Gumroad

[Uncle Gizmo]

I started using Gumroad about a year ago to sell my products. The site is a little quirky but it works well when you get to know your way around it.

Nice article about Gumroad here:-

Creators are making bank selling...Google spreadsheets

Can a Google Sheet make tens of thousands of dollars? (Yes.)

mashable.com

Initially, I was concerned that it wasn't the best platform for me because I felt that it was a bit dated and not well maintained. But recently Gumroad have upped their game, got some serious funding and are making improvements/modifications to the site and software.

Have a look at my site on Gumroad to see what you can do:-

Nifty Access

Drop in Components for your MS Access Database

gumroad.com

If you have any questions, then please post them here, I will answer best I can.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

You can now link your PayPal account to Gumroad and and accept purchases through PayPal. I've already had a couple of PayPal purchases, so I think it's a good move from Gumroad. .

 

[Jon]

Nice work Uncle. Curious how many sales you made.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Not many, about 20 quid a month on average I reckon, maybe slightly less.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

how many sales you made.

Whether it's significant or just a random blip, but this last month, the sales have doubled. Could be due to PayPal, too early to say really...

 

[Jon]

Hard to tell if it was signal or noise, but I would certainly be hoping. And also thinking about how to scale it up. Ten widgets for sale = £20pm, how about 100? Create a new widget every few days. Then I would look at expected lifetime return on a widget. Next, I would put it all off because it seems daunting.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Ten widgets for sale = £20pm, how about 100? Create a new widget every few days.

Rob Cornish from Gain Higher Ground recommends building Nano Products, exactly like you say - things that only take a day or two to build. The beauty of it is that you don't waste too much time on a product that doesn't sell. You can go all out and build the latest and greatest, spend weeks/months on it and never sell a single item!

I have a few products in the pipeline, and I'm always getting new ideas from AWF...

My next product will be a "Between Dates Generator" if you notice, any query that uses "between dates", has exactly the same SQL Statement representing the between part. >>> Between Date() and Date()-6 <<< This can be generated by a pop-up form, simplifying a search to return a date range.

I created the original product probably 10 or 15 years ago but it relied on the the Microsoft date picker which was discontinued. I could have replaced the Microsoft date picker with someone else's datepicker, but didn't fancy the possible ownership implications of incorporating & selling someone else's work. Recently I created my own Nifty Date Picker. Now I can resurrect the "Nifty Between Dates Generator"

 

[Jon]

The beauty of it is that you don't waste too much time on a product that doesn't sell. You can go all out and build the latest and greatest, spend weeks/months on it and never sell a single item!

That is a very good point. It forms part of the philosophy of "Lean Startup", a movement where you build MVP's (Minimum Viable Products). It was an adaption of the Japanese Lean management principles adopted by Toyota. If I got that wrong, my apologies. The grey matter has become furry over the years.

You do a MVP for exactly that reason, see if people will part with their money. If not, you pivot the idea until you hit their buttons.