What if you could create a product that has unlimited supplies, instant deliveries and a high-profit margin for every sale you make?!
What if I told you, you could make a full-time income passively selling only digital products online?!
Just imagine yourself waking up to sales that came in overnight while you were sleeping! The work has already been done and now you are just accruing revenue! C’mon, you have to work relentlessly to turn your dreams into a reality.
The Internet and advanced technology have made it feasible for us to manage our business from the couch. From music to ebooks, to webinars and online courses, digital products are consumed by everyone.
Digital products are gaining more and more popularity due to ease of distribution, no upfront costs (almost) and high-profit margins.
Some people have managed to make it a full-time business, while others work on it as a side hustle. It is a great opportunity for the creators to monetize their creative side.
What are digital products?
A digital product is something that is created and sold online. Moreover, when someone purchases the product, they can download it on their devices such as smartphones or laptops.
How to find the best digital products to sell?
Think about what your skill set is. Think about what people ask you or compliment you all the time. Create a masterclass on it and then sell it on autopilot.
Also, you should know how to market your products. You could have the most amazing digital product, but if you don’t know how to promote it, your sales will suffer.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.
Software and Applications That You Need To Create and Sell Digital Products:
I have tried using multiple platforms to create and sell digital products and here are some of my favorites.
Sendowl: Sendowl is one of the best platforms to sell ebooks, printables, magazines and vouchers. It costs $15 a month to get started. Moreover, you will get a 30-day FREE trial if you sign up through my link.
Canva: Whether you want to create digital templates or book covers, Canva will make your work easier! You can create some stunning designs using Canva Pro (a 30-day free trial) even if you don’t have any experience in designing graphics!
Teachable: Teachable is the perfect place to sell online courses and video lectures. Here you will be able to track sales with their comprehensive dashboards, create gorgeous sales pages and run one-on-one sessions with students.
Bluehost: You can always create your own website to sell digital products. Purchase a domain and hosting from Bluehost to set up your website.
The Best Digital Products To Sell
Are ready to make a major profit and earn some money creating digital products?! Check out this list!
1. Ebooks
Ebooks are books that can be downloaded and read online. It is a great opportunity for all the budding authors out there.
According to this article, Ebook sales in the US have generated $1.94 billion in 2019!
And the number of e-books readers in the US is 90.5 million in 2018. That’s your potential customer!
With millions of readers every month, Ebooks continue to be the most demanded digital products.
SendOwl is one of the most popular platforms for selling ebooks.
To get started, you have to write about something you are passionate about, in your area of expertise. Then compile it into an ebook and distribute them. Focus on writing quality stuff and providing value. Then set a reasonable price for it.
The beauty of ebooks is that you don’t have to rely on an editor or a publisher whether your book will be published or not. From beginning to end, you are going to handle it, all by yourself.
You can make around $50 to $100 per sale depending on the topic you are writing about and what you are helping your potential client to solve.
Join Sendowl to start selling digital products. Plus, a 30-day FREE trial!
2. Online Course: One of the most profitable digital products to sell
Due to the pandemic, the world is slowly shifting towards e-learning and hence this is the best time to make and sell online courses.
If you have a skill or knowledge in a particular subject, you can sell your pre-recorded lectures.
It is very easy to sell the online course with platforms like Teachable and anyone and make it in this field!
Remember, there is always an audience no matter what niche it is.
Whether you are an expert in cooking or digital marketing, you can create a course in any niche. Use Teachable to create and sell your online courses.
Else, you can upload courses on YouTube and monetize them with Google Adsense.
Sign up on Teachable and start selling video lectures right away!
3. Email Course
People read blogs but would love to have more personalized content and deeper conversation about a specific topic. That can be achieved with an email course!
Create a free newsletter and monetize it with Affiliate Marketing. Or, you can create a paid newsletter as well, where you can provide exclusive content weekly or monthly.
With paid newsletters, you can generate passive revenue every month when the subscribers renew their subscriptions.
Start an email course with ConvertKit. It is one of the most popular platforms for automating your emails. If you are serious about email marketing, I suggest you go with the paid plan. The free plan allows you to collect emails but doesn’t have the option to automate emails.
How to get people to sign up on your email list?
This can be challenging but if you already have a few hundred or thousands of followers on Instagram, you can easily get some email subscribers.
Provide the signup link on your Instagram story, tell them what you have to offer and how they can benefit from it.
If your followers are interested, they will go to the landing page and provide their email addresses to get enrolled in the course.
4. Podcasts
According to this article, around 80 million Americans are weekly podcast listeners. That’s your potential audience!
Consider starting a podcast with Buzzsprout and submit your podcast to all directories like Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Podcasting is much less crowded than blogging and hence, it’s the best time to start a podcast. Monetize your podcast with Affiliate Marketing i.e. by recommending products you like or use.
Buzzsprout is one of the best platforms to launch your podcast. You can get a professional-looking podcast website with detailed analytics and tools to promote your episodes.
It is absolutely free to use for 90-days. Sign up using my link and you will get a $20 Amazon gift card if you decide to upgrade to any paid plan in the future.
5. Membership websites
Consider creating a membership where your followers can get access to all of your content.
You don’t need millions of followers in order to make a living with the membership websites. Suppose, you have 1000 loyal followers and if they pay $100 a year to access your membership website, you will be making $100,000 a year!
Don’t make the starting price too high. Keep it low for the first year so that everyone can access it. Over-deliver! Provide people with much more value than they had expected. And once you build your credibility, people will know your worth and continue to buy products even if you raise the price.
You can use Teachable to build your own membership website or create a website from scratch by purchasing a domain and hosting.
A blog is a one-stop destination to find digital products, and therefore, to sell one!
Read this step-by-step guide on how to create your own website or blog in less than 20 minutes!
6. Digital Printables
Planners and printables are simple digital products that can be downloaded and printed. It is sold because it is needed by all and makes our lives easier.
This is something that has been popular over the years. Meal planners, calendars, wall art and checklists are some of the most popular printables to sell. Sell them on your own website or land potential customers with Etsy.
Create some beautiful and easy-to-use printables on Photoshop, Illustrator or Canva.
You can sell templates as well- Resume writing templates and Instagram post templates.
Resumes are needed by every student and job seeker and they hate creating them from the scratch. Hence, the readily built templates are a source of relief.
Similarly, Instagram post templates come in handy for the one who is trying to build a following on Instagram.
However, on Etsy, you will be charged for your listing and you have to share a percentage of the commission as well.
If you don’t want to share your commissions, you can use Sendowl to sell your digital printables. There are no transaction fees issued by SendOwl. Just the flat monthly fee!
7. Instagram story highlight icons
It is hands down one of the best digital products to sell!
If you are active on Instagram and have an idea about the platform, you already know that it’s all about the aesthetics of Instagram. The content creators strive to make their profile look better by posting visually pleasing images.
A lot of work is needed to create highlight icons that align with the branding of the company. So, a lot of people will purchase pre-made branding elements for their Instagram accounts.
If you are into graphic designing, this would be a pretty simple thing for you to create and sell online.
Focus on creating icons for a certain profile type or a specific niche. For example, if you choose to create icons for different aesthetics, you can create something with a boho feel or Scandinavian colors.
On the other hand, if you choose to go with a specific niche, you might want to create icons related to health or beauty.
I highly recommend you to use Canva Pro to create Instagram highlight icons. Canva is an excellent platform for those who don’t have any graphic design skills. It will make your work a lot easier.
8. Photography
Photography is another popular digital asset. Due to the widespread use of images in blogs and other websites, professionally clicked images are always in demand.
If you are passionate about photography you can sell your stock photos online. A good camera with some basic photo editing skills is all you need to get started.
From blogs and social media posts to landing pages and YouTube thumbnails, stock photos are used everywhere.
Etsy is undoubtedly one of the best places to sell your photography.
LindseyEditions is one of the most successful sellers on Etsy in this niche. Sell paintings for as high as $45.
You can also sell your stock photos on Alamy, Shutterstock, Etsy and Getty Images. These sites pay you when a customer downloads your image.
9. Graphic Design
Design templates are another best digital products to sell.
Graphic designers are responsible for creating visually pleasing images in order to convert leads to sales. Graphic designs are usually needed by startups and other companies to create adverts. They also help in creating a brand identity.
If you are not an expert in Photoshop, you can use Canva to create your first design.
Some components of graphic design are:
- Logo design
- Pamphlets
- Brochures
- Posters
- Illustrations
- UI Design
- Pinterest Templates
As a graphic designer, you can make money by using Fiverr to sell your services.
Use Etsy to sell your design templates. Etsy will allow you to get exposed to a wide range of audiences.
10. WordPress themes
If you are good at coding, you can earn a living by selling WordPress themes.
According to Kinsta, over 500+ websites are built each day using WordPress. The free themes either do not look good or are not well optimized. Hence people opt for paid WordPress themes.
Themes are an integral part of a blog or a website and it has to be visually attractive. If you have a poor-looking website with bleak colors, chances are, people will never visit your website twice.
The price of each WordPress theme ranges between $50 to $200 in the market.
ThemeForest is one of the best platforms to sell your WordPress themes.
11. Gift wrapper
It consists of designs that people can download on their devices, print them and then use as gift wrappers.
Think about different colors and textures you can offer for these paper designs.
People may want to use different gift wrappers for different occasions such as Birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Easter etc. So, design the papers accordingly.
Again, head over to Canva for creating gift wrappers.
12. Music
If you have a knack for music or have some knowledge about music production, you can monetize your creativity and earn quite a good amount of money.
Similarly, like stock photos, which are majorly used by bloggers, some YouTubers need stock music to use in their videos.
Some of the best-selling audio products include ringtones, sound effects and ringtones.
Sellfy is one of the best places to sell your music and audio products. You can sell your music to the film industry as well!
13. Lightroom Presets
Lightroom presets are a collection of aesthetic edits that you can apply to your photos with just one click.
This is very popular among Instagrammers. I have seen a lot of people making a ton of money selling these presets.
Editing photos is extremely important for the content creators on Instagram.
Instagram is one of the best platforms to promote your Lightroom presets. Post the pictures and then leave a link in your bio where people can go and buy those presets.
You can find lots of ready-made presets on Adobe, some of which are excellent, while others might not go with the photo. That is why they also allow you to create your own custom presets.
Sell the Lightroom presets on Etsy.
Advantages of Selling Digital Products:
Digital products reap unlimited benefits.
- Create the product once and sell it over and over again. This allows you to generate passive income.
- Digital products are easy to deliver, sometimes with a simple click on the download option.
- It has high demand and a large market
- High-profit margins
- There are no shipping fees!
The Bottom Line:
So, now you know what are some of the best digital products to sell online.
With more and more people staying at home, it is the right time to launch your digital products now.
Which digital products are you going to choose? Is it an ebook, paid newsletters or podcasts?!
Well, each of them has its own benefits. Focus on the quality of your digital products and income will follow.
Also, I am really curious to know what type of digital products do you prefer to buy as a consumer? Do let me know in the comments!
I just gone through your blog and I’m so amazed by your adventure! I like the way you weave journey, anecdotes, and personal experiences together to make a captivating narrative. Keep up the good work