Most creators who try to sell digital products run face-first into a wall: Gumroad and Shopify make you set up a whole separate shop, deal with another vendor's checkout flow, and pay 10-15% in combined platform and processing fees. By the time you're done, your $10 preset pack is netting you about $6.50.
Linkstacked digital products live inside your link page. You upload the file once, configure the product, and a product block appears alongside your other links. Visitor taps, pays with Apple Pay or saved card, your file is auto-emailed to them as a one-time download link. No second site, no second dashboard.
What you can sell
- Files up to 2GB each — PDFs, presets, sample packs, ZIPs, video files, 3D assets
- Multiple files bundled into one product (e.g. 'Spring lightroom presets — 24-file pack')
- Variant pricing — e.g. 'individual license $19, commercial license $79'
- Free + paid bundles — give away one file as lead capture, sell the upgraded pack
- Pay-what-you-want — visitor picks any price above a minimum
What we don't support yet: physical goods (no shipping integration), recurring subscriptions (use the Linkstacked subscription block for that), or one-on-one services like calls (use the booking block).
Tip
Variant pricing is the secret weapon. A 'personal vs commercial license' split on a preset pack typically converts at 18-25% more total revenue than a single price — the buyers who'd pay $79 self-select and the ones who can only afford $19 still buy.
How delivery works
When the buyer completes checkout, two things happen in parallel:
- 1Your file is uploaded to a signed S3 URL with a 7-day expiry. The buyer gets an email with the download link.
- 2We log the order in your dashboard with the buyer's email, the variant they bought, the price, and the date.
The signed URL is per-order, not a shared public link, so it can't be passed around. Buyers can re-download from their receipt email for 7 days. If they need a fresh link later, your dashboard lets you re-issue one with two clicks.
Refunds, chargebacks, and disputes
We follow Stripe's standard process. Refunds are one-click from your dashboard — we refund the buyer's card, claw back the platform fee, you don't lose your processing fees on refunds (Stripe absorbs those). Chargebacks are rare on digital goods (we see <0.3% on tip + product transactions combined). When they happen, Stripe handles the dispute and we'll prep evidence packages for you on request.
If a buyer claims they didn't get the file, the signed URL access logs are your defence — we can prove the URL was accessed and the file downloaded. Most disputes resolve in your favour as a result.
Pricing strategy
A few opinions, in case useful:
- Don't price below $5 unless it's a deliberate lead magnet. Below that, the Stripe processing fee eats the margin and the buyer takes you less seriously.
- $15-$35 is the sweet spot for most digital products that are 'a useful thing' rather than 'a course'. Lower friction, decent margin.
- Anything above $50 is closer to a course or a service. Different selling motion — you'll likely need testimonials and a real landing page rather than a link-page tile.
- Purchasing power parity discounts are a real conversion lift if you sell internationally. We offer auto-PPP on Build and above — discount automatically applied based on visitor location.
Platform fees, by plan
On a $20 sale:
- Earn plan: $20 - 9% platform - 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe = $17.52 to you
- Build plan: $20 - 7% platform - 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe = $17.92 to you
- Scale plan: $20 - 5% platform - 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe = $18.32 to you
- Gumroad (Standard tier): $20 - 10% platform - 2.9% + 30¢ Stripe = $17.12 to you
We're competitive with Gumroad even on Earn, and Build/Scale beat it materially. More importantly, you don't have a separate shop URL to maintain.
“I moved my preset shop from Gumroad to Linkstacked four months ago. Revenue is up 22% on the same audience because the on-page checkout converts better. And I'm one less SaaS subscription paying $19/mo for the privilege of selling my own product.”
Tax handling
Sales tax and VAT compliance are real overhead. For US sales we collect sales tax based on the buyer's state and the relevant economic nexus thresholds — Stripe Tax handles the heavy lifting. For EU sales we collect VAT based on the buyer's country (digital goods are taxed at the buyer's location). For other jurisdictions, you may have local tax registration obligations — talk to your accountant if you sell more than ~$30K/year.
You can opt out of Stripe Tax if you'd rather handle it yourself, but we recommend leaving it on. The convenience tax is small; the cost of getting compliance wrong is large.
Plan requirement
Digital products require the Earn plan ($19/mo). Lower plans can link out to external shops (Gumroad, Shopify) but cannot host the inline product block. Earn is also the plan where the Stripe Connect setup is automated; lower plans don't get that.
Sell your first thing this month
Most creators we work with launch their first digital product within their first 90 days on Earn. The trick is starting small — one $19 'how I built my X' guide is enough to validate that your audience will pay. Once you've made the first sale, you've solved every infrastructure problem and the rest is just adding more products.
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