Digital Products — What to Sell Online & How to Create Them
Digital products are the most profitable online business model. Create once, sell forever. No inventory, no shipping, near-100% margins. Here is what to create and how to sell it.
The beauty of digital products: they scale infinitely. A physical product requires raw materials, manufacturing, storage, and shipping — costs that increase with every sale. A digital product costs nothing to reproduce. An ebook you write once can sell 10 copies or 10,000 copies — your cost is the same (zero), and your profit scales with each sale. The global digital products market is worth hundreds of billions, and the barriers to entry have never been lower.
Types of Digital Products
Ebooks & Guides: Sell on Amazon KDP (royalty: 35-70%), Gumroad, or your own site. Price range $5-50. Best for teaching a specific skill or solving a specific problem. Online Courses: Platforms like Teachable, Udemy, and Skillshare handle hosting and payments. Price range: $20-500. Best for comprehensive training on topics people invest in (business, finance, tech, creative skills). Templates & Printables: Resume templates, budget spreadsheets, Notion dashboards, meal planners, wedding checklists. Sell on Etsy, Gumroad, or Creative Market. Price range: $3-50. High volume, lower price point. Design Assets: Fonts, icons, illustrations, stock photos, website themes. Sell on Creative Market, Envato, or own site. Price range: $5-100. Software & Apps: SaaS tools, mobile apps, WordPress plugins, browser extensions. Requires development skills but offers recurring revenue. Price range: $5-100/month.
How to Create Your First Digital Product
Start with what you know. What skills or knowledge do you have that others would pay for? If you are reading this site, you probably have finance/investing knowledge — a budgeting spreadsheet template, an investing ebook, or a course on retirement planning could be your first product. Create a minimum viable product (MVP) — the simplest version that delivers value. Write a short ebook (30-50 pages) instead of a 300-page book. Record a 5-video course instead of a 30-video course. Launch quickly, get feedback, and improve. Perfect is the enemy of profitable.
Where to Sell
Gumroad: Best for independent creators. Simple setup, handles payments and delivery. 8.5% + $0.30 per sale. Good for ebooks, templates, and small courses. Etsy: Best for printables and templates. 20 cents per listing + 6.5% transaction fee. Built-in traffic from Etsy's search. Amazon KDP: Best for ebooks and paperbacks. Largest audience but competitive. Teachable: Best for online courses. $39/month or 5% per sale. Comprehensive course creation tools. Shopify: Best if you want full control and a branded store. $29/month + transaction fees. Use with digital delivery apps like SendOwl or Digital Downloads.
Marketing Digital Products
Driving sales requires traffic. SEO: Create content around problems your product solves — see our SEO guide. Email list: Offer a free sample or discount code in exchange for email signups — see our email marketing guide. Social media: Share valuable content related to your product's topic. Launch strategy: Build a pre-launch email list, offer early-bird pricing, and launch with a limited-time discount to create urgency. The first launch is the hardest — each subsequent product benefits from your existing audience.