If you’re new to Discord and wondering, “Can I sell content on Discord?” my answer to you would be a resounding yes! You see… Discord is no longer just a platform for gamers to interconnect. It’s now a dynamic space for creators like you and me to connect with audiences, build communities, and even generate income.
To get started you’ll need to create a Discord personal account > create your brand’s Discord server > create channels and define what you offer > set up payment options > use Discord bots for monetization.
This is just a glimpse of what’s possible. In this guide, we’ll walk you through each of these steps, explore the advantages of selling content on Discord, discuss the challenges, and share expert tips to help you succeed. So, Let’s get started!
Step-by-Step Guide for Selling Content on Discord
Ready to start selling content on Discord? As a fellow expert, I’d say that before you start the most important thing for you to do is get a well-defined idea of what you want to achieve with this Discord brand community.
Step 1: Create A Discord Personal Account
First thing first! if you don’t already have the app, go to Play Store and download the app or–
- Go to discord.com and click on ‘Open Discord in your browser’.
- Input your desired Username and hit Enter.
- Next, a pop-up will show you how to enter your birth date, complete it, and move to the next step.
- The next pop-up will ask you if you want to create a server that you surely want but for now close that pop-up by hitting ‘X’ on the top right.
- From the next pop-up input your email address and a strong password to claim the account.
Step 2: Create Your Brand’s Discord Server Now you have a Discord personal account. However, your brand server is yet to be created to start selling content on Discord. Here’s how you can create your own server-Choose between creating a server from scratch or using a template.
- Open Discord and click the “+” button on the left sidebar.
- Select “Create My Own”. You can also select an already-made template suggested by Discord.
- Next, select the ‘For a club or community’ option and input your server aka brand name, and logo, then hit ‘Create’.
Now you have your own brand server to start customizing, organizing, and selling!Step 3: Create Channels and Define What You OfferAs I said in the beginning you must have a clear idea about what you’re selling. Based on what you offer, whether eBooks, online courses, custom art, or exclusive behind-the-scenes content, the channel creation and organization would differ.In any case, there are 2 channel types, one would be the text channel for chatting sharing images and links, and the other is the voice channel for real-time conversations via voice or video.
For any brand starting its own new server, these channels are what you should get started with-
- General Discussion: A place for your audience to have casual conversations.
- Support: A channel through which clients can ask questions and gain answers as they would from a customer support department.
- Feedback: A place where your audience can express opinions or comments about your product or service specifically.
- Announcement: This would be the channel you’ll use to express important data, news, or event information to your audience.
While at it don’t forget to set up some ground rules on your channels. Rules such as–
- Respecting all: Give respect to each member. Every member needs to feel secure and respected while communicating to keep up the good reputation of your brand.
- No Spam or Self-Promotion: Refrain from letting people post too much unnecessary stuff or promote themselves in distracting ways from the conversation.
- On-topic: Keep people discussing the right things in the right channels so that everything is neat and easy to follow.
Step 4: Set Up Payment OptionsDiscord does not provide a native payment processing solution. But you can definitely set up and handle the payments easily using the available third-party platforms. Here’s how you can go about adding a payment method–
- Navigate to the User Settings and then click on the Billing tab.
- Click on the Add Payment Method option, then follow the on-screen instructions to enter your payment details.
- After that just follow the prompts shown on your screen.
Step 5: Use Discord Bots for Monetization
I can’t stress enough how useful bots are for automating your monetization process. You can implement multiple bots for multiple tasks. Such as—
- Tipping bots – will gamify giving donations to your community.
- TacoShack – can be used to improve your shack to bring in more customers.
- Selly – can be used to sell your digital products directly on your discord server.
- Mee6 – welcome members and automates roles based on payments.
There are a bunch of other bots you can use to make your server more fun and organized for your community. To integrate these bots into your server, you’ll need to invite and set them up by following these steps –
- Go to the specific bot website and click on invite.
- Select your server from the dropdown menu.
- Click on Continue and then authorize via verification.
- Go back to your server and type ‘/setup’.
- Choose the bot you just invited and follow the prompts to set it up.
- Update its role to Bot and set its priority over other roles based on your usage criteria.
Advantages of Selling Content on Discord
Not only is selling content on Discord possible but it also comes with many benefits for you as a seller. Here are some of them-
- Community Building: Discord is a voice and text chat platform with over 150 million active monthly users and 560 million registered accounts as its assets. As such this platform allows you to create a virtual gathering place.
Your customers will interact rather than just wait or ghost you like other social media platforms. This is a great way to make money on Discord by fostering a strong community.
- Exclusive Content: To keep your community engaged and entertained offering special perks like behind-the-scenes content, early access to new releases, and offering unique deals can add value to your brand too.
- Integration with Other Platforms: Discord has a great rep for working fluidly with platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and Spotify. If you are a digital artist then to promote your content even more you can easily share streams, videos, and playlists with your community, enhancing the overall experience.
- Customization: Since Discord allows you to set up different channels for various topics, and assign roles with specific permissions easily it becomes much easier to create a structure that suits your brand’s identity and style needs.
- Analytics and Tools: With Discord there are many bots and third-party tools available that will help you to automate tasks, provide analytics, and help with server management too. Just like the meta business suit but with more efficiency and control. These tools and bots save time and offer insights into user engagement.
Since 22% of the users are on Discord solely for gaming purposes, using bots and keeping it fun boosts engagements even more.
- Cost-Effective: Discord is free to use, with many features accessible without a paid subscription. This makes it an affordable option for content creators like beginners who are looking to engage with their audience without having to make significant financial investments.
Challenges of Selling Content on Discord
While I’m sure you’d love using Discord, it’s important that you stay cautious about the payment process. There could be some challenges you may face. Such as –
- Payment Handling: Since Discord doesn’t have a native payment system, you’ll need third-party integrations. For order management and payment, there are multiple tools that you can install and rely on. Make sure not to miss learning about those
- Server Management: With Discord managing and growing existing community can be time-consuming. If you’re like me, you’ll find bots and moderators indispensable. But you’ll have to be vigilant about maintaining them well too.
- Audience Building: Being a chat platform personalizing and building long-term loyal customers isn’t hard with Discord. However, you’ll need an existing following and some solid marketing strategies to bring in new people to your server.
Success Tips for Selling Content on Discord
Engage With Your Community
The more engaged your audience feels, the more likely they are to purchase from you. Reply to messages, join discussions, and host live Q&As or polls to connect with your followers. These interactions can help build trust and generate leads.
Offer Free Previews
Sharing snippets of your work is a great way to grab attention. I often share previews of my digital art to spark interest. You can also share a few pages of a book, a video teaser, or part of an article. Check out this simple guide on creating digital art for more ideas. Little previews like these can get people curious about what you’re offering.
Stay Consistent
Your audience needs to trust that you’ll provide value for their money. I make sure to stick to a regular posting schedule, so my followers know when to expect new content. You can practice setting up a content calendar to stay on track and keep your audience engaged.
Get an Extra Boost of Audience Using Crowdfundly
When shopping online customers need help finding reliability. As such, even though you sell quality content people may not trust you initially. Which will surely cause slower growth.But if you can show your customers that you are already selling on one trustable platform they’ll feel more secure to make a purchase. Now to do that you may find that many platforms require initial payment or cost a high commission which you can not afford being in the initial stage.If only you could have a platform that doesn’t require initial payment has a good audience base and has a moderately low commission rate too. I can bet that’s what you’re thinking. Well, Congrats! Crowdfundly is here to save you the trouble of finding such a platform.You can start with a free plan on Crowdfundly, no initial payment but yeah… you’ll have to pay commission. However, Crowdfundly charges only 3% whereas other platforms may charge you up to 5-10%.Crowdfundly also supports both reward-based and donation-based campaigns for marketing boosts, providing content creators the flexibility to choose the best approach for selling their content.
FAQs
What Type Of Content Sells Best On Discord?
The digital products sell best on Discord. Since it is a platform that attracts a tech-savvy audience, digital goods like eBooks, courses, digital arts, etc. are some of the famous goods many choose to sell on this platform.
How Do I Promote My Discord Server?
To promote your discord server you can use other social media and email marketing. Start by promoting within existing communities and then spread your wings. Word of mouth, like some shoutouts on blogger videos or live, can also be a great opportunity.
Is Selling Content On Discord Profitable?
Yes,! selling content on Discord is profitable. In this digital era, social media marketing with a consistent engagement rate is bound to earn a decent amount of profit. Besides, Discord has gained popularity of being a lucrative income stream source for many sellers.
Final Words
Selling content on Discord is not only possible but also highly rewarding. It gives a chance to creators like you and me to monetize our talents while building strong communities. Keep in mind that selling content on Discord is not only about getting cash, it’s connecting with your audience and delivering value. Why not give this a shot? Start now, and you might well be turning your passions into thriving businesses.