If you’re an online content creator, whether it be digital brushes and clip art or social media templates and e-books, you’re going to need a place to sell them. In most cases, the type of digital product you are selling will dictate the marketplace.
Now, if you already have a website of your own, of course you’re going to want to sell your products there. However, your website may not get the traffic you need (at least at first) to make a decent amount of sales. So, most likely, you’re going to want to sell on other platforms.
Some of these platforms you probably know about already but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention them anyway. Others you may not know…so keep this list handy.
Here we go…
Etsy: This is one of the obvious ones. Everyone knows about Etsy and it’s probably one of the biggest marketplaces to sell on and you can generally sell any type of product there, including digital products.
The upsides: It’s free and easy to set up a store there and as long as you follow their guidelines, you’ll be able to keep it. You can use ads to get your product to a higher ranking placement and can easily link your shop to all of your social media sites.
The downsides: Because it’s so easy to set up a store there, everyone does it. This means it’s become very saturated and competition is high. Still, I recommend everyone start with an Etsy store.
Gumroad: Similar to Etsy in that you can sell most any type of digital product on its marketplace, Gumroad is a great option.
The upsides: Also free and easy to set up (I believe there’s a paid option for more features) a lot of sellers are on this marketplace. With Gumroad, your buyer’s emails are uploaded to your account so you can easily send emails to them with updates, etc.
The downsides: Gumroad allows sellers to list free digital products as well – so many times the people that frequent the marketplace are just looking for freebies. There’s a lot of great shops on there however, so I recommend you check it out.
Creative Market: This marketplace has been around for a while but it’s mostly design assets. You generally have to submit an application of sorts and then get approved before you open up a shop. For some of us, the process was tedious (I got denied twice before I was approved) but it may have gotten a bit easier.
The upsides: Brushes, templates, mockups, fonts, clip art (and more) fill up the site and some of the work is truly excellent – so you are sharing the space with some very talented creators.
The downsides: The marketplace does not support its sellers very well. Competition is high and often they stick to promoting their ‘favorites’, completely passing over some really wonderful creators.
Creative Fabrica: This is another marketplace selling design assets. I have a shop there but don’t know if there’s an approval process or not as I was invited to join. It’s run well and they have a lot of great products.
The upsides: They get a lot of traffic and offer just about every design asset you can think of. It’s good to have a shop there just for that alone as it helps you get your name out.
The downsides: It’s a membership site so sales are based on their scale. This means you’re not getting a lot of money per sale and unless you have a ton of products up there – it may not be worth it to you.
Envato Elements: I just want to make a disclaimer here that I personally have never had a shop on this marketplace but I did have a membership at one time. It’s a huge marketplace offering all types of digital products.
The upsides: Offers every type of digital product you can think of and the quality of products is very good.
The downsides: I honestly can’t say since, again, I don’t have a shop there. I believe it’s also a membership site, so I assume you would have to offer a decent amount of products to get more sales – but it’s definitely a marketplace to check out.
Design Cuts: I saved the best for last! I’m not going to list upsides/downsides here as there aren’t any downsides in my opinion. It’s my favorite marketplace to sell (and buy) on.
You do have to go through an approval process to open a shop, unless they invite you. I think it took me a few tries before I got the thumbs up. However, it’s for good reason. Design Cuts is a specialty marketplace. All of their products are carefully curated so they are always providing top quality and uniqueness.
Also, they treat their sellers very well. The team there are not only wonderful to work with, they’re also great at promoting sellers across the board. They offer various discounts for buyers which makes them an extremely popular marketplace.
Finally, I know there are other marketplaces out there that I have not mentioned but I didn’t have room to share them all. However, I suggest you check out some of the above to see where you (and your product) best fit.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out in the comments!
Until next time…
