10 BEST Digital Products to Sell Online

I've been selling digital products for over 3 years, and it's how I built a 6-figure online business while working under 20 hours a week. In this video, I'm sharing 10 of my top picks for the best digital products that I see we can sell this year. And no, you don't need to only be on Etsy to make this work. These products have the potential to bring in thousands of dollars each month, and many of them can become completely passive, meaning you do the work once and turn it into an automated income that keeps bringing you in money while you travel, pursue your passions, or just take a nap. Whether you want this to be a full-time business or just a profitable side gig, the beauty here is that you are in control. You get to decide how much time you want to put in and how big you want to grow it. So first off, what are digital products and why should you sell them? Digital products are things that you can sell on the internet, things like ebooks, music, digital art, software, and online courses. These are intangible products that you don't physically use, but they're still valuable. And digital products are great because they have very low costs associated with them and very high profits. There's no shipping or inventory needed. They can be sold automatically, making them a great way to earn passive income. And on top of that, there's more demand than ever. The e-learning industry is expected to be worth $840 billion by 2030. So let's dive into my top 10 digital products to sell online, starting with product number 1, stock photography and photos. If you have a knack for taking photos and videos, but you're not trying to be the next Casey Neistat, this is a great option for you. Basically, you can create and sell high-quality stock photos or videos on the internet. These can be anything from nature shots to business scenes or lifestyle clips. And this is an amazing opportunity because there is a huge demand right now for fresh, high-quality content, especially with marketers, bloggers, YouTube creators, and companies that need these visuals to enhance their message. For me, for example, I'm always looking for great clips and visuals that I can add over my videos to really hit my messages home. To get started, sign up for a stock photo website, something like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, or Getty Images, and then upload your best content. And make sure that you use relevant keywords and descriptions to make it discoverable. Now you could sell these through your own website, but the sites I mentioned already have large loyal audiences and will pay contributors 20 to 30% per download. So unless you have a ton of traffic going to your website already and you've already built up a business and a brand, it probably is a better idea to start selling through those other websites. Each photo or video is an asset and with enough of them being downloaded, you can start to generate some great income. Digital product number 2 is digital art. If you love creating artwork like illustrations, paintings, and designs, you can sell those on the internet for various purposes. With the rise of digital products, people are willing to pay for unique artwork for their projects. I am in a band, for example, and every time we make an album, we're always looking for really cool album artwork, and we like to support local artists or smaller artists to kind of get their art out into the world. So this is a great opportunity for us. Now we would reach out to have something that's more tailored, but you can also make more general kind of art that you can sell over and over again on the internet. To get started with this, create your designs and then upload them to a platform like Etsy, Redbubble, or Gumroad. You can also sell prints or digital downloads. To put it into perspective, artists on Etsy can earn anywhere from $200 to $1,000 each month and up depending on the artwork and how good their marketing is. Product number 3 are audio products. So if you have a knack for creating music, sound effects, beats in your bedroom, or guided meditations, you can sell those online. Content creators and video editors are always looking for high-quality audio to add to their projects, and the demand for things like guided meditations, music, and sound effects is massive right now. To get started with this, start creating your own content, whether it's music, sound effects, or beats, and then upload them to platforms like Audio Jungle, Pond5, or you can even offer them again through your own website. But do remember that sites like Audio Jungle AudioJungle already have that large loyal audience, and AudioJungle will pay their contributors up to 50% of the revenue from their audio files. Obviously, these are not crazy expensive, so it is a numbers game when it comes to this. So that's something to keep in mind. Digital product number 4 are ebooks. If you have expertise or an amazing story that you want to share in the written word, an ebook is an amazing opportunity for you. It could be a how-to guide, a fictional novel, or anything else that you are passionate about. Ebooks are awesome because they're really easy to create. They cost virtually nothing to create, and there's a growing demand for self-published works. So the way you get paid is that you earn royalties from every sale that you've made through a platform like Amazon KDP, who by the way will pay first-time authors between 35 to 70% royalties per ebook sold on their platform. But of course, if you want to make more money with your ebook, I'd recommend selling it through your own website. Just make sure that you focus on niche topics to attract the right audience and start driving traffic to that site. If you're not getting traffic to your site, you are the world's best kept secret, and that's not a winning strategy. To get started with your ebook. You can write your ebook content. Obviously, yes, you can use ChatGPT. I would recommend starting with a good outline and then having ChatGPT help you to write the ebook, not just being like, write me an ebook about this, and then rolling with it. Once you've got your content, you can create a design in Canva with one of their custom templates, and then you can publish it to your website and a platform like Amazon KDP. I'd recommend doing both because Amazon does have a lot more exposure, though you won't make as much money through your website. Maybe not as much exposure unless you have a ton of traffic, but you will make more money. And a pro tip: if you want to sell through your own website, I would add something extra to it, whether it's a workbook and additional training or an audio version of the ebook. That would be awesome because then they can buy the ebook and get some bonus on top of it, and that would justify the extra price. Now, this next idea is by far my favorite, and it's been the one that really helped me hit 6 figures in under 20 hours a week, and that is online courses. If you have knowledge, experience, or a skill set in a specific area, you can package that into a video program and sell it on the internet. Online courses are still relevant. There's still amazing opportunity. You just have to know what you're doing because the e-learning market continues to grow every single day and people are willing to pay for valuable knowledge that they can apply right away from someone who knows what they're doing. You can earn a one-time fee for every course that you have sold, or you can even set up a payment plan for your courses depending on the price point and the market. Now, you could use a platform like Udemy or Skillshare, but these are going to take a ton of money and leave you with scraps unless you're selling a whole lot of courses. A much more efficient and profitable way to sell your course is through your own website, direct to your business. If you want in-depth training on how to do this, I have a free masterclass that's exclusive to people who join my list. Inside it, I'll show you how to earn your first $2,000 per month from digital products, primarily using online courses. And you can do this without a huge audience, expensive ads, or complicated tech. Students like Constance have used this training to make her first $2,000 per month before she'd even finished sales page in less than 40 minutes. I will walk you through every step of this process. We'll cover everything from building your product, selling it, and then automating it to create consistent passive income. There's a link in the description. You can always go to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/masterclass. Digital product number 6 are templates. If you've ever created a template to save you time and get something done faster or more efficiently, you can sell those on the internet. These can be resumes, business cards, presentations, planners, or social media posts that customers can personalize and use for themselves. Templates are amazing because they're incredibly high in demand because they make our lives easier. For me personally, when I'm looking into buying a course, if I can see that they have done-for-you templates, I'm usually pretty sold, assuming that the offer is good. I add templates in every single one of my courses because I know the value in having most of the work be done for you so you can just plug and play whatever it is that you're doing into something that already works. To get started with selling your templates, you can design your templates in a software like Canva or Adobe Illustrator or just a simple Google Doc, and then you can upload them to platforms like Etsy or Gumroad where they can be easily purchased and downloaded. Template creators on Etsy can make anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000+ per month depending on how many templates are selling and how expensive they are. Now, if you have a lot of these assets that I've mentioned already and are selling them individually, this next idea could be a massive opportunity for you, and that is educational bundles. Basically what you would do is package up all or some of your existing digital products like ebooks, courses, templates, etc. into a bundle and then sell them together at a discounted Bundles are awesome because they provide a ton of value to your customers, and they can even attract buyers who may be on the fence about buying one of your products because now they can get multiple products for the same or even a bit of a discounted price. For example, if you have 3 products priced at $97 each— let's say it's an ebook, a mini course, and a pack of templates— that's a total of $291. By bundling them together for the price of $147, now you make the offer a lot more attractive and increase your chances of selling all 3 to the same customer. This is a great option if you have an email list and you're thinking of running some sort of holiday special like Black Friday or maybe just your birthday. Now, this next idea technically isn't a digital product, but it does fall into the same ecosystem and it's been a highly profitable income source in my business, and that's affiliate marketing. The way it works is that you promote other people's products or services and earn a commission for each sale or lead generated through your affiliate link. This is a great opportunity for many different people because you can earn passive income without creating your own products. Affiliate Affiliate marketing is basically just referral marketing. With the right niche and audience, affiliate marketing can create an amazing steady revenue stream for you. The way you get paid is that you earn a commission each time someone purchases through your affiliate link. Commissions can range anywhere from 5% to 50% or more depending on the product. This is really what Amazon KDP is all about. Amazon has the products, and if I use the product and I say, hey, I got it through Amazon, I would send it to you and they would kick me a little commission which is usually around like 5%. And the more people I can send to Amazon KDP to buy different products, the more money I'll make. But here's a real pro tip when it comes to affiliate marketing. Make sure that you only promote products that you genuinely care about and use yourself. For example, I use Kajabi to run my entire business. It is my favorite online business building tool and I've been using it for years. I have plenty of videos on my YouTube channel where I teach people how to use Kajabi because I am an affiliate for their program. But the only reason I'm an affiliate for their program is because I was using it to make money in my business. And when my clients were building their businesses, we had to get to a point where we were talking about the tools that they would use. And 9 times out of 10, they were like, James, what tools do you use? Because that's what I'd want to use. And I said, well, I just use Kajabi. So I was sending them a ton of business over to Kajabi and I wasn't taking advantage of the affiliate link. So that's why I decided to become an affiliate. And since then, it's created me an amazing income stream that brings in thousands of dollars every single month just because I I let people know that this is an awesome tool that I like to use myself. Now, the great thing about Kajabi is that it is a premium product, and Kajabi gives you 30% of every sale that is made. So on average, people sign up for the Growth plan, which is $200 per month. I get 30% of that, so I'm making about $60 each and every month for one user. Now, when you get 50, 100, 200 people, that money really starts to add up as a passive income stream, and you get paid every single month, not just one time. So make sure that you really pay attention to the agreement and the affiliate program is run, how much you're getting paid. Is it just a one-time payment or is it every single month? How does it work? Typically software are amazing affiliate programs like Kajabi because it's billed every single month. It's not just a one-off payment. To get started with affiliate marketing, sign up for affiliate programs like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, or ClickBank. Or if you use a product and it says, hey, we have an affiliate program and you love that product, then just sign up to be an affiliate. But again, just choose products that align with your audience and your offer and whatever it is that you like to do, and then promote it through your website, email list, social media, anything that you can to start filling up members. The next digital products are membership sites. This is where you offer a subscription-based service where members get access to exclusive content like coaching, online training, and a community of like-minded people. Your members will pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee to access your content, coaching, and community. Membership sites are awesome because they provide you recurring revenue. You get to grow an amazing audience and community. It gives you financial stability and consistent income. That way you know how much money you're making each and every month. To get started with your membership site, make sure that you choose a good platform. Something like Skool, Kajabi, or Circle are great for getting started. Set up your membership tiers and then promote it on your site to attract paying customers. To put this into perspective, if you have a membership site with 200 members and they're each paying $20 per month, you're looking at $4,000 coming to you every single month, assuming people aren't unsubscribing too much. Now, if you have a membership with 200 members but they're paying $50 per month, you could be generating $10,000 per month. Obviously, churn is a thing, but if you have a really good program and a nice audience with new members coming in, you can have a really steady, awesome income with membership sites. The next digital product are software and tools. If you are incredibly smart and you have coding or technical skills, you can create software apps and tools that help people solve a problem, and it makes their lives easier. If you have this skill set, you're an absolute savage, but this is a great opportunity for you because software tools are incredibly high in demand right now, especially with the use of AI. And the great thing about it is that once they're developed, they can generate income with minimal ongoing effort. Obviously, you have to update your app, you have to make changes. It still requires work, but you can start to create consistent passive income with a nice flow of traffic. To get started, you can build or partner with a developer to create a tool or app, or you can also use a platform like CodeCanyon or offer it through your own website. Tools like Grammarly or Canva make millions of dollars every single year through subscriptions and premium features. I love Canva. I don't know what I would do without it because it really helps me with design, coming up with new ideas. And Grammarly is awesome as well. If it's something that's correcting your grammar to make you sound a lot more professional, why not use it? Now, each one of these ideas has the potential to make you thousands of dollars every single month while you sleep or aren't actively working. You have to understand that building and selling digital products takes hard work initially. It takes strategy and it really takes patience, especially if this is something that's new to you. And if found an idea here that you want to pursue, you need to go into this with the right mindset. Watch this video next and I'll share with you the truth about making passive income. If this video is helpful, please give it a thumbs up and share it with somebody else that you think it would benefit. And while we're at it, leave a comment below letting me know which one of these digital products is your favorite. If you've made money with it, tell me the story. I'll see you in the next one.