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Get inspired by these profitable digital products and learn what marketplaces you can sell them on.
Get inspired by these profitable digital products and learn what marketplaces you can sell them on.
Selling digital products is a low-cost, low-hassle way 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 may have hopes of making it big, or maybe you just want a passive income stream that can grow to eventually replace your job.
Whatever your reasons are, diversifying your revenue—and finding new ways to earn from home—is a smart move. Best of all, you get a chance 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 and where you can sell them.
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Skip ahead:
- What is a digital product?
- Why sell digital products?
- The top 19 digital products you can sell online
- Selling through marketplaces vs self-hosted platforms
- Digital products to sell for different creator types
- Promoting your digital products
- Final thoughts
- Digital products FAQs
What is a digital product?
A digital product is any virtual or intangible item that you can buy and sell online.
Ebooks and webinars are part of this, yes. But it also includes paid subscriptions to your favorite creator’s social media page, community memberships, newsletters, and so much more — which we’ll cover shortly.
As long as you’re selling or buying something that doesn’t have a physical form you can hold and feel, it passes for a digital product.
Why sell digital products?
Why bother selling something that isn’t tangible? Here are a few reasons.
There’s a huge demand for digital products
By 2025, the digital product industry will be worth $74 billion, per a JP Morgan study. This translates into a large potential market for digital creators, whether you’re new or have been at it for a long time.
The truth is that many people want access to your knowledge and expertise and are willing to pay for it. All you need to do is package it into an easily accessible format that delivers value to them — and you’ll earn your share of the market.
Low barrier to entry
Creating and selling digital products requires minimal technical skills and resources, making it easy for anyone to get started. You don’t need to have a physical storefront, technical skills, or even a large team to create and sell digital products.
As long as you have access to the internet and are willing to share your knowledge, you can create a digital product from any part of the world. Plus, you’re not restricted to a physical location when it comes to sales.
Digital products can be sold globally without any geographic limitations. This means that you can reach customers from all over the world, expanding your customer base and potential revenue.
Diverse range of products
There’s more than one way to monetize your knowledge. Not a fan of writing? You can create a webinar, sell consulting packages, sell membership packages for your social accounts, templates, and so much more.
No matter what your bandwidth, skills, and interests are, you’ll find a digital product format that works for you.
It’s cheap to create
Digital products have lower overhead costs than physical ones.
You can create a digital product using your knowledge (which is free) and some free and low-cost online tools. Let’s say you want to write and sell an ebook; here’s a 3-step process that costs little or nothing:
| Steps | Tools | Process |
| 1. ChatGPT (Free) 2. Google Docs (Free) | Once you come up with an outline, you can input it into an LLM chatbot like ChatGPT to generate a first draft. Then edit and host the final copy in Google Docs. |
| 1. Carrd (Free) 2. Thinkific (Free) | Create a free ebook landing page on Card. Alternatively, use Thinkific to host, sell, and market your ebook from a single platform. |
| Social media (Free) | Promote your course for free on your social media channels. |
It’s different when you’re creating paperbacks. For one, you’ll need to pay for physical book production, which can cost thousands of dollars depending on how many you print. On top of that, you’ll also incur third-party costs like shipping fees.
It provides passive income
If you’ve already got a day job keeping you busy, the digital products you sell online can keep money coming in even if most of your week is spent at your full-time gig.
You can market and sell your digital product on auto-pilot with a sales funnel. A sales funnel is an automated sequence that captures potential customers and nurtures them until they make a purchase. It sounds complex, but it’s a series of simple steps that pretty much looks like this:
The link to download lead generation asset your social media profile ➡️Landing page with email capture ➡️ Digital product promotional emails ➡️ Landing page for product purchase and access
Once you’ve set this up, you can make money from your digital product all year round with minimal effort.
Serve a niche at scale
Sometimes, it helps to be good at something obscure. Honing in on a specific audience with specific needs is easier than competing broadly.
Lots of people want shredded abs in 30 days. A much smaller minority wants the perfect physique for water polo. That’s called serving a niche.
The challenge with selling niches locally is there often isn’t a big enough market to sell to. But even the smallest niches are big enough to serve globally with no geographic boundaries limiting who you can sell to.
Leverage the shift towards online education
With more businesses shifting online, the demand for digital products continues to grow, with the demand for online courses estimated to reach $319+ bn by 2025.
And adoption is accelerating—our report on the impact COVID-19 had on the online course industry found a 217% increase 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!
The top 19 digital products you can sell online
Now that you know what digital products are and what their benefits are, let’s look at 13 of the most popular digital products you can create and sell this year.
Ebooks
Many creators make good money from selling ebooks. For instance, Diamond Lee made almost $20,000 in less than two months when she launched her first ebook.
Thankfully you don’t need to be the world’s greatest novelist to write a book thousands will buy. Think about what you do best and how you can teach it to others in writing.
But before creating an ebook, first ensure there’s a market for it. You’ll need to do two things here:
- Ask your audience what challenges they’re facing, and pick one you can solve with your existing knowledge
- Then, ask your audience if they like to read ebooks or if they prefer another content format
In Diamond’s words, “You’ll never run out of business if you focus on serving others before serving yourself. My ebook and subsequent products sold well because they were things that people needed, and if they didn’t have it, they weren’t going to be able to get to where they wanted to go.”
Once you’ve established demand for your ebook, you can begin creating using the steps outlined in this article.
On a high level, you’ll need to come up with a topic and outline, develop the outline, proofread the content, and create a simple book cover using a tool like Canva or AI art generators.
Where to sell ebooks
You can sell your ebook on a self-hosted platform created with Thinkific. You can also sell it on ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon and Smashwords.
Online courses
Teaching online lets you turn something you already have—your expertise—into a new source of revenue. If you have the expertise and a passion for sharing it with the world, then an online course is the perfect digital product for you to sell.
People are eager to learn from home, whether they want to learn a new hobby or advance themselves professionally—you can serve them by launching a digital course.
The appeal of creating online courses is not limited to traditional classroom environments. Whether you’re a high school teacher, a corporate trainer, or someone with a unique expertise, the flexibility of online courses can cater to your needs. And you don’t need to be formally trained as an educator, either.
The online world is a vast space for learning, and you can create a course to teach people just about anything—from tai chi and drone piloting online to yoga and guitar.
Here are some other areas of expertise that we’ve seen translate into profitable online course businesses to give 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 Design
Where to sell online courses
If you don’t want to deal with the pressure of self-hosting and marketing your online course, you can sell it on a global marketplace like Udemy and Coursera. Once your course meets their standards, these platforms will add it to their library and market it to platform users on your behalf.
Alternatively, you can create and sell online courses on a custom website unique to your business using a platform like Thinkific. This gives you total control over your course material and students.
Memberships and paid communities
If your goal is to build recurring revenue by building and serving a community on an ongoing basis, then a membership is the perfect digital product for you to sell.
Whether you plan on selling a series of online courses or charge members for the ability to pick your brain, a membership site can help you build up a monthly revenue stream.
Membership sites aren’t just geared towards one specific type of business. As you can see from these membership site examples, anyone with niche expertise and a passion for sharing it with the world can create one.
With a paid community membership, students can participate in exclusive discussion groups, workshops, and Q&A sessions. Subscribing also adds to a steady, predictable stream of income for you, their teacher.
Lasater Yoga has taken a unique approach, offering standalone yoga classes for various skill levels and bridging the gap between online courses and membership sites. They provide personalized mentorship through monthly office hours calls, offering a comprehensive learning experience for a monthly fee of $19.
Where to sell memberships
Nowadays, there are tons of platforms for you to list digital products to sell. To help you cut through the digital clutter, we’ve compiled a list of the top 18 membership platforms. Some of the top membership platforms include Thinkific, Kajabi, Podia, and Mighty Networks.
Read more: How To Price Your Membership Site To Maximize Profits
Digital art
Whether you’re a classically trained graphic designer or an at-home hobbyist, digital art is one of the most profitable digital products on the market.
Digital art encompasses, quite possibly, an infinite number of possibilities, which is largely what makes it such a profitable digital product. Examples of digital art you can sell include:
- Custom illustrations
- Animation for books
- Sticker designs
- Custom wedding invitations
- Watermarks
- Digital portraits
- Logos
- Character design for games
- Digital wallpapers
- Clothing and apparel print design
- Tattoo design
- Storyboards for marketing
This list doesn’t even scratch the surface of what you can create and sell under the umbrella of “digital art.” This kind of product is perfect for creators who need an outlet for creative expression beyond the scope of their typical day-to-day work.
For instance, Iuliia Mazur is a professional graphic designer based in Ukraine. She sells popular clip art packs on the side, and by selling her designs on Creativemarket.com, she can generate passive income and leads for her freelance consulting business.
Where to sell digital art
Where you choose to sell your digital art really depends on the kind of artwork you’re selling. An artist selling custom animation packages or business logos might choose to sell on or Upwork. In contrast, an artist selling something like tattoo design or digital portraits may lean more into Instagram and Etsy, really focusing on simultaneously developing their personal brand in the process.
Other popular platforms for digital artists include Gumroad, Patreon, and Shopify.
Branding kits
A branding kit is a collection of visual assets establishing standards for a brand’s image. These kits aim to ensure consistency regardless of the platform or media in which your customer’s content is being distributed.
Most often, branding kits include logos, color palettes, and typography. However, the beauty of selling your own digital product is that you can choose what’s included in your offering. This means you could add any of the following branding elements to your kits too:
- Business cards
- Letterhead and envelope designs
- Social media templates
- Email signatures
- Icons
- Presentation templates
- Web elements
Branding kits are one of the most profitable digital products because they add significant value to your customer’s business. Entrepreneurs and small businesses must establish brand consistency as they implement sales and marketing initiatives, especially if they’re active on various platforms and online locations.
Additionally, you can scale quickly once you’ve established what you include in your kits. The bones of your kit remain the same, while the meat of your offering is highly customizable and appeals to your target client’s unique needs.
Where to sell branding kits
You can sell branding kits on almost any of the best digital product marketplaces. The biggest factor in determining which platform is right for you is understanding how much contact you want with your customers.
Low-touch marketplaces include Creative Market, Gumroad, and Etsy. High-touch options include Upwork and personal websites. And acting as a nice middle ground, a site like Fiverr can be high-touch or low-touch, depending on how personalized your offering is and how many revisions you allow.
Business and professional resources
This includes things like business planning templates, marketing strategies, excel templates, sample contracts, and more.
There’s a world of people who want a head start on business initiatives—from entrepreneurs and executives to accountants and marketers.
So why reinvent the wheel? A template can save someone the effort of designing business tools from scratch, helping them to accomplish more in less time and ultimately saving them money.
Examples of of business and professional resources you can sell include:
- Business planning templates
- Marketing strategies
- Excel templates
- Sample contracts
- Financial forecasting templates
- KPI tracking dashboards
- Performance review documentation
- Process flowcharts
- Customer feedback forms
Like any other digital product types in this article, the potential is limitless. And because these tools are often needed for and used by high level professionals, they generate more revenue, making them one of the best digital products to sell.
Where to sell business and professional resources
Etsy is one of the largest online marketplaces for digital templates. But, you can also opt for platforms like Sellfy, Shopify, Squarespace, Gumroad, or even a self-hosted website with an ecommerce plugin.
You should also consider selling templates on the social platform where your target audience hangs out. For example, if you’re selling a social media calendar template, you can market it on LinkedIn, X, and Instagram.
Craft patterns
If you decide to sell on Etsy, you’ll be marketing your digital products to a captive audience of 46 million, many of whom joined the site because they love crafting and DIY projects. There’s a huge market for patterns—for sewing, knitting, macrame, papercraft, and just about any project you can imagine.
Where to sell craft patterns and downloadable prints
Etsy is obviously the first choice. But, if for some reason you don’t want to sell on Etsy, you can explore platforms like Shopify and Makerist.
You can also set up a store on your preferred social platform — like a Facebook or Instagram store — to sell your patterns.
Teaching materials
Worldwide, almost half of all students have completed an online course of some kind. And even with the pandemic behind us, online learning is expected to keep growing as we approach 2030. And with the continuously growing demand for online education comes a demand for educational products.
Digital products in education can include things like lesson plans, worksheets, quizzes, flash cards,
Study guides, assessment tools, digital textbooks, and more.
The great thing about this category of product is that you can be as broad or as niche as you’d like. For example, you could create a lesson plan template for educators of any grade level, or you could get as specific as creating actual lesson plans for third-grade teachers in California teaching a specific math standard.
Regardless of what you sell, you’ll still need to manage your digital product library like a business.
Richard Ocleppo, the Founder and CEO of Open Institute of Technology, has this to say about selling educational products: educational resources “have solid demand and profitability. Transparency, accessibility, and affordability are key strategies I’ve employed to sell these products. I’ve seen great results promoting them on our platforms, social media (for wider reach), and through cooperation with universities to enrich their programs.
For creators, he suggests “starting by understanding the demand for your product and tailoring it to address your customers’ pain-points.”
Where to sell teaching materials
If you’re an educator in a traditional classroom space, we recommend giving Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) a try. This platform is a market place made by teachers for teachers. TPT may be the best example of a strong global community unifying on a marketplace over a shared purpose, creating and sharing high-value educational resources.
In addition to TPT, you should also consider Etsy, Shopify, Gumroad, Sellfy, or even Patreon.
Social media content
Influencity estimates that around 10 million of Instagram’s roughly 100 million U.S. users can be considered influencers in some way.
In addition to everyday people turning social media into a money-making revenue machine, businesses are, too. This means social media-focused digital products can target two broad audiences: individuals (entrepreneurs, influencers, thought leaders, etc.) and businesses.
Each audience will have nuances to their pain points, goals, and strategies. But on a foundational level, they’ll share similar needs, which include the following products (and more):
- Content calendar templates
- Social media courses
- PR and media kit templates
- Branding kits
- Video templates
- Auditing tools
Just like educational resources, digital products can be tailored to meet specific audience needs. For instance, you could create a generic content calendar template or a highly specialized one for online fitness trainers in tropical climates.
Where to sell social media content
Choosing where to sell social media digital products depends on how your product is structured. Is it something you can upload for people to order in mass? Or are you offering productized services? These include personalized social media content or custom branding kits.
Creators with scalable digital products should consider marketplaces like Etsy, Creative Market, Gumroad, and Sellfy.
For creators offering productized services, a strong social media presence is key. Platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Thumbtack, or a self-hosted website can be powerful tools when combined with a robust social media strategy.
Music and audio
The hills are alive with the sound of music. Or the internet is, at least. 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
Where to sell music and audio
You can independently publish and distribute your music on sites like Sellfy, Shutterstock, Audiojungle, Roqstar, and Epidemic Sound.
Stock photography
Stock photos get a bad rep. We’re all familiar with the cliché: a model, awkwardly posed, performing some indecipherable activity against a stark white background. Or better yet—viral sensation, Hide the Pain Harold. However, beautiful stock photography does exist.
If you have an eye for light, color, and framing, selling your photos online can offer a steady side income.
Alternatively, if you have another product to promote, you could create stock photos that promote your product, almost like product placement on TV. Annie Spratt is a great example of this.
She shares free photos on Unsplash, but she also sells photo rights online. Customers 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 stock photos
Stock photography marketplaces like Alamy and Shutterstock pay percentage commissions for photo sales.
SmugMug, on the other hand, is a paid membership platform for stock photos. Once you sign up, the platform takes care of sourcing buyers for your photos. On top of that, it will let you keep up to 85% of the profit on the sales.
Stock videography
Similarly, stock videography is another excellent opportunity for creatives looking to sell digital products online.
At first, the rise of social media created a boom in photography. However, as device storage, mobile camera technology, and social media have evolved, video has become even more popular. That’s where stock videography comes in.
Stock videography can be used to supplement proprietary footage or to create content from scratch. Creators can use stock footage in YouTube videos, advertisem*nts, reels, TikToks, and more, depending on which platforms you sell to and what rights you allow.
Where to sell stock videos
Unfortunately, stock video is not among the most profitable digital products you can sell. But if videography is where your talents lie, it could still be a meaningful source of income.
Most platforms allow you to upload stock footage and give you a percentage of the money they generate on the platform. This percentage is directly proportional to the amount of downloads your footage receives.
The best platforms for selling stock videos are:
Software and games
It’s no secret there is a large market for both software and digital games. And while both of these digital products require coding knowledge to create, they can be immensely lucrative if you have the know-how.
Software can be any solution or software that is powered by code. This includes mobile apps, web apps, desktop software, and many other options. The difference in effort between a basic mobile game, for example, vs. complex accounting software, is something to take into account when scoping out what kind of software you would like to sell. Smaller niche software offerings may be a faster route to making money.
The indie gaming market has also exploded in the last few years, with platforms like Steam allowing developers to sell directly to gamers without large studio interference. Games like Hollow Knight and Among Us both have indie roots and have exploded in popularity. While creating a digital game is undoubtedly a large time commitment, the payoffs can be major.
Source: Hollow Knight on Nintendo
Where to sell software and games
Shopify is one of the most popular platforms for selling software. It lets you upload digital copies of your software. Customers can download these after making verified payments.
On the other hand, many creators like to sell games on Ecwid. You can create a free online game store or set up an Ecwid store on your website to make sales directly.
Webinars
Webinars are a tried and true method for marketing and sales. These are a great choice for creators interested in talking on camera more than sitting down to write an ebook. They’ll help you build authority in your niche. And, you can repackage and sell or gate access to your webinar to help drive sales as a digital product or as a form of gated content.
Webinars aren’t hard to create, but they aren’t the most effective method for creators just building their brand. If you’re just starting out, build credibility by sharing your knowledge for free first. When you’ve gained a loyal audience, you can ask them to pay to learn from you in real-time.
Where to sell your webinar
One of the best places you can sell your webinar is on social platforms. After all, people who are already familiar with your knowledge and expertise are more likely to pay to learn from you than those who aren’t.
You can create a landing page webinar using Thinkific for registrations. You can also host the webinar recording on Thinkific for post-event sales.
Related: How to create a webinar
Resume templates
Believe it or not, there are a plethora of various resume types. In most cases, resume formats boil down to personal preference. For example, does the client prefer an aesthetic and highly visual resume? Or are they looking for a traditional, black-and-white, one-page resume?
Beyond the basic, resumes can vary based on the position, field, or education level. Examples of various resume types include the curriculum vitae (primarily used for graduates and academic positions), video resumes, mini-resumes, creative resumes, and federal resumes.
In the past, professionals could create a resume and only update it when they were actively on the hunt for a new job. Today, people open to work are expected to create resumes tailored for each position they apply for. This means the demand for easily customizable templates is higher than ever.
Where to sell resume templates
Nicole Ferreira, a Product Marketing Manager at Huntr (a leading resume-building tool), highlights the LinkedIn platform as the best place to market and sell profitable digital products like resume templates.
She says, “You’ll need to build an active social media presence, but finding people who are [#OpentoWork] is easier. Reaching out to them to help them with their resume is a common practice many career coaches do.” She recommends using advanced services like LinkedIn Premium to make connections on the platform even easier.
If cold outreach isn’t your preferred method for driving business, that’s okay. You can also set up accounts on platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or simply market your services on your social media accounts, including LinkedIn.
Slide decks
Nearly everyone has used a slide deck, also called PowerPoints or presentations, at some point. While they’re certainly a staple in fluorescent-lit corporate cubicles, they’re also common in non-corporate spaces.
In addition to business proposals, marketing plans, and annual and quarterly reports, slide decks can also communicate creative ideas such as portfolios, educational lectures and webinars, hobby tutorials, and more.
This versatility makes slide decks one of the best digital products to sell. Everyone uses them, and everyone’s tired of staring at the same standard templates that come with Powerpoint and Google Slides.
Where to sell slide decks
Like many other digital products on this list, where you sell the product really depends on who you’re targeting.
Are you creating educational decks for teachers? Teachers Pay Teachers is the perfect platform for you. Fiverr and Upwork will likely work best for creators marketing to business-type professionals. And then platforms like Gumroad, Creative Market, and Etsy are great for almost any use case.
Coaching and consulting sessions
Another way to monetize your knowledge is to provide paid coaching and consulting services. On average, consultants make more than $8,000 a month, making this one of the most profitable digital products you can offer.
Benefits of starting a coaching business include building your own authority in your industry, it’s scalable with online courses, and has low startup costs (often requiring your time and marginal software costs).
You can organize one-on-one coaching sessions, or group calls with a small community. These sessions can be offered as one-time purchases or as part of a package that includes multiple sessions.
You can even offer tiered coaching packages where people pay more for a one-on-one session or pair your consulting offering with paid membership communities — it’s up to you!
Where to sell your consulting and coaching packages
Use Thinkific to create a landing page or website for your coaching and consulting services. It’s free and saves the time you would have otherwise spent on building a website from scratch. It also gives you full control over your branding, messaging, pricing, and overall website aesthetics.
Alternatively, list your coaching services for free on coaching directories like Noomii and Life Coach Hub to connect with potential clients. These directories are often free to join but may charge a fee for premium features.
Learn more: How to set up an online coaching business
Social media paid subscriptions
Social platforms like X and Instagram have rolled out subscription services, providing another path for digital creators to earn from their audience. Creators like Bianca Araduta and Dan Pulzello diversify their Instagram earnings via paid subscriptions.
On Instagram, for example, verified creators can ask their audience to pay a monthly fee to access exclusive content. The same goes for X — if you’re a verified creator with 500 followers, you can receive payments from your followers via paid subscriptions.
Subscriptions are a low-hanging fruit for creators who already have an active audience on social media. If you’ve built a loyal following, then a handful or more of them are definitely willing to pay for exclusive access to your content.
Where to sell paid subscriptions
You’ll sell subscriptions on the social platform you want people to subscribe to. Say you want people to subscribe to your Instagram account; you can record a reel telling them that you now offer subscriptions plus the type of content they’ll get if they sign up.
Learn more: How to set up Instagram subscriptions
Newsletter subscriptions
If you have an active social following but don’t want to offer paid subscriptions, you can sell newsletter subscriptions instead. In other words, people pay to receive exclusive newsletters from you at regular intervals.
You can sell newsletter subscriptions as a standalone digital product or as part of a community offering. For example, you can pair community memberships or coaching services with the newsletter offering. Creators like Jujureel offer a closed paid community and newsletter.
Where to sell newsletter subscriptions
You can start subscription-based paid newsletters on Substack and Patreon. These platforms charge a percentage of your profits and handle all of the admin work for setting up your newsletter and collecting payments.
You can also host your newsletter on platforms like Beehiiv and Convertkit. Beehiiv offers a referral program that rewards subscribers for sharing your newsletter with their audience — helping you reach more people organically and hopefully convert them into subscribers.
Learn more: The best paid newsletter platforms for creators.
Selling through marketplaces vs self-hosted platforms
Marketplaces and self-hosted platforms each have their own pros and cons.
Marketplaces like Amazon, Skillshare, and Udemy often take a significant portion of your revenue, cutting into your profits. These fees are used to cover any costs associated with running the platform in addition to marketing costs that help drive users to the platform in the first place.
Get your free business plan guide and template for your digital product business!Free Digital Product Business Plan Guide and Template
On the downside, creators have far less control over what and how they sell when listing digital products on marketplaces. Essentially, you have to play by their rules in order to play on the playground. And while this isn’t inherently a bad thing, these platforms might not be the best fit for everyone. Many creators will want control over things like their own storefront’s visual images, marketing initiatives, and payment/fee structure.
Related: How to Sell Digital Products on Amazon
| Platform Basics | Useful Features |
Best for: Downloadable prints, craft designs, and how-to guides. Cost: $0.20 for a 4-month listing, plus 5% of each sale |
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Best for: eBooks, music, or art. Cost: The individual plan costs $0.99 per unit sold, and the professional plan costs $39.99 per month no matter how many units you sell. |
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Best for: Online courses Cost: You are paid a relatively small royalty for the number of minutes students watch your courses (about $200/ month for first-time producers). |
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Best for: Online courses Cost: Revenue share (50% of revenue goes to Udemy for being listed in their marketplace). |
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Best for: Custom digital products like commissioned digital art, custom branding kits, and social media content Cost: 10% freelancer fees are applied to all projects. |
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Best for: Productized services like resume templates, social media content templates, and teaching materials Cost: A 20% Fiverr fee is applied to all transactions on the platform. |
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Best for: Teaching materials, slide decks, printables, and craft patterns Cost: $29 to $59.95 per year, based on the membership level you choose. In addition, creators receive a 55%-80% payout rate with added transaction fees. |
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Read More:
- Online Course Marketplaces vs. Self-Hosted LMS
- Top 6 Best Udemy Alternatives
New platforms for selling digital products seem to pop up every day. Below, you’ll find six tried-and-true industry standards, and how they’re used.
Selling digital products on Amazon
Amazon seems like a natural first choice for getting your product out into the world. But how well does it work with digital products?
While Amazon lets you sell music and videos, the service was originally designed for physical products. For digital items, you can find more robust, easier to use solutions tailored to what you’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 you’re just testing the waters, KDP could be a great intro to online publishing. As writer Biron Clark explains, formatting your Kindle ebook is as simple as uploading a Word document.
If you’re selling other products besides books—such as classes or workshops—Amazon isn’t a one-stop solution. But Amazon’s suggestion algorithms make this marketplace a great source of awareness for other products you may be selling
Selling digital products on Etsy
With more than 46 million active users, and 15 years dominating the market, Etsy is the go-to online service for craftspeople, artists, and vintage sellers.
It can also be an excellent place to sell digital products. For example, a search for “sewing pattern pdf” brings up over 400,000 results. Not only does Etsy make it easy to upload and sell craft guides, it exposes you to a huge market of crafters and DIYers—some of whom are bound to fit your niche. Instead of selling someone a poster, you can sell them a downloadable print.
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 hand, Etsy’s 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 different route.
Etsy is sort of like a marketplace, that gives you the option to open your own e-commerce storefront. If you’d like to have your own site on top of Etsy’s marketplace, Pattern lets you design and launch a separate, non-Etsy-branded website. Your Etsy shop will still exist, and automatically sync with your Pattern site. But you’ll have the chance to do your own branding, with your own domain.
Selling digital products on Shopify
Shopify has rapidly become one of the most popular e-commerce sites in the world, but people aren’t just selling physical products on Shopify.
Their Digital Downloads plugin allows you to offer digital products in your store. When someone purchases a digital product from you on Shopify, they can download the product immediately, and receive a link to download in their email.
You can even add online courses built on Thinkific to your Shopify store, which means that you can sell other products alongside your course, like a physical copy of your book, an ebook, templates, merchandise, bonus study guides, and whatever else you want.
Selling through an Udemy and Skillshare
Because Udemy and Skillshare are online marketplaces, these platforms are a great way to generate awareness.
But there’s a catch…
Online course marketplaces like Udemy and Skillshare operate on a profit-sharing royalty model. This means, creators need to generate tons of sign ups before seeing a meaningful profit.
Udemy
There’s no fee to host a course on Udemy, and you can publish as many courses as you like. The catch is, Udemy will keep up between 50% – 75% of your revenue in exchange 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 entire 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 see, it’s best to view these marketplaces as a lead generation source that drives people back to your own online course platform for larger purchases and recurring revenue.
Selling through marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr
Fiverr is a freelance marketplace that operates like a traditional marketplace. Much like Taskrabbit or even Airbnb, potential customers visit the Fiverr platform with an idea of what productized service they need.
Once on the platform, customers begin their search by using terms like “resume template” or “slide deck creator.” The platform then shows them “gigs,” which are product/service listings that fit their search.
In some ways, Upwork is the opposite of Fiverr. Rather than freelancers listing their services, customers list their jobs. Freelancers then submit proposals for relevant listing, detailing any relevant experience, providing relevant samples, and quoting a rate for the task.
Both Upwork and Fiverr aim to connect customers with the right freelancer in different ways. Similarly, both platforms are free to join for both client and freelancer, but they have fees once a transaction is made.
Selling through Teachers Pay Teachers
Unlike Upwork and Fiverr, Teachers Pay Teachers is a platform built on digital products in their truest form. Downloadable products like coloring pages, worksheets, lesson plans, printable classroom decoration kits, labels, and more have rocketed the platform to success.
Unfortunately, Teachers Pay Teachers recently abandoned their free base subscription, which allowed creators to join and sell on the platform for free. Instead, they’ve opted for a subscription model at around $30/year for the base plan and $60 for the premium. Opting for the premium plan will allow you to keep a higher percentage of your sales, which may be worth it if you have a thriving storefront.
Selling with an online course and membership platform
If you’re ready to create and sell online courses, and you want to keep all of the revenue for yourself, Thinkific should be the first place you look. Thinkific is designed for independent 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 control over how much you charge, and the design of your site.
It’s a great way to take one step beyond ebooks. If you’ve already had some success selling your book online, Thinkific lets you take that information and turn it into a rich, feature-filled online learning experience. Get started with our guide on how to transform your book into an online course.
You can take a full tour of Thinkific’s core features by signing up now for a free trial.
Digital products to sell for different creator types
Now, we’ve covered a ton of ground so far. And every digital creator will be drawn to specific digital products based on their experience and skill set. So, here’s a list of all the digital products we’ve discussed so far (and then some) categorized by creator type.
| Coaches, consultants, and business professionals |
|
| Artists |
|
| Educators |
|
| Writers |
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| Photographers and videographers |
|
| Graphic designers |
|
Hopefully, this list has helped to stoke your creativity and motivation. Next up, let’s look at how you can begin promoting your digital products and begin driving real revenue.
Promoting your digital products
There are a number of different ways to promote your digital products, and what works the best will depend greatly on the platform you are selling on and what you’re actually selling. However, there are some principles to keep in mind across the board.
Don’t rely on your chosen platform to market your products. For example, if you decide to sell on Etsy or Amazon, you can’t expect to gain large amounts of traffic just for existing on these marketplaces. Build audiences for your products through social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. If you’re stuck for ideas, pay attention to the most popular content and emulate those posts.
Once you start to see some growth try networking with other digital product creators in your space. This will help you build connections, get tips, and open up opportunities to cross-promote. If budget allows, try out a few paid advertisem*nts on social media or on your selling platform if the platform supports ads. Test some different ideas and pay attention to what converts the most people to buy your product.
Final thoughts
With The Leap, creators can build digital products and an online storefront in no time and for zero dollars. If that’s not music to a creator’s ears, we don’t know what is. Ready to create and sell your own digital products? Try The Leap for free today!
Digital products FAQs
Find answers to common questions about buying and selling digital products.
Can I sell digital products without a website?
Yes. You don’t always need a website to sell digital products. You can host your digital products on third-party websites and marketplaces to make them available to potential customers. You can also sell your digital product exclusively on social media using in-app marketplaces and organic promotions on your page.
If you decide to create a website, you can do so easily with Thinkific. Thinkific has drag-and-drop templates that you can use to create a professional landing page for your digital product quickly.
Can I make money from selling digital products?
Yes. Digital products can provide both passive and full-time income for you. Many creators earn exclusively from selling different types of digital products like ebooks, paid subscriptions, and membership communities.
What is the best digital product to sell?
There’s no consensus on the best digital product to sell. It all depends on your skills, time, and audience. If you’re a photographer, you can sell stock photos and paintings. If you have an engaged social media following, you can sell membership subscriptions and newsletters.
How do I start making digital products?
First, you need to figure out what topic you’ll cover in your digital product. This should ideally be an area of knowledge your audience is struggling with. Next, choose the type of digital product and create content for it.
You can read our article on how to create digital products for the full scoop.
Get your free business plan guide and template for your digital product business!Free Digital Product Business Plan Guide and Template
This blog was originally published in January 2022, it’s since been updated with the most relevant information in August 2024.
