Selling digital products is a low-cost, depression-hassle mode 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 lot may have hopes of making it large, or possibly you merely want a passive income stream that can abound to eventually supervene upon your task.
Whatsoever your reasons are, diversifying your revenue—and finding new ways to earn from abode—is a smart movement. All-time of all, y'all get a risk 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 in 2021, and where you lot can sell them.
Only, before we review the best digital items and where to sell them, a quick overview.
What is a digital product?
Digital Products are any virtual item you can pay for, and download instantly.. They are intangible, in the sense that you tin can't touch them. Merely they have value—to the tune of a $199 billion industry in 2020 .
Streaming movies and Goggle box, video games, software, and apps—those are the big hitters, and they're the first things you might remember of when you hear "digital products."
Only in that location are lots of other ways yous can create digital products from your own knowledge, creativity, skills and expertise – and you don't need a film coiffure or a squad of software developers to do it.
Why sell digital products?
Creating, marketing, and selling digital products may seem overwhelming, especially if yous're not the most tech-literate person on the planet. But thanks to online tools like Etsy , Shopify , and Thinkific , the learning curve can be surprisingly short.
Plus, there are a lot of good reasons to sell digital products online:
Low investment, (potentially) high returns
There are plenty of digital items y'all can put together using only time, free energy, and a piddling focus. Online marketplaces and e-commerce tools are relatively cheap, compared to renting a brick and mortar location or building a physical inventory. This ways the potential for higher profit margins.
More profitable than physical goods
Digital products sell at higher margins than physical products. And that margin improves over time considering y'all don't need to spend whatever money producing more than units.
No inventory, shipping or rent hassle
Also the fact that y'all don't accept to encompass the cost of producing, storing, or aircraft physical items, you can as well avert the logistics. Selling digital products through an online platform has the potential to be radically simple—which is why information technology's an ideal side hustle.
Automated delivery for passive income
If yous've already got a day chore keeping you busy, the digital products you sell online tin can keep money coming in fifty-fifty if nearly of your week is spent at your full-time gig.
Serve a niche at scale
Sometimes, information technology helps to be skilful at something obscure. Honing in on a specific audience, with specific needs is easier than competing broadly.
Lots of people desire shredded abs in 30 days. A much smaller minority wants the perfect physique for water polo. That'southward chosen serving a niche.
The challenge with selling niches locally is there often isn't a big enough market to sell to. Only even the smallest niches are big enough to serve globally with no geographic boundaries limiting who you lot tin can sell to.
Leverage the shift towards online educational activity
With more businesses shifting online, the need for digital products continues to grow, with t he demand for online courses was estimated to reach $319+ bn by 2025.
And adoption is accelerating—our written report on the touch COVID-19 had on the online class manufacture establish a 217% increment in student enrollment in online courses in the second half of March 2020, as COVID social distancing measures came into play. Now that we're coming out of COVID, the demand for online courses is here to stay!
21 digital production ideas to sell online
There are hundreds of different digital products you tin can sell online. Rather than list each one, here are eight digital product categories to cover them all—and some inspiration to get you started.
ebooks
You don't need to be the world'south greatest novelist to write a book thousands will buy. Think virtually what you do best, and how y'all can teach information technology to others, in writing.
For case, Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Alliche is a financial educator with the goal of empowering women worldwide. She runs a popular online schoolhouse, the Live Richer Academy . But on peak of that, Alliche has published a number of successful ebooks for students and not-students akin.
Online courses
Teaching online lets y'all turn something you already have—your expertise—into a new source of revenue. If you have expertise, and a passion for sharing it with the earth, and then an online form is the perfect digital product for you to sell.
People are eager to learn from dwelling house, whether they want to larn a new hobby, or advance themselves professionally—yous can serve them past launching a digital course.
The entreatment of creating online courses isn't just express to traditional classroom environments similar highschool and university, or corporate trainers adapting with remote onboarding… And you don't need to be formally trained as an educator either.
You can create an online grade to teach people only about anything — from tai chi and drone piloting online to yoga , and guitar .
Afterward quarantine measures came into place and more people constitute themselves at dwelling house , sourdough bread went viral. People were staying home, had time off, and wanted to learn a tangible skill. For weeks, social media was flooded with photos of beautiful and not-so-cute home-baked loaves.
Puff School of Pastry responded to the sourdough trend past offer a free six-role video guide to making sourdough in lockdown as a way to create value while also getting in front of new prospective students (and hopefully, sell more than courses).
And now that we're coming out of COVID-nineteen and the world has gotten used to online courses, the demand for online courses is hither to stay.
Here are some other areas of expertise that we've seen interpret into profitable online course businesses, to requite 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 Blueprint
For more than on how to create and sell digital products online, and the kickoff steps to creating a course to sell alongside a physical product, cheque out this video!
Desire to build a digital product business selling online courses, but non sure where to outset? Become gratis grooming and start building for costless!
Memberships
If your goal is to build recurring acquirement by building and serving a community on an ongoing ground, then a membership is the perfect digital product for y'all to sell.
Whether you plan on selling a series of online courses, or simply charge members for the ability to option your brain, a membership site can assistance you build up a monthly revenue stream.
Membership sites aren't just geared towards i specific type of business. Equally you can see from these membership site examples , anyone with niche expertise and a passion for sharing information technology with the earth can create 1.
With a paid community membership , students get the take chances 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 lot, their teacher.
In addition to offering standalone yoga classes geared towards a range of skill levels, Lasater Yoga has bridged the gap betwixt online courses and membership sites by offer personalized mentorship through their monthly office hours calls. You can purchase whatever of their classes, merely for $19 per month, you get the full experience and the opportunity to engage the experts.
Graphic design work
If you're a graphic designer, you lot already have the tools you need to create digital items that sell.
That's because other designers, some of them on tight deadlines, are looking for the elements they demand to brand their work polish.
Vector icons, textures, objects, typefaces—in that location'southward a whole range of digital products you can create and sell on the side while yous work day-to-mean solar day with clients. If yous accept a passion for pattern, information technology can be a risk to allow your inventiveness shine outside of a customer's project.
For case, Iuliia Mazur is a professional graphic designer based in Ukraine who sells popular clip fine art packs on the side. By selling her designs on Creativemarket.com, she can generate passive income and leads for her freelance consulting business.
Templates
There's a world of people who want a caput start on whatever it is that they're working on—from WordPress bloggers to newlyweds.
Why reinvent the bicycle? A template tin save someone the endeavor of designing a website from scratch. Information technology can as well 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 example, designer Janna Hagan made over $5,000 just selling resume templates during a menstruation between jobs. Obviously, non everyone is going to have the aforementioned level of success—but reading Jana's story may inspire you to start your own venture.
Other templates you lot can sell include:
- Business planning templates
- Marketing strategy templates
- Excel templates
- Google Data Studio Analytics templates
- Business organisation contracts
- Canva Templates
- WordPress themes
- DIY dwelling house project blueprints
- Powerpoint presentations
Arts and crafts patterns and downloadable prints
If yous decide to sell on Etsy, you'll be marketing your digital products to a captive audition of 46 million, many of whom joined the site because they love crafting and DIY projects. There's a huge market place for patterns—for sewing, knitting, macrame, papercraft, and simply most any project you tin can imagine.
On top of that, there'southward the printable market: whether yous offer coloring pages, kids' workbooks, posters, or altogether cards, someone out there is looking for them. For case, Lena Miramar 's summery printable posters are a huge hitting, and she'south built a business out of selling the digital files.
Music and audio
The hills are alive with the sound of music. Or the net is, at to the lowest degree. Podcasters, YouTubers, bedroom pop stars, film producers, marketing teams—they all use audio in one form or another, and they're 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.
Stock Photography
Stock photos get a bad rep. We're all familiar with the cliché: a model, awkwardly posed, performing some indecipherable activeness against a stark white background. Or better nonetheless—viral awareness, Hide the Pain Harold.
Withal, beautiful stock photography does be—just check Unsplash for inspiration. If you accept an eye for calorie-free, color, and framing, selling your photos online can supply you with a steady side income.
Another option is to requite abroad stock photos for free in order to promote other products. For case, self-described "hobbyist lensman" Annie Spratt shares complimentary photos on Unsplash . Simply she besides sells photo rights online. Customers tin 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 digital products online
You lot should be set up to cull a digital selling platform based on what y'all plan to sell, as well every bit your budget.
Other factors to have into business relationship include ease of use, and how much command you have over the advent of your store.
It's important to recognize the difference between a marketplace and your digital storefront.
Selling through your own site
Ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Thinkific charge you for the ability to create your ain digital storefront customized with your own branding — without taking half of your profits, or displaying a competitor'southward product on your listings.
You choose exactly how much y'all want to charge, and exactly what your site looks like.
| Platform | Best for… | Cost | Useful Features |
| Shopify | Ecommerce | Starting at $29 per month Payment Processing 2.9% + 30¢ USD |
|
| Thinkific | Online courses Membership sites Online Communities | Gratis plan includes all cadre features. Subsequently that, monthly prices kickoff at $39 per month. No transaction fees. |
|
Selling through marketplaces
Marketplaces similar Amazon, Skillshare, and Udemy will take a big cutting of your profits in exchange for the consumers they bring y'all. Y'all don't have any control over the branding, and it'south their logo on the site, not yours. And when someone views your listings, they'll likewise come across your competitor's products.
Marketplaces should exist viewed as a marketing channel to complement your storefront, because they are a great way to generate leads that yous can drive to your own online shop for larger purchases and subscriptions.
| Platform | Best for… | Cost | Useful Features |
| Etsy | Downloadable Prints Craft designs How-to guides | $0.20 for a 4-month listing, plus 5% of each auction | Large community of crafters and vintage sellers y'all can target Modest pct taken from each sale Option for an unbranded online store using Pattern |
| Amazon | ebooks | $39.99 per calendar month for Professional Program, plus $0.15 per digital particular, plus a $1.80 closing fee for each book, music, or video detail | Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is a massive platform for ebooks sales Super like shooting fish in a barrel word doc to ebook conversion Pricey per-ebook sales cost |
| Skillshare | Online Form Market place | Opportunity cost: you lot are paid a relatively minor royalty for the number of minutes student sentry your courses (about $200/ month for first time producers) | Lead generation / promotion Shorter class formats Mobile app |
| Udemy | Online Class Market | Acquirement share (50% of acquirement goes to Udemy for being listed in their marketplace) | Lead generation / promotion Longer class formats Mobile app |
New platforms for selling digital products seem to pop upwards every day. Below, yous'll find six tried-and-true industry standards, and how they're used.
Selling digital products on Amazon
Equally i of the Large Five tech companies , Amazon seems like a natural commencement choice for getting your production out into the globe. But how well does it work with digital products?
While Amazon lets yous sell music and videos, the service was originally designed for physical products. For digital items, y'all can discover more robust, easier to utilise solutions tailored to what y'all're selling for a lower price.
Where Amazon shines, though, is ebook sales. In 2019, 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 yous're merely testing the waters, KDP could be a great intro to online publishing. Every bit writer Biron Clark explains, formatting your Kindle ebook is as uncomplicated as uploading a Discussion certificate.
If you're selling other products besides books—such every bit classes or workshops—Amazon isn't a i-end solution. But Amazon's suggestion algorithms brand this marketplace a great source of awareness for other products you may be selling
Selling digital products on Etsy
With more than 46 one thousand thousand active users , and fifteen years dominating the market, Etsy is the get-to online service for craftspeople, artists, and vintage sellers.
It can also be an excellent place to sell digital products. For instance, a search of " sewing pattern pdf " brings upwardly over 400,000 results. Non just does Etsy arrive like shooting fish in a barrel to upload and sell craft guides, it exposes y'all to a huge market place of crafters and DIYers—some of whom are bound to fit your niche. Instead of selling someone a affiche, you lot can sell them a downloadable impress .
Etsy is more suited to digital publications whose value lies in their visuals. Amazon's Kindle has graphics support, but you won't 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 mitt, Etsy'due south features for selling audio or video items aren't robust. If those are going to be the bread and butter of your business, you're better off going a dissimilar route.
Etsy is sort of like a marketplace, that gives you the option to open your own due east-commerce storefront. If you'd like to have your own site ontop of Etsy's marketplace, Blueprint lets you pattern and launch a carve up, non-Etsy-branded website. Your Etsy shop will still exist, and automatically sync with your Blueprint site. But y'all'll have the chance to do your own branding, with your ain domain.
Selling digital products on Shopify
Shopify has rapidly become one of the about popular eastward-commerce sites in the earth, but people aren't just selling physical products on Shopify.
Their Digital Downloads plugin allows you lot to offer digital products in your shop. When someone purchases a digital production from you on Shopify, they can download the product immediately, and receive a link to download in their e-mail.
Yous can even add together online courses built on Thinkific to your Shopify shop, which means that you can sell other products alongside your course, similar a concrete copy of your book, an ebook, templates, merchandise, bonus report guides, and any else you want.
Selling through an online course marketplace – Udemy & Skillshare
Considering Udemy and Skillshare are online grade marketplaces for students looking for online courses, these platforms are a not bad way to generate awareness.
But there'south a grab…
Yous'd have to sell a lot of courses on these platforms to make a turn a profit because of their profit sharing and royalty schemes, too as limits on the price y'all can charge.
Udemy
There's no fee to host a course on Udemy, and you can publish equally many courses every bit you like. The grab is, Udemy will proceed up between 50% – 75% of your revenue in substitution 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 unabridged 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 encounter, it'south best to view these marketplaces equally a lead generation source that drives people dorsum to your own online grade platform for larger purchases and recurring revenue.
Selling with an online form and membership platform – Thinkific
(Hey— that's us! )
If you're fix to create and sell online courses, and you want to go on all of the revenue for yourself, Thinkific should be the offset place you look. Thinkific is designed for contained 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 command over how much you charge, and the design of your site.
Information technology's a keen way to take one step beyond ebooks. If you've already had some success selling your book online, Thinkific lets yous have that information and plough information technology into a rich, feature-filled online learning feel. Get started with our guide on how to transform your volume into an online course .
You tin can take a full tour of Thinkific'due south cadre features by signing upwardly for free . Since the trial has no death, yous tin can create and sell upwards to 3 courses with unlimited students on Thinkific for gratis.
Conclusion
Only past researching digital products, you lot've taken the first step. Yous know what yous're good at, so hopefully, you've got a few digital product ideas to sell.
The adjacent best matter y'all tin do is to get started!
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