Gumroad: how to monetize your content (almost free)?

Do you create content, produce videos, ebooks, courses? Do you want to make money with a subscription? Gumroad is one of the simplest and most efficient solutions to be able to monetize content creation. In this article, you will find all the details of how this platform works which will allow you to start selling your products without any initial investment.

If you are a writer, a journalist, an author, a video maker, a creative and you are entering the online world, you surely know that it is very difficult to gain visibility online.

Competition is fierce and almost all niches are now manned.

To enter you must therefore produce high-level content and give a lot of value, initially for free.

After all, almost everything online is already available for free, you just need the skills and patience to look for it.

But a model where you keep your content free forever isn’t sustainable.

That’s why at some point you will have to start earning.

One of the possible forms of monetization is to produce paid Content.

And today it is a form that is growing rapidly as audiences are increasingly mature and willing to pay for valuable content.

Even technically it is always easier to do this, thanks to the flourishing of platforms that allow you to easily monetize your content.

I have already told you about OnlyFans and Substack, but if you are looking for a platform that is easy to configure, use, without initial setup costs, and with which to earn important figures, Gumroad is the right solution for you.

Let’s find out why.

In this article

• What is Gumroad?
• How does it work?
• How much does Gumroad cost?
• Stay in control of your content and make money with Gumroad

What is Gumroad?

Gumroad is a platform that allows content creators and others to distribute their creations online and get paid.

It was created in San Francisco in 2011 in a single weekend by 19-year-old Sahil Lavingia and, since then, has allowed its members to earn more than 350 million.

It allows you to sell books, audio content, videos, films, but also physical products.

It stands out for its simplicity and for the possibility that it gives all authors to start monetizing their creations with a few clicks.

It is used by millions of authors in the world and also in Italy it is appreciated by several important authors, active in various fields.

How does it work?

First, you will need to register.

The site is also available in Italian and to register, simply enter your email address and personal data.

In the Settings, you can choose your Username, enter your e-mail and above all connect your Paypal account to receive payments.

By registering you will get your Page visible at gumroad.com/username that you can have fun customizing.

Users viewing it will be able to subscribe and follow you and will be able to buy your products.

To enter your products instead, once registered, simply click on Products and then on New Product to view this screen.

You can choose the mode you prefer:

• Classic : start selling your products right away, enter a description, a cover photo and a price;
• Reservation : set up the pre-sale of a product you are working on and want to launch by a certain date and start collecting reservations;
• Subscription: choose a monthly subscription thanks to which your subscribers will be able to access your content that you will regularly integrate with new additions. This will then create a subscription product.

In the three modes you can insert both written and audio / video content, but you can also insert physical products to sell.

A landing page will be created automatically for each product, visible at https://gumroad.com/l/productname.

To launch your product , Gumroad provides you with boxes that you can embed on your site and from which the user can purchase by entering their email and using their Paypal account or email.

How much does Gumroad cost?

Basic version of Gumroad is absolutely FREE.

It therefore allows you to do easy experiments, launch your own product, understand what works and what you can improve without investing even a euro.

Obviously, for each sale you make, you will have to pay a commission to the platform.

Specifically, the cost is 5% + a charge fee of 3.5% + 30 USD cents.

If you want to become a PRO , use your own domain name and remove the Gumroad branding from your page and pay less commissions, you have the option to pay a monthly fee of 10 USD.

Obviously this mode is convenient when you make a lot of sales and allows you to manage your page more professionally.

In fact, the cost of each sale decreases to 3.5% + 30 cents per sale .

Stay in control of your content and make money with Gumroad

The advantage of Gumroad – over other platforms that you can use to manage courses and distribute paid content – is the ability to maintain ownership of the content and contact with your subscribers.

I therefore think it is one of the best solutions on the market to start selling an infoproduct , create a course and convey content.

On the other hand, to be able to sell you will need to be able to convey subscribers and bring interested people.

This is why it is more suitable for those who already have their own community and subscriber base to offer the course to.

In addition, you will need to work on promotions and invest in advertising to attract new people interested in the subject you are proposing as an expert for.

As in everything, in fact, it is not enough to write and produce quality content, but you must understand what works and how you can improve your course every day to expand your follower base more and more.

You will therefore have to carefully monitor the data of your subscribers and maintain an active and continuous link with them, never forgetting to bring value and ask for feedback and feedback.

The beauty of Gumroad is also that of being able to acquire the e-mails of your subscribers to which you can write and which you can also import on a new platform if you decide to change in the future.

If you too are thinking of launching your own course and want to try to understand how it works, arrived this far, you just have to go to Gumroad and try to understand how it works and how you can manage the distribution of your content.