Most people think starting an online business costs thousands of dollars. Equipment, software licenses, inventory, shipping costs, and platform fees all add up fast, and that upfront expense stops most people before they ever make their first dollar. But there is an entire category of online income where the creation cost is literally zero and the profit margin sits close to 100%.
In this video, Alston Godbolt breaks down eight digital products that anyone can build using tools that are already free and start selling this week on platforms like Etsy and Shutterstock. This post walks through every product covered in the video, with the exact platforms, tactics, and keyword strategies Alston uses. Whether you have never sold anything online or you are hunting for your next income stream, these products give you a real, actionable starting point with zero upfront investment.
What You’ll Walk Out With
- A clear breakdown of every free digital product type covered in the video
- The exact free tools (Canva, Google Sheets, ChatGPT, Notion) to build each product
- How to use Etsy as a keyword research engine to find what buyers actually want
- The alphabet keyword trick for finding low-competition product niches
- How to turn your existing phone photos into passive royalty income on Shutterstock
- The niche-down strategy that separates ebooks that sell from those that sit unseen
- How to avoid the biggest Canva resell mistake that violates terms of service
- A tool at finder.platformproof.com that helps you match your existing skills to the right digital product type
Product 1: Invitations
Birthday invitations, wedding invites, and save-the-dates are among the highest-volume searches on Etsy, and every single one of them can be designed for free using Canva. Canva’s free tier includes mockup designs, photos, elements, and templates that give you everything you need to build a professional-looking invitation without paying a cent.
The key research move Alston shows is the alphabet keyword trick. Go to Etsy, type “invitations” followed by a space, then work through each letter of the alphabet. The autocomplete suggestions reveal exactly what buyers are searching for right now. One example from the video: people are actively searching for “invitations that are editable,” which tells you there is buyer demand for fully customizable templates. You create the editable invitation in Canva, list it on Etsy, and when someone buys, they receive the Canva link to make their own color and text changes. You collect the payment and do zero additional work per order after the listing is live.
Sub-niches like butterfly invitations, light-blue color schemes, and specific party themes show up in Etsy autocomplete results because buyers type exactly what they want. Each autocomplete result is essentially a request with a buyer already waiting. Work through the alphabet across different invitation types and you will find dozens of underserved product ideas without spending anything on market research tools.
Product 2: Instagram Caption Packs for Small Businesses
This is the one Alston sold himself for $99.97, and the process is simpler than most people expect. Small businesses desperately need social media content but rarely have the time or budget to hire a copywriter. You fill that gap by creating ready-to-post Instagram caption packs built around a specific business type.
The workflow: go to ChatGPT and ask it to generate 30 Instagram captions for a specific small business, such as a Mexican food truck. Take those captions into Canva and use the bulk create feature to drop them onto a set of branded templates. Export the finished pack and list it on Etsy. The buyer purchases, downloads the Canva link, swaps in their own logo and brand colors, and starts posting. You have saved them hours of writing work each month, and that time savings is exactly what justifies the price.
To find your target businesses, ask ChatGPT to list the most popular types of small businesses, then create a separate caption pack for each one. Mexican food trucks, nail salons, real estate agents, personal trainers, coffee shops, and pet groomers are all potential customers. Each business type is a separate Etsy listing, and each listing can sell indefinitely because the product is digital and costs nothing to deliver.
Product 3: Budget Trackers
Budget trackers are one of the top-selling digital product categories on Etsy year after year, and they get even more popular at the start of a new year when people want to take control of their finances. You can build a functional, attractive budget tracker for free using Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or Notion.
The core value is simple: you do all the formula work so the buyer just enters their numbers. Monthly budgets, daily expense logs, debt payoff calculators, and savings goal trackers all fall under this category. On Etsy, a quick search reveals demand for ultimate monthly budget trackers, simple daily trackers for people who want something minimal, and Notion templates for the productivity crowd. Each variation is a separate product opportunity.
One important technical detail Alston highlights: when you share a Google Sheets budget tracker, make sure you share it as a view-only link and instruct buyers to make their own copy before editing. If you share with edit access, multiple buyers end up working in the same document and the experience falls apart fast. Setting up the share link correctly protects both your customers and your Etsy reviews.
Product 4: Templates
Templates is a broad category that covers far more than invitations. On Etsy, people search for wedding seating chart templates, food and menu templates, ebook templates, business plan templates, restaurant menu templates, and Tumblr-style aesthetic templates. Canva is again the go-to free tool for building most of these, but Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop (for those who already have access) also work for more advanced template types.
Alston points out that templates work because people want to save time. A restaurant owner who needs a professional menu does not want to design from scratch; they want to drop in their dishes and prices and be done. A blogger who wants a consistent ebook layout does not want to wrestle with formatting tools. You solve that problem once, list it, and get paid repeatedly for the same file.
Critical warning from the video: you cannot download a Canva template and re-upload it directly to Etsy. That violates Canva’s terms of service. What you must do is use Canva as inspiration, then build your own version with meaningful changes, making the design distinctly yours. The research and ideation from Canva is free to use; the actual product you sell must be your original creation.
Product 5: Ebooks
AI-generated ebooks get a mixed reputation online, and Alston addresses this directly. The reason most AI ebooks fail to sell is not the AI, it is the lack of specificity. Broad ebooks like “a complete fitness guide” target an audience so large that the buyer does not feel the book was written for them. The solution is to niche down as far as possible.
His example from the video is “fitness tips for women over 50.” That is a small, specific group compared to all fitness enthusiasts, but there are still millions of women in that exact situation who would find genuine value in a book that speaks directly to their needs. A smaller, more focused audience often converts at a much higher rate because the product feels personally relevant.
Alston’s pro tip for finding a tight niche: go to ChatGPT and type “my niche is [topic], how can I niche down to talk to a smaller audience?” Use ChatGPT to brainstorm the audience segment, then use it again to draft the content. Keep your ebooks focused rather than bloated. A 5,000-word ebook that actually gets read delivers more value than a 20,000-word guide that sits unopened. Pair that focused content with a specific title and a cover designed in Canva, and you have a sellable digital product created entirely for free.
Not sure which digital product fits your skills?
Answer five quick questions and find out exactly which online income path matches what you already know at finder.platformproof.com.
Product 6: Stock Photos and Royalty Images
If you already take photos on your phone or camera, you may have a product catalog sitting right in your camera roll. Platforms like Shutterstock are built almost entirely on user-submitted images, and when someone purchases a license for your photo, you receive a royalty payment. You do not need to fulfill any order or do any follow-up work; the platform handles everything.
Alston walks through a live example on Shutterstock where a photo of someone’s dog dressed as a ghost for Halloween is listed at a standard license price. Seasonal and local landmark photos are especially valuable. If you live near a recognizable landmark, images of that location get downloaded by media companies, advertisers, and content creators who need local visuals. The Chicago Bean example in the video shows individual listings for that landmark priced at $9.80 per download or lower for monthly subscription licenses.
You are not limited to Shutterstock. Adobe Stock, Getty Images (through its contributor program), iStock, and Dreamstime all accept user submissions. The same photo can be submitted to multiple platforms, multiplying your earning potential from a single image. If you own a drone and can capture aerial footage or photos, Alston notes this differentiates your submissions from standard ground-level shots and can command higher licensing fees. You do not need a professional camera to start; modern smartphones produce images that meet most stock photo platform requirements.
Product 7: Planners
Planners are Alston’s personal favorite in the video, and it is easy to see why. People buy planners because they want to feel organized, and that motivation does not go away. Chore planners, vacation planners, back-to-school planners, Thanksgiving meal planners, and daily routine trackers all sell consistently on Etsy because buyers are always looking for a tool that helps them manage the chaos in their specific area of life.
Creating planners in Canva is straightforward. You design the layout, add fields for whatever the buyer needs to track, export as a PDF, and list it on Etsy. The research process is the same as with invitations: type “planner” into Etsy’s search bar, add a space, and work through the alphabet to see what combinations buyers are searching for. The autocomplete shows demand for editable planners, planners in Spanish, calendar planners, planner stickers, and principal planners, each of which is its own product opportunity.
Alston also highlights bundling as a way to increase the average order value on Etsy. Instead of selling a single chore planner, bundle the chore planner with a cleaning checklist, a daily routine tracker, and a vacation planner into one purchase. A parent who finds your chore planner would likely want all of those tools, and the bundle gives them a reason to spend more in a single transaction. You create each component once and the bundle just combines existing files, so the additional labor is minimal while the perceived value to the buyer increases significantly.
Honest Drawbacks: What the Video Does Not Cover
The “free to create” framing is accurate, but there are real costs and challenges worth knowing before you list your first product.
Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee per product, takes a 6.5% transaction fee on each sale, and adds payment processing fees on top of that. You can absolutely start for free in terms of creation, but selling on Etsy is not free. Pricing your products to absorb those fees while staying competitive is something you need to work out before you list.
Canva’s free tier has limitations. Some templates, fonts, and elements are locked behind Canva Pro, which costs money. You can build strong products on the free tier, but you may eventually hit limits that push you toward upgrading. That is not a dealbreaker, but it is worth knowing.
Competition on Etsy is real. “Budget tracker” returns thousands of results, and getting discovered as a new seller requires either strong SEO in your listing title and tags or running Etsy ads to generate early visibility. The video does not address how to rank a new listing, which is a genuine challenge for first-time sellers.
Stock photo income starts slowly. You will not upload 10 photos and immediately earn meaningful royalties. Building a library of hundreds of images over time is the realistic path to consistent stock photo income. It is passive once the photos are submitted, but the initial effort to build a sizable portfolio is real work.
None of these drawbacks make the strategy invalid; they are just the full picture you need to set accurate expectations for yourself.
Find Your X
The hardest part for most people is not the creation; it is deciding which product type to start with. Budget trackers require a different skill set than stock photography, and Instagram caption packs are a different game than planners. The wrong starting point wastes time and kills momentum before you ever see your first sale.
The free tool at finder.platformproof.com was built specifically for this. Answer five questions about your current skills, available time, and goals, and it maps you to the income path most likely to work for you given what you already bring to the table. It takes under two minutes and gives you a concrete starting point instead of a list of options with no direction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need design experience to sell invitations or planners on Etsy?
No. Canva was built specifically so that people with zero design background can create professional-looking graphics. The free tier gives you access to pre-built templates, elements, and photos that do most of the visual heavy lifting. Your job is to customize and combine them in a way that serves a specific buyer need. Start with a niche that interests you, explore the Canva templates in that space, and experiment until you find a style you can replicate consistently.
How much can someone realistically make selling Instagram caption packs?
Alston sold a caption pack for $99.97 on Etsy, so single-sale income at that price point is confirmed in the video. How much you make overall depends on how many packs you create, how well your listings rank in Etsy search, and how specifically you target the small businesses in each pack. A seller with 20 different caption packs for 20 different business types and solid SEO on each listing can generate consistent monthly income. One listing alone is not a business; building a catalog of targeted packs is what creates real earning potential.
Can I use ChatGPT to write an entire ebook and sell it legally?
Yes, using AI to help write an ebook is legal and permitted on most selling platforms, including Etsy and Gumroad. The important things are that you review and edit the content for accuracy, that you are transparent if required by the platform you use, and that the content genuinely serves the buyer. AI can produce a solid first draft, but treating it as a final product without any editorial review is how you end up with low-quality content that gets returned and leaves bad reviews. Use AI as a writing assistant, not as a replacement for your own judgment and expertise.
Can I really modify a Canva template and sell it as my own?
You can create original products using Canva’s tools and elements, but you cannot download a finished Canva template and re-upload it to Etsy as your product. That violates Canva’s terms of service. What you can and should do is use Canva templates for inspiration and to understand design conventions in your niche, then build your own layouts with meaningful changes in color, structure, fonts, and content. The more distinctly yours the final product is, the safer you are and the more you differentiate yourself from other sellers.
How do Shutterstock royalties work for first-time contributors?
When you submit photos to Shutterstock as a contributor, you receive a percentage of each sale or download of your image. The exact royalty rate depends on Shutterstock’s current contributor tier structure, which is based on your total lifetime earnings on the platform. New contributors start at the lowest tier but can work their way up as their library grows and sales increase. You keep earning royalties on photos you uploaded years ago as long as they remain active in the platform’s library. The key to meaningful income is volume: a larger library of quality images earns more consistently than a handful of exceptional shots.
What should I price my first digital product at?
Look at what similar products sell for on Etsy in your specific niche before you set a price. Avoid underpricing by a large margin just to get early sales; buyers sometimes interpret very low prices as low quality. A caption pack in the $7 to $20 range, a budget tracker at $3 to $8, and a planner bundle at $5 to $15 are all reasonable starting ranges depending on depth and presentation. Price based on value to the buyer, meaning the time you are saving them, rather than on your creation time, which may have been less than an hour for a digital product.
How long does it usually take to make the first sale on Etsy?
There is no reliable timeline because it depends heavily on niche competition, your listing SEO quality, your product photos, and your pricing. Some sellers report first sales within days when they hit an underserved niche with a well-optimized listing. Others wait weeks or longer. Running Etsy ads on a small daily budget can accelerate early visibility. The best approach is to treat the first few listings as learning experiments, track what gets views and clicks, and optimize or iterate based on real data rather than waiting passively for the algorithm to find you.
Is Etsy the only place to sell these digital products?
Etsy is a strong starting point because buyers already come to Etsy specifically looking for digital downloads, which means you are not creating demand from scratch. But it is not the only option. Gumroad, Payhip, and Creative Market all host digital products. Stan Store and Beacons are popular with creators who already have a social following and want to sell directly. If you have an audience on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, selling directly through those channels to your existing followers removes the Etsy competition factor entirely and lets you keep a higher percentage of each sale.
Read Next
Creating digital products is step one. Getting your first sale on Etsy requires knowing how to list, price, and position your product so buyers can actually find it.
This post walks through the full process: How To Sell Your First Digital Product On Etsy.
Sources
- Original video: Alston Godbolt, “8 $5K Digital Products You Can Create & Sell For FREE,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/NU5LOO4z94M
- Canva free design platform: https://canva.com
- Etsy marketplace for digital products: https://etsy.com
- Shutterstock contributor program: https://shutterstock.com/contribute
- ChatGPT for content generation: https://chat.openai.com
- Google Sheets for spreadsheet products: https://sheets.google.com
- Notion for template creation: https://notion.so
Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.