You just bought an issue of a digital fashion magazine. Very nice. Say, how about The Ultimate Guide to Cufflinks?

Recommendations from Gumroad is a new opt-in feature that will allow related products to show up after purchases are made. If you enable recommendations, your products will be recommended to buyers of other products, and likewise, after the purchase of your products, related projects will be shown.

You can turn recommendations on in your settings.

Once activated, up to three recommendations will appear after a purchase of one of your products is made (once we’re able to recommend related products). Note: a product must have a cover to be included. But of course your products have covers.

How does this work? To find and recommend related products, we look at the intersection of buyers of a seller’s products with buyers of other people’s products. If that “signal” is strong enough, and we deem a product recommendable, we’re show it to the buyer. Recommendations can come from other sellers’ products and/or your own products depending on purchasing habits.

As your sales increase, and as more Gumroad sellers opt in, this feature will become more and more robust.

When a product of yours is purchased via a recommendation, it will show up in your analytics as “Recommended by Gumroad”.

We’d love to hear your feedback on this feature. Please let us know what you think. And if someone out there is working on an Ultimate Guide to Cufflinks, we’re extremely interested.

The group of coworkers huddled around a laptop. The laughing, salad-eating woman. The suited man yelling into a megaphone. The eager post-grad with an outstretched, fill-in-the-blank business card.

These are exactly the kinds of stock photos that Death to the Stock Photo pushes back against. Instead, Allison Lehman and David Sherry release sets of themed photos without the flat, white backgrounds and plastic expressions that the go-to stock photo companies pump out like combo meals.

Most photographers work on an hourly rate for events and contract gigs, and there’s not much of a way to break through that paywall without hiking rates or trying to sell prints. But… prints?

(altered photo from the ‘Lake” series)

We talked to David of DttSP about their new model of photography and an upcoming 5-city trip that will fulfill a longtime dream.

How did the idea for Death to the Stock Photo come about? What were you and Allie doing before this?

Allie and I were both freelancing full time, and it started out as us just sending our designer/blogger/creative friends photos to use in their projects. I was just out of school (last May) and Allie was running The Wonder Jam, which she still does today.

We had a common pain where you work really hard creating something beautiful for a client, only for them to send you a pixelated, generic photo to use alongside your design or website. It just felt inauthentic. We’d actually preferred they hire someone for it but sometimes it’s too costly for newer businesses. Being that we both were photographers on the side, we decided to just open up our library to our friends to use however they wanted. After getting a great response on that we started shooting once a month for the email package we’d send out. We shoot in themes like coffee shop, city, park—anything we thought would really serve and inspire our communities’ projects.

(altered photo from the ‘Brick & Mortar Pack”)

One interesting piece of my story is that right out of school I had this dream that I could get a brand to sponsor me to go on a road trip. I pitched multiple companies on a campaign to drive around the country creating photo and video content for them in exchange for funding the adventure. In the end I got all NOs, so it’s kind of cool/ironic that I’m doing a similar trip a year later with an audience of my own. Something I believe in now is that you can’t wait for anyone to “pick” you. You’ve got to pick yourself.

What’s your favorite cringe-worthy trope of traditional stock photography?

For me it’s all about the lighting and the staging, I guess. Lighting is such an important piece of photography, and many of the common cringe-worthy stock photos just have this weird superficial flat lighting that I honestly don’t even know how they create. I think they might have a filter that they put on it. Someone should create a “stock lighting filter” for Instagram.

Your upcoming project is an invitation. “Let’s adventure, together.” Tell me about the 5-city trip you’re taking.

With the support of our community we’re heading across the U.S. to take the most authentic imagery we can and tell the stories behind them. We’ll be hitting Big Sur, Seattle, Nashville, Chicago, and NYC. While some of it will be structured, we’re trying to make the content as authentic as possible, so we’re hoping for as much serendipity and real adventure as we can. Our brand is really about death to “stock” with stock meaning the average and generic. So we really want people to push beyond the “stock” lifestyle to pursue their dreams and push to create their own path versus one that’s standardized.

What place are you most excited about?

I’m most excited about checking out Big Sur. I’ve heard so many good things about it and I think I’m camping around there for part of it. Plus there’s a marathon going on there which will be awesome to see. Marathon people are usually awesome, so I’m hoping to meet some fellow travelers and hear their stories. Other than that, I’m in love with the energy NYC has so that will be special for me as well.

Do you have any specific notions of the sorts of things you’re looking to shoot?

We have some general outlines of what we want to shoot, but it’s funny because there’s this tough paradox. The more you plan, the more that planning comes through in the photo, which isn’t always bad, but the type of photography that I love is real and in the moment. There’s a delicate balance here, so we plan on having a loose structure on themes (similar to our monthly emails) alongside giving ourselves time to really get to know the city through our lens. 

What will buyers receive?

Our buyers (any amount they can afford) will receive a pack of 20+ photos every few days from each location. With that pack comes stories from the road; photos they can use in their own projects as they’d like, and hopefully a view of the city that they could apply to their own travels. We’d love for people to visit a city after and feel like they know some of the cool locations and cafes from this, kind of like a city guide.

What sorts of cool uses have you seen for your stock photos so far?

The best thing we see on a monthly basis is this dynamic between ourselves and our community. We create a pack, send it out, and then see all of these people just make something beautiful with it, be it a blog post, design, or website. Something in particular that was pretty cool was that we put out a local band-themed photo pack, and this guy emailed us after saying, “I finally mocked up this music app I’ve been thinking about because of this photo pack.” I loved hearing that.

There are still a few days to sign up to receive photos from the Death to the Stock Photo cross-country trip. Go to https://gumroad.com/l/roadtrip. The cutoff is April 20th! And to receive monthly stock photos, go to join.deathtothestockphoto.com.

If you’re a photographer, designer, writer, musician, developer, filmmaker, or any other type of creator, what can you do that would break the established mold of your craft?  We’d love to hear about what you’re working on.

Jacob Eiting wants you to start flying planes.

He’s one of the youngest airplane owners he knows and is likely the youngest owner at Gnoss Field, where he keeps his 1965 Piper Cherokee. “Something a lot of people don’t realize is that airplanes are expensive but not unattainable. I’m 27 years old and I bought an airplane two years ago. I didn’t win the lottery or anything. This airplane cost $29,500 to buy. That’s about the same price as some of my friends’ cars.”

He went on to explain that the US is one of the best countries to own and fly planes in, but we’re at risk of losing that. “The infrastructure relies on having a lot of people. As the number goes down, it’s more expensive to maintain. More airports shut down, which then degrades the infrastructure, which then makes people not want to fly as much. If we don’t maintain what we have, we’re going to lose it, and it’s never going to come back.”

Jacob is a developer who makes software for pilots and flying enthusiasts. After making iOS and Android apps, he’s found the most success with a Windows application. FSXFlight allows iPad aviation apps like ForeFlight and WingX to be used with Microsoft Flight Simulator. This creates a virtual cockpit and works as a home training tool with added realism to the simulation.

Jacob also sells a cable that allows pilots to record cockpit audio into a smartphone. The best use is when it accompanies his iOS app, Black Box. The audio from the in-flight portion of the following video was recorded via the cable and the voice memo app on my iPhone.

"The thing I love most about flying is the absolute control-slash-freedom you get from flying in the air. If you have the inclination to be I want to go over here today, for the most part you just jump in and go, or I want to fly over this thing, or wouldn’t this be cool from the air? You just can go up there, and once you’re in the air, it’s just total freedom. As long as you end up on a runway at the end of it, it’s usually a good day.”

The explorative soundtrack to this video comes courtesy of Megan D. Harrigan.

And with that, the Gumroad Trip ends. Brooklyn, NY to San Francisco, CA. What can we take from all of it? First, we’ve got an amazing group of creators using Gumroad. Second, I’m ready to hit the road again and meet more of you. Let’s take a look back from the beginning.

Lisa Yen showed us that where there’s a need, it can be filled. In a small, urban environment, she craved a touch of nature. Influenced by her green-thumbed father, she creates tiny forests and jungles that can live in most cramped city apartments.

Brad Guigar plays the long game. He built his comics career from the ground up, and has literally written the book - two, even - on the art and business of webcomics. What can you teach others?

NTHSynth's John Staskevich and Kevin Holland show us the power of collaboration and challenging each other. Sure, we could make a synth with all of the buttons in the world, but what can we do with ONE? They also provide a lesson on teaming up with people whose skills can complement your own. I still have lots of fun with our office’s Luminth.

The Sun Bros. are all about hustling. Hard. They’ve turned a lifelong love of comics, games, and movies into a business. They hit the convention circuit with ferocity and actively seek out speaking and panel opportunities.

Yale Stewart's story is all about getting a toe in the door, then kicking it open. He was able to pivot from something widely appealing that he couldn't sell (a fan comic about the Justice League as 3rd graders) into something personal that he could sell (a creator-owned graphic novel). He’s now working on books for major publishers. He’s also used his powers for good to raise money for disaster relief.

Ben Johnson is all about going for it. As college came to a close, he realized that he needed to give it his all. Now. Album, album, project, book, album. His devotion is inspiring.

Mario DiGiorgio went from highwayman stand-up comedian to t-shirt mogul and writer. After close to nine years on the road, he changed direction slightly and is making audiences laugh in even bigger ways.

Jacob Eiting decided to see the world from a different point of view. He, and all of the creators in this series, refuse to accept assumed barriers.

You can fly a plane. You can run a thriving business out of a corner of a room. You can make weird instruments with your friends. You can write and draw your own books. You can go to Alaska and write songs. You can make a movie. You can create, share, and inspire. How can we help?

See you on the road.

A wise man once said, “One thing leads to another.”

When thinking about your second, third, or fourth project, you don’t have to start from scratch. What can you build on from your last product? It just might have a life beyond your original intention.

For example, Nathan Barry went from building apps to teaching/writing about designing apps to writing about writing and publishing to teaching about that whole process/marketing in blog posts, speaking engagements, etc.

Nathan spent a couple days with us a while back, and one afternoon we went to our favorite coffee house, Front, to talk about The Afterlife of a product. How something you do can become another thing you do.

It was loud. There were multiple construction sites on the block, the freeway was buzzing, the trucks were roaring by, the auto shop across the street was in full swing, the gossipers were gossiping, and the steam was gushing from the espresso machines. But the coffee was great and the words were flowing, and there was something about all of that commotion that just… made sense.

"I found that I was getting more and more questions about how to sell books, and how to make money from teaching than I was actually getting about design. So my third book, called Authority, was actually on how to write books and sell them and make a living from that. And that’s something I wouldn’t have thought, early on, that I could write about, or was even interested in, but because of the response from the first two books, and because of the things I learned, it just opened up so many new opportunities.”

So what’s it going to be? Remember, when you aren’t starting over with a product, you don’t have to start over with your audience.

This week we’re thrilled to feature a guest post by writer Jeff Goins. Jeff is the author of several books, including ”The Writer’s Manifesto,” “Wrecked,” and “The In-Between." He has also built his blog into a powerhouse with more than 200,0000 monthly readers.

In this post, Jeff talks about an important but underused principle that has driven his business to be so successful. Here’s Jeff. 

My last year in college, I had a couple friends visit me for the weekend. That weekend, I was playing John Proctor in the school play The Crucible, which is a retelling of the Salem Witch Trials.

Since they were driving twelve hours both ways, I wanted to be able to take my friends out for coffee or something, to show my appreciation for their sacrifice. But being a broke college student, I was less than eager to get rid of the extra cash weighing me down (meaning, I didn’t have any).

I had exactly $0 to my name.

The first night that my friends were in town, a student organization invited us out for pizza after the show. Which meant a free meal. Score. One meal down, five more to go.

Later that evening, as I was getting ready to go onstage, someone told me I had a note out on the announcement board out in the hallway. Leaving the dressing room to investigate, I found an envelope marked “Jeff” pinned to the corkboard.

In the envelope, between to blank index cards, was a ten-dollar bill. No note. No explanation. Nothing. It was a miracle.

That evening, I took my visiting friends out for coffee. Another friend picked up the bill, paid it, and left the restaurant before we even realized what had happened. I couldn’t believe it. Yet again, we were taken care of.

So I did the only sane thing I could think of: I left a ten-dollar tip.

Giving Is the Best Strategy for Getting

As we were leaving, I threw my little miracle bill — all the money I had at the time —on the table, remembering something my dad has told me my whole life: what goes around comes around.

It really is true.

The rest of the weekend was filled with moments like that — random invitations to potluck dinners and opportunities to attend organizational lunches along with random acts of kindness scattered throughout the day.

It all happened without having to ask for any of it. The same type of event has repeated itself in my life countless times. Little did I know as a Spanish major in college, how important this lesson would be in my life as an online entrepreneur.

But after starting a business to help other writers and communicators get the attention their message deserves, I’ve come to rely on one single strategy for success.

This simple trick will take you further in your business, in your dream, in whatever venture you’re trying to launch, than anything else. What is it?

Help people.

Okay, okay. You’ve heard this before. It’s a platitude, right? It’s been overstated, I know. But here’s the thing: some platitudes are true. This one certainly is. And for the longest time, I lived my life based on a scarcity mentality, thinking that the pie was smaller than I realized. It’s not.

The opportunities to make a difference and a living are more than you could ever imagine. How do I know this? Because I witnessed it first-hand, seeing it tacked to a corkboard at my college theater so many years ago and continue to see it every day of my life when I open my laptop each morning.

So what does it take to practically get there? And how did I apply this experience to launching an online business that ultimately led to both my wife and I quitting our jobs to chase a dream?

Good question.

How to Build a Generosity Business

Here are the steps to building what I call a generosity business, in which you really do get what comes around:

1. Follow the Golden Rule.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The bottom line: treat people right, and you will make a name for yourself. Show up on time, do what you say, and your brand will grow.

Why does this work? Because, surprisingly and sadly, most people don’t do this. So this is an easy way to get free publicity — do the right thing, no matter the personal cost to you.

It’s not always easy, but it’s right. And in the end, this is a way better investment than any amount of advertising.

2. Give without expectation.

Connect with people, truly care about them, and do everything you can to help them get where they want to be.

Do not ask or expect anything in return for this. Do it for the sheer pleasure of helping people. This, too, works. It’s also a disarming way to network your way to success. When everyone is trying to get people to do things for them, you can be different.

You have heard “it’s not who you know, but who knows you” but that’s not true. It’s not who you know, but who you help. The way to make a name for yourself, to attract more clients or customers than you know what to do with is to be more generous than others. This will get people talking. Trust me.

Remember that ten-dollar bill that changed my life? Well, years after the fact, I shared that story on my blog, and my friend Sarah finally came clean with me, confessing that she was the one who put it there.

I will never stop telling that story and will never stop giving Sarah the credit for how one small action made an impact on me, and therefore, thousands of other people.

3. Share what you know.

How do you get people to pay attention to you, to consider you an expert? Do you go back to school, read a lot of books, attend a lot of conferences? No. You do none of that.

Those are all good things and you’re welcome to do them, btu they will not qualify you to share your story, to build your product, to give your offering to the world. The only person who can give you permission to do that is you.

So how do you get the confidence to start? You have to believe what you have to share is worth people’s money, that you are worth listening to and your product is good enough to charge for.

And how do you get to that point? You begin by being generous, by sharing what you already know, then see what resonates.

This was what Nathan Barry did when he started his blog: he shared what he knew. And what did he, a young designer who had worked for a startup, know? Well, he knew about design. So that’s what he talked about. And when people started to show up to hear what he had to say, he knew he was on to something.

In a way, building the business was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what to say and who would listen. Once you have people’s attention and are generous enough to get them to trust you, monetizing isn’t difficult.

So before you start thinking about how to charge for your expertise, you need to instead seek out ways to help people now:

• Call up an old friend and see if you can solve their problems.

• Write a blog post about your biggest struggle and invite others to do the same. See if you have the solution to some of their problems.

• Put your stuff out there, see what connects, and go from there.

Then and only then, when you have people showing up, can you start charging. At this point, you have done all the hard work. It’s just a matter of letting them pay you.

And pay you they will. The law of reciprocity will take effect. What goes around will come back around to you, and those who have received from you will be glad to give you money.

This is the paradox of generosity: you always end up getting more when you give.

Jeff Goins is a writer who lives in Nashville. To get his free, three-part series on building an audience, check out Goinswriter.com/gumroad.

How do you conduct your business? 

Leo Babauta has given this a lot of thought. His blog, Zen Habits, has been named one of the Top 25 blogs and Top 50 websites in the world, with more than a million monthly readers. But he got to where he is by doing things a little differently. 

In February Leo wrote an article outlining the exact principles that guide his business decisions - including completely uncopyrighted content, no affiliates, and putting readers first. We thought it was bold and inspiring, and reached out with a few more questions.

We’re also honored to have Leo speak at the next Gumroad Creator’s Studio event - Authentic Business in the Age of Online Noise - taking place May 22, 2014 in San Francisco. We hope to see you there.

What prompted you to write the article, How I Conduct My Business?

I see so many good writers and online entrepreneurs who I want to succeed, but who do things with their websites that are frankly spammy, market-y and annoying. Things like pop-ups to get you to subscribe, affiliate marketing to make money trying to sell things to their audiences all the time, super sales to make lots of money.

I realize that these good people are doing these annoying tactics because 1) everyone else is doing it; 2) they fear not being able to survive as a business if they don’t; and 3) they don’t know of a more authentic alternative.

So that article was meant to show people that there’s an alternative, that you don’t have to do it just because the “successful” guys are doing it, and that you can overcome the fear to be trustworthy.

Why is it important to be authentic in business?

The two most valuable things we can get from our readers and customers are attention and trust. Lots of people act like it’s making money or hitting hundred thousand subscribers, so they do as much as possible to get those things and get caught up in those metrics. But the things they do erode the trust and attention over time, so that you hurt your relationship with your reader or customer.

It’s easy to get attention but you can do it in a way that’s untrustworthy (linkbait articles or articles written just for SEO purposes, for example). So really, the most important thing is to be trustworthy — if you do that, then when you do get a reader’s attention, you’ll keep it because they know you’re not just spamming them.

To be authentic is to be trustworthy. If you’re selling snake oil, or doing Internet Marketing just to make a lot of money, you’re not being authentic. You’re selling something falsely. And people will figure that out, no matter how hard you try. We have a sense for this, and while we might fall for the sales gimmicks for a little while, we’ll catch on to you. And then you’ve lost the respect of that customer, probably forever. Avoid this by being as authentic as you can.

You mentioned that you developed these principles through trial and error - can you share a story about one of the “errors” that made you realize what not to do?

Well, I used to have a lot of ads on my site, because other successful bloggers had them and said that’s the way to make money from your blog. But when I realized that they annoyed my readers, I asked myself whether I wanted to make money by annoying people. That’s not trustworthy.

So I cut back on ads, and eventually only had one. That felt a lot better, but I still felt inauthentic in that I was letting another company buy my readers’ attention (and trust), and my readers were having to put up with it to get my content. I don’t like it when readers or customers have to put up with anything — you should try to create the best possible experience for them, delight them not irritate them.

I finally let go of all ads on my site a few years ago, and that was scary. I wondered whether I’d still survive as a business. But by trying it out, I found that I could survive and even do really well, just by selling my own stuff. Stuff I could stand behind 100% because I made it.

I’ve done similar trials with letting go of affiliate marketing and Amazon affiliate links, for example, and my business didn’t collapse. I think I’m being more trustworthy because of it.

One of your principles is “No sales”. You go on to say, “Either set the price at the higher price point (because you think its worth it), or set it at the lower price point (because you want to get it into the hands of more people).” What other criteria do you use to decide on the final pricing for your products?

Actually I’m not good at optimal pricing. I try different price points for different products ($9.50 for one ebook, $16 for a different one, $35 for one that included videos, etc.) and see if they sell. They invariably do really well, which either means I’m underpricing (or pricing perfectly just by intuition, which isn’t likely) or perhaps my readers trust me enough to buy things on faith, with the idea that this will be more than worth their money or I’ll refund them.

My approach to pricing is to put myself in the reader’s perspective (and I think of them as readers, not customers, simply because I like the author-reader relationship better than vendor-customer). I think, “If I wanted help solving this problem with an ebook or course, how much would I want to pay?” And then I price it a little lower, because I know not everyone can pay. So I’m underpricing, but hopefully overdelivering.

I’ve done some interesting experiments where people could pay whatever they wanted for an ebook, including $0. Lots of people paid $0, but others paid $1, and still others paid the suggested $16. So there was a wide range, and people who couldn’t pay even emailed me to apologize that they couldn’t afford to pay but thanked me for letting them have my ebook. They thanked me for getting my product. That’s an incredible effect to have on your customers — that they’re grateful to have what you made, in their hands.

Any final thoughts?

The biggest obstacle to being authentic and trustworthy is fear. People who are new, and even those who’ve been in business for a little while, are afraid of failing as businesses. So they use the successful people as models, and see how they do things. That means they follow in the footsteps of Internet Marketers who’ve made millions being untrustworthy and pushy.

All of the tactics you see today that are annoying … these came from Internet Marketers. Who got them from Direct Mail and Infomercial Marketers before them. Things like how to warm up your list and put time pressure on them and give them a fear of scarcity and affiliate marketing and pop-ups and free ebooks if you subscribe to my newsletter … these are from Internet Marketers.

I’ve been offered millions to join some Internet Marketing campaigns. I was tempted, because my family would be set and we’d be secure. But the fear of financial insecurity isn’t a good reason to join these tactics. Don’t act out of fear: act out of the genuine desire to help people.

When you find yourself doing something because others do it, because the successful people do it, you’re afraid of failure. Which is natural, but not a good way to operate your business. Do things that people love, that change their lives, and you’ll have customers thanking you for what you do.

Leo Babauta will be speaking at the next Gumroad Creator’s Studio event - Authentic Business in the Age of Online Noise - taking place May 22. 2014 in San Francisco. See you there? 

Joining forces with some of the best sites and plugins around is a cornerstone of our mission to help you make a living doing what you love.

Our newest integration is with Dropr, a stylish online portfolio, creative network, and promotional tool for people who create anything, anywhere. Photographers, designers, illustrators, musicians, filmmakers: here’s your new look.

Dropr portfolios are clean, customizable, and look the same on every device. You can share pictures, music, videos, and more simply by dragging and dropping. And with Dropr’s Gumroad integration, you can turn your projects into products for sale with a single click.

In addition to integrating with Gumroad, you can connect your Dropr portfolio to apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and Soundcloud to get more traffic to your portfolio and import content from other sites.

And it’s free. No trial period.

You are allotted 20 free uploads followed by 1 free upload per week. Further, referring a friend awards you 5 free uploads (and 5 for your friend). However, if you’re still too prolific for that (way to burn the midnight oil!), you can upgrade to GURU status. With GURU, you get unlimited uploads and huge size limits, and you can use your own name vs. a generated portfolio number. GURU access is $9.99 a month or $99 a year, but if you enter the code ONTHEROAD, you’ll get a free month to check it out.

If you’ve plugged your Google Analytics tracking ID into your Gumroad Settings, you might be wondering what to do next. How do you make sense of the data and actually use it to focus or adjust your work?

Gumroad’s Google Analytics integration enables you to get way more insight into your buyer behavior and how your marketing efforts are performing. For example, you can look at:

• which keyword searches drive the most purchases of your products
• what percentage of visitors to your website end up purchasing
• which marketing campaigns result in the most revenue

But there’s one big thing you have to do before you can dive into all that juicy data. You have to tell Google Analytics which actions to track and log as conversions by setting up goals. So lets create some goals and get tracking!

Finding the Goal Setup Flow

To get to the goal setup flow, click Admin in the top navigation bar of your Google Analytics account. Make sure the correct account, property, and view are selected from the three drop-down menus. Under the View column, click Goals.

Click + New Goal. You’re now in the goal setup flow! 

Creating your goal

There are three types of Gumroad events that you can set as goals in Google Analytics: a product view, an “I Want This” button click, and a purchase. Decide which you want to track, and then follow the setup flow to create your goal.

1. Goal setup 

Here you have the option of selecting a template goal configuration or creating your own. We’re going to select “Custom” and click Next step.

Don’t see the option to choose between a template or custom goal? Don’t worry. This just means that you haven’t selected an industry within your account, and so Google Analytics doesn’t suggest relevant templates. Its not crucial to have these templates enabled.

2. Goal description

Name: Give your goal a clear and recognizable name (for example, “Bought Small Space Gardening Guide”).

Type: Select “Event” as the goal type. (there are four types of goals, but we will be working with events to track Gumroad product views, clicks, and purchases). Then click Next step.

3. Goal details

Now we have to set up the event conditions. Again, there are three types of Gumroad events that you can track in Google Analytics: a view, an “I Want This” button click, and a purchase.

Here are the possible inputs to configure your event:

Lets walk through an example. To set up a goal that tracks purchases of the product, “The Small Space Gardening Guide” (URL: https://gumroad.com/l/apUj), I would set the fields to:

Category - Equals to - product-apUj
Action - Equals to - purchased
Label - Equals to - purchased a product

Leave the Value field blank and make sure that the “Use the Event value as the Goal Value for the conversion” is set to yes. Gumroad automatically passes through the value of your products (in cents) to Google Analytics.

Then verify your goal to make sure that everything is set up correctly. Finally, click Save Goal and you’re done!

Valuable reports

Google Analytics has a ton of standard reports that you can use to analyze your data and make strategic business decisions. Here are just a few to get you started.

Conversions > Goals > Overview: View goal completions, value, conversion rate, and other performance metrics for all goals at a glance. 

Acquisition > All Traffic: See which sources (Facebook, Google, your website, etc.) result in the highest conversions so you can focus your marketing resources on them.

Acquisition > Keywords > Organic: See which keyword searches are driving the most views and purchases of your products and use that to inform your SEO strategy.

You’re on your way to improved conversions! Stay tuned for more resources on setting up campaign tagging to track the performance of each marketing campaign, creating custom reports, and more. As always, we’d love to hear if this was helpful. Let us know!

Last week we looked at how to set up goals in Google Analytics to track conversions such as views and product purchases. 

This week we’ll learn how to track the performance of specific marketing campaigns by setting up custom campaign tracking in Google Analytics.

With custom campaigns, you’ll be able to see exactly how many conversions result from a given email blast, Twitter post, or Facebook ad, enabling you to make more informed marketing decisions.

It’s important that you have goals already set up to make the most of campaign tracking. Check out last week’s post for a step-by-step guide on goals.

Disclaimer: Custom campaigns are extremely powerful. But, like your uncle always says, with great power comes great responsibility. If not done correctly, custom campaigns can mess up your analytics big time. So start simple with the guidelines we’ve provided here, and when in doubt, remember that its better to not tag at all than to tag incorrectly.

What are custom campaigns?

The gist of custom campaigns is that you can add information (called “parameters”) to any URL you own that links to your site. This is known as “link tagging.”

The additional parameters tell Google Analytics more about your traffic, and help identify things that might not be reported properly. For example:

• traffic coming from an email newsletter often shows up as “direct” because certain desktop mail apps and secure servers don’t pass referrer data.
• banner ads get grouped in with your referral traffic, even through they’re ads.

You can overwrite this reporting with your own custom tags to ensure you’re capturing the correct information.

There are five different types of information (parameters) that you can add to a URL:

Medium*: The type of marketing/advertising, in very broad terms. Examples: email, social, cpc, banner.

Source*: The specific site, publication, advertiser, etc. where the link lives. Examples: awaytogarden.com, newsletter, twitter.com.

Campaign Name*: The name of your campaign. Examples: small_gardening_launch, free_trial, thanksgiving_sale.

Term: Used for paid search campaigns to identify the keywords you bid on. Examples: small_space_gardening, urban_garden.

Content: Used to differentiate ads within the same campaign. Most useful for CPC campaigns. Example: logolink, textlink

* Medium, Source and Name are the only three required parameters. We suggest that you only use these three (plus Term when doing paid keyword searches) for now. Once you get more advanced you can add in the Content parameter.

How to create custom campaigns

To illustrate, let’s enlist the help of the fictional Calvin Burns. Calvin recently published a product, “The Small Space Gardening Guide”, on his website. He’s ready for budding urban gardeners to buy it and create their own beautiful mini oases.

He’s decided to promote the guide in 5 different ways:

1. Newsletter emails
2. Twitter posts
3. Facebook ads
4. Google AdWords
5. Guest post on Awaytogarden.com

We’ll create some custom campaigns for Calvin so that he can analyze how well each of these promotions is working.

First we need to add parameters into our links. Google created a nifty tool to help with this called the URL builder. You simply plug in your parameters and voila! The link is created automatically for you. 

1. Newsletter emails

As you can see, we entered Calvin’s website, plus his campaign Source, Medium, and Name. It isn’t necessary to include the campaign Term or Content here, so we’ll leave these blank.

Click Submit, and you’ll get a link that looks like this:

Now Calvin can include this link in his email newsletter to get accurate tracking on the traffic and conversions its driving to his products.

Let’s run through the rest of Calvin’s promotions to see how we would tag the URLs for each of them.

2. Twitter Post

• Website URL: http://calvinburns.weebly.com
• Campaign Source: twitter.com
• Campaign Medium: social
• Campaign Name: small_gardening_launch

You’ll likely want to use a link shortener before posting this on Twitter.

3. Facebook ads

• Website URL: http://calvinburns.weebly.com
• Campaign Source: facebook.com
• Campaign Medium: cpc
• Campaign Content: planter_map
• Campaign Name: small_gardening_launch

See how we included a Content parameter this time? This is useful if you are running different versions of ads. In this example, Calvin’s ad might feature a map of where to put your planter boxes. He might have another ad that features basil on a balcony, which he can call “basil+balcony”.

4. Google AdWords

Don’t tag AdWords URLs. Instead of creating custom campaigns, simply link your AdWords account to your Google Analytics account and enable auto-tagging. Auto-tagging provides more information than custom campaigns without you doing a thing.

5. Guest post on Awaytogarden.com

Don’t tag links back to your site in your guest blog posts. These links will show up in your referral reports, which give you more information than custom campaigns.

Make a plan

To keep all your information organized, create a spreadsheet with columns for your original URL, all your parameters, and the tagged URL. You can see a great example spreadsheet here.

Reading your data

You can slice and dice your campaign data in a number of different ways. The most common is to head over to Acquisition > Campaigns for an overview of all your campaigns.

Above is a screen shot showing Calvin’s Small Space Gardening campaign. As you can see, his Twitter post, newsletter, and Facebook ad campaign can all be compared against each other in terms of traffic, bounce rate, goal completions, etc.

By clicking on “Goal Set 1” at the top of the page under the Explorer, I can view how each source performed for various goals. For instance, we can see here that the conversion rate for purchasing the Small Space Gardening Guide from Calvin’s newsletter is 50%, vs. 33% for Twitter and Facebook. If this trend continues, Calvin might want to test different copy for his social media channels, or direct more effort towards getting people on his newsletter.

A note on Medium vs Source

One of the most common mistakes we see is people mixing up medium and source. Medium is your largest bucket, so you should not use things like “twitter”, “weekly_newsletter” or “awaytogarden_banner” for it. These are Sources. Instead use “social”, “email” and “banner” for the Medium.

For more best practices and troubleshooting, plus a great video explanation of the parameters, see this fantastic post on Annielytics.com.

At our Gumroad Creators Studio events, we display boards from a variety of creators. Each board displays a bio, one or two products, and a quote. Each participant was asked a few questions, and all of the quotes ended up being taken from the same one:

Why do you do what you do?

If you’ve attended a Creators Studio event, you’ve likely seen the boards. Otherwise, aside from the Gumroad team and the folks at the print shop, they’ve gone unseen. So we thought we’d share some of what we heard.

"I love writing and I love making myself laugh.  If others laugh at the jokes too, that’s EVEN BETTER."

— Ryan North, author of To Be or Not To Be: That is the Adventure and creator of Dinosaur Comics.

"There is beauty in the simplicity and nuance of well-written code. When we take time to hone the craft of software engineering, we become capable of elevating assembly instructions to something more—something between philosophical treatise, legislature, and poetry. So I write and speak and share my code and experiences as best I can to do my part to make the world a little simpler, a little more beautiful."

— Mattt Thompson, author of NSHipster

"We are a team of writers and designers who love magazines and wanted to launch our own publication. Booze seemed like a great topic. There are loads of really good food magazines out there but very little about drinks – and those that exist are often quite dull and pretentious. How exciting to launch something of our own from scratch and see it take off all over the world!"

— Fraser Allen of Hot Rum Cow

"We love video games for what they have done, what they are doing, and also what they are capable of. We are all visionaries in this respect, and we do what we’re doing for that reason. We want to create new and unique games that capture the imaginations of many, and inspire others to do the same."

— Karl Inglott of Space Budgie

So what about you? Why do you do what you do? 

Ben Lehman makes role-playing games that are at times tragic, romantic, introspective, scary, action-packed, and hilarious. At their core, they are all about creating and telling stories. You and your friends might be a group at war with alien invaders, super-bro street lugers, space explorers, or even characters experiencing a picture-perfect, idyllic childhood.

These aren’t your typical enter-dungeon-fight-monsters-gather-jewels types of games. When you (and/or more people) play Amidst Endless Quiet, the first thing you are told is that, “You are Elios, a deep space transport en route from Gliese to Zhou’s World. You’re never going to arrive at Zhou’s World. You’re going to die.” It might not take much longer to say the title of Being a role-playing game on the topic of the High-Flying adventures of Beatrice Henrietta Bristol-Smythe, DBE, daring Aviatrix and accomplished Exploratrix, and her Gentleman Companion, who for a Modest Fee, accompanies Beatrice Henrietta Bristol-Smythe, DBE, when the Occasion warrants her an Escort than to play the game itself.

I first met Ben at Big Bad Con, a yearly RPG convention in Oakland, California, where game-makers and players meet, play, and share tabletop games of all kinds. I found Ben somewhat randomly on Gumroad, but at the convention I found that most people there knew his work. My experience and knowledge of RPGs is extremely limited, but I was quickly drawn to Ben’s quirky, deeply-thoughtful games. In his words:

“I write games that, when you play them, make you a better person. I write games that you can play by yourself when no one is watching, games that you can play with friends in the cracks of your time, games you can play with the flowers in your yard, games that take only a moment of your time, games that you never stop playing for the rest of your life.”

Ben sells PDF-versions of his smaller, more experimental games through Gumroad (which otherwise often exist in physical book form). He prices them all at $0+ because he wants them to be accessible to anyone who wants them. I talked to Ben about becoming a game designer, his work, and the intrinsically psychological aspect of RPGs.

Your games don’t involve dice, fold-out maps, tokens or little figurines (although at least one of your games uses standard playing cards). You play with books and in your mind. Sometimes in an incredibly social way with a group (more so than traditional role-playing games), and sometimes alone while you’re on a bus or walking to work. Where does this interest in the sociological side of games/life come from?

Some of them do have dice!

I think that the interest involves out of more standard-issue tabletop role-playing. I grew up with D&D (I think I started playing when I was around 5 or 6) but since my access to new RPGs was only available at the used bookstore, I played a lot of the weirdo less common RPGs of the late ‘70s, early ‘80s. The thing that these games had in common was: a lot of good ideas that didn’t fit totally well together. So in order to play we ended up making up a lot of our own rules and so on and so forth. My older brother started out doing a lot of design, but he would get bored and abandon projects and then I’d finish them. Eventually I started doing my own stuff.

If you’re interested in games, you end up being interested in psychology, by which I don’t necessarily mean the academic body of research, but in how humans think, behave, relate and make decisions. If you’re interested in tabletop games, you end up interested in group psychology as well, which is even more fascinating and weird. I’ve always been an edge-pusher and kind of experimental, wanting to take a what happens when I do this? approach to art (when I was in school I studied physics, which only encouraged me). Of course, edge-pushing for its own sake is fairly pointless. What we want are games that are fun, satisfying, or rewarding. So I end up trying out a lot of things which seem weird or non-game-like because I want to see how they work. The ones that do work, I publish.

Ultimately a game is just a set of instructions, rewards, goals and capacities. This can be complete or incomplete, tightly-wound or muddled. But basically you are either telling people what they must do, or what they can do, or what they want to do. That’s an extremely intimate thing to tell someone! It’s pretty hard to stop once you’ve realized you can do it, and people will listen.

To expand on that, some of your games come with interesting warnings. In Polaris (which won the Indie RPG Game of the Year Award in 2005), you say, “Your knight will betray his people and die forgotten and alone. If you don’t like losing, you won’t like Polaris.” In Clover, you warn would-be players that, “There is no way to win. You just play because the experience is fun. So don’t play with anyone mean.” Ben! Games require a victor and a victory! What are you thinking, man?

Tabletop role-playing has a long tradition of not allowing any sort of “win”. You lose (traditionally: you die) or you keep playing. That’s it. When role-playing games started introducing win conditions, or even just “a way for the game to end” people got extremely upset and started denouncing them as “not a role-playing game!” (I’m thinking particularly of Paul Czege’s My Life With Master.) It seems very strange in hindsight.

Like I said before, games can be complete or incomplete in their instructions. Clover tells you what you must do (one player is Clover, another player is Dad, there’s no mention Clover’s mom, etc.), what you can do (explore, ask questions, learn), but not why you want to do it. Or, rather, the reason to do it is just “to have fun” with no further instruction. You have to find your own reason to want to play. With something as intimate and, frankly, personal as “a happy childhood”, that is just not something I’m willing to dictate by giving out “happiness points” or whatever. It has to come from the players.

How did you get into publishing?

This story cuts out some important bits, like that I was already sort-of published in Luke Crane’s No Press Anthology, but it’s funnier this way.

I had gone to GenCon in 2004 to help sell Driftwood Publishing’s Riddle of Steel, which I was (and still am) a huge fan of. There I had met Vincent Baker, who published Dogs in the Vineyard that year, and after I overcame my fan paralysis, we became friends. I was homeless and jobless, but still had some money from college, and was staying on friends’ couches on the East Coast and he invited me up to stay for a week at their place in Western Mass. I met Meg Baker, his wife and also a game designer, and their friend Emily Care Boss. Both Meg and Emily were at around the same stage of RPG publishing I was: they had drafts of games that they liked but were still revising and testing and so on.

Anyway, Meg and I went to the local game store to drop off copies of Dogs for sale, and she introduced me to the owner as “another game designer.” I went, “Well, not really,” and she looked me square in the face and said, “Own it, dude!” That was the point when I became a Real Professional RPG Designer, I think.

(Also, later that trip, the three of them cornered me around their dining room table and made me promise to revise and publish Polaris for Gencon 2005).

Are you still into traditional tabletop games and RPGs, and have you ever made any?

Yes! I really like Basic D&D, Riddle of Steel, early Vampire from back when it was weird, Tunnels and Trolls, Star Frontiers, Streetfighter: The Storytelling Game, Cyberpunk 2020, and a lot more that I’m going to be embarrassed I forgot. I’ve designed a number of fairly traditional systems (most recently High Quality Role-Playing) but for one reason or another I’ve never published any (not any hard rule against it just I never thought I could sell them). I suppose you could count Deeds and Doers, my business card-sized version of D&D, as a traditional game, so now I have.

Digital versions of your games (in PDF form) are sold as Pay What You Want. How has that been working for you?

For a while I was making money hand over fist with it. It’s trailed off a bit, as “pay what you want” has become less of a novelty and more of a normal way to pay. However, it’s really important to me that my games be accessible to people who can’t necessarily afford a $10 PDF or $20 hardcopy book. And from time to time I get very nice letters from folks saying exactly that (some of them even send me money later, when they have gotten out of their tight spot). So, in that sense, it’s working very well for me.

When I met you at Big Bad Con, you had a system where people could still pay for games when you were away (playing a game or otherwise): two sheets of paper. One specified that buyers could place money under the sheet to pay you, and the other specified that buyers could pay for games with a donation to Doctors Without Borders, again by putting cash under the sheet. That’s incredibly trustworthy. Are you concerned about someone taking advantage of that? 

At small cons like Big Bad Con, people are super good about honor system payments. When I do go to a con (which is rare these days) I don’t want to spend the whole time behind a table watching a cash box. I find that if you trust people they’ll genuinely surprise you. I also feel like, if someone steals the money, I’ll just hope that they needed it more than me.

Big Bad Con is a charity con that supports DWB so I decided to direct donations to them. They’re a good organization: one of the few big name charities that actually spends most of its money helping people who need help. Left to my own devices I usually donate to RAINN, which is also a good group that has given a lot of needed support to me and my family in the past.

What’s the best feedback you’ve received about one of your games? What’s the strangest?

Someone who really didn’t like Polaris once wrote, “The entire concept of Polaris utterly repels me.” I was very happy about that. I think that we should endeavor to repel people who won’t like our stuff.

Someone posted a story about playing Beloved as a way to deal with their choice to break up with their terminally ill girlfriend. I… don’t know how I feel about that, both what he did and how he used my game to help recover from it. It was a scary thing to read. But Beloved is a scary-as-hell game, so.

Which of your games is your favorite?

Nope nope nope nope nope. That’s like asking a parent what kid is their favorite.

(Pssst. it’s Hot Guys Making Out).

Above illustrations from Polaris. By Boris Atzybasheff from the book The Wondersmith and his Son by Ella Young.

The reality of our businesses is that we’re not dealing with numbers. We’re dealing with human beings.

- Leo Babauta

A few weeks ago, for our third Gumroad Creators Studio event, Leo Babauta gave a talk on building authentic businesses in an age of online noise. Leo is the author of Zen to Done and The Power of Less, and he writes to over one million subscribers at ZenHabits.net. One of the most refreshing things about Leo is that he writes as a person on a journey, not as a flawless sage on a mountaintop. The result is a body of work that is approachable and sincere.

You can also read a blogged version of the talk at zenhabits.net/trust.

What does authenticity mean to you? 

The days of being sleazy and ripping people off on the Internet are over. The only way you should be building an online business is the honest way: being yourself, charging what things are actually worth, and not being greedy or selfish.

 - Caleb Wojcik, co-founder of Fizzle and author of DIY Video Guide.

If you want to build trust, take the first step and give someone something. Offer help to someone without expecting anything. If they can tell that you expect something, then it’s not a gift, but a deal.

 - Ben Johnson, composer and pianist

The essence of underground publishing is to risk everything for the few. Selling publications that have virtually no audience and being satisfied with the results, no matter how meager, is the driven goal. I believe in publishing the strongest ideas, the greatest art, in the truest reproduction of the author/artist intention, and selling it to the public that needs it the most.

- Ron Turner, Last Gasp Publishing

We’d love to hear from you. Let us know if you write a post on trust and authenticity on your blog. Here are some questions get you thinking.

• What does authenticity mean to you?
• Have you ever taken a great risk or passed on something that would have made you a quick buck to instead have more authentic business relationships? What happened?
• What is something you do that is trust-building / what advice would you give on building up the trust of one’s audience?
• What are the long-term effects of a business built on trust and authenticity?
• Is there something you did when you started that you are now embarrassed about?

Our new Listen feature allows you to stream audio files you have purchased in your Gumroad account. You can listen to a track on your receipt immediately after purchase, and more importantly, in your Gumroad Library.

When logged in to your account, click on the book icon in the upper-right corner of your browser to access your Library.

If you click on a single track you have purchased, you’ll see a Listen button that will let you stream the track in your browser’s tab. You’ll also have the option to download the track or save it to Dropbox.

When you select an album or audiobook of multiple tracks that you have purchased, you’ll notice a View Product button. This will take you to a list of tracks that you can listen to, download, or send to Dropbox.

Listen is a free option in addition to downloading your tracks that gives you streaming access on your computer or mobile devices. Listen to an audiobook on your commute. Play a podcast without saving it to your computer.

Go ahead. Go to the Library and crank it up as loudly as you want.

Here at Gumroad, we’re continually awed by the creators we see joining the platform each day. As part of an ongoing effort to showcase their work to the world, we’ve put together the first ever Best of Gumroad list. 

We looked for creators who had either a strong launch, a high number of purchases, or high gross revenue in the past month. From there, we hand-picked 10 whose products are especially innovative or exciting.

As the list came together, we noticed some interesting trends emerging: 

• Niche Films: Two documentaries (Motonomad and I Am Road Comic) appear in the top 10, both aimed at very niche audiences (motorbike enthusiasts and comedy nerds). The filmmakers took very different approaches to distributing their films - Motonomad relied heavily on YouTube promotion of extended trailers, while I Am Road Comic used Twitter, comedy podcasts, and a few art house screenings. These different strategies reflect a clear understanding of their target audience, where they hang out online and offline, and what type of content is important to them.  

• Art Tutorials: Artists Anthony Jones and Eytan Zana experienced a lot of success with the launch of Kiwi Juice, a new site devoted to the collection and listing of independent art tutorials (most of which are from Gumroad creators!). We love the concept of this community and hope to see a few more popping up organically in different verticals in the near future. Watch out for an in-depth piece on Kiwi Juice next week. 

• Software/Tools: We’re seeing more software being sold on Gumroad recently, such as Pat Flynn’s Smart Podcast Player and ThinkDev’s Quickres 4.0. This is in part due to our new license key feature, but also seems to be part of an exciting trend where content creators are expanding their product offerings into the software realm (think Laura Roeder with the recent release of her app, Edgar). 

Without further ado, here are our 10 Best of Gumroad Creators for June 2014, in no particular order:

Motonomad by motology Films (Film) 

Two motorcycle racers, Adam Riemann and Mark Portbury, endure a 7000km mission across Europe, in hope of reaching the Pyramids of Egypt.

Color and Light by Eytan Zana (Tutorial)

A three hour long video takes you through Eytan’s thought process on applying color, light, and mood to a painting. Also includes a PSD file, brush set, and perspective tool plugin for Photoshop.

Skift Trends Report: The Rise of the Silent Traveler by Skift (Report)

Skift is proposing a new model to look at the mobile-first travel consumer. The silent traveler is the travel consumer who turns to their mobile devices first, seeking a solution to in-trip challenges that used to be the primary domain of customer service staff.

flex-i-ble dieting by Krissy Mae Cagney (Book)

Krissy Mae has compiled every iota of guidance she has on becoming a healthier and happier person into this book. 

“Country Club Rejects” Polo by Shady Records (Tshirt)

Wreak havoc on your local golf course with the “Country Club Rejects” pack from Shady Records.

I Am Road Comic by Jordan Brady (Film)

A first-hand look at working the road as a comedian. This funny documentary includes interviews with more than two dozen fantastic comics discussing the nuts and bolts of working the road in bars and clubs. 

Smart Podcast Player by Pat Flynn (Software)

The best media player solution for podcasters who are tired of clunky, confusing players that are ugly and hard to install. Note: The beta launch of the Smart Podcast Player is sold out, but you can sign up to be notified of the public release here. 

Paint with Color by Anthony Jones (Tutorials)

Anthony Jones started painting in 2007 when he was 23 years old. As someone who wasn’t initially a painter/artist he had to start from the beginning. He tries to spread as much good information to as many artists as possible, always trying to inspire people and let them know that even if you are a total newbie, you can still become a great artist. 

Kyle’s Ultimate Dry Media for Photoshop by Kyle T Webster (Design Tools)

This great new set from illustrator Kyle T Webster contains 25 tools: 20 brand new Dry Media brushes with great effects, as well as the Bone Dry Brush and the Deliciously Dry Brush from the Drawing Set / Megapack, a new ‘rough’ eraser, and two new blenders for great smudging and edging effects.

ng-book: The Complete Book on Angular JS and Complete Source by Ari Lerner (Book)

The most comprehensive guide to AngularJS available anywhere. Includes the book, all source code for every example in the book, 3 hour long Angular screencast for beginners, the sample app mini-ebook, and complete source code for the sample app.

That’s all for this month - we hope to see you on the next list!

When Gumroad was founded, there was a conscious decision to not be a marketplace. We believe that direct-to-audience sales is superior to setting up in a packed bazaar and hoping for the best. Ten years ago, one could chuck something at the internet and it’d be found. Each page was like a much-desired service station in the middle of the southwest. Now the internet is an endless Times Square (shudder) and everyone is screaming to be heard.

It’s more important than ever to build an engaged audience and make it as easy as possible to get your work in front of them. Additionally, it’s easier than ever to put oneself in a position to generate income selling creative work; a double-edged sword since it’s not just easier than ever for you, but for everyone. That’s why we’re so interested in helping creators take advantage of and maximize the leverage they now have.

That doesn’t mean we’re all in it alone. There’s power in communities. A group of like-minded creators can band together and, in a unified front, help each other promote to a much larger audience and accomplish much more than any of the individuals on their own. That’s exactly what the founders of Kiwi Juice are doing for professional tutorials in the the concept, illustration, and 3D fields.

We talked to Anthony Jones, who got things rolling on the commerce and gospel-spreading side of Kiwi Juice. Anthony has done work for Activision, Blizzard, Hasbro, Disney, and many more. He personally has almost 30 tutorials on Gumroad ranging from design to painting to Photoshop techniques, and Anthony is just one of dozens of professionals on Kiwi Juice. These videos, brushes, tool presets, and hi-res graphics are packaged and offered affordably to amateurs and pros alike. Their roster and numbers continue to grow, and for good reason. Check out a tutorial and see for yourself.

Who built Kiwi Juice and why?

Gavriil Afanasyev Klimov built the site. He was working with other artists on the structure in which it should be run, but he put it all together himself.

What I did to contribute was start using Gumroad and convince others to use it too. So with our powers combined, we were able to let Kiwijuice.net become what it is now. A place where artists can build their own custom store and create affordable content for their fans and supporters.

Do you consider Kiwi Juice to be a community, a hub, a collective, a marketplace, something else, a combination?

It is all of the above. It is something that is run by the community of artists who put together their own individual stores, and it’s a collective for supporters to browse through and learn from the artists that they care about at an affordable price.

What is your curation process?

Kiwi Juice doesn’t take a commission, but we do review and take into account the quality of the work/instructor and try to ensure that those who we showcase on Kiwi Juice have good information to spread. And all of this is free.

Tell me about one or two of your favorite tutorials.

My personal favorites are definitely the ones done by John Park and Maciej Kuciara. These guys are good friends of mine, but also great instructors. I’d highly recommend both, especially since they created a great place on facebook for people to work together on improving one’s art. It’s called Brainstorm.

-from Mech Rendering by John Park

Is there a lot of overlap between professionals and consumers for the types of work that you are curating tutorials for? Are things already happening fast enough that you have seen new artists become professional artists and teach others? 

Like most things, to become a professional takes time and effort. But what I have personally seen is an increase of ability and confidence amongst amateur artists. Also, the fact that there is a sense of light competition amongst the instructors gives us more fuel to create higher-quality content. The better the content, the better the response. I love this model of business, because it keeps everyone honest and hard working and accountable for great products for our fans and supporters.

What has surprised you most in this endeavor? 

The amount of positive feedback from the masses. So many people approve of this because of how artists who were radio silent have now become way more engaged and involved with their fanbases. It’s a win-win. But more importantly, it’s allowing some people to actually leave their day jobs and pursue this, making their own content and helping the community get better as a whole, full-time. It’s fantastic and inspiring for everyone.

All these gumroad tutorials!!

— jmgallo (@jmgallo)

July 17, 2014

Have been going a bit mental with all the recent Gumroad tutorials. http://t.co/2l6mNuLj7b

— Craig Paton (@CraigPaton)

July 8, 2014

What’s next?

I have always been an advocate for people to pursue their dreams and aspirations. I think the next step is to create a more fluid experience for users of Kiwi Juice.

Also, we have plans on putting together a miniature convention for people who have something to show and something to prove. It will be a place where people can meet their favorite artists and learn from them on the pros and cons on building your own content and things you should do to achieve this. I want people to start realizing that you can make money off your own hard work, and I want to help create strategies towards doing so.

I think it’s time to give more power to the content creators of your favorite movies/games/entertainment and really build a better economy for them. Artists tend to get unfair reimbursement and percentages by going through some third-party distributors. Gumroad/Kiwi Juice provides an opportunity for artists to sell their own content and keep practically all of the profit. And because of this we can sell it for much cheaper. Like I mentioned before, it’s a win-win. 

There’s strength in numbers, especially when a team is overflowing with amazing talent. Look around. You might be able to find what can become your community. Join up and work for the common good. We look forward to hearing about it.

Instant gratification holds a special place in our frenzied hearts. That wonderful, addictive feeling of getting what we want, when we want it diminishes in the face of obstacles. That’s part of why we work to make buying on Gumroad as streamlined and simple as possible.

Now there’s a new way of doing that in the most shared and embedded website on the internet.

Annotations have long been a part of YouTube, but until recently, they have primarily been used to add background information or to link to other videos and channels. Now, Gumroad is on the short list of commerce platforms authorized by YouTube to be linked to via annotation directly within a video’s stream.

What does that mean for you? Viewers of your film/book/game trailer, music video, poetry reading, software patch, etc. can click an in-stream link and easily buy your product. It’s faster, it’s easier, and early evaluation is showing that this trimming of the fat can result in more product views and sales for you.

While logged in to YouTube and on your channel, click Edit on one of your videos. Then click the Annotations at the top. Choose the type of annotation you want, and what you would like the link to say (the Label box). Move it around to where you want the link to go. Then you can choose your colors and font size. The timeline at the bottom will help you find the place where you want to put your annotated link, as well as the Start and End boxes. Finally, enter the URL of your product on Gumroad or your Gumroad Gallery URL. The Link box will automatically check, and the default Video drop down will automatically change to Merch. Play back the video to make sure the link is where and when you want it, double-check your link, and you’re all set. Hit Publish and start sharing.

Previously, using a video to share and promote your project meant embedding the video in your Facebook feed or blog and linking to it in a tweet along with a separate purchasing link. Suddenly that feels like sending a telegraph to place an order via Pony Express.

Your videos can now be a direct call to action. To learn other ways you can connect your audience with Gumroad, see our Integrations page in the Help Center.

¿Hablas español? Parlez-vous français ? With Gumroad, your film can. Vi är glada to announce subtitle support on Gumroad. Viewers of your film will now be able to turn on captions in the languages you provide.

When you upload a video file and click Add, you’ll be prompted to upload subtitle files. We accept .SRT, .DFXP, and .VTT (often called .WebVTT) formats. Add as many as you want.

A Subtitles file is essentially a text document with timing prompts. Miracle Tutorials offers a great lesson on creating subtitle files that can be found here.

There are a few options for creating and converting subtitle files. Here are some that we recommend:

http://www.jubler.org/ - free, all platforms
http://subsfactory.traintrain-software.com/ - paid, Mac only

If you already have subtitle files, but they’re not in .SRT, .DFXP or .VTT, convert them with one of the following:

http://subtitleconverter.net/ - free online tool
http://downloads.fyxm.net/SubC—44377.html - free download, PC

On the buyer side, when streaming a video with subtitles, the activation and selection is simply a matter of pressing the CC button.

-BÖIKZMÖIND, with English captions

For downloads, subtitle files will be listed on the download page in addition to the video file. To watch the film with subtitles, open the film with VLC player (free and open source) and select “Add Subtitle File” from the Subtitles menu.

Now you can make the enjoyment of your films available to viewers around the world as well as to those with hearing impairments.

Let us know what you think of this new feature, or if you have any other questions about selling your film with Gumroad. We’re here to help.

-The Hooping Life en français

We’re pleased to have designer, writer, and teacher Nathan Barry back for another guest post. Six months ago, he talked about his Lessons Learned Selling $355,759 on Gumroad. By the way, that number’s definitely higher now. The third lesson he shared in that post was “Build a relationship through email”. This time, he’s going to expand on that to help you sell more. Here’s Nathan.

Why Email?

Why did you click this article? It probably wasn’t because you want to send more emails. I’m guessing the part that got you interested was “sell more.” After all, who doesn’t want to sell more?

The #1 reason people read my blog is to learn how better market and sell products. I’m guessing you fit into that category. Then I’ll share my #1 tactic for increasing sales: use email marketing.

Building an audience with email has worked amazingly well for me in book sales and courses, but what I find more interesting is how well it works across industries. I was talking to a very experienced marketing friend about marketing, and said “It’s amazing how well email subscribers convert to sales!”

His response? “Um, yeah… I’ve known that for over a decade.”

I was so caught up in the idea that Twitter, Facebook, and other trendy social media sites were the future of online marketing that I overlooked the workhorse of the entire marketing industry—at least those that were focused on making sales.

“Gumroad sellers who use email marketing make 3x as much in a product launch as those who don’t.”

- Ryan Delk, Gumroad

Why is email ignored?

If using email to promote your product will make you 3x more money, why aren’t more people talking about it?

I think that’s because email is boring.

Everyone, especially tech news site writers, want something new and fancy to take over. It’s exciting to think that a new social media site could change the way we do business online. A few things have changed, but decades after being introduced, email marketing is the the best way to sell products online.

Why do you think Amazon puts so much work into their promotional emails? Why do you think Groupon has “Enter your email address” as their entire home page?

Because they know email works better than any other channel.

Drive-by visitors

For the first six months of writing for my blog, I really wanted a post to go viral. I’d heard all the stories of YouTube videos with millions of views and blog posts hitting #1 on Reddit or Digg. Forget how unlikely this was to happen—I still wanted it.

Then it happened.

My blog post, “How I made $19,000 on the App Store while learning to code” hit the #1 spot on Hacker News. While it didn’t get millions of views, I did receive 50,000 visitors in two days!

I thought I’d made it as a blogger.

Unfortunately, when you get a huge spike in traffic like that, it usually isn’t sustainable.

Since I didn’t have an opt-in form or any other way to get contact information from my visitors, all that traffic just disappeared. Months later, when traffic started to reliably increase, I had an email list so I could push content out to readers instead of hoping they came back to check if there was a new article.

Takeaway: using email will make you considerable more revenue.

Before Launch

Using an email list to test interest

Is your product going to be profitable? Do people actually want it? Do you know how to pitch it effectively?

These are all questions that you really want to have answered before you sink hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars building a new product. The most effective way to test for interest is to ask people individually to pre-order (which I highly recommend). In addition to asking for pre-orders from individuals (you’ll get so much good feedback), I recommend setting up a landing page to collect email addresses.

Not everyone who enters their email address will end up purchasing your product, but with a good product and marketing, it’s safe to assume one in ten will purchase. That means you can figure out if there is demand for your product based on the number of subscribers you get.

The idea is to build the email list of potential customers before you actually build the product. By doing that you avoid wasting time and money on a product no one is going to buy.

How to set up a landing page

The first step in building an email list is to set up a landing page for your product. You can use any number of off-the-shelf tools (LaunchRock, Unbounce, a WordPress plugin, etc), but of course I recommend using ConvertKit, which is the landing page and email marketing company I founded.

With ConvertKit you can design a beautiful, high converting landing page, add email opt-in forms, and manage all your email broadcasts and campaigns in one tool.

Here’s a landing page I created in ConvertKit for my book Authority before it launched:

You can then use the ConvertKit WordPress plugin to dynamically pull this page into the rest of your WordPress site. Soon you’ll be ready to start driving traffic to your new landing page.

What Makes a Good Landing Page?

When crafting your landing page, there are four things that are critical to get right.

1. A single call to action

Should people share your landing page on Twitter, join your email list, or pre-order your product? So many landing pages try to get visitors to do too many things. The more options you give the visitor, the less likely they are to do any of them.

Instead, have a single call to action and ask them in a sequence. Have everything on the page direct the visitor towards signing up for the email list. Then on the confirmation page ask them to share the page on Twitter and Facebook. Finally, pitch them on the pre-order over email.

2. No extra fluff

That means removing the sidebar, any extra navigation link, and anything else that could distract from your one call to action. Generally the easiest way to improve a landing page is to remove content.

3. A strong headline

Your headline needs to instantly capture the visitor’s attention and get them to keep reading. Speaking to a pain is often the best way to do that. For my book Authority, my target is authors who want to make a living from their writing. So my page headline is “The idea that authors can’t make money is bull****.”

Anyone who is tired of being a poor, starving author or wants to profit from their writing is going to be drawn in by that.

4. A “What is this page about?” graphic

Finally, I like to include a graphic that visually explains what the page is about. Imagine you click a random link on Twitter and come to a landing page. Is it for a course? A book? An iPhone app? Without context it’s hard to know at a glance.

That’s why all my book landing pages have a prominent book graphic. My iOS apps have an iPhone showing an app screenshot. These give instant context that the visitor can use to understand the rest of the page.

Doing each of these will noticeably increase your conversion rates. Though always keep in mind that traffic source is more important than anything on page when it comes to converting more of your visitors.

Takeaway: capture email addresses to validate a product idea before launch.

The Launch Sequence

A long-term relationship

When someone visits your site you are in a mad rush to sell them a product. Because if you don’t, they’ll be gone in a moment and will probably never return.

My favorite thing about email is that you can build a relationship with each subscriber over time. Once you get that visitor to subscribe, you can educate them gradually until they know and trust you. No longer are you in a mad rush to make a sale. Instead, you have time to develop the relationship and gradually convince them that your product is a good fit.

The more you teach, the more they will trust you. The better your content, the faster you can build that trust.

Anticipation

In addition to trust, you can also build anticipation. Anticipation is a key ingredient in every good product launch. It starts with casual mentions of the upcoming product in the educational emails, then over time you share more and more about how the product will help the them.

If you only had five or six weeks for a product launch the sequence could look something like this:

• Week 1: Educational email, mention the product so they know it exists.

• Week 2: Educational email, with a quick update on the product.

• Week 3: Educational email, with more details on the product launch date.

• Week 4: Short educational email, lots of product details including price and what is included. Reminder of the launch date.

• Week 5 — Monday: Provide every detail the customer needs in order to make a decision of whether or not to buy.

• Week 5 — Tuesday: A short email with link to purchase the product and a couple testimonials.

Before purchase

Note that in that launch sequence you can’t buy the product before the launch email. That means all those emails are building anticipation without the ability to make a purchase. This is critical, because it is hard to sell a product that is available at any time.

The final launch email is just the release of all that built up anticipation. This is how even an email list of under 1,000 subscribers can drive $10,000 in sales in a single launch day.

Urgency

Though in order to have that successful of a launch, you need perfect pricing (that’s a big topic we’ll save for another article) and a reason they should purchase right now (urgency), instead of putting it off for later.

There are a few different ways to create urgency:

1. Discount the price

2. Add a bonus

3. Limit sales

They all boil down to convincing customers who are (almost) ready to buy that right now is the best time to make a purchase or they will miss out. Let’s quickly cover these individually.

1. Discount the price

I find this is the easiest to implement and often the most effective. Running a 20% off sale for anyone who purchases in the first 24 hours has become my default way to motivate purchases. Not only does it reward people who have been on my list since the beginning, but it also gets everyone to purchase right away rather than waiting until some future date.

In order to make this compelling, you need to offer a decent discount (as a customer I would find just 5% or 10% off to be insulting), but you don’t want to offer too much (e.g. 50%) since many of your biggest fans will purchase right at launch anyway.

2. Add a bonus

Many people say that you should never discount your products since that devalues them in the eyes of your customers. I agree that running sales all the time will encourage buyers to just wait for your next sale, but I don’t think a one-time discount at launch will hurt your reputation.

For those who don’t like to run sales, another method is to add extra content as a bonus. This can be an extra video or webinar, a bonus course thrown in for free, or code samples that are exclusive to just the early purchasers.

I have two problems with this method:

1. I don’t think a bonus motivates sales as well as a discount. You will have to offer a very compelling bonus to match even what you would get from 20% off.

2. Creating content is a lot of work. I want all the content I create to go out to all of my customers. The idea of creating something just for a few customers that won’t get used in the future really bothers me.

Take all that with a grain of salt since many people who are far smarter than I am swear by offering a bonus to add urgency.

3. Limit sales

If you don’t want to offer a discount or create additional content as a bonus, then another option is to limit sales. That can mean limiting for a set amount of time (the product is only available for 24 hours, then the sales page is taken down) or for a limited number of seats.

For ConvertKit Academy I limit each class to just 10 students. A small group means I can spend more time and attention on each student (a big win for them!). But it also adds urgency to everyone on the fence since they know the class will sell out and they might not get a seat.

On a time-based limitation you just take down the sales page and the product is unavailable until the next launch.

Sending reminders to drive more sales

It doesn’t matter which method you choose to add urgency if you don’t remind your customers about it. In fact, those reminder emails are what drive so many sales in a launch. That’s why it’s so important to add urgency in some way, you get to send emails saying “The sale ends in four hours.”

Those move sales. Take a look at this graph of sales by hour for the Authority launch. Can you guess when I sent the reminder email?

Yep, sales were trailing off and the reminder email really kickstarted another wave of sales. If you don’t send at least one reminder email, you are really missing out on sales.

Driving Ongoing Sales

Email is especially good at driving ongoing sales after a launch. Instead of traffic disappearing entirely, you can continue to make sales off an email list. So how do you can you capture those subscribers? With a sample chapter.

Sample chapters and giveaways

On each of my book sales pages I give away a sample chapter. Just enter your email address and a minute later a PDF will be available in your inbox (which makes it easy to download onto your phone or tablet). This is great for growing my email list (about 5% of page visitors request the sample chapter), but visitors can also check a box to get a free course on designing better iPhone applications (or whatever is relevant to the book topic).

This course is timed to the date they subscribe, so it is customized to each individual and sends out automatically. In the first few emails I teach more about the topic with content related to the book, but then gradually work in a sales pitch for the book itself.

Many people go to the sales page and are interested in buying, but for some reason don’t make the purchase right then. If a visitor leaves without making a purchase, chances are they won’t come back. But, if they join the email course when they download the sample chapter, then you can gradually remind them about the product and overcome any objections that you didn’t have time for on the sales page, eventually making the sale.

Since all this is automated (once you write the email course) you can continue making sales so long as you continue adding leads to the top of the sales funnel.

Future launches

As your email list continues to grow, the new subscribers will have missed out on that initial launch. Which means that even though they may have heard of your product, they haven’t experienced the full sales pitch.

In fact, last fall I started asking for case studies for my book Authority. I got some great responses, but a large number of subscribers in my audience asked, “What’s Authority?”

That shocked me! I thought I was talking about my books and products too much! Instead there were people on my email list who had never even heard of the book. That means it is time for another launch. Turns out, you can launch the same product multiple times!

Once you have everyone on an email list those future launches become so much easier. Instead of scrambling to finish a product and grow your list, you can focus on just making a great product.

Never start from scratch

But the best part of building an audience is that you will never again start from scratch. So long as there is even a little bit of overlap between your current product and whatever venture you pursue in the future, that audience will help you kickstart future success.

If you play it smart by focusing your next product on the same audience as your first product, you can make so much more money without any more promotion effort. My second book launch was more than twice as big as my first one because I was able to target the same audience (designers).

Selling more digital products

In order to sell digital products (books, courses, Photoshop plugins, or anything else) you should start using email. In order to do that effectively you need an email marketing provider that handles a few things really well. Here’s the basic list:

1. Allows you to give away an incentive (like a sample chapter or video course) to new subscribers. This is actually surprisingly difficult in many tools. Companies like MailChimp force you to hack around their system in order to implement this best practice that will noticeably increase your conversion rates.
   

2. Allows you to combine subscribers from multiple incentives into a single list. If you do get it to work in another provider you’ll quickly find that it forces you to create multiple lists, which is really bad since you can’t segment your subscribers across lists. As you get more advanced with the promotions you run, this becomes very important.
   

3. Makes it very easy to create email courses or autoresponders. Email courses are one of the most profitable ways to continue driving sales with minimal work. But unfortunately they are really painful to set up in most providers (especially MailChimp!). You can do it, but you’ll wish you chose a different tool.

Once I learned all these tactics for increasing revenue—and just how powerful email marketing can be—I was shocked that the major tools didn’t support these best practices. So I created my own company: ConvertKit.

I used my background in designing easy to use software to solve each of these pain points and build these best practices directly into ConvertKit. You should definitely check it out and start building your list with ConvertKit.

What’s Holding You Back?

After growing ConvertKit for over a year I was surprised to find out that even with the right tool, people weren’t growing their lists as they should. That’s when I realized that to be successful you need more than just a tool.

After interviewing customers I wrote a brand new course called ConvertKit Academy, designed to take you from zero to growing a successful email list in just over a week.

Then I started asking customers, “What’s holding you back?”

With each answer I built something into the process to account for it.

When working on a coming soon page for a new book, these up and coming authors would get stuck by not having a good book graphic. So we included eight different Photoshop book cover templates in with the Academy.

And then we asked, “What’s holding you back?”

For some the answer was, “Well, I don’t have Photoshop.” Easy! We jumped on a quick call, helped them choose an icon, and then within 10 minutes had a finished book graphic. They wouldn’t win any cover design awards, but are still very clean and professional looking.

Again, we’d ask, “What’s holding you back?”

Here the answers got a little more varied. From “I don’t know what to offer as an incentive” to more complicated questions about email marketing or high level tactics. So we added two live Google Hangout calls with each class of ConvertKit Academy (limited to just 10 people). In these calls we talk through any questions that come up, help each student put together a final direction, and then deal with any implementation details.

Focused on success

The success rate has been fantastic! The best students go from zero email subscribers to over 100 in under a week! And those first 100 subscribers are the hardest to get.

Instead of just signing you up for a great tool (ConvertKit’s the best) and giving you some help documentation, we add a full training course, live coaching, book templates, design help, all focused on making the customer successful. What other email marketing provider does that?

This entire course is just $300. And just to make the offer irresistible we throw in six months of ConvertKit for free! At $50/month that would normally be $300, so that alone pays for the entire course.

Taking action

The students who go through ConvertKit Academy say that it was absolutely critical to get them to take action. They knew generally what to do, but hadn’t set aside the time and energy to actually get it done. The Academy provided everything they needed to really make progress. And anytime they got stuck, we were right there to answer questions and help them get going again.

Do you want to grow an audience and sell more products over email?

If so, consider joining ConvertKit Academy. We open up a class of just 10 students once per month and you can join the waiting list here:

Join the waitlist for ConvertKit Academy.

And if you join the list, I’ll send you more free training on how to profit from email marketing.

Here at Gumroad, we’re always happy to see creators from different industries joining the platform. Lately, we’ve been really excited about the ways in which Health and Fitness professionals are using Gumroad.

Selling content online allows coaches and trainers, inherently limited by the number of clients they can see in a given day, to extend their reach and multiply their influence. At the same time, customers benefit from high-quality health and fitness content, accessible at all times, for a fraction of the price of personal training.

As the number of health and fitness products on Gumroad has grown, we’ve noticed some interesting trends:

• Video Content: Do Yoga With Me and Black Belt at Home use video content to teach yoga and martial arts. Videos are great for teaching skill-heavy material and for guiding beginners. Multiple videos and a study manual can even be bundled together into complete courses.

• Training Programs: Training programs are popular among customers who want to take their training to the next level. Krissy Mae Cagney, Brandan Schieppati, and Simeon Panda sell a variety of training programs detailing week’s worth of exercises (including sets, reps, and intensity) and nutrition guidelines.

• Selling to Instagram Followers: Instagram is home to a large and growing health and fitness community. Krissy Mae Cagney, Brandan Schieppati, and Simeon Panda have built their Instagram audiences by motivating and inspiring followers. They now promote their products to these audiences through strategies like offering followers discounts on training programs.

What follows are five inspiring examples of health and fitness professionals using Gumroad in awesome ways:

Krissy Mae Cagney

Krissy Mae Cagney, an athletic performance specialist, registered dietitian, and Westside Barbell strength and conditioning coach, does it all. She’s passionate about changing the fitness industry, spreading her motivation and expertise through fitness and nutrition pop-ups across the country, online programs, and her lifestyle brand (Doughnuts and Deadlifts). She’s even opening her own gym at the end of the year.

Krissy’s website offers numerous training programs and nutrition guides, including Flex-i-ble Dieting, a guide to macros and eating for life, and She Hulk, a ten week strength and aesthetics program.

Want to offer subscription fitness content? For inspiration, check out Krissy’s Black Iron Training, subscription strength and conditioning programming released every Sunday night.

Do Yoga With Me

Do Yoga With Me is a collection of over 100 high-quality yoga videos, featuring a group of experienced yoga teachers. Do Yoga With Me’s creators are passionate about increasing access to yoga content, and all of the site’s resources can be streamed for free. Users who want to own yoga content and support Do Yoga With Me can purchase and download individual videos via Gumroad.

Do Yoga With Me also offers yoga programs to guide students through a series of selected videos. These programs, including Yoga for Runners and Yoga for Office Workers, are available as Pay What You Want downloads.

Interested in learning more about Pay What You Want pricing? We’ve written about it extensively on the Gumroad blog.

Brandan Schieppati

Brandan Schieppati, founder of Rise Above Fitness, is known for training that incorporates high intensity strength and conditioning. He created a series of online training programs to reach people who can’t train with him personally but still want to train the Rise Above way.

Brandan offers a range of programs and ebooks on his personal website, including 30 in 30, a different workout every day for a month, and The Rise Above Fitness Cookbook, which features 40 recipes submitted by Rise Above Fitness trainers.

Thinking about selling directly to your Instagram followers? See the strategies Brandan uses to spread the word to his Instagram audience.

Simeon Panda

Simeon Panda is a natural body builder with an impressive social media presence, boasting nearly 2 million followers on Facebook. He aims to motivate and inspire others through his hard work and dedication. Simeon Panda worked for years as a personal trainer and now hosts exclusive training camps as a Musclemania Pro.

Fans who want to train like Simeon Panda can buy one of his four training programs, including Mass Gain and Abs Solution. Each program details exercises, intensity, number of reps, number of sets, and rest time.

Black Belt at Home

Black Belt at Home makes it possible for students without access to martial arts instructors to earn rank and certification with an accredited organization. They offer home study courses in Shotokan Karate, Ultimate Bo, Krav Maga, and Tai Chi. Each course includes a comprehensive study manual and hours worth of video training content.

A digital version of each Black Belt at Home program is available through Gumroad, allowing students to download course content and start training immediately after purchase.

Thinking about selling a home study course of your own? Check out Black Belt at Home’s encouraging 10 Ridiculous Myths about Home Study Courses.

Want tips and tricks for selling health and fitness content directly to your audience? Email support@gumroad.com and let us know what you’re working on!

When compiling the Best of Gumroad lists, we look for creators who have had recent launches, lots of sales, high gross revenue, or success using Gumroad in an exciting way. From there, we hand-pick creators whose products are especially innovative or creative. We hope to see you on this list in the future!

No need to download. No need to sync. There’s a new option for reading eBooks, digital comics, magazines, manuals, and any other visual content purchased on Gumroad. The following file types can now be read directly in your browser.

Streaming? For books?

(((( screenshot of reading ))))

After buying a readable file, buyers will see the option to read your content via the receipt shown upon purchase and in the email they receive. To read (or download) in a Gumroad Library, an account is needed. If a buyer doesn’t already have an account, there’s an easy way to set one up. All they need to do is create and enter a password on the receipt, and they’ve got a Gumroad account and a Library of their very own.

To check out this feature (yes, library pun intended), click the above Library screenshot for Box Brown’s Tower of Power or the illustration below for a sample chapter from Poornima Vijayashanker’s upcoming book, How to Transform Your Ideas into Software Products. Both are $0+ products that you can be reading in just a few clicks.

If you update or add to your products, your changes will immediately be available to your audience without their need to redownload the content (unless they’ve already done so or simply prefer to keep a hard copy).

Happy reading.