Digital products can leave more of each sale in your pocket because there is no physical inventory to buy, store, package, or ship. Shopify reports that software, courses, and templates can achieve profit margins of 70% to 90%.
At an 80% margin, a $50 template could produce about $40 in profit. You will still pay for platform fees, marketing expenses, and taxes, but each additional sale usually costs far less to deliver than a physical item does. Selling profitable digital products can create opportunities for recurring income through memberships or subscription-based services.
At this point, you’ve poured your heart and soul into crafting amazing digital products—eBooks, online courses, templates, designs, and more. Now comes the exciting part: finding where to sell them.
Choosing the right platform can be a game-changer, and there are more options than ever. But how do you cut through the noise and find the best fit for you? Keep reading—this post will show you where to sell digital products effectively. Let’s get started!
Selling On Your Own Website
If having complete creative control and building a brand around your online presence are priorities for you, setting up your own website for your online store might be a good option for you to explore.
Setting up your own online storefront allows for greater customization, potentially resulting in a more personal and brand-consistent experience for your customers. You can decide everything, including which integrated payment processing to use and how you communicate with your audience.
You may also discover that hosting your own storefront incurs lower transaction fees than many marketplace platforms. As a result, you can keep a larger percentage of your profits. However, remember that with total control also comes responsibility. You’re responsible for setting up a payment system and securing your website.
Additionally, without an established audience, driving traffic to your website and achieving those critical sales can require dedicated marketing efforts. This means you need to learn more about search engine optimization (SEO) so that your site will appear on the top pages of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Selling In Online Marketplaces
An established marketplace can place your digital products in front of shoppers from day one. Etsy, for example, had 86.5 million active buyers at the end of 2025. That built-in audience can help new sellers test products without first building a website or attracting every visitor themselves.
Online marketplaces are often praised for being relatively straightforward to set up with their user-friendly interfaces. That’s because they require less technical expertise to get up and running than building a website does. However, this ready-made accessibility frequently comes at a price, and marketplace platforms often charge commission fees on your sales.
Selling On Creative Market
Besides Etsy, Creative Market gives designers another place to sell templates, fonts, graphics, and other digital products. This is one of the best places for artists to market and sell their art. The Dribbble-owned marketplace can place your work in front of more than 11 million members, giving you a built-in audience from the start.
That reach comes with serious competition. Creative Market features over 4 million resources from artists across more than 190 countries, so strong previews, searchable titles, and a focused niche matter. Sellers typically receive 50% of the listed price, meaning a $20 template may earn about $10 before taxes.
With more and more shoppers going online each year, this popular platform offers artists a chance to capitalize on the trend. Thus, it has been at the forefront of the online market for over a decade—just wow!
Etsy can be an incredible avenue for tapping into the world of DIY enthusiasts. For example, a search for ‘sewing pattern pdf’ reveals a mind-boggling 400,000 results. Selling on Etsy allows you to access that pre-existing audience, which helps to cut through the online noise. However, you need to remember to factor in commission fees and transaction costs.
This print-on-demand setup lets you test ideas without filling your home with unsold inventory. Society6 also handles marketing and customer service, though it became a more selective marketplace in 2025 and now approves which artists and designs may remain.
Your earnings depend on the platform’s pricing and fees. Redbubble shows that a T-shirt with a $20 base price and a 20% markup would earn the artist $4 before account fees. Review the payout structure first so you know how much of each sale goes into your pocket.
Selling On Teachable
Educators can now turn their expertise into online courses, workshops, and downloadable lessons. The opportunity is growing fast, with the global e-learning services market projected to rise from $352.98 billion in 2025 to $1.49 trillion by 2033.
For teachers and subject experts, that growth signals a larger audience willing to pay for flexible learning, making now a strong time to package your knowledge into a digital product. So, where do educators go when trying to figure out where to sell digital items that inspire learning?
You can choose to host pre-recorded or self-paced content on platforms such as Teachable. This popular platform has been making a splash since the creator economy exploded.
Stan and Podia are other popular platforms where you can interact with your student base directly by building an engaged community. Some users find Podia more affordable for just starters.
Another well-known platform for e-learning content creators is Udemy. It allows you to set up your digital storefront using pre-designed templates. Udemy often offers tempting promotional and marketing tools that give new students amazing discount codes.
Whether to use a learning management platform or list on an online directory largely depends on how hands-on you want to be as an educator. But you must remember to build your own community around your online education empire. Selling online courses on a learning management site requires significant work and dedication to succeed.
Selling On eBook Stores
When figuring out where to sell digital products related to books, more and more self-published authors are looking for the best place for them. Here are the marketplaces you can use to sell eBooks:
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): Having a user-friendly platform, you can say that KDP is the king of eBooks. Why? KDP gives your eBook access to millions of readers across more than 10 countries and 45 languages. Eligible titles can earn a 70% royalty, so a $9.99 eBook could generate about $6.99 per sale before taxes and delivery fees. The platform is free, and books may appear on Amazon within 72 hours.
- Apple Books: Of course, we have an idea who the devoted users of this mobile app are—no other than Apple users! That’s expected, since if you own an iPhone or iPad, you want a seamless reading experience, which iBooks can deliver. For eBook sellers, you can use this engaged audience to your advantage.
- Google Play Books: If Apple has an app for reading eBooks, so do Android users. The easy integration of Google Play Books with other Google services makes this a convenient option for Android readers.
- Kobo Writing Life: Although it’s not as big as KDP or Apple Books, Kobo has distribution to major retailers like Rakuten and Walmart. And if you’re into writing romance and other fiction genres, why not try Kobo?
- Draft2Digital (Smashwords): If you want to maximize your reach, you can use this aggregator! It distributes your eBook to a wide range of retailers with a single upload.
But hold your horses. I know you’re excited to sell your work, but take some time to consider which platform you would choose. Before anything else, consider these factors:
- Genre: Does the platform specializes on selling the same genre of eBooks you have?
- Audience: Does the platform’s customers match with your target audience?
- Ease Of Use: How comfortable are you with different platform features?
- Pricing: Are you comfortable with the pricing range you can impose and profit you can gain?
- Payout Options: Does the platform offer commission structures and payout options to maximize your digital rights?
You may also want to distribute your eBook across multiple platforms. Why not if it can increase discoverability and sales? However, prioritize the platforms that best suit your genre, target audience, and budget.
Conclusion
Ultimately, deciding where to sell digital products in the ever-evolving online marketplace is a deeply personal journey shaped by individual needs and goals. Don’t be afraid to take some time to experiment with free trials, and remember that online resources are at your fingertips.
Carefully weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen platform. Remember, your success in online selling is directly related to the time and effort you invest. If things aren’t working out, it’s more than OK to reevaluate and pivot to a different platform. There really are that many to choose from to sell downloads.
Sources
- Shopify. (2026). High profit margin products: What to sell in 2026. https://www.shopify.com/ae/blog/products-with-high-profit-margins
- Etsy. (2026). 2025 annual report. https://investors.etsy.com/sec-filings/all-sec-filings/content/0001370637-26-000019/etsy-20251231.htm
- Creative Market. (2024). All about shop sales and analytics. https://support.creativemarket.com/hc/en-us/articles/201193714-All-About-Shop-Sales-Analytics
- Redbubble. (2025). How is my payment calculated? https://help.redbubble.com/hc/en-us/articles/202270799-How-is-my-payment-calculated
- Grand View Research. (2026). E-learning services market size, share and trends analysis report. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/e-learning-services-market
- Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. (n.d.). Earn more with us. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/earn
