The Most Profitable Digital Products to Sell in 2022 (With Examples)

December 27, 2021
Contents

We live in a world where online tutorials are a great way to learn, and music videos keep us entertained. Digital products are everywhere on the Internet. They are, however, often overlooked. Do you want to sell digital products online? It is a great way to start an online business.

Customers want digital products. Digital products are an integral part of modern life, and even if you aren't selling them directly, it might be worth thinking about how you can leverage them to promote your other offerings. The key is making sure the experience is seamless for your customer.

There are plenty of reasons why companies turn to digital products. By embracing e-commerce, entrepreneurs can sell their products to a broader range of customers and markets without worrying about storage or shipping logistics.

Digital products require minimal overhead and help businesses diversify their revenue streams — who doesn't want to make money while they sleep?

If you want to sell digital products and don't know where to start, this is the perfect place for you. We will walk you through easy and doable digital product ideas to kickstart your business. Let's go!

What is a Digital Product?

A digital product is any product you sell online that doesn't have a physical form or substance. It is intangible or non-physical. For example, the products we provide are intangible because they do not have a physical form but a digital one.

E-books, courses, mailing lists, graphics, software, themes, logos, templates, videos, music — products delivered online through downloadable or streaming formats make up the world of digital products.

With Offeo, you can create digital products like cool, fun, yet professional videos for your brand. Offeo's videos are digital products that consist of video templates, animation, effects, stock music, images, and videos.

Selling digital products lets you build up an e-commerce business in the online space without having to worry about storage, shipping costs, and taxes.

What's more, the demand for digital products will only soar over the coming years. You can see this from the digital market's valuation at USD 998.99 billion in 2020 and is expected to continue growing to USD 2744.68 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 17.42% during the forecast period 2021-2026.

Why Should You Start Selling Digital Products?

Selling digital products gives you a few perks that you wouldn't enjoy with physical products.   Here are the reasons why you should start selling digital products:

The Growing Market and Demand

As we mentioned in the previous section, the digital products industry will reach USD 2744.68 billion by 2026! In the last year itself, digital products found newfound respect; the e-learning industry is supposed to be worth a whopping $374 billion by 2026. 

With so many growth prospects, you can be assured that selling digital products will be a lucrative business.

No Inventory Management

With digital products, businesses can sell products without purchasing or shipping inventory. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for entrepreneurs, including developing new businesses around niche products or micro-niches.

Digital products also allow brands to experiment with different pricing structures and deliver their products directly.

Less Capital Investment Required

Digital products are the best solution for businesses trying to create a high-value product without spending too much on overhead costs. You don't need to pay for inventory, shipping, or logistics when you’re selling digital products. 

Plus, your profit margins are higher than they'd be on physical products because there's less invested in overhead.

Highly Scalable

Digital products are popular because of their flexibility. With a digital product, you can start selling it immediately without the need to worry about sourcing or shipping inventory. 

Unlike physical products, digital products are also infinitely scalable — there's very little difference between delivering ten units per day and delivering 10,000 units per day. This makes it easier to hit large volumes of sales. Digital products are also high-profit margin items.

Go Global

Selling digital products is a great way to start making money online. Not only does it give you more control over your income, but it also frees you from the constraints of the marketplace — with the ability to sell your product globally and at any time of day.

Digital Product Ideas To Sell

Online business owners know that it’s important to diversify their revenue streams to create a sustainable and profitable online business.

Digital products are a great way to do so because they can provide an ongoing income stream for years when done right. There is no limit when it comes to the list of digital products you can sell, so you’ll want to explore all of the options until you find just the right one.

Here are some of the most profitable digital products you can sell online.

E-books

If you're looking for an easy way to create a passive income stream, you should consider writing eBooks. With the multitude of platforms to distribute them on —including Amazon, Apple’s iBookstore, Smashwords, and more — eBooks are one of the easiest ways to sell text-based digital products.

The reason people are so willing to shell out cold hard cash for your eBook is that they genuinely want it.

If you are an expert in one particular area, you'll be able to attract customers who are willing to spend money to learn from you. Take this time to share your knowledge with them via eBooks.

If you're not a naturally gifted writer, that's okay! When writing an eBook, you don't need to write a literary masterpiece. Instead, focus on providing quality information to your customers clearly and concisely.

THE REAL+GOOD WRITER'S DNA | The Real+Good Writer

For example: The Real Good Writer's DNA is an ebook by Rachel Giesel. She explores the question "what makes you a writer?" with readings, exercises, and prompts that sure will inspire and motivate you.

Currently, the ebook is free. But you can also write an ebook and start to sell online.

Online Courses

If you have the expertise, and a passion for sharing it with the world, then you can sell an online course that shares your knowledge. People are eager to learn DIY skills from home, whether they want to learn a new hobby or advance themselves professionally—you can serve them by launching your course online.

Skills are in demand, and if you've got the time to put together an education program, it could be a lucrative business model.

But it’s essential to create your product using the proper channels, at the right time, with the right audience.

An excellent online course should be interactive - rather than just a series of videos or slides, it will contain quizzes, projects, forum discussions, etc.

You don’t need to have formal training as an educator, and you don’t even need to leave your home office to start.

Students learn at their own pace with online courses, so they don’t have to be stand-alone. Instead, sell them in bundles or smaller segments.

Teaching online lets you turn something you already have — your expertise — into a new source of revenue.

Online video courses are the next big thing in the education and training space. They help individuals and businesses learn new skills and take a lot of time and money to build.

More and more entrepreneurs are selling digital products like books and online courses — they’re an easy way to make passive income, and you can focus on building your business while still making money. They are also the most profitable digital products.

Example

Dave Fox on his travels

Globejotting is an endeavor started by Dave Fox, a popular travel writer and  globe trotter. He teaches courses on travel writing and journaling.  If you are also good at something, an online course is a way to go.

Digital Tools

Templates and tools can make life easier for your customers — they can help them create marketing materials, edit videos, and write letters. Here are a few examples:

Creating graphic design templates for print materials, websites, or social media posts is a great way to help people streamline their design process and save time.

There's a world of people looking for templates that fit their specific needs. From WordPress bloggers to newlyweds to business professionals, templates can save them the time and effort to design something from scratch.

Templates can help get wedding invitations sent out on time, make personalized business cards, plan marketing strategies, crunch numbers on excel, or polish resumes in a pinch.

Take Offeo, for example.

Offeo Templates

Our online video-making tool makes eye-catching videos in just a few minutes.

We have 500+ video templates and a rich library of stock videos, music, and images you can use. The one-click animation tool feature, Geniemate, makes the job easier for newbie creators. Want to create a catchy video for social media? Offeo does it with a few clicks. Don't know video-editing but want to generate brand videos for marketing? Offeo has got your back.

Not just Offeo, Jana Hagan made hundreds of resume templates during her time off between jobs. Her templates became a huge success. She became successful at creating digital products; you can do it too.

Online digital tools and templates sell like hotcakes right now. This is your sign to start selling digital assets.

Stock Photography

Black Dslr Camera Mounted on Black Tripod

Stock photography gives you a chance to take beautiful, aspirational photos without lots of expensive equipment or the need for costly models. 

Whether you prefer candid shots or staged scenarios, stock photography can help you take great pictures and make great money. If you have a good eye for photos, consider selling your images online. Stock photo sites like Shutterstock and Adobe Stock sell licensing rights to photographers, who earn money every time a customer buys a license. 

Many people consider stock photography a game of chance—they throw their photos online and hope for the best. But the story doesn’t end there. If you believe in your work, you can make money by licensing your photos to hundreds of buyers on sites like Shutterstock, iStock, and Getty Images. While the process may sound complicated, it’s quite simple - licensing.

Licensing your work on stock photo sites is a great way to get exposure and passive income. However, most of these sites take up to 50% in commission on every sale. This makes it essential to research the industry and track your sales on each site to monitor which ones are worth your time.

If you’re a professional photographer and looking for a way to make money from your photos and videos, starting your stock photo site isn’t the only option.  Major sites like Shutterstock and iStockPhoto purchase exclusive images from creative professionals. Alternatively, you might want to sell your photographs from your websites. Many fine art photographers take this route, so they don’t have to share their profits with established marketplaces.

Example

Collecting Memories Digitally  Marianna Jamadi

Marianna Jamadi is a travel photographer whose goal is to help people travel digitally. She shares her travel photos on Instagram, but she also makes a passive income by selling her pictures on Shuttershock.

TIP: You can also sell videos online on Vimeo, 3D cart, Skypilot, etc.

Software

If you have a software idea, then the software industry is the place to be! The world of programming apps and plugins is a growing, exciting one that can offer you a chance to earn a good living from your skills.

Imagine developing products that hundreds, even thousands, of people will buy. Your idea can be anything from a social media app to an image-editing program.

SaaS, or software as a service, is the hottest sector for businesses worldwide. It's also among the most lucrative. Startups have created numerous tools that have already taken off in the SaaS world, and anyone who knows how to code can create something innovative and valuable.

It doesn't matter what language you know — if you know code, you can create great products to sell online that are likely already being used by other companies.

The coding community is a vast and growing space with no end in sight to its growth. And that means more and more opportunities for people who understand the language.

It’s difficult to say precisely how much one can make from code, but some freelancers report making over six figures per year building websites and apps, while some sites report WordPress themes selling for hundreds of dollars.

Example

Buffer

Buffer made a name for itself as a SaaS tool that helps businesses manage their social media accounts more efficiently. Their simple product is designed to make it easier for users to schedule their social content in advance with a quick drag-and-drop interface that saves them from the hassle of looking at the clock and deciding what time is best to share content.

Apps

Apps have become a part of everyday life, and in most cases, they’re a great way to make a business more convenient for customers. Apps are interactive, customizable, and easy to use — saving consumers time and money.

For instance, when you need a taxi, you can call one from the app on your phone. Fortunately, creating a mobile app doesn’t need to be complex. App development is easier than ever, but that doesn't mean that building an app is easy.  It takes a lot of work on design, development, and marketing on three different fronts.

Design is the most crucial of the three parts because if your app isn't attractive or engaging, it won't stand out in a crowd. There are tons of software programs available for anyone who has an idea for a mobile app. These programs let you design apps without coding knowledge, so even people with no technical background can create high-quality apps with advanced features.

As technology changes, it opens up new opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs. App development is one of the best examples of creating value in any industry.

Creating an app is simple and inexpensive. For less than $5000, you can create a polished, professional application that you can distribute across multiple operating systems and devices.

However, apps require ongoing work, maintenance, and quality control to stay relevant. 

Example

Chad Mureta Fingerprint Security Co. app

This is one of the most famous stories of app development. The idea came from a person with no business background, but it is an excellent story on how a single idea can go a long way.

While returning home after a basketball game, Chad Mureta was involved in a severe accident that landed him in the hospital and got him thinking about security. 

He noticed his doctors looking through his phone and thought, "Why can't my phone have fingerprint access? That'd be so much safer!" 

Then he thought of an app that would change his life. Chad Mureta is the creator of Fingerprint Security Pro, an app that helps users protect their belongings by using fingerprint recognition technology.

Its success resonated worldwide with its innovative approach to identifying and securing personal data. 

Sell Music

Today, the barriers to making and selling music have been released for those who are more artistically inclined. From basement studios to touring bands who sell their merchandise, you can record your music, then make it available, where ever you wish. It’s as if the entire world of online marketing has been set out before you on a table; you’re able to choose from dozens of platforms and tools to sell your music.

Technology has changed the way we listen to music. Before the mp3, we were confined to purchasing CDs and vinyl records — we had no other options. But today it’s a different story: we can listen to music on-demand, and wherever we wish: on our phones, on our TVs, and even in our cars! 

The internet has become a distribution channel for music, putting power back in the musician’s hands.

With the right tools, you can create your winning marketing campaign. You can market your music to fans anywhere in the world while retaining complete creative control over your output and avoiding unnecessary bureaucratic red tape with flexible self-publishing platforms like Bandcamp and Kickstarter.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer is an excellent example of someone who has made a living off her music by selling it directly to fans. Her fans loved her music and supported her by sending money to her website. She doesn't need majors anymore! There is room for everyone in this digital world.

Memberships

Selling digital products online has become quite a popular idea among entrepreneurs. Rather than selling products for free, they are creating their online store or app to sell valuable digital products.

Digital subscriptions are a great way to sell digital products. Simply put, the digital products you have built behind a paywall and collect recurring revenue from subscribers—who will have access to all of your digital goods as long as they stay subscribed.

 It's a great way to build a community around a collection of content rather than just one single product. Great for those who want to expand their portfolio of digital products with time.

This approach has many advantages. You can generate recurring revenue, which is excellent if you want to maintain a growing library of premium content and nurture a community of passionate members.

Just keep in mind that paid subscriptions can sometimes create an opportunity to monetize your existing content marketing efforts directly.

Example

Home | Grow with Jo app - Diet & Workout

Grow with Jo Youtube channel is a popular fitness channel on Youtube. Jo shares free workout videos with her Youtube community, but her app is a special place. It is only available for members who pay a certain fee. They get access to tailor-made content and meal plans by Jo herself.

Graphic Assets

Designer bundles are a great way to sell your assets to the “DIY” market, who don’t want to spend hours creating their graphics. Specialized graphic arts bundles are a great way for creative individuals to make a passive income, and it's easy to see why.

When people purchase bundles of graphic art, they get a wide range of assets at a fraction of the price. This is a fantastic way to build an inventory without breaking the bank.

Plus, you can sell them to anyone who wants superior designs at a discount price. Selling creative assets lets you tap into a growing market that hasn’t been penetrated yet. By selling creative assets online, you provide the solution and have an advantage over similar businesses.

Suppose you’re a graphic designer and have a passion for creativity. In that case, there’s a whole range of popular clip art packs that can generate passive income and leads for your personal or freelance consulting business. Selling digital products can be a great way to earn an income on the side or even start your own business. 

Digital artwork is often inexpensive to produce and can cover a range of niches. So if you're looking for something new to develop, creating digital products may be an excellent choice!

Learn more: 5 Skills Every Digital Designer Needs

How Offeo Can Help

Video marketing is one of the most potent ways to bring in new customers and increase brand awareness, but creating videos can be difficult and time-consuming for busy business owners.

With Offeo Online Ad Maker, you can create high-quality video ads in just minutes with simple drag-and-drop functionality.

Offeo is an online video ad maker that helps online sellers create videos for their products. With Offeo, you can use simple and engaging templates to create professional-looking marketing videos in minutes without design experience.

You can easily add text, photos, shapes, and icons to your video and adjust different colors and animations to match your brand.

With its wide range of customization options, our mission at Offeo is to make online video creation accessible to everyone.

FAQs: Digital Products

What Are Digital Products?

A digital product is a product you can sell and distribute online that doesn't have a physical form. These intangible assets usually come in the form of website themes, ebooks, PDFs, videos, software, and templates.

What Digital Products Can I Sell Online?

  • E-books
  • Online Courses
  • Digital Tools
  • Stock Photography
  • Software
  • Apps
  • Sell Music
  • Memberships
  • Graphic Assets

How To Sell Digital Products?

  1. Brainstorm digital product ideas
  2. Narrow down your niche
  3. Define a target market
  4. Survey your audience to find a problem to focus on.
  5. Create a digital product to solve the problem
  6. Validate your idea with experts
  7. Conduct beta tests
  8. Create an online store
  9. Implement revisions based on beta tests and validation
  10. Publish your product in the online store
  11. Drive traffic with SEO, PPC, creating content (video, animations, etc)

Why Sell Digital Products?

  • Lower overhead costs
  • Fewer barriers of entry
  • Ever-increasing product types to sell
  • No inventory needed
  • Lucrative profit margins
  • The large market of the internet
  • Able to connect directly to customers

Where To Sell Digital Products?

  • Sellwire
  • SendOwl
  • FetchApp
  • Gumroad
  • E-junkie
  • Easy Digital Downloads
  • PayLoadz
  • DPD
  • FastSpring
  • Simple Goods
  • Sellfy
  • Selz
  • Pulley
  • MemberPress

Conclusion

Digital products have taken over life in the 21st century. Nowadays, selling physical products is not the only way to sell online. You can create an online platform, sell a service, digital product, or even templates.

But no matter what kind of digital product you have, online courses, or stock photos, you need to market your products.

You need to market your products effectively to succeed in the highly competitive online digital products space as a digital product business.

Written By
Ankita

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