Scaling Scalable Income with Expertise and Digital Products
Last year I earned over $227,000 selling digital products and online courses at Wit and Wire. They are a major reason why I’ve been able to cut back on one-on-one work, decline partnerships that aren’t a perfect fit, and take 12 trips last year, all without sacrificing my quality of life or the quality of my work
. I’ve learned that the key to success is finding the right intersection between your expertise, market demand, and crucially the right products.
Here are 15 types of digital products that you can sell to earn money online that are in demand and can work for different audience sizes, starting with the first category which is content templates. Writing anything from a blank page can feel intimidating — that’s why starter scripts, content frameworks, and customizable copy templates are such a popular digital product.
Saving Time with Custom Starter Scripts and Frameworks
Not only do you save your buyer time but you’ll also help them create a higher quality result thanks to your experience and expertise. A few examples include social media caption starters, video script frameworks, website copy templates like an about page template, poetry practice prompts, legal agreement templates, or guided meditation scripts.
As a quick pro tip, I often recommend building content templates as Google Docs or Google Sheets since they’re more editable than PDFs. They’re also free to create and use and don’t require your buyer to have Microsoft Office. But beyond a starter document, you might also consider selling AI prompts or custom GPTs.
This new and fast-growing category of digital products takes content creation one step further by offering fill-in-the-blank prompts to use with AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude.
Expanding Content Creation with AI Prompts and Interactive Workbooks
Or you might pre-program a custom GPT to save even more time for your buyers. Topics range widely from copywriting prompts to brainstorming prompts, and this category of digital products in particular will only continue to expand.
Next, interactive workbooks. This broad category includes any worksheet or project. They can be delivered as PDFs which might be designed to be printable, or digital documents like Google Docs or Google Sheets.
A few examples include a printable habit tracker, a customizable meal planning template or nutrition plan, a budgeting spreadsheet, a set of drawing exercises, a printable coloring book, or a series of journal prompts. You might also guide someone through a DIY audit like a wardrobe audit or a website SEO audit. This category is expansive with ideas in any industry.
Developing Authority through Read-only eBooks and Specialized Tactics
While the first three categories have been interactive or editable, you might also consider selling eBooks. eBooks are read-only documents that range in size and scope from shorter downloadable PDFs through novel-length self-published books, and for solopreneurs, eBooks can help position yourself as an authority or a subject matter expert.
A few examples include travel guides, sleep improvement tactics, specialized fitness programs, relationship communication coaching, home organization systems, grief and emotional processing, recipe books, or collections for specialized diets.
However, there is a slightly hot take about eBooks — although they’re a well-known format, unless you’re an avid writer, my hunch is that they might take more time and energy to create than many of the previous digital products on this list. And interestingly, I often see templates priced higher than eBooks on the same topic.
Improving Efficiency with Pre-built Task Management Software Templates
Perhaps because the template is perceived as time-saving and actionable — and that’s not always the case, but worth mentioning. Task management templates are a great option for digital product creators in many industries because almost everyone wants to save time or get things done more efficiently.
To help, you might sell pre-built templates in a software like Airtable, Asana, ClickUp, Notion, or Trello, or you might consider selling printable planning sheets if that’s your audience’s preference.
A few examples include habit trackers, daily, weekly, or monthly planners, social media content calendars, or any pre-loaded task list for a big project. As a pro tip, I recommend including how-to instructions along with your task management templates. So for example, if you offer a ClickUp template for Instagram management, include a video tutorial that shows buyers.
Creating Visual Content with Editable Designs and Starter Documents
How to import the template and then use it, because not only will this cut down on customer support issues, but you’re also more likely to get testimonials from happy customers if they’ve learned how to use your templates properly. The next category is design templates.
These editable starter designs can be built in a range of different tools, although Canva might be the most popular. A few examples include social media graphic templates,
YouTube thumbnail templates, presentation templates, resume templates, or a customizable wedding or party invite. You might also consider nicely designed starter documents like client welcome packets or PR media kits, both of which could be designed in Canva or equally in Google Docs or Google Slides. When it comes to selling design templates or really any templates on this list, there are two options: you can sell them independently through your business or you can list.
Leveraging Thirdparty Marketplaces to Expand Your Business Reach
Them on a third-party marketplace like Creative Market or Etsy. Although independent sales are often the focus, marketplaces can work really well for templates and downloadables since consumers often go there directly to search for products. And especially for new business owners, marketplaces offer a way to expand your reach by putting your designs in front of new audiences. Both approaches have pros and cons and can work well for different businesses.
The next category is a big one and it’s number seven: online courses. An online course includes a series of video lessons typically grouped into sections or modules designed to help students reach a specific outcome or goal
. It’s also common to include workbooks or templates to help students do their work more efficiently, and higher-priced programs may also include additional interactive elements like a student community or instructor-led coaching calls.
Delivering Results through Mini Courses and Comprehensive Online Programs
To get more specific, this category can be split into two distinct course sizes. The first is a mini course. A mini course is a short, bite-sized digital product that helps your ideal buyer complete a specific small project within a few days or weeks, or maybe up to a month at max. They’re typically priced between $10 to $100, but up to around $250 in different industries, and it varies.
A few examples might include a gut health mini course, an Instagram Reels starter course, or an online dating mini course. Mini courses and really mini products in general are a great way to break the ice with new buyers, and if you can help them reach this specific mini goal, then that momentum might encourage them to purchase other courses or services in the future.
Offering Scalable Signature Courses as Alternatives to One-on-One Services
On the other hand, the second course size is a signature course. Signatures are designed to help buyers complete a meaningful multi-phase project which usually takes around 1 to 3 months to implement. They are often, but not always, an alternative option for an in-demand one-on-one service, and they can provide a more scalable, accessible way to work with you.
Although the range varies, signature courses can be priced between $500 to $2,000 or higher. There is a free course creation toolkit at witandwire.com/course-toolkit with a side-by-side comparison of top course creation platforms. A related category is virtual workshops.
Providing Real-time Accountability and Feedback through Virtual Workshops
Unlike courses which are traditionally pre-recorded, workshops are delivered live remotely via Zoom or a live stream software, and it’s customary but not required to share a recording post-event with your buyers. Unlike many other digital products, workshops add two crucial elements that a lot of buyers crave:
accountability to do the work and access for Q&A or feedback. That said, live workshops can be a great fit for businesses with medium to large-sized audiences since you do need a critical mass of buyers to make a group event worthwhile, and they’re also a way to test new curriculum and collect feedback.
While courses are often video-based, you might also consider an audio-based digital product like a meditation series or a mindfulness exercise. Audio has the unique advantage of being.
Generating Recurring Revenue with Subscription Models and Asset Libraries
Consumable on the go, so your buyer might listen on a walk or during their commute, and for the right buyer and the right topic, that could be a major selling point. The next category is a big one: subscriptions and memberships. By far the broadest category on this list, a subscription is defined as anything that has a recurring monthly or regular fee.
As business owners, the benefit from subscription revenue models is that they are recurring and therefore predictable for revenue forecasting. But within this category there are tons of subcategories like paid newsletters, private podcasts, recurring prompts or content, a peer membership, an asset library, or a course library
In fact, some subscriptions combine two or more of those features, so your workload will vary widely based on the type of subscription.
Monetizing Creative Assets and Artistic Files for Other Creators
A few smaller-scope examples include a monthly industry trend report, a weekly meal plan or workout routine, or a monthly watercolor project.
Those examples don’t require a student community, they don’t have a course library, and they don’t even need a critical mass of buyers to get started, so that makes it easier in the beginning, and you might expand naturally over time based on buyer demand.
Some might also be interested in selling creative assets individually or in bundles. For example, you might sell stock photos or video, photo editing presets like Lightroom presets, custom fonts, icons or patterns, or royalty-free music tracks or sound effects. These assets are generally meant to be used by other companies or creators, but artists might also be interested.
Specializing in High Demand Website Themes for Scalable Growth
In the next category which is downloadable art and music. These digital files aren’t meant to be changed or edited, and this category is a way to share art online in a new way without physical inventory.
Examples include printable home décor like photos or posters, and maybe sheet music, or limited edition digital art could fall into this category. But going back to creative assets, a subcategory so large it deserves its own call-out is website themes.
Website developers can charge premium prices for custom, one-of-a-kind designs, but if you’re looking for a more scalable revenue stream, you might also create and sell your own pre-designed templates for WordPress, Squarespace, Showit, or Shopify. With so many businesses and creators in need of.
Building Lucrative Solutions with Software Applications and Interactive Tools
Websites, that market is huge. Specializing in a platform like Squarespace or an audience like restaurants, or potentially both, could be a huge competitive advantage. It’s also noteworthy that selling website themes likely requires providing technical customer support, which is shared by the next category:
software and apps. Interest in software or app development will depend massively on how tech-savvy you are along with how committed you are to customer support and product iteration. But for the right business owner and opportunity, this can be a very lucrative way to earn money online to help your audience at scale, and the tools needed have never been easier to learn and get started with.
Accessing Free Training and Toolkits for Digital Product Success
There is a free bonus training available where you can learn exactly how to use mini products like templates, downloadables, or mini courses to add consistent, scalable revenue to your business. Visit witandwire.com/minimasterclass to watch for free. A free course creation toolkit is also available with a comparison of top course creation platforms and a few other resources.
