If you’re looking to make some extra money or diversify your income while working from home, selling digital products is a great option. Digital products don’t have to be shipped, and most can be downloaded instantly onto the customer’s device.
What’s nice is that you don’t have to worry about inventory either since once you create one digital product, you can sell it as many times as you want. This also sets you up to earn passive income if you can get your products to sell consistently over time.
To create digital products, you often only need a computer, internet connection, a good idea, and a little time. You don’t need a huge online presence or a blog with 1 million monthly page views. With the opportunity being so high and start-up costs being so low, consider creating a digital product that you can start selling ASAP.
Not sure where to start? Below are some of the most profitable digital products to consider.
1. eBooks
eBooks are one of the best digital products to sell because they don’t take long to create. Consider an eBook as a mini version of a book. It doesn’t have to be full length, and you can still provide value and entertainment. Only the reader will finish it in just a few chapters or perhaps even one sitting.
When it comes to finding a good topic for your eBook, do some research to see what categories are popular on Amazon. If you have an interesting story to share or some helpful how-to tips, this could be an eBook topic that sells well.
One of my friends loves romance novels, so she wrote a romance eBook series on Amazon and has earned a few hundred dollars per month. Mind you, she wrote her series under a pen name, so she didn’t have a huge blog or following to help promote the book. She just chose a great niche and had a great story.
Once you have your idea, validate it by surveying others who could be a potential reader to see what they’re looking for. You can also read reviews of similar eBooks and pay attention to the negative comments so you can learn from what other authors did wrong. Did they forget to include something or not explain a topic well enough? Try to fill the gap with your eBook and avoid that mistake. Learn more about publishing an eBook to sell online here.
2. Printables
Printables are digital documents that you can print out for everyday use. There are so many different kinds of printables ranging from planner worksheets and calendars to coloring sheets, fill-in-the-blank lists, labels, and more.
It’s best if you use a few printables yourself before creating them to sell online. That way, you can understand why people find them helpful and also get some ideas for your own creation.
You don’t have to be a skilled graphic designer to create printables. You can start with a tool like Canva, which is free to use. Narrow down a target audience and design a printable that helps solve a problem or helps people meet a goal. For the most part, printables can help people stay organized, but they also have many other fun uses.
For example, you can design printables for baby shower games or a bachelorette party. The sky is the limit, so start testing out your ideas and if you need help getting started, check out the E-Printables Side Hustle Course.
3. Graphic Designs
Let’s say you are a skilled designer. While selling your services as a freelancer can be profitable, you should consider selling digital products as well. Maybe you can create website templates that are easy to use.
Or, you can design templates for social media graphics. Some creatives share a lot of Pinterest images and social media graphics. Create these templates and sell them online as a package so that all people have to do is customize them.
Related Content: How to Work From Home as a Graphic Designer
4. Courses
Courses are a profitable digital product, and some people make six figures each year selling online classes. If you have specific expertise, create an online workshop to teach other people to do something.
You’d be surprised at some of the course topics that sell well. Classes on watercolor painting, diet and fitness, networking, and relationships all sell really well. Having an online presence can help you sell your digital course, but it’s not a requirement.
Consider creating and selling your course on a platform like Udemy, so there’s already a built-in audience looking to buy your product. Keep in mind, creating courses requires a lot of upfront work. You may want to make a mini-course first to see if it sells and helps people get results before developing a full course. Test out your idea with a beta-tester group who can offer helpful feedback to improve your product.
5. Swipe Files and Templates
This is a great digital product idea for current freelance writers. A swipe file is a short document that includes written copy that someone can customize. Swipe copy should be high-quality and display a proven and effective formula.
For example, if you’re good with marketing and you’ve noticed that particular emails and email headlines have gotten better open rates and click-throughs, you can turn that successful copy into swipe files that other people can use.
People may buy your swipe copy so they can use your writing as a basic template but customize it to fit their needs and get similar results.
Another thing you can consider is creating actual templates that help people meet a goal. One of the most common options would be a resume template. Some people struggle with crafting the perfect resume and formatting it correctly. If you enjoy writing resumes or have experience in this area, you can sell resume templates. That way, all people have to do is customize the template with their information.
6. Stock Photos
Love taking pictures? You don’t have to be a professional photographer to make money. Some of the photos on your smartphone’s camera roll may even be good enough to sell to a stock image site.
Whether you like to take pictures of people, nature, landscapes, food, etc. consider selling them to a stock photo site. If you’re selling photographs that you took of other people, make sure you have their permission beforehand and be mindful of any other specific rules given by the photo website.
You probably won’t get paid immediately from the site, but most allow you to earn a commission whenever someone downloads your photo.
It may help to browse a few stock photo sites and see which image categories are most popular and get a lot of downloads. Check out these 40 websites that will pay you for your photos.
Places to Sell Digital Products
So, where can you sell digital products? Having a blog or website is not required since you can set up a seller’s profile on an online marketplace. You can also use a third-party website to integrate with your website so you can sell products right from your blog. Below are some of the best places to sell digital products online.
Etsy
You’ve probably heard of Etsy before. It’s an online marketplace for unique and creative goods. Etsy started as a site to sell your homemade and customized creations. Now, it’s a great place to sell your digital products as well. People sell everything from printable planners to recipe cards and labels.
Millions of people use Etsy each month, so it’s an ideal place to set up your virtual shop if you want to get more eyes on your products. They offer a lot of tools to help you sell and market your products. You can offer promotions for certain products, categorize your items, and take advantage of their other seller tools.
Customers will purchase your products on Etsy’s website, but you can always share the link to your Etsy store in other places. Etsy charges a $0.20 fee (per item) to list your products, and when you make a sale, there’s a 5% transaction fee.
Fetch App
Fetch App allows you to sell digital downloads like music, videos, photos, e-books, PDFs, and more. Simply create your digital products, upload the files to the platform, and start selling. Fetch App has no contracts, and they don’t collect a commission when you make a sale. They do, however, charge a monthly fee to store your digital products.
You can get 5 MB of storage space and receive up to 25 orders per day for free. It costs $5 per month for 50 MB of storage and to process unlimited orders, and the rates go up from there.
Shopify
Shopify makes it easy to sell your digital products, and you can easily integrate their features with your website or blog. If you’re looking to grow a business with your digital products, Shopify is a great option because they offer so many tools to help you with branding and marketing your online store.
It costs $29 per month to open and host a basic store, but you can try Shopify out for 14 days for free. The monthly fee includes social selling, a safe and secure checkout process, unlimited products, discounts and coupons, integrations, and more. You’ll pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Shopify’s store and branding features look the best, in my opinion, because they’re so customizable. To make your online store profitable enough to justify the fees, I’d recommend creating several digital products you can sell all at once and utilizing the marketing and integration tools available.
Sellwire
Sellwire has over 5,000 sellers and integrates with sites like PayPal, Stripe, Google Analytics, and MailChimp. This platform is easy to use and affordable if you are looking to sell just a few products.
For just $9 per month, you can sell up to 10 digital products with unlimited storage and orders. Sellwire makes it easy to manage and upload your files. Plus, you can track orders, see profit reports, and set up promotions.
Sellfy
Sellfy gives you the option to sell your digital products via your own store on their platform or from your website. They provide a lot of great benefits and features like:
- Unlimited products and storage bandwidth
- Large file support
- High-level security
- Built-in email marketing
Another nice thing about using Sellfy is you can offer flexible payment options for customers. Sellfy also makes it easy to use marketing tactics like upselling and coupon codes so customers can buy your lower-level digital products up to your top-level products.
e-Junkie
Start selling up to 10 of your products on e-Junkie for just $5 per month. You can choose a virtual storefront on e-Junkie’s website, or you can share a link to your products on your website or blog.
The benefit of using sites like e-Junkie is that it’s a self-hosted service, so you don’t need to start a website to sell your digital products. There’s also no set up fees or transaction fees.
SendOwl
SendOwl is a platform similar to e-Junkie and Sellfy, but it does offer a few more features. You can sell from SendOwl or your own website by sharing links to your products. Plus, you can set up affiliates, rescue cart abandonment orders, offer discounts, and set your own pricing.
Get started for just $9 per month and sell up to 10 products with 1 GB of storage. SendOwl’s online store plans go up to $39 per month, and you won’t pay transaction fees on any of your orders.
Tips For Selling Digital Products
If you’re thinking of selling digital products online, the process can sound easier than it actually is. Utilize these tips to improve your success and develop a consistent stream of income from your online products.
Conduct extensive research
If you’re thinking about creating a digital product to sell online, do some in-depth research to see how the current market is. Are people actually buying this type of digital product? Where are people selling it? What will make your product different?
Keep testing
Ideas are great. But if you’re going to create a digital product, be sure to test your product and have other people review it as well. Survey others to see what they need and would like to see in a digital product. Test different platforms to sell your products on and keep tweaking your sales page copy. If you’re selling a course, get beta-testers before you officially launch. Getting good feedback in advance will help you get quality reviews that can help you sell your products to even more people.
Have great customer service
Even if you’re a one-woman or one-person show, don’t underestimate the importance of customer service when selling digital products. Make sure you answer frequently asked questions and respond to emails in a timely manner. You may even want to set a date on your calendar where you can check in with customers after they’ve tried your product to get feedback. Consider creating an email list for customers so you can continue to provide excellent customer service and even offer them exclusive discounts on future products.
Figure out your long-term marketing strategy
Creating a digital product is a lot of work, but selling that product over time requires more work. It’s essential to develop a long-term marketing strategy for your digital products so you can truly earn passive income. Don’t just write your eBook, share it once on social media, then never mention it again. Set up a plan to help you promote your products consistently; that way, you’re continually getting new customers.
Conclusion
Selling digital products online can help diversify your income or even replace your full-time income after a while. Creating digital products doesn’t have to be hard either. Start small with one basic product. Do some research and test your ideas before you go all in and create tons of digital products to sell.