With the rise of eCommerce and of the increasing number of people preferring to buy digital products in the online market, many entrepreneurs have decided to set up businesses selling such products. It can be a highly profitable way to earn money online. They are quick to create, simple to deliver, and something anyone with a few basic skills can get it up for sale with some affordable tech and tools. Thought, it won’t be easy and it takes real work to set up digital products. But, rest assured that if you have a good digital products to sell online, there’s a market out there for you, no matter how small it may be.
What are Digital Products?
A digital product is an intangible asset or piece of media that can be sold and distributed repeatedly online without the need to replenish inventory. These products often come in the form of downloadable or streamable files, such as MP3s, PDFs, videos, plug-ins, and templates.
All types of digital products have their own unique advantages. Some are easy to produce while others require tons of time and effort. Some can remain marketable and valuable for a long time while others depreciate quickly. Some are one-and-done while others require maintenance and updates, and a lot of other things we can take into consideration upon choosing which digital products to sell.
In our previous article, we have covered the Pros and Cons of selling digital products. Now, if you’ve decided to give digital product sales a go, but can’t think of a great niche product that’s perfect for you, then this list of digital products to sell is the only thing you need.
Why should you sell Digital Products?
Due to their demand, popularity and ease of distribution, many professionals and entrepreneurs build entire businesses around these intangible goods or to launch digital product lines.
What makes them especially appealing, however, is that digital products can be created once and sold repeatedly to different customers without having to replenish your inventory. Also, you will never have to worry about logistics that most physical product sellers has to deal with.
You all have the control of what type of digital product to sell. It mainly depends upon your own field of expertise, knowledge and niche. Don’t forget to consider also your market needs and wants and some other factors that will put your Digital Downloads Store on top.
The best Digital Products to sell online
EBooks
The emergence of devices like eReaders and smartphones have skyrocketed the demand for ebooks. That is why self-publishing has become a modern-day reality, letting anyone with interesting and knowledgeable idea to offer the world the opportunity to post it online and make money from it. Put words into documents, be it an eBook or a PDF, and turn words into value.
If you are good at writing, there is huge potential for you to be creating and selling eBooks. This continue to be the most popular digital products being sold online.
EBooks are very simple and flexible to create and market. If you are just getting into selling digital products, this is the best choice to make for your first product. They’re easy to make and sell extremely well.
WordPress Themes and Plugins
Digital products can also come in the form of intangible tools that equip professionals to do tasks that either fall outside of their skillset or take up a lot of time. That is why Software Developers are taking advantage of the current fast growing eCommerce industry as people use more and more open source platforms such as WordPress.
If you are good with coding, consider selling WordPress themes! Most premium WordPress themes sell for $50 to $100 each. Today, different plugins, themes, code snippets and extensions for WordPress are available online which can enhance the functionalities of various WordPress websites. If you possess the skills and knowledge in developing WordPress plugins or codes, this is definitely the best digital product for you.
Software
This is yet another major industry that has proven to be an excellent revenue generator. The software industry is huge and is continuously growing, especially with many businesses selling their software as a service (SaaS).
Any person’s ability to write code of any kind can result in new, useful products. Whether it be desktop software, web-based applications, website templates, mobile apps, video games, or anything else powered by code – you can literally turn it into cash. The possibilities are endless, and an established market likely exists.
How to sell digital products such as Software? The software can either be sold online by either providing access to an online website service or by downloading the software upon purchase. In addition to selling software, related services can be offered as well.
Documents and Templates
Documents and templates are another popular categories to sell online. Here the main objective is to provide standard templates which allow customers to significantly save time and money while allowing a more professional work output. Examples include e.g. report templates, resume templates, application letter templates, presentation templates, spreadsheet templates or templates related to any other software.
There are documents which are password protected, may include large files, with variations on the same files, can be well suited for recurring models like periodically revised or updated reports, and documents shared freely as lead magnets.
Design templates are the perfect digital product for anyone who is creative, visual and maybe even already freelancing as a designer! There are a lot of document types that can be created and be sold online, and which may depend on your market needs.
Audio Files
Audio files are a powerful medium for communicating messages, and there are many different types of audio digital products – which are very popular items to be sold online. The audio products industry is a billion-dollar industry. Digital streaming has crossed a major milestone with more than 100 million paid subscribers globally. Every customer streaming your podcast or listening to your music can contribute to your passive income.
Digital audio products can be in the form of recorded lectures, podcasts, audiobooks, music tracks, sound effects, and many more. Songwriters can also simply sell their songs on their own web shops in case they are not interested to use any of the large platforms where the terms are mainly dictated by Spotify and others. There also exist markets for selling audio tracks only as in today’s online marketing world, many people required background music for their videos, etc.
Design, Graphics and Digital Arts
Selling design, graphics and digital arts are perfect for people that are both creative and passionate with art and design. It encompasses a lot of product types such as design templates, business logos, drawings, sketches, photos, arts but also animated or edited pictures – you can actually create a wide variety of unique and valuable products.
The key to being successful here depends mainly on your creativity and design skills. Good digital designs and artworks are surely worth selling online!
Online Courses and Videos
One other interesting product category to sell online are online courses and videos. E-Learning is an industry rich in innovation, and is continuously growing – exploring new ways to make different kinds of contents available to learners. Videos sold on e-commerce shops are mostly educational and the reason why people are buying them is that they want to acquire a new skill.
If you consider yourself an expert on a particular topic, creating a video explaining a topic in detail can become a great way to package that knowledge and sell it to others looking to learn via an online video course.
Stock Photos
If you have that photography skills as a hobby but wanted to earn some money out of it, this is the perfect digital product for you. All you need is a nice camera and decent photo editing software.
The widespread use of images for web design and blog publication means there will be continued demand for high-quality, premium photos. With excellent quality images, it’s possible to do very well selling your photos individually or in bundles, or create a subscription-based website for your customers.
Professional Services
Another category of digital products to sell online are actually services sold as single projects or gigs (see the Gig Economy). Such services which are likely being offered online for sale are virtual assistance, creative writing, proofreading, legal, marketing, different kinds of consulting services, translations and many more. Offering such services will mainly depend on your focus set of skills and market knowledge in order to address an unmet demand by the market to help other people.
These are just some of the examples of digital product you can sell online. For sure there are even more digital product types which you can consider depending on your niche and focus.
Top Tools for selling Digital Products
For merchants and creators of digital goods, there are a variety of ecommerce platforms focused on selling downloads directly to consumers. With these tools, merchants can control download and pricing structure, branding, and where their products are sold.
Here is a list of platforms to sell digital downloads.
Conclusion: What will you start selling?
It’s fair to say that the digital products industry is growing at an alarming rate. Given how profitable it is, budding entrepreneurs, professionals, and artists are flocking to it. But before all of it, you need first to come up and create the perfect digital product which suits your expertise and skills well.
Starting to sell products online may be daunting, but deciding on the product is the hardest part – it just gets easier from here. All it takes it choosing a product from this list, putting together the digital assets, and then launching your store. With a little ingenuity and upfront investment of time, you can serve up irresistible value that can more than pay for itself over time. Now, you have an idea what digital products to sell online.
