Are you trying to determine what the best services to sell online are?
In today’s digital age, selling services online has become a lucrative and convenient way for businesses to reach a global audience and increase their revenue.
Whether you’re looking to grow an existing business or start a side hustle to earn money online, there are plenty of options at your disposal.
The key is figuring out which services to sell that are most likely to generate sustainable success.
🔎 In this article, I’ll cover:
Why Sell Services Online?
Have you ever considered selling your skills and expertise as services? If you’re a consultant, coach, freelancer, or have valuable knowledge to share, then offering and selling services online can be a fantastic way to reach a wider audience and turn your passion into profit.
Selling services online has become increasingly popular in recent years. With the rise of the internet, businesses of all sizes can now reach a global audience with their services and products.
Key benefits include:
- Low overhead costs: Unlike physical products and traditional brick-and-mortar retail, there are no physical storefronts, inventory, or shipping costs associated with selling services online.
- Global reach: The internet breaks down geographical barriers. Selling services online lets you reach a global audience, which can increase sales and profits, expanding your potential customer base far beyond your local area.
- 24/7 availability: Services can be purchased online via your eCommerce website at any time of day or night, which is convenient for customers.
- Easy to manage: The combination of WordPress and eCommerce plugins like Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) makes it easy to manage your online sales, process payments, and deliver digital downloads.
- Scalability: As your business grows, you can easily take on more clients without needing to invest in additional office space or equipment.
Where to Sell Services Online
To sell services online, you must choose an eCommerce platform.
WordPress is a user-friendly Content Management System (CMS) that powers over 43% of all websites on the internet. It provides a robust platform for creating and managing websites, including eCommerce stores.
WordPress is also easy to set up, even for beginners. You can create a beautiful website to showcase your services without any coding knowledge.
Because WordPress doesn’t come with eCommerce functionality built-in, you’ll need a plugin. Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is the #1 WordPress eCommerce solution for digital selling:
EDD seamlessly integrates with WordPress, allowing you to sell services alongside digital products. Unlike other third-party platforms and online marketplaces, you have complete control over pricing, delivery methods, and customer management.
This combination is also cost-effective. Both WordPress and EDD offer free core versions, making it an affordable solution to launch your online business.
Easy Digital Downloads offers the Downloads As Services extension:
With this add-on, you can mark individual downloads or even entire categories as services on your website.
Best Services to Sell Online
Before you begin building your WordPress website or adding eCommerce functionality to an existing one to sell services, you need to decide what you’ll offer customers.
Let’s look at some of the best and most popular services to sell online, especially if you’re using WordPress + Easy Digital Downloads.
1. Consulting services
Consulting services provide advice and expertise to clients on a specific topic. These services are often sought by organizations looking to gain external insights, improve decision-making, and overcome challenges.
The consultant may conduct market research, assess competitor strategies, and provide recommendations for effective initiatives.
Overall, consulting services play a vital role in helping organizations navigate an increasingly competitive and complex business landscape. They provide valuable insights, strategies, and support, enabling clients to make informed decisions, drive growth, and achieve long-term success.
EDD allows you to sell consulting services online by creating a product page for each service. You can sell one-on-one sessions or packages of consultations. You can also use EDD to set up recurring payments for consulting services.
2. Freelancing
There are a variety of ways you can earn money through freelancing. You can choose a particular area of expertise. For instance, some popular examples of skills you can use for freelancing services include:
- Web design
- Writing
- Editing
- Marketing
Use EDD to sell project packages with different tiers of service. You can also offer downloadable proposals or project templates.
3. Educational services
Education is more than just schools and classrooms. They can also be for teaching professionals new skills and developing areas of expertise.
Online course providers offer convenient and flexible learning options, catering to various subjects and interests.
Integrating EDD with course delivery platforms, like LearnDash or LifterLMS, simplifies course management, automates content delivery, and provides valuable reporting and analytics capabilities.
Online events and webinars can also be monetized using EDD, allowing for live sessions and recorded content sales.
🔎 Learn more about how to sell digital courses with EDD.
4. Memberships & subscriptions
Membership subscriptions give customers access to exclusive content or services. Examples of membership subscriptions include online courses, fitness programs, and content streaming services.
EDD can be used to sell membership subscriptions. It integrates with popular membership plugins such as MemberPress and Restrict Content Pro, which can be used to manage member access to content and services.
5. Managed services
If you want to sell services online, another option is to offer ongoing managed services. For instance, this could include things such as website maintenance, social media management, or content creation for clients on a subscription basis.
With EDD, you can set up automatic recurring payments and manage client subscriptions with ease.
6. Digital downloads
While technically more of a product than a service, digital downloads offer an excellent way to generate passive income online.
Digital downloads have revolutionized the way we consume and distribute creative content. They allow artists, photographers, musicians, and other creators to sell their work directly to customers without the need for physical intermediaries like stores or distributors.
For example, a photographer might sell digital downloads of their photos, allowing customers to purchase high-resolution images that they can print or use online. Similarly, musicians might sell digital downloads of their music, enabling fans to listen to their songs on their preferred devices.
With EDD, you can create a product page for each digital download, complete with a description, price, and preview image.
You can also set up payment processing through popular gateways like PayPal and Stripe, and configure delivery options such as email delivery or direct download links.
FAQs About Services to Sell Online
Let’s wrap up with a few frequently asked questions regarding services to sell online and using Easy Digital Downloads to do so.
Can I use EDD to sell both services + physical products?
Yes, you can use EDD to sell physical products as well. However, it is not as well-suited for this purpose as other platforms such as WooCommerce. EDD is mostly geared toward digital sellers.
How do I accept payments for services I sell online?
Once you know which services to sell online, you’ll need a way to accept payments for them. EDD integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, as well as other gateways, allowing you to accept secure online payments.
How can I market the services I sell online?
There are many ways to market your services online. Explore social media marketing, email marketing, content creation, and collaborating with other businesses in your niche.
Sell Services Online With EDD
Selling services online can be a lucrative and rewarding business venture. Once you decide the best services to sell online, you only need to create an online platform to offer your services. With the combination of WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), you can easily set up an online store and start selling services to customers around the world.
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