Selling digital downloads is no longer a trend. This is the greatest way to earn passive income. In fact, we’ve seen a host of rising millionaires making 6 to 9 figures from selling intangible items.
2022 has come, bringing new opportunities and trends on selling digital products. Which used to be a hit may not be endorsed anymore. Meanwhile, several X factors are expected to create a hook.
This article will shed light on 13 trending digital products to sell in 2022. We’ll also bring forward some practical ideas for each of these products.
- #1 Online Courses
- #2 eBooks
- #3 Subscriptions and Membership Sites
- #4 Audio and Podcasts
- #5 Videos and Webinars
- #6 Online Services
- #7 Software and Gaming
- #8 Photography
- #9 Music and Sounds
- #10 Graphic Design
- #11 Email Lists
- #12 Printables
- #13 Private Label Rights
#1. Online Courses
Elearning has become more popular nowadays than 2 years ago when it was still a growing trend. The outbreak of Covid19 has led to the complete lockdown on physical schools, universities, and institutions.
Teaching now has to move online. Meanwhile, universities and centers rush to online teaching platforms to conduct lessons and keep track of learning progress.
This opens a fairly massive opportunity for anyone wanting to monetize their expertise. If you’ve got a skill, you can teach it to everyone. If you’re a guru on any niche, you can share it.
The best part of selling online courses and tutorials online is you don’t need to have buckets of money to get started. To launch your courses, all you need to do is create an account on online course platforms like Udemy or Skillshare and upload your pre-recorded tutorial videos or audio there.
Of course, that‘s not the end of the story. Considering the fact that anyone can teach, but not all of them can get their courses off the ground, you need to make your lesson captivating and intriguing. Most importantly, what value your courses bring to learners does matter.
#2. eBooks
According to Statista, there were 191 million e-books sold in the US in 2020, adding 1.1 billion U.S. dollars to e-book revenue. This was from 983.3 million higher compared to the previous year.
On top of that, eBooks are expected to reach 38.17 billion dollars by 2026. If you plan to make money online, you shouldn’t miss out on these trending digital products.
Nowadays, technology has made publishing a book just a few minutes away. You can also beautify your ebooks under flipping book form rather than just plain PDF files.
With ebooks, you’re not limited to any genres. People look for books that deliver valuable information like self-help motivation, how-to guides, tips on skincare, cooking, gardening, fitness, insightful industrial research, etc.
In addition, they also look for content pieces that help them entertain, relax, or widen their perspective. At that point, you can produce some trending eBook genres like Romance, Paranormal & Urban Science Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, and so on.
One thing to keep in mind is that you need to protect your ebooks from unauthorized access. You may not notice but your ebook may get indexed by Google and show up on search results. Users can find them by randomly typing their URLs. You need to prevent users from accessing your ebook files directly and at the same time block Google indexing.
#3. Subscriptions and Membership Sites
Are you a creator with many followers? Then, creating a membership site or selling subscription-based products is a great way to monetize your audience.
You can offer any kind of membership imaginable and let people sign up monthly or yearly. It applies to any niches under the sun, including health & fitness, entrepreneurship, cooking, productivity, and so many more.
Members often get the chance to participate in exclusive groups, discussions, Q&A, webinars, and access to content that free members can’t get.
You can easily get a WordPress membership site up and running with tons of membership plugins like MemberMouse. You’re able to sell online courses under a membership form too, using Learn Dash or LearnPress. In fact, making use of the membership site model enables you to sell any trending digital products listed in this article.
#4. Audio and Podcasts
Podcasts have been taking the world by storm. According to Podcast Insight, there were over 48 million podcast episodes in April 2021. Among them, 2 million are active, while that figure was just a quarter of that 3 years ago.
Podcasts and audio can be easily consumed on the go. It’s really suitable for multitasking. People can listen to podcasts and audio while working out, doing exercise, doing housework, cooking, etc.
This is an excellent idea for a side hustle on the audio and podcast creator’s side. You can make money online from your own comfort home. If you have a fantastic voice, just voice-record your own ebook and sell them in audio or podcast form.
Choosing to self-host or collaborating with other hosts are both possible. Think about your mastery and target audience, then develop a content roadmap based on this. You should get started with a free podcast, renovate it to different tiers of listeners and monetize your premium podcast content.
On top of that, this type of trending digital products also helps connect like-minded listeners. Hosts have a chance to interact with their subscribers on social media platforms or podcast forums. They can listen to their feedback and collect constructive ideas to release engaging and better podcasts too.
#5. Videos and Webinars
Like audio, videos prove a vast captivating medium for digital learning and entertainment. Tutorial videos with great visuals and professional effects have driven a million views and huge endorsements.
Besides, we’ve seen the rise of videos filming Mukbang, daily lives, hands-on experiences, and nature. Tons of online surfers hook on these videos seen they deliver the sense of peace, tranquility, authenticity, and exotica.
So which video types should you sell? Cooking, makeup tutorials, short films, stock videos, video animations, comedy and prank videos, behind-the-scenes footage, promotion videos for businesses, just to name a few.
On top of that, virtual events like webinars are a video transformation as well. Online seminars make it easy to connect with audiences and convert them into customers. You can either record them or host them live. For live virtual events/conferences, co-host or invite guesses who are also mavens in particular niches to join.
#6. Online Services
We categorize online services such as coaching, freelancing, or consulting into intangible products too. How can you sell your services if you can’t meet your customers in the real world?
Quite similar to teaching and learning online, you’ll market, sell your products, meet clients, and get paid virtually. Everything is processed behind the screen via Zoom or Google Meet.
This digital product is quite trending in the finance, business, fitness, and healthcare industries. Some online service ideas that you can consider include
- Finance consulting: cryptocurrency, stock investment, etc.
- Business coaching: how to start a business from scratch, how to invest in social media/ content marketing strategies, how to get more leads, and so on.
- Wellness coaching: how to overcome anxiety and well-maintain mental health, how to turn stress into motivation, etc.
- Data analysis, programming, machine learning, and language lessons – freelancing.
#7. Software and Gaming
This digital product is not new but still a smashed hit over the years. The birth of thousand of SaaS (Software as a Services) companies has proven how high the market demand is.
To sell software, you must have a certain level of IT skill and knowledge. Not only do you sell the tools, but you also provide customer support whenever clients need you, i.e., fix bugs, conflicts, and modify settings.
The following list gives you some ideas for software products.
- Website themes and plugins, e.g. WordPress plugins and themes
- Hosting services
- Web design templates
- Domains
- Platforms to host online stores, blogs, online courses, or webinars
- Apps for web or mobile, i.e. Shopify apps
- Marketing platforms
Regarding gaming, online games on mobiles or PC, including educating games for kids or battle arena games for professionals, come as the most profitable niches on the Internet. There are around 1 billion gamers worldwide, and that number is expected to spike up to 1.3 billion in 2025.
The thing is you have to keep your finger on the pulse of audience tastes and market demands, which constantly change over time.
#8. Photography
We’ve seen the skyrocketed needs in stock photos, which are high-quality and aesthetically pleasing over the past 2 years now. They are sought after by bloggers and online business site owners.
Up to Jan 2022, it’s estimated that there are over 3 million blog posts published on WordPress.com every day. And you know what? Each of those must need at least 1 high-grade photo as a featured image.
If you’re pursuing photography as a hobby, great! Why don’t you consider transforming it into a business?
You can sell your own images on eCommerce platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Kajabi. Alternatively, you can host images for sales on other photography marketplaces, i.e, Stock, Shutterstock, etc. You’ll get paid whenever people download images from them.
On of top that, it’s possible for you to sell photographs alongside the licenses for commercial use. This gives buyers the freedom to edit or publish images anywhere, considering copyright issues are pretty much sensitive nowadays.
#9. Music and Sounds
As content creators, we all know that music and sounds are the indispensable elements to make our podcast, videos, and audio appealing to audiences.
Selling sounds is quite similar to selling photos. You can either offer them on your own website or on marketplaces. In case you target premium users, i.e. film-production companies or artists, make sure that you protect your own beats well enough so they won’t be leaked out across the Internet. Don’t let your talent and grey matters go to waste due to digital piracy.
Here are some ideas for music and sounds you can sell:
- Mobile ringtones
- Podcast intro music
- ASMR sounds such as animal sounds like lion roars, dog barks, water dripping, scratching, etc.
- Soothing music for mediation like sea waves, stream flows, light rainfall, etc.
- Meme sounds
- Transition sound effects
- TikTok music
#10. Graphic Design
Things related to graphic designs and illustrations are always in high demand. Visual communication does matter in this digital era. That’s why this type of trending digital products is listed among the most profitable industries.
It’s up to you to sell freelance design/photoshop services or offer the available products for sale. Graphic design ideas vary from logos, fonts, templates, posters, wallpapers, cartoon illustrations, stickers, or emoji to geometric shapes, social slide decks, and branding kits.
#11. Email Lists
Selling email lists? This seems unbelievable but can bring you a great deal of revenue. By looking at how crucial emails are to B2B and B2C marketing, you’ll know the reason.
As Hubspot stated, 64% of small businesses reach customers using email marketing. And every $1 spent on emails will generate $45, which leads to an impressive 4,200% ROI.
At that point, email marketers tend to partner with email list owners to find relevant subscribers and expand their lead lists.
#12. Printables
There is a growing market for printables all around the world. Printables refer to drawings, pictures, and graphic designs that you can easily download and print yourself.
There are many printable options for you to choose from, including business cards, mockup images, planners, calendars, meal plans, lesson plans, workbooks, gift tags, calligraphy, etc.
You can also sell printables and physical products like t-shirts, cups, hats, or bags. This is called print-on-demand. Instead of just selling printables, customers can choose their favorite printables and t-shirt size, and your store will print and deliver the final products to them.
#13. Private Label Rights
In a nutshell, Private Label Rights (PLR) means purchasers can freely edit, sell, or give away your content as their own. The “private label” content includes courses, reports, presentations, ebooks, articles, videos, graphics, templates, and even email newsletters.
So by and large, this idea is to sell your content license.
Let’s say you create a case study and sell the copyright license of that case study to others. They can edit, brand, or publish it on any website. The sweetest part is you can sell that case study license to multiple buyers.
Theplrstore would be an excellent example for a store selling PLR.
The following trending topics will give you some inspiration in selling PLR:
- Coaching
- Video marketing
- Personal branding
- Emotional wellness
- Software
- Resale right
- Autoresponder messages
- List building
- Website
Make Money from Trending Digital Products 2022
This article has showcased 13 trending digital products to sell in 2022. They include online courses, membership sites, audio and podcasts, ebooks, videos and webinars, online services, software, and gaming.
You can also sell photography, music and sounds, graphic design, email lists, printables, and PLRs. We’ve suggested ideas for each product presented.
If you want to sell premium digital products to specific users or parties, you need to protect them from illegal downloads and sharing. PDA Gold comes as a veteran warrior assisting you in the piracy battle. It helps you secure and makes the most of your WordPress trending digital products.
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