EDD quite easy

The post Mint Themes Launches on Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

Why did you decide to use Easy Digital Downloads for Jump Start?

When I was setting up an online store to sell Jump Start, I was looking to create a simple checkout process, while still keeping it professional. Currently, I only sell one product on the site and so everything is essentially centered around this one “Add to Cart” button.

In looking around at other shopping cart plugins, it seemed I’d either have to go with the most simple, with something like having my “Add to Cart” button send customers directly to PayPal, which would look sort of unprofessional. Or conversely, my other alternatives were the most complex of plugins where the concept of selling digital products was an added feature or after thought.

I felt EDD provided the perfect solution designed around specifically selling digital products and gave me just the kinds of features I was looking for. Customers are given a clean, simple checkout process. They pay, they receive their downloads, and I’m given a simple interface to manage it all. That’s all I needed and what EDD gave me. And the best part? In the future, if I want to expand my store to start selling more products, I’ll already have the infrastructure in place to do that because of EDD.

How was experience customizing your site with Easy Digital Downloads?

For me personally, I love to hack away at things. Naturally, as development moved on, I kept coming up with specific, unique things that I wanted to incorporate into my site to spice things up like a floating shopping cart, custom Ajax add to cart button, making users’ downloads available throughout a multi-site network, displaying version numbers, adding expirations to product downloads, etc.

No matter what it was that I wanted to accomplish, if I just dug through the available functions, action hooks, and filters available in EDD, it felt like there was a way I could accomplish just about anything from my site’s own custom plugins. As a developer, this extendibility is something I truly appreciate.

Are you using any extensions for EDD? If so, which ones?

On my site I’m currently using PDF Invoices, which adds a nice professional touch to the checkout process by giving customers a downloadable PDF invoice. Although, the extension I’m still really excited to be using is the Software Licensing plugin, which provides my customers a way to update the theme they’ve purchased through their WordPress admin panels directly from my servers. The day I went live with my EDD-powered store, to kick everything off, I went to my live demo of the WordPress theme I’m selling and did the first official live update. Take my word for it; it was a beautiful thing seeing my live demo’s theme automatically update from Beta to v1.0.0 without a hitch in a matter of seconds.

In the future, as I try to expand on the Jump Start project and inevitably attach a child theme shop onto the site, I’m excited to explore the other extensions EDD has to offer like Affiliates Pro, Manual Purchases, User History, Email Templates, and the other various ways of incorporating payment gateways outside of PayPal.

Any advice or guidance you’d give someone considering making the switch to EDD?

In my opinion, the beauty of the system that Pippin has setup is that it’s a completely free open-source plugin that people can contribute to on Github, but because of his passion and how he can benefit from sales on the extensions, you can be sure he’s kept motivated to keep it going and make sure it’s always the best that it can be. So, if you’re considering making the switch to EDD, this means that you have the freedom to simply try it out for free. Setup a WordPress site, install EDD, and decide if you like it or not. Why not, right?

Checkout WP Jump Start

The post WP Jump Start Launches on Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.

When Easy Digital Downloads was first created, the primary goal of the plugin was to make it easier for WordPress theme and plugin shops to sell their products, so getting such a large and  respected theme shop on board with the plugin is great. Organic Themes is helping to demonstrate just what Easy Digital Downloads can do and, for site owners, just how easy it makes it to sell digital products.

David Morgan, Co-Founder/President of Organic Themes, was kind enough to take time out of his day to answer some questions about their usage of Easy Digital Downloads.

Why did you decide to use Easy Digital Downloads for Organic Themes?

Easy Digital Downloads offered the perfect amount of options and capabilities for our needs. Most of the other solutions were bloated with unnecessary features for our purposes.

What system were you using before switching to Easy Digital Downloads?

e-Junkie, which seemed to be a standard 4 years ago. Unfortunately, it hasn’t changed at all in the past 4 years, and it has become a clunky, old system to work with.

Are you using any extensions for EDD? If so, which ones?

Yes. We love the growing number of extensions for EDD. We are currently using the Affiliates Pro, Amazon S3, Email Templates, Mail Chimp, Manual Purchases (a must when transitioning customers), Stripe, Zendesk, User History and the EDD Versions extensions.

Any advice or guidance you’d give someone considering making the switch to EDD?

I’d say if they’re selling digital goods, EDD is the right choice, and can be molded to fit their needs through the variety of extensions and helpful support.

It was a pleasure working with David and all of the guys at Organic Themes to get their site up and running on Easy Digital Downloads.

Go to Organic Themes

The post Organic Themes Launches v4 with Easy Digital Downloads first appeared on Easy Digital Downloads.