With Free Products, I’ve Made More Money On Gumroad This Month Than I Made In My First 6 Combined

Yes, money with free products

Here’s the deal. It isn’t a lot of money. Yet!

But the trajectory is looking good.

What I’m trying to show you is how long term goals are more important than a quick buck.

Let’s dive in!

Backstory

In December 2019, I started selling digital products on Gumroad. That failed miserably.

A couple of months later, I decided to give those products away for free. That went well.

I amassed an email list of almost 2000 people to date and made $200 with free products.

How?

Gumroad offers the option to let customer pay what they want. They can download your product for free or give you an amount of their choice.

Overall, with my first set of products — a few iOS icons packs — I made $150. It ain’t much, but it adds up.

Since then, however, I’ve released two new free products on Gumroad. With those alone, I made $50 in a couple of weeks. More than I made in my first 6 months on Gumroad combined, and 1/4 of my total earnings on the platform in about 15 months.

That’s incredible. Free stuff can go along way.

These two new products are Notion templates for Medium writers. Check them out here.

The bottom line

Everyone can become successful online. A quick buck, however, is hard to come by.

It’s the long term goals you should chase, not the easy and quick money.

Start with free stuff, build an email list, market the content and yourself, and then watch your opportunities grow.

Eventually, I will add more paid products to my Gumroad store and offer them to the growing list of customers.

It all started with free products. Adding up all income streams, my overall earnings per months have outgrown my monthly income from my 9–to-5 job at Google.

Start small, think big!