Profitable Digital Product Ideas Your Audience Will Actually Want!
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With the surge of online shopping and online learning, there’s also been a surge of digital products to meet that need. If you’re interested in making money online and are wondering what to sell, these are profitable digital product ideas that you can use to start or grow your business.
What are Digital Products?
Digital products are items that people can only obtain in digital form. Sure, there are digital products like templates and printables that can be printed out, but there are many more that are delivered and consumed electronically.
Some digital products can only be consumed in digital form, like audio books, online courses, and podcasts.
PLR Makes Product Creation Easy!
Why You Should Sell Digital Products
Digital products are popular for consumers because of how easy they are to purchase and use. And they’re usually cheaper than their physical counterparts. The convenience of being able to purchase and download an item right away is attractive because there’s no need for shipping.
Customizable digital products are great because the buyer can alter it and use it more than once, making it extremely cost effective.
Digital products are popular for sellers because once the product is created they can be sold on autopilot. There’s no need for inventory when you sell a digital product and once it’s created, all you have to do is focus on promoting that item and maybe dealing with customer service related issues.
Regardless of the business type, digital products can be used to create a solid revenue stream. Checklists, guides, and other types of products can easily be customized for any industry to not only add value to present customers, but to attract new ones.
A digital product can be used as a freebie or lead magnet to attract potential customers or followers to your email address. Long are the days when you can expect to get more people on your email list by just offering updates and news. People treasure their email addresses and aren’t likely to risk more spam unless they’re getting something out of the deal.
So you can see why digital products are so valuable and sought after. Whether it’s to make life easier for your customers, to attract more customers, or to make money. What kind of digital products you create will be up to you. Let’s see which ones may be best for your business.
Creative Fabrica is a true game-changer in the creative world. It’s an graphic designer website that serves as a haven for designers, crafters, content creators and artists looking to find elements that will take their projects to the next level. Think of it as a virtual wonderland packed to the brim with a ridiculous amount of design resources, from fonts and graphics to craft files and illustrations.
It’s a place where you can find that perfect brushstroke, font, pattern, swoosh, background, book interior, (the list goes on and on) that will make your creations stand out. Creative Fabrica is all about giving you the tools and inspiration to bring your artistic visions to life in the easiest way possible. Not an artist? No worries, you don’t have to be one to take advantage of the site. Trust me, if you’re a graphics nerd like me, once you see what they offer, you won’t want to leave!
How To Create Digital Products
The way we create digital products depends on the type of product you’re selling. Printables and templates are digital alternatives to their physical, paper counterparts and are usually created in a way that’s easy for someone to print once they make a purchase.
Programs like Microsoft Word, Canva, and Affinity Designer can all be used to design these types of products. This category can include digital wall art, invitations, ebooks, and checklists.
Digital courses can be created with a combination of programs, depending on how the course will be delivered. Slides can be created in Powerpoint, Canva, Google Slides, and many other programs. You can choose to deliver the course with slides alone, with slides alongside yourself talking on the screen, or without any slides at all. You could even create an audio course where there’s no video or slides at all.
There are also design elements like fonts, clipart, and graphics that can be created and sold to other creators. There are just so many different types of digital products to list that it would be difficult to address how they are all made in this article.
Most Profitable Digital Products
Some of the most profitable digital products are online courses and products that offer so much value that they can be offered at a premium price. You can make a lot of revenue with low ticket items as well, but you clearly have to sell a lot more to make a substantial amount of revenue.
Imagine having a signature online course, where you share everything you know about a particular topic. You’ve succeeded and want to show your audience exactly what steps you took from beginning to end.
This course, depending on the amount of value offered and the transformation your buyers will receive, could cost anywhere from $2,000 up to $1 million. This may seem hard to fathom but there are some very pricey courses and coaching programs out there.
If you had a $10,000 course, you only need to make one sale every month to earn $120,000 each year. One sale. As opposed to having a $10 printable. You’d have to sell 12,000 units to make the same $120,000. So both are profitable, you just have to figure out how you want to make money.
Digital Product Ideas
If you’re interested in starting an online business selling digital products, you may be wondering what type of business to start. Here is a list of 51 digital product ideas for you to consider. They vary based on skill level and niche.
1. Sell planners and journals: Share your lifestyle tips and routines in a printable PDF.
2. Downloadable guides: If you’re a lifestyle blogger or a handicraft expert, for example, you could create an ebook or PDF guide to show your followers how it’s done.
3. Self-assessment tool: Create a quiz to help your audience know where they stand before taking them from A to Z in a process.
4. Beginner’s guide to anything: Write an ebook on how to start doing something you know a lot about.
5. Online course: Create a course on your profession and offer it on your website or an e-learning platform.
6. Paid newsletter: Start and run a paid newsletter where you share helpful information on a regular basis.
7. Meditation audio: Sell 10-15 minute audio recordings of meditations and mindfulness exercises.
8. Video courses: Create a video series of strategies, techniques and tips.
9. Printable journals and wellness trackers: Create journals and wellness trackers to help people keep track of important activities or habits
10. Wallpapers: Everyone loves a nice background for their desktop or smartphone. Create wallpapers or outsource someone else to create them.
11. Emojis: Why not create some unique emojis for your customers to use, so that their messages can stand out?
12. Posters: Get creative and design printable posters for your clients to decorate their space.
13. Fonts: Create some special text styles and fonts and sell them to your audience.
14. Photoshop templates: You could offer product mockups, effects, layouts and more to other digital product businesses.
15. Business card templates: Help your customers to look more professional with a variety of stylish business card templates.
16. Infographic design templates: These are great when people want to clearly present a lot of data and information.
17. Presentation templates: Give your customers a presentation design that stands out.
18. Invitation templates: These are great for people who want to make an impression at their big event—especially for birthdays, major holidays, and weddings.
19. Comic templates: Graphic novelists and comic artists can use these to make their work easier.. 20. Icon sets: Give people unique icon sets for their website or landing page.
20. Animations: If you’re a whizz at doing animations, you could sell them to video creators and YouTubers.
21. Premade graphic designs: Graphic designers are highly sought-after, but you can reach your clients straight away with some ready-made designs.
22. Create a website design checklist: Offer a website essentials checklist so that your customers can reach a wider audience with their products.
23. Apps: Once you’ve designed your mobile app, you can either add a pricing plan or have in-app purchases.
24. Website themes: Sell some premade themes, for WordPress for example, which customers can download and use straight away on their own website.
25. Resume templates: Sell CV templates to help your customers get hired.
26. Careers advice ebook: Write an ebook about your experience and insights when building a successful career.
27. Goal setting worksheets: Help your audience to map their career goals with a printable worksheet or journal.
28. Masterclasses: Share your specialized knowledge in an e-learning series.
29. Fiction and non-fiction ebooks: This may seem obvious to authors, but your book is a key source of passive income, so make the most of it.
30. Painting video tutorials: Create a video series on how to paint. You could create different levels for different abilities.
31. Drawing guides: Make a series of step-by-step guides teaching your audience how to draw. Your customers could choose from different themes, such as architecture or portraits. 32. Designs: If you can sew, share the patterns online so that your audience can give it a go. If you can create patterns you could sell them as well.
32. 5-day email course: Teach your audience how to tap into their creativity and explore the creative process in a 5-day series of emails.
33. Clip art pictures and symbols: Turn your art into computer icons that people can download and use on their own sites.
34. Printable coloring sheets: Turn your artwork into a coloring sheet for customers to download and print or create a coloring book to sell on Amazon.
35. Home recipes: Create a downloadable ebook with home remedies for anything from desserts to pet dishes to skincare.
36. Hair, skin, and makeup tutorials: You could set up a video course subscription series, where customers receive a new video tutorial every week or month.
37. Certified courses: Let your customers become qualified beauty experts themselves. You could run an online course and offer a certificate.
38. Printable games and riddles: These could be games such as crosswords, word searches, mazes or join the dots.
39. Kids’ audiobooks: Write a short story and record yourself (or a voiceover artist) reading it, then sell it as an audiobook. Perfect for children to listen to in the car, or before bedtime.
40. Nutrition plans: As we grow more health-conscious, everyone is on the lookout for wholesome and nutritious meal plans.
41. Recipe ebooks: Don’t keep your recipes a secret! Create an ebook and share the joy with your customers.
42. Downloadable songs: Sell your songs online, with different pricing for personal use or commercial use.
43. Ringtones: Create unique ringtones that your audience can download.
44. Sound effects: Sell sound effects to video and music creators.
45. Voiceovers: Anybody ever tell you you have a great voice? Create downloadable premade voiceovers.
46. Instrumental tracks: Build a gallery of instrumental tracks or beats for people to buy.
47. Weekly workout video subscription: Release a new workout video every week to keep your customers on their toes.
48. Meal-prep plans: Give your clients a little help in the kitchen, with some healthy recipes and meal plans. You could share them weekly in a PDF, or put everything together into an ebook.
49. Workout plans: Create a program for a group of people who want to live a healthier lifestyle. Add a private Facebook group and workout videos.
50. Photoshop presets and filters: Help your customers find the perfect look for their social media page or website, with premade presets and filters.
51. Stock photos: Deliver stock images to your clients every month. This can be a great incentive and great marketing for potential customers to invest in your services. Free stock photos could help you to make a sale later.
How To Start A Digital Products Business
If you want to start an online business selling digital products, there’s lots to consider. Follow these steps and you can set up a business relatively quickly. There’s lots to do after it’s set up, but with these steps you’ll be well on your way to creating a profitable business.
Decide What Need You Want To Meet
Hopefully you understand that in order to have a profitable business, you’ll have to determine what products are in demand. What product will meet the needs of your ideal customers? Where is there a need that people are paying to meet? Your first step is to figure out what that is and then figure out the best way for you to meet that need.
You do want to offer a product that you will enjoy creating, but first and foremost, make sure people will want to buy it. If you already have an audience you can ask them whether they’d be willing to pay for that type of product or visit a website like Quora.
You can post a question in a related group there and see whether anyone responds. Related Facebook Groups are also a good place to go to get good feedback on product ideas.
Decide How You Want To Sell Your Digital Products
Next, you’ll have to decide where to sell your digital products, and there are a ton of different ways to do that. One of the easiest ways to start as a beginner is with a print on demand company like Redbubble, where you can create designs, upload them to another platform and let them take care of the product design, shipping, and customer service.
The only problem is your cut of each sale is relatively small. You can increase your revenue by increasing the price of the products, but then the price of the item can become too high.
Many people offer digital products like online courses on platforms like Udemy and Skillshare. Memberships and coaching programs can be managed on platforms like Podia.
Other design websites like Creative Fabrica and Creative Market sell design elements like fonts, templates, clipart, and graphics created by other designers. You could set up a store on these types of sites and not worry about having to set up your own website.
Set Up An Online Store
Setting up an online store on your own will definitely require more work on your part. Not only do you have to set up the shop and add your designs, but you’ll have to be sure customers are taken care of and drive traffic to your shop.
No longer do you have the benefit of having a large platform send potential customers to your listings. Shopify is a good option, but not your only option, should you go the independent route though.
You can always create a landing page that features sale items. You still have to handle every aspect of running the store, but with a landing page you don’t have to create an entire shop, just a one page website. Convertkit has great landing pages. The best part is you can try one out with a free account.
Building a Website for Digital Products
Whether your website is on Shopify or not, there are steps you’ll need to take to get your store up and running. The first thing you want to do is decide what domain name you want to use and what hosting provider you want to host your site.
There are many hosting providers out there. A lot of bloggers prefer WordPress because of its customization options. They also have lots of plugins to help ecommerce shop owners.
I actually prefer Shopify because it’s built for ecommerce and it offers apps that can help you with most, if not all, tasks you’ll need to perform to start and grow your business. You’ll need to secure a domain before you complete the Shopify setup though.
What is Online Business Branding?
You don’t need to nail your branding from day one, but keep in mind that you’ll need to work on branding for your new business. Do you want people to recognize your brand when they see your social media posts and promotional material? If so, the only way to make that happen is with consistent branding. I uploaded a podcast episode that talked about the importance of consistent branding and you can listen here.
Start an Email List to Sell Digital Products
Right away find a way to start an email list of subscribers who you can contact with upcoming promotions and helpful information related to your niche. If you sell printables, why not offer a few free ones every once in a while?
You don’t want to use the list to push products every week, but if you can build a relationship with the people on your list you can gather helpful information that will let you know what other products you could be making will be the first ones to make a purchase when you offer new products.
Create graphics with software like Canva that shows what freebie potential customers will receive in exchange for their email address and post it on your social media platform or search engine of choice (where your customers are).
If you sell yoga meditation audio recordings, is it more likely that your audience would spend more time on Instagram or Linkedin? Once you know that, you know where to concentrate your efforts.
What is the Best Audience Strategy to Make Money Online?
You may be wondering how this is different from creating an email list. This is because I don’t believe in spending the majority of my time building an audience on any social media platform. What good is 100,000 followers if your account gets shut down? And how many people are going to read something I posted today, a year from now? I have blog posts from last year that still bring traffic to my site.
Social media has its place, don’t get me wrong. It’s great for brand awareness and it can make people curious about your business. It’s also a great place for ads and product idea validation. I just wouldn’t put all of my eggs in that one basket.
That’s a hint to how I suggest you build your audience. With content. Start creating content on a platform that can continue to bring in views and customers for years to come. Blogs, podcasts, and YouTube come to mind.
If you don’t feel comfortable with any of these, try reaching out to content creators and offer yourself for interviews about your niche. Let them help you get the word out about your business.
Create a Marketing Plan for Digital Products
Create a marketing campaign with different strategies. Create a schedule so you can plan how you’re going to get the word out about your business. Will you post on social media everyday, every week? Will you post ads? Whatever you do, be consistent and measure your efforts. Which ad did best? What kind of image do people respond more favorably to, one with people in it or one with only text?
If your sales increase or decrease you want to know why. If you get more traffic to your site, you want to know why. How else will you know what’s working and what isn’t? Know your numbers. If you ever watch Shark Tank you know how that can make or break a business!
Optimize your Digital Products Website for SEO
Be sure that your site is optimized for search engine optimization. When people search for products like yours, how will search engines know you have what they’re looking for? They won’t, unless you use search terms to let Google know that you’re all about.
From naming images, to using alt text, to using the right product titles and descriptions, everything on your site should be optimized to get the right customers to your site. It does you no good to get one million views each month if the wrong people are visiting. All that will do is tell search engines that people didn’t like your website, which may not be the case. It just didn’t have what they were looking for.
You’re better off getting a fraction of that traffic visiting and sticking around, so be sure to attract the right visitors.
Add Opt ins to Your Website
Be sure to add opt in forms to your website. Whatever freebie you’re using to attract email subscribers, add forms to your website with the same (or other) freebie. Be clear on why they need the freebie and make sure it’s relevant to the type of customer you want on your list.
Offer a Starbucks gift card giveaway and everybody will join so be very particular so you attract your dream customer.
