My EASY System To Creating And Selling Your First Digital Product In 2024

Most people who want to create their first digital product sit stuck for weeks. They do not know what to make, who to sell it to, or how to get the money in their pocket. This post walks you through the exact system Alston Godbolt uses to go from niche idea to a live, sellable digital product, step by step, with the specific tools, templates, and tactics he covers in the video above.

The goal here is not to give you theory. You are going to walk away knowing the product type to build first (and why), the headline formula that gets people to opt in, the funnel structure that handles the sale automatically, and the email system that delivers your product and moves buyers toward your next offer. This is a full playbook for your first digital product.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A niche-selection framework built from your own skills and hobbies
The exact product type Alston recommends for first-time creators (and why ebooks are the wrong choice)
A ChatGPT prompt that outlines your workbook in minutes
The landing page headline formula: How to get X in Y without Z
A step-by-step funnel build including lead magnet, sales page, order form, and upsell
Email automation for leads and buyers, with a segmentation strategy that pays off long-term
A price point and product delivery setup you can launch at $7
Ready to find the right starting point for your skills? Try finder.platformproof.com to match your background to an income path.

Start With What You Already Know

The biggest mistake new creators make is chasing a niche because it seems profitable instead of picking one where they actually have something to teach. Alston’s starting point is simple: write down your top five hobbies, your top five to ten skills, and what you do at work every day. That gives you a list of 20 to 25 items.

Somewhere on that list is your first digital product. Alston has shown on the channel that people are wildly profitable teaching things like Excel, QuickBooks, and other everyday tools most people treat as boring. The “boring” topics often have the most buyers because demand is steady and competition is thinner than in flashy niches like crypto or dropshipping.

For the walkthrough in this video, Alston picks the niche of helping people grow their social media following. Everything from landing page to email sequence to product uses that example so you can follow along and swap in your own niche as you go.

Why a Workbook Beats an Ebook Every Time

Alston is direct about this: for your first product, build a workbook, not an ebook. The reason is practical. Most people do not read ebooks. They buy them, skim the intro, and forget them. No result means no transformation, and no transformation means the buyer never comes back to buy anything else from you.

A workbook is different because it is actionable. When someone completes every section, they have a finished result. That result moves them from point A to point B. It solves a real problem, which means they trust you, they come back, and they buy again. The whole purpose of creating digital products is to help someone get a concrete outcome, and a workbook is the format that actually does that.

This first product should be a low-ticket item, priced at $27 or less. At that price point, you are solving a micro problem, a focused, specific challenge like how to get more followers on social media. You are not trying to solve how to make $10,000 a month with your first product. Save the big problem for a higher-ticket offer later. Start small, deliver real results, and build from there.

Use ChatGPT to Outline Your Workbook in Minutes

Once you have your niche and product type, use ChatGPT to build the outline. Alston’s exact prompt is: “I am creating a workbook to help people gain more followers on social media, please list items to include.” Swap out the topic for your own niche and you will get a full list of sections in seconds.

ChatGPT came back with sections on content creation, social media strategy, engagement, and more. Those become the chapters or sections of your workbook. You are not writing from a blank page; you are organizing and personalizing a structure that already makes sense for your audience.

One important rule Alston mentions more than once in this video: do not blindly copy and paste from AI. Read through the output, rewrite anything that sounds off, and make sure the content actually matches your voice and your experience. The AI gives you an outline; you supply the credibility and the actual teaching.

Build Your Workbook in Canva for Free

Go to Canva, search for “workbook,” and you will find free and paid templates you can modify. Alston grabs a free one for the demo. The key word is modify. You cannot download a Canva template and sell it as-is. You need to change the colors, content, layout, and branding so that it is genuinely your own product.

Fill in the workbook sections using the outline you got from ChatGPT. Add your own prompts, exercises, and reflection questions. When someone finishes the workbook, they should have a concrete outcome that reflects the specific promise you made when you sold it to them.

When you are done, download the workbook as a PDF. That PDF is what gets delivered to buyers after they purchase. Canva also lets you build the lead magnet, the free planner you give away to grow your email list, so you can build both assets in one tool before moving to the funnel builder.

Build a Landing Page That Collects Future Buyers

Most people who see your content are not ready to buy immediately. That is why you do not send traffic straight to a sales page. You send it to a landing page that collects names and emails in exchange for a free lead magnet. For the social media niche example, the free offer is a social media planner. People who want to grow on social media will find a planner immediately useful, which makes it an easy yes.

Alston builds his funnels inside GHL (GoHighLevel, referred to in the video as G Bolt Systems), which includes a two-week free trial. The trial gives you access to landing pages, forms, automations, course hosting, and order forms, all in one place. The trial includes 14,000 emails (roughly 500 subscribers), and there is a one-time account setup fee to activate it.

To build the landing page, go to Sites, then Forms, then Form Builder. Create a form that collects only the name and email. Remove unnecessary fields like phone number. Label the submit button with something benefit-focused, like “Yes, Send Me My Social Media Planner.” Then go to Sites, create a new funnel, and add a landing page step where you embed that form.

The Landing Page Headline Formula That Works

Alston uses a specific headline formula for all his landing pages: How to get X in Y without Z. X is the outcome the person wants. Y is the time frame. Z is the pain point or obstacle they are trying to avoid.

For the social media niche, that becomes: “How to get 10K followers in 30 days without posting every day.” That headline works because it speaks directly to what the audience wants (followers), when they want it (30 days), and removes the thing they dread (having to post constantly). It is a complete value proposition in one sentence.

Below the headline, add a sub-headline like “Free planner helps new content creators gain more followers.” Use a two-column layout: your lead magnet image or a photo of your target audience on the left, and the form on the right. Add a short line of copy telling them to enter their name and email to download the free planner. Keep the page clean, no navigation, no distractions, no exits.

Build Your Lead Magnet Email Sequence

Once someone submits the form, they need to receive the free thing you promised. In GHL, go to Automations and create a new workflow. Set the trigger to “Form Submitted” and filter it to the specific form you built. The first action is to add a tag so you can segment this person later. Call the tag “social media followers” to match the funnel name.

The first email does three things: welcomes them to the community, delivers the free lead magnet (include the direct link to the PDF you uploaded in GHL’s Media section), and asks them to whitelist your email address so future emails land in the inbox. Use ChatGPT to write the email, then rewrite it at a ninth-grade reading level. Alston’s tip: if you write too smart, you lose people. Keep it conversational and direct.

After the welcome email, build a seven-day email sequence with tips and tricks related to your niche. Each email should end with a call to action pointing to your sales page. The goal of the sequence is to give real value, build trust, and eventually move the person from free-content reader to paying customer. Set a one-day wait between emails so the sequence feels like a relationship, not a bombardment.

Build the Sales Page

The page that immediately follows the opt-in form serves two purposes. First, it confirms that the lead magnet is on the way and tells them to check their promotions or spam folder. Second, it introduces the paid product below the confirmation message. The same page handles both the thank-you and the soft pitch.

For the sales page copy, use ChatGPT to generate an outline. Prompt it with: “Outline an effective sales page for a social media workbook priced at $7.” Then fill in the outline with your specific product details and your own voice. The sales page does not need to be long at this price point. Show the problem, show your solution, show what they get, and give them a button to click. The button takes them to the order form.

Build Your Product and Over-Deliver

Alston recommends building the product inside GHL’s Courses section. Go to Memberships, then Courses, then Products. Create a Sprint course. Call it “Social Media Follower Workbook” or whatever matches your niche.

Inside the course, record a short welcome video that shows people how to use the workbook. Then embed the PDF directly in the welcome module so buyers have immediate access without waiting for an email. This over-delivery move matters. When you give buyers more than they expected, they trust you and come back for your next offer. Alston states it plainly: if you over-deliver, you build a customer for life. They will come back again and again.

Next, go to Offers and create a new offer. Add the workbook product and connect Stripe or PayPal for payment processing. Set the price at $7. At this price, the goal is not immediate profit; it is converting a lead into a buyer. A buyer is fundamentally different from a free subscriber. Buyers have already proven they will pay, which means they are far more likely to purchase again when you release something new.

Set Up the Order Form and Order Bump

Add a new step to your funnel for the order form. Alston uses a two-step order form. On the left side, show a bullet list of everything the buyer is getting. On the right side, place the actual payment form. Keeping the order form separate from the sales page is cleaner and makes it easier to test and optimize each piece on its own.

Add an order bump to increase the average cart value. An order bump is a small checkbox offer that appears on the order form page, below the payment fields. The offer must be directly related to the main product. Alston’s specific example for the social media niche is an over-the-shoulder case study showing how to go from 0 to 10,000 followers in two weeks. The buyer is already in purchase mode; the order bump gives them a chance to add one more relevant thing without leaving the checkout page. That single checkbox can meaningfully increase what you earn per transaction.

Add an Upsell After the Purchase

Only people who have already paid see the upsell page. This is important to understand. The upsell page opens with thanks for the purchase, then immediately introduces a higher-priced offer. For the social media niche, a logical upsell is a mini course on how to monetize the followers they just learned to build. The sequence makes sense: first they learn to grow followers, then they learn to make money from those followers. Everything is congruent and speaks to the same audience.

Alston recommends that beginners skip down-sells for now. A down-sell is a cheaper offer shown to people who decline the upsell. It adds complexity before you need it. Build the upsell, get the funnel running, and add a down-sell later once you have real data on what is actually converting.

After the upsell, add a thank-you confirmation page. Every path through the funnel should end on a clear confirmation so buyers know the purchase went through and know exactly what to expect next. Clarity at the end of a transaction reduces refund requests and increases trust.

Not sure which digital product fits your background?

Answer a few questions and get a match built around what you already know at finder.platformproof.com.

Email Automation for Buyers

When someone buys, they need to enter a different email sequence from your free leads. In GHL Automations, create a new workflow with the trigger set to “Order Form Submitted,” filtered to your specific funnel and submission type “sale.” This workflow should do three things in order: remove the social media followers tag, remove the person from all existing workflows, then add a new tag called “social media workbook buyers.”

Segmenting buyers from leads is one of the most valuable moves in this entire system. It lets you treat these people differently going forward. When you release a new product, you can email your buyers specifically because they have already shown they will pay. You can also send a different message to your free leads, focused on nudging them toward a first purchase rather than pitching something at a cold audience.

The first email in the buyers’ sequence thanks them, congratulates them, and gives them clear directions to access the course inside GHL. Do not make them hunt for it. Include a direct link and a one-line instruction. Keep this email short and warm. They just gave you money. Welcome them properly.

How the Full Funnel Connects

Here is the complete picture of how traffic becomes money in this system. You create content on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram and direct viewers to your landing page. The landing page offers a free lead magnet (social media planner) in exchange for a name and email. After they opt in, they land on your sales and thank-you page, where you introduce the paid workbook ($7) below the confirmation message.

If they click and buy, they see the upsell page. Whether they take the upsell or not, they land on the thank-you confirmation page. GHL’s automation handles all the tagging and segmentation automatically at every step of the funnel. You set it up once and the system runs on its own, delivering products, sending emails, and updating your contact lists without you touching it.

Real Numbers From the Video

Here are the actual specifics Alston references so you can plan your own setup with real figures:

Main product price: $7 (low-ticket, micro-problem, under $27 threshold)
Lead magnet: Free social media planner, built in Canva, delivered via a link in the welcome email
GHL free trial: Two weeks, 14,000 emails included (approximately 500 subscribers), one-time account setup fee
Email sequence length: Welcome email plus a 7-day tip sequence with a sales call-to-action at the end of each email
Order bump example: Case study, 0 to 10,000 followers in two weeks
Upsell example: Mini course on monetizing new followers (higher price, congruent topic)
Canva: Free for workbook and planner templates; you must modify before selling
ChatGPT prompts used: Workbook outline, welcome email draft, 7-day sequence draft, sales page outline, email rewrite at 9th-grade level

Step-by-Step Launch Checklist

Follow this sequence and you have everything from the video in the right order:

Write down your 5 hobbies, 5 to 10 skills, and daily work tasks. Pick your niche from that combined list of 20 to 25 items.
Use ChatGPT to generate your workbook outline. Prompt: “I am creating a workbook to help people [your topic]. Please list items to include.”
Build the workbook in Canva using a free template. Modify all content. Download as PDF.
Build your free lead magnet (a planner or checklist related to your niche) in Canva. Download as PDF.
Sign up for GHL using the two-week free trial. Upload both PDFs to the Media section.
Build the form in GHL: name field, email field, submit button with a benefit-focused label.
Build the landing page using the “How to get X in Y without Z” headline formula. Form on the right, image on the left.
Build the lead magnet automation: trigger on form submission, add tag, send welcome email with lead magnet PDF link.
Build the 7-day email sequence in ChatGPT. Rewrite at a 9th-grade level. Add one-day waits between emails. Each email ends with a link to the sales page.
Build the sales page below the thank-you confirmation. Add a button that links to the order form.
Create the product in GHL Courses. Record a short welcome video. Embed the workbook PDF in the first module.
Create the offer in GHL. Connect Stripe or PayPal. Set price to $7.
Build the two-step order form. Add an order bump with a congruent related offer.
Build the upsell page for a related, higher-value offer. Add a one-click upsell button.
Build the buyers’ automation: remove lead tag, remove from all workflows, add buyers tag, send access email with direct link to the course.
Add a thank-you confirmation page as the final funnel step. Publish all automations. Publish the funnel. Start creating content that drives traffic to the landing page.

Honest Drawbacks to Know Before You Start

This system works, but there are real friction points Alston mentions in the video that are worth knowing upfront. First, GHL requires a one-time account setup fee even during the free trial. That is not zero cost to start, so budget for it before you sign up.

Second, Alston demonstrates the payment step but notes he could not complete it live in the video because Stripe and PayPal were not yet connected to that demo account. Payment processor approval takes time and can hold up your launch. Get that setup done early in the process, not as an afterthought once everything else is built.

Third, Canva’s free templates cannot be sold as-is. You have to put in real work modifying them. If you try to cut that corner, you are violating Canva’s terms. The modification step is not optional, and it is also where you add the actual value that makes your product worth buying.

Fourth, traffic does not come automatically. The funnel handles the conversion once someone arrives, but you still need to create consistent content on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram to drive people to the landing page. The funnel is not a shortcut to avoid showing up; it is a system that makes your showing-up more efficient.

Find Your X

The hardest part of this whole system is not the funnel or the email sequence. It is picking the right starting point. Pick the wrong niche and all the technical work above goes nowhere. The skills-and-hobbies exercise Alston walks through in the video is the fastest way to get to an honest answer. If you want a shortcut, try finder.platformproof.com. Answer a few questions about your background and get a concrete direction matched to what you already know how to do.

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of digital product should a beginner create first?

Alston recommends a workbook over an ebook. Workbooks are actionable. When someone finishes one, they have a real result. Ebooks fail because most buyers never read them past the first few pages, which means no outcome and no reason to come back. A completed workbook builds trust and drives repeat purchases.

How much should I charge for my first digital product?

Keep it under $27. Alston’s specific example is $7. At this price, the goal is converting leads into buyers, not maximizing revenue per transaction. Once someone pays you even a small amount, they are far more likely to pay again when you release something new. The first purchase is the trust threshold.

Do I need to pay for software to build this funnel?

GHL (GoHighLevel) offers a two-week free trial with a one-time account setup fee. The trial includes landing pages, forms, automations, course hosting, and payment integration. Canva is free for the workbook and planner templates. ChatGPT’s free tier handles all the outline and email drafting you need to get started.

Can I use any niche or does it have to be social media growth?

The social media example is just what Alston uses for the demo. The same funnel structure works for any niche where you can teach a skill or solve a specific problem. The skills-and-hobbies exercise at the start of the process is designed to help you find a niche inside your existing experience, not one you have to research from scratch.

What is an order bump and is it necessary at launch?

An order bump is a checkbox offer that appears below the payment fields on the checkout page. It must be directly related to the main product. Alston’s example is a case study of going from 0 to 10,000 followers in two weeks. You do not need it to launch, but adding one is one of the simplest ways to increase what you earn per buyer without changing anything else in the funnel.

What is the difference between an upsell and a down-sell?

An upsell is a higher-priced offer shown only to people who have already completed a purchase. A down-sell is a cheaper offer shown to people who declined the upsell. Alston recommends beginners skip the down-sell to keep the funnel simple. Build the upsell first, get buyers moving through, and add the down-sell later if you have data showing it is worth the complexity.

How do I get traffic to my landing page?

Alston’s primary traffic sources are YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. You create content related to your niche and direct viewers to your landing page. Content builds trust before people ever reach the page, which makes the opt-in and purchase easier. Paid ads are an option after the funnel is proven, but content-driven traffic is the recommended starting point.

Why does it matter to segment leads from buyers in my email list?

Leads and buyers need different messages. A lead has not paid yet, so your emails should give value and move them toward a first purchase. A buyer has already trusted you with money, so your emails should deliver on your promises and eventually introduce your next offer. Treating both groups the same wastes the different levels of trust each group has built with you and reduces how much both groups respond to your messages.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “My EASY System To Creating And Selling Your First Digital Product In 2024,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/DGFT4Blkh5s
Canva workbook templates: canva.com
GHL (GoHighLevel) two-week free trial, as referenced in the video
ChatGPT, OpenAI, as referenced in the video for outline and email drafting

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.