How To Start Selling Digital Products On Gumroad in 4 Steps

Plus, avoid these 6 mistakes I constantly see…

Christina Piccoli

Nov 19, 2024

I’ve seen this complaint in the comments on Medium, and around the web:

“I created a course/ebook/digital product on Gumroad, but it’s not selling.”

I’m going to show you how to start selling digital products on Gumroad in four easy steps.

But even more importantly, I’m going to tell you the six mistakes I constantly see that you should avoid.

One of my favorite ways to earn extra side hustle income is through creating ebooks.

Just one of my books, Medium Money, has earned over $2,000.

And I partially have Gumroad to thank for that.

Gumroad is a marketplace where you can host and sell your digital products for free. They make money by taking 10% of your sales.

While that sounds like a lot, it’s worth it to me because of how much they offer. But I don’t think most people understand how much there is inside of Gumroad’s platform.

I know this because I love to snoop around to see what other people are selling and how they’re selling it.

And what I see is that people aren’t taking advantage of everything Gumroad has to offer! And because of that, they’re not reaping all the sales rewards.

Let me tell you how easy it is to create a product in Gumroad, and then I’ll tell you the six mistakes I see.

Start selling digital products on Gumroad in 4 easy steps

It’s really simple to start selling digital products on Gumroad. I’m going to show you how to do it in only 4 steps.

1. Add a new product

I’m assuming you already have a Gumroad account. I almost made that the first step, but then I thought:

“Christina, the people aren’t dumb. They know they need an account.”

Once you have your account, you can hit the “Products” link in the menu.

Then “New Product” is where you’ll begin the process of uploading your product.

Then you’ll pick the type of product you’re creating, name it, and add your price.

Then you’ll customize your product’s details.

2. Customize your product details

The product details are where you add a description, a URL, a cover image, and a thumbnail.

This is the biggest area I see people neglecting.

You have to give people a reason to buy your product, and this is where you do that.

There are tons of things people miss here. I can’t go over everything in detail because this article would be way too long, but my latest ebook covers all of it.

I’ll tell you about that a little later.

3. Upload your product

Next, you’ll upload your product. You can also add a thank you note. I also highly recommend asking for a review here.

But there’s a problem with my recommendation...

Someone is just buying your product. They haven’t seen or used it yet.

I always ask them to come back to review it if they like it. Reviews are extremely important. They make other people more comfortable making a purchase.

But if someone downloads your product and reads it at a later time, are they going to remember to come back and review your product?

Most likely not.

So what do you do?

I have a solution in my new book, and I’ll show you exactly how to fix this issue using tools right inside Gumroad.

4. Publish & add tags

The last step is simply hitting that publish button.

You can also add a “Category” and “Tags” to help you get seen within Gumroad Discover. Gumroad Discover will recommend your product to potential customers.

You can even give them a higher percentage of your sales to be shown more often.

As you can see, it’s very easy to load a product onto the Gumroad platform. But it’s not as easy to get sales. Let’s go over a list of things I’ve seen that hold people back.

1. Not fully using the description area

I have seen description areas with either:

very little filled out that doesn’t give enough information
nothing filled out at all

The description area is the perfect place to explain exactly who your product is for and how it can help them solve their problem.

2. Not formatting the description area

Another problem I see is that people don’t use the vast array of formatting tools to make their descriptions look nice.

I see this on Medium too!

Lack of formatting is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make on this platform. The reason it’s a problem is because it makes the content too hard to read.

And if the content is too hard to read, people are going to hit that back button and find something else.

(That means lower earnings!)

Let’s avoid that.

Here’s a snippet from my latest book just to show you some of the formatting options you have inside Gumroad:

You can use:

headers
images
quotes
bold text
italicized text
bullet points
strikethrough text
and much, much more

The point is…

You want your content to stand out and be easy to read.

3. Lack of images

a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So why not add images to your description area?

Gumroad has two main image areas:

the cover image
a thumbnail image

Plus…

You can add images in the description box, as I showed you above.

I would definitely take advantage of this! It helps make your product stand out, and it can also help grab your prospect’s attention and immediately let them know what they’re getting.

4. No profile page

Your Gumroad profile page is like an About page.

You can explain what you’re all about and how you can help the people who are looking for your products.

You can also customize this page with your brand colors.

Here’s what mine looks like.

5. Not using the email system within Gumroad

Gumroad has an awesome (and free) email system and it’s such a great tool! You don’t want to miss out on this because you can set up automated emails to connect with your customers hours, days, weeks, months, or even years after they make a purchase.

This is so powerful!

In my new book, I show you the most important thing I use this for (hint: getting those reviews!) and how I set it up.

6. Not using the marketing tools in Gumroad

There are two things inside of Gumroad that have been awesome marketing tools:

discount codes
their affiliate program

These two tools have made me at least 3x the sales. I’ll show you how to set these up in my new book.

It’s so easy!

Final Thoughts

Gumroad is an incredible platform we are lucky to have. If you have some ideas swirling in your head and you can organize them into a book, you can sell them on Gumroad and make money easily.

But you’ll struggle if you don’t know all the tricks to use to your advantage. That’s what my new ebook helps with.

Image created by the author in Canva. | **Grab your Gumroad Guide here**.

My Gumroad Guide is perfect if you’re new to the Gumroad platform and want to learn how to set your product in an easy-to-read step-by-step format.

Did you know I also share short lists of links to everything I learn about making money online in this mini newsletter? → intellectualists.com