28 Digital Products to Sell for Passive Income in 2023

by Octavia D | Oct 30, 2022 | Business, How To

Passive income might just be the thing that saves you from working long hours every day of your life for the next few decades. And creating digital products to sell is one of the easiest, most efficient, and most reliable ways to get there.

The best part is, there are digital products you can sell in just about any niche you can think of. Whether you’re into fitness, beauty, or even business coaching – there’s a high chance that you can create a digital product around it and make money while you sleep.

Not sure what type of digital products you can create and sell?

No worries, we got you. Read on to get inspired and find out more about the top most popular digital products you could sell online in 2023.

Contents

What Are Digital Products?

Digital products can be defined as anything that can be delivered electronically. This includes but is not limited to eBooks, video courses, software, plugins, and membership sites.

The best part about selling digital products is that there are no inventory costs and once you’ve created the product, it can be sold an unlimited number of times. You can also automate the entire processs, so you don’t have to be hands-on all the time (which makes digital products a very good option for passive income.

Physical Products vs Digital Products

When comparing physical products to digital ones, one of the most important things to consider is the efficiency of both creating and selling them.

Physical products have a lot of advantages, for sure. Some of the most commonly touted ones include the fact that:

People can physically touch and hold them
They can be sold in brick-and-mortar stores
Customers might perceive them as more “real” or more trustworthy.

At the same time, physical products come with a series of disadvantages, too. These include:

The fact that they’re more expensive and time-consuming to create
There are inventory and shipping costs to consider
You have less control over the sales process
It can be harder to reach a global audience
You have to worry about fulfillment
Every region/ country has a different set of laws you must abide to

On the other hand, digital products come with a long list of benefits:

They’re generally much cheaper and faster to create
You have complete control over the sales process and can automate it
You can reach a global audience with ease
There are no inventory or shipping costs
It’s easier to offer discounts and bonuses
You can get started with very little money
You won’t run out of stock with them
You can handle a digital products business passively, without constant active input

Clearly, digital products to sell online are a great idea if you want to create streams of passive income, increase your personal brand authority, and scale your business without breaking a sweat.

Top 28 Digital Product Examples to Sell in 2023

OK, let’s say you are already decided on selling digital products — what are the best, most profitable, and easiest to create digital products you can sell online, then?

Based on the trends we’ve been noticing on this market, below are some ideas to inspire you. Although not all of them are fully passive, many of them can be low-effort enough to be run simultaneously with other digital products and/or a full-time job.

Here we go, the top 28 digital products to sell in 2023:

eBooks

eBooks are probably one of the best digital products to sell. In 2021, eBooks made for a $1,100,000,000 market, showing there’s a lot of potential there.

One of the things that make eBooks such a good idea is that they’re very easy and fast to create. You can have one done in a few days or weeks, depending on their length and complexity.

Another big advantage of eBooks is that once you’ve written them, you can sell them over and over again — and on multiple platforms too. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing is a popular choice, but you can also sell your eBook at other online bookstores that accept self-published work. Furthermore, you can also sell your eBook on your own website, Gumroad, or any of the alternatives to Gumroad out there (Sellfy, Podia, Etsy, and so on).

All in all, eBooks rank among the most versatile digital products — and for all the good reasons.

Software

Although software is not exactly a passive income (as you will have to maintain it and keep it updated), it can still be a very profitable business idea.

The thing with software is that people are always looking for new ways to increase their productivity, save time, or just make their work easier in general. Therefore, if you can come up with a helpful tool that solves a specific problem, you’re likely to find customers for it.

When it comes to software, the best thing you can do is focus on a single niche and really excel at solving a problem for that specific audience. This way, you’re more likely to succeed than if you try to create a tool that appeals to everybody.

Web Apps

There are many types of web apps you can build as digital products, such as :

Content Management Systems (CMS)
Forums
Quizzes and polls
Social networks
Calculators
Charts and graphics tools
Productivity tools
Learning platforms

The great thing about web apps is that they’re usually subscription-based. This means that you can create them once and keep selling them for years, as long as you maintain and update them regularly.

Furthermore, since web apps are accessed online, they can be used by people from all over the world — which gives you a much bigger potential audience than if you were to sell a physical product that can only be shipped to certain countries.

Digital Art & Graphics

If you’re good with Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other design software, you can create and sell online art & graphics.

There are many platforms you can use to sell your work, such as :

What’s great about digital art & graphics as digital products is that you can create them once and sell them over and over again. Furthermore, you can also use them to create other products, such as t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, and so on. Services such as Printify, Printful, and Teespring will add your designs to various types of merch and deal with the billing, printing, and fulfillment of your customers’ orders, so this can be a 100% passive income option for you.

Photography

If you’re a good photographer, you can make money by selling your photos online.

There are many websites that allow you to sell your photos, such as :

The key to making sure your photos are appealing to the market is to focus on a specific niche and make sure your photos are of high quality.

It’s also important to note that you don’t need to be a professional photographer to sell your photos — although it certainly helps. Even if you’re just an amateur with a good eye for composition, you can still make money from your photos.

Cloud Design App Templates

If you’re good at designing user interface (UI) or user experience (UX), you can create and sell app templates.

What’s great about selling app templates is that they can be used over and over again, which means that you can make money from them for years to come. Furthermore, since they’re digital products, there is no need to worry about inventory or shipping.

Mobile Apps

Same as with web apps and software, people are always looking for new mobile apps that can make their lives easier.

The thing with mobile apps as digital products is that you need to be very aware of the trends in order to create something people actually want. For example, in recent years we’ve seen a big increase in the number of health and fitness apps, as well as apps related to mental health.

Mobile apps are not fully passive income-drive, for sure (as they need to be maintained and updated), but they can be an excellent idea for someone who wants to make money from digital products.

digital-products-to-sell-in-2023-mobile-apps

WordPress Themes

If you’re good at coding, you can create and sell WordPress themes and plugins as digital products to sell.

The great thing about selling WordPress themes and plugins is that they can be used on an unlimited number of websites, which means that you can make a lot of money from them.

When creating WordPress themes, make sure they’re well-coded, easy to use, responsive, and SEO friendly.

Furthermore, it’s also a good idea to create both free and premium versions of your themes This way, you can attract both casual and serious users.

Fonts

If you’re good at designing fonts, you can create and sell them online. Some key tips to keep in mind when creating fonts as digital products to sell include :

Make sure your fonts are compatible with various design software
Create both serif and sans-serif fonts
Design in a variety of different styles, such as hand-drawn, script, and display fonts

Music & Audio

Like playing music and composing? If you want to sell your music, consider building an online business where you record tunes people can use as backing tracks, sound effects, or whatever else they need.

Since these are digital products, they can be downloaded multiple times — so just a handful of tunes can get you recurring, passive income with minimal investment on your side.

Podcasts

Although a lot of podcasts are free to listen to, that doesn’t mean they can’t be monetized. In fact, there are many ways to make money from podcasts, such as:

Selling ad space
Affiliate marketing
Sponsorships
Product placement
Donations

The key to making money from podcasts is to build up a large and engaged audience. You can use podcasts combined with other channels of content distribution to increase your audience and generate more revenue on multiple streams (so you don’t depend on one only.)

Yes, podcasts are not digital products per se — but they can very well be excellent platforms to expand your reach for a multitude of other digital products (such as courses, eBooks, and more.)

Video

Stock video footage is used for various purposes, such as commercials, movies, TV shows, and more. As such, you can sell your digital footage as products.

If you have a good video camera and know how to edit footage, you can create and sell stock video footage. Same as selling stock photography, stock videos can be a great source of recurring, passive income — once created and uploaded to the site, the video will keep on selling without any additional effort on your part.

Running a YouTube Channel

A YouTube channel isn’t exactly a digital product you can sell online. Like podcasts, it’s a platform you can use to increase your authority in your niche, grow your audience, and make money from.

Selling ad space, merch, courses, and other digital products are just a few of the ways you can make money from your YouTube channel.

In many ways, however, a YouTube channel can be seen as a digital product idea in itself — one that’s not monetized by sale immediately, but one that’s used to generate leads and sales down the road.

Running a TikTok Channel

Not sure about the YouTube channel thing?

Indeed, it has become increasingly difficult to beat the YouTube algorithm, so many users are now turning to TikTok as an alternative content platform.

And it’s not just Gen Zers — people of all ages and from all generations are using TikTok to watch short, engaging videos.

The great thing about TikTok is that it’s still a relatively new platform, so it’s easier to get noticed. Plus, their algorithm favors those who post regular content on the platform, which means you stand a pretty good chance of getting some followers and likes if you’re consistent.

Process Templates & Checklists

Want to sell digital products online as easily as possible? Are you good at creating processes and systems? If so, you can build them as profitable digital products! For instance, you could sell templates and checklists that help people streamline their work and be more productive.

This can be done in a variety of ways: you can sell eBooks that explain how to build a process or you can sell the templates themselves (such as templates built in Notion, for example). Some ways to sell process and system templates include selling them on your own website or on marketplaces like Gumroad.

digital-products-to-sell-in-2023-checklists

Running an Affiliate Website

Affiliate websites are great if you want to make money from promoting other people’s products. Essentially, you build a site that includes reviews, blog posts, and other content that promotes products within a specific niche, and then you cash in on every click or sale made through the promo links embedded on your website.

This can be a great way to make money from digital products, as you don’t need to create any products of your own — you simply promote other people’s products. To make this a steady source of revenue, however, you do want to make sure you treat your affiliate website as a product in its own right: research it, market it, and build it incrementally to make it an appealing proposition for any business you may target — and for their potential customers too.

Online Courses

These can be sold as part of a membership site, but they can also be sold separately, in various ways (such as through Udemy or Skillshare). Courses are a great way to help others with your expertise, and they can be delivered in a variety of ways, such as video, audio, PDF, and so on. Furthermore, courses are also among the most best digital products you can sell online, specifically due to the low investment and high ROI they tend to bring.

The key to running a successful course-based business is ensuring you provide people with the information they want to pay for (instead of just Googling it.) So if you have hands-on unique experience in a niche, turning all that knowledge into a course is a great idea.

Mentorship and Coaching Services

If you’re an expert in your field, you can sell coaching and mentorship services to help others achieve their goals. This can be done in a one-on-one setting, or you can offer group coaching (which is often more affordable for people and more time-savvy for you.)

Again, this is one of those digital products that work in a 100% passive way — but it is a great addition to a membership site or online presence if you want to monetize on that. Same as in the case of, say, running an affiliate website, you should make sure to consider your mentorship and coaching services as stand-alone products you market, iterate, and continuously improve on.

Tickets

Tickets are digital products online, but keep in mind they are not entirely passive — but can be close enough. If you organize webinars or other events, you can sell tickets to those. You will need to be present for the webinar or event itself — but other than that, this revenue stream can pretty much work on its own.

For instance, you could host regular paid webinars and sell tickets for those. Other than showing up and answering questions, there wouldn’t be too much extra-work to do every time (as you will have done your research and webinar structure by the first time you host it.)

Membership Site

A membership site is a website where people can access exclusive content by paying a monthly or yearly subscription. The content is usually in the form of videos, articles, or courses, or simply being part of a community that discusses ideas and where members help each other grow.

Building a membership site is fairly easy even if you don’t have technical knowledge. With a WordPress site (which you can build without coding), good hosting, a membership site plugin, and some content — you can have a site up and running in no time.

Remember: same as in the case of stand-alone courses, you need to make sure you provide your members with content they actually want to pay for. Membership sites aren’t digital products in the proper sense of the word, but, like other types of content that can be monetized, they can act as a platform for many types of digital products you can then sell (such as eBooks, courses, and more.)

Planners and Journals

Planners and journals are among the best products to sell online, especially as they come with a minimum investment, both from a financial perspective and from a time perspective. You c an create these using Canva, which is a free design tool you can use easily even if you don’t have design experience.

You can create planners and journals for different niches, such as fitness, business, travel, and so on. The idea is to create a journal or planner that’s different from what people can find in a bookstore, and that provides value for a specific target audience.

Once you’re done creating your planner, you can start selling it on sites like Gumroad, Amazon, or your Etsy shop. The good news about this is that platforms like Amazon will also provide you with print-on-demand services, which means that you can sell these journals without having an actual physical stock. This way, planners and journals become one of the easiest ways to make money online

Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to provide value to your audience on a regular basis, and they can work as digital products too. For instance, you can sell your newsletter on a subscription basis using services such as Substack, for example. Or you can sell ad space in your newsletter, or include affiliate links to products you recommend.

This is one of those digital products that are fairly easy to create and that can provide you with a great return on investment. If you have a loyal audience that reads your newsletter, you can make a lot of money from it with very little effort. Do keep in mind that you will have to create content on a regular basis for this, so it’s not a 100% passive option.

Canva Design Templates

Canva is a very popular tool for creating visuals, and it has a huge library of templates you can use for social media posts, blog headers, presentations, and so on. However, some of those templates can get repetitive, so if you’re good with design, you can create new templates to sell them to your audience.

This is one of those digital products that doesn’t take a lot of time to create, but that can be very valuable for your audience. Plus, design templates are profitable digital products to sell passively, so once you create (and market) them, you can just sit back and watch the sales come in.

Trackers, Worksheets, and Spreadsheets

If you’re good with spreadsheets and creating advanced formulae for them, you can build trackers, worksheets, and specific spreadsheets to sell to your audience. These can be helpful for businesses, but also for individuals who want to track their progress in a specific area of their life.

These sheets are very popular digital products, as trackers and worksheets can be used for pretty much anything. Whether it’s tracking fitness progress, business expenses, or even organizing a trip — people are always looking for new and better ways to do things, so if you can deliver something unique and easy to use, they will be happy to pay for it.

Printable coloring sheets

These are great examples of how you can take something physical and turn it into digital products on Etsy, for example. You can create printable coloring sheets using Canva (or Illustrator, if you want to illustrate your own coloring sheets) and sell them — either as standalone products (on Etsy, or on your membership site, for example) or as coloring books (on Amazon, which will handle the printing and fulfillment part of the process too.)

This is a fun idea not only for children and parents but also for people looking for stress relief and a creative outlet. And since printable coloring sheets are easy to create, this is one of those digital products you can make in an afternoon and sell…forever.

Audiobooks

If you have a book that’s doing well, you can create an audiobook version of it and sell it on platforms such as Audible or iTunes. This is a great way to reach new audiences, and it’s also a very passive income stream since you’re essentially just selling the rights to your book.

It’s important to note that you don’t have to be the narrator of your own audiobook. You can look at audiobooks as digital products to monetize as standalone entities. For instance, you can hire someone to do this for you. Fiverr and UpWork are great sources for good voice-over artists, and the financial investment will not be too high since you’re not paying for studio time or other expensive elements.

Craft Patterns

Are you good with arts and crafts? You could easily create craft patterns and transform them into digital products you can sell on Etsy and other similar sites. If you’re not familiar with the term, a craft pattern is basically a template (usually digital) that people can use to create their own version of a crafted object.

For instance, if you’re good with crochet, you could create a pattern for a scarf and sell it on Etsy. The buyer would then use that pattern to make their own scarf, following your instructions.

This is a great way to make money from your craftiness, and it’s also a very passive income stream since you only have to work on your patterns once (and then continuously sell them.)

Swipe Files

Swipe files are basically collections of proven, effective copywriting formulas that people can use to write their own marketing materials. This can be a very valuable resource for businesses that don’t have the time or resources to invest in a full-time copywriter, or who want to write their own materials but need some guidance and/or inspiration.

If you’re into good advertising or copywriting and you like collecting copy you like, you can create a Swip Files asset and market them as digital downloads. This is a great way to make some passive income, and it’s also a very helpful resource for copywriters as well.

Conclusion

There’s a billion ways to make money online.

You can rely on online marketplaces (e.g., sell physical or digital products on Etsy) or you can build your online store or platform to sell digital items. Either way, the list of digital goods you can sell is almost endless. From products like Etsy digital products to online courses, memberships, and planners, there are many different types of digital product ideas to sell online, according to your experience, preferences, and the type of business model you want.

So, what are you waiting for? Jump in, start selling digital products, and generate more revenue streams for yourself!