Selling digital assets is an effective and scalable way to diversify your income as a creative. Once created, design assets have the potential to generate income without any additional effort. Attach files to ay Behance project to start marketing your work to a global audience of over 50 million creatives around the world. 

We asked top sellers on Behance to share their best tips on how to maximize success selling design assets.

1. Make High Quality Work 

Type designer Harbor Bickmore’s reasons for getting into selling were financially motivated: “I was about to start my second year of grad school, I had just gotten married, and I was moving to New York City, and I was broke — like had to return the milk at the grocery store because my credit cards were maxed out broke.” Designing and selling assets online was a flexible option for his demanding graduate school schedule. 

Today Harbor spends 90% of his time creating typefaces to sell: “Once a typeface Is done there is very little upkeep and no cap on how much it can make over the next few years.” 

Harbor’s advice is to make high quality work. “The name of the game is getting noticed. You will only get noticed if you have high quality unique products that people want to buy.” Before starting a project, he asks himself, “Is this worth making?” Sometimes that means the project is a creative challenge that will help Harbor develop his skills or test out ideas. Other times, it means creating something that “designers will want to buy and use, that the font feels a need that no other font out there does.” 

2. Understand Your Audience 

Iuliia Mazur is a graphic designer who creates a wide range of digital products from Y2K fonts to texture packs and vector graphics. “I focus on a multi-channel strategy,” she shares. “I leverage the main popular marketplaces like Creative Market, YWFT, Gumroad, and social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to attract potential customers from everywhere.”

Selling her work on Behance has enabled Iuliia to expand her audience: “​​Selling digital assets on Behance has been a highly positive discovery for me. The platform's user-friendly interface and built-in marketplace have allowed me to share my work with a wider audience and meet new customers.”

“My top recommendation is to understand your audience deeply,” says Iuliia. “Every platform has unique clients. Know what they need, what they value, and how they prefer to consume digital assets. This understanding should guide the creation and presentation of your assets. Consistency in quality and your unique style is key, as it helps in building a recognizable brand.”

3. Know When to Follow Trends 

Designer and illustrator Emma Hall, who goes by Emma Make on Behance, started her creative career in architecture. When she decided to pivot her career to design, she turned to digital assets to provide financial security while she developed her portfolio. Nowadays Emma balances her time working on client projects and creating assets to sell online. 

“Create work that is authentic to you rather than following every single trend out there,” Emma advises. “Find your niche. It’s better to be daring in your designs than play it safe.”

When it comes to following trends, Emma recommends adding your own personal touch to bring a unique perspective: “It’s good to follow trends, but put your twist on it so the work becomes more timeless and outlives the trend.”

Harbor agrees: “Don’t add to the noise, and don’t ride coattails. Ask yourself, ‘Is this product solving a problem that no other product is solving?’ or ‘Can I do it better than everyone else who is hopping on the trend?’”

4. Stay Steadfast and Consistent

“Back in 2016, I kicked off my digital design journey by selling presentation templates on various online marketplaces. Initially, the sales weren't exactly booming, to be honest,” shares self-taught designer and template maker Batzorig Regzen. 

Rather than let his disappointing sales deter him, Batzorig went made the investment into understanding his clients and creating templates that were user-friendly. “I adopted a strategy of consistently refining, updating and learning along the way. Most of my customers are individuals embarking on new projects, startup companies, and students. I always keep my products easy to understand, dynamic that covers a broad range of customers.” 

This dedication to improvement gradually paid off, leading to a noticeable rise in sales in the long run and today, Batzorig is one of the top selling creatives on Behance. 

5. Just Get it Out There 

Font designer Silver Stag ran a design studio for several years, but found himself trapped in administrative tasks: “I was wearing too many hats – accountant, secretary, project manager, support staff – everything except the one I cherished the most, the designer's hat.”He turned to creating templates and ultimately fonts, in search of more creative freedom. “Creating templates allowed me to create designs that truly aligned with what I found beautiful and useful for the potential buyers. It was liberating.” 

Silver Stag’s advice is simple, and one that he’s learned through personal experience: just put it out there. “As a designer, you'll always strive for perfection, always trying to make that letter a bit more polished, that curve a tad smoother, or that ligature even more unique.” 

Unfortunately, this pursuit of perfection can lead toa never-ending cycle. “The truth is, your work will never be 100% perfect in your eyes, but that's okay. By putting your work out there, whether it's fonts, templates, or any other digital assets, you open the door to valuable feedback and growth.”