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I decided to give digital products another try. I had created and sold ebooks in the past but, with very little success. I was on another platform and it just wasn’t going very well. I had tons of ideas and I wanted to share what I knew with my audience so, fingers crossed, I set out and started on a new platform, Gumroad.
Since then, I’ve sold over 850 times!
Here’s how I did it and what I’ve learned.
How I started on Gumroad
If you’re reading this then you probably already know about Gumroad. It’s a marketplace where sellers can sell their products. It’s known for digital products like eBooks, digital courses, software, eGuides, etc.
It’s pretty easy to start with the platform.
- Join Gumroad
- Set up your account
- Start uploading products
The product upload process is a breeze. You can add your products, upload images for your sales page, write your sales page description, set your price and publish!
What I love about Gumroad is that there is no monthly subscription. They make money on the commissions of your products. They get 10%. So when you sell a product, Gumroad gets paid. When you don’t, neither do they!
How I sold over 850 products on Gumroad
Here’s my Gumroad store if you want to check out my products. I sell in the make money online/business niche. It has a passionate audience behind it, filled with people who want to make money online, earn a side hustle, make money in their sleep, and earn passive income in an online business.
Topics like Pinterest affiliate marketing, high-ticket affiliate marketing, website flipping, TikTok faceless businesses and other topics are covered in my products.
It all boils down to the marketing.
You’ll hear many entrepreneurs talk about their journey of starting, their mindset, what they did but, without really diving into the specifics. I’m doing that here to unveil the full behind-the-scenes of it all.
My Gumroad Marketing Plan
There are two paths to marketing:
- Paid and,
- Organic
Paid marketing is when you pay for promotion:
- Social media ads
- Influencer advertising
- PPC
These are some examples. You create a marketing campaign, allocate a budget, and watch your ads work or not work. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been successful with ads. And, it costs an arm and a leg to pay an agency to run your ads for you. They might not even be successful and I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if they’re doing a good job at it so, I choose the organic path.
Organic marketing is unpaid and it’s about setting out and hitting the ground running, pushing traffic to your products through methods like:
- SEO
- Word-of-mouth marketing
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
For my Gumroad products, I have done a mix of the above but, tend to focus most on content marketing. This is marketing using the power of content. And, I choose Medium to spread word about my Gumroad products. It helped me make over $2K/month regularly, at its peak!
Medium content marketing for Gumroad
Here’s how I do it…
1. Keyword research
First, I conduct keyword research to find the keywords my audience is typing into search engines. Then, I review the keyword volume, competitiveness, and other factors to decide if I’ll write content around that keyword. If I do, I’ll move onto the next step.
2. Outline
Create an outline of your content. I tend to do this in my head but, you can write it out as well. This is the flow of how your article will go. What will you cover? What will your body of content be about? What questions are you answering?
3. Create content
Then, write!
- Short paragraphs
- Engaging “stuff” like charts, images, graphics, infographics, video embeds, social media embeds, etc.
- Links to my products
A takeaway comes at the end to wrap up the article, and then I ask a question at the end, followed by a plug, which is usually an ask to join my newsletter.
That’s it!
I do this often and keep track of it all. I want to make sure I don’t cover the same things over and over. It should be a fun and informative read that keeps the reader engaged, and I strive to have as many comments as possible, which is great for engagement.
Bottom Line
And, that how I do it!
Were you surprised by my process?
How do you drive traffic to your productS?
