I’m all for selling digital products.

You make something once, you can sell it more than once, nobody needs you to pack a box or make a trip to the post office. Lovely.

But first you need something to sell.

And preferably something people actually want to buy.

This is where things get a bit hairy.

Because finding digital product ideas is ridiculously easy. Spend 11 mins on Etsy or Pinterest and you’ll have enough ideas to keep you busy until 2034.

Figuring out which one is worth making?

Different story.

You can have a brilliant-looking planner, workbook, spreadsheet or template, but if nobody particularly wants it, you’ve basically spent your weekend making yourself a very elaborate attachment.

So before I create a digital product, I like to do a little snooping first.

What are people already buying? Who’s buying it? What do they like about the products already out there, and what are they complaining about?

Because those complaints can be VERY useful.

(Thank you, mildly irritated Etsy reviewer. Your service is appreciated.)

There are 5 things I’d check before creating a digital product.

And none of them involve choosing fonts.

So close Canva for 20 mins.

It’ll survive.

1. Check whether people are already buying it

Let’s say you’re thinking about creating a small business planner.

Before you make the thing, go somewhere people already buy digital products and search for it.

Etsy is particularly useful for this because you can see competing products, prices, reviews and the different ways sellers have positioned essentially the same basic idea.

Search small business planner and have a poke around.

You’re looking for signs that people spend money in this category. Listings with substantial review histories are useful, particularly when you see buyer activity spread across multiple sellers instead of one enormous shop swallowing the entire market.

Also notice what keeps appearing.

Are these printable planners or digital ones? Giant 100-page business planners or smaller systems? Do certain features keep showing up? Is everybody charging roughly the same amount, or are some sellers successfully offering much bigger products?

You’re trying to answer a very basic question:

Does there appear to be a market here?

And I say appear deliberately.

Finding thousands of Etsy listings does NOT mean thousands of customers are waiting outside your house demanding a small business planner.

Lots of listings can mean strong demand, lots of competition, or usually some combination of the two.

So this is your first clue.

We need more.

2. Figure out who’s buying it

This is where a fairly generic digital product idea can start getting interesting.

Because small business owner includes an absurd number of people.

A photographer running client shoots has different problems from a home baker taking custom orders. An Etsy seller might care about product listings and sales, while a coach needs to keep track of leads, sessions and clients.

So rather than immediately creating:

Small Business Planner

start searching around the edges of the idea.

• Small business planner for photographers.
• Small business planner for virtual assistants.
• Home bakery business planner.
• Business planner for coaches.

Now look at what changes.

Maybe the home bakery products include order trackers and pricing worksheets. A photographer might need client workflows and project planning, while a coach may care more about lead tracking and content.

THAT is useful product research.

You haven’t invented some never-before-seen digital product that causes the internet to gasp collectively.

You’ve taken a product people already understand and asked:

How could this be more useful to a specific person?

That’s often where I’d rather compete.

You do NOT need to find an idea nobody has ever had before

This is one of those things that sounds completely logical until you start researching digital products and suddenly decide competition is the enemy.

You search your idea.

Other people are selling it.

DAMN. Too saturated.

Better find something nobody sells.

Except…why?

If other businesses are selling a product, listings have reviews and buyers clearly understand what the thing is, you’ve learned something valuable: there’s an existing market.

Finding absolutely no competition can feel exciting right up until you realize there may be a very good reason nobody is selling your Printable Ferret Manifestation Dashboard.

I made that up.

I hope.

The point is, you don’t need to invent a new category of human commerce.

You need a product people want and a reason they might choose yours.

Competition can actually help you figure that out.

3. Read the reviews

I LOVE reviews for product research.

Most people look at the stars. I want the words.

Start with the positive reviews because buyers will often tell you exactly what they found useful.

Maybe they love how simple a spreadsheet is, or they keep mentioning one particular feature. You might notice several people praising the instructions because competing products are confusing as hell.

Write that stuff down.

Then go read the less enthusiastic reviews.

This is where things get juicy.

You’re looking for comments along the lines of:

• I wish it had…
• I thought this would include…
• It was hard to figure out how to…

Would be better if…

One person complaining about something doesn’t necessarily mean much.

But if you keep seeing versions of the same complaint across several products?

Now I’m interested.

Maybe buyers like the business planners but wish they had better financial pages. Perhaps the spreadsheets are powerful but require a minor degree in Excel to operate. Or everybody keeps asking for a particular feature that none of the popular products include.

That information is sitting there for FREE.

And yet people will still spend 3 hrs asking ChatGPT:

Give me 100 unique digital product ideas nobody else is selling.

WHY, THO???

Your customers are already telling you what they want.

Listen to them.

Wanna skip all these steps and grab done for you already researched products to resell? I got you. Grab it HERE.

4. Look for the gap

When people hear “find a gap in the market,” I think they imagine they’re supposed to discover some enormous untouched opportunity everyone else somehow missed.

Usually the gap is much less dramatic.

You might find plenty of products, but they’re unnecessarily complicated or ugly as sin. Maybe somebody decided a planner needed 147 pages when the buyer really needs about 12.

Read enough reviews and you may notice people repeatedly asking for something nobody bothered to include.

Or maybe the bigger problem is that everything is so generic you’re left wondering who the hell it’s actually supposed to help.

There’s your gap.

And sometimes the gap is simply the buyer.

Let’s say there are thousands of general business planners.

Fine.

What happens when you search:

business planner for photographers

or:

business planner for cleaning businesses

or:

business planner for virtual assistants

You may find a niche where buyers clearly exist but the available products are weak.

Another niche could already have dozens of excellent products with established sellers and thousands of reviews.

And somewhere else you might find practically nothing.

That last one isn’t automatically your winner.

Remember our Printable Ferret Manifestation Dashboard.

An empty market isn’t proof of opportunity.

You’re looking for a useful combination of buyer interest + room to make something worth choosing.

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5. Figure out how you’re going to reach the buyer

This one gets forgotten ALL the time.

You find a profitable-looking digital product idea.

You research it, make it, upload it.

And then…

Hello?

Customers?

Where exactly were these people supposed to come from?

Before you create anything, think about how someone is likely to find your product.

If you’re planning to sell on Etsy, are people searching for products like yours there?

Could somebody discover it through Google?

Does the topic work well on Pinterest?

Are there communities where these buyers already hang out?

Maybe you already have an audience full of them, which makes things considerably easier.

You do not need 50,000 followers before you’re allowed to make a digital product.

You DO need some plausible route between your product and the person who might buy it.

Because I’ll post about it on Instagram is not a marketing strategy unless you have a very good reason to believe your buyers are sitting there waiting.

TikTok isn’t paying your account fees. 😏

Buyers are.

How to Research Digital Product Ideas on Etsy

Etsy is useful because you’re looking at an actual marketplace rather than asking your sister whether she’d buy your planner.

Your sister loves you.

She’s terrible at market research.

Start with the broad version of your product and pay attention to what Etsy suggests while you’re typing. Those autocomplete suggestions can give you clues about how shoppers describe products and which versions of the idea are worth investigating.

Then open the listings.

I mean actually open them.

Look at what’s included and how the product is positioned. Notice the pricing, read the descriptions and spend some time in the reviews.

Then change the search.

If you started with:

content planner

try:

content planner for coaches

small business content planner

Instagram content planner

You’ll start seeing where the broad product breaks into smaller problems and buyers.

And that’s much more useful than scrolling through pretty thumbnails thinking:

Oooh, I like that color.

Etsy research does NOT mean copying the bestseller

This should go without saying.

And yet here we are.

Finding a product that’s selling well and making your own suspiciously similar version is not product research.

You’re trying to understand the market.

• Why does this type of product sell?
• What do buyers seem to care about?
• What do they wish was different?
• Where could you create something more useful for a particular customer?

Research the opportunity.

Don’t case the joint.

How to Use Google for Digital Product Research

Google gives you a slightly different view because now you can investigate the problem around the product, not just the product itself.

Say you’re considering making a job application tracker.

Obviously you can search:

job application tracker

But I’d also search things the potential buyer might ask before she even knows she wants one.

• how to organize job applications
• how to keep track of jobs applied for
• job application spreadsheet

Then pay attention to autocomplete suggestions, related searches and the questions that keep coming up.

The language matters.

Maybe people aren’t searching for the clever name you’ve invented for your product because nobody calls it that.

Or you may discover that the tracker is only one part of the problem.

Someone organizing a job search might also need interview preparation sheets, a follow-up tracker and somewhere to keep recruiter details.

Now your simple job application spreadsheet could become a Job Search Organization Kit.

That’s the kind of thing Google research can uncover.

You’re not collecting keywords so you can cram 14 of them into a product title and make it read like somebody dropped a toaster on the keyboard.

You’re learning how people describe the problem.

What About Keyword Search Volume?

Search volume can be useful.

I use search data when researching products because I’d quite like to know whether people are looking for the thing before I make it.

But a big search number is not an instruction from the business gods to immediately create that product.

It’s one piece of information.

Broad keywords often have more searches because, well…they’re broad.

Take: planner

That could mean a business planner, wedding planner, teacher planner, meal planner or something your mother bought you in January because she thinks you’re disorganized.

Compare that with: wedding budget spreadsheet

The audience is smaller, but the intent is considerably clearer.

You know roughly who needs it and what they’re trying to do.

And you can probably picture what the product should contain.

So don’t chase the biggest number automatically.

Sometimes a smaller, specific market gives you a MUCH easier product to sell.

How Do You Know if a Digital Product Is Too Saturated?

I worry less about competition than I do about sameness.

If lots of people sell a product but there are different buyers, price points, styles and approaches, there may still be plenty of room.

Sameness is trickier.

Imagine searching for your idea and finding page after page of virtually identical products.

The established sellers have thousands of reviews, everyone is targeting the same general customer and you can’t come up with a meaningful reason somebody should buy yours.

I’d probably keep digging.

You don’t necessarily need to abandon the whole product category.

Change the buyer.

Change the problem.

Look for a more specific use case.

So for example Instead of another:

Ultimate Digital Planner perhaps there’s an opportunity for a side-hustle planner for people working full-time.

Or a project planner for wedding photographers.

Or a simple business planner for people who absolutely do not want 87 tabs and a dashboard that looks like NASA built it.

Same broad category.

Different reason to buy.

The Easiest Way to Niche a Digital Product

Ask yourself two questions:

• Who is this for, specifically?
• And what are they trying to do?

That’s about it.

You don’t need to niche yourself into a corner until your target audience consists of 19 left-handed dentists in Nebraska.

You just need enough specificity for the right buyer to recognize that the product is relevant to her.

For example, you could sell an Editable Ebook Template.

Fine.

But an Ebook Lead Magnet Template for Coaches immediately gives the product a job.

A Nutrition Guide Template for Health Coaches goes further because now the buyer can picture exactly what she’d use it for.

Same principle with a pricing calculator.

A general one could work.

But a Digital Product Pricing Calculator speaks directly to a seller trying to figure out what the hell to charge for her ebook.

Specificity makes the product easier to understand.

And products people understand are considerably easier to sell.

One Important Thing About Profitable Digital Product Ideas

A profitable digital product idea isn’t automatically a profitable product for you.

Annoying, I know.

You might find a category with obvious buyer activity, but that doesn’t mean it belongs in your business.

Do you understand the buyer well enough to create something genuinely useful? Is there a sensible way for you to reach those people, and can you make the numbers work at the prices they’re accustomed to paying?

I’d also think about what happens after the first sale.

If someone buys this product, is there another related problem you could help them with later?

That matters because one of the easiest ways to make your digital product business unnecessarily exhausting is to chase a completely different customer every time you create something.

Monday you’re making wedding spreadsheets.

Wednesday you’ve discovered teacher printables.

By Friday you’re considering a Notion dashboard for Airbnb hosts despite never having used Notion OR owned an Airbnb.

No.

Pick an opportunity that makes sense for the business you’re trying to build.

Tell the rest to GTFO.

My Quick Digital Product Validation Scorecard

At some point you have to stop researching and make a decision.

So here’s a simple scorecard I’d use before spending the next week making anything.

Give yourself 1 point for every YES.

1. Can you clearly name the buyer?

“Women” isn’t enough.

Neither is “small business owners.”

You should be able to describe the person well enough that you have a decent idea what she’d search for, what she’s trying to accomplish and why she’d care about the product.

YES = 1 point

2. Does the product solve a specific problem?

Try finishing this sentence:

This helps [person] ________.

If you can’t do that without disappearing into vague phrases about living your best life, the idea probably needs more work.

YES = 1 point

3. Can you find evidence that people spend money on this problem?

You’re not looking for a guarantee.

Look for buyer reviews, relevant products with an established sales history, businesses already serving the audience or other evidence that people pay to solve the problem.

Basically, are there wallets in the vicinity?

YES = 1 point

4. Is there a reason someone might choose your version?

This is where your research should help.

Perhaps you’re making the product for a more specific customer or you’ve found a common complaint you can address. You might simplify something that’s unnecessarily complicated, or bundle together pieces buyers currently have to find separately.

And yes, yours can be prettier.

I like pretty.

I just don’t want prettier carrying the entire business on its back.

YES = 1 point

5. Do you have a plausible way to reach the buyer?

Maybe they’re searching Etsy or Google. Perhaps Pinterest makes sense for the topic, or you already have access to the audience.

You don’t need your entire marketing plan figured out today.

I just want an answer better than:

I’ll put it online.

YES = 1 point

6. Does the price make sense for the work involved?

Imagine buyers expect to pay around $5 for this kind of product and you’ve planned something that’ll take 38 hrs to create.

I would like a word.

Could you simplify it?

Bundle it into a more valuable offer?

Choose a different format?

Or should you leave this particular opportunity alone?

The numbers have to make SOME sense.

YES = 1 point

7. Could this naturally lead to another product?

This one isn’t mandatory, but I love seeing it.

If somebody buys this, what might she need next?

A digital product pricing calculator could lead to a sales tracker.

A client welcome guide could lead to a full onboarding kit.

A wedding budget spreadsheet could become part of a larger wedding planning system.

Now you’re starting to build a product line instead of waking up every month wondering what on earth to make next.

YES = 1 point

So, how did your idea score?

6–7 points: I’d seriously consider testing it.

4–5 points: There may be something here, but I’d go back and investigate whichever questions got a NO.

0–3 points: Put Canva DOWN.

Does scoring 7 points guarantee the product will sell?

God, no.

If I had a 7-question checklist that could predict sales with complete certainty, this article would be much shorter and I would be considerably richer.

The scorecard is a filter.

Its job is to help you catch weak ideas before they consume a week of your life.

What if You Find a Good Idea but Don’t Want to Make It From Scratch?

Ah.

Now we’re getting somewhere.

You’ve done the research, found a product opportunity and know roughly what the buyer needs.

Then you realize you still have to MAKE the bloody thing.

This is where resale-ready and PLR digital products can be useful.

Depending on the license, you may be able to start with an existing product or template, customize it for your buyer, add your branding and turn it into something that fits your business.

You still need to do the thinking, though.

Buying a giant PLR bundle doesn’t eliminate the need for product research.

Otherwise you’ve simply traded:

I have 17 product ideas.

for:

I have 11,000 files.

And what on earth are you going to do with 11,000 products?

If the starting-from-scratch part is what’s holding you up, read Digital Products to Resell Without Creating Everything From Scratch] next.

And if you’re currently wondering what PLR actually is and which rights you get, head over to [PLR Digital Products: What They Are & How to Sell Them].

Still Looking for the Right Digital Product Idea?

Then you’re one article ahead of yourself. 😂

Start with [51 Digital Products to Sell in 2026 That People Actually Want to Buy].

Pick a few ideas that make sense for an audience you understand, then come back here and research them.

And by a few, I mean 3.

You do not need to validate 47 product ideas before you’re allowed to choose one.

At some point research becomes procrastination with better stationery.

Not Sure Whether Your Idea Is Worth Building?

This is exactly why I made the FREE Digital Product Business Launch Checklist.

It walks you through figuring out what to sell, getting your business ready, building your audience and actually launching the thing without wondering what important step you’ve forgotten.

It also saves your progress, which is handy when you get halfway through, wander off to answer an email and return 3 days later thinking:

What was I doing again?

Found the Opportunity but Need the Product?

Take a look inside the Digital Products Vault.

It’s packed with resale-ready digital products and templates you can customize, brand and use as the starting point for products in your own business.

And I said starting point for a reason.

Please don’t go in there, see a pile of products and decide you’re going to sell every single one.

The number of files in your Google Drive isn’t a business metric.

Use the research you just did to choose the products that make sense for your buyer, then customize those.

You’ll end up with a much stronger shop than the person uploading everything she can get her hands on and hoping something sticks.

FAQs About Finding Profitable Digital Product Ideas

How do I find digital product ideas that will sell?

Start with a problem people are already trying to solve, then look for evidence that they’re spending money on solutions.

Marketplaces such as Etsy can help you see existing products and buyer reviews, while Google can show you the questions and language surrounding the problem.

Once you’ve found an established category, look for ways to make the product more useful to a specific buyer.

How do I validate a digital product idea?

I’d look for a clearly identifiable customer, evidence of buyer activity and a specific problem the product solves.

You also want some reason a customer might choose your version and a realistic way to get the product in front of those people.

You aren’t trying to prove the product will definitely sell.

You’re looking for enough evidence to decide whether it’s worth testing.

How do I research digital products on Etsy?

Start with a broad search for the type of product you’re considering, then investigate narrower versions based on the buyer or use case.

Open relevant listings and read the reviews rather than relying solely on the number of search results. Buyer comments can tell you what people value, where they struggle and what they wish existing products included.

How can I use Google for digital product research?

Search for the product, but also search for the problem behind it.

Autocomplete suggestions, related searches and commonly asked questions can help you understand what potential buyers want to know and how they describe the problem.

That language can help with both your product idea and the way you eventually market it.

Is competition bad when selling digital products?

No.

Competition can be a useful sign that people already understand and buy the type of product you’re considering.

I’d be more concerned if a market is full of nearly identical products, dominated by established sellers and you can’t find a meaningful reason for someone to choose yours.

How do I know if a digital product niche is saturated?

Look beyond the number of listings.

Pay attention to how similar the products are, how strong the established competition appears to be and whether specific buyers or problems are being overlooked.

A busy market can still have opportunities.

A generic product with no clear angle is much harder to justify.

What are the most profitable digital products to sell?

There isn’t one product format that’s automatically the most profitable.

Profitability depends on demand, pricing, costs, traffic and how well the product solves the buyer’s problem.

A relatively simple spreadsheet aimed at a very specific problem can be a better business opportunity than a huge ebook nobody particularly needs.

Can I use PLR for a digital product idea I’ve validated?

Potentially, yes, if the specific license allows the way you intend to customize and sell the product.

PLR licenses aren’t universal, so always check the actual terms that came with the product before using it in your business.

Do the Research Then Make the Thing.

Product research is useful right up until it becomes the reason you haven’t launched anything.

You will never have perfect information.

There isn’t a research tool that can promise your product will sell, and a competitor making sales doesn’t guarantee you’ll make them too.

What you CAN do is make a much more informed decision.

Find the buyer.

Understand what she’s trying to do.

Look at what she already buys, then pay attention to what existing products get right and where they fall short.

Once you’ve got enough evidence to feel good about the idea, stop researching.

Make the thing.

Put it in front of people.

See what they do.

Because eventually the only way to find out whether somebody will buy your digital product is to give them the opportunity.

PUSH FRIGGIN’ ENTER.