Most of us have been trying to find ways to make the most of our extra time at home during the pandemic whether that’s going full Marie Kondo and finally decluttering the kitchen, stalking the stock market, or turning your kitchen into a mini bakery. And you may even have come across ways to make a little extra cash or turn a hobby into a business.
But what about those of us that are creative but don’t have the extra room for more hobbies or don’t have time to keep an eye on the stock market?
Digital products are a great solution for passive income that requires nothing other than a computer (and Wi-Fi of course 😊) and a good eye for design. In fact, you don’t need to be “good at art” or a graphic design background to make digital items that will sell.
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Although digital items mostly sell for $10 at most (unless there are large bundles), the best part of this passive income source is that you don’t have to worry about shipping and inventory. Therefore, your only expenses will be the subscription you use for your software if you use one (Adobe, Canva, etc.), Etsy fees which are $0.20 per listing and 5% per transaction, and any amount you spend on advertising. Despite the saturated market, digital items are in demand on Etsy. With the right marketing and product quality, you can make hundreds of dollars – even thousands – per month.
- Templates: organization, planners, recipes, labels and stickers; events; resumes/CV
Planners and templates of all types can be found for sale on Etsy. Some examples include organization planners, recipe binder templates, labels and stickers for digital journals, wedding stationery templates, business templates, and even resume and CV templates. All of these can be designed easily with Adobe applications such as Illustrator or even on Canva.
2. Clip Art and digital backgrounds, Cricut machine patterns
Clip Art, watercolor florals, digital paper, colored brush strokes, bokeh and fog for photography, Cricut machine files, the list goes on. There’s an endless amount of ideas for selling your physical and digital art as an image – particularly as a PNG file – on Etsy for passive income. The most important thing to remember for clip art and digital patterns is if you intend to sell for personal use only or allow the customer to use the files commercially.
3. Lightroom Presets
Ever wonder how photographers create mesmerizing effects in photos that mark their signature style, how social media influencers’ Instagram pages have a certain “vibe”, or even how travel bloggers make the ocean “more blue”? Adobe’s Lightroom software is your answer. When you have a whole vacation or photoshoot to edit, it can be a hassle to constantly experiment with and apply Lightroom edits to photos. Lightroom presets make editing easier as you simply need to click a button to apply the preset edits to make your photos instantly edited.
There are tons of tutorials on how to create, download, and sell Lightroom presets. Be sure to include sample before and after edits of photos with the presets and also include instructions for your customers on how to use the presets.
You will need Adobe Lightroom which you can purchase here. There are also special student discounts if you use your student email address to register for Adobe Creative Cloud.
4. Digital Color Palettes and Brush Strokes
This is similar to the Lightroom presets. If you have a good sense of color theory you can make and sell color palettes for the Procreate app and Adobe Illustrator.
5. Coloring Books and Handwriting Workbooks
Coloring isn’t just for kids anymore. “Adult” coloring books have gained popularity recently as a relaxing activity for adults. You can make and sell your own coloring books by turning your doodles into digital images.
If drawing is not your cup of tea but you have great handwriting, you can make calligraphy and handwriting practice sheets instead on Canva.
6. Fonts
Did you know that most of the fonts you use on your common word processors, Canva, and Adobe are not free for commercial use? While you can definitely find free fonts available for commercial use and in blogging, they aren’t always the prettiest or geared for your specific needs.
If you have great handwriting, are skilled in calligraphy, or can make your own font with its own set of dimensions, then making and selling a font is perfect for you. There are several tutorials online on how to create a font and sell it. As with the other digital products, you need to specify if your font could be used for commercial use or only personal use.
7. Social Media and Blogging Material
There are dozens of digital social media and blogging tools you can sell as passive income. One example is templates for Instagram Stories and icons for the stories which influencers and businesses use to create their Instagram page aesthetic and keep posts organized. Other social media tools include Snapchat Geofilters and Pinterest templates.
Bloggers want a unique aesthetic and organized site just as much as social media influencers. Digital material geared for bloggers include templates for pages and newsletters. If you can code, you can make WordPress blog themes which are high in demand as bloggers want unique themes to set them apart from the rest.
8. Art prints
Art prints are great for artists who choose to sell digital prints of their artwork online. Customers can then download, print, and frame the art in whichever material they choose. Art prints are an inexpensive alternative to buying pre-printed art work.
9. eBooks
If you have a compilation of recipes or cooking tips, decluttering and minimalism guides, or are a blogger with advice on utilizing Pinterest for blogs, selling an eBook would be right for you. There are dozens of different things to write about. You can even write an eBook on how to write an eBook!
While it’s much easier than selling an actual book, you still want to make sure to edit and provide content that is relevant to your target audience.
10. Craft patterns
If you already have a craft hobby and don’t mind sharing how you made the project, you can sell the pattern as a digital file. This is great for sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, origami, jewelry making, stained glass patterns, candle making, basically any craft you can think of. It’s good to have a step-by-step PDF file with plenty of images, supply list, and difficulty level of project. A great addition would be to include a private video of you making the item so your buyers can follow along easily. Also, just like with the clip art and digital backgrounds, be sure to specify if the patterns are for commercial use (customer can sell the final product) or hobby use (customer makes for themself or as a gift).
11. Photography Mockups
If you sell any of the other items listed in this post, chances are you will need a photography mockup to display your product to attract customers. Photo mockups are a popular digital item to sell since business owners are looking for new and unique mockups for their products to stand out amongst the dozens of products using similar mockups. A quick search will show you loads of different types of mockups for T-shirts, notebooks, wedding stationery, rooms and walls, and even cell phones. All you need to do is take a picture of your mockup with the appropriate background, upload the photo to Photoshop, draw an object for the selected area you want as the mockup such as the picture frame or mobile phone screen, then convert it to a Smart Object. There are other free options such as Canva if you don’t have Adobe Photoshop.
12. Web Elements
These are similar to clip art but geared towards professional use. Web elements add eye catching designs to illustrate professional websites, presentations, services, and infographics.
13. Stock Photos
If you are a photographer or have an eye for taking good quality pictures, you should look into selling your photos as stocks. As content creators are constantly looking for new stock images to use, you have a good chance of selling your photographs if you sell what they are looking for and something that is unique. Stock photos can be sold individually or in bundles.
These are just a few of an endless amount of digital products you can create and sell. As long as you put in the effort to make quality products and have great customer service, selling digital products can be a good side hustle for passive income.
Do you know of any other digital items to sell? Comment below! Don’t forget to share this post if you found it helpful. And stay updated by following me on social media and joining the email list.
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