Launch a Digital Product for Free: Pick the Seller of Record, Write the Licence, Give a Sample

Does the form of the file decide where it is sold?

Largely, yes. A spreadsheet, a template, a set of presets and an ebook are all “digital products”, but each has a home where buyers already look for that exact thing, and each home has its own rules. The table lists the venues we could confirm, and where we could not, it says so.

For the products with a named platform, read that platform’s playbook, as the Notion template playbook and the UI kit playbook do. This page covers the shared job: what any file for sale needs regardless of where it sits.

Who sells it, and who deals with sales tax?

This is the question first-time sellers skip and later regret. When a buyer pays, someone is legally the seller. On Notion’s Marketplace, its selling page says Notion is the merchant of record when payments run through it, that it handles regional sales tax or VAT in those sales, and that creators remain responsible for reporting and paying income tax on their earnings. itch.io’s payments page has sections on payment modes, payouts, VAT support and a tax interview, so it too has rules you must read.

If you sell from your own page with a payment tool, you may be the seller, and the tax obligations of selling a digital good to buyers in other countries can apply to you. They depend on where you and your buyers are, and we are not the people to advise you. Ask an accountant, and read the terms of your payment provider to see what it does and does not handle for you. The safe default for a first product is a venue that states plainly that it acts as merchant of record.

What is the free sample, and what must it prove?

A file for sale cannot be tried the way an app can, so the sample takes the demo’s place. It has to prove the quality of the part that is hard to judge from a picture. For a book, the Show HN guidelines even say a sample chapter is acceptable in place of the whole thing, which tells you how readers on a technical forum think about proof. A good sample is a real slice, not a teaser.

• Ebook or guide: the first chapter and the full contents list.
• Preset or filter pack: three before-and-after images on photos that are not yours, plus one free preset.
• Font or icon set: a free subset and a specimen page with the licence beside it.
• Spreadsheet or template: a view-only copy with fake data, and a clip of the first five minutes of use.
• Code or scripts: one function or one script, released openly with the licence file.

The sample is also your list. Put a sign-up in the sample’s last page and ask only for an email, so the people who liked the free slice can be told when the rest is ready. If you build that list, the newsletter playbook covers how to keep it healthy.

What goes in the licence and the refund line?

A file can be copied perfectly and forever, so two short statements carry real weight. The licence says what the buyer may do: use it in client work, use it in a product they sell, use it on one machine or many, credit you or not, and whether they may share or resell it. Write it in plain sentences and put it on the sales page, in the download and on the receipt.

The refund line says what happens if it is not what they hoped. Notion’s Marketplace allows a buyer to request a refund within 14 days of a purchase made there, and removes the copies from the buyer’s workspace when it is processed. That is one platform’s rule, not a standard. For your own page, choose a policy you can afford and state it, remembering that a clear refund line reduces the nervousness of a first-time purchase.

Does the delivery work when you are asleep?

1. Buy it yourself from a second email address, on a phone, and download the file.
2. Open the file on a different computer from the one that made it. Missing fonts and broken links show up here.
3. Check the receipt for the product name, the licence and a way to contact you.
4. Re-download the file the next day from the link in the email, to confirm a buyer can return to it.
5. Name the files with a version number so a later update does not confuse support.

A buyer who cannot find their file will write to you within the hour. Several of them will leave a review about it. This test costs twenty minutes.

A two-week plan, and where to announce

1. Days 1 to 4: finish the product, the sample and the licence. Settle the seller and the refund line.
2. Days 5 to 7: build the sales page: what is inside, the sample, the licence, the refund line. Run the delivery test.
3. Days 8 to 10: invite ten people from the right community to look at the sample and say what they expected.
4. Day 11: release. Post a clip or a before-and-after where people who use this kind of file gather.
5. Days 12 to 14: answer questions, fix whatever the delivery test missed, and ask the first buyers for one sentence on what they used it for.

A public page helps with search and with credibility. You can launch the product on this free board: one verified email, no queue, a followed link to your sales page, and a preview page where you can fix the draft before you publish. See where to launch digital products, read the general guide to making money from an app for pricing thinking, and check the launch with no budget playbook for free routes. The board’s ideas show what people want made, and your product may answer one of them.