Selling Digital Products: How to Earn Money and Reach $2,000 Per Month
The digital product market has seen explosive growth in recent years. Digital products, such as eBooks, online courses, software, printables, and digital artwork, offer creators an incredible opportunity to generate passive income with minimal upfront costs. Unlike physical products, digital products can be reproduced and sold infinitely, making them an ideal option for entrepreneurs looking to scale their income quickly.
If you’re considering selling digital products to earn money online, reaching $2,000 per month is a highly achievable goal with the right strategy. In this guide, we’ll explore how you can create, market, and sell digital products effectively to build a profitable online business.
1. What Are Digital Products?
Digital products are intangible goods that can be sold and delivered online without requiring physical inventory or shipping. These products are typically downloaded or accessed online through a payment gateway. Some common types of digital products include:
- eBooks: Written guides, fiction, non-fiction, educational books, or niche-specific content.
- Online Courses: Video-based or text-based training on a specific subject, skill, or hobby.
- Software: Programs, tools, apps, or scripts that can be downloaded and used on computers or mobile devices.
- Printables: Documents, planners, calendars, journals, or art that users can download, print, and use.
- Photography: High-quality images that photographers can sell on stock photo websites or their own platforms.
- Design Templates: Website templates, business card designs, logos, or marketing materials.
- Music & Audio Files: Songs, beats, sound effects, or audiobooks.
- Fonts & Graphics: Custom fonts, icons, illustrations, or graphic design resources.
The great thing about digital products is that they don’t require inventory, shipping, or manufacturing costs, which means once you’ve created your product, you can sell it to an unlimited number of customers with minimal ongoing costs.
2. How to Create and Sell Digital Products
Creating and selling digital products can be broken down into a few key steps. Here’s a step-by-step guide to get started:
2.1 Choose Your Niche
The first step in selling digital products is choosing a profitable niche. Your niche should align with your expertise, passions, and market demand. Some profitable niches for digital products include:
- Personal development: Productivity tools, self-help books, habit trackers, or online courses.
- Health and wellness: Fitness programs, meal planners, yoga guides, or meditation audio.
- Finance: Budget planners, investment guides, financial spreadsheets, or courses on managing money.
- Education: Study guides, lesson plans, and educational resources for teachers or students.
- Creative arts: Digital art prints, photography, design templates, or music production tools.
- Business and marketing: Social media templates, marketing plans, business systems, and guides.
It’s essential to choose a niche that has a target audience willing to pay for digital products. You can use platforms like Google Trends, Amazon, and Pinterest to research popular and trending topics that people are interested in.
2.2 Create Your Digital Product
Once you’ve chosen a niche, it’s time to create your digital product. Here are some tips for creating high-quality products in different formats:
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eBooks: Use word processors like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to write your content. Once completed, you can format it into an eBook using software like Canva, Adobe InDesign, or Scrivener. You can also use free tools like Calibre to convert your file into different formats (PDF, EPUB, MOBI).
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Online Courses: To create an online course, you’ll need to plan your content, record videos, and organize your material. Platforms like Teachable, Udemy, or Thinkific allow you to create and sell online courses. You can record videos using Camtasia, OBS Studio, or even your smartphone, and edit them with tools like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro.
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Printables: If you’re creating printables, you can use Canva, Adobe Illustrator, or Microsoft Excel to design planners, calendars, worksheets, or other downloadable items. These can be sold on platforms like Etsy or your own website.
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Software: Developing software requires technical expertise, so this is best suited for developers. You can create simple apps, plugins, or tools that solve specific problems. Platforms like Gumroad, Sellfy, or App Store can help you sell and distribute your software.
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Design Templates: If you have design skills, you can create templates for websites, social media graphics, logos, and more. Tools like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Canva are great for creating visual assets.
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Photography & Graphics: Photographers and graphic designers can sell high-quality photos, digital art, or design resources. Websites like Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, or Etsy are excellent marketplaces for selling digital images and art.
Make sure your digital product is of high quality and offers value to your target audience. The more unique and specialized your product, the higher the chances it will stand out in the market.
2.3 Set Up Your Online Store
After creating your digital product, you need a place to sell it. Here are some popular platforms for selling digital products:
- Etsy: A popular marketplace for digital printables, art, and design templates. Etsy charges a small listing fee and takes a commission on each sale.
- Gumroad: A platform that allows creators to sell digital products directly to their audience. It’s a simple way to set up a storefront and sell products with minimal setup costs.
- Shopify: An eCommerce platform that allows you to create an online store. Shopify is ideal if you want full control over your branding and marketing.
- Teachable/Thinkific/Udemy: If you’re selling online courses, these platforms offer tools to create, host, and sell your courses.
- Sellfy: A simple eCommerce platform designed for creators to sell digital products. It’s especially useful for selling digital downloads like eBooks, courses, and art.
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): If you’re writing and selling eBooks, Amazon KDP is a great platform that gives you access to millions of readers worldwide.
If you want more control over your branding and sales process, you can also create your own website using platforms like WordPress or Wix, combined with payment processors like PayPal or Stripe.
2.4 Market Your Digital Products
Creating a digital product is only half the battle—you need to market it effectively to reach your target audience. Here are several strategies to promote your products:
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Social Media Marketing: Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and TikTok are powerful tools for promoting digital products. Share your creations, provide sneak peeks, and engage with your audience through regular posts, stories, and paid ads.
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Content Marketing: Start a blog or YouTube channel to create valuable content around your niche. This can help you attract organic traffic, build authority in your industry, and promote your digital products in a non-intrusive way. For example, if you sell a fitness course, you can write blog posts about exercise tips or nutrition advice that naturally link to your product.
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Email Marketing: Build an email list and send regular newsletters to your audience. Offer a freebie (like a downloadable template or guide) to encourage people to subscribe, and then promote your digital products to your email list. Platforms like Mailchimp or ConvertKit make email marketing easy.
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Affiliate Marketing: Partner with influencers or affiliates who can promote your digital products in exchange for a commission on each sale. This can be especially useful if you have a course, eBook, or software product.
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SEO: Optimize your website or product pages to rank higher on search engines like Google. Use relevant keywords in your product descriptions, blog posts, and other content. This can drive organic traffic to your site and increase sales over time.
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Paid Ads: Consider running paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Google Ads, or Instagram to drive targeted traffic to your product pages. Be sure to test different ad creatives and optimize your campaigns for better results.
3. How to Reach $2,000 Per Month Selling Digital Products
To earn $2,000 per month selling digital products, you need to create a solid sales strategy and generate consistent revenue. Let’s break down how you can achieve this:
3.1 Calculate Your Profit Margins
Before diving into the math, it's important to understand your profit margins. For digital products, you keep nearly 100% of the sales revenue (after platform fees or transaction charges).
For example:
- If you sell an eBook for $20 and the platform takes a 10% fee, you’ll keep $18 per sale.
- If you sell an online course for $100 and the platform takes a 10% fee, you’ll keep $90 per sale.
- If you sell a printable planner for $10 and use Etsy, which takes a 5% transaction fee plus 3% + $0.25 for payment processing, you’ll net around $9 per sale.
3.2 Sales Goals to Reach $2,000
Let’s break down how many sales you need to reach your goal of $2,000 per month:
- **eBook