Can you make money selling digital products without having a website of your own?
Spoiler Alert: Yes, yes you can.
Selling digital products is a fun and profitable side hustle that can make you thousands of extra dollars a month. The best part is you can get started completely for free!
Read to the end for a full overview of how to sell digital products without a website in 6 steps!
Spsss…affiliate links may be used throughout my blog posts. If you buy through my link, I’ll get a small percentage at no extra cost to you. Thank you for any support!
Benefits of Selling Digital Products
First things first, why sell digital products over physical ones? There are a couple of reasons why I am obsessed with digital products.
Low-cost to Start
Digital products are great for beginners because they don’t require a huge investment to get started. You can start selling digital products with as little as $0!
It’s truly the only side hustle you can start with nothing and turn it into something. There are free programs, like Canva, that allow you to create your products for free. You can also promote your products for free on social media.
No Website Required
Some people are intimidated by the thought of buying hosting and setting up a whole website but that’s not necessary to start. There are websites that allow you to host your digital products with no monthly fee!
I’ll share my favorite free place to sell my digital products later on!
No Inventory
It’s there right in the name! Since it’s a digital product, there’s nothing you have to store in your house. Keeping physical inventory can get overwhelming quickly, especially, when you have a small living space like mine! Also, no post office runs!
Minimal Customer Service
Since there is no shipping anything, there are fewer customer problems. Products are automatically delivered to customers after a purchase, so there’s nothing for you to do after you make a sale.
1. Picking Your Product
The first step to selling a digital product is deciding what exactly you’re going to sell.
There are so many different products to create but the common denominator is your product should help someone in some way.
I sell party games on Etsy. So, I am helping people who don’t want to throw a boring party.
I also sell an Extra Income with Printables course that helps people who want to start a profitable online side hustle.
You get what I’m saying, right?
When brainstorming digital product ideas think about things you know and how you can create something that will help people reach a desired outcome.
Profitable Digital Product Ideas
Ebooks
Package up all your knowledge into a concise ebook and help people learn something new quickly. You can write an ebook about literally anything from getting over a bad breakup to the best way to grow tomatoes. If you create educational content, an ebook is a beginner-friendly option before taking months to create an entire course on a subject.
Workbooks
Workbooks have both educational content and exercises for the reader to work through. Most workbooks have space to allow people to write in them. Similarly to ebooks, you can make workbooks for virtually any niche.
Templates
The possibilities are endless when it comes to selling templates. You can create social media templates for different professions, resume templates, branding templates or email marketing templates. Templates are easy and relatively quick to make so they are a great beginner-friendly digital product.
Planners
Planners are very popular because busy people need help staying organized! Instead of making a general planner that anyone could use, design one that a particular person would love. For example, you could make a planner geared toward a business owner or stay-at-home mom.
Journals
Printable journals are popular in many niches like personal development, mental health, and self-care. These are also easy to make because all you need is a list of thought-provoking journal prompts! People can print these out or use them digitally on their tablets with an app like Goodnotes.
Party Invitations/Games
If you’re into parties and cute designs, make printable party invitations and games! You can sell them as a bundle for many different events like bridal showers, sweet 16s, and graduation parties! You could even take custom orders if you want to take things to the next level.
Stock Photography
Put all those random photos on your phone to use and create stock photo bundles! This is also a great option for you if you’re into photography and have a professional camera. People buy stock photos to use on their websites, presentations and so much more!
Masterclasses
Have a skill you can teach people in under an hour or two? Create a value-packed video masterclass! You can even offer a workbook or template as an upsell.
Craft Patterns
If you’re into sewing, knitting or crocheting, you can sell patterns to other DIY lovers. Use social media to show off your creations and let crafters know the pattern is available for sale!
Courses
This is a digital product that takes more time to create so I would not start here as a beginner. Creating a course can be overwhelming if you’ve never made a digital product before. You also want to be careful not to create a course without validating that people actually want to buy a course like yours.
You want to pick a product and niche that you actually like otherwise you’ll lose interest pretty quickly!
2. Validate your Product
The biggest mistake beginners make is creating a product without checking that there is demand.
You can create the nicest digital product in the world but no demand = no sales.
One quick way to check demand is to see if other people are selling a similar product.
Another way is to go on to Tikok and public forums like Quora and Reddit to see what questions people are asking.
Go through Tiktok comments and Reddit threads to see firsthand how people are struggling.
Use this research to answer all those burning questions and create an amazing product that wil solve their problems.
Doing this research will also help you better sell to you your target buyer because you can speak their exact language.
Now, let’s talk about the fun stuff…product creation!
3. Create Your Product
When it comes to product creation, you can either design your product yourself or take a shortcut with PLR products. Let’s discuss both options!
3a. Create your own
Canva is a free, beginner-friendly design option that you can use to create your digital product.
They have a free and pro version for $12.99 a month.
Ready to design? Click here for a 30-day Canva pro trial.
Make sure to know what size (US Letter, A4 et.) your product should be and what format (PDF, JPG) you will be downloading it in.
If you’re making an ebook or workbook, Canva has hundreds of templates that you can use as a starting point.
Note: Don’t just download and resell the premade Canva templates! It is not allowed!
3b. Use PLR Products
I’ll let you in on a little secret…not everyone designs their digital product from scratch. PLR (private label products) allow you to buy and sell them as your own.
There are all types of PLR products from blog posts to ebooks to journals to planners.
This saves you time and allows you to focus on marketing your product faster.
Here are a couple of tips if you go to the PLR route.
Buy Quality PLR
A lot of the PLR out there is crap. It’s ugly and filled with outdated information.
Make sure you’re choosing a PLR provider that offers quality ebooks or well-designed journals and planners.
Now is not the time to go cheap! It is worth it to spend a little more on a quality product if it has a better chance of selling.
Some of my favorite PLR providers are Zane PLR, Secret Weapon PLR and Simply Couture Designs.
Make It Your Own
Some PLR products have useful information but their covers are severely lacking. A good cover can be the difference between a product selling and it never making a dime.
Make your own cover with Canva or hire a Fiverr designer to make you a professional-looking one.
4. List Your Products
There are several ways you can sell your digital product without your own website. You can sell your products with a website like Payhip or list your products on a marketplace like Etsy.
I recommend you host your products on Payhip if you’re looking for a free option.
The free plan allows you to list an unlimited amount of products with a 5% transaction fee.
With Payhip you can sell ebooks, PDF files, courses, memberships and coaching services. You can even create a professional-looking storefront with your products.
P.S. Don’t forget to create good listing photos for your digital products! Ugly listing photos will cost you sales!
5. Promote Your Products
Use Social Media
Create photo and video content that would attract your target audience. Consistently post videos on Tiktok and Instagram reels.
Many people are hesitant to show their face online but that’s the fastest way to connect with your audience.
I used to not want to post videos on TikTok until I just went for it and started making sales! Believe in yourself! The life of your dreams exists outside of your comfort zone so start posting!
Another social media platform to promote your digital products is Pinterest. People go to Pinterest looking for ideas and solutions so take advantage of that.
Use Canva to create Pinterest pins and use keywords in your pin title and description to show up in relevant search results.
Email Marketing
Create a free lead magnet to give to people in exchange for their email. A lead magnet is something related to your main offer like a checklist or guide.
Two email providers I recommend are MailerLite (the first one I used) or FloDesk (the one I currently use).
The goal is to grow an email list and build trust with your audience through emails so they’ll eventually buy your offers.
It’s also very important to have an email list because you don’t want to be at the mercy of social media platforms.
If your Tiktok account gets randomly banned at least you would still be able to promote to your email list!
6. Take Consistent Action
Selling digital products without a website can be done by anyone as long as you stay consistent. This isn’t a get-rich over night kind of thing. It’s a side hustle which means hustle is required!
Decide on your digital product, get set up on Payhip, and make a content posting schedule to follow.
Do this for at least 6 months to start seeing some results!
Rooting for you always!
Kay