u/Dry_Amphibian4854

I almost made the beginner mistake of building before researching

I’m still at the beginning with digital products, but I’m already seeing one mistake I almost made.

I wanted to build something first and then figure out how to sell it after.

But after spending some time reading posts and comments, I think that’s backwards.

It seems smarter to first find a repeated problem, then build a simple product around that problem.

Right now I’m trying to collect real problems before making anything.

The kind of things I’m looking for are:

- questions people keep asking

- problems people complain about often

- tasks people want to save time on

- things people already use templates or spreadsheets for

- topics where people ask for examples, checklists, or step-by-step help

I’m leaning toward making something simple first, like a checklist, template, spreadsheet, or short guide.

The goal is not to make a huge product.

The goal is to make something useful enough to test if people actually want it.

For anyone who has sold digital products before, how did you know your first idea was worth building?

reddit.com
u/Dry_Amphibian4854 — 5 days ago

I studied digital product posts for a few days and noticed one pattern

I’m still at the beginning, but I’ve been studying digital product posts and Reddit traffic for the past few days.

One thing I’m noticing is that the posts that get the most attention usually don’t feel like sales posts.

They usually look more like:

- a personal experiment

- a mistake someone made

- a breakdown of what worked

- a simple lesson from building something

- a specific result with context

The posts that seem to get ignored are usually too vague or too promotional.

Things like:

“Buy my product”

“Check my link”

“DM me”

“I made money fast”

I’m starting to understand that Reddit is not really about pushing a product.

It seems more about showing the process and being useful enough that people want to check what you’re doing.

Since I don’t have a product yet, I’m trying to focus on finding repeated problems first.

Right now I’m looking for problems that could be solved with:

- a template

- a checklist

- a short guide

- a spreadsheet

- a simple resource

My current plan is to collect 20–30 repeated problems before building anything.

For people who already sell digital products, did you build the product first or find the audience/problem first?

reddit.com
u/Dry_Amphibian4854 — 6 days ago