I created 3 digital products in 2025 and made $100K. Here's product #1.
why my simplest product outsold my most complicated one (and what that means for you in 2026)
It’s almost end of 2025 and you’re probably thinking about 2026.
Maybe you want to finally make money from your newsletter…Maybe you’re tired of just writing for free and hoping something clicks…
You see other writers selling products and think “I should do that.”
Then you freeze. What would you even create? And if you did create something, would anyone actually buy it?
So, another year goes by and you’re still just writing. For free.
I was there too in January 2025. I was a burnt-out career coach and resume writer doing 5-7 client calls every single day.
I started my newsletter looking for another income stream. Something that didn’t drain me.
I really didn’t expect my newsletter to almost replace my prior day job income.
By December 2025? $100K from three simple digital products.
Over 500 writers joined my main masterclass. And I learned something important: a newsletter plus digital products might be the perfect side hustle.
Minimal overhead (I pay about $100/month for tools). Nearly unlimited upside. And you can work on it as little or as much as you want.
Need a few extra hundred per month? Possible. Want a few thousand? Also possible.
Let me show you which product worked best. It’s probably not what you’d expect.
Which product flopped and which one made $100K
I started with a guide. Just a Google Doc with my system for growing a newsletter. Priced it at $37.
It sold okay. Nothing crazy. But people kept asking for more guidance.
So, I did what most people do when they want to “level up” their offer. I built a course…
Spent weeks creating modules…recording videos…making it comprehensive. Priced it higher because “more value.”
Launched it and it sold way less than I expected. Like way less.
The thing that took me the most time made me the least money.
Then I created something different. My Six-Figure Substack Growth Masterclass.
Not a course. A workshop. One focused training they could finish in an afternoon.
Over 500 writers joined it this year.
Not the comprehensive course. Not the detailed guide. The simple workshop.
The 90% stat that changed how I create products
Here’s what I learned the hard way:
About 90% of people who buy a course never actually finish it.
Think about that. You spend months creating this comprehensive thing. People buy it. They get excited. Then they get overwhelmed and never finish it.
But a workshop? People actually finish workshops.
Because it’s short enough to consume in one sitting. It solves one specific problem. And they can implement it immediately.
The Substack Growth Masterclass worked because it didn’t try to teach everything about newsletters. It focused on one thing: how to grow consistently using Substack Notes.
People don’t want more information. They’re drowning in information.
They want a clear path from where they are to where they want to be.
The course had everything. The workshop had exactly what they needed.
Guess which one they actually finished and used?
No, your subscribers don’t need another course. Here are the 3 boring products they’ll actually use
How complicated do you want to make this? (Spoiler: simple wins)
Here’s the thing about creating digital products:
You can spend months building course videos…
You can set up Kajabi and pay $150/month…
You can build complicated funnels with upsells and downsells and email sequences…
Or you could validate your idea this weekend, record a workshop on Monday, set up your Stan Store in an hour, and be selling your product by January 1st, 2026.
I’m not saying complicated is wrong. Courses can be great (if done right). I’m saying simple gets you to your first sale faster.
And your first sale is what changes everything.
Because once you make that first $100, you realize people will actually pay you for what you know. You don’t need a massive audience. You don’t need a perfect product.
You just need to solve one problem for one group of people…YOUR people…
Forget the product suite. Just create this one thing.
The mistake I see people make is thinking they need a whole product suite before they start.
You don’t.
You need one product. One workshop. One thing that helps people get from A to B.
Pick the question people ask you most often. Record yourself answering it for 30-60 minutes. Keep it focused on solving that one problem. Make it consumable in an afternoon.
Don’t try to solve all their problems at once. Just solve one.
That’s your first product.
This weekend, you could ask your audience what they’re struggling with most and validate that people actually want help with it.
Monday, you could record the workshop and set up your Stan Store.
By January 1st, you could have a product live and making sales.
Or you could spend January thinking about it, researching the “perfect” platform, planning the “comprehensive” course, and still have nothing by March.
Let me show you everything you need to make your first $1K
I put everything I learned about creating and selling digital products into my $1K Digital Product Roadmap.
How to find your first product idea…The exact workshop format I use…How to price it…Where to sell it…The complete process from idea to first sale…
And this weekend only, you get it as a bonus when you join my Six-Figure Substack Growth Masterclass.
Inside the masterclass, you’ll get the strategy that helps me grow me newsletter each day, to 15,000+ subscribers this year. But the $1K Digital Product Roadmap is what turns those subscribers into income.
Over 500 writers joined the masterclass this year. Join them below and let’s make 2026 the year you stop thinking about creating products and actually launch one:
This time next year, you’ll either still be wondering what product to create or you’ll have made money from something you built.
Let’s do this. Keep writing, Wes
I like how you highlight the 90% stat that most course buyers never finish and how the Six-Figure Substack Growth Masterclass succeeded as a focused workshop. Requiring a measurable seven-day result with a before and after screenshot creates a clear proof of work and forces students to ship one concrete output they can use and share. Which specific proof-of-work will you require for students in the workshop to show they made progress?
With producing a workshop the thing that is preventing me from doing one for my Substack audience is I really don't like my voice, and am super shy, hate being videoed.