Post by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on Twitter.

You know the 3 ways to make money online. Products. Services. Advertise. The big money is in selling products. You own the product, make 100% of the sale, and can setup affiliate programs if you want. You can also create upsell opportunities with your newsletter. Sounds good? So, how do you do it? I started with Clickbank. It’s very good, not perfect, for selling digital goods. I've used it for nine years and seen it improve dramatically. E-junkie is another site that lets you buy and sell digital goods online. Let’s compare them and see which is best.

Why I like E-junkie to sell digital goods

E-junkie is less well-known than Clickbank but has some powerful tools for upselling, digital delivery and secure downloads. It’s not free but at 5 USD per month for 10 goods, it won’t break the bank.

• Cost - It costs $5 dollars a month to sell 10 goods. The pricing structure is staggered depending on the number of products you sell and/or bandwidth you want.
• Quality - The quality of the information products and digital goods is high. The marketplace is smaller than Clickbank, I think. I stand corrected on this.
• Delivery - Downloads are sent by email. With Clickbank, you have to create a web page where the customer goes to buy the product. Some customers don’t get it and expect an email with the digital good. Customer support can take time and time is money. 
•   Affiliate - You can setup affiliate programs in a snap. Couldn’t be much easier.
• Product Listing – you can add multiple digital products to its online marketplace. With Clickbank, you need to apply/create a master account and then link different accounts to each product. Takes time.
• Guarantee – no guarantee. It’s up to you to resolve with the affiliate manager.
• PayPal – integrates with PayPal, which also allows you to upsell digital productsl.
• Upsell – it has a built-in tool that lets you create a shopping cart and upsell other products. Possibly the one reason to choose E-junkie over Clickbank.

Why I like Clickbank to sell digital goods

• Cost – Clickbank is free!
• Quality - The quality of the digital goods may not be as high. However, the range of products is larger.
• Guarantee – you get a minimum 60 day guarantee on all products.
• Affiliate - You can setup affiliate programs, add commissions and get tips in the affiliate newsletter.
• Product Listing – you can add one core product to its marketplace. However, you can create a Master account and add different products. It’s doable but a little cumbersome.
• Delivery - you have to create a web page where the customer goes to buy the product. Some customers don’t understand this and expect an email with the digital goods. Customer support can take time and time is money. Also, some close the download page and don’t receive the product, then request a refund. With E-junkie, they get an email with a link to the product. There is also a limit on the number of times/days they can attempt to download the product.
• Upsell – Clickbank has a manual system that lets you upsell digital products. I got the PDF with instructions but never actually tried. Too much coding and testing involved. I want something that’s automated.
• PayPal – integrates with PayPal and 2Checkout.
• Shopping Cart - built-in shopping cart that helps upsell products and increase sales. You can do this manually on Clickbank (e.g. hardcode HTML pages) but if you change the prices, then you need to go back and manually change the web pages.

Which is best for selling digital goods?

• While Clickbank is free, the five dollars for EJ shouldn’t stop you. Not if you're serious about selling goods online.
• Quality is hard to tell until you buy. Clickbank’s reputation is better than it was and they are trying to give extra support to power users. I have a dedicated Relationship Manager, for example.
• Clickbank gives you a 60 day guarantee.
• E-junkie is a little easier for setting up affiliate programs, especially as you can separate out different products. How sure how to do this with Clickbank, tbh.
• Clickbank lets you add one core product to its Marketplace. You can apply for a Master account and add different products. With E-junkie the process is much simpler.
• Delivery – Clickbank makes you create a web page for every product, which must be open 24*7. Security issues here. The link can also be passed around. Not ideal! Many customers expect email delivery. After the purchase, some close the browser and don’t receive the product - request refunds. E-junkie sends them an email with a link to the product. Limit on the number of times/days they can attempt to download it. You can update this.
• E-junkie has a nice tool for creating a shopping cart and upselling.
• Both integrate with PayPal.
• E-junkie has a built-in shopping cart that links to PayPal. Great for upselling information products and long-tail products. You have to do this manually on Clickbank and if you change prices etc, then you need to locate, change and ftp the web pages.

Which do I use to sell digital products?

Both. I have so many products that moving them to E-junkie (mostly for the shopping cart feature) takes time. Other web marketers suggested I use 1Shopping Cart to sell digital products instead. It comes with email newsletter integration and more advanced credit card options.

What's your experience?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh is a recovering technical writer who develops internet business plans for savvy clients .He also shares business tips for smart people at Klariti.