
13 of the Best Digital Products to Sell Online in 2022
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Have you thought about adding digital products to your business? You could be missing out on the opportunity for a lot of profit, position, leads and recognition if not.
Digital products have slowly become more and more popular as almost everyone has adopted some type of electronic device. More people are connected now than ever, which means that creating a business centered around selling digital products is also possible!
What exactly is a digital product?
Digital products are products that are sold in a digital format. You upload the product to a store platform, then a customer buys the product and downloads it to their phone, tablet, computer, or any other electronic device. It’s a file rather than a tangible product.
This could be a set of photographs, a PDF file, a music track, or even a ticket to an online event. Pretty much if you can store it on a digital device, you can sell it as a digital product.
Unlike physical products, you can often produce an unlimited number of copies, making it extremely cost effective to make and sell digital products.
Why you should sell digital products
Digital products are my absolute favorite thing to sell online. Once you create them, you can set them up for sale and then sell them in infinite quantities forever.
Sure, sometimes there’s a little maintenance, but that’s a way smaller price to pay than having to constantly source new products that you have purchase and store while you wait for people to buy them.
If you’re selling handmade products, you also have to spend the time and effort making the item. Which admittedly is probably the fun part, but you only have so much time, so it’s not scalable to keep making every item from scratch.
And now you have to pack and ship that product to them. Hopefully it gets there in one piece, as well!
Obviously physical products are great and I enjoy consuming them just like anyone, but I just don’t have it in me to start a business around them, and maybe you don’t either.
Fortunately, it’s a post (during?) internet world and you can make and sell products that are completely digital. So no product warehouse, no wholesale buying, and no shipping.
Yay!
What makes a good digital product that will sell well
I’ve found that the best types of digital products to sell online are either cheap and can be sold hundreds or thousands of times quickly (think micro transactions) or are premium or high ticket items that provide a significant transformation or benefit or a professional service.
This can be anything from virtual goods sold in games and chat programs to online crafting courses to freelance design services. Pretty much if something exists online, someone is willing to pay for it.
The trouble is often finding enough of those people to actually make the work you’ll put into it worth it. I’ve found that anything that teaches someone how to do something or solves a specific problem is easiest to create an audience for.
People will already be searching for solutions and in many cases are also shopping for solutions as well. It’s going to be really easy to sell someone what they feel is the perfect solution to their problems.
If you have an audience already, then it’s easy to ask them what they want, which you should do regularly. Depending on what that is, you may need to decide the best way to deliver what they want, such as through audio recordings or a PDF ebook.
So today I want to share some of the best digital products to sell online to give you some ideas of what people are selling already. Use them to come up with ideas for how you can sell your entertainment, expertise, or services.
Are digital products truly passive income?
Passive income always seems nice, but nothing is ever truly 100% passive with absolutely no work involved. You shouldn’t view digital products as a magical “golden goose” spitting out money for your business.
Different digital products still take various amounts of time and effort to create. Sometimes a specific set of skills or tools are necessary to create them.
That said, digital products can be extremely passive with little extra work once you’ve created and listed them for sale and figured out a marketing strategy that works well for you. One you’ve for your routine and you’re good money, it’s going to feel a lot less like work compared to holding a traditional job.
You may still need to assist customers before or after purchasing, but in my experience, the customer support is minimal. As you gain experience with selling your product, you learn ways to address issues quickly or cover them before they become an issue for the customer.
If you really are serious about getting into digital products, the knowledge you gain as you go through the learning process will become invaluable throughout the life of your business.
So let’s dive straight into the world of digital offerings and what they can do for you.
The most profitable digital products that sell online for 2022
Here are some ideas for digital products that you call sell on marketplaces like Etsy or Creative Market, on Shopify, or on your own blog or website. Lots of these will work within lots of different niches, it’s just a matter of picking what will work best and what will most fit with how your audience wants to learn or needs to use the product.
Remember, the best selling digital products solve a problem or address a specific need or desire. It’s much easier to sell a product that people are actively searching for.
Ebooks
Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way. EBooks have come a long way since their inception. Create ones that you can sell on your website or other sites. That involves enticing snippets from the book, inventive marketing and a design that appeals to your market.
Audio
Audio files can be used to deliver premium podcast episodes, as content for a membership site, audio courses and other types of instruction for your customers. What you provide depends on your specific business niche.
Video
People are visual learners. Reading content is good but seeing also is even better. Video can be used for tutorials, marketing your business, creating commercials, web seminars and classes. The possibilities are endless.
Workbooks
You can use a workbook as a stand alone product or along with an ebook to guide people from Point A to Point B. This is especially useful to create a tangible deliverable for topics that don’t have a result or transformation that you can easily perceive.
Content
Blog and website owners need something to keep their readers interested. If you run an e-commerce site there doesn’t seem to be enough time for marketing, networking, relationship building and the rest. Turn your eBook or e-courses into a series of blog posts or articles that could be packaged as PLR content for sale.
E-courses
Break down your knowledge and instruct others in what you know. Courses can be either stand-alone or work as an integrated unit.
Newsletters
Use your expertise to put together newsletters for your readership. These can be offered as an opt-in or for sale to be used by others on their websites.
Presentations
These can be slideshows or even infographics. Take a certain type of information and put it into a format that can be used to reach a large group of people all at once.
Printables
Digital files that your customers can print off themselves are extremely popular and easy to make. These are often wall art, invitations, worksheets, planners and journals, decorations, and party games.
Digital notebooks
People are taking their notebooks, journals, and planners digital and using hyperlinked PDF files with note taking apps like Goodnotes and Noteability. You can create notebook or planner style PDFs to be used as background templates.
Fonts
As a designer, I can tell you that we’re obsessed with collecting all kinds of different typefaces. If you enjoy lettering, you can sell your designs as fonts.
Stock media and presets
Graphics, music, animations and video are all things a lot of business owners and content creators need but either can’t make themselves or don’t have the time to make themselves. This makes them some of the most popular digital products available.
Templates
Much like stock media, templates provide a shortcut to help people create something new. A template can be a file for a specific app or a workflow process to follow to reach a certain result.
Source and create digital products that sell
Speaking of templates, if you’re feeling apprehensive about creating your first digital product, I’ve got some perfect resources for you!
You can actually find both content and product templates that you can modify and sell as your own. Some will even allow you to sell non-editable copies of products made from the templates without doing any additional editing, like I do with my products at Fill Your Shop.
To find products that are resale friendly, you need to look for Private Label Rights (PLR) templates. These allow you to add your own branding and sell the products as if they were your own.
Remember, if you are using PLR for your products, you can’t pass on any commercial use or PLR rights to your customers. Items will have to be for their own personal use only.
Ready to dive into digital products?
What digital products are you considering for your business? Before you make a final decision, do some research first. Figure out what you know best and what would be the best type of product for you to start selling first.
You can own multiple stores with multiple types of products, so you never really have to settle on just one in the end. However, it helps to stick with just one while you figure things out for the first time.
Look out for more tips on creating and selling digital products that are coming soon here on Modern Biz Magic!