How to make $25k/mo with a Digital Products
The Goal Seek panel below is pre-filled with your target. Pick which lever to move and we’ll show exactly what needs to change. The full calculator is right below it, adjust anything, watch the numbers update in real time.
Where your money goes
- Refunds10%$78
- Payment fees10%$75
- Marketplace fees25%$201
- Affiliate payout10%$75
- Ad spend38%$300
- Fixed costs8%$60
Profit over the first year
What would it take?
Set a target and pick which levers you’re willing to move. We’ll work out what each one needs to be.
What goes into Digital Products costs
The promise of digital products is no inventory, no shipping, no COGS, sell once, deliver instantly, repeat. The reality is that conversion rate becomes your bottleneck. A great landing page converts 2–5% of visitors; a typical one converts under 1%. The calculator pairs visitors per month with sales per month so it can compute your conversion rate and warn you if it's below the 1% bar where most digital sellers should pause and fix the offer before spending more on traffic.
Refunds are the second silent killer. Templates: usually 1–3%. Courses: 5–10% is normal, and platforms like Stripe make refunds frictionless for the buyer. If you're seeing 10%+ refund rate on a course, the curriculum and the sales page don't match, fix that before you scale anything. The calculator's Refund Rate slider makes the dollar impact obvious.
Affiliates are the smartest growth channel for digital products that don't have built-in network effects. A typical affiliate payout is 30–50% of the sale price. That sounds steep until you realize you're only paying when you make a sale, no upfront cost. The calculator separates ad spend (fixed cost) from affiliate payout (variable cost) so you can see which is actually moving the needle.
Note the email list growth metric, for digital products especially, the real business asset isn't this month's revenue, it's the email list you build. The calculator shows you how many new subscribers your traffic + capture rate produces each month. Watch that number, it compounds.
Frequently asked
What's a realistic conversion rate for digital products?
1–2% for cold traffic landing on a good page. 3–5% for warm traffic from your email list or a creator you trust. Under 1% means something on the page, offer, pricing, headline, social proof, is broken. The calculator will warn you if it falls below 0.5%.
Are courses really better than templates?
Different math. Courses have higher AOV ($97–497 is typical) but higher refund rates and require more support. Templates have lower AOV ($9–47) but near-zero refunds and zero ongoing support. Templates compound, once they're built, they sell forever. Courses age. The calculator works for both, just set AOV and refund rate accordingly.
Should I sell on a marketplace (Gumroad, Etsy) or my own site?
Marketplaces give you traffic but take 8–15% per sale. Your own site (Shopify, Lemon Squeezy, ThriveCart) charges 2.9–3.5% processing but no marketplace fee. If you have an audience already, own your site. If you're starting cold, marketplaces are a faster way to see if the product converts at all.
What's bundle uplift and why does it matter?
Bundling related products at a discounted price typically lifts your AOV by 15–35%. A template that normally sells for $27 in a $47 bundle of three templates often outsells the standalone version. The calculator has a Bundle Uplift % slider, try moving it from 0% to 30% and watch net revenue jump.