When I first started The Contract Shop®, my goal was to make $100 a day. I knew that was what I needed to just survive, and I knew I’d be happy with that. That was in 2015, I think… and here I am, about six years later, and I just hit $40,000 in a single month. I’m just as blown away as you are. Maybe more so. But I know that doesn’t help you find success with your sales, so here is how I made $40,000 in one month with digital products.

The making of a $40k month

While we’ve had higher revenue months over at The Contract Shop®, those are always associated with our annual sales (like Black Friday, mid-year, etc.). We made $40,000 in April 2021… without a sale. No fancy promotions. No ads. Just the fruits of our labor and strong brand recognition.The long and short of it: It took me over 6 years to reach a point where my business can make $1,300 a day — without me lifting a finger. I won’t sell you on the whole “6 figures in 6 days” BS out there. I’ll be honest: This $40k month was a sign of all the hard work we’ve put in behind the scenes to build a strong brand, create quality contract templates, and serve people better than the copycats that have popped up. However, there were a few things we’ve been doing differently. These seem to have helped drive more of our contract template sales, as well as increase our reach.

A more robust content strategy

We have a pretty robust content strategy, complete with videos, blogs, emails, and social posts. In the four months leading up to our April 2021 revenue, our YouTube channel (I have one over at The Contract Shop®, too!) finally started to gain speed that month. Our Instagram account was more active than ever, and we started to shift our branding to reflect the work we’ve been doing with our amazing designer behind-the-scenes. We also started working with a new Instagram caption writer a couple of months ago. We also ramped up our Pinterest strategy a bit and worked through some backlog of blogs and videos to create Pinterest graphics for our team members to upload and share. We also updated our Pinterest boards and got things cleaned up over there so that we’re putting a more cohesive front together online.

Happy coincidences

I’ll be honest, after six years with my shop, I’ve had a bit more time to build a reputation, make connections, and put myself out there. This leads to what I like to call “happy coincidences,” but are in fact just the fruits of my past labor coming to the forefront. This may have led to more of our success in April 2021. For one, we were featured on a webinar with a really large audience that resulted in a few sales (shoutout to Becca from Happy Ever Crafter). Plus, more than ever, people are starting their businesses. They need our products and they need to know they’re protected when things hit the fan (because 2020 has taught everyone that things will hit the fan). I’d also like to note that we had a lot of people filling out our backend survey, asking why they purchased. This gave us a lot of insights into future potential content, plus also affirmed that we were on the right track with our current strategies. I highly recommend having something like this in place for your own business, so that you can “check the pulse” on your audience and offers. This can lead to more 5-figure months for you, too.

What could’ve gone better in April 2021

Now, just because we had a great month doesn’t mean we’re going to kick up our feet and coast this train ’til it stops. No, we also want to look at how we can improve our revenue and operations in the future. Upon review, we noticed that affiliate sales weren’t super high during April 2201. We can definitely do a better job of telling affiliates more about our newest offers, how to promote us, and the benefits to them and their audience. We also had more refunds than usual. We have a 14-day any reason return policy, and because we had more purchases, we naturally had more returns. This isn’t concerning, so much as something for us to be aware of. Ramping up our Pinterest and YouTube strategies is also a top priority after April 2021. We got sales from YouTube and Instagram that month, and we had also upped our Pinterest strategy which drove more traffic. Those things seem to be paying off, so we’re definitely going to be pinning more products and sharing more content relevant to our audience.

The truth about success with digital products

Hopefully, this has given you some insight into the recipe of a 5-figure sales month inside your digital shop. It’s not just quick cash infusions or sales hacks — a $40k month in sales isn’t something you can make happen overnight. However, I PROMISE you’ll be able to see success if you follow the right sales strategies for digital products. If you’re like “Yeah, yeah, Christina, good for you 🙄,” stick with me. I’ve created a ton of resources to help YOU find success with digital products. I also understand that you might be at a different point in your digital product journey, so here are a few resources you might find helpful:🤔 Clueless on what goes into creating a digital product? Check out my FREE guide🤨 Think there’s NO way you can turn your special service into a product? Yes, you can.😅 Not sure how to start selling? Try preselling🤬 Not seeing the sales you want? Here’s what might have gone wrong.📈 Want stronger, more sustainable sales? Check out my Simple Sustained Sales System, essentially my digital product shop academy! Stay tuned, because I share new advice, strategies, and helpful insights into digital product success every week.