What Are Digital Products? Sell These 10 Products Online (2024)

10 best digital products to sell online

1. Online courses
2. Ebooks
3. Printable digital products
4. Digital templates and tools
5. Licensed digital content
6. extra charge content libraries
7. Product photography
8. Music, art, and entertainment
9. Digital services
10. Digital memberships

1. Online courses

Online courses are the best way to now in-depth content in a monetized digital format. You can make a showcase, record a video walk-through, or develop a course featuring the voices of subject-matter experts.

Once created, your course can be taken by thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of students. You only require to make updates when your content becomes outdated or loses relevancy.

When ideating your course, commence by visualizing learner outcomes: what do you desire your learner to recognize or be able to do when they have completed your content?

Online courses can include quizzes, knowledge checks, and other interactive activities to shatter-up inactive learning content and boost engagement.

2. Ebooks

If you are the source of knowledge for an online course, you could also package your expertise as an ebook. How to Cake It, for example, sells digital cookbooks alongside their courses for straightforward scrolling and bookmarking while you bake.

Ebooks are a familiar digital format across audiences and can be accessed via an ereader, computer, or mobile device. You can write an ebook on anything—but before you commit to a topic, research the availability of free content on your subject.

If there’s already an abundance of blog posts or YouTube tutorials that your readers can access for free, you’ll require to differentiate your content with a distinctive selling proposition (USP).

Your ebook’s USP could be your reputation as an specialist or successful person within your niche. Alternatively, your book could commitment to delve deeper and further into your topic than existing free online content. Or, position your book as the essential resource for readers hoping to advancement within your discipline. 

Also, bear in mind that most ebooks are priced competitively and may include free downloadable sections in the hopes of selling a high number of copies.

Ready to get started? construct, run, and develop your ebook business with free training, intuitive tools, and dedicated back.

3. Printable digital products

This category of digital products spans a wide range of print-at-home possibilities, from personalized wall art, planners, and greeting cards to specialized models for 3D printers or craft activities. Customers can download and print your designs for personal use or as part of their own craft.

For a younger spectators, printable coloring pages and worksheets are an in-demand mix of fun and learning. For example, digital download brand Caravan sells coloring posters as downloadable files or shipped prints.

4. Digital templates and tools

Digital products also arrive in the form of tools, equipping professionals to do tasks more quickly or competently. You can sell digital solutions to ordinary pain points within a role or ordinary online job, such as video editing.

Tools can be standalone apps or items that merge with other digital software. For example, RetroSupply Co sells brushes, textures, and templates for designers to use in popular programs such as Procreate and Photoshop. (Note how they also propose online courses and ebooks.)

Other digital tools and template products to sell online include:

• Digital marketing schedule templates for entrepreneurs
• Resume templates for job-seekers
• Mobile apps for businesses
• Graphic design templates for brochures, flyers, posters, etc.
• Adobe Photoshop filters and plugins for media editors
• Icons, fonts, or UX Kits for web designers

5. Licensed digital content

From ownership photos to video footage, music, and sound effects, there’s a global ecosystem of licensable digital assets uploaded by creatives for other creatives to use in their work.

Licensing your content for use by individuals and businesses is a way to generate inactive turnover from your creations. Invest your labor in creating some top-standard video transitions or background music, then receive turnover from their use, for as long as they remain popular.

You can sell licenses from your own store, similar to how EditStock sells licenses for students. Or you can sell through online marketplaces, such as these ownership photo sites.

When brainstorming property ideas, work backward from the needs of your target spectators. commence by thinking about what benevolent of content is in demand—and where existing creators are not fulfilling economy needs.

Be sure to protect your digital products with watermarks and other safety measures, especially if you’re selling photos online.

6. extra charge content libraries

If you’ve had achievement selling an online course or ebook, or from licensing content, one way to evolve your offering is to bundle your creations. You can provide packed access to your entire catalog of digital products for a monthly or yearly subscription—or a one-period fee.

Snowboard Addiction, for example, is a monetized goal for all things snowboarding. Customers can shop for physical snowboarding gear as well as download tutorials and sign up for live online courses.

One advantage of a subscription-based operating schedule is that it generates a motivated, energetic throng. Your subscribers are your best prospects for any recent content you make, and may be a great resource to consult when considering your next shift.

Since your library will only be accessible to paying subscribers, you could also consider hosting exclusive content, such as livestreams and AMA sessions.

You can sell digital product subscriptions with Shopify by using a subscription billing app.

7. Product photography

If you’re a photographer, selling your services online can be a lucrative business. Thanks to the rise of ecommerce, professional product photos have never been in higher demand.

The best product photographers can identify the features of an item that shoppers are most interested in and use their photos to highlight those aspects. Other tips for taking high-standard product photos include investing in a excellent tripod and learning how to construct the correct lighting surroundings.

Like other digital products in this list, you can sell product photos via your own website, with an agency, through a marketplace, or all three (unless you sign an exclusivity agreement). When selling your services, consider offering different packages based on number of photos, types of products, or specific styles and setups.

8. Music, art, and entertainment

Digital product ideas don’t have to be purely functional. If you’re a musician, artist, or content creator, chances are you’ve explored these or similar ways to monetize your talents online:

• Crowdfunding platforms such as Patreon allow fans to back creators in profitability for exclusive content.
• For artists, online galleries like Saatchi Art are a excellent place to discover buyers for your work.
• To construct your following, upload or stream content on social media in profitability for a distribute of ad turnover, sponsorship deals, and spectators tips.

Beyond artistic and entertaining content, there’s a whole globe of merchandise and branded digital products. If people enjoy a particular podcast or album, for example, they might be interested in items carrying designs that reference the art.

You can use print on demand companies to make branded merch and sell it on a Shopify store, with no require to pay for manufacturing until you make a sale.

Often, this form of digital product selling works best with niche target markets. For example, Materia Store sells digital sheet music for popular video game soundtracks.

9. Digital services

Services pair well with digital products. A designer can propose a logo-creation service alongside downloadable templates. A personal trainer might propose live personal training sessions to their workout schedule subscribers. Likewise, you can position services—digital or in real life—as add-ons to your online products.

For example, you might sell consultations along with a personalized update or Excel spreadsheet. Or, you could propose a free downloadable product to generate leads for your email marketing list, a tactic that many online businesses employ.

If there are tasks you commonly complete as part of your service business, you can consider separating and productizing them to make additional turnover streams.

10. Digital memberships

Digital memberships are golden tickets to an exclusive throng centered around your brand or content. Joining your digital club could bestow members with access to extra charge content, the chance to purchase limited-edition merchandise, or tickets to events.

Other digital members clubs grant access to networking benefits. Nomad List, for example, is a global network for digital nomads, offering memberships that connect users with other nomads, as well as providing city data and trip planning features.

As the pattern for token-gated projects has shown, however, digital communities needn’t be centered around a tangible item or service. Membership to an open-ended collective can be valuable in itself. Digital projects such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club use blockchain technology to provide proof of membership and grant access to perks without a central raison d’etre.

When crafting your digital membership encounter, focus on creating a sense of exclusivity. The objective is to provide continuous worth for members—and to make prospective clients feel like they’re missing out.

How to make and sell digital products

1. discover or make a digital product

discover a digital product to sell. You can make your own digital products or become an affiliate associate for an existing creator. Popular digital products include:

• Entertainment content
• Music
• Fonts
• Design assets
• Photoshop presets
• Templates
• Software and plug-ins
• E-learning courses
• And other online services

Product brainstorming

When generating ideas for your digital products, don’t be too critical—the key to brainstorming is to avoid overthinking. If you’re looking for ideas of downloadable products to sell online, here are some questions to inquire yourself:

• Can you instruct customers how to use your products? For example, if you sell knitting products, you could propose appointments to instruct advanced knitting techniques.
• Are there things you can assist your customers with related to your overall industry? If you sell surfboards, you could make a workout program to assist your customers remain in surf shape at home.
• What are the values you’ve built your business on, and what are topics related to them? For example, if you sell sustainable apparel, you could make a course teaching your customers how to live a more sustainable life. 
• In what ways could you bring your throng of customers together? If you sell kitchen supplies, you could run a virtual guided wine-tasting occurrence.
• What are you excellent at? If you’re really great at product photography, you could instruct other people how to get better at product photography too.

💡 discover more: Finding Your Niche: 8 Niche economy Examples to Inspire You.

2. Product validation

Validate your concept before committing too much period to it. The last thing you desire to do is invest a lot of period or money in a recent assignment without knowing it has a excellent chance to be successful.

Here are some ways to validate your concept as you figure out how to sell digital products: 

• Keyword research. Use a keyword research tool to view how many people are searching for your topics. This will provide you an concept of the chance size of each one.
• Google Trends. Search your topics on Google Trends. Look for topics that are growing in profit. This means the chance size will keep growing.
• Facebook groups. There are Facebook groups dedicated to every niche and spectators imaginable, making them a great place to discover what your potential customers worry about. 
• Industry forums. Forums dedicated to hobbies and communities in your industry can assist you discover more about what people desire and require in your broader industry.
• Product reviews. Read both the reviews for your products and competitors’ products to get ideas. These could arrive from the reviews on product pages as well as standalone reviews on blogs and other websites.
• commence tiny and iterate. Sometimes, the easiest way to validate an concept is to experiment with a smaller version of the concept with room for growth. The objective is to get something out into the globe as soon as feasible so you can put your concept to the test and enhance it from there. 

No matter what industry you’re in, you have distinctive strengths and knowledge that would be valuable to your customers and selling digital products. 

💡 discover more: The 16-Step navigator to Evaluating the Viability of Any Product concept.

3. make an online store

Once you validate a digital product concept, you’ll desire to get an ecommerce platform to sell on.

Make a website to sell your digital products and get up and running in a few hours. Pick from a catalog of website templates, populate with your logo, copy, and images, and you’re ready to get selling.

Shopify is the easiest and most reputable way to make an ecommerce store for online digital products. You don’t require any tech skills or a large budgetary schedule, and you can choose from more than 100 templates with built-in features to get set up quickly.

There are also over 4,000 free Shopify apps you can use for managing your store and selling more digital products online. Apps make the delivery of digital products easier than ever. Browse the App Store to discover apps that plug into your store and do everything from hosting course content to delivering PDF purchases.

4. economy your digital products

With a digital product and an online store sorted, it’s period to discover your customers. If you’re selling fonts or design templates, construct an spectators of designers and creators on the social platforms they use most. Also consider influencer marketing, social ads, or navigator magnets.

8 apps for selling digital products on Shopify

1. EDP ‑ straightforward Digital Products. EDP is a popular app for selling downloadable files and license keys from your online store
2. Filemonk. Filemonk is designed to make it as straightforward as feasible for Shopify merchants to brand and sell digital products.
3. SendOwl. For more complicated digital product businesses, SendOwl comes with a variety of automation features.
4. Courses. This Shopify app lets you make lessons, tutorials, webinars, and manuals and sell them online. 
5. Single. If you’re a musician selling music, Single bridges the gap between physical and digital music sales.
6. FetchApp. FetchApp is another digital download delivery app with a free schedule available (five megabytes of storage).
7. Sky Pilot. This app for building a membership program. Sell files and exclusive video streams to customers.
8. BookThatApp, Tipo, or Sesami. Use these apps to schedule consultations or coaching sessions with customers. All three have a free schedule available.

Beyond these digital product delivery systems, there are other Shopify apps to power and protect your digital goods, such as:

• RecurrinGO!. This is an app for weekly or monthly subscriptions. Use it to automate recurring orders, invoices, and digital subscriptions for online memberships or programs.
• Disable correct-Click. When your content is your product, this app helps you protect it from theft. You can lock images and text so they can’t be saved or copied without your permission.

Note: When creating digital products in Shopify, be sure to uncheck “This is a physical product.”

Sales and marketing tips for selling digital products

Whether you’re a recent business owner or adding online digital products to your existing store, keep these tips in mind:

make a great digital product

The first criteria for creating digital products is to add worth to your customers’ lives. Since you’re competing with free content on the web, invest in building a product people can’t discover anywhere else. 

Promote a free navigator magnet

Regardless of how much your product costs, make a light version of it for free. A free product can assist you construct an email list you can sell to in the upcoming. It also opens the door for upselling and retargeting potential customers with different promotions. Free products can construct depend between your business and potential customers. 

commence an affiliate program for your product

Affiliates are a huge source of traffic and sales for creators selling digital products. discover influencers who are established and trusted in your industry and propose them a fee for each sale they make. You can make different percentages for different affiliates, so if someone has a large spectators, you can provide them a higher fee rate to promote more and attract customers.

Collect preorders

A great way to get early sales is by giving a discounted “early bird” worth. If you’re releasing a recent digital product, you can propose a 50% discount for the first 100 buyers, then 25% for the next 100 buyers, and then release the product at packed worth after the 25% discount runs out. 

propose a money-back guarantee

If you’re hesitant about offering a warranty on your products, it makes sense. Some people could buy and use your product then inquire for their money back. But it’s all a part of running an online business. The rewards of higher conversion rates outweigh the tiny percentage of people who may abuse the policy. A money back guarantee shows potential buyers you’re putting the hazard on you, not them.

Creating the best digital products for your business

Without the require to hold inventory or the overhead associated with selling physical products, all types of digital products can be profitable online business ideas. 

There are countless ways you can make the best digital content to sell and resell and incorporate them into your business. With a little ingenuity and upfront pool of period, you can serve up irresistible worth that can more than pay for itself over period.