Needing help navigating the realm of digital products to sell on Etsy? Fear no more… I have the answers to all your burning questions about Etsy digital downloads and how you can make passive income with them.
Hi there, babe!
Etsy is well known for being the place to find unique handcrafted gift ideas and vintage products. But did you know you can sell digital downloads that are immediately delivered to customers through the Etsy platform too?
Probably you did, and that it is how you are here!
But I realize it can be difficult to understand the what, where and how of digital products if you are brand new to this thing.
And considering the increasingly popularity of the gig economy plus how the digital product industry is growing at an exponential rate (with no signs of slowing down), you should understand exactly what these products are and how you too, can make money from them.
In this article I will show you some of the best digital products to sell on Etsy (and their advantages + disadvantages over the other options), and how this can become a great source of passive income for you.
Sounds good?
Then let start at the beginning…
What are digital products?
If the only digital product you can think of is an eBook, then think again.
Digital products are any asset that you sell online which does not require you to ship anything for your customers or to replenish your stock.
Examples of digital products are downloadable printables, eBooks, templates, graphics, digital patterns, clip art etc.
They are normally meant to be consumed online too, printables being the exception here (they are design for customers to print them at home).
I have a post with more in-depth information about all kinds of digital products – note that not all of them are suitable for Etsy.
Here in this article I’m going to show you the products that you can sell on Etsy digitally, but still you should consider your creative inclinations and skill set to decide what would work best for you.
What tools can I use to create Etsy digital downloads?
Babe, you can create digital products with almost anything these days!
There is a wide range of programs that you can use. Here are some of popular ones:
- Canva (my favorite!), Corjil and Templett: these apps are GREAT for editable templates
- Adobe programs such as a Photoshop, Illustrator, inDesign: You can create basically anything with them, but they aren’t as easy to learn and intuitive like Canva.
- Office programs such as PowerPoint, Excel, Word: If you are an Windows user these can do the job too, depending on the digital product you are creating.
- Apple programs such as Keynote and Pages: and these, just like the above, can be useful too.
- Google programs such as Google Docs, Google Slides: free and easy to use.
- Affinity programs such as Affinity designer and Affinity Publisher: A cheaper alternative for Adobe programs.
- Procreate app: for iPad users only
Is selling digital products on Etsy worth it?
The thing about a digital product is that you create the product once and keep selling that same file over and over again without any ‘extra’ work. I put extra in between quotes because you might still need to do some work like updating files and dealing with customer support.
But, the reality is that digital products, once created, are much more hands-off than physical products – just to get rid of the shipping itself is already a massive time-saver! And that is how you create passive income from Etsy digital products.
I started my first Etsy store in 2013 selling physical products… And let me tell you; I loved creating handmade products.
It really it is so fulfilling looking at the finished products, the pictures of my customers wearing them and the lovely reviews I got.
But you know what else is fulfilling?
Having time for my family, not stressing over an important order that hasn’t arrived yet for whatever reason, sleeping with the knowledge that my inventory is full and self deliverable while I sleep.
There is no denial that selling digital products brought a lot more freedom to my life, both financially and time wise.
Even if you have no idea on how to start your digital download store, this is something you can learn relatively fast. It does not require a lot of technical skills and very low upfront investment.
Etsy is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world attracting plenty of shoppers interested in unique items. If you can create a beautiful product that people want, then you will be well on your way of making passive income.
There is no better than the present to start!
How to sell digital products on Etsy?
To start selling any items on Etsy, be that physical or digital products, you need to create an Etsy shop.
The upfront investment is relatively low. To create a shop is free but you pay $0.20 to list an item and in case of a sale they take a 5% fee, so there isn’t a huge risk to get started.
If you use my link here before you open your shop you get 40 listings for free!
Once you have your shop open, you can edit the looks of it and add listings. If you mark the listing as a digital download Etsy will deliver the files immediately to the customers after payment is processed.
You can upload a max of 5 digital files to your Etsy listing (each must be smaller than 20MB). In case you need to deliver more items, or if your files are larger than 20MB, you need to host your files in another platform (such as Google Drive) and create one PDF or text file with the links to access the purchased items hosted in your drive somewhere.
Etsy digital products ideas
Below is a list of some of the most popular digital products on Etsy. Popularity often means competition and that is not necessarily a bad thing! It means that there is demand of that product.
However, to make sure that you really make money selling digital products on Etsy, it is important that your product is compelling too.
There are free design programs that can help you create beautiful products to sell online. If you need help with this part, I have other posts here that can help!
If you want to learn how to create digital products I can recommend this great course I took myself that helped tremendously coming up with ideas of what to sell and how to take advantages of seasonal items.
Best digital product to sell on Etsy
1. Cards
Everybody needs cards!
There is a huge variety of cards that you can create. Think of every holiday, season or event and will have a list that will keep you busy for a long time.
You can create printable cards (that someone would print at home) or editable cards for customers to put their own spin on it by editing with programs such as Templett and Corjil.
Here are some examples:
- Birthday cards
- Thank you cards
- Appreciation cards
- Greeting cards
- Valentine’s day cards
- Mother’s Day cards
- Father’s Day card
- Christmas cards
- Bookmarks
2. Party printables
The name says it all!
Party printables can be any design that customers use for a particular theme, think of invitations, announcements and party favor printables.
Here are some ideas of product designs:
- Wedding invitations
- Birthday party invitations
- Shower invitations
- Bachelorette party invitations
- Pregnancy announcements
- Menu templates
- Gift tags
- Cup and cupcake wraps
- Cake decoration
- Wedding labels
- Table Numbers
- Photo Booth Props
- Save-the-date cards
- Party games
3. Planners
Planners are huge!
They constitute a large portion of digital products on Etsy, meaning that this category is a bit competitive to get started.
However, there are so many different types of planners that you can create that you could do well still and create an extra income for yourself.
If you like planners yourself then this could be the perfect place to start.
Examples of planners you can create:
- Daily planner
- Monthly planner
- Academic student planner
- Yearly Calendar
- Meal planner
- Wedding planner
- Travel planners
- Budget planner
- Self-care planner
- Project planner
- Social media planner
- Marketing planner
- Fitness and workout planner
- Christmas planner
- Pet planner
- Digital planner
Pro tip: Get started with these planner templates. They are beautifully designed, you just need to customize and voila! Save time and hassle now.
4. Notebooks, Journals and Digital Paper
You create these products in the same manner that you can create the printable planners above.
A printable paper, journal or notebook is a design that is purchased in digital format, often a in downloadable PDF or PNG, and that you can print at home and assemble however you want inside a binder or folder.
Customers purchase digital paper sheets for cross stitch patterns, floor plans, drawing shapes, math projects etc. Journals and notebooks can be used for school projects.
Here are some examples of these products:
- Dot paper
- Graph paper
- Note paper
- Digital notebooks
- Digital paper
- Scrapbooking patterns
- Daily journal with prompts
- Gratitude journal
- Wellness journal
- Digital stickers
5. Trackers and checklists
Trackers help us visually see progress and everyone wants to check things off a list. It is satisfying!
These are often printables but you can also make a digital version of it that people ca use in their iPad or tablet.
Here are some examples:
- Mood tracker
- Habit tracker
- Reading tracker
- Period tracker
- Savings tracker
- Medication tracker
- Weigh loss tracker
- Walking tracker
- Chore tracker
- Cleaning tracker
- Pantry organizer
- Pomodoro Tracker
- Productivity tracker
- Class schedule tracker
- Spending log
- Dream log
- Food log
- Routine chart
- Bucket list
- To do list
- Grocery lists
6. Family entertainment printables
I totally made up this category…
But what I mean is a printable designed for family fun time, trips, kids’ birthday parties and other events.
Whatever to keep them entertained! They are normally sold as bundle so kids have plenty of activities to do and parents can print the files as many times as they wish.
Here are some example of printable family activities you can sell on Etsy:
- Printable games
- Family bingo
- Travel games
- Coloring pages
- Scavenger Hunts
- Maze games
- Activity books
- Word find sheets
- Tic-tac-toe sheets
- Would you rather questions
- Memory game
7. Learning assets
Learning assets are visual and interactive printables to assist learning and can be delivered as printable workbook, worksheets, games or documents.
You can sell them separately or make a bundle full of activities to help kids learn at home or at school.
Here are some examples of printable learning assets:
- Writing worksheet
- Letter tracing worksheets
- Alphabet flashcards
- Busy book printable pack
- Emotions chart
- Reward charts
- Responsibility charts
- Activity books
- Matching object to name sheet
- Numbers sheets
- Colors sheets
- Shapes sheets
- Math and counting worksheets
- Weather activities
- Clock and time sheets
8. Product and packaging label
Many artisan and hand crafters who have a store on Etsy to sell their craft also need well designed product and package labels.
They can use these to brand their products and have a more professional look without the need to contract a designer to assist them with these things.
Think about:
- Soap labels
- Cosmetic labels
- Jar labels
- Wine bottle labels
- Candle labels
9. Business branding and marketing assets
Another B2B product, many businesses need a range of assets for their branding and marketing. Here you can help by creating templates or graphic bundles to make their life easier.
Think of:
- Business card templates
- Email signature templates
- Logo templates
- Etsy shop kit
- Graphic design templates
- Etsy banner templates
- Etsy product listing templates
- Social media templates
- YouTube channel templates
- Pinterest Templates
10. Art and decoration
Home decor items can be delivered digitally too. DIYers love them!
Some ideas:
- Nursery wall art
- Personalized wall art templates
- Travel wall art
- Pet wall art
- Quote prints
- Illustrations
- Posters
- Art prints
11. SVG cut files
SVG is a digital file format that stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. It is the most common format for cut files.
A cut file is an image to be used with die-cut machines such Cricut Explore Air, Silhouette Cameo, Brother Scan N Cut etc.
On Etsy, you can sell these digital images so crafters can use them at home, with their machines, to finish a specific project such as scrap-booking or 3D-cards.
Here are some of the most popular SVG files on Etsy:
- Funny quotes SVG files
- Travel quotes SVG files
- Inspirational quotes SVG files
- Sarcastic quotes SVG files
- Christian SVG files
- Farmhouse SVG files
- Book lover SVG files
- Outdoors SVG files
- Camping SVG files
- Christmas SVG files
- Disney SVG files
12. Templates
Templates are used to shorten the time your customer would have to do something from scratch.
Digital templates are great as both business to business and business to customer products.
Some ideas to get you started:
- Resume templates
- Invoice templates
- Order form templates
- Bookkeeping template
- Monthly budget spreadsheet template
- Website theme templates
- Canva templates
- Notion templates
- OneNote templates
- Excel and Google Sheets templates
- Trello templates
- Asana templates
- Clickup templates
13. Photos
If you are a photographer, you could be selling your photography as digital products.
Many businesses can use photos to help illustrate their brand lifestyle and convey visual messages so selling a bundle of candid, wide shot with unidentified subjects’ photos could be your opportunity to tap into this market.
Product photos for their digital products are also essential to gaining customers’ trust and influencing their decision to buy, so muckups and background images can do well too.
Here are some examples to get your ideas rolling:
- Stock photos
- Mockup photos
- Zoom backgrounds
- Phone wallpaper
- Background photos
14. Presets
Presets are pre-defined photo-editing settings designed to give an image a certain look or style in a single click.
These presets are created for the specific program they are intended to be used and once you import them, you can access these setting and transform images in seconds.
If you have talent for creating these digital products, you could start here.
They come in many forms, and here are some examples:
- Lightroom preset
- Photoshop actions
- Presets for Premier Pro
- Instagram filters
- Snapchat filters
15. Patterns and plans
These are more specialized work, which require you to have plenty of experience, but I am listing here because that could be you!
Patterns and plans are instructional guides, generally delivered as eBooks, that show customers how to create something themselves.
It generally comes with the list of materials needed, how much it will cost roughly, time to accomplish the project and how to technically perform some of the tasks.
If you have knowledge that can be delivered this way, you can create your own patterns and plans to sell.
Here are some example of patterns and digital plans:
- Sewing patterns
- Cross stitch patterns
- Knitting patterns
- Crochet patterns
- Macrame patterns
- Quilting patterns
- Embroidery patterns
- Furniture building plans
- Home blueprint plans
- Architectural plans
16. POD (print on demand) products
The products that are delivered from print on demand services are actual physical products, however yourself will only have to create the digital design. All the logistic and shipping to the customer will be handled by the print on demand service.
It may be that you will have more customer service needs, in case the physical product doesn’t meet the customer’s expectation. For this reason I advise you to always test the product for yourself and use print on demand services that are of good quality.
Here are ideas of designs you can create to be printed on physical products:
- Custom clothes
- Canvas tote bags
- Mugs
- Packing slips
- Business cards
- Stickers
- Postcards
- Backpacks
- Laptop cases
- Phone cases
- Mouse pads
- Throw cushions
- Hair accessories
- Key chains
- Flip flops
- Tumblers
- Notebooks and journals
Become an Etsy digital downloads seller
Wow, that was a big list of products!
Selling digital downloads on Etsy is worth your time and effort because it is one of the quickest, cheapest and easiest ways to start with digital products (and earn that dreamy passive income).
I find that putting in the time to grow my Etsy shops are like investing in real estate; in the beginning it might feel like it is just sucking your time and money but eventually you start reaping the rewards for having made that first investment in the form of recurring passive revenue.
If you are ready to dipping your toes into the digital product waters, then my advise is to start with an Etsy digital product store. Grab 40 free listings here and let’s begin!
