How to Sell Digital Products Online and Make Money in 2023

Last updated on June 13th, 2023 at 08:15 am

If you wish to start making money online, Selling digital products is one of those lucrative online businesses to consider. Selling digital products is an excellent way to channel knowledge and talent to an income stream.

Selling digital products is a low-cost side hustle or full-time business to start in 2023. While digital products require little capital to start, it takes planning and execution to succeed.

Selling digital products might sound overwhelming, and you are probably thinking of how to get started with production, execution, launching, and marketing.

In this post, we’ll go through in detail how to make money selling digital products, where to sell your digital products, key steps, and tips to help you sell digital products successfully.

What is a digital product?

Digital products are intangible items you can pay for online. They are not physical products, but they have online and offline values. They can’t be touched or tasted, but everyone consumes them. Examples are music, videos, ebooks, PDFs, and web applications.

We utilize these products regularly, even though they cannot be physically held or felt.

Why sell digital products?

Have you ever wondered why selling digital products might be preferable to selling physical goods? There are numerous reasons to consider opting for digital products instead of physical ones. But, in this post, we have listed the important reasons to consider selling digital products.

Low-cost start-ups: starting a digital product business does not need high capital. Once you have uncovered the product to sell, the next step is to Launch your idea, which costs little.
Creating passive income is the perfect way to make money online, especially if you look forward to retiring early. Selling digital products is an excellent way to create passive income. Digital products are inventories that stay online forever, and once you have created them and they start making sales, the income stream continues.
It’s a flexible way to make money online. Selling digital products is an easy way to earn extra income from home. It takes little time but yields much income. In addition, you don’t need to worry about processing and shipping.
They are profitable
Ease of distribution
No need to replenish the inventory
High-demand

How to sell digital products

Know your product and target audience.

Before starting your digital product business, you must know your target audience and the product type to sell.

Knowing your product and target audience will help you create a product that meets your audience’s needs.

Keyword research

You have picked out the product to sell, right? So the next step is to do your keyword research. Keyword research provides you with information about your competitors, what they are doing wrong, and be sure to upskill on their weak side.

It gives you insights into what customers want and how to satisfy them.

Use keyword research tools like eRank to help you keep track of your competitors and know which keywords people are searching for.

Choose the best platform to sell your digital product.

Many platforms, such as Shopify and Etsy, are available to sell digital products. Each forum has perks and disadvantages, so choose the platform that best suits your needs.

For example, Etsy is an excellent platform for selling Digital planners, while Gumroad is better for online creators. This post lists the best venues to sell digital products and why you should choose each.

Create an attractive website.

If you wish to sell digital products on your website, your website or landing page should be easy to use, visually attractive, and provide all the information about your product. You will also need to optimize your website to rank.

But if you want to avoid the hassle of creating a website, optimizing, and figuring out how to get the best out of your website, you can use platforms that let you sell without a website.

Do I need a website to sell digital products online? Well, the truth is, this is 2023, and NO, a website is optional for you to be a successful digital seller. Many platforms like Etsy, Sellfy, Gumroad, and Shopify lets you sell digital products without owning a website.

For any platform, offer an easy user interface to promote returning customers.

Offer a free sample.

When starting, offering a free sample of your digital product is a great way to attract customers. It helps you gain customers, and offering free samples allows users to see the value of your product before committing to a purchase.

Market your digital product

Marketing is an essential part of any sales business. You can use social media, email marketing, and paid advertising to promote your digital products. In addition, if you have enough to invest in your digital products business, you can leverage influencers to promote your digital store.

Engaging your audience on social media and other platforms is also an excellent way to build customer relationships and will encourage customers to return.

Provide excellent services

Providing excellent service is critical to retaining customers and generating good reviews. In addition, giving customers value for the product they purchased is a perfect way to keep them returning.

Best place to sell digital products

There are many online websites where you can sell digital products, but let’s look at the best places to sell digital products.

Sellfy

Sellfy is one of the best e-commerce sites for beginners. It is explicitly made for digital products and is easy to create. It’s the go-to website for creators who hate complexity but want quick results Sellfy lets you build a customizable online store where you can sell all kinds of digital products and store up to at least 10GB of files. Pricing Sellfy plan comes in months, year, and two years plans.

The monthly plan is $84/month.
A year starter’s plan is $264 at $22/month for a year.
The two years plan is $456 at $19/month.

Sellfy offers 14 days free trial with no credit card required. So you can hop on Sellfy and test it out. If it doesn’t suit you, you can cancel out.

Podia

Podia is an all-in-one platform that lets you build a website, host a community, and sell digital products, including memberships, online courses, digital downloads, and many others; it even lets you create online shops.

Podia is best for online creators who create ebooks and audiobooks. It lets you sell online courses, downloads, and webinars.

Pricing: Podia has a free plan, a mover plan, and a shaker plan.

With the free plan, they get 8% of your earnings when you make a sale.
A mover plan charges $39/month or $396/year at $33/month
A shaker plan at $89/month or $900/year at $75/month

The paid program on Podia lets you keep all your earnings

Podia offers instant payout and has a 14-day free trial period which enables you to explore all the features and be sure you are okay with the features and what they provide before investing in it.

Gumroad

For those seeking to market digital products on a platform with less competition, Gumroad is the ideal choice. Gumroad is an online marketplace and e-commerce platform where people buy and sell digital and physical products. Gumroad targets mostly online creators, allowing them to monetize their online content; it lets online creators sell subscriptions and memberships.

Gumroad lets sellers set up their landing page, which hosts their products and allows them to make easy sales.

Pricing: Gumroad charges no monthly fee. It costs $0 to sell on the site. Gumroad is focused more on growing with sellers. As a result, they only take 9% of your earnings.

Shopify

Shopify is a popular e-commerce store with over 2 million daily active users. Shopify allows businesses to sell both physical and digital products online. In addition, Shopify lets you customize, choose a theme, add products to your store, and reach a wider audience.

Shopify supports digital products like PDFs, video files, audio, and images.

Shopify is best for diversified sellers. It lets sellers sell in multiple places, including pop-up stores, mobile, and across social media platforms.

Pricing: Shopify offers a basic plan, Shopify, and an advanced plan

Charges $32 per month for a basic plan
$92 per month for a Shopify plan
$399 per month for the advanced plan

Etsy

Etsy is a global marketplace famous for selling handmade products, printables, digital planners, and crafts. Etsy has over 80 million active customers willing to purchase products. Therefore, selling digital products on Etsy is highly profitable as you reach more eager audiences.

Pricing: selling on Etsy is cheaper than most other e-commerce stores. They don’t charge upfront fees.

Types of fees on Etsy

Listing fees: Etsy charges $0.20 for each product you list on their site
Transactions fees: Etsy charges 6.5% of the price displayed on your listed products
Advertisement fee: Etsy also charges an advertising fee depending on which Ads you run and how long you run the Ads

Other sites where you can sell Digital Products

Best Digital Products to Sell in 2023.

Ebooks
Online courses
Softwares
Digital Planners
Memberships
Printables
Templates
Music
Arts
Videos

Conclusion

Selling digital products is one of the best ways to create passive income from home. However, it requires careful planning and execution. By defining your target audience and product, choosing the best platform, creating an attractive website, offering a free sample, marketing your product, and providing excellent service, you can increase your chances of success.

Starting on websites like Sellfy, Etsy, Gumroad, and Amazon also helps you maximize your sales.