Summary: Digital products are virtual or intangible products that you can sell in digital format, such as e-books, printables, short courses, music, software, virtual goods for video games, and digital art. Now that a lot more people have ventured into this space, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and competition. Our insider tricks will help you carve out your share of this $74 billion pie if you’re ready to implement the practical tips in this detailed starter guide.
Remember when people sold NFTs for millions? Those were some of the best digital products to ever sell, and they made many creators very rich. Although the NFT bubble went bust, the digital products market is stronger than ever.
Digital products are easy to create, infinitely reproducible, and don’t have the same challenges as physical products. There’s no warehousing and no shipping to worry about.
Best of all, selling digital products gives you complete independence—you can literally make money while you sleep.
If there’s something you love doing and have mastered, you’re 80% ready to start earning by selling digital products online. This three-part guide will help you through the other 20%.
Expert tip: Unfortunately, most beginners fail at selling digital products because they don’t know how to beat the brutal competition. Our advice is, don’t be generic. Create niche products for highly targeted demographics and concentrate on building website traffic and social media followers.
9 Best Digital Product Types to Sell + Unique Selling Tips
“If it’s so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?”
Spoiler alert, lots of people know that selling digital products is a virtual goldmine. Most markets are already saturated with sellers on every platform. For example, you’re unlikely to make much money selling sweatshirt designs unless you have truly unique ideas.
But new El Dorados are popping up everywhere. The key is to find these new opportunities and market gaps where you can make an impact.
Even saturated categories like e-books can make you a decent income if you know what to look for. Let’s explore the secrets to 11 popular digital product categories to help you maximize your income.
1. Create niche e-learning content (best digital products to sell)
Online learning is probably the fastest-growing and most profitable digital product segment. Whether it’s short courses, PDFs, self-help guides, presentations, video walk-throughs, or podcasts, they’re an easy way to make money online.
Do people consider you an expert on any subject? Start by distilling that knowledge into a format you can sell.
You don’t need to be the greatest writer or videographer. Focus on generating simple and actionable bite-sized content in PDF, video, PowerPoint, or whatever format works best for you
The key is to understand your target audience and their needs, challenges, and problems. Help them solve those problems, and you’ve got a customer base.
The market for online learning is already well-established and robust. Your biggest problem will be getting in front of the right audience and cutting through the competition.
Firstly, we recommend opening a website where you can secure your content from piracy. You have more tools at your disposal, such as download protection, file stamping, remote locking, and alerts.
Secondly, promote your course on online communities, forums, and social media. Leverage content marketing to increase credibility and visibility on search engines. We have a separate guide to help you grow your e-commerce business.
Whether you’re selling repair manuals, DIY hacks, skincare & beauty guides, meal prep plans, business guides, tourist guides, recipes, cover letters, creative briefs, case studies, industry reports, or even academic research, the market is ripe.
You could even sell content about your favorite hobby, such as fly fishing or crocheting. Think about it: even if you sell your content for a few dollars each and have an audience of 50,000, you could earn thousands.
If you don’t want to build a website, use third-party marketplaces like Gumroad or Sellfy. Make sure you understand their terms, especially their commissions structure. For instance, did you know that Gumroad takes a 10% cut for every sale plus 3.5% for transaction fees?
Expert Tip: If you don’t have any authoritative content to sell, consider creating low content or wordless books instead. This is a popular niche that’s still got lots of potential for unique ideas. Examples include kid’s books, picture books, puzzles, board books, and activity books. Here’s one idea: generate Sudoku puzzles using an AI tool and sell them on Amazon, but customize them for kids, teens, moms, or seniors. It’s a low-effort and rewarding way to make money quickly.
2. Sell Etsy digital products and printables
Printables are digital designs and artwork that people can download and print on stuff at home (print on demand). What makes them different from other designs is their high resolution in terms of dots per inch (DPI). This allows them to be printed on paper, fabric, mugs, wallpapers, cardstock, and other things.
There are thousands of options when it comes to Etsy products. Popular ones include illustrations, daily planners, diaries, gift tags, checklists, journal pages, organizers, cupcake toppers, calendars, games, coloring books, activity books, yoga guides, and posters.
Of course, the top marketplace for printables is Etsy. Millions of people sell designs, textures and craft patterns on Etsy for every imaginable application. Some of the most popular print-on-demand products on Etsy include:
- Crotchet, sewing, and knitting patterns for DIY projects
- Customizable templates, such as e-book designs, book covers, labels, engravings, bracelets, name plates, keychains, and sweatshirt designs
- Planners for meals, tasks, daily activities, finance, projects, workouts, and more
- Wallart such as inspiration quotes, wallpapers, nursery prints, paintings, glass prints, and more
- Self-help material, such as meditation and yoga guides, budgets, weight loss trackers
- Printables for occasions and holidays, such as holidays, birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and baby showers
- Stationery and scrapbooks
There are many other platforms where you can sell digital art and products, including eBay, Folky, Aftcra, and Amazon Handmade. No matter the platform, the formula for success remains the same.
The biggest headache for sellers is getting enough people to see your listings. Each site has unique SEO strategies that favor detailed, keyword-rich listings and optimized images.
The easiest way to get your listings seen is to copy from the best-sellers in your niche. Add or change a few descriptive words to make your listing unique but match specifications, while providing some customization options.
Don’t forget to upload many different listings using as many of the popular keywords as possible. Some people create over 100 listings to try and monopolize keywords, but you don’t need to do anything that crazy.
Research what works for each platform and go all-out until you get a good number of viewings. Once your items start to sell, the algorithm will make it easier to rank higher.
Expert Tip: The market for printables is oversaturated, but you can always introduce a fresh twist to common item designs. For example, simple products like laptop sleeves may not generate much interest, but they might if sold as “office gifts” or “office accessory.” Get creative with product customization and different use cases to make your products more attractive.
3. Get creative with graphic design templates
Templates used to be big business when pretty Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoints were all the rage. Today, a lot of that stuff is either unnecessary or available for free, but new opportunities are emerging.
Find new opportunities in selling graphic design templates for platforms like Notion, Canva, and VistaCreate. Graphic designers are always looking for fresh designs to save time.
In return, you can earn a few dollars for every purchase, which add up if you have many different designs on sale.
You can make templates for anything, including restaurant menus, product packaging, business cards, logos, posters, marketing strategies, business plans, and resumes.
Instagram templates are another popular category. Influencers crave fresh and captivating Instagram feed templates because they enable consistent and frequent posting. It’s nice having not to create content from scratch for every post.
You can sell templates on Canva, Etsy, FilterGrade, Creative Market, Gumroad, Creative Market, Sellfy, and many other places. The same goes for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop presets.
If you’re a successful creator, having a website to sell your designs opens up far more exciting opportunities. You can brand your creations, create a community of fans, and monetize in other ways.
Expert Tip: The market for templates and presets is no longer as lucrative, especially since built-in templates (Canva) and presets (Lightroom) present serious competition. Focus on creating professional quality templates for video editors, UX designers, social media managers, and digital marketers who always appreciate a chance to increase consistency and save time. Also explore alternative platforms like Filmora, Figma, Lightworks, and Procreate.
4. Diversify your digital art income
Global digital art sales reached 10.8 billion USD in 2022, making it a very lucrative pie if you can get your hands on it.
Graphic artists generally sell digital artworks on platforms like Saatchi, Society6, and RedBubble.
Sound art is also streaming big bucks, especially in niche genres such as non-vocal music for meditation and yoga, music for sleeping or studying, ASMR sounds, music for anxiety or ADHD, and ambiance sounds. These kinds of music are easy to produce and monetize on platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Patreon.
If you’re into original digital art, you can make and sell rap beats on Traktrain and drum beats on Airbit or SoundCloud.
You can also put your art expertise to work creating social media and augmented reality (AR) filters, selling designs on Spoonflower, and doing illustrations for companies and publishers.
Other ways you can make money online as an artist include:
- Create art process videos and post them on Instagram and YouTube. Use these platforms to drive more traffic and sales on your website
- Join art affiliate programs, such as those run by Saatchi, Blick Art Materials, Creative Bug, Fine Art America, Art to Frames, Framed Art, Society 6, Arteza, and Sotheby’s
- Join online art collectives and galleries to display your work and attract commissions
- Moonlight as a freelance artist on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr
- Create stock and microstock photos
- Create themes for WordPress, Shopify, and WooCommerce website builders
- Create book covers, infographics, and illustrations for authors
- Create designs for Cricut machines
- Build a social media following on platforms like Instagram, where you can get art commissions and monetize in other ways
- Leverage your community of fans to sell art supplies, software subscriptions, etc., to earn referral revenue
- Sell custom branded merchandise
The trick to success as a digital artist is to try many different revenue streams. No single platform will earn you a decent living unless you’re the lucky 1%, but a little money here and there adds up quickly.
5. Make money with modern stock videos and photos
The same tricks for success in selling digital art apply to videos and photography. Explore different platforms and monetization options and experiment with various types of content, such as:
- Stock images and videos
- Drone photos and videos
- Event photos and videos
- Backgrounds
- Portraits
- Astronomy and science photos
- Video product reviews, including game and software reviews
- Producing and streaming gameplay footage
You can also produce and sell special effects templates and presets using Adobe AfterEffects or Cavalry Templates. They require serious skills and creativity, but the competition is comparably lower.
Sell AfterEffects and creative motion graphics on marketplaces like Envato, FilterGrade, Pond5, Dribbble, and Creative Market.
No matter what anyone says, stock photos and video are still profitable in 2024 if you’re smart about it. You can make money if your photo or video footage focuses on non-generic and modern subjects.
In most cases, that means any subject that has commercial, rare, or weird value. As a former Redditor testified,
“My best selling still life images are of a can of sardines, a caulking gun, a rifle round, a rotten strawberry, and a series I did with a fake human brain.”
Anonymous Redditor
Expert tip: If you want to make it in stock photography, be willing to shoot anything and everything. You can’t always tell what will sell, so a little eccentricity helps. Also, explore new platforms like Zenfolio, Shutterfly, Zazzle, Photocrati, and SmugMug. Video is more profitable than photos, but the demand isn’t as high.
6. Sell professional brand guides and assets
Brands are always looking to differentiate themselves, and brand kits (guides) help them create a unique and consistent brand image.
These kits contain brand assets such as fonts, design templates, stationery, clip art, swipe files, patterns, brushes, backgrounds, and more.
Brand style guides are usually created on a per-order basis, but some startups appreciate off-the-shelf starter kits because they help them save time. Starter kits may include typography, color palettes, illustrated elements, brand patterns, social media templates, and email newsletter templates.
If you’re a skilled designer, you can make some money creating typefaces and selling them on marketplaces like Creative Market, Creative Fabrica, Envato Elements, LinoType, or DesignBundles.
For professional typographers looking to make a decent income, consider joining a more respected foundry like Lost Type of MyFonts.
Much more work goes into creating complete and professional typefaces, but they sell for more money. Thanks to the ongoing demand for modern fonts, you can easily make a few hundred dollars a month from fonts.
Don’t just stop at fonts, though. Brand identity guides can also be a good source of money if you’re good at it.
Brand ID guides help companies remain consistent across different platforms, especially on printed material, websites and social media.
You can even create and sell brand proposals, media kits, startup pitch decks, marketing strategy decks, and creative portfolios. The sky’s the limit here, especially if you have expertise in brand identity design.
7. Create and trade virtual goods
Virtual goods are intangible assets that can be traded in virtual economies, such as those found in video games and the metaverse.
Gamers love to buy and sell virtual objects like game currency, avatars, avatar customizations, weapons, characters, tokens, and many more.
Some virtual economies are vast, with people trading everything from land and houses to entire cities and planets. The biggest virtual economies today are found in games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, Runescape, and EVE Online.
The biggest opportunities in 2024 for virtual goods include:
- Developing, trading, and renting virtual land
- Trading metaverse coins and cryptocurrency
- Developing and trading NFTs, art, and other collectible items
- Creating immersive games and experiences in the metaverse, such as VR chess, soccer, Magic: The Gathering, and Settlers of Catan
- Holding events or workshops and charging attendance fees
- Creating, selling, and trading skins, avatars, emotes, and other in-game items on Tradeit, Buff163, CSFloat, Skinport, and other marketplaces
- HODLing and trading stuff on games like Entropia Universe, Second Life, and Diablo III
Be warned: although virtual goods can be profitable, they’re just as likely to lose money. You need to be experienced and willing to put in a lot of work in a risky virtual world. This is one of the digital product categories that’s reserved for very knowledgeable and skilled players.
Expert tip: Today there are far fewer opportunities to earn from playing videos than were there a decade ago. Consider making money from gaming parallels, e.g., game writing, game testing and reviews, gaming journalism, flipping collectibles and gaming equipment, building gaming rigs, and coaching other players.
8. Build themes, web apps, and software
If you have insane software or web development skills, there’s an even more lucrative online industry for you. Creating themes, plugins, and templates for platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, and Shopify can be a real moneymaker.
You can also create and sell web tools and software products on marketplaces like Gumroad and CodeCanyon. However, these platforms charge 15–55% commission on sales, which is bad for anyone looking for long-term income.
The practical approach is almost always to create a website for your product. It’s incredibly cheap to host a starter website—you can do it for under 20 CAD a year inclusive of hosting and domain fees.
If you go this route, your biggest problem will be finding a market for your products. You can do that easily by marketing on social media and various online communities.
Plus, selling on your own gives you complete freedom on branding, payment handling, customer service, IP rights, and more. Truehost offers comprehensive VPS hosting solutions for developers, including VPS/dedicated servers and affordable SSL certificates.
9. Leverage engineering models and SaaS products
If you have good engineering skills in any discipline, you can probably make some good money on the side.
We aren’t talking about moonlighting as a consultant, although that’s a common option. Instead, you can create and sell digital products like 3D models for game designers, architects, engineers, real estate agents, digital artists, advertisers, and film directors.
If you’re a software engineer, the opportunities are even more interesting. You can probably build a SaaS or microSaaS tool that someone needs and make good money through licensing and subscriptions.
Once built, it should only take minimal maintenance to update and upgrade your product.
Whether you’re a mechanical engineer or software engineer, find the right idea for your product and you’ll be ready to earn passive income. More than that, create a product that addresses a real problem for customers in a way that no one else has.
Expert Tip: Engineers have a key advantage because they can develop and sell consumer products from scratch. You can use the latest opportunities in laser engraving, CNC cutting, mobile applications, electronic circuits, custom devices, or prototyping to create and modify products. Pick something you enjoy doing and find a way to make money out of it; for instance, someone makes good money selling playhouse plans.
Differentiate Your Brand With a Website
Having worked with online sellers for years, the one thing we’ve consistently noticed is how difficult it is to differentiate a product or brand from everyone else.
But then it’s the most random things that help products get noticed online. That weird way you talk, how you write, how you take photos and videos, or pattern you love could be the key to making money online.
Unfortunately, most online marketplaces don’t allow for that kind of individuality. Creating your own website to sell digital products helps you retain and express your own authentic personality. That’s how you connect with people online and create loyal fans and customers.
Creating and hosting your website takes patience commitment at first, but it will all be worth it in a few months when your sales start growing. Get started today with our Canada website hosting services and be on your way to a truly passive income.