Ever feel like you’re trading all your time for dollars? You work hard, but your income is capped by the number of hours in the day. What if you could build something once and sell it over and over again, even while you sleep?
That’s not a pipe dream. It’s the reality for thousands of people who have made money with digital products.
You don’t need a massive company or a revolutionary invention. You just need a skill, an idea, and the drive to create something valuable. Let’s dive into some inspiring stories that prove it’s possible.
What Exactly Are Digital Products?
Before we get to the stories, let’s get clear on what we’re talking about. A digital product is any asset or piece of media that can be sold and distributed online without needing physical inventory.
Think about things like:
- eBooks and guides
- Online courses and workshops
- Templates (for Notion, social media, spreadsheets)
- Photography presets
- Digital art and planners
- Software or mobile apps
The magic is in the scalability. You create it once, and you can sell it to 10, 100, or 100,000 people. That’s how you break free from the hours-for-dollars trade.
Inspiring Stories of People Who Made Money With Digital Products
Okay, now for the fun part. These aren’t corporate giants; they’re regular people, solopreneurs, and creators who found a niche and built something amazing. Their success shows what’s possible when you start selling digital products.
The Course Creators: Sharing Expertise for Profit
Teaching what you know is one of the most powerful ways to build a business online.
- Pat Flynn (Smart Passive Income): After being laid off as an architect, Pat created a simple eBook to help people pass an industry exam. That single product turned into a multi-million dollar empire of courses, books, and software. He is a prime example of how people have made money with digital products by sharing niche knowledge.
- Justin Welsh: A modern-day solopreneur, Justin built a massive audience on LinkedIn and then launched courses teaching others how to do the same. He transparently shares his income reports, showing he earns millions per year from his digital courses.
- Mariah Coz (Fearless Femmes): Mariah focuses on teaching creators how to build, launch, and sell their own online courses. She built a thriving business by helping others build theirs—a testament to the power of meta-expertise.
Pro Tip: You don’t have to be the world’s foremost expert. You just need to know more than the people you are teaching. Your journey is your qualification.
How Template and Preset Gurus Made Money With Digital Products
If you have a knack for design or organization, you can sell digital tools that save people time.
- Kiersten Rich (“The Blonde Abroad”): This popular travel blogger sells custom Lightroom presets that help her audience achieve the same beautiful aesthetic in their photos. It’s a perfect product that aligns with her brand.
- Easlo: A designer who saw the explosive growth of the productivity tool Notion and started creating beautiful, functional templates. He has reportedly made over $1,000,000 selling these simple digital files on the Gumroad platform.
- The Etsy Seller Archetype: Thousands of sellers on Etsy have built full-time incomes selling digital planners, printable wedding invitations, and budget spreadsheets. They solve a specific, urgent need with an affordable digital download.
Authors, Artists, and Niche Experts
Your unique creativity or specialized knowledge is a highly valuable asset.
- Daniel Vassallo: After leaving a high-paying job at Amazon, Daniel started writing short, high-impact eBooks and courses about building a “portfolio of small bets.” He proved you don’t need a 300-page book to provide immense value.
- Amanda Rach Lee: A YouTuber famous for her bullet journal content, Amanda expanded her brand by selling her own digital planners and doodle guides, directly serving the audience she had already built.
- Steph Smith: She wrote a comprehensive guide called “Doing Content Right,” sharing her deep expertise. It became a go-to resource, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- Dru Riley: His paid newsletter, Trends.vc, is a digital product. Subscribers pay for his curated reports on emerging business trends, saving them hundreds of hours of research.
- Ryder Carroll: The official inventor of the Bullet Journal method monetized his system through a companion app and digital guides, creating an ecosystem around his initial idea.
- The Comic Book Artist on Gumroad: Countless independent artists are skipping the gatekeepers and self-publishing their comics and art books digitally, building a direct relationship with their fans.
- The Fitness Coach: Instead of only training clients 1-on-1, coaches are creating downloadable workout plans and nutrition guides, allowing them to help more people and scale their income.
Your Simple Blueprint to Get Started
Feeling inspired? You should be! Here’s how you can start thinking about your own journey. The path for those who have made money with digital products often follows a few key steps.
1. Find Your Skill or Passion: What do people ask you for help with? What problem do you know how to solve? It could be anything from organizing a closet to coding a website or baking sourdough bread.
2. Create a High-Value Product: Focus on solving one specific problem. Your first product doesn’t need to be a massive course. It can be a simple checklist, a template, or a short guide. The key is quality and usefulness.
3. Choose a Simple Platform: Don’t get bogged down by technology. Platforms like Gumroad, Podia, and Etsy make it incredibly easy to upload your product and start selling in minutes.
Are You Ready to Create Your Own Story?
The stories we’ve covered are just the tip of the iceberg. For every person mentioned, there are thousands of others quietly building their own version of success by selling digital products online.
You don’t need permission, a fancy degree, or a huge budget to get started. You just need to take that first step.
So, what problem can you solve? Your answer could be the start of your own inspiring story.