Selling digital products online is one of the most popular business ideas for digital nomads or people who want to work from home. Since you don’t need any money to get started and have no specific degree or experience, it is also a very popular way to make money online for beginners.
In this blog post, I list 10 of the best digital products you can sell online, show your potential income and give you plenty of real-life examples.
Table of Contents
Best Digital Products to Sell Online from Home
Without further ado, let’s jump right in with the best digital products you can sell online:
1. Templates
Creating templates is something that everyone can do. You don’t need a degree or any specific knowledge. You don’t even need any graphic design skills. Depending on the type of template you want to create, you can use free tools such as Google Docs or Google Sheets, Crello, or Canva.
Here you have thousands of ready-made templates that you can easily customize with only a few clicks. Let’s look at some kinds of templates you could create:
- Menu cards,
- Social media posts,
- Resumes,
- Business cards,
- Wedding invitations,
- Birthday cards, or
- Save the date cards
How much money you can make with digital templates depends on many different things, like where you sell them, how you price them, and how many different templates you offer.
For instance, Emily McDermott makes around $7,000 per month selling on Etsy. And blogger Kayla from Amma Rose Designs made more than $93,000 in one year selling digital templates.
2. Planners
Digital planners are another very popular product you can sell online and creating them doesn’t require any type of knowledge or skills. Again, you could use free tools like Canva or Google Docs to create them.
To get inspiration, simply google different types of planners or check out some physical planners in bookstores near you. Here are some examples:
- Budget planners,
- Event planners,
- Business planners,
- Daily or weekly planners or calendars,
- To-do lists, or
- Project planners
3. eBooks
eBooks are also a great digital product to sell that can generate passive income in the long run. First, you have to decide on a topic, which could be fiction or non-fiction. That can be literally any type of topic that people would want to read.
Now you need to write the book. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a super long book of 600 pages. Short stories of 20 pages are also perfectly fine to sell.
If you don’t want to write them yourself, you can hire someone to do that for you. Check out freelance platforms like Upwork or Fiverr to find someone with the necessary qualification.
Once your book is ready, you can upload it to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. The platform automatically converts your text to eBook format and sells it on Amazon.
Your income opportunities are endless. As an example, blogger Carol Tice made around $45,000 from selling 10 eBooks online.
4. Digital Art
If you are a talented artist or simply enjoy creating artwork, then you could easily turn your passion into money. How you create your designs is completely up to you and your preferences. You could use tools like Photoshop or Coreldraw or use pen and paper and scan it in later.
Your designs could then be printed on things like:
- T-Shirts,
- Mugs,
- Pillows, or
- Posters.
Alternatively, they could be used digitally as screen savers or background images on a computer or phone.
Again, it depends on various factors how much money you can make. But the average income of a digital artist in the US is $57,200 per year.
Extra Tip: To sell your prints, you could set up an online store, for example with Shopify, and integrate this store with a print-on-demand service, like Printify or Printful.
5. Canva Templates
As mentioned before, Canva is a great free tool that gives you thousands of templates for all kinds of digital products. But have you ever wondered who created these templates in the first place? They were created by so-called contributors and creators.
Every time someone uses your artwork, you get paid royalties. If someone purchases your image on Canva for $1, you receive about 30 cents. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, bear in mind that Canva is used all over the world by more than 75 million users per month. So your income can add up easily.
Simply check out the Canva Contributor landing page and sign up with your Canva account details. From there, you can upload your items. Once they are reviewed and approved, you can start earning money passively with your designs.
6. Photography
Of course, photographs are another fantastic digital product that you can sell online. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional photographer with high-end equipment or take photos just for fun with your phone camera.
You could, for instance, download the app Foap and upload photos or videos that you have on your phone. That can be anything from:
- Landscapes to
- Portraits,
- Events or
- Animals
If a brand, agency, or just anyone purchases your work, you get paid. You can also join Foap Missions which require you to take photos or videos of specific products. For these, rewards range from 30 to $500 per mission.
Another idea would be to upload your photos or videos to websites like Shutterstock or Getty Images and earn money every time your content gets downloaded.
7. Presets
Staying in the photography niche: If you know how to edit photos, you could also create so-called presets and sell them online. This is basically a template with photo-editing settings that help people improve or transform their photos with just a few clicks to make them look better.
Presets are particularly important for content creators, for example, people who post a lot on Instagram, or other photographers. To create them, you can use software such as Lightroom and sell them on marketplaces like Etsy or Adobe Exchange.
Again, your income opportunities are endless. Stay-at-home mom Rachel Towne made more than $110,000 by creating and selling presets online.
8. Audio Files
Digital Products can also be audio files. Here we are talking about ideas like:
- Music,
- Guided meditations,
- Audiobooks,
- Sound effects,
- Jingles, or
- Foreign language lessons
Just note that this digital product idea requires some investment. To create high-quality products, you should first invest in professional recording gear, like a microphone, headphones, or filters. Alternatively, you could also rent a recording studio whenever you need to record something.
9. Online Courses
If you are an expert in anything, you could create online courses and teach others your knowledge through platforms like Udemy or Teachable. For instance, your area of expertise could be:
- Finance,
- Instruments,
- Social Media,
- Real estate,
- Creative writing,
- Yoga, or
- Cooking
There are also different ways to create an online course:
- You could record yourself and make a video course.
- You could also do a faceless course and only record your hands while playing an instrument or do screen recordings while showing something on your computer.
- A third idea would be to make a text-base course where you write down your lessons.
According to Learnworlds, successful course creators make around 1,000 to $10,000 per month on average. The top course creators can make 6- to 7-figure incomes per year.
Since we’re talking about courses, if you want to learn more about how to make money online, you can also check out my online course Zero to Remote Work Success which teaches you step-by-step how to find a remote job that fits your needs and skills.
10. Software
If you have coding knowledge and a background in development, you could also start selling your software online. Here are a few examples:
- Mobile apps,
- Web apps,
- Desktop software, or
- Online games
Especially the online gaming market has exploded in the last few years which means there is a lot of potential in this niche. Looking at some statistics, popular gaming apps make around $22,000 per day, while entertainment apps make $3,000 daily.
Benefits and Downsides of Selling Digital Products Online
As with any other online business idea, selling digital products online comes with benefits and downsides:
Advantages of Selling Digital Products Online
- It’s a low-budget business idea that you can start for free or with only a small investment
- You don’t need to have a degree, previous experience, or special skills
- It’s a very flexible business model where you can work whenever fits into your schedule
- You don’t need to go to an office but can work from home or while traveling
- You can work on your own and don’t need a team to get started (which makes it a perfect remote job for introverts)
- Your income opportunities are endless
- Once everything is set up, digital products can be a great source of passive income
Disadvantages of Selling Digital Products Online
- You need to put in some work in the beginning to create your products
- If you want to grow and scale your business, you may eventually have to invest in marketing or additional help
Start Earning Money by Selling Digital Products Online
As you can see, there are plenty of digital products to sell online. It doesn’t matter if you are an expert in a certain niche or are a beginner without years of experience. There is something for every skill level. Pick a product or two from the list and start creating and selling it. If you stick with it, you could soon earn a very nice passive income.
What digital products are you interested in the most and consider selling? Or are you already selling digital products online? If so, please share your experience in the comments below!
FAQs
Who Can Sell Digital Products Online?
Literally anyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a student, stay-at-home mom, full-time employee, or senior. As long as you can spare enough time in the beginning to create your product, you can start this business idea.
What Do I Need to Sell Products Online?
All you need is a computer and internet and you’re good to go. If you want to sell general products, for example, templates or planners, you don’t need to have a degree or any experience. Simply use free tools like Canva to create your online products.
How Can I Create the Digital Products I want to Sell?
Depending on what type of digital product you go for, you can use free tools like Canva, Google Docs, or Google Sheets. You could also go for more advanced software like Photoshop or Lightroom.
Where Can I Sell my Digital Products?
That depends on the type of product you want to sell. Etsy is a great place to sell digital templates or planners. Online courses can be sold on platforms like Teachable or Udemy. And if you want to sell eBooks, the easiest way to do so is on Amazon KDP.
Thank you for sharing this post. I think creating templates is a such a great idea for the creative souls.