Hi everyone.

Why do we design digital products? As a graphic designer who mainly designs digital items, it's a question I've asked myself many times, especially when I see the amazing items in the Real World that my fellow designers have created. Everthing from cushions to coffee mugs, pottery to partyware, notebooks to nightdresses and gift wrap to galoshes. Items you can touch, feel, smell, stroke, wear, place on a shelf, lie on or write in, although probably not all at the same time. 

Of course, there are still plenty of products which can be designed in a digital format that are just as useful and asthetically pleasing to create for both designer and customer, even if you can't wear them or lie on them. My own digital products include papercraft supplies, wall art, cards and stationery and if you have a moment, why not take a look at my Etsy shop where you will find many of these digital items, all of which can be instantly downloaded with just a few clicks, then printed out on your home printer or downloaded onto a USB for a local or online shop to print for you.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MelLawrenceCreative

So what are the advantages of designing and selling digital products for the designer? Here are just a few of them:

• Digital products cost very little to produce. You don't need to pay what are often surprisingly high prices (especially if you are looking at small volumes) for your designs to be printed on physical products or sent out via drop shipping. You can design and "manufacture" your own products with virtually no extra cost at all. 
• Your overheads will be extremely low. No workshop, studio or other manufacturing area is required and certainly no heavy machinery. All you need is a device to design on, a ream of paper and a printer to test out your finished designs.
• You can create a large number of products in a short space of time. Once you've got the hang of designing digital products, you'll be surprised at how quickly you can create and "manufacture" them. No going back and forwards to printing companies or waiting for deliveries. Just design, print out to test and they're ready to go.
• Hardly any storage space is required. Well, apart from on your computer or other designing device, of course, and even then you can store your work on a USB or external hard drive. Personally I like to keep hard copies of all my digital products but even so, they'll never take up as much space in my house as boxes of books or coffee mugs would.
• Your customers don't need to pay shipping costs. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest advantages of designing and selling digital products. Not only does the customer not have to pay any postage but they can usually get their product within minutes of paying for it.

• There are plenty of places online where you can sell your digital designs.  My personal preference at the moment is Etsy but I would also suggest taking a look at Creative Market as well as Creative Fabrica and The Hungry JPEG. Just be careful you don't spend more than you make as the temptation to snap up those amazing digital graphics from other designers can be very strong!
• You can also sell from your own website or blog. If your platform allows it, you can also set up your own shop so that customers can download digital products directly from you which means you won't have to pay any listing or transaction fees which you do when you are selling via an online marketplace.
• There is a ready made customer base. There are huge numbers of people out there, especially in the papercraft market, who are dedicated to all things digital. They have already discovered for themselves the many advantages of buying digital products which include low cost, speedy delivery, no storage space required and being able to reprint a product without ever having to buy it again.
•  You can save the planet. Well, maybe not actually save it but by only designing and selling digital products, both your own and your customer's carbon footprint will be greatly reduced which has to be a good thing.  
• The quality of digital products is getting better all the time. Gone are the days when you needed an "all singing and all dancing" printer to produce high quality digital products. Now almost any home printer, providing it's combined with the right type of printing paper, will produce excellent results and therefore happy customers. And isn't that what we all want?