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The 12 most popular digital products you can sell online

As the team behind an eCommerce plugin, we constantly see the different types of products people are selling online. Most commonly, online stores sell digital products or physical products.




Selling physical products, whether handmade by the designer, or created by someone else and onsold, is highly changeable, and extremely time-consuming. There are the added complexities of shipping, international customers, taxes, laws, importing, inventory management, and so on.

Digital products, however, are in a league of their own.

In comparison, digital products are easy to distribute, significantly more sustainable, can be replicated infinitely, and are oftentimes simpler to create. With little more than one or a few devices, any person is capable of making a digital product worthy of sharing or selling. No physical materials, factories, or staff required. Just a computer, a sprinkle of passion and drive, and some time.

So, you may now be wondering “But what types of digital products can I create?” Well, we counter your question with a question in return: “What kind of products do you want to create?”

If you have something to share, you can turn it into a digital product to sell. You can share your knowledge, talents, opinions, or passion, and potentially make some money along the way.

In this post we’ve gathered a short list of digital products you can sell online. Get ready for some digital product inspiration, so you too can start creating and sharing with the world!

1. eBooks
eBooks have been and continue to be one of the most popular digital products for both creators and customers. They are relatively simple to produce since they require little more than written text and a few relevant images. eBooks are simple to distribute via large marketplaces or self-created online stores. They’re easily consumed by customers, who can read them on e-readers, tablets, computers, and even their mobile phones.

The beauty of creating eBooks is that you can share almost anything you know, or are passionate about, in text form. You can educate, advise, or curate existing content with an eBook to then sell on your website.

Interested in selling eBooks? We wrote an entire post on the topic here.

2. Software
Selling software online is something we should know a fair amount about. Not only have we helped thousands of customers sell software online, but it was originally the entire purpose that we created Easy Digital Downloads for; to sell WordPress plugins online. All types of software sales combined make up nearly 28% of sites using our platform, so it is something we truly care about.

The software industry is enormous and consistently growing. It is also extremely ripe with opportunities. Any person’s ability to write code of any kind can result in new, useful products. Whether it be desktop software, web-based applications, website templates, mobile apps, video games, or anything else powered by code. The possibilities are endless, and an established market likely exists.

If you speak (or rather, write) a code language, you can develop numerous things to sell online. Whether you have experience with apps, plugins, themes, snippets, websites, or something else entirely different, you can turn code into cash.

Want to know more about selling software online? A more detailed post is over here.

3. Video
Video is an extremely popular and effective format for delivering information online. Video content can be educational, informative, or entertaining. It’s significantly more engaging than text, and can be easily consumed by clicking a play button and watching. Users love video, and in many cases are happy to pay for it.

If you’re a great public speaker, have a visual-based passion, or just love sharing your thoughts on video, with a little editing time up your sleeve you can sell videos online.

For a much more detailed exploration of the topic of selling videos, wander over this way.

4. Audio & music
Audio is a powerful medium for communicating messages, and there are many different types of audio digital products. People pay for audio tracks that entertain them, soothe them, inform them, inspire them and help them achieve business goals, to list just a few examples. Audio products can include:

Recorded lectures
Musical samples
Audiobooks
Foreign language lessons
Relaxing background noises
Karaoke versions of popular songs
Reusable sound effects
Full lyrical or instrumental music tracks
Have a passion for music or other audio based products? A far more in depth guide is over here.

5. Photography
High-quality, premium photos are one of the most sought-after digital products today. The biggest consumers of online photographs are bloggers and website owners.

It’s true that stock photography has commoditized the market to the point where some photos are sold for less than they are worth (or they are given away for free). However, for truly spectacular images (and not some of the cheesy stuff you’ll find on stock websites), photographers can still command fair prices.

One of the biggest downfalls of stock sites from a customer perspective is not knowing exactly how much one or two images are. In some case

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