For the past 12 years I've been using a simple budgeting spreadsheet which has helped me maintain my day-to-day financial stability, while also allowing me to project a month or two into the future. As the years progressed, the sheet's functionality kept evolving and the tabs kept adding up to accommodate the various features I started using and situations I encountered along the way. It turned into a good tool for me to get our home operating like a business.
Then November of last year, ChatGPT dropped.
Like everyone else, I played around with it to get a feel for what it could do conversationally and creatively. But then I started asking it for help with spreadsheet formulas and formatting advice. It didn't take long for me to realize this was like injecting the spreadsheet with steroids.
The functionality I unlocked in such a short time was incredible. It enabled me to create a powerful budgeting system which not only changed the way I think about my money and budgeting, but also one that I could universalize for everyone at a ridiculously minimal cost. Once the user sets it up - which takes maybe 1-2 hours - it enables the user to project their finances each year from January 1st all the way to Dec 31st, covering the entire 12-month calendar year. It shows you all of your paychecks, and all of your weekly, monthly, and annual expenses in a timeline form-factor like a glorified, interactive checkbook register. Inserting unexpected expenses is a breeze, as well as rearranging uupcoming expenses so you can smoothly roll with life's punches as you see them coming. For me personally, the biggest game changer was being able to insert goals, such as vacations, home improvement projects, or season passes to the local theme park for the kiddo to see the projected ripple effects of those purchases all the way to the end of the year. It actually highlights your bottlenecks to show you the times throughout the year when it might be wise to tighten the proverbial belt, giving you all the data you need to make the most responsible financial decisions.
ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT... I even made a how-to video on Youtube that teaches you how to set it up, and which is linked on the first page of the spreadsheet.
Sounds great, right? Well, it's all confined into a single Google Sheet. And I've got the link to it ready for purchase on Shopify for a one-time cost of $5.
I'm actually not trying to sell you a spreadsheet - although if you're interested I can give you the link to it as well as the how-to video. But as the title should infer, my point is about DIGITAL PRODUCTS in general. Something you can create relatively easily which may be beneficial to others, and which you only have to make 1 time, then sell ad infinitum. No physical product that has to be mass-produced or packaged, nothing to have to store in a warehouse or pay to have shipped. Just a single file which people simply pay to download again, and again, and again.
The trick is promoting your product(s), and that's where I currently am in my journey with this. I'm still researching to try and find the best ways to promote it so as to get it in front of as many eyes as possible, while marketing it in such a way as to make it attractive. I'm currently looking at email marketing options, as well as possibly using sponsored ads.
If you're interested in seeing how this Digital Product Development & Marketing journey goes for me, hit that upvote and give me a follow!
