The production of digital goods is quick and cheap. There isn’t any actual inventory to maintain. You can produce a single digital product and sell it repeatedly to make passive revenue that isn’t dependent on how many hours you put in.
Looking for a method to grow your company and boost your income without spending all day at the office? You could find the answer you’re looking for in digital goods.
There are countless digital product ideas that might help you launch your own business, expand your current business, or just help you earn additional money.
Exactly, What Is a Digital Product?
A product that is generated, purchased, and used digitally is known as a digital product. You only use it online, on your mobile device, or in your web browser; there is no actual object.
One of the finest — and simplest — methods to get a passive income is through selling digital things, which is true for a variety of reasons.
It is affordable to start. There is no inventory to purchase in advance, no storefront to lease, and no shipments to make. To create a product, you may utilize cheap and free tools; frequently, your only outlay will be fees for the sales platform you choose to employ.
Digital goods are inert. Regardless of whether you are working or not, you may create a product once and sell it repeatedly. Online service sales are a fantastic way to launch your own business, but they may be time-consuming and you might only be able to accommodate a small number of customers. With digital goods, you can market to as many people as you want and sell online whenever you want.
Scalable digital goods exist. The number of hours in a day that you can work determines how much money you can make while selling a service. You may dramatically develop your business when you offer digital products without having to put in more hours at the office.
19 Digital Products You Can Sell Online
Digital items come in a variety of forms and have varying degrees of passivity. Others need upkeep, while some “set it and forget it.” The majority of them may be divided into three groups:
- Fully passive: You invest the time to produce the product only once, and you sell it forever. These goods are often less priced, and earnings could be erratic.
- Semi-passive: Although the product is passive, you may periodically need to promote or update it. Since these are expensive digital goods, there is more potential for earning money.
- These are generally subscription- or membership-based goods, occasionally active. Although the income is more steady, you must actively maintain it at least once every month.
It’s better to have a mix of these three passive revenue sources, and there are many digital product concepts you can employ to develop a line of goods that match your company and boost profits.
1. Ebooks
If you enjoy writing, there are several passive income opportunities with eBooks. You may record an audiobook on Audible, make guided diaries or coloring books, self-publish a collection of fiction or nonfiction books on Amazon, or sell digital books on your website.
By offering your readers a unique bargain for a more expensive service or digital good, you can even earn money by giving away your eBook. To show individuals how marketing funnels may increase income, Russell Brunson offers his books for free (you just have to pay shipping and handling). He also offers tools for building marketing funnels.
2. Online courses
More individuals than ever are realizing the value of online courses for training and skill development. A course aggregator like Coursera or Udemy will accept courses that are text-, audio-, or video-based. A better choice could be to use a platform like Teachable or Outschool to sell a course from your own website.
Do you believe there is already a course around your area of expertise? Defy intimidation. Possibly, people are still interested in what you have to say. For instance, there are several courses available on freelancing, but each has a distinct advantage. This is the justification for someone choosing yours over an already available course.
Any skill or body of information may be made into a course. People are taught blacksmithing in a few courses online.
Many courses are “evergreen,” which means the information is always current and unrelated to a certain time or occasion. Although these courses are normally entirely passive, you may sometimes earn extra money by “launching” your course at particular periods of the year. People feel a feeling of urgency from the limited-time offer, which might boost purchases.
3. Workshops
If you don’t have the time to produce an eBook or develop a comprehensive course, think about developing a workshop. A live or recorded workshop commonly referred to as a webinar can be held once and resold endlessly. The webinar can also act as a lead magnet for the eventual sales of more expensive goods or services.
Once the webinar has been recorded, it often doesn’t need to be updated unless you wish to modify the material or content. You may set up automatic adverts that direct people to your workshop in order to enhance sales.
4. Guides or tutorials
If you have knowledge or specialized expertise in something—from zoology to archery—you may earn money by offering concise guides or tutorials that provide step-by-step directions on how to do it.
In that they often only teach one skill as opposed to a course that teaches multiple, tutorials are comparable to workshops. Written, video or a mix of both can be used to deliver instructions and guides.
This is a fully passive product because the majority of the abilities for which you would write or record a lesson won’t change frequently.
5. Membership site
Members of a membership site or monthly subscription buy a digital good each month and get something new every month in return. Even while creating new material every month may not seem like a way to earn money passively, there are several ways to set one up such that it is largely automatic.
You may produce all of your material in advance and release a small amount each month. Or you might develop a course that students pay for on a monthly basis and make content available for a specified period of time.
Even certain digital product templates, such as video courses, food plans, and exercise routines, may be used to build a membership website. The makers of KetoConnect built a membership website full of exclusive courses, eBooks, recipes, and videos for their subscribers, and they add one new video every week.
6. Printables
Selling games, coloring pages, checklists, timetables, and worksheets are a terrific method to generate passive revenue. If you have complicated printables, you may sell them separately or group simpler printables into sets.
Printables may be created using Canva for free, and there is no limit to the number of copies you can sell as they are often inexpensive goods.
Printables have the advantage that you can sell them on Etsy and profit from the existing traffic without having to create any of your own. WeCreatePrints has been selling their printable wall art exclusively on Etsy since 2019, and since then, they have generated close to 2,000 sales.
7. Templates
It’s possible to get passive revenue by creating templates for social media visuals, Excel spreadsheets, and printable documents. In Canva, Google Sheets, or Slides, you can create templates for nothing and offer directions on how to duplicate the template for customization.
With tools like SendOwl and online marketplaces like Creative Market or Etsy, you may sell them on your own website.
8. Commercial-use music
Videographers and editors are often seeking music and sound effects that are royalty-free to use in YouTube videos, advertisements, and perhaps even full-length movies. If you’re a musician, you may make passive revenue by granting permission for others to utilize your music.
While each track may be made once and sold endlessly, you’ll need to continue making fresh music to attract repeat listeners. On websites like HookSounds and Bensound, you may sell music and sound effects without paying any royalties.
9. Scripts
People frequently struggle to come up with the right words, whether they are drafting a best man speech or asking for a raise. People can use prewritten scripts for negotiations, speeches, sales calls, fundraisers, and other situations to make sure they say everything that has to be said.
On websites like Fiverr or your own website, you may sell these scripts. The majority of Chloe Elise’s $75,000 a month income comes from passive sources. One of her web offerings is a collection of scripts for haggling discounts on more than 20 charges.
10. B-roll footage
B-roll is extra video used in the making of movies and television shows. You don’t need pricey cameras to earn passive revenue selling B-roll because of how popular YouTube is. YouTubers on a tight budget may make B-roll by recording video using an iPhone.
You may even upload your films to YouTube with background music created for commercial purposes. Once you satisfy YouTube’s monetization standards, you will get passive money.
While you may repeatedly sell the same scene, like commercial-use music, your best chance of scaling is when you have a large selection of B-roll. This implies that until you create a database, you will need to keep building some.
11. Mobile apps
Ninety percent of the time we spend on our phones is spent utilizing applications. A smartphone app might be the perfect digital product for your company, depending on the sort of enterprise you run. You may monetize your app by charging users to download or use it, using in-app advertisements or affiliate links, or both.
Without any prior coding knowledge, you may construct an app using one of their templates or a service like BuildFire can do it for you. To maintain your app functional and encourage users to return, you’ll need to update and add features, but other than that, a mobile app is largely passive.
12. Plugins or extensions
If you own a website, you’re definitely familiar with plugins. If not, then it’s possible that you use Google Chrome and have installed or utilized browser add-ons. However, you may charge for specialized plugins and extensions even if many are free.
It may be very profitable and passive to create WordPress plugins or Chrome extensions that employ an algorithm to do laborious tasks fast in their place. Selling a Chrome addon that did precisely that with Amazon textbooks, Spencer Haws made more than $4,000 in a single week.
You must frequently update the plugin or extension to keep it operating correctly, much like you would with a mobile app, but other than that, it will generate income without your involvement.
13. Photography
On their websites, in their advertising, on social media, and even on their YouTube channels, businesses utilize stock images. You may create your own stock picture subscription business or sell your images on stock photo websites. You may sell images without expensive equipment as well; the camera on your smartphone should be sufficient.
On websites like Shutterstock or Adobe Stock, you may passively sell individual photographs or upload your own. To make the most of your digital product business, you’ll need to continually upgrade your portfolio on your own website.
Related Articles: 11 Places to Get Paid to Take Pictures
14. Animations and vectors
The most common type of imagery used on websites is stock photography, but an increasing number of website owners and bloggers are using animations and vectors to stand out. If you have design skills, you may sell animations and vector pictures on the same sites where stock photography is sold or you can start your own subscription services. Utilize tools like Adobe Illustrator or Canva to create your photos.
Create an image collection that you can sell for fully passive revenue, or refresh your products frequently. You may also utilize marketing techniques to persuade companies to use animations and vectors rather than stock photos.
15. Website theme
Many blog and website owners prefer to develop their own websites since doing so using a premium theme is far less expensive than hiring a website designer. As a result, you now have the opportunity to generate passive income by designing and offering expensive WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace themes to small-business owners on a budget via your website or a marketplace like ThemeForest.
The process of creating premium website themes is largely passive, but in order for them to function correctly, you must maintain them updated.
Related: How to Become a Web Designer
16. Fonts
Brides, event organizers, and company owners may purchase calligraphy and hand lettering artists’ font creations to use on invites, posters, or even menus. Fonts may be created in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop and sold on marketplaces like Creative Market or MyFonts; they often don’t require updating.
17. Blueprints
Selling plans for home renovations is a passive way to earn money if you’re skilled with a tape measure and have some building expertise. There are many different designs you may utilize for common DIY projects like dog homes, pergolas, chicken coops, and treehouses.
Selling blueprint PDF downloads is a simple approach to bringing in passive money for a company that is normally service-based. To build the designs, you will need to purchase software, but you may rapidly recover that cost by selling the plans you produce.
18. Presets
Although visual material on social media predominates, not all of its creators are photographers and videographers. For picture editing sliders, presets are predetermined setting that gives you the desired edited effect.
Presets for Lightroom, Photoshop, and other software may make it simple for users to share eye-catching pictures.
By using an e-commerce platform like WooCommerce or Shopify, you may design a preset only once and sell it directly from your website. Presets are adaptable and seasonal-neutral, so you won’t need to update them frequently, but you could wish to promote them on social media.
19. Planners
People can use planners to schedule their meals, workouts, goals, budgets, and more. You may market your own store or print-on-demand websites like CreateSpace and Lulu to sell physical planners or printable PDFs. With the help of her website and Shopify store, blogger Sarah Titus has made over $10 million by selling downloadable planner pages and other items.
Undated planners are entirely inactive, apart from automated advertising. For a semi-passive company, you might offer outdated plans or even subscriptions to new planners each month.
Digital Items Never Sell Out
Digital goods provide a cost-effective option to make passive revenue without having to worry about inventory, storage, or shipping expenses. You may market your goods across the world and at any time of day.
To develop and expand your firm, build some digital goods around any services you provide.
