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The Best Digital Products to Sell
This post is all about the best digital products to sell!
Selling digital products can be a highly profitable way to earn money online.
In fact, it’s one of my favorite ways to make money from my blog. I sell several digital products, including ebooks, online courses, and templates that I earn thousands of dollars in passive income from every month.
Some of my best-selling digital products are:
Whether you are a blogger or an online business owner, selling digital products can be a great way to earn money online. In this blog post, I am going to share some of the most profitable digital products you can sell online.
What Is a Digital Product?
You might be wondering what exactly a digital product even is.
A digital product, as the name implies, is a product that exists only digitally. It’s not a physical product that you can buy in the store or order off Amazon.
Digital products may be delivered as a digital file that you can download and access, such as in the case of an ebook. Or the digital product may be hosted online somewhere, like in the case of an online course.
Some digital products are used to create physical products. For example, you can buy printable planners or coloring pages that are designed to be printed out and used. Some people sell digital art prints that you can print and frame.
You pay for digital products online, and no physical product is shipped to you. Instead, you will typically receive a link to access your digital product via email.
Why Should I Sell Digital Products?
Selling digital products is a great way to make money online.
There are so many reasons why you should start selling digital products.
Some are the best reasons to sell digital products are…
- None of the hassle of producing/storing/shipping physical products
- Passive income (create it once and then sell infinite copies)
- No start-up costs or risks (you can create your digital product for free and the only thing you lose is the time taken to create it)
- Can easily create products for any niche or interest
I truly believe that every blogger and online business owner should be creating digital products because it’s such a great opportunity.
No matter what niche you are in, you can make money from digital products.
How to Sell Your Digital Products
First things first, you will need your own website.
I have a guide about how to start a blog that you can follow and get your website started for only $2.95 a month with Bluehost.
Next, you will need an e-commerce platform to take payments and deliver your product. I use SendOwl. I recommend SendOwl because their platform is specifically designed for selling digital products.
All you have to do is upload the file of your digital product and you can start selling it right away. SendOwl plans start at only $9/month with no additional fees taken out from the sales you make, which is pretty great.
Sign up for a SendOwl account here. (And get a 30 day free trial!)
This is by far the easiest way to get started selling digital products.
The Best Digital Products to Sell
Here are my top picks for the best digital products to sell this year! Most of these ideas can be applied to bloggers or business owners of any niche. I have also included real-life digital product examples for each type of product.
1. Ebooks
Ebooks are one of the absolute best digital products to sell online.
If you’re a blogger or business owner in any niche, you can write an ebook. The ebooks that sell best are usually written in the form of a how-to guide and provide valuable information that solves a problem for your readers.
One example of an ebook is my own which is called Amazon Affiliate Affluence. It’s only about 50 pages long, but it’s packed with helpful and valuable information. It also took me less than a week to create and launch!
Related: How I Wrote and Launched My Ebook in 5 Days
If you are just getting into selling digital products, an ebook is the best choice to make for your first product, in my opinion. They’re easy to make and sell extremely well. (I made $10,000 in the first year of selling mine.)
To learn how to create and sell your own wildly profitable ebook, check out the online course Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp. This course is a complete roadmap to brainstorming, writing, and selling your first ebook!
2. Swipe Files
A swipe file is just a short PDF document or template that contains a proven, effective formula for how to do something. If you have an area of expertise, you can sell a swipe file containing your secrets.
Great at email marketing? You could sell a swipe file of pre-written sales funnels. Do you have a knack for getting traffic to your website? Create a swipe file of your exact traffic strategy and sell it to others.
If you have expertise in an area that people are dying to master) then you can create a swipe file and profit from your knowledge and strategies.
The great thing about putting together a swipe file is how quick and easy it is. This is another digital product idea similar to an ebook that’s good for beginners.
3. Online Courses
Another great knowledge-based digital product to sell is online courses.
Many people believe that the only way to create a successful online course is to make it about something related to blogging, marketing, or making money online. While it’s true that there are plenty of courses out there on those topics, you can be successful with an online course in literally any niche!
You can sell an online course on just about any topic as long as you are providing value and teaching something useful to your audience.
Your online course can include written lessons, pre-recorded video lessons, worksheets, or a combination of all three. You can add other bonuses (like other digital products you have created, or access to a private Facebook group for students) to add more value to your online course.
Suzi, the creator of this course, has made six figures from selling online courses. And she has helped others to create successful courses on topics including language learning, arts and craft, parenting, and more!
4. Stock Photos
Have an eye for photography? Stock photos could be the digital product for you! All you need is a nice camera and decent photo editing software.
There’s a huge market right now for styled stock photography. Everyone from bloggers to business owners to social media managers are looking for the perfect photos to post on social media or use on their website.
You can sell your photos individually or in bundles, or create a subscription-based website for your customers. An example of this is Haute Stock which offers a monthly membership for access to pretty, feminine stock photos.
Choosing a specific niche can help you get your stock photo business out there. For example, if you run a lifestyle blog, you could sell lifestyle stock photos for other bloggers to use on their blog and social media.
5. Printables
Printables are a really fun digital product to sell! Basically, they are digital files you create for your customer to print out on their own and use. Here are just a few ideas of printables you can make and sell:
- Workbooks
- Planners
- Gift tags
- Art prints
- Lesson plans
- Stickers
Related: 49 Printable Ideas to Sell and Make Money
You can use software such as Adobe Illustrator or even the free beginner-friendly program Canva to design your printables. Canva offers a drawing website tool with a variety of design tools, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced designers. It’s great for creating printables to sell.
Want to get started selling printables? Check out Printables by Number.
6. Templates
Templates are time-saving products that your customers can use to simplify a certain process, such as graphic design.
You can create and sell templates for a variety of uses: resumes, media kits, logos, and social media posts, just to name a few.
A great example of templates are these social media templates from Bluchic.
These particular templates are designed to be used with the graphic design program Canva, but you can create templates to be used with any program, such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, PowerPoint, etc.
I personally use templates to create graphics for Pinterest all the time!
7. WordPress Themes
If you are good with coding, consider selling WordPress themes! Most premium WordPress themes sell for $50 to $100 each. For best luck, you can design themes for a specific audience: for example, travel bloggers or wedding photographers.
Check out Bluchic for some inspiration. They specifically target female bloggers and entrepreneurs who want their website to have a feminine, chic look.
One thing to keep in mind with WordPress themes is that you may have to make updates to your themes, or provide troubleshooting for your customers. This can mean some extra work compared to selling other types of digital products.
Also, it obviously requires more work and technical knowledge upfront!
8. Graphic Design Elements
Are you creative and do you enjoy working with programs such as Photoshop or Illustrator? If so, selling graphic design elements might be the digital product gig for you. Graphic design elements can be anything you create including fonts, textures, brushes, illustrations, icons, and more.
For example, Angie Makes sells a variety of graphic design elements such as floral patterns, clipart, and pretty feminine fonts. These elements can be used by bloggers or graphic designers for creating blog or social media graphics.
9. Patterns
If you are crafty, then patterns might be your perfect digital product to sell.
One couple began selling patterns for doll clothing through SendOwl and eventually began earning $600,000+ per year from their patterns! They currently sell their doll clothing patterns at Pixie Faire.
Doll clothing patterns are not the only option though. For sewing and craft bloggers, you might consider selling crochet or knitting patterns for other crafty people to use in their DIY projects. The options are endless here!
Similarly, you can sell SVG cut files for Cricut machines. Chances are, if you’ve made a pattern, you can sell it so others can replicate it!
10. Membership Sites
Out of all the digital products to sell on this list, membership sites might require the most time and energy, but there’s a great potential for earning.
What exactly is a membership site? It’s a private area of a website or forum where members pay a monthly fee in order to have access. You can start a membership site for any niche: fitness, parenting, business, etc.
The reason this is the most intensive option on this list is because you will be responsible for building a community and producing new content at least monthly for your members. However, there’s a great opportunity to profit because you can earn a recurring revenue versus a one-off payment.
You can even create a paid Facebook group if you don’t want to deal with the technical aspect of setting up a membership site. Just remember that the key to a successful membership group is providing fresh, valuable content or training!
11. Workshops
Selling a video workshop is a great passive income digital product idea.
You can record a video teaching your audience how to do something (typically accompanied by a slide presentation) and then sell the recorded workshop.
With a workshop, you can launch it live, but then continue to sell the recorded session afterwards for a consistent source of passive income.
12. Newsletter
Starting a paid email newsletter is similar to a membership site, except it’s simpler and less time-intensive because you’re just sending an email!
You can use an email platform like ConvertKit to sell subscriptions to your paid newsletter and deliver the newsletters. You can offer exclusive content on either a weekly or monthly basis to your subscribers.
Paid newsletters are another form of recurring revenue, since members pay for access each month through a subscription instead of a one-off payment.
The Best Digital Product to Sell
I personally recommend starting with an ebook as your first product. That’s what I did, and it was a great way to get into product creation! If you want to learn the exact steps you need to take to create and sell your first ebook, make sure to enroll in the Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp online course.
Once you have created your first digital product, I highly recommend selling it through SendOwl on your blog or website!
Even if you aren’t tech-savvy at all, SendOwl is a breeze to use. When I started selling my ebook, it only took me a few minutes to get everything set up. I made my first sale that same day! My favorite thing about SendOwl is that it’s affordable (only $9/month) and they don’t take any fees from you.
You can get a free 30 trial of SendOwl to test it out first!
Creating digital products does not have to be hard, and when done correctly it can be extremely profitable. Good luck and happy selling!
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