What Types Of Digital Products Can I Sell Online?

If you stand on Oxford Street in London and look around you'll see a massive amount of goods and services for sale. Everything from coffee and nail polishing to kitchen gizmos and the latest hats with pompoms. And it's the same for digital products. There's an astonishing variety of products for sale. The only limitation really is your imagination. However, to give you a bit of inspiration, we've looked at our SendOwl database to see which digital products are most popular with our sellers.

Selling ebooks and other PDFs online is super popular

This didn't come as much of a surprise. Ebooks are a great way to communicate your knowledge to specific audiences being a modern take on a very old concept. There are tech solutions for authors who want help with producing a book while self-publishing is becoming increasingly respected and lucrative.

Indie-published ebooks are outpacing those published by the major players on Amazon. And that's not even allowing for all those ebooks sold direct through websites, social media and blogs using services like SendOwl.

You can be your own publisher and take your own share of the rewards, particularly if you sell direct. Stories likes those of self-published author Mark Dawson provide plenty of inspiration.

However, our sellers at SendOwl go far beyond writing ebooks about assassins, like Mark Dawson. They write about everything from  bikini body workouts to Imperial Rome and mastering creativity. Sellers like Daniel Gold even write about how to write an ebook, which has a wonderful circular logic.

Need a hand getting started with your ebook?

We've written a few articles to help you create your first ebook, including: How to publish an ebook: everything you need to know in 23 easy steps and Top 10 mistakes mistakes made by ebook authors and how to avoid them.

Why stop at ebooks?

SendOwl sellers don't just sell ebooks as PDFs. They also sell magazines, fact sheets, research papers and vouchers. They help you get fit, feel happy, make money and bring up your children. For example, like Little Ones USA specialise in sleep training packages for exhausted parents. What price is a decent night's sleep? £55? I'm sold!

Sell as a one-off or a subscription

Some digital products lend themselves to a one off sale, and this is a tried and traditional way of selling. It doesn't mean you can't try and upsell customers so they buy another of your products before or after checkout. But essentially the content is complete in itself. After days, months or even years of graft you have waved goodbye and moved on to your next digital product.

However, a popular modern selling trend involves dripping content, products and services to customers over a period of time. Just think of Netflix, Spotify and Audible, where you pay regularly for access rather than buying individual movies and ebooks outright.

This sales model means you get recurring revenue, which is a very nice thing to have indeed. And it's much easier to sell to existing customers than new ones. Some products lend themselves particularly well to this kind of model. Ann Kullberg sells a subscription to her delightfully specialist coloured pencil magazine. If you'd like to find out more about selling magazines online with SendOwl have a look at this page.

Selling software is a great way to make money

Second favourite for SendOwl sellers is software. This may partly be because SendOwl is popular with software engineers and indie game designers who like that we're run by developers rather than marketers.

However, it also points to a very modern trend. For although ebooks might trace their origins to bits of calf skin scribbled on by monks many centuries ago, software and indie video games are thoroughly modern products that have sprung up with the invention of the virtual world. And as the digital world expands in scope, so too do the opportunities to sell new types of digital products.

However, both indie video game sellers and software sellers need a sophisticated digital delivery provider to meet their specific needs, including license keys, Steam license key integration, 2FA for added account security, free customer updates, and so on. To see how SendOwl handles these issues see our articles on How to sell software online and on selling indie games direct to your fans.

In this interview, Mark Morris of Introversion software, who have sold more than 2 million units, explains why he likes to sell direct as well as through indie games platform Steam:

Semplice, "the first fully responsive case study portfolio system based on WordPress", is a great example of how you can build your own business using existing ecosystems – in this case, WordPress.

Selling audio online is one to watch

Although not quite as popular as PDFs or software, audio files are a favourite with a sizeable number of our sellers who find a receptive audience around the globe. After all, people can listen to audio on the sofa or on public transport, squeezed under the armpit of a stranger. They don't need a stellar internet connection or their reading glasses. They just need a tiny device and a set of headphones.

SendOwl sellers include all kinds of musicians, from artists just starting out to household names like Radiohead and Kanye West. However, they also include sellers who have found a more niche global market. For example, The Drum Broker are a drum sample and sound design website that sells to producers.

If you're interested in selling music direct from your website read more here.

Don't forget pictures and video

Fewer SendOwl sellers work with video and pictures. YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and so on means that to actually sell videos and pictures you need a pretty good product, while making quality videos (with good audio) or quality pictures requires plenty of time and skill. However, many of our sellers have that skill, and also a good eye for a receptive audience.

For example, Pro Audio Files sells tutorials on mixing, mastering and producing music.

Stuart McMillen sells downloads of his long-form comics inspired by social issues involving science, ecology, sustainability, psychology and economics.

A global niche can be a huge market for your digital products

Our most successful sellers are very good at creating professional, thoughtful products that target a niche market. However, that niche market is global. Which can make their business very healthy indeed! This was the experience of our SendOwl sellers Jason and Cinnamon who turnover $600,000 from dolls' clothing patterns. Jason advises:

There are back corners of the Internet where people are actively looking for solutions and no one is serving them. Those are the most interesting niches to discover.

We can't wait to see what other corners of the Internet our sellers conquer in the years ahead.

Interested in digital selling but need more information?

Not to worry, because we have created the perfect guide for you. How to sell digital products (the definitive guide 2017) covers all these topics:

• Why sell digital products online?
• What digital products can you sell online?
• Make money from something you're doing anyway or want to do
• Do I need to sell through a third party marketplace like Amazon or iTunes?
• Sell both direct and through a marketplace
• Even major music studios are getting in on the act
• Advantages of selling direct
• Challenges of selling direct
• Can I really make more money selling products direct?
• I'm going to create a digital product and sell direct: now what?
• Choose a payment gateway
• What does a digital delivery company do?
• Providing a checkout
• Securely deliver your digital file
• What price should I charge for my digital product?
• We do our best to answer the pricing question!
• How do I market my product?
• Start early
• Ask for feedback
• Consider getting other people to sell your product for you
• Don't forget your pre-launch email sequence
• Don't forget no-spend marketing options
• How can I improve my conversion rate and increase revenue?
• What about theft, fraud and hacking?
• I've got one of two products doing well – but how can I turn this into a business?
• Checklist for selling digital products

Enjoy!

Grow your business with SendOwl. We'd love to have you.



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