How to Make Money Selling Digital Products

“Multiple streams of income is the new security” — Black Hustlers Club. And I agree 100%. This is why I recommend you learn how to make money selling digital products.

But isn’t creating digital products stressful?

NO! It’s as simple as ABC.

A – create a digital asset from what you already know

B – know the digital product marketplaces to sell

C – learn from creators making a good fortune selling their own digital products

And it doesn’t matter if you are selling physical products or only have a skill. Anyone can do it. Set up an online shop and market it through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMM (Social Media Marketing).

This article will guide you through it all…

Where to Sell Digital Products Online?

Below is an outline:

1. Amazon

2. Udemy

3. Etsy

4. Shopify

5. Freelance marketplaces

6. Shutterstock

7. Social media platforms

 

Amazon

Amazon is one place to start if you’re wondering how to make money selling digital products. Some digital products to sell on Amazon are ebooks, music, and games. And the marketplace is credible.

In 2022, U.S. customers even ranked Amazon the most trusted brand. On Amazon, digital sellers have access to the right tools to excel. 

Selling digital products on Amazon is easy. The process starts by choosing between individual and professional selling plans. Other things to prepare are:

• Bank account

• Routing number

• Phone number

• Tax information

• A credit card that allows international transactions

Proceed to create a seller account by providing an email address and password. After this, you have access to Seller Central. You can make critical configurations and list your digital product.

RELATED ARTICLE: Amazon Work from Home Jobs: 9 Hot Jobs You Should Know

Udemy

Do you have the knowledge, skill, and expertise on a subject? Converting that into an online course is a great way to profit from digital products. You can sell the course on Udemy, one of the largest marketplaces for online courses.

Selling on Udemy gives tutors the flexibility to create courses and their formats. Tutors can choose their topics and decide to create animated lessons. They might even record themselves on camera. Teaching on Udemy allows tutors to expand their network and earn.

To sell or teach on Udemy, create an account. Next, you plan your curriculum, record videos, and launch the course.

Etsy

Etsy encourages the sales of creative digital products. These include:

• Audio

• Graphic design

• Scanned digital artwork

• AI-generated images

• Text documents

Selling on Etsy exposes a person’s digital product or shop to a large audience. Creating an Etsy shop is quick and easy—it has no complexities or requires technical know-how. The e-commerce store provides free marketing tools, including Etsy ads and integration with social media.

Sign up on Etsy to sell digital products. Follow the prompts to provide shop information and verify your identity. Create a listing and set payment and billing methods.

Shopify

Shopify has millions of customers that shop from it, making it a good fit for digital product sellers. You can sell:

• Tutorials

• Software

• Stock photography/images

• Ebooks

• Flms

• Audiobooks

The e-commerce store helps your product(s) gain visibility. You can connect your Shopify catalogs with diverse marketplaces. Shopify also integrates people’s Shopify stores into social media for audience growth.

Selling on Shopify requires creating a store with drag-and-drop features. There is no need for technical expertise. As you build your store, you can brand it with customizable templates. You can also integrate your store with other apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Klaviyo, Google, TikTok, and Mailchimp.

Sign up for the free trial to sell on Shopify and select a preferred sales channel. Set up payments, create collections, and add products and their details. Create your online store and go live.

Freelance Marketplaces

People create freelance marketplaces for digital service requests and delivery. These marketplaces include Fiverr, Legiit, Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour.

Some of the digital services offered in these marketplaces include:

• Graphic design

• Web development and design

• Software development

• UI/UX design

• Social media marketing

• Consulting

• Content writing

• Data Science

• Voice over

• Affiliate marketing

• Video editing

These digital selling platforms are easy to set up. They also have a large number of buyers to patronize each seller. Each of these marketplaces differs. Yet, it is constant for sellers on these platforms to sign up, create a portfolio, set their rates, and bid for jobs.

Shutterstock

If you have artistic digital products, Shutterstock is the right channel. Digital products to sell on Shutterstock include:

• Photos

• Vectors

• Illustrations

• Templates

• 3D objects

• AI-generated images

• Videos

• Music

• Editorial music and video

• Sound effects

Digital sellers can offer their products on Shuuerstock without location or language barriers. The website can be used in any of its 21 languages, and your product will also gain exposure to customers in over 150 countries.

To sell on Shutterstock, you need to create a contributor account. Then, create, upload, and submit your content on a portfolio page. Shutterstock pays whenever there is a download. You can also earn more by referring new contributors and customers. Shutterstock offers intelligent tools for tracking earnings.

Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms have become the goldmine for selling digital services in 2024. On social media (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn) people sell:

• Coaching

• Tutorials

• Music

• Ebooks

• Mentorship

• Consulting

Social media allows you to grow your audience, increase visibility, and make sales. Choosing to sell on social media exposes your digital products to a large audience. Sales could happen through organic content creation or running social media ads.

You can sell digital products on Facebook through shops, ads, marketplaces, or shoppable posts. Selling on Instagram requires using a business profile. Once set up, you can sell by creating a shop, running ads, or creating shoppable posts and stories.

Selling on TikTok is beneficial as it has a large audience and high virality. To sell on TikTok, switch to a business account. You can sell through TikTop shops, add product links to videos, create live shopping ads, or run ads.

Top 10 Easy to Sell Digital Products

Ebooks

Ebooks are one of the most common digital products in marketplaces. You can share your knowledge on a digital page with your target audience. To create an ebook, you must have a problem to solve for your target audience.

Content ideas for ebooks can also come through:

• Google

• Keyword research tools – AnswerthePublic, Ubersuggest, Semrush

• Social media comments

• Inspiration

Writing and editing skills are essential for selling your ebooks. Markets for ebooks include social media, personal websites, Amazon, and Shopify.

You can learn on Udemy and YouTube to improve your ebook creation skills.

Stock Images and Videos

Ready-to-use images and videos are lucrative. Some businesses, brands, or social account owners cannot create images or videos. This could be because they lack the skills, money, or time.

Hence, they use stock images or videos. To create these products, you might diversify or pick a niche. These include food, fashion, health, sports, and nature. The necessary skills for this role are:

• Graphic design

• Animation

• Photography

• Video editing

Marketplaces for stock images and videos include Unsplash, Shutterstock, Pexels, and Pixabay. You can learn to create stock images and videos on Alison and Udemy.

Resume Templates

Many job seekers need help with creating well-tailored and optimized resumes. So, they surf the internet for resume templates to edit. Creating this resume template for sale is profitable. Skills for creating resume templates are:

• An understanding of the ATS (Applicant Tracking System)

• An understanding of employers’ requirements

• Video creation skills (for video resumes)

• Content writing

• Design (layout, typography, and color)

• Word processing

Markets for resume templates are Fiverr, Sellfy, and Payhip. New and existing template creators must always learn employment trends and requirements. Platforms for acquiring boosting resume template-creating skills are:

• LinkedIn Learning

• YouTube

• Udemy

• Skillshare

• Coursera

 

Online Courses

Creating online courses helps you generate money from the comfort of your home or office. Skillshare, Udacity, Coursera, and Thinkific let you create courses for sale.

There is no limit to the kind of online courses to create online. Here are some ideas:

• Parenting

• Artificial intelligence

• Foreign exchange

• Yoga

• Interior decoration

• Screenplay writing

• Content marketing

• Project management

Online courses allow you to share your knowledge, skills, and expertise. You do not need an educator certificate to sell online courses. Instead, you need:

• Content creation skills

• Instructional design skills

• An understanding of Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Visit Udemy and Kajabi Academy Help Center to learn about creating online courses.

Digital Art

The world evolves, and technology advances non-stop. So, art has taken another form. You can create art as a graphic designer, visual artist, or illustrator. Some digital art products are:

• Logos and other branding elements

• Character designs

• Portraits

• Sticker designs

• Animations

• Wallpapers

• Themes for electronic devices

• Fonts

• Tattoo designs

• NFTs (Non-fungible tokens)

• Watermarks

• Clothing print designs

You can sell digital art on Amazon, Etsy, social media, and Upwork. Companies, social media influencers, web designers, and collectors will buy the art. Get more digital artistry knowledge on edX, Udemy, Sellfy, and Alison. These websites teach these courses in detail and award certificates.

Webinars

You can use webinars to share value as a thought leader, creator, or subject matter expert. Webinars help you connect with your audience and generate leads. After connecting, you can decide to sell other webinars. That is, you can share premium value for a fee.

Tools for hosting webinars include Crowdcast, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Skills needed to host and sell webinars are:

• A strong knowledge of a subject matter or niche

• Computer literacy

• Content creation

• Public speaking

• Marketing

You can sell webinars on social media, personal website, Podia, Selar, and Thinkific. Also, you can improve your webinar creation knowledge on:

• Zoom Learning Center

• YouTube

• Udemy

• LinkedIn Learning

 

Social Media Content

Almost everyone today creates content on social media. It could be for engagement, raising brand awareness, or increasing web traffic.

Some people are unsure which content to create or how. You can make money if you are vast in creating customizable social content templates. Examples of social content you can create are:

• Email templates

• Content calendar

• Video templates

• Infographics

• Guides

• Memes

You can sell social media content on Fiverr, Freelancer, and social media. Creating social media content requires skills such as:

• Content creation

• Content marketing or strategy

• An understanding of social platform algorithms

You can learn how to create social media content on Coursera, edX, and LinkedIn Learning.

Memberships

Suppose you have valuable content to share with a community continuously. You need to consider memberships. With memberships, people can subscribe to your content and get exclusive solutions. The content can be text, video, or audio-based. In other words, they could be guides, workbooks, podcasts, or live recordings.

As a part of your community, they get information, tips, and answers before everyone else. You can sell memberships on Podia, Kajabi, Selar, and Thinkific.

As a creator, you need specific skills to create and sell memberships. These include niche expertise, content creation, and marketing.

Udemy and YouTube are examples of platforms on which to learn how to create a membership.

Cookbooks

Selling books with several recipes is a high-income skill. Cookbooks allow you to share your recipes with your target audience. Creating cookbooks does not require a knowledge of all the meals in the world. You might stick to creating recipes for a few dishes in your locality.

Also, add meal plans to diversify the cookbook a little more.

To sell cookbooks, you need a solid knowledge of meal preparations. Also, you need to understand how websites for selling cookbooks work. You can sell cookbooks on Create My Cookbook and Amazon.

Music

You can create sound effects, beats, or stock music. Businesses, YouTubers, podcasters, and filmmakers can buy the music. Platforms for selling music are Epidemic Sound, Shutterstock, Sellfy, and Amazon.

To create music, you need skills such as:

• Music theory

• Sound design

• Musical composition

Intending or existing music creators can learn better on edX and Udemy.

Scale Your Digital Product Business Like Pros

People are making waves and earning big by selling digital products. Having learned how to make money selling digital products, we highlight a few below.

Kayla Warner

Kayla Warner made $93K selling printable business planners on Etsy. She is a graphic designer and founder of Amma Rose Designs, which opened its shop in 2018. Kayla started on Etsy by selling printable PDFs. After people demanded digital copies, she began selling digital planners.

Kayla only made S45 in her first month, while she made $1,000 total in less than four months. During the 2020 pandemic, her Etsy shop made $93,534.21 in revenue.

Diamond Lee 

Diamond Lee began selling digital products after realizing people made millions from ebooks. She founded a digital marketing consulting company – HerDesign Media Co. Diamond first made $27 from a 20-page ebook she created. Within 59 days of selling the ebook, she made $19,938.

 

Gillian Perkins

Gillian created a membership site in 2018 and created content for members for a month. She tested whether people would pay for the membership site by selling a few live workshops, which helped her confirm whether people loved what she taught.

After she introduced the workshop, 20-50 people signed up and paid about $1,000 to $2,000 each. When she launched her membership site, 300 people registered at $33 each, and she earned almost $10,000 in a month.

Conclusion

Selling digital downloads is a brilliant side hustle — it can even be the main one. Fortunately, you can sell anything, from physical products to memberships.

Throughout the article, we have shown you how to make money selling digital products. Remember, you can create digital products based on your strengths, skills, and knowledge. You can also sell your products on any of the websites we listed earlier to start earning.