Did you know that you can make passive income by selling digital products on Etsy? Etsy is one of the biggest marketplaces that allows entrepreneurs and artists to sell their handmade or digital products online.
You can turn Etsy into a healthy passive income stream with these digital products because you don’t have to produce and ship any physical items. Plus, you can set up your store so it runs by itself without having to work on it every day. Your money will grow as your website continues to make sales.
This doesn’t mean you can set up a store and forget about it, though. You still need to work at making your products look appealing to potential customers, find keywords that will rank high in search engines, and integrate your shop with social media.
Dive into the below best digital products to sell on Etsy list to find out which items you should start selling to make passive income.
Not interested in digital products? Check out these other products you can make money selling on Etsy.
Why you should sell digital products on Etsy
Etsy is a great platform to start your business journey. Their website makes it easy to promote your products, while their user base is already accustomed to buying handmade goods.
Etsy makes it super easy to market and sell your own products. If you decide you want to ship physical goods as well, Etsy helps you set up and fulfill orders that need to be shipped. However, if you choose digital products to sell on Etsy, fulfilling orders becomes even easier as you don’t have to physically ship anything.
Generate passive income
By selling digital products on Etsy, you can create a passive income stream. Selling digital products requires less work than physical products because you only need to create the digital product once. You can then sell it as many times as you want on autopilot.
Digital products also allow you to sell things that don’t need to be shipped, so you can focus on finding new products and marketing your store.
The more quality digital products you create, the higher the chance that your passive income stream will grow.
Start your own digital business
Selling products on Etsy is also a great way to start your own digital business. Etsy helps you learn the ins and outs of running a busy on an already set up platform. You can then expand your business to other marketplaces after you’ve learned the ropes on Etsy.
Many entrepreneurs start on Etsy and then transition to other platforms, such as creating their own website to sell.
Etsy makes it easy for you to earn money right from the start. However, Etsy does charge a flat fee per listing and take a 3.5% transaction fee out of each sale your Etsy store makes. Many agree this is a fair price for using an established platform, but you’ll want to consider transitioning once your business starts to grow.
15 best digital products to sell on Etsy
Graphic art and design printables
Are you a talented artist? Can you create funny or thought-provoking designs? Selling graphic art and printables on Etsy may be right for you. You can use apps and digital drawing programs like Procreate to create your original designs. From there, you can upload your designs as a file to sell on Etsy.
You can sell your graphic designs as printable pictures, posters, or usable designs that the buyer can put on whatever they want.
Check out Etsy digital prints here.
Digital patterns for scrapbooks
Pinterest is home to all kinds of crafters, including those who love to scrapbook. Try your hand at creating fun or festive designs that can be sold as scrapbooking paper. You can create one large design or a patterned design that repeats. For scrapbooking, focus your designs around life events such as birthdays, graduations, traveling, etc. Holiday prints also sell well.
Check out Etsy’s scrapbooking section here.
Printable Planners
Etsy consumers love to buy planners. Some sellers opt to produce and sell physical planners that they have to ship out. However, creating digital planner products is much simpler as you simply need to create the design files online. The buyer then prints out your design as directed for their use.
Physical planners typically sell for more money, but also have more upfront costs to produce.
To successfully sell printable planners online, you’ll want to give your planner a theme or cute design. You can research which digital planners on selling well through the Etsy platform.
Check out the Etsy printable planner section here.
Budget Planners
One type of digital planner that sells well on Etsy is budget planners. These planners help the buyer keep track of their daily and monthly spending. If you aren’t savvy in budget setups, make sure to research to set up an efficient money tracker.
Your budget planner designs can be simple or complex, depending on your skills and how much time you want to invest. If you plan to make one large printable sheet for the buyer to use as a planner, think about how it will work with their major needs.
Make sure to incorporate financial goal setting into your product. Many people create budgets to save up for a certain financial goal, such as purchasing a house or going on vacation. Marrying the two concepts together helps people reach their goals, which therefore makes your product more successful.
Check out the digital budget planners here.
Logos
Selling custom logos can be a good way to start your own design business. You can create beautiful logos that are unique and modern with photo editing sites like Canva. Or take a stab at creating a design through apps like Procreate.
You can market your logo designs on Etsy as well as through Freelance sites like Fiverr.
Check out the custom logo section here.
Business Cards
People looking to start a business will also be looking for business cards. Business cards are an essential marketing tool for entrepreneurs to spread their brand message.
Make sure your design is attractive, simple, and meets the request of the buyer. The key to starting your own business is creating quality products. Business cards can still be mostly passive if you create a few different types of templates upfront. You can then add in the details and logo accordingly.
Check out the Etsy business card section here.
Resume Templates
Resume templates are another good digital product to sell on Etsy because they are fairly easy to make and can easily be customizable for any person. You can find free resume templates on sites like Canva. Or you can design your unique resume template that stands out from the rest.
Try creating multiple designs of resumes with different themes or backgrounds for your buyer to have more options. Make sure the resumes are professional and are up to date with current trends in the industry.
The Etsy resume template section can be found here.
Website Templates
Are you good with coding and web design? Then selling website templates can be fun and lucrative. Do your research on what types of websites are most successful for different types of blogs. It’s important to keep the feel of successful blog templates while adding your creative spin. Your templates need to be easily customizable so that customers can fill them with their business aesthetics.
You can find the Etsy website template section here.
Event Printables
Party planning tools are popular on Etsy. If you’re looking to get into this space, you can start with basic invitations to things like holiday-themed or birthday parties. You can even scale up to complete digital party planning packs. These typically don’t sell for much. However, if you create customizable packs then you can create your designs once and the rest will be passive income.
Baby showers are very popular on Etsy, so take a look at creating baby shower themed cards, printables, or games to sell.
Check out some of the event planning guides on Etsy here.
Wedding Printables
Weddings are a huge part of Etsy’s business. Sell prints of pretty calligraphy to go along with the theme or send ideas for cute guest book alternatives. You can even branch out into invitations or digital photo books so that people can keep memories of their special day.
Printable wedding planning digital downloads can be a good addition to your product line. They are easy to create and typically don’t require much if any customization meaning you can create them once.
When creating wedding printables, you can choose to make set custom designs that buyers can purchase as-is or you can offer customizable content which will be less passive overall. Check out the market to see what others are offering.
Check out some of the wedding printables offered on Etsy here.
Ebook Templates
Many people that create an online business or blog will create an Ebook to sell on their site. You can create Ebook templates for nearly any niche. Simply find the top ebook on Amazon for your niche and read through it to learn some design tips or see what is working well in terms of formatting. Then create an Ebook template that fits the style but works better than their current designs.
Make sure the template is easily customizable so the buyer can format it to their liking.
Check out the Ebook templates sold on Etsy here.
Workbooks
Workbooks are another great digital product to sell on Etsy, because they are typically easy to design and you can sell them with a one-time fee. Workbooks can be designed for almost any niche market, so check out the top-selling workbooks on Etsy and get some inspiration from them.
Some different types of workbooks include self-care workbooks, parenting workbooks, and book writing workbooks.
Check out some of the workbooks offered on Etsy here.
Learning Materials
There are many different types of learning materials sold on Etsy. These range from workbooks for kids to study guides. If you’re willing to get creative, then this can be another great market to enter. Create simple images for your buyers that they print and put together. Or create digital learning material that is easily customizable such as digital word art or bulletin board sets with fun sayings and quotes.
Flashcards are very popular on Etsy. You create custom designs for flashcards for school grade kids featuring topics like multiplication, body parts, and language learning.
Check out some of the learning materials sold on Etsy here.
Digital Calendars
This is a fun market to get into because you can offer calendars for nearly any niche theme. Some ideas include animal calendars, floral calendars, planner/organizer style calendars, and travel calendar styles. There are plenty of niche calendars out there that are popular, so take a look at the best-sellers on Etsy and get some inspiration.
Find some of the digital calendars on Etsy here.
Coloring Books
If you are a talented artist, then creating coloring books can be a lucrative option for selling digital products on Etsy. You can also offer simpler black and white illustrations to create digital packs of images for buyers to color in their own homes or on the go.
Create simple line drawings that buyers can download and print as coloring books or create digital brush packs of high-quality images for users to color on their computers.
You can create a simple image pack with the targeted theme, such as a birthday gift pack, a flower gift pack, a dog gift pack, etc.
Check out some of the coloring books offered on Etsy here.
How to pick which digital products to sell on Etsy
When picking which digital products are best to sell on Etsy, pick categories you can make quality products for. Shops on Etsy are heavily affected by user reviews, so you want to make sure that any product you’re making is high quality.
If you’re a talented artist then using apps like Procreate can be used to make just about any type of digital product. However, if you aren’t as talented then products like calendars, planning tools, and flashcards may be better as they are easily created on sites like Canva.
You’ll also want to determine how passive you want your income to be. If you want it to be purely passive, that means you’ll want to create the products one time with no customizable features. Certain products like workbooks lend themselves to this better than products like logos or business cards.
When starting your online Etsy business, stick with one category while you are starting out. It’ll help you master the craft in that area as well as establish your site as a go-to for those types of products. You can then branch out from there after you’ve created all of the digital products for your original product type.
How to sell digital products on Etsy
So you have decided which niche market you want to enter, but now what? How do you create the best digital product possible so that you can sell it on Etsy and start generating some money?
If you are starting with a blank slate, then there are some steps to take when creating your product. First, figure out if your product is one that you can easily host online or if it will be downloaded.
There are many tools you can use to create your digital designs. Sites like Canva allow you to purchase rights to stock photos as well as many other design elements. You can use sites like these to mix and match different designs to create your digital products to sell on Etsy.
If you are interested in creating your designs from scratch, check out apps like Procreate. Procreate offers a wide variety of different brushes and pens so you can create an endless amount of custom designs. You can then upload these designs and place them on your digital products.
How to handle refunds on digital products on Etsy
When selling digital products, most sellers do not offer refunds on digital products. This is because once the file has been transferred to the buyer, there is no way of actually returning it. The buyer could still use the printable even after returning.
It’s important to clearly state your refund policy on your Etsy storefront so buyers are aware upfront. This will help your case should the buyer take up the issue with Etsy. Check out Etsy’s guidance on returns here.
Is selling digital products on Etsy profitable?
Selling digital products on Etsy can be a profitable source of income. However, you’ll want to do research on the different markets and stick with products that are in high demand.
Selling digital products on Etsy is the perfect business for someone who can create original designs and wants a passive income stream. If you have basic computer skills and enjoy graphic design work then this may be the right fit for you.
Digital products tend to sell for less money than physical products but are much easier to produce. To calculate how much money you can make, take the price of your potential product (minus Etsy fees) and the number of products you’d expect to sell.
The benefit of selling digital products on Etsy is that you can create these designs on time and continue to profit off of them for years to come.
How to create a passive income from Etsy digital products
If you’re looking to create a passive income stream from selling digital products on Etsy, you’ll need to choose the products that you only have to create once. This means that you’ll have to put in effort upfront when creating the products, but will profit off of them every time they sell thereafter with no effort.
The best digital products that you can convert into passive income include digital prints, learning materials, coloring books, and Ebook templates.