Category: Digital

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Digital

Keep sales rolling until Christmas with digital products

Add digital products to your store now and sell them all the way up to December 25th thanks to instant delivery. Sales needn’t stop.

Smash your sales records by offering digital products this holiday season. We’ve put together a bunch of ideas for you below (along with free tools linked in each section to help you get started). Don’t forget, you don’t need to be a design wizard. You have a ton of free templates here too.

Repurpose existing digital products

Think of a successful digital product you launched this past year. Then, make it holiday-ready. Here’s a few examples: 

  • Digital coloring book. Create festive themed pictures to color in-app or print out. Just remove the color from one of your designs using Photoshop, or there are plenty of tools online.
  • Lightroom preset. Consider creating a winter photo filter. Bring down the saturation and add a frosty tint, or apply a grainy texture and warm up the colors for a vintage disposable film vibe.
  • Digital art. Fans go crazy for your artwork? Offer limited edition printable artwork for fans to download and print out, only available during December.

Prepare digital products

Holiday theme e-card designs 

Digital e-card designs encourage sustainable shopping and save paper. Offer a set of digital e-card designs for fans to forward to family and friends. Get started via the button below.

  • Go the extra mile—consider animating your e-card or adding sounds. 
  • Psst—use Canva’s e-card builder. They have a ton of templates you customize and animate. 
  • Alternatively, provide design templates (editable photoshop, indesign, or illustrator files), so your fans can customize and make their own. 
Free e-card templates

Audio files 

Got a popular line or catch phrase your fans loved in one of your livestreams this year? Try your hand at selling the moment in the form of an audio file. Your community can download and use it as ringtones, notification tones, and more. 

Further, if you’re a music artist, producer (or just a bit of a whiz with sound), consider selling audio files. Sell limited edition albums for your fans to listen to while they enjoy festivities. 

Upload audio files

Create guides and e-books

Inspire your fans with your digital products this holiday season. Take your ideas to Canva and make a guide. You might create recipes for festive bakes, crafty ideas for DIY gifts, a wreath making step-by-step, or a festive knitting pattern for fans to knit their dog a Christmas jumper—we could go on.

Head to Canva below to use the e-book builder. Pick a design, add your content, then add pages via the button at the bottom of the editor.

Free digital guide templates

Prep for 2022—planners and calendars

In the run up to the holiday, you should think about releasing digital products for the new year. Focus on helping your community to get themselves organized and become the best version of themself. Examples of products you might create, we’ve also linked free templates to help:

Create listing images easily using Placeit mock-up templates via the button below.

Mock-up templates

Categories
Digital Insights

Your go-to guide for the holidays

Some creators sell more during the holiday season than the entire year combined. Make this holiday season your most successful yet. 

It may seem a little overwhelming at first—but we’ve got you. Below, we’ve laid out key dates you can follow to put yourself in the best position possible. Here’s how.

1) Create a holiday product collection

We’ve found certain products sell especially well during the holidays. Here’s what’s been proven to sell the best (based on current trends and recent years):

  • Hoodies (and matching kids hoodies)
  • Premium Tees
  • Mugs
  • Stickers
  • All-Over Print Sweatshirts
  • Leggings
  • All-Over Print Unisex Joggers
  • Stainless Tumblers
  • Tote Bags 
  • Long Sleeve Tees
  • Bucket hats

Design your holiday collection

Spring’s Instagram grid is packed with design inspo, so head over to check it out. Also, don’t forget about all the free design resources available to you.

Aim to create your holiday product collection by October 1st. This will give you enough time to order samples, prepare your content schedule, and maximize sales over the next 3 months. Take note of the Christmas delivery cutoff dates for fans too, so no one misses out. Add new products to your collection just in time for the holidays, and add limited edition holiday designs.  

2) Order samples and x3 your sales 

Once you’ve finished creating, it’s time to promote. Best way: Ordering product samples. Creators who do so sell 3x more than those who don’t. 

That said, we’d recommend ordering your product samples by October 10. This gives you enough time for shipping, then for you to create your promo content. Flick through the samples guide to find out the best ways to use samples to promote your products.

Tag us (@springforcreators)in social content featuring your samples, and don’t forget to use the hashtag #createshareearn for the chance to be featured in our 2021 holiday campaign on Instagram and get more eyes on your brand ✨

Order samples

3) Prepare for Black Friday weekend

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest online shopping days of the year. Creators who offer discounts during this weekend can double their sales. We suggest running sales during those days—creators who’ve done so in the past have doubled their sales. In that, you’ll want to schedule your sales by November 1st, so you’re ready to switch your promotions on in your dashboard when the time comes.

Ready to get started? Check out these tried and true tips for the Cyber weekend. Plus, check out our guide to running a successful sale.   

Prepare promo codes

4) Prepare your store for peak seasonal selling

We’ve got three quick ways to optimize your store for the season: 

  • Feature products in your store: these can get 20% more views on average.
  • Add your branding to your store: stores with custom branding see 35% increase in conversion rates. 
  • Customize your domain: creators with custom domains can sell up to 5x more on average than those who don’t. Also, when you set up a domain with us, you’ll automatically receive an SSL certification, making your store more search friendlier as well as more secure or fans.

We recommend doing all of this by November 1. If you need a good example, see @ashleyooacevedo’s top tips. 

Browse custom domains

5) Keep profits rolling until Christmas with digital products

Okay, we just threw a bunch of dates at you. One thing with a bit of flexibility is digital products. Since these don’t have to actually ship anywhere (fans download immediately), you have up until the holiday itself to sell these products. Ensure your digital products are added to your store ASAP, so you can start promoting right away. Go extra hard on promotions after Cyber Weekend.

Get fans excited with special promotions on holiday themed digital products. Include bonus products (e.g. a free wallpaper background) with their digital product purchase—this is a great way to boost your sales even more.

Find inspo for digital products to create for the holidays, and don’t forget, we’ve got free digital product templates you can download and customize here. 

Create holiday digital products
Categories
Digital

Go big, go digital: Why Spring is the #1 platform for selling digital products

Over 50,000 creators are already selling digital products with Spring—here’s why.

Digital products are taking over, fast. For one, you can create nearly anything (most folks have a digital product already designed, yet aren’t aware). And two, profit margins are huge.

But the best part? All you have to do is create a product and upload to the launcher—we’ll take care of everything else. Here’s some other benefits:

  • It’s so easy for fans. After they purchase, they’ll get the product in their inbox within minutes. No shipping, no wait times. 
  • Sell more digital products and drive tons of traffic through our integrations like the YouTube merch shelf, Linktree, and more.  
  • We’ve got creator and fan support teams to offer help whenever you need it.

No listing fees, no subscriptions

That’s right—there are zero upfront costs when you launch a digital product with us. Just choose the profit you want to earn and you’re good to go. We’ve also included additional features below, so you can see how Spring stacks up with other platforms. 

Spring pricing structure as of August 31

Remember, our fees are built into the base cost of the product, so they’re only deducted if you make a sale. And you choose your exact profit for each digital product. Click here to learn more about product pricing.

Ready to get started?

Check out these free tools and resources.

  1. Social integrations: With our powerful integrations like the YouTube merch shelf, Linktree store, and others, your fans can shop your products directly from your social accounts and channel.
  2. Free digital product templates: Not a designer? No problem. Use these free, customizable templates to create your high-quality digital products. 
  3. Free product mockups + promotional hacks: Once your product’s ready, create eye-catching content from these tools and templates to help promote them.  
  4. Digital product inspiration: Needing some product ideas? Here are some of the coolest digital products our creators have made on Spring. 
Categories
Digital

Free templates and tools for creating digital products

Ready to launch your digital product, but not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered with free design tools, downloads, and templates to kickstart your digital creation.

Digital planners

Create planners like workout schedules, diaries, and to-do lists. We’ve created a customizable template you can make your own, click the button below to open it in Canva and start editing. We’ve also got some cool lifestyle mockups here you can use for product images or promoting on social. 

Create a digital planner

Presets

Select a preset from our Summer Presets Catalog, edit it in Lightroom, and make it your own. Upload your creation to the launcher and add it to your store. Don’t forget you can create eye-catching mockups too—click here to learn more.Click the image below to download the catalog and follow the instructions at the top. 

E-books

Choose from hundreds of unique book cover templates on Canva and lay out your content and imagery using the e-book building tool via the button below. To build an e-book, simply go into the builder, click ‘add page’ at the bottom, and paste in your text and images. 

Alternatively, try combining your e-book cover and pages using Adobe (Indesign, Photoshop)  or Powerpoint. 

Arrange your content

PDF guide or course 

Share skills and knowledge with your community by presenting content using the custom templates linked below. 

Don’t see a template you like on Canva? Either use your expertise in Adobe Indesign or try laying out your content using Microsoft Powerpoint or Google Slides. It’s so easy—just export your slides as a PDF. 

Build a guide

Categories
Digital Insights

4 Hacks to promote digital products like a pro

Digital products are growing in popularity, and fast. Check out the most effective ways to promote and share yours using these tried and true promo hacks.

So you’ve added a digital product to your store, now it’s time to create promotional content and share it with your community. Follow these steps to start unlocking more sales now:

  1. Promote digital products using Spring’s social integrations.
  2. Feature digital products in your day to day social content.
  3. Demonstrate how fans can utilize your digital products with mockups and videos.
  4. Create incentives for fans to purchase your digital products. 

Your digital product promo checklist

1) Take advantage of Spring’s social integrations

Using platform integrations means fans can discover your digital products easily on your socials. You have access to the new  Linktree Integration right now—it enables you to embed your Spring store directly within your Linktree. If you’re eligible, you can use our YouTube Integration to display your digital product below your video content. Spring has tons of integrations available. See which ones you have access to below.

My integrations

2) Create social content featuring your digital product 

Prepare imagery or video content to showcase what your digital product can do. Nutritional Sarah created a recipe e-book and used imagery demonstrating the book can be read on an iPad. Wednesday Holmes created a printable coloring book, effectively featuring the printed sheets in an eye catching Instagram post. 

3) Use mock-up templates and video content to demo your product

To get going, you may need a few templates handy. Placeit has tons of mock-ups ready for you to insert your book covers, coloring sheets, planners, and more. We’ve collected some free ones for you below. 

Free mock-up templates

Include digital products in video content on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or IGTV. Not only does Sadie Aldis announce her iOS icon pack using YouTube content, she explains how fans can start applying her designs to their devices after download. If you’re using the YouTube integration, don’t forget to include your digital products in the merch shelf below your video too 😉

4) Incentives on social media go a long way 

Share discount codes, run a giveaway to kick off the launch, or include a bonus gift when someone buys your digital product (such as a digital wallpaper). See examples from Wednesday Holmes and Nutritional Sarah below. Run your incentives for a limited time to create a sense of urgency. Create an attention grabbing post on Canva to make it unmissable.

Ready to launch your own digital product? Get tips for creating your first one and be sure to check out the mock-up vault. Start uploading your product below. 

Launch a digital product

Categories
Digital Insights

How to repurpose your existing designs into digital products

Looking to introduce digital products to your fans? It’s likely you already have everything you need. Pull your best-selling designs from the archives and keep scrolling to find out how to repurpose them into digital products.

It’s an easy win. Your community will be obsessed, and we’ve got just the tools you’ll need. We’ve collected the best examples from our talented creators so you can see just how effective the ‘reusing designs hack’ is. Not only will a digital/physical design collection look great on your store and compliment your brand, it will save you time.

Create a digital product

Re-formatting designs into digital artwork 

If you already have your design handy, we’d argue digital artwork is the easiest digital product to prepare and upload within minutes. Ashley Acevedo carries her design style consistently across all of her products, digital and physical. In the example below, the Not Afraid Of Dying t-shirt design works brilliantly as a piece of printable digital art too. Although Ashley is a digital artist, you don’t need to be a pro—if you fans love a design you’ve already launched, go for it.

All you’ll need to do is format your artwork or design file. The resolution needs to be at least 300dpi to allow for different print size options. It’s a great idea to provide several sizes (A5, A4, A3) in a zipped folder. Create the perfect listing image by using templates on Canva or VOUN. 

Encourage fans to color in your designs

Next, check this out. The Berry Sisters used the same Berry Logo hoodie design concept to create the Berry Best digital coloring book (see what they did there? 😉) Genius. 

Take your design, remove the color using free online tools (Pixlr or Gravit) or Adobe programmes such as Illustrator and Photoshop, and export your pages as PDFs. Fans can print out and customize IRL, or import your files into coloring apps such as Procreate, Pigment, or Colofy to color them digitally. 

Device customization 

Last but not least, Atomic Mari has the right idea when re-purposing her designs. Every successful physical product launch should mean a digital product collection to keep the hype going. We’re talking bundles—digital wallpapers for all devices, iOS icons, and widgets. 

Not only do these in-device design aesthetics look super cool, they mean fans will think of you and your content whenever they look down to send a text 🥺. If you’re uploading device customization products, be sure to bundle them together in a zipped folder and include instructions your community can follow after download. 

Want more ideas? Find your perfect digital product, as well as guidelines for formatting, pricing, and more via the Spring Digital Catalog. 

Or, start utilizing your designs right away and upload your products via the launcher. 

Upload a digital product
Categories
Digital

Go-to digital product ideas and tools for streamers

There’s a groundbreaking opportunity video content creators, gamers, and live streamers like you are missing: digital products.

Launch a digital product

We’re no stranger to the fact there’s dozens of ways to fund your stream or channel already. Take Twitch for example—fans can subscribe and gift them too, move tiers, and more—but selling digital products with Spring is a goldmine. 

Read on for digital product ideas to enhance the connection with your community.

Turn stream moments into audio, artwork, coloring pages, and more

There’s one thing sets streamers and video-based creators apart from others—they are their content. Whether you’re playing COD, discussing art, or chatting about your weekly food menu, there’s always a moment that can be transformed into a sellable digital product. 

Take for instance Chris Pearson, aka Pop Cross Studios. Weekly, he shares video content about his character designs and stories he writes. Anyone who subscribes to his channel can not only enjoy his “nerdy art nonsense” and follow his drawing process, but continue the fun by customizing his characters through purchasing digital coloring sheets.

This blog is a great place to start, or find some extra ideas below.

  • Turn favorite streaming moments and inside jokes with fans into colorless line drawings using free color removing tools, or Photoshop. If you’re a creative, also consider selling digital artwork and posters too.
  • Create wallpaper backgrounds using images your community will recognize. Find tons of free customizable designs on Placeit and Canva.
  • Sell snippets of your favorite taglines from your stream and sell them as audio files. Fans can download onto their devices and use them as ringtones and notification sounds.

Emotes, stream overlays, and panel designs

As a streamer, you’ll know how important elements like overlays and emotes are for communicating your brand. With the live streaming industry growing rapidly, many of your viewers are likely aspiring streamers. Why not offer your skills too in the form of purchasable stream elements? This way, you can give back to your community, while fans support you in the process.

Hind Ema is an artist and creator selling streaming packs that include overlay screens, panels and emotes all inspired by Japanese anime and cats. By offering this type of digital product, Hind’s followers can stand out when they stream. Check out some ideas as well as free online tools below to speed up the process by using templates and customizable designs.

  • Stream overlay templates and ‘brb screens’ using Placeit 
  • Audio files for fans to use as custom alerts (when someone subscribes to your channel, they’re called out in-stream)
  • Use Canva or Placeit to customize your own sellable profile banners and panels, or provide Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator files for fans to customize. (Recommended size for profile banners is 1200x480px, Twitch panel images should be 320px wide)
  • Create emotes for fans to offer on their stream. Images should be .png format. You will either need a single square image between 112 x 112px – 4096 x 4096px, or three image sizes: 28 x 28px, 56 x 56px and 112 x 112px.

Guides and tutorials

Share your knowledge with your fans. One of the best ways to extend the value of your content is to sell guides and tutorials. Identify the high engagement, frequently requested or content topics, and turn it into a resource for fans to learn more.

Alan, aka The Dungeon Coach, connects with fans by inviting them to join him in absorbing themselves in the world of Dungeons and Dragons via his YouTube channel. His goal is to enhance the experience of the game by encouraging his 21.5K (and rapidly growing) subscribers to think outside the box. He provides tips on combat, travel, character creation, and more via his YouTube channel. 

Then came the opportunity to create The Dungeon Locker, a Spring store full of PDF e-books offering inspo and guides, such as Homebrew Monsters: a guide to adding new and exciting abilities to monsters in the game to challenge players.

Even more digital product ideas for gamers

You’re not limited to the ideas above. Digital products are ideal for gamers too. They’re a great, low-cost way to run giveaways. Run contests on your live streams and reward your subs easily. How about these ideas too:

  • Playstation or Xbox backgrounds. Sell designs that can be uploaded and used as to customize your fans’ gaming devices. Be sure to provide instructions.
  • Coaching sessions, exclusive meet-ups, and 1:1 play-throughs. Create a PDF acting as a ticket for your fans to download and gain access. In your document, display your exclusive video call link, or any contact details (create a specific email).
  • Gaming mods. Provide add-ons for games you create content playing. I.e. cosmetic items,  equipment, game enhancements, etc. 
  • Sell your game design knowledge and skill. The ultimate gaming digital product inspo—Tacko Gamma. Isaack sells digital products designed to help game developers and designers level-up their projects. Check it out.

Now you’ve got the inspiration and tools to create your first digital product, what are you waiting for? Prepare your files and head to the Digital Launcher.

Launch a digital product
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Creators Digital

If at first you don’t succeed, try digital. Robert McEwen on his e-book

Creators can upload an e-book to sell with just about any content and following. Downloadable e-books are one of the most versatile digital products and applicable to any industry. We’ve seen tons—vrom how-to guides, poems, fiction, e-zines (digital magazines), sheet music, and many more. Aspiring writer Robert McEwen shares how publishing his children’s story book as a downloadable digital product has been game changing. 

From 100’s of hardback books… 

Beginning his writing hustle and publishing his first ever story book for children in 2014, Robert felt inspired by the virtues and life lessons he teaches his son—such as honor and courage. He printed several hundred and hosted several readings at children’s book shops, selling copies and spreading the word. Although this was an enriching experience, Robert found it challenging to reach communities further than his hometown. Plus, printing and publishing a book is a huge investment, with financial risk involved. 

To unlimited digital e-books

Robert needed to rethink his approach and explore other avenues. With the introduction of digital products on Teespring, Robert saw his chance. Distributing his children’s book by sharing a simple URL on social media meant no risk, no expense and allows him to spread the word worldwide. Plus, he benefits from high profits with zero expenses incurred, and freedom to release more e-books which are easily accessible with instant delivery to all fans (or readers). Creating his e-book digitally also opened up the opportunity to collaborate with illustrators worldwide to work on the cartoon-like imagery, complimenting his writing and enhancing the product. Young Spartacus: Virtues Of a Warrior is compatible with a kindle, a tablet, and mobile device and accessible to all readers easily and quickly.

For writers and authors, selling downloadable e-books makes for an incredibly innovative way to test and experiment with their work. By sharing online, creators can very simply gage their popularity, measure engagement, track sales, and get fast feedback. Start by arranging your content into .pdf or .jpeg format, test it out on your devices, then upload it to the Digital Launcher. Designing a book cover and selecting a few sneak-peek pages is also a good idea for your product preview images shown on your digital listing.

Digitally publish (upload to the digital launcher 😉) your e-book ready to start sharing in 2021 and head to Robert’s store to check it out.

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Creators Digital

Revolutionizing fitness: How Champsworth’s gym went digital

Fans will be preparing globally for 2021 over the coming weeks by planning their fitness and wellness goals. With gyms closing and social distancing in place, health and fitness creators are finding perfect opportunities to help their communities achieve the same results independently indoors.

LA based creator and fitness instructor Champsworth Online & Uncensored is living proof of how digital products are game-changing for his industry. Stick with us and find out how.

@teespring

Fitness creator Champsworth Online & Uncensored shares how after his gym closing, he dropped a digital fitness program for fans to work out at home.

♬ original sound – Teespring

Keep calm, drop a digital fitness plan, carry on

After Harris Martin, founder of Champsworth Online and Uncensored discovered the chance to continue earning by offering his services and content digitally. Having to close and re-open his gym several times forced him to consider other options. Not being able to train clients or deliver fitness plans face to face meant digitizing his content and profession meant keeping his hustle moving, setting him up to keep profits going in the new year.

  • The ability to keep fans (and himself) active social distancing restrictions and regulations changing regularly
  • Guiding and encouraging clients to achieve their goals independently through his thorough content without being physically there with them 
  • An opportunity to keep generating income and continue doing what he does best—helping his followers become better versions of themselves, despite the obstacles of 2020
  • Instant delivery. With a simple download, fans can get going right away while they’re feeling motivated, without any excuses.

In it together and getting fit from home 

What’s so smart about the content included in the program is it’s tailored not only for individuals with real goals and determination, but it’s designed specifically for working out at home. His content taps into his entire community’s needs (and beyond), from beginners to fitness fanatics—plus, no weights are needed and no goal set is unreachable. 

The downloadable fitness program bundle includes 9 workout videos, a nutrition plan, biweekly weigh-ins, and fitness examinations. Above the fact that Harris is able to share his expertise and positivity through his product, promoting on social media platforms such as Instagram has reaped insane success so far. 

The digital fitness bundle gives fans a sense of community in sharing their fitness journeys, tips and experiences together on social media. Harris and his fans are going through the same experience right now, so launching a digital product was the perfect way to adapt, stay fit, and keep connected. The Digital Launcher was everything he needed to make his gym, services and concept accessible to anyone.

We’re obsessed with the tenacity of this creator and everything he’s achieved (despite the obstacles) with determination to make his digital fitness program not only keep himself afloat, but support others. Thank you to Harris for sharing his story. Find Champsworth Online & Uncensored on Instagram, or head straight to his store. 

Categories
Digital

Why your post shipping cut-off game plan should be digital

That time of year has come around already. US fans are now past the standard delivery shipping cut-off dates, and have until December 18th for rush shipping or 21st for super rush shipping if they’d like to get their orders in time for the Christmas Holiday period. From now onwards is the perfect time to really push your hustle with digital products. 

create digital products for the festive period

Make your digital products unmissable for fans right up to Christmas

The benefits of digital products are boundless, but the opportunity to promote your digital products right up to the Christmas holiday (and during it) is second to none. With instant delivery and no shipping or logistics to worry about, there’s every reason to continue dropping new digital products and promoting on social platforms. Here’s a few ideas.

@teespring

Digital products like audio files & photo filters are delivered to fans instantly, meaning you can continue your holiday hustle right up until Xmas ✨

♬ Double Rainbow – Clutch

  • This is your chance to sell your content in the form of an e-book. Release your own exclusive zine like Lovette Artistry or create christmas check-lists and holiday themed recipes (because this season is for eating).
  • Push your latest e-comic for followers to enjoy over the break like Lindo Yes.
  • Consider fans who are late to the game buying Christmas gifts—this year,  home improvements and decor is huge (since we’re spending so much time indoors). Upload your coolest images to the Digital Launcher so fans can download and start using them as printable posters.
  • Entertainment and activity themed creative digital products are booming this year. Check out Studio Knit’s knitting guides and patterns or uh.meg’s ingenious idea of selling her own custom brushes for fans to download and start using on Procreate.
  • Audio files such as ringtones, music singles, podcasts and audiobooks 
  • Digital calendars and planners fans can use to set goals and keep organized in the New Year 

Celebrate festivities virtually with your community 

Fans will love celebrating the festive season with you by purchasing your digital home decor, crafts, activities, and entertainment. The variety of products to drop up until Christmas are endless. For example, why not encourage your community to shop sustainably and consciously by providing a set of digital e-cards for them to forward to family and friends.

With instant delivery, no carbon footprint, and less paper waste, fans can spread festivities virtually, without any waiting time or shipping costs to consider. Another extremely simple digital product to create and sell to fans are holiday themed Lightroom photo filters and presets. Bonnie Rzm has the ball rolling already, releasing several classic holiday photo aesthetics for fans to apply to their images such as Snowfall and Chilli.

Holiday themed digital wallpapers for fans devices are popular—Caroline Manning has nailed it with her Drippy holiday wallpaper bundle. Also, consider taking it up a notch and creating a holiday themed iOS design pack of widgets and wallpapers. Entertain fans in the next few weeks by releasing products such as digital how-to guides, craft tutorials, photo filters and downloadable coloring books. Deliberately Creative and Printables Lane have both dropped Christmas themed printable coloring books. 

Ready to start creating and sharing brand new digital products with your community? Head to the Digital Launcher below to begin.

start uploading digital content