I’ve Made 5 eBook Sales In My First Month on Gumroad — Here Is How

P.S. I did not even expect to sell one

There is so much hype around Gumroad these days.

Content creators share their success stories measured in numbers. Whereas others try to replicate the success.

I’ve recently read a lot of stories about Gumroad with positive ends. Surprisingly, no one shared their challenges and failures, which does not mean they succeeded effortlessly.

Perhaps, failure stories are not that sexy to talk about.

Anyway.

Success stories are addictive.

That’s why I decided to join the ride and experiment with Gumroad.

To my surprise, I did much better than expected.

I’ve made five ebook sales on Gumroad with zero marketing.

It made me believe that selling ebooks on Gumroad might be a great side hustle. More thoughts on this are later in this post.

Before sharing my sales insights, I want to say a few words about Gumroad to those who have not heard about the platform yet.

Go from 0 to $1

It’s the essence and the motto of Gumroad.

As a marketer and content creator, I could not come up with a better title for the platform than this.

In a nutshell, Gumroad is a self-publishing platform where you can sell ebooks, memberships, guides, and other digital services.

I saw people selling website themes, apps, hats (really), meal plans, and many other things you could never think anyone would buy.

The sky is the limit for creativity.

For every seller, there is a buyer.

Even though many consumers expect to pay zero for content, Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad CEO, believes Gumroad can transform mindsets and help the creator economy thrive.

According to Sahil Lavingia:

“People need a way to pay rent. It’s not, ‘Aw, I had to pay 10 bucks for this album when I could’ve gotten it for free.’

It’s, ‘I get to give this artist that I really like 10 dollars. And if enough people do it, this person might just create way more stuff for people.’

It should be a win-win for everybody.”

If content creators get rewarded for what they do, they’ll spend more time creating value for people.

That’s what Gumroad helps creators do.

Selling my ebook on Gumroad

Before creating and selling an ebook on Gumroad, I dedicated time to figuring out what people wanted to read.

It might not be an issue for those who have an established audience. However, if you are not an influencer, it’s more challenging to grasp what people are ready to pay for.

I don’t have thousands of fans who follow and read me every day.

Yet, I found a way to validate my ebook idea. Guess what, it worked!

With zero time and money spent on promotion, I’ve made five ebook sales in my first month on Gumroad. Here is the proof:

I did almost nothing other than set up the selling page and create an ebook.

Yet, I earned $150 while sleeping.

I wonder how much more I can make if I start heavily promoting my ebook, but it’s a topic for a separate blog post. I’ll share the results once I am there.

The point of this post is to let you know that you can sell anything on Gumroad even if better alternatives exist.

We don’t live in a perfect world where we are aware of all opportunities. Therefore, people sometimes pay for solutions that are available somewhere for free.

Even though I spent zero time marketing my ebook, these steps helped me make the first sales on Gumroad.

Promote an ebook in my 200+ blog posts

I’ve been writing on this platform since March 2020.

I experimented with different niches, but my passion for marketing and entrepreneurship took over.

You won’t find wellness articles in my feed. Many other writers are here for it. Instead, I share my marketing experience, case studies, and solopreneurship journey.

My readers love it.

Whereas I gradually win their trust and loyalty.

Having a decent collection of published articles, I only needed to promote my book in the relevant posts.

I don’t want to spam my reads. My goal is to be helpful.

Therefore, you will only find this tiny CTA (call-to-action) at the end of my blog posts:

Grab my SEO writing guide to learn how I create blog posts that hit Google front page. You can easily replicate my 3-step process even if you are just starting.

It took me roughly 20 minutes to update existing blog posts with my CTA.

Medium became one of the biggest referrers of potential customers to my Gumroad page.

Look at the stats:

Readers keep discovering my content on this platform and beyond because I continue creating helpful content.

If my readers like my content, they are willing to consume more.

It’s much easier to transform fans into paying customers.

This is how my Medium content drives sales.

Promote an ebook on my website

I don’t imagine my solopreneurship journey without running a website.

I’ve worked for four years helping businesses drive customers from organic search. The time has come to build my own digital space.

This is how the Self Made Millennials website was born.

I changed my website's purpose and mission several times to make it resonate with people better.

Here is my latest version, and I hope it will ignite a spark when you read it:

Your go-to resource to develop SEO writing skills, make money writing online, get inspired by a community of like-minded high achievers, and build a profitable blog.

I grew my website from 0 to 1000+ monthly visitors in less than six months of side work.

I have ambitious goals to grow and monetize my website.

The ebook has become the first product that I advertise on my website.

My website is the 4th top traffic referrer to the Gumroad page. And it will keep growing.

My goal is to achieve passive income generation as much as I can.

I know that it’s probably impossible to avoid sales. However, I’ll try to automate all processes. So, the money-generation machine could work independently from me.

After all, we work to live, not vice versa.

Final thoughts

Years of marketing experience and content writing taught me that anything can be sold online.

The topic does not matter.

Competition does not matter.

Your expertise and self-marketing are what drive awareness and sales.

I wrote my ebook on “How to hit Google front page,” knowing that hundreds of exact same solutions are already available online.

Yet, I could make five sales on Gumroad in my first month.

Was it a coincidence? No!

Was it luck? No!

What you did or did not achieve for some reason is directly linked to things you did in the past.

Grab my guide to learn how you can make your first $1,500+ from selling ebooks on Gumroad.

You can get full access to every story on Medium for just $5/month by signing up through this link.

Your membership fee will directly support me and other writers on Medium to keep creating helpful content for you. :)