Selling your first digital product

Before you can accept payments, you need to connect a Stripe account. Stripe is the same payment processor used by Shopify, DoorDash, Substack, Patreon, and most of the modern internet. They handle the card processing, fraud prevention, tax calculation, and bank transfers. We just orchestrate the buyer experience and the file delivery.

Go to Settings → Payments → Connect Stripe. You'll be redirected to Stripe's secure onboarding flow on a stripe.com URL — that's normal. The whole flow takes 3–6 minutes if you have your details ready.

What Stripe will ask for

• Your legal name and date of birth
• Your home address (must be a real residential address, not a PO box)
• Your bank account details (account number + routing/sort code, or IBAN for Europe)
• Identity verification — usually a photo of a government ID, sometimes a selfie
• Tax information (W-9 in the US, or relevant equivalent elsewhere) — collected automatically based on your country
• A short description of what you sell (Stripe uses this for fraud screening)

If you're operating as a registered business, choose 'Business' in the onboarding form and provide your company tax ID. Otherwise, choose 'Individual' (also called 'Sole proprietor' in some regions). For most independent creators, Individual is the right choice — it's simpler and Stripe still handles the tax forms.

After you finish Stripe onboarding

Stripe redirects you back to LinkStacked automatically. You'll see a green 'Connected' badge in Settings → Payments. From this moment on, you can create paid products. Earnings collect in your Stripe balance and pay out on the schedule you configure (default: weekly).

From your dashboard, click "+ Add link" and choose "Product" from the link type selector. The product editor opens with all the fields you need.

1. 1Title — clear, descriptive, what it actually is (e.g. "Moody Portrait Lightroom Preset Pack" not "My presets")
2. 2Description — explain what the buyer gets and how it helps them. 50–150 words is the sweet spot.
3. 3Cover image — recommended 1200×630 px JPG or PNG, max 8 MB. The cover image is the single biggest conversion lever on a product card.
4. 4Price — set in your local currency. Minimum is $0.50 (or equivalent), or $0 for a free download. Maximum is $10,000.
5. 5Optional: SKU/internal reference, currency override, license type

Writing a description that sells

A good product description does three things in order: it tells you what the thing IS, who it's FOR, and what RESULT the buyer gets. Skip any of these and the description becomes a feature list nobody wants.

Example: "12 Lightroom presets tuned for moody, low-light portraits. Built from 200+ real client sessions. One-click application — the right balance of warm shadows, slight matte, and skin tones that don't go orange. Includes a 1-page PDF on how to fine-tune for your camera profile."

Click "Upload file" in the product editor and select the file from your device. We support virtually every format — there are no file-type restrictions, only a size limit.

• Maximum file size: 2 GB per file
• Supported formats: PDF, ZIP, RAR, MP3, WAV, FLAC, MP4, MOV, EPUB, MOBI, PNG, JPG, PSD, AI, SKETCH, FIG, DOCX, XLSX, ODS, ODT, BLEND, OBJ, FBX, and many more
• Multi-file products: upload a ZIP archive containing multiple files. Buyers receive a single download.
• Unlimited downloads per upload — there is no monthly bandwidth cap on the file delivery itself

How file delivery actually works

When a buyer purchases your product, they immediately receive a confirmation email containing a time-limited, single-use download link. The link is bound to their browser session — they can't share it with someone else. Each download session counts against the buyer's allowance (default: 3 downloads per purchase).

Files are stored encrypted at rest on enterprise S3-compatible storage with global edge distribution. Downloads are served from the edge node nearest the buyer, so a buyer in Tokyo gets the file as fast as a buyer in Berlin or New York.

In the product editor, scroll to the Delivery section to customise how buyers receive their purchase. These settings affect the buyer experience and your support burden — small details here meaningfully reduce "where's my download" emails.

• Download limit — default is 3 downloads per purchase. Increase for products buyers might use across multiple devices (e.g. design assets for a small team).
• Download expiry — default is 7 days. Set to 30 or 90 days for products buyers might forget about and come back to.
• Thank-you message — shown on the post-purchase screen and included in the receipt email. Treat this as a tiny welcome letter, not a transactional notice.
• License type — choose Personal (non-commercial use only), Commercial (use in client/business work), or Custom (write your own terms).
• Optional: trigger a webhook on purchase (Pro feature) — useful for advanced flows like adding the buyer to a Discord server or a course platform.

A great thank-you message template

"Thank you for picking up [product name]! The download link is below — it's good for 3 downloads over the next 7 days. If you run into anything weird, just reply to this email and I'll sort it personally. — [Your name]"

That tiny line — 'reply to this email' — does more for repeat purchases than any retention campaign. It signals there's a real person behind the product. Use it.

Toggle "Visible" in the product editor to make the product live on your profile. The product will appear as a styled card with your cover image, title, price, and a "Buy now" button.

Test the buyer flow yourself before announcing

Always — and I mean always — buy your own product through your live page before announcing it publicly. This catches the small things: a typo in the description that you can't unsee, a broken cover image, an unexpected currency conversion. The 5 minutes of testing saves you from launching with a bug visible to your audience.

1. 1Open your public profile in an incognito window
2. 2Click your product link and complete a real purchase
3. 3Check the email receipt arrives within 30 seconds
4. 4Open the download link and confirm the file works on your machine
5. 5If everything works, refund yourself from Settings → Orders
6. 6Share the announcement publicly

Tracking your sales

Go to Dashboard → Products to see real-time sales, total revenue, conversion rate, and download counts. Analytics → Referrers shows which platforms are driving the most purchases — useful for figuring out which content channels actually convert.

All transactions are visible in Settings → Payments → Orders. From there you can view buyer details, re-send download links, and issue refunds (full or partial).

Refunds

Refunding is one click. Refunds are processed via Stripe and appear back on the buyer's card within 5–10 business days. The platform fee on refunded orders is fully reversed — you don't pay anything to refund a sale.

When in doubt, refund. The cost of one refunded sale is approximately zero; the cost of one upset customer who left a public review is significantly more. Most professional creators refund liberally and find their conversion rates and review scores both go up because of it.

Payouts

• Earnings collect in your Stripe balance after each sale
• Default payout schedule: weekly, every Friday. Configurable to daily or monthly in your Stripe dashboard.
• Minimum payout threshold: $1 (configurable up to $1,000 in Stripe)
• LinkStacked takes a 0% platform fee — Stripe charges standard processing fees (~2.9% + $0.30 in the US, varies by country)
• Instant payouts available for an additional 1.5% — useful when you need cash flow before Friday

Common questions

• Q: Can I sell physical products too? A: Not directly — LinkStacked is digital-only. For physical, link out to a Shopify store or similar from a regular URL link.
• Q: Can I bundle multiple files? A: Yes — upload a ZIP archive. Or create separate products for each item and offer a bundle discount.
• Q: Can I sell subscriptions or memberships? A: Coming soon. For now, link out to Patreon, Substack, or your own subscription platform.
• Q: What about VAT / EU tax compliance? A: Stripe Tax handles this automatically — enable it in Settings → Payments → Tax. We charge buyers the right VAT, remit it to the right authority, and provide tax-compliant receipts.
• Q: Can I issue partial refunds? A: Yes — set the refund amount manually in the Orders panel.