Best Digital Products to Sell Online in 2026 (With Profit Margins and Income Math)

Digital products have one quality that separates them from almost every other business model: you build them once and sell them infinitely with near-zero marginal cost.

No inventory. No shipping. No warehouse fees. No restocking. A $47 ebook costs the same to deliver to your 1st customer and your 10,000th customer — essentially nothing.

That’s the upside. The downside is equally important to understand: digital products require either an existing audience, traffic generation skills, or paid advertising budget to sell. Creating a beautiful course that nobody knows about produces exactly $0 in revenue.

This guide covers the most profitable digital product categories in 2026, with realistic profit margins, startup requirements, and income math for each. The goal is helping you choose the right digital product type for your specific situation — not just listing possibilities.

First A Quick Recommendation…

Hey, my name is Mark.

After 15+ years testing online income methods, digital products are one of the strongest models I’ve seen — once you have an audience. The challenge is that “once you have an audience” part.

The best method I’ve found for building recurring income is local lead generation. I build simple 2-page websites that show up in Google and generate leads for local businesses. Each site pays $500–$1,200 monthly, recurring, with 92–97% margins — no audience required.

Go here to see the exact system I use to do this.

If you’re committed to the digital product path, here’s what to build and how.

Why Digital Products Win on Margins

Before diving into specific products, understand why the economics are compelling.

Business Model	Typical Profit Margin	Inventory Risk	Fulfillment Complexity
Digital products	70–95%	None	Automated delivery
Physical products (e-commerce)	20–40%	High	Shipping/returns
Amazon FBA	15–30%	High	Amazon handles (with fees)
Dropshipping	10–25%	Low	Supplier handles (with delays)
Services/freelancing	60–80%	None	Manual delivery (your time)

Digital products combine the high margins of services with the scalability of products. The trade-off: creating something people will pay for requires skill, research, and marketing — not just a file and a payment button.

The 10 Best Digital Products to Sell

1. Online Courses ($50–$2,000)

What it is: Structured educational content delivered through video, text, quizzes, and assignments on platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, or Systeme.io.

Profit margin: 80–95% (platform fees 0–10%, payment processing ~3%).

Startup cost: $100–$500 (mic, screen recording software, hosting platform free tier).

Income math: A $197 course selling 20 units/month = $3,940/month. At 90% margin = $3,546 profit. Scale to 50 units/month = $9,850/month.

Best for: People with teachable expertise in a specific field. Professionals who can translate experience into structured learning.

Timeline to first sale: 1–3 months (creation) + 1–6 months (audience building) = 2–9 months.

2. Ebooks and Guides ($9–$97)

What it is: Written content packaged as downloadable PDF or Kindle ebook. Ranges from short focused guides to comprehensive manuals.

Profit margin: 90–95% (Gumroad takes 10%, Kindle takes 30–65%).

Startup cost: $0–$100 (writing tool + design tool like Canva).

Income math: A $29 ebook selling 50 copies/month = $1,450/month. At 90% margin (Gumroad) = $1,305 profit.

Best for: Writers with niche expertise. Works well as entry-level product that funnels customers toward higher-priced offerings.

Timeline to first sale: 2–8 weeks (writing) + 1–3 months (marketing) = 1–4 months.

3. Templates and Presets ($15–$150)

What it is: Ready-made designs, spreadsheets, documents, photo presets, or workflow templates. Examples: Notion templates, Canva social media templates, Lightroom presets, Excel budget trackers, resume templates.

Profit margin: 90–95%.

Startup cost: $0–$50 (design tools, most free).

Income math: A $27 Notion template pack selling 100 copies/month = $2,700/month. At 90% margin = $2,430 profit.

Best for: Designers, productivity enthusiasts, photographers, and anyone who builds tools they already use. Templates solve specific problems and sell repeatedly with zero additional work.

Timeline to first sale: 1–4 weeks (creation) + 2–8 weeks (marketplace listing + promotion) = 1–3 months.

4. Membership Communities ($19–$99/month)

What it is: Recurring subscription access to exclusive content, community interaction, live calls, and resources. Platforms: Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, or built into Teachable/Kajabi.

Profit margin: 80–90% (platform fees + payment processing).

Startup cost: $0–$99/month (platform costs).

Income math: 100 members at $47/month = $4,700/month recurring. At 85% margin = $3,995 profit. 200 members = $7,990 profit.

Best for: People who can maintain ongoing engagement — coaches, educators, niche experts. The recurring revenue model is powerful but requires continuous value delivery.

Timeline to first sale: 1–2 months (setup) + 2–6 months (audience building) = 3–8 months.

5. Printables ($3–$25)

What it is: Downloadable designs customers print at home. Planners, wall art, invitations, checklists, educational worksheets, budget trackers.

Profit margin: 85–95% (Etsy takes ~15% including fees; Gumroad ~10%).

Startup cost: $0–$30 (Canva free plan works).

Income math: Etsy printable shop with 50 listings averaging 3 sales/day at $7 average = $21/day = $630/month. Scale to 200 listings: $2,000–$5,000/month is achievable.

Best for: Designers and creatives. Etsy provides built-in marketplace traffic, reducing the need for your own audience.

Timeline to first sale: 1–2 weeks (creation + listing) = fast entry point.

6. Software Tools and SaaS ($29–$299/month)

What it is: Web applications, browser extensions, plugins, or software tools solving specific problems. No-code tools (Bubble, Softr, Glide) make this increasingly accessible to non-developers.

Profit margin: 70–90% (hosting costs + payment processing).

Startup cost: $0–$2,000 (no-code tools to custom development).

Income math: 200 users at $49/month = $9,800/month. At 80% margin = $7,840 profit.

Best for: Developers, technical founders, or anyone who can identify a workflow problem and build a solution. Highest income ceiling of any digital product category.

Timeline to first sale: 2–6 months (development) + 1–3 months (marketing) = 3–9 months.

7. Stock Photography, Graphics, and Audio ($1–$50 per download)

What it is: Licensing original photos, illustrations, icons, music, or sound effects through marketplaces like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, Envato, or direct sales.

Profit margin: 25–85% depending on marketplace (stock sites take 50–75%; direct sales retain 85–95%).

Startup cost: $0–$1,000 (camera equipment for photography; free tools for digital graphics).

Income math: 500 portfolio items averaging $0.50/download with 100 downloads/day = $50/day = $1,500/month. Top contributors earn $5,000–$20,000+/month.

Best for: Photographers, illustrators, musicians, and graphic designers. Passive income once portfolio is built but requires significant upfront content creation.

Timeline to first sale: 1–4 weeks (upload portfolio) = fast, but income builds slowly.

8. Coaching/Consulting Packages ($200–$5,000+)

What it is: Structured one-on-one or group coaching delivered via Zoom with supporting digital resources (workbooks, templates, recordings).

Profit margin: 85–95% (minimal delivery costs).

Startup cost: $0–$100 (Zoom, Calendly, simple landing page).

Income math: 5 clients at $500/month = $2,500/month. 10 clients at $1,000/month = $10,000/month. At 90% margin = $9,000 profit.

Best for: Experts in any field — business, health, career, relationships, creative skills. Coaching has the highest per-client value and requires the least upfront product creation.

Timeline to first sale: 1–4 weeks (packaging your offer) = fastest digital product to monetise.

9. Newsletters and Paid Content ($5–$25/month)

What it is: Premium email newsletters or exclusive written content via Substack, Beehiiv, Ghost, or ConvertKit.

Profit margin: 85–95%.

Startup cost: $0 (free platforms available).

Income math: 500 paid subscribers at $10/month = $5,000/month. At 90% margin = $4,500 profit.

Best for: Writers, analysts, researchers, and curators with unique insights audiences value enough to pay for weekly or monthly.

Timeline to first sale: 2–6 months of free content building before converting to paid.

10. Licenses and PLR Content ($10–$500)

What it is: White-label or PLR (Private Label Rights) content — articles, courses, templates, or graphics sold with a license allowing buyers to rebrand and resell.

Profit margin: 90%+.

Startup cost: $0–$200.

Income math: PLR course package at $97 selling 30 copies/month = $2,910/month.

Best for: Content creators who can produce high-quality material in bulk. The buyer purchases the content plus the rights to modify and resell it.

Timeline to first sale: 2–6 weeks.

Comparison Table: All 10 Digital Products

Product	Price Range	Margin	Startup Cost	Recurring?	Audience Needed?
Online courses	$50–$2,000	80–95%	$100–$500	No (or subscription)	Yes
Ebooks	$9–$97	90–95%	$0–$100	No	Yes
Templates	$15–$150	90–95%	$0–$50	No	Marketplace helps
Memberships	$19–$99/mo	80–90%	$0–$99/mo	Yes	Yes
Printables	$3–$25	85–95%	$0–$30	No	Marketplace helps
Software/SaaS	$29–$299/mo	70–90%	$0–$2,000	Yes	Somewhat
Stock content	$1–$50	25–85%	$0–$1,000	No (passive)	Marketplace
Coaching	$200–$5,000+	85–95%	$0–$100	Monthly	Yes
Newsletters	$5–$25/mo	85–95%	$0	Yes	Yes
PLR content	$10–$500	90%+	$0–$200	No	Somewhat

The Traffic Problem Every Digital Product Seller Faces

Creating a great digital product is 30% of the work. Getting it in front of buyers is the other 70%.

SEO/content marketing. Build a blog or YouTube channel around your product’s topic. Free but takes 6–18 months to generate meaningful traffic. See my guide on the best online business to start for more on content-driven models.

Social media. Build an audience on platforms where your target customers spend time. Instagram for visual products, LinkedIn for B2B, TikTok/YouTube for educational content. Free but time-intensive.

Email marketing. Build an email list through free content or lead magnets. Email consistently converts at 3–10x the rate of social media for digital product sales.

Marketplace platforms. Etsy (for printables/templates), Gumroad (for all digital products), Amazon Kindle (for ebooks). These provide built-in buyer traffic but take larger commissions.

Paid advertising. Facebook, Instagram, or Google ads driving traffic to a sales page. Requires budget ($500–$2,000+/month) and conversion optimisation skills.

The best approach depends on your product type and timeline. Check my overview of choosing the right online business model for a framework that helps match your situation to the right strategy.

Mistakes Beginners Make with Digital Products

Building before validating. Spending 3 months creating a course nobody wants to buy. Solution: pre-sell with a landing page and email list before building. If 10+ people pre-purchase, build it. If nobody does, pivot.

Pricing too low. Selling a comprehensive course for $19 because you feel “who would pay more?” Charge based on the value of the transformation, not the format of the delivery. A course that helps someone get a $10,000 raise is worth $200–$500.

Trying to serve everyone. “A productivity template for everyone” competes with thousands. “A project management template for freelance web designers” speaks directly to a specific buyer.

Ignoring ongoing marketing. Launching once and hoping for continuous sales. Digital products require ongoing marketing: content creation, email sequences, social media, or advertising.

Creating too many products too fast. One well-marketed product outsells five poorly marketed products. Master one product, one audience, and one traffic channel before diversifying.

Mistakes Beginners Make with Digital Products

Mistake 1: Building before validating. Spending 3 months creating a comprehensive course, then discovering nobody wants to pay for it. Validate demand first: pre-sell the product, build an email waitlist, or run a small pilot version before investing months of creation time.

Mistake 2: Underpricing out of fear. New creators often price products at $9–$19 because they’re afraid nobody will pay more. A $19 ebook needs 53 sales to earn $1,000. A $197 course needs 5 sales for the same revenue. Higher prices attract more committed customers who get better results — which generates better testimonials and referrals.

Mistake 3: Over-engineering the product. A 40-lesson video course with workbooks, bonus modules, community access, and live Q&A is impressive — but takes 6 months to build. Start with a minimal viable product (a focused 8–10 lesson course or a 30-page guide) and expand based on customer feedback.

Mistake 4: Ignoring the marketing problem. Creating the product is 20% of the work. Finding customers is 80%. Digital products don’t sell themselves, regardless of quality. You need a traffic strategy (SEO, social media, email, paid ads) before you have a product to sell.

Mistake 5: No email list. Launching a digital product to zero email subscribers means relying entirely on cold traffic. An email list of 500+ interested subscribers makes product launches 5–10x more effective than promoting to strangers.

Creating Your First Digital Product: Step-by-Step

Week 1: Validate and plan.

• Survey your existing audience (email list, social followers, blog readers) about their biggest challenges
• Research competitors selling similar products — what do their customer reviews praise and criticise?
• Define your product scope: what specific transformation does it deliver?
• Set price point based on value delivered, not time spent creating

Week 2–3: Create the content.

• For courses: Record video lessons using screen recording (Loom, free) or camera + mic ($100–$300 setup)
• For ebooks/guides: Write in Google Docs, convert to designed PDF using Canva ($0–$13/month)
• For templates: Build in the relevant tool (Notion, Google Sheets, Canva, Figma) and create a walkthrough guide
• For software/apps: If you can’t code, use no-code tools (Bubble, Webflow, Zapier) or hire on Upwork

Week 3–4: Build delivery and sales infrastructure.

• Choose a platform: Gumroad (5% + $0.30/sale, easiest), Teachable ($0–$119/month for courses), Systeme.io (free plan available), or Shopify ($39/month+ for full ecommerce)
• Create a sales page: headline, problem description, solution overview, testimonials (even beta tester feedback counts), pricing, FAQ, and buy button
• Set up payment processing (Stripe, PayPal — typically 2.9% + $0.30/transaction)
• Create automated delivery (customer buys → instantly receives product access)

Week 4+: Launch and market.

• Send to email list first (warmest audience)
• Share on social media with value-first approach (teach something useful, then mention the product)
• Create content that naturally leads to your product (blog posts, YouTube videos, social content addressing the problem your product solves)

Platform Comparison for Digital Product Sellers

Platform	Cost	Transaction Fee	Best For
Gumroad	Free plan	10% (free) or 5% (paid)	Quick launches, simple products
Systeme.io	Free–$97/month	0%	All-in-one (funnels + email + courses)
Teachable	$0–$199/month	0–10%	Online courses specifically
Thinkific	$0–$199/month	0%	Brand-focused course businesses
Shopify	$39+/month	2.9% + $0.30	Full ecommerce + digital products
Podia	$39+/month	0%	Courses + downloads + memberships
WooCommerce	Free plugin (hosting extra)	Payment processor only	WordPress-integrated sales
Etsy (digital)	$0.20/listing	6.5%	Templates, printables, planners

The recommendation: Start with Gumroad or Systeme.io’s free plan for your first product. Avoid paying $39–$199/month for platform fees before you’ve validated that your product sells. Upgrade to a dedicated platform once revenue consistently exceeds platform costs.

Pricing Strategy for Digital Products

The value-based pricing framework:

• What transformation does your product deliver? A course that teaches someone to freelance and earn $3,000/month is worth $297–$997 — because the ROI is obvious.
• What alternatives exist? If similar information is freely available on YouTube, your product’s value comes from curation, structure, and saved time — not exclusive knowledge.
• What’s your audience’s budget? B2B buyers (businesses) pay 3–10x more than B2C buyers (individuals) for similar products. A “social media strategy template” might sell for $29 to individuals and $297 to agencies.

Price anchoring: Offer 2–3 tiers. Example: Basic ebook ($29) → Full course ($197) → Course + coaching ($497). Most buyers choose the middle option. The presence of a premium tier makes the middle tier feel like good value.

The $1,000/month math at different price points:

Product Price	Sales Needed/Month	Sales Needed/Day
$9	111	3.7
$29	35	1.2
$97	11	0.4
$197	5	0.2
$497	2	0.1

Higher prices require fewer sales, better positioning, and stronger trust — but generate the same revenue with dramatically less volume pressure.

Pros and Cons

Pros: Near-zero marginal cost per sale. No inventory or shipping. Passive income potential once traffic systems are established. Scalable — sell to thousands without additional work. High profit margins (70–95%). Creative fulfilment. Location-independent.

Cons: Requires traffic/audience to sell (the biggest challenge). No income until product is created AND marketed. Competition in most categories. Piracy risk. Customer expectations rising (quality bar higher than ever). Marketing is an ongoing requirement, not a one-time effort.

Who This Is NOT For

Digital products are not for you if: you want guaranteed income from day one, you don’t have expertise or skills to package, you’re unwilling to learn marketing and traffic generation, you expect to create one product and “set it and forget it,” or you need income before you have time to build an audience.

If realistic online income expectations matter to you, understand that most digital product sellers earn $0–$500/month in their first year while building traffic and refining their offers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the best digital product for beginners? Templates and printables have the lowest creation barrier and fastest time to first sale, especially when sold through marketplaces like Etsy or Gumroad. Coaching packages are fastest if you already have expertise — no product creation required.

How much can I make selling digital products? Range is enormous: $0 to $100,000+/month. Median for active digital product sellers with established traffic: $500–$3,000/month. Top performers in lucrative niches: $10,000–$50,000+/month.

Do I need a website to sell digital products? Not necessarily. Platforms like Etsy, Gumroad, Teachable, and Amazon Kindle provide hosting, payment processing, and some built-in traffic. A website helps with SEO and brand building long-term but isn’t required for first sales.

What platforms should I use? For courses: Teachable, Thinkific, Systeme.io. For ebooks: Gumroad, Amazon Kindle. For templates/printables: Etsy, Gumroad, Creative Market. For memberships: Circle, Skool, Patreon.

The Bottom Line

Digital products offer the best margin structure of any online business model. The challenge is always the same: finding and reaching buyers.

If you have existing expertise and are willing to invest 3–12 months building traffic and refining your offer, digital products can generate meaningful passive income with near-zero ongoing costs.

If you want a model where the traffic generation is built into the business itself — where you build a digital asset that shows up in Google and generates leads on autopilot — this is the business model I recommend starting with. It combines digital asset creation with a built-in revenue mechanism that doesn’t require an existing audience to start.

For a deeper look at building an online business with no inventory, that guide breaks down additional models worth considering.