You might not be familiar with the term ‘digital papers’. They are basically 12-inch by 12-inch jpeg or PNG background patterns, used as the base in other designs. Some are seamless, while others have regular patterns.
These image files are very popular assets for creative people, pod sellers, and online design entrepreneurs. Digital papers are also called “digipaper”, “scrapbooking paper”, “texture”, “pattern background”, and just simply patterns.
Whether you are designing on Canva, Photopea, or other professional design apps, digital papers provide a good starting point.
You can find digital papers for everything. People use them for designs such as birthday cards, wedding invitations, thank you cards, wall art, silhouette designs, sublimation, print-on-demand, notebook covers, tumbler designs, and more. They come in all sorts of themes like floral, glitter, hearts; you name it. If you can think of any design theme used for print or online, you can create a digital paper for it.
You can sell your digital paper designs on sites like Etsy and Creative Fabrica. They are usually sold in a pack of ten individual designs in different colors.
The best part is once you’ve made them, you can sell them as is, or use your digital papers in your own print-on-demand projects on sites like Redbubble. You can put them on products like mugs or tote bags.
From my research, not all ai image generators are good for creating patterns that can be used for digital papers. For best result, I recommend Midjourney or Dalle via ChatGPT. Other tools like Leonardo.ai struggle to create more detailed patterns. Sometimes, the patterns are distorted and of lower-quality.
If you want to take this ai side hustle idea further, you can convert the images to vectors using online tools like vectorizer ai. By doing this, you will be able to change the colors and sell more variations after converting it back to jpeg. Research shows that people tend to shop listings with more color choices.
If you search for “digital paper” on Etsy, you will find over 3 million listings for this niche. This means that you have to focus on finding smaller sub-niches that have less competition. Because if you make generic designs, they will probably not sell.
The prices for digital papers range from $1 to $4 for packs of about 20. If you find a good niche and you create something really unique, you can charge even higher prices.
I plan to create some ai digital papers to add to my existing brand assets. You can do this too, or create a shop that only sells digital papers.
So, if you’re thinking about creating an AI side hustle, you should explore the world of digital papers. If you already have a digital brand, you can add it to your shop.
Just remember, the key is to avoid being too generic. Unique niches add more value. If you find a special niche, you could earn a decent income by selling digital papers online.
Hi, I’m Blessing, a pro writer and graphic designer turned AI EXPERT! My passion is helping you unlock the full potential of AI tools to elevate your skills and create a successful side hustle or brand.
I skip the hype and focus on what truly works, bringing you the best tools to 10x your creativity.