The eCommerce industry is projected to reach $7.62 trillion by 2024 and $10.32 trillion by 2028; that’s an annual growth rate of 7.88%!
Entrepreneurs from all walks of life are discovering the power of creating and selling digital downloads, from eBooks and online courses to design templates and software. For many, selling digital products has led to financial freedom, allowing them to generate consistent passive income while escaping the limitations of traditional business models. The appeal lies in the low overhead, unlimited scalability, and the ability to sell products around the clock worldwide.
However, while creators can design and sell products in virtually any niche, not all niches are created equal. Certain markets consistently generate higher revenues, offering a faster path to financial success. Whether you’re seeking to supplement your income or build a full-time online business, choosing the right niche can make all the difference.
In this guide, I’ll dive into the 18 best niches for digital products–those that not only align with market demand but also maximize your earning potential.
Skip ahead:
- What are digital products?
- 18 best digital product niches
- Build a profitable online business with Thinkific
What are digital products?
Before I get into the niches, let me quickly explain what digital products are.
Digital products are intangible assets or pieces of media that can be created, sold, and consumed online without the need for physical manufacturing, shipping, or inventory. Anyone can download and access these products instantly, making them highly scalable and easy to distribute.
Since these products require little to no ongoing production and can be sold repeatedly without replenishing stock, they offer creators a way to generate passive income. Some popular examples of digital products include:
- eBooks
- Online courses
- Design templates
- Software apps
- Music and audio files
- Photography and stock images
- Printables
- Memberships and subscriptions, etc.
There are many avenues through which you can sell digital products when you create them. You can set up your own online store to list your products, publish content that resonates with your audience, and promote your brand. Or you can go the social commerce route by using platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shops to sell your products.
If you’re just starting out, you can create profiles on marketplaces within your niche to get access to a pre-established audience, like using Udemy to host your online courses or selling your crafts on Etsy. But if you want to maintain full ownership over your products and profits while having access to tools to help you grow your business, you should use a specialized digital learning product platform like Thinkific.
18 best digital product niches
While digital products can be sold in nearly any niche, certain markets have a high demand and revenue potential. These niches offer creators like you the best chances of success, especially if you want to build a thriving online business with a steady, scalable income.
Below, I’ll be breaking down 18 of them, including real-life examples of Thinkific customers who have built profitable businesses in these niches. Let’s begin!
Online education and e-learning
Gone are the days when people had to apply for a degree or a physical boot camp to learn a skill. Nowadays, anyone who wants to learn a skill, be it cooking, coding, or leadership, only has to browse the internet for a few minutes to find online courses, webinars, or tutorials that teach what they want to learn.
Once they pay, they can consume the course’s contents at their own pace, put what they learn into practice, and master the skill. Some courses even provide a certificate once the learner has completed them.
The online education industry currently has a market volume of $120.70 billion, and this number will only get higher. Not only does this niche give you the chance to earn an income, but it also allows you to reach people and provide value.
Senna Brennan, the founder of Easily Excel, started her business by teaching folks how to use Microsoft Excel. By consistently putting out valuable courses and employing the right marketing strategies, Senna was able to turn Easily Excel into a six-figure business. Now, she has created an institute teaching folks how to create and sell their own online courses.
Health and fitness
Last year, the health and fitness industry was valued at $112.17 billion, which isn’t surprising considering the different types of fitness routines that exist–from weightlifting and callisthenics to Pilates and yoga.
The variety in this niche means you can create and sell all sorts of digital products, from online courses and workout guides to nutrition plans and mental wellness tools–whatever your qualifications allow.
For example, a Thinkific user, Phil Hynes, makes over $100,000 yearly, helping thousands of people get fit. He created a beginner workout program priced at $6.99/month and a 30-day fitness challenge priced at $80 (one-time payment). He has built about 2 million dedicated followers across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube and continues to expand his business.
Read Phil’s story: How this trainer generates $100k/year teaching 3,000+ students.
Finance and investing
As long as capitalism remains the dominant economic system in the world, people will want to make money. The problem is, not everyone knows how to. That’s understandable, given the seemingly countless ways one can generate income. So, if you know how to help people make money, create business, invest, or even save the money they currently make, you can carve some space for yourself in this billion-dollar industry.
You could offer apps, courses, or eBooks on topics like personal finance, budgeting, cryptocurrency, and investing strategies. For example, the founder of The Ellievated Academy, Ellie Diop, has built a 7-figure business teaching people how to create multiple income streams and get rich, even during a recession. Her mentorship programs cost between $3,500 – $5,000 (one-time payment), and she has trained over 3,000 students.
Read Ellie’s story: How Ellie Talks Money uplifts aspiring entrepreneurs with Thinkific Plus
Stefano Somma, however, built a multiple six-figure business in his first year, teaching people everything they need to know about investing and trading, including “different types of accounts and brokers, ETFs, dividends, investment strategies, technical chart analysis, and more.”
Read Stefano’s story: How Stefano Somma created a multiple six-figure Thinkific business in his first year
Content creation and social media
Social media is a powerful medium for building and growing businesses. If you doubt this, just scroll through TikTok for five minutes. Boredom due to the COVID-19 lockdown made many people take up content creation as an outlet, and in the blink of an eye, people like Khaby Lame, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, and Addison Rae amassed millions of followers (and made millions of dollars in revenue).
If you are skilled in content creation and social media, in general, you can teach people how to use these social platforms to build and grow their businesses. You could create courses, ebooks, templates, and design assets for Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. If you know how to, you can even build tools for video editing, photo editing, and content scheduling.
For example, Millie Adrian, also known as Modern Millie, built a 7-figure business with Thinkific, teaching aspiring social media influencers how to make money on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. After launching her courses in 2021, she enrolled 600 students and made $400,000 that year. Her flagship course bundle, The BSP Model, is currently priced at a discounted value of $1,597.
Read Millie’s story: How Millie Adrian made $400k by teaching aspiring social media influencers
DIY and crafting templates
If you’re a creative person who likes to make crafts by hand, you can turn your talent into a money-making business by creating digital patterns, guides, and tutorials for creative hobbies like knitting, woodworking, or even digital crafting.
It’s what the Etsy platform is about; there, you can find all sorts of artsy products, including handmade sweaters, jewelry, notepads, stencils, wallets, home decor, flower wreaths, and costumes. People have built lasting businesses doing what they love, and you can, too!
For instance, Cassandra Smith, the creative behind Blanks Galore Academy, started her million-dollar business making custom sublimation orders for people as a side gig. Basically, she transferred designs onto different items, like clothing, mugs, and tumblers. Soon, she expanded to selling blanks–blank t-shirts, mugs, tumblers, and other items to crafters. Now, she hosts masterclasses teaching crafters how to hone their skills and set up businesses.
Read Cassandra’s story: How Cassandra Smith became a multi-millionaire from teaching crafts online
Personal development and self-help
Within the first year of release, Mark Manson’s discussion-triggering book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, sold 2 million copies. Eight years later, that number is up to 12 million. While its catchy title and aggressive marketing contributed to the book’s success, they don’t negate the fact that people constantly look for ways to improve themselves.
Grandview’s research report showed that the global personal development industry was estimated at $43.77 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow by 5.5% from 2023 to 2030. So, if you have great insights or qualifications to help people develop themselves, you can make a name for yourself in this industry.
You can create and sell digital products like eBooks, workshops, worksheets, or journals focused on topics like decision-making models, building confidence, and life coaching to help others.
Photography and videography
People take photographs and videos all the time: at parties, at work, at picnics, during sightseeing, and even at work. And now that business owners need social media to reach online customers, they’ll need to take high-quality photos and videos of their offerings to stand out in these visual-based media.
So, if you’re skilled at taking nice photographs or making stunning videos, you can create and sell photography and/or videography courses to people. You can also sell your own photos (stock photos), Lightroom presets, video editing presets, and more on platforms like Getty Images and Shutterstock.
Florida-based photographer Lola teaches people how to take breathtaking photos professionally through her academy, Lola Melani Academy. She has over eight online courses on this subject, as well as a membership course, called The Lola Melani Collective, through which she coaches motherhood photographers on how to grow their businesses. Lola has made over $300,000 annually from these courses in the last couple of years.
On using Thinkific to create her courses, Lola said, “It’s so simple. I downloaded it to make sure it was user friendly, because it’s just me–I don’t have a technical team–and realized it was doable.”
Read Lola’s story: How this photographer nakes $300k a year from online courses
Travel and adventure
If you use Instagram a fair amount, you must have seen people, both individuals and couples, who have built a large audience and make millions of dollars simply by traveling to different countries and sharing their experiences with their followers. This kind of content is appealing because people who love to travel like to learn what and what not to do in a particular country or tourist attraction from people who have been there before.
In 2023, travel and tourism contributed $11.39 trillion to the global gross domestic product (GDP) and is one of the most competitive industries right now. So, if you’re the jetsetter type, grab your camera, record your experiences, and share them with the world. If you’d rather not do that, you can also build an online business in this space by selling travel planning templates, packing checklists, or digital nomad tools.
Take Ashli Nudd, for example. As a former park ranger, she knew the ins and outs of national parks like Acadia, Glacier, and Yellowstone. So she created her company, Dirt In My Shoes, where she started making and selling extensive but cheap itineraries for folks who want to visit these parks. In 2022, she switched to Thinkific, and since then, she’s gotten over 16,000 customers.
Read Ashli’s story: How Ashli Nudd got 16,000 customers and made multiple six-figures with Thinkific.
Language learning
Ever heard of Duolingo–the app with the green owl that virtually yells at you if you miss a few days of Spanish lessons? You’ve probably used it before. The app has over 500 million registered users and a market cap of $11.68 billion as of September 2024, so it’s safe to say that many people around the world are interested in learning new languages.
However, one of the gripes people have with Duolingo is that the app alone isn’t sufficient to help one become fluent in a language. That’s a huge gap you can fill if you’re multilingual or a polyglot. For example, you can create courses, eBooks, or YouTube videos teaching people the nuances of specific languages, how to pronounce the words, when to use slang or truncated versions, and how to write and read the language.
Fashion and beauty
The high shelves in your local Target store overflowing with different skincare products, makeup palettes, hair extensions, body salves, and articles of clothing are but a tiny reflection of the giant $2 trillion empire that is the fashion and beauty industry. But this shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve been paying attention to the celebrities coming up with new makeup lines and leisurewear brands, and the social media influencers they pay to drum up hype for their products.
If you know how to put clothes together, do makeup, or style hair (or anything fashion- and beauty-related, really), you can build a formidable business by selling beauty tutorials, style guides, or fashion design templates online. While you can sell online courses that teach people your skills, you can also post videos on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube that teach people for free (you can monetize your videos once you’ve reached a certain threshold).
Lauren Taylor, for instance, is a Washington-based permanent makeup artist who built her business, Lauren Taylor Ink, by creating online courses teaching aspiring permanent makeup artists how to map eyebrows and do her unique technique called Nano Brows, a better alternative to microblading. Since putting out those two courses on Thinkific in 2020, Lauren has gotten 2,000+ students and made multiple six-figures.
Career development and job hunting
The job market is pretty tight right now, and people are constantly looking for advice on what to do with their careers: improve their resumes, ace job interviews, get promoted, switch careers, and more.
If you’re a career coach or an expert in a particular industry, you could offer coaching services or courses to people looking for guidance or trying to find jobs. You could even create a paid job board collating valid job openings across several industries.
Ali Parrish, who started her career as a classroom teacher, created her own business, Teacher Transition, where she coached over 8,000 educators on identifying career pathways beyond traditional teaching roles. Ali launched several online courses that equip these teachers with the necessary skills and expertise they need to find their next dream job.
Read Ali’s story: Empowering 8,000 learners: A journey from teacher to beyond
Food and beverage
The total revenue in the Food and Drink market crossed $2 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $4.32 billion in 2029. It makes sense, as the hospitality industry is partly driven by the food and drink market: bars, hotels, pubs, restaurants, cafes, motels, casinos, nightclubs, etc.
The same applies to the event industry: seminars, weddings (and receptions), birthday parties, picnics, vacations, etc. Not to mention that people participate in different types of diets–intermittent fasting, ketogenic, veganism, vegetarianism, pescatarian, gluten-free, and even carnivore diets.
My point is: the market is big enough, and it’s only getting bigger. So, if you are a great chef, a mixologist, or a dietitian, get on board. You can create recipe books, meal planners, or specialty diet guides for vegan, gluten-free, or keto lifestyles.
Registered dietitian Deanna Wolfe decided to start her online business, Dietitian Deanna, after graduating from dietetics school. In 2020, she launched two courses on Thinkific, Food Freedom Breakthrough (to help women who want to have a healthy relationship with food) and Online Entrepreneur Academy (for dietitians and health coaches who want to build an online business). These courses have earned her a 7-figure annual income.
Read Deanna’s story: How Dietitian Deanna made $1.2m from online courses
Pet care and training
If you own a dog or know someone who does, you probably know how expensive it can be to care for dogs–or pets in general. The global pet care industry is worth $259.37 billion, which is fair considering its different products: pet food, pet toys, grooming supplies, vitamins and supplements, skin/coat care, pet beds, leashes and collars, pet cleaning supplies, pet clothing, and training tools, to mention a few.
If you’re a veterinarian or love animals, you can build an online business in this niche. For example, you can sell pet training guides, trackers, or resources for pet owners on nutrition, care, and behavior.
Take Shannon Viljasoo, for example, who joined McCann Dogs as a professional dog trainer in 1999. For 13 years, she conducted in-person dog training sessions, but as demand rose, she convinced the team to expand their reach to online mediums. So the company’s dog trainers, including Shannon, started making YouTube videos and have built an audience of over 1.44 million subscribers, which brings in a large percentage of the company’s clientele.
Now, McCann Dogs is using Thinkific to host its online dog training programs and a la carte workshops.
Read McCann Dogs’ story: McCann Dogs: Leading the pack in online dog training
Music production and audio editing
In 2023, the total revenue of the recorded music industry was $28.6 billion. And while this revenue was brought in by world-famous pop stars like Beyonce and Taylor Swift, you can still build a business by catering to the digital needs of smaller artists and music enthusiasts.
For example, if you’re a good singer or instrumentalist, you can create online courses teaching things like music theory, how to play [insert instrument you play here], how to self-edit music, etc. You can also make and sell sample packs, loops, or presets for audio editing software.
Case in point: Hans Indigo Spencer had always been passionate about music; he composed music and played piano and saxophone in high school, got degrees in classical composition and jazz performance, and joined a band. He even taught music in an elementary school.
After joining Thinkific’s Accelerator program, he created a course on Thinkific called Holistic Ear Training for Busy People, designed to help folks play music by ear.
Read Hans’ story: 8 things this composer learned from creating his first course
Dating and relationships
People love love; it’s why dating shows/podcasts are popular, and romcoms like The Notebook, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Enchanted remain classics to this day. People’s desire to cultivate a thriving and long-lasting relationship with their partners is something that will never go away; it’s why people go for marriage counseling and couple therapy.
If you’re a relationship expert or therapist, you can cater to this demographic by creating courses, eBooks, or digital planners for improving communication, dating tips, or relationship coaching.
Mina Irfan, also known as The Universe Guru, does exactly that. Her Thinkific courses span a range of topics, including money, business, and–you guessed it–relationships. Her Get The Ring Now Formula costs $444, aiming to help women “ditch the girlfriend state and get the ring instead.” Together, her courses bring in approximately $400,000 every month.
Read Mina’s story: How The Universe Guru became a millionaire through online courses
Spirituality and personal growth
Spirituality means different things to different people. For some, it’s religion: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism. For others, certain practices help them connect with themselves, like meditation, yoga, interacting with nature, and breathwork. Other spiritual paths include Paganism, Indigenous spirituality, and humanism.
If you’re a spiritual leader or expert, you can use digital products to teach others who practice (or want to learn more about) your religion or spiritual practices. You can create things like astrology reports, tarot card reading courses, yoga tutorials, or guides for spiritual practices like chakra balancing or energy healing.
A couple of years ago, Karuna Schwartz went on a month-long retreat in the middle of the Arizona desert shortly after her yoga class teacher introduced her to meditation. After three weeks on the retreat, she got the idea to start a nonprofit organization called Mind Oasis that connected students with expert meditation teachers online, regardless of where they lived.
Since 2017, Karuna has grown her nonprofit budget from $48,000 to about $200,000. While Karuna’s business is a nonprofit, it’s easy to see how one could make a living from teaching spiritual practices online.
Read Karuna’s story: How Mind Oasis is connecting 3,000+ students to online meditation
Niche software-as-a-service (SaaS)
If you’re in the marketing industry, you might’ve heard of ConvertKit, an email marketing platform for creators. In 2013, its founder, Nathan Barry, was a blogger and creator looking for a better way to sell books and courses through email. Since he couldn’t find a good option, he created one himself: ConvertKit.
He invested $5,000 in it and set a goal to reach $5,000 monthly recurring revenue (MRR) within six months. Although he fell short, he doubled down in 2014 to invest $50,000 at the advice of Hiten Shah, the co-founder of CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics. Instead of creating an email marketing tool for everyone, he focused on a smaller audience: professional bloggers.
A decade later, ConvertKit brings in $43 million every year, and according to Nathan Barry, he never expected this growth.
If you’re a software developer or a skilled no-code app builder, you could go the same route as Barry and build specialized software solutions, like CRM tools for small businesses, productivity tools and accounting software for freelancers, or industry-specific SaaS products.
Legal and business documents
As more entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners expand their businesses to online mediums, there’s an increasing demand for accessible, affordable, and professional legal documents, such as templates for employee contracts, privacy policies, terms and conditions, Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), invoices, and business proposals.
However, many business owners don’t have the resources to hire expensive lawyers or the time to draft these documents from scratch. That’s where you come in! If you’re a legal expert, you can create high-quality legal document templates tailored to specific industries or business types.
By offering these documents online as digital downloads or part of a membership service, you can provide value to clients who need immediate, affordable legal protection while making a good income. Since businesses of all sizes need these documents, there’s a constant demand, which makes this niche highly sustainable and scalable.
And when you regularly update your templates to ensure compliance with changing laws, you can build trust and become a go-to resource for businesses looking to simplify their legal and operational processes.
Build a profitable online business with Thinkific.
Most people on this list who have built multiple six- and seven-figure businesses in these digital product niches did so with Thinkific. This speaks to how the Thinkific platform was designed to give you ownership of your business and provide the tools you need to scale it to new heights, no matter the niche you’re in.
While you may know Thinkific as an online course platform, we have expanded our features to support all kinds of digital downloads you may want to create, including eBooks, guides, templates, music, images, and spreadsheets. So whether you’re starting from scratch or repurposing existing content into a digital download, we’ve got you!
All you need to do is decide whether to sell your digital download or offer it as a lead magnet for your higher-ticket offerings. Then, upload the content, and our AI-powered builder will automatically create an enticing landing page for you in no time.
If you’d like to sell online courses, you’re in luck because we have a slew of features designed to help you bring your courses to life: course templates, a drag-and-drop builder, live lessons and webinars, a mobile learning app, a community platform, a payment platform, countless app integrations, and more.
If you’re based in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., you can use TCommerce, our custom solution that takes care of all the admin and accounting aspects of your business and gives you features like Order Bumps, Gifting, and Buy Now, Pay Later payment methods to help you achieve higher transaction sizes and increased overall sales.
Ready to take the leap? Join these amazing folks and create a successful online business of your own. Sign up for Thinkific today–free!
