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13 Profitable Digital Products And Where To Sell Them
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Selling digital products is a low-cost, low-hassle way to open a new revenue stream. Whether that stream is a trickle or a torrent will depend on how much time you invest, the quality of your products, and how well you promote them.
You may have hopes of making it big, or maybe you just want a passive income stream that can grow to eventually replace your job.
Whatever your reasons are, diversifying your revenueand finding new ways to earn from homeis a smart move. Best of all, you get a chance to put your knowledge and talent to work helping others.
This article should give you an idea of the best digital products that you can sell online and where you can sell them.
Skip ahead:
What is a digital product?
A digital product is any virtual or intangible item that you can buy and sell online.
Ebooks and webinars are part of this, yes. But it also includes paid subscriptions to your favorite creators social media page, community memberships, newsletters, and so much more which well cover shortly.
As long as youre selling or buying something that doesnt have a physical form you can hold and feel, it passes for a digital product.
Why sell digital products?
Why bother selling something that isnt tangible? Here are a few reasons.
Theres a huge demand for digital products
By , the digital product industry will be worth $74 billion, per a JP Morgan study. This translates into a large potential market for digital creators, whether youre new or have been at it for a long time.
The truth is that many people want access to your knowledge and expertise and are willing to pay for it. All you need to do is package it into an easily accessible format that delivers value to them and youll earn your share of the market.
Low barrier to entry
Creating and selling digital products requires minimal technical skills and resources, making it easy for anyone to get started. You dont need to have a physical storefront, technical skills, or even a large team to create and sell digital products.
As long as you have access to the internet and are willing to share your knowledge, you can create a digital product from any part of the world. Plus, youre not restricted to a physical location when it comes to sales.
Digital products can be sold globally without any geographic limitations. This means that you can reach customers from all over the world, expanding your customer base and potential revenue.
Diverse range of products
Theres more than one way to monetize your knowledge. Not a fan of writing? You can create a webinar, sell consulting packages, sell membership packages for your social accounts, templates, and so much more.
No matter what your bandwidth, skills, and interests are, youll find a digital product format that works for you.
Its cheap to create
Digital products have lower overhead costs than physical ones.
You can create a digital product using your knowledge (which is free) and some free and low-cost online tools. Lets say you want to write and sell an ebook; heres a 3-step process that costs little or nothing:
Steps
Tools
Process
1. Create
1. ChatGPT (Free)
2. Google Docs (Free)
Once you come up with an outline, you can input it into an LLM chatbot like ChatGPT to generate a first draft. Then edit and host the final copy in Google Docs.
2. Host
1. Carrd (Free)
2. Thinkific (Free)
Create a free ebook landing page on Carrd.
Alternatively, use Thinkific to host, sell, and market your ebook from a single platform.
3. Market
Social media (Free)
Promote your course for free on your social media channels.
Its different when youre creating paperbacks. For one, youll need to pay for physical book production, which can cost thousands of dollars depending on how many you print. On top of that, youll also incur third-party costs like shipping fees.
It provides passive income
If youve already got a day job keeping you busy, the digital products you sell online can keep money coming in even if most of your week is spent at your full-time gig.
You can market and sell your digital product on auto-pilot with a sales funnel. A sales funnel is an automated sequence that captures potential customers and nurtures them until they make a purchase. It sounds complex, but its a series of simple steps that pretty much looks like this:
The link to download lead generation asset your social media profile Landing page with capture Digital product promotional emails Landing page for product purchase and access
Once youve set this up, you can make money from your digital product all year round with minimal effort.
Serve a niche at scale
Sometimes, it helps to be good at something obscure. Honing in on a specific audience with specific needs is easier than competing broadly.
Lots of people want shredded abs in 30 days. A much smaller minority wants the perfect physique for water polo. Thats called serving a niche.
The challenge with selling niches locally is there often isnt a big enough market to sell to. But even the smallest niches are big enough to serve globally with no geographic boundaries limiting who you can sell to.
Leverage the shift towards online education
With more businesses shifting online, the demand for digital products continues to grow, with the demand for online courses estimated to reach $319+ bn by .
And adoption is acceleratingour report on the impact COVID-19 had on the online course industry found a 217% increase in student enrollment in online courses in the second half of March , as COVID social distancing measures came into play. Now that were coming out of COVID, the demand for online courses is here to stay!
The top 13 digital products you can sell online
Now that you know what digital products are and what their benefits are, lets look at 13 of the most popular digital products you can create and sell this year.
Ebooks
Many creators are making bank from selling ebooks. Take Carol Tice, for example. She has made over $45,000 selling ebooks with minimal effort.
You dont need to be the worlds greatest novelist to write a book thousands will buy. Think about what you do best and how you can teach it to others in writing.
For instance, Tiffany The Budgetnista Aliche is a financial educator with the goal of empowering women worldwide. She runs a popular online school, the Live Richer Academy. On top of that, Aliche has published a number of successful ebooks for students and non-students alike.
Before you create an ebook, make sure theres a market for it first. Youll need to do two things here:
Ask your audience what challenges they are facing and pick one you can solve with your knowledge
Ask your audience if they like to read ebooks or prefer some other content format
Once youve established demand for it, you can create your ebook using the steps outlined in this article. On a high level, youll need to come up with a topic and outline, develop the outline, proofread the content, and create a simple book cover using a tool like Canva or AI art generators.
Where to sell ebooks
You can sell your ebook on a self-hosted platform created with Thinkific. You can also sell it on ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon and Smashwords.
Courses
Teaching online lets you turn something you already haveyour expertiseinto a new source of revenue. If you have the expertise, and a passion for sharing it with the world, then an online course is the perfect digital product for you to sell.
People are eager to learn from home, whether they want to learn a new hobby or advance themselves professionallyyou can serve them by launching a digital course.
The appeal of creating online courses isnt just limited to traditional classroom environments like high school and university, or corporate trainers adapting with remote onboarding And you dont need to be formally trained as an educator, either.
You can create an online course to teach people just about anything from tai chi and drone piloting online to yoga and guitar.
Here are some other areas of expertise that weve seen translate into profitable online course businesses to give some ideas of what you can teach:
Sewing
Yoga classes
Laughter yoga
Guitar lessons
Meditation
Dance classes
Juggling
Resumes and job search
Professional development
Arts and Crafts
Photography
Copywriting
Graphic Design
Where to sell online courses
If you dont want to deal with the pressure of self-hosting and marketing your online course, you can sell it on a global marketplace like Udemy and Coursera. Once your course meets their standards, these platforms will add it to their library and market it to platform users on your behalf.
Alternatively, you can create and sell online courses on your own website using Thinkific. This gives you total control over your course material and students.
Memberships and paid communities
If your goal is to build recurring revenue by building and serving a community on an ongoing basis, then a membership is the perfect digital product for you to sell.
Whether you plan on selling a series of online courses, or simply charge members for the ability to pick your brain, a membership site can help you build up a monthly revenue stream.
Membership sites arent just geared towards one specific type of business. As you can see from these membership site examples, anyone with niche expertise and a passion for sharing it with the world can create one.
With a paid community membership, students get the chance to participate in exclusive discussion groups, workshops, and Q&A sessions. And when they subscribe, they add to a steady, predictable stream of income for you, their teacher.
In addition to offering standalone yoga classes geared towards a range of skill levels, Lasater Yoga has bridged the gap between online courses and membership sites by offering personalized mentorship through monthly office hours calls. You can purchase any of their classes, but for $19 per month, you get the full experience and the opportunity to engage the experts.
Where to sell memberships
If you already have a strong social media following, you can sell your membership program on your social account. Your audience already knows and trusts you and is likely to sign up for paid membership.
Graphic design
If youre a graphic designer, you already have the tools you need to create digital items that sell. Thats because other designers, some of them on tight deadlines, are looking for the elements they need to make their work shine.
Vector icons, textures, objects, typefacestheres a whole range of digital products you can create and sell on the side while you work day-to-day with clients. If you have a passion for design, it can be a chance to let your creativity shine outside of a clients project.
For instance, Iuliia Mazur is a professional graphic designer based in Ukraine who sells popular clip art packs on the side. By selling her designs on Creativemarket.com, she can generate passive income and leads for her freelance consulting business.
Where to sell art and design
There are several platforms where you can sell your art and design work online. Some popular options include Etsy, Society6, Redbubble, Fine Art America, and Artfinder.
Additionally, you can always sell your work directly through your own website or social media channels.
Templates
Theres a world of people who want a head start on whatever it is that theyre working onfrom WordPress bloggers to newlyweds.
Why reinvent the wheel? A template can save someone the effort of designing a website from scratch. It can also help them get their wedding invitations sent out on time, create personalized business cards, plan their marketing strategy, crunch some numbers on Excel, or polish their resume in a pinch.
For instance, designer Janna Hagan made over $5,000 just selling resume templates during a period between jobs. Obviously, not everyone is going to have the same level of successbut reading Janas story may inspire you to start your own venture.
Other templates you can sell include:
Business planning templates
Marketing strategy templates
Excel templates
Google Data Studio Analytics templates
Business contracts
Canva Templates
WordPress themes
DIY home project blueprints
PowerPoint presentations
Where to sell templates
Look for niche marketplaces where you can sell your template. Say youre selling WordPress themes, Theme Forest is a great choice. Meanwhile, Notion Utopia is the top marketplace for you guessed it Notion templates.
You can also sell templates on the social platform where your target audience hangs out. For example, if youre selling a social media calendar template, you can market it on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.
Craft patterns and downloadable prints
If you decide to sell on Etsy, youll be marketing your digital products to a captive audience of 46 million, many of whom joined the site because they love crafting and DIY projects. Theres a huge market for patternsfor sewing, knitting, macrame, papercraft, and just about any project you can imagine.
On top of that, theres the printable market: whether you offer coloring pages, kids workbooks, posters, or birthday cards, someone out there is looking for them. For instance, Lena Miramars summery printable posters are a huge hit, and shes built a business out of selling digital files.
Where to sell craft patterns and downloadable prints
Etsy is obviously the first choice. But, if for some reason you dont want to sell on Etsy, you can explore platforms like Shopify and Makerist.
You can also set up a store on your preferred social platform like a Facebook or Instagram store to sell your prints.
Music and audio
The hills are alive with the sound of music. Or the internet is, at least. Podcasters, YouTubers, bedroom pop stars, film producers, marketing teamsthey all use audio in one form or another, and theyre all in the market for that special element to make their work stand out.
Examples of audio products include:
Beats and instrument samples
Plugins for music software
Stock music
Sound effects
For instance, Mattia Cellotto is a digital sound producer who sells recordings of everything from trained animals to vintage lab equipment.
Where to sell music and audio
You can independently publish and distribute your music on digital music stores like CD Baby and Tunecore. These platforms will help you publish your music on streaming platforms and online stores for a fee.
If you want to sell stock or royalty-free music, you can use platforms like Audio Jungle and Pond5.
Stock photography
Stock photos get a bad rep. Were all familiar with the cliché: a model, awkwardly posed, performing some indecipherable activity against a stark white background. Or better yetviral sensation, Hide the Pain Harold.
However, beautiful stock photography does existjust check Unsplash for inspiration. If you have an eye for light, color, and framing, selling your photos online can supply you with a steady side income.
Another option is to give away stock photos for free in order to promote other products. For instance, self-described hobbyist photographer Annie Spratt shares free photos on Unsplash. But she also sells photo rights online. Customers can buy full commercial licenses on a per-photo basis, which allows them to legally create and sell prints of the work.
Where to sell stock photos
Stock photography marketplaces like Alamy and Shutterstock pay percentage commissions for photo sales.
SmugMug, on the other hand, is a paid membership platform for stock photos. Once you sign up, the platform takes care of sourcing buyers for your photos. On top of that, it will let you keep up to 85% of the profit on the sales.
Software and games
Its no secret there is a large market for both software and digital games. While both of these digital products require coding knowledge to create, for those who do have a development background, they can be immensely lucrative. If youre interested in getting into the software or gaming market and dont have the technical skills to build a product yourself, consider working with someone who does.
Software can be any solution or software that is powered by code. This includes mobile apps, web apps, desktop software, and many other options. The difference in effort between a basic mobile game, for example, vs. complex accounting software, is something to take into account when scoping out what kind of software you would like to sell. Smaller niche software offerings may be a faster route to making money.
The indie gaming market has also exploded in the last few years, with platforms like Steam allowing developers to sell directly to gamers without large studio interference. Games like Hollow Knight and Among Us both have indie roots and have exploded in popularity. While creating a digital game is undoubtedly a large time commitment, the payoffs can be major.
Where to sell software and games
Shopify is one of the most popular platforms for selling software. It lets you upload digital copies of your software. Customers can download these after making verified payments.
On the other hand, many creators like to sell games on Ecwid. You can create a free online game store or set up an Ecwid store on your website to make sales directly.
Webinars
If you dont have the time to write an ebook, consider hosting a paid webinar to share your knowledge.
Its an easy way to build authority in your industry, plus the resale value is great too. You can record and sell it to people who couldnt attend the event live.
Freelance writing business coach, Paulette Perhach, hosts a paid webinar at the beginning of the year to help writers set their goals for the year. Shes built up credibility in her niche, so its easy to convince people to sign up to learn from her.
If youre just starting out, a webinar might not be the ideal digital product for you. Build credibility by sharing your knowledge for free first. When youve gained a loyal audience, you can ask them to pay to learn from you in real-time.
Where to sell your webinar
The first place to promote your webinar is your social platform. After all, people who are already familiar with your knowledge and expertise are more likely to pay to learn from you than those who arent.
You can create a landing page webinar using Thinkific for registrations. You can also host the webinar recording on Thinkific for post-event sales.
Related: How to create a webinar
Coaching and consulting sessions
Another way to monetize your knowledge is to provide paid coaching and consulting services. On average, consultants make more than $8,000 a month, so its a juicy financial reward for your expertise.
Well recommend this digital product for busy 9-5ers who want to make some extra cash on the side. On top of that, it helps you build credibility within your industry and become an authority in your niche.
You can organize one-on-one coaching sessions, or group calls with a small community. These sessions can be offered as one-time purchases or as part of a package that includes multiple sessions.
You can even offer tiered coaching packages where people pay more for a one-on-one session or pair your consulting offering with paid membership communities its up to you!
Where to sell your consulting and coaching packages
Use Thinkific to create a landing page or website for your coaching and consulting services. Its free and saves the time you would have otherwise spent on building a website from scratch. It also gives you full control over your branding, messaging, pricing, and overall website aesthetics.
Alternatively, list your coaching services for free on coaching directories like Noomii and Life Coach Hub to connect with potential clients. These directories are often free to join but may charge a fee for premium features.
Learn more: How to set up an online coaching business
Social media paid subscriptions
Social platforms like X and Instagram have rolled out subscription services, providing another path for digital creators to earn from their audience. Creators like Bianca Araduta and Dan Pulzello diversify their Instagram earnings via paid subscriptions.
On Instagram, for example, verified creators can ask their audience to pay a monthly fee to access exclusive content. The same goes for X if youre a verified creator with 500 followers, you can receive payments from your followers via paid subscriptions.
Subscriptions are a low-hanging fruit for creators who already have an active audience on social media. If youve built a loyal following, then a handful or more of them are definitely willing to pay for exclusive access to your content.
Where to sell paid subscriptions
Youll sell subscriptions on the social platform you want people to subscribe to. Say you want people to subscribe to your Instagram account; you can record a reel telling them that you now offer subscriptions plus the type of content theyll get if they sign up.
Are you interested in learning more about sfe? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!
Learn more: How to set up Instagram subscriptions
Newsletter subscriptions
If you have an active social following but dont want to offer paid subscriptions, you can sell newsletter subscriptions instead. In other words, people pay to receive exclusive newsletters from you at regular intervals.
You can sell newsletter subscriptions as a standalone digital product or as part of a community offering. For example, you can pair community memberships or coaching services with the newsletter offering. Creators like Jujureel offer a closed paid community and newsletter.
Where to sell newsletter subscriptions
You can start subscription-based paid newsletters on Substack and Patreon. These platforms charge a percentage of your profits and handle all of the admin work for setting up your newsletter and collecting payments.
You can also host your newsletter on platforms like Beehiiv and Convertkit. Beehiiv offers a referral program that rewards subscribers for sharing your newsletter with their audience helping you reach more people organically and hopefully convert them into subscribers.
Learn more: The best paid newsletter platforms for creators.
Selling through marketplaces vs self-hosted platforms
Marketplaces like Amazon, Skillshare, and Udemy will take a big cut of your profits in exchange for the consumers they bring you. You dont have any control over the branding, and its their logo on the site, not yours. When someone views your listings, theyll also see your competitors products.
Marketplaces should be viewed as a marketing channel to complement your storefront because they are a great way to generate leads that you can drive to your own online store for larger purchases and subscriptions.
Related: How to Sell Digital Products on Amazon
Platform BasicsUseful FeaturesEtsyBest for: Downloadable prints, craft designs, and how-to guides.
Cost: $0.20 for a 4-month listing, plus 5% of each sale
Large community of crafters and vintage sellers you can target
Small percentage taken from each sale
Option for an unbranded online store using Pattern
Best for: eBooks, music, or art.
Cost: The individual plan costs $0.99 per unit sold, and the professional plan costs $39.99 per month no matter how many units you sell.
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a massive platform for ebooks sales
Super easy word doc to ebook conversion
Massive user traffic
Best for: Online courses
Cost: You are paid a relatively small royalty for the number of minutes students watch your courses (about $200/ month for first-time producers).
Good for lead generation / promotion
Shorter class formats
Mobile app
Best for: Online courses
Cost: Revenue share (50% of revenue goes to Udemy for being listed in their marketplace).
Lead generation / promotion
Longer class formats
Mobile app
Read More:
New platforms for selling digital products seem to pop up every day. Below, youll find six tried-and-true industry standards, and how theyre used.
Selling digital products on Amazon
As one of the Big Five tech companies, Amazon seems like a natural first choice for getting your product out into the world. But how well does it work with digital products?
While Amazon lets you sell music and videos, the service was originally designed for physical products. For digital items, you can find more robust, easier to use solutions tailored to what youre selling for a lower price.
Where Amazon shines, though, is ebook sales. In , 83% of independently published ebooks (books without ISBNs) were sold through Amazon, and they claimed 47% of ebook sales overall.
More than market share, Amazon boasts an easy-to-use publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). If youre just testing the waters, KDP could be a great intro to online publishing. As writer Biron Clark explains, formatting your Kindle ebook is as simple as uploading a Word document.
If youre selling other products besides bookssuch as classes or workshopsAmazon isnt a one-stop solution. But Amazons suggestion algorithms make this marketplace a great source of awareness for other products you may be selling
Selling digital products on Etsy
With more than 46 million active users, and 15 years dominating the market, Etsy is the go-to online service for craftspeople, artists, and vintage sellers.
It can also be an excellent place to sell digital products. For example, a search of sewing pattern pdf brings up over 400,000 results. Not only does Etsy make it easy to upload and sell craft guides, it exposes you to a huge market of crafters and DIYerssome of whom are bound to fit your niche. Instead of selling someone a poster, you can sell them a downloadable print.
Etsy is more suited to digital publications whose value lies in their visuals. Amazons Kindle has graphics support, but you wont find many coloring books or clipart collections in that format. For visually rich items, and the people who want to buy them, Etsy is your best choice.
On the other hand, Etsys features for selling audio or video items arent robust. If those are going to be the bread and butter of your business, youre better off going a different route.
Etsy is sort of like a marketplace, that gives you the option to open your own e-commerce storefront. If youd like to have your own site on top of Etsys marketplace, Pattern lets you design and launch a separate, non-Etsy-branded website. Your Etsy shop will still exist, and automatically sync with your Pattern site. But youll have the chance to do your own branding, with your own domain.
Selling digital products on Shopify
Shopify has rapidly become one of the most popular e-commerce sites in the world, but people arent just selling physical products on Shopify.
Their Digital Downloads plugin allows you to offer digital products in your store. When someone purchases a digital product from you on Shopify, they can download the product immediately, and receive a link to download in their .
You can even add online courses built on Thinkific to your Shopify store, which means that you can sell other products alongside your course, like a physical copy of your book, an ebook, templates, merchandise, bonus study guides, and whatever else you want.
Selling through an online course marketplace Udemy & Skillshare
Because Udemy and Skillshare are online course marketplaces for students looking for online courses, these platforms are a great way to generate awareness.
But theres a catch
Youd have to sell a lot of courses on these platforms to make a profit because of their profit sharing and royalty schemes, as well as limits on the price you can charge.
Udemy
Theres no fee to host a course on Udemy, and you can publish as many courses as you like. The catch is, Udemy will keep up between 50% 75% of your revenue in exchange for driving visitors to your courses.
Skillshare
Skillshare operates under a subscription model, which means students pay a recurring fee for unlimited access to the entire catalog of premium classes. Teachers are paid out from a royalty pool based on the number of minutes their courses were watched by premium members.
As you can see, its best to view these marketplaces as a lead generation source that drives people back to your own online course platform for larger purchases and recurring revenue.
Selling with an online course and membership platform Thinkific
(Heythats us!)
If youre ready to create and sell online courses, and you want to keep all of the revenue for yourself, Thinkific should be the first place you look. Thinkific is designed for independent instructors who want to teach what they know, rather than spend time learning a new software platform.
Since Thinkific provides the tools to create your digital storefront, you have complete control over how much you charge, and the design of your site.
Its a great way to take one step beyond ebooks. If youve already had some success selling your book online, Thinkific lets you take that information and turn it into a rich, feature-filled online learning experience. Get started with our guide on how to transform your book into an online course.
You can take a full tour of Thinkifics core features by signing up for free. Since the trial has no expiry, you can create and sell 1 course with students on Thinkific for free.
Promoting your digital products
There are a number of different ways to promote your digital products, and what works the best will depend greatly on the platform you are selling on and what youre actually selling. However, there are some principles to keep in mind across the board.
Dont rely on your chosen platform to market your products. For example, if you decide to sell on Etsy or Amazon, you cant expect to gain large amounts of traffic just for existing on these marketplaces. Build audiences for your products through social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. If youre stuck for ideas, pay attention to the most popular content and emulate those posts.
Once you start to see some growth try networking with other digital product creators in your space. This will help you build connections, get tips, and open up opportunities to cross-promote. If budget allows, try out a few paid advertisements on social media or on your selling platform if the platform supports ads. Test some different ideas and pay attention to what converts the most people to buy your product.
Digital products FAQs
Find answers to common questions about buying and selling digital products.
Can I sell digital products without a website?
Yes. You dont always need a website to sell digital products. You can host your digital products on third-party websites and marketplaces to make them available to potential customers. You can also sell your digital product exclusively on social media using in-app marketplaces and organic promotions on your page.
If you decide to create a website, you can do so easily with Thinkific. Thinkific has drag-and-drop templates that you can use to create a professional landing page for your digital product quickly.
Can I make money from selling digital products?
Yes. Digital products can provide both passive and full-time income for you. Many creators earn exclusively from selling different types of digital products like ebooks, paid subscriptions, and membership communities.
What is the best digital product to sell?
Theres no consensus on the best digital product to sell. It all depends on your skills, time, and audience. If youre a photographer, you can sell stock photos and paintings. If you have an engaged social media following, you can sell membership subscriptions and newsletters.
How do I start making digital products?
First, you need to figure out what topic youll cover in your digital product. This should ideally be an area of knowledge your audience is struggling with. Next, choose the type of digital product and create content for it.
You can read our article on how to create digital products for the full scoop.
Conclusion
With The Leap, creators can build digital products and an online storefront in no time and for zero dollars. If thats not music to a creators ears, we dont know what is. Ready to create and sell your own digital products? Try The Leap for free today!
This post was originally published in and refreshed in January to be even more useful.
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