Short transcript of a conversation where a site owner asks whether they can sell individual digital back issues (PDFs). Pete Ericson recommends using WooCommerce on WordPress to add PDFs to a storefront and explains account linkage so purchases and subscriptions work with the same login.
Okay, can I. Right now on my site, I have an archive and if somebody has access to their account, they have access to all the back issues that are in that archive. Is there a way that I can sell digital back issues individually? Or say I'll sell you 2015, something like that.
So the way we found this to work the best is literally by setting up WooCommerce, which is a WordPress company, and adding your PDFs to a storefront.
So I can do that. Okay.
Yep. And it's a connected system. So if, let's say I purchase a PDF in the store and then I decide to become a subscriber later on, all I have to do is log in with my existing account and pay, and vice versa. If I become a paying subscriber and I decide to buy something in your store, it's a hat. Whatever it is, I'm already logged in. I just pay.
Got it.
So it's a great separation of the recurring subscription revenue and the one time purchase revenue.