eCommerce is a rising trend in the digital age nowadays. Anyone can build and own an online business with ready-made platforms. WordPress, which comes with WooCommerce, proves itself to be the most popular platform for selling online products.
However, choosing the right platform to sell your products is just the beginning. Deciding what to sell and how to market your products are other big concerns to deal with.
Let us help you in this article with a list of the best digital products to sell. Plus, we’ll introduce several top eCommerce WordPress plugins that support you in building a wonderful online store.
Keep reading!
- What are Digital Products?
- Benefits of Selling Digital Products
- Drawbacks of Selling Digital Products
- Best Digital Products To Sell Online in 2022
- Top WordPress Plugins to Sell Digital Products
What are Digital Products?
Digital products do not have a specific or physical form. They can be eBooks, audio, stories, music, or videos. You can use these products through electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and other platforms.
For example, let’s take a look at a magazine online store:
Benefits of Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products benefits you in many ways, because it’s:
Economical: The first comparing criteria is the production cost. Unlike physical products, digital products do not require raw materials or operation infrastructures such as manufacturing factories, warehouses, etc.
As a result, the production cost of digital products will be much lower than those of the physical one. Therefore, there should be less effort for you to maximize business revenue and ultimately, profits.
Time saving: The astonishing benefit of selling digital products that you can not ignore is spending less time working. Instead of sourcing products, inventory management, and shipping, you can upload and sell digital products in your online store.
Flexible: Flexible business facilities and convenient payment methods are two important advantages of online selling. For example, with just a smartphone or a computer, you can already sell goods or solve customer problems.
Drawbacks of Selling Digital Products
Besides the benefits, there are also several drawbacks you should consider when selling digital products.
Piracy: In the digital age, piracy poses a big challenge for all creators. Bad guys can easily steal your digital assets to use or resell them at a much lower price. If you don’t have strong protection methods for your online products, chances are that your money will slip away.
Learn more about the rising trend and dangers of digital privacy here.
High market competition: Due to the low barriers to entry of the digital product selling industry, this market becomes highly competitive. Not only with direct competitors, but you will also have to face content-for-free vendors.
For more details, check out our article on 7 tough challenges of running a digital product store.
Best Digital Products To Sell Online in 2022
So, with these outstanding benefits of selling digital products, have you decided what to sell? Here is the list of the most potential digital products for your consideration including categories and their representatives.
#1 Online Courses
Online course is a typical example of the most popular and profitable digital product in recent years. Since people are always eager to learn and improve their knowledge, this opens the door for online education.
Selling online courses in the form of videos and audio is the best way to make money. Some examples of popular online courses on the market:
- Productivity Masterclass – Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity
- Video Editing For Adobe Premiere Pro For Beginners
- Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python
- Productivity Machine: Time Management & Productivity Hacks by Patrick Dang
Tips: You can sell online courses on your own websites with a suitable Learning Management System (LMS). There are plenty of LMS plugins available that help you create and sell online courses in WordPress. We highly recommend Tutor LMS and LearnDash.
We’ve published a detailed guide on how to sell online courses using the LearnDash LMS. Check it out for more information.
You can also utilize other LMS platforms. But before that, learn about the 5 mistakes to avoid when selecting a WordPress LMS plugin.
#2 Digital Arts
If you are a photographer who loves taking pictures, you can make money from your passion. High-quality images are among the most sought-after digital products on the Internet today. Potential customers of photographers can be anyone, bloggers, website administrators, marketers, and so on.
Selling digital arts on your own website is recommended. In fact, many photographers go this route to avoid sharing profits with third-party platforms. Not only photographs, you can also sell videos, music, designs, etc.
#3 Templates
Templates are another ideal product to consider selling online. The demand for templates is increasing due to their convenience.
There are various types of templates you can sell, for example:
- Content: email, CV, resume, and cover letter.
- Design: Presentation, portfolio, and poster.
- Website: Landing page, design layout, and code.
#4 Subscriptions
In the subscription model, information or services that a business provides are offered through a membership website.
Learn how to build a simple WordPress membership site here.
In other words, users will be charged a subscription fee for access to some or all of the foregoing. Typically, users can pay monthly, annually, or even lifetime. For example, customers subscribe to a monthly or quarterly magazine to read the content.
Tips: You can install the WooCommerce Membership and WooCommerce Subscriptions plugins to sell and manage your eCommerce subscriptions. Or, consider these WooCommerce Subscriptions alternatives.
#5 eBooks/Audiobooks
Another type of digital product that we shouldn’t miss out on is eBooks. eBooks stand out to be the best seller on the market thanks to their convenience. Customers can easily read books online with their smartphones instead of printed ones.
You can create your own website to sell eBooks with trustable plugins. Don’t forget to secure your eBooks so that unauthorized users can’t get yours without paying.
Here are some trending eBooks genres you can consider selling:
- Romance
- Science Fiction
- Mystery, Thriller, & Suspense
- Diets & Weight Loss
- Literature
- Self-Help & Motivation
#6 Apps/Software
Entering the era of 4.0 and digital transformation, online software/applications come as the most profitable products. Have you ever thought that you can make money from your coding ability? Such digital goods can be mentioned as: websites, mobile applications, desktop software, video games, etc.
For example, you can develop and sell WordPress plugins either in WordPress or on your own website.
Here’s a list of popular and potential software categories:
- Education
- Networking
- Food delivery
- Healthcare
- Auto mail sending
- Ads blocker
- Bill management
#7 Professional Services
Digital products also exist in the form of services, such as coaching, freelancing, or personal consulting. Instead of direct face-to-face meetings, you can communicate well through online channels.
List of several trending professional services for your reference:
- Weight loss coaching
- Yoga coaching
- Copywriter freelancing
- Coding freelancing
- Business consultant
Once you choose your desired digital products to sell, it’s time to pick a plugin for building your online store.
Top WordPress Plugins to Sell Digital Products
WordPress is a great platform that helps you build a beautiful, professional website. However, to establish an eCommerce website that functions well, you need plugins. Plugins will add extra functionalities to your site and turn it into a great online store.
Here are the top 6 WordPress plugins to sell your digital products.
#1 WooCommerce
WooCommerce offers multiple useful tools to build an eCommerce business, such as creating product pages, carts, and checkouts.
So far, the plugin has been trusted by more than 5 million customers worldwide. Since it is developed by the creator of WordPress, it’s always perfectly compatible and up to date.
Outstanding features:
- Build beautiful storefronts.
- Create a shopping cart.
- Integrate with different online payments.
- Calculate shipping cost & tax automatically.
Price: Free, but some extensions require a fee.
Pros:
- Free platform to get started.
- Professional features and tools.
- User-friendly interface.
- Extensive community.
Cons:
- Needs for regular maintenance and update.
- Steep learning curve for beginners.
- Hidden costs for upgrading features.
Tips: Check out our step-by-step guide on how to sell digital products using WooCommerce and 7 useful WooCommerce tips.
#2 Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads is one of the best eCommerce WordPress plugins when it comes to selling digital files. The greatest thing is that it provides an amazing processing speed compared to other plugins. Therefore, it easily dominates the top position in the list of best-selling plugins for WordPress.
With Easy Digital Downloads, you can upload and sell files via either WordPress or elsewhere. The plugin helps you manage payments, integrates with your mailing list, and even has its own affiliate system.
Outstanding features:
- Sell digital files right on your WordPress website.
- Support files that are hosted in WordPress or on a third-party platform.
- Process payments using different payment processors.
- Set up an affiliate program to sell faster.
- Integrate e-store into your mailing list.
Price: Free with the basic version, premium versions start at $8.25 per month for a 1-site license.
Pros:
- Support forums, videos, and tutorials.
- Use shortcodes to display your products anywhere.
Cons:
- Available for downloadable digital products only.
- Less customization. For example, WooCommerce is customizable through functions.php, which is not what EDD has.
Tips: Between WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, which one will best suit your needs? Check out.
Don’t like EDD? Consider these Easy Digital Downloads alternatives for your store.
#3 WP EasyCart
WP EasyCart is an eCommerce plugin for small business owners to create an online store with a low budget. This plugin provides a quick configuration process and comprehensive tools for non-professionals.
Outstanding features:
- Integrate with more than 30 payment gateways.
- Provide goods tax management.
- Integrate with Quickbooks, ShipStation, Stamps, Mailchimp, and more.
- Ensure payment and information security.
Price:
- Free version.
- Professional version – $69 per year.
- Premium version – $99 per year.
Pros:
- Offer a free plan coming with many modern, convenient features.
- Provide good free customer support documents.
- Support selling a variety of unique products/services.
- Offer a simple interface.
Cons:
- Don’t provide chat support.
- Have limited payment gateways and transaction fees with the free version.
#4 WordPress iSell
WordPress iSell is also a popular plugin for selling files such as images, PDF. This plugin creates an Add to Cart button anywhere on your website. Accordingly, it would help you boost your sales.
Outstanding features:
- Add Add to Cart button anywhere on the website.
- Allow quick payment via PayPal.
- Support physical and non-physical products.
Price: Free.
Pros:
- Support 45 different languages.
- Allow unlimited shopping carts.
Cons:
- Offer limited payment gateways.
#5 Prevent Direct Access Gold (PDA Gold)
PDA Gold, in general, hides your private product files from Google’s indexing. The plugin redirects unauthorized visitors to a 404 error page when attempting to access and download your digital products.
Its WooCommerce Integration extension uses IP restriction and other protection methods to prevent customers from sharing their product files.
What’s more, PDA Gold also secures your LearnDash courses and other online courses.
Outstanding features:
- Set IP restriction to WooCommerce order page & product files.
- Configure download limits and expiration time for WooCommerce digital products.
- Grant digital file access and download to specific user roles.
- Track the number of file access and download.
Price: $69.9 for the WooCommerce add-on. You can view full PDA Gold’s pricing here.
Pros:
- Firm and useful security features.
- Fantastic customer support.
- Intuitive interface.
Cons:
- Many good features are in the Gold version.
#6 Password Protect WordPress Pro (PPWP Pro)
PPWP Pro allows you to password protect WordPress posts, pages, partial content, WooCommerce products, or your entire website.
Its WooCommerce integration secures your WooCommerce digital products with password. Moreover, it automatically sends quick access links or passwords to your customers right after they purchase a virtual product.
In addition, you can also password protect your LearnDash courses and other online courses.
Outstanding features:
- Password protect WooCommerce products, categories, shop pages, and entire shop.
- Send quick access links for customers to access the products without entering passwords.
- Send passwords to users after purchase.
- Support multiple passwords per product.
- Allow one password for multiple products.
- Set password usage limits and expiration time.
- Customize password-protected pages.
Price: $69.9 for the WooCommerce Integration. You can view full PPWP Pro’s pricing here.
Pros:
- Fascinating customer support.
- User-friendly interface.
- Effective ways to prevent unauthorized access.
Cons:
- A bit higher price compared to other plugins.
What Is Your Choice?
Choosing what to sell and adding a suitable plugin are crucial steps to build an online store. Not only listing down the best digital products to sell, but we’ve also introduced the top plugins for your reference.
From the insights and our recommendations, we hope that you can find the right WordPress plugins for your store. Once done, you may be interested in how to price digital products wisely.
So, ready to sell virtual products? Let’s start your business right now!
