[Gumroad] Reduce transaction fees for sellers

In a year and a half, I've sold almost $800k of a single digital product. The product itself eventually stopped selling entirely, but here are 9 quick lessons I think are necessary to succeed in today's world. I'm writing this because I want to create a course (or a book) on this topic with all the things I've learned along the way. But first, I want to do a dry test to see if there's any interest. Here we go: **1. Test before you actually make a digital product** I'm a huge believer that you first need to create a landing page like your product is already made and live, then try to sell it as a dry test. It's better to try 5 different ideas as dry tests than 1 idea where the product is already made. It's a numbers game and the more you try, the better the probabilities. **2. You need to have a killer product/offer that solves an actual problem** This is maybe the hardest part: finding a problem worth solving with a digital product. Then package the solution into an ebook, checklist, template pack, Notion workspace, Figma UI kit, spreadsheet calculator, video course, swipe file, prompt library, automation script, etc. **3. Start advertising on FB/Google ASAP** It's not worth waiting weeks to see if there's product-market fit. Spend a couple hundred dollars on advertising and see if anyone even wants your product. Maybe try 5 different product ideas with 5 different landing pages and advertise all at once. Once you find your winner, create the actual digital product behind it. That way you'll spend 10 times less time and find a winning product faster. **4. Create a killer conversion-optimized website** I cannot stress enough how important it is to create a website that's conversion optimized. It's not worth spending advertising money on ads to drive traffic to a website that doesn't convert or converts poorly. If you want inspiration, let me know and I'll post my landing page website (and also WP Bricks Export if you want or Figma file for free of course). **5. Use parity pricing that adjusts discount amounts based on where your customer is coming from** This one helped me increase CR for 45%. Use tools like [ParityRocket.com](http://ParityRocket.com) or [ParityDeals.org](http://ParityDeals.org) that dynamically adjust the discount amount based on where your customer is coming from. This way you can advertise your offer to the whole world and convert both people from India and the US. **6. Create a funnel** Once you find a winning product, it's super important to create complementary upsell products as well. Advertising is expensive and the higher AOV you have, the higher CPA you can afford (and outbid the competition). Use tools like [Funnelkit.com](https://funnelkit.com/) or [Cartflow.com](http://Cartflow.com) and create order bumps and upsells during checkout. **7. Don't use Gumroad for Merchant of Record** Although the setup is super easy, the percentage they take is outrageous. 10% + CC fee is the highest on the market. Use [Lemonsqueezy.com](http://Lemonsqueezy.com), [Paddle.com](http://Paddle.com), or [Fastspring.com](http://Fastspring.com) instead, or even better, Stripe + [Funnelkit](https://funnelkit.com/). **8. Create email automations** This is set and forget. Once your customer base is rising, it's good to have post-purchase upsells. If the customer doesn't buy the upsell during checkout, give them a discount after two days. I use [Klaviyo.com](http://Klaviyo.com) for email automation. **9. Have a partner** This one is super important. Doing things alone might start to feel boring, and a partner with a complementary skill set is crucial for your success and motivation. 50% of a million is better than 100% of $100k. I had a plan to make a course about selling digital info products, but I decided to do a dry test in the form of a Reddit post first. If there's enough interest, maybe I'll make it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!