20 profitable digital products to sell online
A digital product is just about anything you can make and sell online that isn’t a physical product. If you’re curious how to sell your digital product or what digital products to sell are, we’ve got answers. We’ll tackle those questions and highlight some great digital product examples so you can start creating and selling now.
Why you should be selling digital products
If you haven’t already started selling digital products, there are a number of them for you to consider. Here’s why:
No inventory to store
One of the biggest perks of selling digital products over selling physical products is that there’s no inventory to store. If you sell physical products, you need a storage area where you can keep them all before your potential customers buy them. With digital products, you don’t have the same issue. Not only does this save you space, but it also makes it easier to work from wherever. You don’t have to spend time or money shipping items, and it’s better for the environment.
Low investment
Selling digital products, such as digital files or digital downloads, on an ecommerce platform requires a fairly low investment on your part. Your main investment is your own personal time. So if you’ve got the time to spend, you can create these digital assets to then sell. If they sell well, you can make quite a bit of money. Oftentimes, you can start selling online for free or through free platforms. So what have you got to lose? So can you afford to not give it a go?
Passive income
Once you’ve got your digital product idea and you’ve created it, it can bring in passive income for you. A business generating passive income is a low lift, as it doesn’t require a ton of daily maintenance work on your part. Even with little daily effort, the payoff has the potential to be huge. Then you can focus on promoting your product or making new ones that customers request.
Digital products complement your online courses well
Another reason to sell digital products? They complement your online courses. You can create bonus content that costs extra and helps level up a student’s online course experience. Alternatively, you can offer a coaching component for your students who want the extra personal touch to their learning experience.
Digital products to sell online
1. Courses
If you’re not already selling online courses, this is your sign to get started. An online course is a great digital product to sell online because it allows you to share what you’re passionate about. You can make a course around your passion or whatever topic you’re most versed in. You don’t need to be an expert or have a degree in something to be able to share your passion for it. People create courses on everything from baking bread to investing. Most importantly, they find great enjoyment and success in doing so.
2. Ebooks
Another type of digital product to sell if you’ve got a passion or expertise is an ebook. You can create an ebook for download that you can then sell online. These ebooks can be mini ebooks or lengthy ones. They can even be workbooks, like a food tracker, or planners for a big event or day-to-day work.
3. Digital workbooks
This is a huge category. Digital workbooks can cover digital downloads that include embroidery patterns, paint guides, coloring books, crosswords, and anything else you can think up.
4. Web extensions
If you’re able to build it, you can sell it. A web extension that does anything from timing website use, to helping users find discounts can be a great thing to sell online and make money from. Then once you make it you can get it into the app web stores online and wait for that passive income.
5. A mobile app
Again, if you’re technically skilled and able to build apps, selling a mobile app could be a great digital product to sell. This relies on you creating digital products to sell but can really pay off.
6. Guides
Feel like you’ve figured out the key to success in your field? Write a guide on it. You can then sell these guides as digital items for downloading. Simply write the step-by-step guide to achieving a goal and you’ve got a digital product idea right there.
7. Access to a membership site
Selling access to a membership site is a great digital product to sell. It can include access to a community or to gated content. Whatever you want to make “member exclusive” could be part of the membership. That exclusivity is something you can specifically do with Teachable.
8. Digital files
Digital files include digital art that you can sell online. Then your customers can choose what size they want to have printed and any other borders they want. These are digital products examples that are great digital products to sell on Etsy.
9. Recipes
For those who love cooking, creating recipes and selling them as digital products online is a good possibility to explore. You can promote them on social media with photos of the finished food, or a reel on Instagram of you making it.
10. Graphic design templates
Anything you can sell to make other people’s lives and jobs easier can be highly successful. If you can create graphic design templates that others can buy and fill in on their own, you could be sitting on a great digital product.
11. Web design services
Another digital product you could sell? Website templates. You can offer web design services to potential customers. Making a unique website isn’t easy so if you’ve got the skills to help others do so it can be in demand.
12. Podcast
A podcast where you speak with experts and share your own insights is another digital product idea. You don’t need a ton of equipment to get started so it’s a low risk that could have a high reward. This is another example of content you can gate or make member exclusive.
13. Newsletter access
You’ve got information to share, so why not put it in a newsletter and offer it as a digital product to sell. Your customers and audience want to hear from you and you can create a monthly or weekly newsletter to connect with them through. If you want to make it gated content, you can use a platform like Substack to do so.
14. Coaching
While coaching isn’t quite a downloadable product, it’s still a digital product. You can offer your coaching services either as group coaching or as individual coaching. The ability to coach online has created millions of more opportunities for people to connect with the coaches who can meet their needs. And for coaches to find the right clients too. This is something else Teachable can help you easily set up and offer.
15. Photography and digital art
Your photos could be just the art someone else is looking for to frame and feature in their home or office space. So offer up your photos online as a digital product for download. This is a great one to promote on social media too because it can really draw people in with how visually beautiful it is. Like photography, your digital art could be perfect for someone’s space. Selling it online as a digital product could get them the art they’ve been looking for, and you a little extra cash in your bank account.
16. Music and audio
Like podcasting, you might be able to sell your music or audio online. Everyone from businesses to influencers look for the music they can use in their advertising and on social media posts. So consider selling audio or music access as a digital product..
17. Resume review and templates
Everyone could use a good resume revamp. You can sell the perfect template to showcase someone’s skills or help them review it if they need a second pair of eyes to take a look.
18. Social media templates
If you’re gifted with a sense of design you can create social media templates. Then those who download them can curate their Instagram feeds or their stories on Instagram or Facebook. The curated look is appealing and makes the content easier on the eye.
19. Fonts
A custom font can really make a design or a website pop. If you’re passionate about creating fonts, add them to your digital online stores so people can download them.
20. Presentations
Nothing says professional like a personal template that someone else designed. You can create presentation templates and sell them online as digital products for people who are looking for a design outside of the usual Powerpoint options.
Where to sell digital products
When it comes to where you should sell your digital products, there are a few different avenues to explore. Where you sell your digital products also depends on what products you’re actually selling too. You might choose to just launch your own personal website that hosts all of your products with a checkout. Or if you’re selling something specific, like courses, you might opt for something like Teachable.
You can also offer coaching services. It’s a valuable option for your potential customers and it can help you sell other digital products or your courses too. Plus, it can be nice to have a regulated platform to keep track of everything you’re doing with coaching. You can check out Teachable’s coaching product if you’re interesting in offering such services.
If you’re only selling downloads, you might find that a website like Etsy works well for you. Discoverability can be one of the challenges online creators face, and platforms like Etsy can help you. Alternatively, you might choose to simply use your social media presence to help people find your downloads. You can use the tools native to your favorite social media platform, like Instagram for example, to sell your digital products. Let’s take a look at what products you could potentially sell online.
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FAQs
What are the most profitable digital products?
Some of the most profitable digital products include templates for everything from resumes, planners, and other graphic design templates. These are wildly profitable and save you the hassle of having to store any inventory. Plus, it’s more eco-friendly because you don’t have to ship anything to your customers, you just have to send them a download to print themselves. You only have to make them once and then put them up for sale so they can be incredibly profitable for the amount of work they require.
What digital products are in high demand?
Some of the most in-demand digital products are guides, ebooks, and courses. People are looking to learn new skills and take on new hobbies. One of the best ways to do this affordably and remotely is through these downloadable assets. You can provide those for individuals by teaching online.
Do I need a business license to sell digital products?
Whether or not you need a business license to sell digital products depends on what else you’re doing in a business capacity. Plus, whether you’re operating on your own or on another platform also will impact whether you need a business license. It’s always best to check with your business advisor before making any decisions so you know you’re following the rules and won’t end up getting fined later on.