How to sell digital products: a step-by-step guide for creators
How to sell digital products online in 2026: pick what to sell, check people want it, price it, choose a platform, build the page, and get your first sales.
To sell a digital product: pick a problem your audience already asks you about, turn your answer into a template, guide, course, or AI, and check people want it before you finish it. Then price it by the result, put it on a store with a checkout, add the link to your bio, and talk about the problem in your content every week. You can do all of this in a weekend. The hard part is choosing what to sell, so most of this guide is about that.
This guide is for creators with some audience (even a small one) who want a first product, or a better second one. Full disclosure: we make Eden, a creator workspace with a store, and we show how to do each step there. Every step works on any platform.
Step 1: Pick what to sell
The best first product solves one problem your audience already has, in a form they can use today. (Need a starting list? See 24 digital product ideas.) Look in three places:
- Your DMs and comments. What do people ask you more than once? That question is a product.
- Your best content. Which posts get saved and shared most? People save what they want to use later.
- Your own process. What do you do every week that others struggle with? Your checklist, template, or system is worth money to someone behind you.
Then pick a format:
| Format | Good for | Effort to make |
|---|---|---|
| Template or checklist | A task people repeat (planning, writing) | Low |
| Guide or ebook | A problem that needs explaining | Medium |
| Swipe file or library | Examples people copy from | Medium |
| Course | A skill that takes steps to learn | High |
| Cohort | A skill that needs deadlines and feedback | High |
| Custom AI | A method people need help applying | Medium |
Start small. A $19 template that sells beats a $499 course you never finish.
A newer format is worth a look: an AI that knows your method. Buyers of a course or template usually get stuck applying it. An AI built on your material can answer their questions and check their work, which makes the product more useful and easier to sell. See how to sell a custom AI.
Step 2: Check people want it
Don't build for a month and hope. Check first:
- Post about the problem. If a post about the problem does well, the problem is real.
- Ask directly. "I'm making a template for X. Want it?" Count the yeses.
- Pre-sell it. Put up a page with a price and a date. Five pre-sales is proof. Zero is also useful to know.
- Give away a small piece. A free checklist or one lesson, in exchange for an email. If people won't take it free, they won't pay.
Step 3: Price it
Price by the result the buyer gets, not the hours you spent or the page count. More in how to price digital products.
- Look at what's already selling. Check what similar products cost on Etsy, Gumroad, or other creators' stores, and place yourself in that range.
- Start a bit higher than feels comfortable. You can run a sale later. Raising a price later is harder.
- Make a good, better, best. A template alone, the template plus a video walkthrough, and the full bundle. Many buyers pick the middle.
- Use a "was" price only if it's true. Showing a real launch price against the regular one works. A fake one hurts trust.
Step 4: Choose where to sell
Your choice comes down to where buyers come from and who handles sales tax.
- Buyers come from your content: a link-in-bio store. Eden, Stan, and Beacons put your products on the page you already share.
- Buyers come from search: a marketplace like Etsy or Gumroad's Discover.
- You want tax handled: a merchant of record like Gumroad, Payhip, or Lemon Squeezy, which collects and pays sales tax and VAT for you.
We compared ten options, with the fees on $1,000 a month, in the best platforms to sell digital products.
Step 5: Build the sales page
A sales page answers five questions, in this order (the full walkthrough is in how to write a sales page):
- What is it? One line. "A Notion template that plans your whole content week in 20 minutes."
- Who is it for? Name the reader so they know it's them.
- What's included? A short list. Specific beats clever.
- Why trust it? Your result, a buyer's result, or a screenshot of it working.
- What happens after I pay? How they get it, and your refund policy.
Keep it short for a cheap product. A $19 template needs a paragraph and a list. A $300 course needs proof, a lesson list, and answers to objections.
Step 6: Set up delivery
Test the buyer's experience before you share the link. Buy it yourself with a discount code.
On Eden (see the digital downloads page), a digital download can hold files, documents, boards, or tables from your workspace, uploads (PDF, EPUB, images, audio, video), or download-only files like a zip or spreadsheet. Buyers open files inside the product, copy boards and tables into their own workspace, or download the originals, on the web and the Eden phone apps. You choose, per file, what they're allowed to do. To try it: Your store → Products → New product → Digital download.
Step 7: Get your first sales
Launching once isn't enough. Most sales come from talking about the problem week after week. For a launch plan, see how to launch a digital product.
- Put it at the top of your link in bio. Your product should be the first thing people see, above your other links.
- Link it from the content it matches. A post about planning your week should point to the planning template. On Eden, content links open your page with that product on top.
- Email your list. Your email list will buy more than your followers. Send buyers and signups to Kit, beehiiv, or Substack.
- Add an order bump. A small add-on at checkout ("add the video walkthrough for $9") raises what each buyer spends.
- Ask for reviews. Buyers trust other buyers. Put the best ones on the page.
- Let others sell it. An affiliate program pays people a cut for each sale they send.
Step 8: Improve it
After the first 20 sales, look at the numbers. How many people who visited the page bought? What did buyers ask about? Which questions came up in refunds? Fix the page first, then the product.
Frequently asked questions
What digital products sell best?
Products that solve one clear problem fast: templates, checklists, swipe files, short guides, and focused courses. Tie it to what your audience already asks you about.
Do I need a website to sell digital products?
No. A link-in-bio store gives you a page and a checkout. Put its link in your social profiles.
How much does it cost to start selling?
$0 on Gumroad, Payhip, or Beacons (they take a cut of each sale instead). $29 a month on Stan or Eden. Card processing, usually 2.9% + 30¢ per sale, applies everywhere.
Do I need to charge sales tax?
Often, yes, depending on where your buyers live. Platforms that act as the merchant of record (Gumroad, Payhip, Lemon Squeezy) handle it for you. Elsewhere, it's on you. Ask a tax professional about your case.
How long does it take to make a digital product?
A template or checklist can take a day. A guide takes a week or two. A course takes weeks to months, which is why it's smart to start with something small and build up.
Have a template, guide, or method people ask you about? Start Eden free, build it, and publish when you're ready to sell.