Step-by-step guide for selling digital products as a side hustle

A step-by-step guide for selling digital products as a side hustle

Step 1: Create a seller account on Envato

To get started, create an Envato account, select Author/Seller, and add your tax information, such as a W-8BEN form.

Link your preferred payout method, like PayPal, Wire transfer, etc.

Step 2: Create the digital product

This is the hardest part because building a high-quality digital product takes a lot of work. Test it multiple times to ensure it passes Envato’s review process.

Write detailed documentation and include common troubleshooting instructions. Creating Video tutorials also helps a lot.

Incomplete or low-quality documentation often confuses buyers and negatively affects your item’s rating and reviews.

Finally, integrate a licensing module to prevent piracy. Envato offers a built-in licensing system that you can use to protect your products from black-market sales to some extent.

Step 3. Package your source file

Envato enforces a strict folder structure. If you don’t organise the files properly before submitting, they will automatically reject it.

You must create a master .zip file that contains the core product, a dedicated documentation folder (explaining installation and customisation for buyers), and any demo assets.

Step 4. Design Marketplace Assets

You cannot just throw in the source code with a basic title and description.

You must create graphics at the resolution required by Envato, host a live demo on your server for PHP scripts, HTML templates, themes and wordpress plugins, and share login credentials if buyers need to log in to use the demo.

For Android and iOS apps, you can either link the demo app on the app stores or offer a Google Drive link to download the demo app file.

Step 5. Submit for review

Once everything is ready, upload your assets to your chosen marketplace dashboard. You will need to write an SEO-friendly title, list key features, apply accurate tags, and select all supported software or browser versions.

Make sure the claims made in the listing are accurate and not misleading.

Step 6. Clear the Review Process

Envato manually reviews every submission for commercial viability and code quality. If you receive a soft rejection, the reviewer will list specific minor issues to fix before re-uploading. A hard rejection means the product does not meet their quality standards and cannot be resubmitted.

A hard rejection doesn’t mean you can’t sell it; you have plenty of options for selling digital products, and platforms like Gumroad let you sell your items without a review process.

Step 7: Promoting your item

Naturally, when an item is published on Envato, it will immediately get a lot of exposure because they have dedicated placements for new releases. If you make few sales at launch, your product will move to Rising Stars.

With good reviews and ratings, your items will soon be listed under the new best sellers category, which further boosts visibility because some buyers prefer to buy only from best sellers.

You can build a social media following and organically promote your product. If you have a marketing budget, consider creating a YouTube Short video of your item, highlighting use cases and features, and promote it with Google Ads. Often, YouTube Shorts ads deliver far more impressions at a lower cost than search ads.

Earning potential

Authors on Envato are making a good amount of money. Apart from selling the product, many authors offer paid customisation, installation, and custom integration. If you are available for freelance work, you can select an option in your Envato profile so buyers can offer you work. You can expect to make anywhere between £100 and £1000 per month on average.

Wrapping up

Selling digital products is a proven way to make significant money with minimal effort compared to other popular side hustles. By following the step-by-step guide, you can successfully start selling on Envato and offer other services to increase your revenue.