My struggle with digital marketing

You see them everywhere. People making passive income while they sleep. A viral TikTok here, a fancy Instagram Reel there. All of them claiming that selling digital products is the ultimate ticket to financial freedom. They tell you how easy it is. Just open a Stan Store or Etsy. Upload a Canva designed planner, coloring page, or e-book. Market it with a cute caption and soon you are making thousands a month.

That is the dream. But here is the reality. It has not worked like that for me.

I have spent hours creating real products. Not just mockups. Real, downloadable, quality content like word searches, activity sheets, and adult coloring books. I have followed the guides, the how tos, the trends. I have made the videos, added the links, even paid for promotion.

Still, zero sales.

It is not for lack of trying. I have posted on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I have experimented with niches. I have updated my thumbnails. I have redone product descriptions. I have researched keywords and watched tutorials from creators who say things like I made ten thousand dollars my first month.

They make it seem like it is a formula. But there is a part they are not talking about.

What they do not tell you is how saturated the market is. How hard it is to be seen. How platforms favor creators who already have momentum. How your content can disappear into the void no matter how hard you try. And when you are disabled, like me, relying on digital creation as a real opportunity for income, the pressure hits differently.

There is no magic trick. No guarantee.

And yet, I keep showing up. Because I know my products have value. Because I believe there is an audience out there. Because this is more than a side hustle. It is my attempt to build something that fits within the reality of my life.

But I want to say this out loud for anyone else struggling in silence. It is okay if it has not worked yet. You are not a failure. The road to success is rarely straight, especially in a world full of smoke and mirrors.

I do not have the solution. Not yet. But I am still here, building, learning, trying.

That matters.

What makes all this even harder is the money it takes to stay in the game. People think selling digital products is a low cost business. And in some ways, it can be. But what often gets overlooked is the steady drip of expenses that add up fast.

Let us talk about tools.

To design digital products, you need something like Canva. Sure, there is a free version. But it only goes so far. Most creators end up paying for the Pro plan. That costs around one hundred dollars a year. It gives you access to better templates, fonts, and tools. Without it, your designs might not look professional enough to compete. So, you feel like you have no choice.

Then there is WordMint. I use it to make word searches and activity sheets. It costs about six dollars a month. That might not sound like much, but it is another piece of the puzzle. And the thing is, you do not pay these fees one time. These are ongoing. They eat away at your budget before you even make a single sale.

Now let us get into platforms. If you sell on Etsy, you pay a fee just to list a product. Then you pay another fee when it sells. On top of that, they take a percentage of the transaction. The more listings you create, the more those fees stack up. You must constantly update, relist, or experiment with different products to stay relevant. That means more money going out while you are still trying to get money to come in.

Stan Store is another example. This is the platform a lot of TikTok creators use. It looks clean and simply. You can upload your products, build a store, and link it to your social media. But it comes with a price. Around thirty dollars a month or roughly three hundred dollars for the year. That is a serious commitment if your store is not making money yet.

And let us not forget the time cost. Every time I change my product layout, update a design, or edit a video, it takes hours. That is time I could be using for something else. But if I want to compete, I must treat this like a job. The problem is, I am spending like it is a job, but not getting paid like it is one.

There is this quiet pressure to keep investing in hopes that one day it will turn around. Maybe you just need to upgrade your tools. Maybe your site would do better if it looked more professional. Maybe you need to run ads. Before you know it, you are trapped in a cycle where you are always paying to play.

People love to say you have to spend money to make money. But what they leave out is that not everyone has the same resources. For some of us, spending thirty dollars a month on a platform is a big deal. Not because we do not believe in our work. But because that thirty dollars could go to groceries, medication, or bills.

And there is a kind of guilt that comes with spending money on something that is not paying off. You start to question yourself. Is my stuff not good enough? Am I doing something wrong? Why does it work for other people and not me?

What makes it worse is when you see creators talking about how cheap it is to start. They show their Canva screen and say this cost me nothing. But what they do not say is they already had the upgraded plan. They already built an audience. They are already making money, so their costs are covered. It is not the same when you are starting from zero.

Every tool you use becomes a gamble. You think maybe this is the one that will help me break through. Maybe if I just learn this software or use this platform, things will change. And sometimes you try them all and still feel stuck.

The truth is that the cost of selling digital products goes beyond money. It wears on your confidence. It makes you second guess your creativity. And when you are trying to build something from a place of financial or physical limitation, every dollar counts. Every tool becomes a decision that carries weight.

I am not writing this to complain. I am writing it to be honest. There are a lot of us out here doing the work, paying the fees, using the tools, and still coming up empty. Not because we are lazy or unskilled, but because this space is harder than people admit.

The digital product world can be exciting. It can also be expensive, exhausting, and unpredictable. I wish I knew how the journey was going be from the beginning, then I would've better prepared for struggle ahead