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76 Comments

I will give feedback on your Gumroad product page!

After 22 people and 25 products, this post is now closed. Thank you to everyone brave enough to share their work publicly! Stay tuned for future help threads.

Hi,

I will review your Gumroad product page. Post a link to whatever you're selling on Gumroad and I'll leave a comment with something I love about your copy and something that I think could use improvement. I encourage everyone to do the same for each other's products!

About me: I'm the head of marketing at Gumroad, but before that I am a creator myself. My book Writing for Software Developers has sold 725 copies in the past four months. Here is the landing page and product page and I of course welcome feedback on my own work as well.

I'll check in a few times throughout the day and to do the reviews.

P.S. If you sell your product on something other than Gumroad I'll still give feedback on your page, just don't tell my boss!

  1. 3

    Hey Philip, love your online presence and congratulate you to your success; here my product:

    https://gumroad.com/l/cdrft

    It’s a career guide for software engineers written by me, who worked both as a developer and a recruiter.

    1. 1

      It is some solid copy and visual design on the book, fair pricing, content seems comprehensive in scope, all in all this looks like a very solid product page. Fantastic stuff!

      Notes:

      1. As I've recommended elsewhere in this thread, try spreading your testimonials around the page rather than all in one block (btw good job putting links with every name)
      2. I'd be more explicit about the refund/guarantee
      3. Highlight your work with coderfit earlier in the sales copy. Developer career advice is a crowded field and it is important to show how your background makes you uniquely qualified to give advice.
  2. 2

    Hi Philip! Could you please review the page for my ebook, "100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late", gum.co/100Truths?

    I would really appreciate your feedback.

    Thank you in advance!

    1. 2

      You have a lot of great testimonials and solid copy focused on the reader. I think they could be even more effective mixed together. Start with two testimonials, then the first block of copy, then some more testimonials, etc. This ensures that people actually absorb the different aspects of the page rather than skimming. A minor related point is that any links to twitter accounts, etc to prove these are real people (with their permission ofc) always helps.

      I'm only seeing your product page, not your whole funnel, so this could be somewhere else, but I'd like to know more about Luca Dellanna in this page. What makes you so qualified to offer something as broad as life lessons? What experiences and research methodologies have led you to compiling this book? I'm sure you have great answers to these questions and I'd like to see those answers on the product page itself. A PDF of one chapter as a free preview (just link it like I do with WfSD) could also do a lot to convince skeptics.

      1. 1

        Thank you so much! I'll implement the recommendations, to this book and to the others I'm selling on Gumroad. Thank you again!

  3. 1

    hey, Philip, Love your book cover. it's very unique.

    Here is my product in gumroad:

    https://gumroad.com/l/IrcpA

    Its a beginner's guide to web security for developers and students who are into web development or any kind of development.

    Would love to get your feedback.

  4. 1

    Thanks so much for doing this, Philip! And congrats on your new gig 🎉

    A product I am starting starting is a custom SEO and content marketing report:
    https://gumroad.com/l/SEOReport

    Would love to hear any feedback you have.

  5. 1

    Hey, that's really cool

    Here's my thing
    https://gumroad.com/l/SgnYk

    1. 2

      Good focus on the reader and their needs and goals throughout the copy. There are a few typos, "and a two hours" -> "and two hours" for example. Make sure to edit your product page for grammar because mistakes on the product page suggest to customers that the book might have grammatical mistakes as well.

      "you wont be afraid to execute Docker commands in front of your colleagues." is a clear and compelling value proposition. Maybe bold that (after changing you'll -> you in your version)

      Do you have any certifications or public work experience using Docker? If so it would be useful to list those credentials.

      Finally, the standard advice about offering a no-questions-asked 30-day refund policy applies here.

      1. 1

        Thanks Philip! Will check the grammar, you're definitely right about that.

        Not really having certifications, that would definitely help. I turned internal workshop material into sellable pdf. In fact, I don't even promote as a docker expert, this was used to check how Gumroad works and if I can sell it. Made $100-200 on that though.

        Yes, refund is definitely something that could convert more people.

        Will check suggestion for other products on this thread

  6. 1

    Hey philip.. I have tried something different...

    https://gum.co/freetraffictogumroadcourses

    Looking forward for your feedback...

    1. 1

      I like how you included graphics to illustrate concepts in the copy itself.

      I'd recommend including as many details as possible in the copy about the tactics you're doing case studies on. If any of these are from first-hand experience that is especially important to highlight. You want to establish trust with your potential customers about who you are and what authority and credibility you have to teach them about the topic.

      Finally, my standard advice about getting testimonials and including a money-back guarantee both apply here.

  7. 1

    Working with Jack Butcher on Visualize Value, would love to get your feedback on the Gumroad Page to see what areas can be improved upon: https://gumroad.com/visualizevalue?recommended_by=search

    1. 1

      Visualize Value has a great brand, incredibly powerful & consistent visuals, and tight copy. I'd encourage anyone on the thread to study their page as an example of things done right. Excellent use of proof in the images.

      The one optimization I would ask for is IF you are using gumroad posts as a content marketing effort, to more clearly explain the value of subscribing to posts on Gumroad. Otherwise, consider a different action to call to in your profile.

  8. 1

    Hey Philip! Thanks so much for doing this, I'm sure your feedback will be super helpful ;)

    We've recently created a pre-sale page for an eBook on product-market fit. We have an audience of +70,000 monthly readers and +7,000 email subscribers tho wom we'll be selling the book. It aims to be the first step of a value ladder that will have more expensive courses and maybe services.

    Any kind of feedback is highly appreciated!!

    1. 1

      Failory has a huge and well-earned audience and I love the strategy of slowly ramping up the price of preorders. Good use of that feature! What do you anticipate the final price will be?

      You have an unneeded comma in "interviewed, have" in the first sentence. "You'll finish reading knowing how does product-market-founder fit look like" -> "You'll finish reading knowing what product-market-founder fit looks like." Which reminds me email if you need a copyeditor/proofreader for this book, I can recommend the person who edited WfSD and put you in touch.

      Our books are fairly similar in audience and construction, so basically what I recommend is copying the structure and order of my website and Gumroad page. Like with my book, the main draw will be the interviews. Get them with the names, keep them with the content!

      1. 1

        Perfect, will definitely take lots of ideas from your site and Gumroad page. Thanks so much for the comments Philip ;)

        As for the price, I was thinking of keeping it quite low: $12-$15 probably.

    1. 1

      Fitness info products are another crowded space, and the best thing this product could do is include a personal narrative, testimonials, samples, and other copy to demonstrate why this information is better than the massive amounts available elsewhere.

  9. 1

    Hi, Philip! This is great idea you are doing. Also, congratulations for the book.

    Here goes my product Gumroad page
    https://gumroad.com/l/lTysIh

    I am really interested to hear your comments. Thank you!

    1. 1

      This is a great theme page, I appreciate the nod to good docs. You include all of the links and info I would expect. You are very clear about licensing and the separation from Kirby itself which is important. Good integration of the gumroad page and the main sales site.

      Small nitpicks:

      • "Powerful features and inclusions, which make the Zero One exceptional" -> "Powerful features make Zero One exceptional"
      • "With no restrains whatsoever." -> "No restraints whatsoever"
      • "Inside and Out" doesn't really make much sense in the list that it inhabits, delete it?
      1. 1

        Thank you very much, Philip! Great tips, really appreciate it 💪

    1. 1

      You have done a great job visually demonstrating the use case in the product pictures, but it is worth reiterating in the copy exactly what these assets are useful for. Overall the product has a clear and compelling value proposition.

      Software has a lot of standardized licenses, is the same true for design? It would be nice as a customer if the license terms were something standardized and familiar. Same goes for the return policy.

      1. 1

        Many thanks! I will think of that!

  10. 1

    I literately was just reading about Gumroad just now and then saw this post first thing. Very weird!! Since, you are here, let me ask you this, I am sure it's available in Google anyway :) , does Gumroad support SAAS with one time billing (not monthly subscription). Also, why is Gumroad better than Paddle (or any other alternative), would appreciate your honest feedback :).
    Happy that you are present on IH :)

    1. 3

      Yes, you can sell license keys on Gumroad, though if you are looking for a more sophisticated integration you may be better off with using Stripe directly. Gumroad supports both one-time and recurring payments, and we've recently been focused on making recurring payments (AKA Memberships) more feature-rich with stuff like tier changes.

      You should use Gumroad over others because we have low fees & responsible business practices and we are constantly reinvesting in our creators and community (I could be spending my time writing ads and sales emails but I prefer to spend it helping other creators and Gumroad not only encourages that but it is the default). Gumroad is nine years old, growing, profitable (our basic financial information is public on Sahil's twitter), and is so easy to use that it feels like cheating.

      1. 1

        Stripe doesn't support my country, so not an option. Good to know that you do support one time payments.
        Thanks for the honest feedback, I am leaning more on Gumroad than any other option because of your fees and easiness to use. Although, only negative is that I can only withdraw via paypal, but you can't get everything :)

      2. 1

        I can chime in here. I’ve been using Gumroad for the past 8 months to handle subscriptions to my web app. It’s so easy to do everything I’ve needed to do, I haven’t had to handle any of the hassle that comes with payment gateways, etc. I’ve played around with using stripe, but that would require me creating accounts in my app which I’ve nearly sidestepped using Gumroad license keys.
        Highly recommended :)

        1. 1

          Thanks for the feedback :)

    2. 1

      @TDajani Aside from the platform, which I love, I chose Gumroad because the founder @sahil stayed on course at great personal cost despite major setbacks and huge pressure. It's a solid, thriving, and inspiring company that proved it stands for creators no matter what.

  11. 1

    Hey, thanks for taking the time to do this, and kudos to your projects!

    I sell license keys to my app via Gumroad. I’ve gone through multiple iterations of the content, tried different media formats, and feel that the shorter and more straightforward the content the better (for my project).

    I’d love to hear your feedback.
    https://justsketch.me
    https://gumroad.com/l/justsketchme

    1. 1

      You have a great site and fantastic, personable copy plus beautiful examples and a strong design. All I can say is keep an eye out for Gumroad's new memberships features, some of which rolled out recently and some of which are coming soon. These features will give you more options and control as you sell a monthly or annual subscription product.

      Usually, I advocate for long-form copy on a sales page, but because yours is clearly a small bit of the end of the funnel having just a few sentences on Gumroad seems prudent. Similarly, given the design focus of your product, a mostly visual sales page works great. For others reading, this site is an example of information-dense non-written copy.

      1. 1

        Thanks for the kind words and feedback Philip :)
        I’ll keep an eye out for the new features.

  12. 1

    Hi Philip
    Take a look
    https://gum.co/NEPMk
    Best regards

    1. 2

      There are lots of books about how to make money with e-commerce and the #1 job of your product page is to explain why yours is better than the rest. This could be with case studies, testimonials from real users of your methods, or links to content that you've created elsewhere that demonstrates credibility and authenticity. Right now, the product page doesn't have the information that it needs to accomplish its primary job, so definitely focus on adding information about the product itself and the process that went into making it.

  13. 1

    Well that's pretty amazing. Thank you!

    Here's the new one I just created for a new product: https://gumroad.com/l/bnchmrk

    1. 2

      Very nice picture as a header. My #1 question after reading this product page is "yeah, but will this work for MY business." This is the sort of objection that you can overcome with testimonials, examples, or targeted content marketing.

      I also wonder about the use of the word "app." As a software developer, I don't consider a spreadsheet an app, even though this one clearly has a lot of functionality. Perhaps your audience thinks differently.

      Finally, I like to explicitly offer a 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. Refunds suck but they are not nearly as painful as chargebacks.

      1. 1

        Those are some killer insights, thank you for taking the time!

        The goal is to turn it into a proper saas app next year, but for now this is the scrappy mvp... couldn't think of a better term than app so here we are! haha.

        I need to do a little more work on the site (formatting, imagery, etc) so I'll definitely add the testimonials and some FAQs to help with that question.

        Love that feedback on the money back guarantee, will definitely add that as well.

        Thanks again - please let me know how I can return the favor if/when you're looking for feedback on your projects.

        1. 2

          Return the favor by building a successful business using Gumroad!

          1. 1

            That sounds like a pretty good deal. Thanks man!

        2. 1

          What about "calculator", "spreadsheet to calculate...", or something similar instead of "app"?

          1. 1

            Yeah, for now we need a different word for it. I've been using "Benchmark Tool" this last week, feels like the best fit until we build the web app.

    1. 2

      Very aesthetic designs! I appreciate that each includes a live demo. Also, including your email for customer support is great.

      As a developer, I'd like to know what technologies these themes are created with, I'd be afraid to purchase a theme without knowing whether I have the knowledge to customize it.

      Your pricing seems inconsistent between products. Some are $5, others are $40, some are a fixed price, others are $X+. I've never purchased a theme before, and I am unfamiliar with the market, and you are sending people to these themes from your own site (smart!) but even with all of those caveats I still want to say that you should think about consistent messaging to demonstrate to your audience why some themes cost more than others.

      Finally, it would be helpful to explicitly state what the rights someone has to a theme after purchasing it are and it would be best to do that with a standard license that is well-known among developers.

      1. 1

        Awesome feedback! Will work on this into the coming changes :)

    1. 1

      The most important thing for this page is proof. Link account(s) that you built and operate with 10,000+ engaged followers. Include testimonials from other people who have built large accounts using your methods. As you say in your product page, "There are A LOT of people these days sharing their growth strategies" so make sure you have lots of social proof to help yours stand out.

  14. 1

    Hey Phill, great to have you here and welcome to Indie Hackers.

    My product is also a book Start With A Side-Project.
    Here is the product page.

    Happy to hear your feedback!

    1. 1

      Overall this is quite good, a few ideas:

      1. Take the shorter endorsement from Nikola and move it higher on the page, near the top
      2. Consider a slightly longer/more actionable sample, although I like that the sample is directly embedded as an image.
      3. A little different than product page advice, but I imagine that with this book being short and narrative-driven, it would work well as an audiobook as well. It may even be short enough for you to record yourself, although I know from experience that recording an audiobook to a professional standard is very difficult, which is why I hired a friend to do mine for me.
    2. 1

      Hi @nscode, did you launched on Appsumo? if yes, I want to email you with some questions asking for help.

      1. 2

        Hey @hamzoun I didn't launch yet, waiting for AppSumo's team to set it up, it takes longer than expected.

        1. 1

          You are selling on Gumroad like me, I didn't understand how I can setup these codes. How are you dealing with this.

  15. 1

    Hey there Philip, great initative! And congratulations on your very successful product ✌

    I launched a book called Mastering the Coding Mindset about a month ago, and it hasn't done quite as well as I'd hoped (about 45 sales for 1200$ total revenue)

    The Gumroad page is here:
    https://gumroad.com/l/mastering-coding-mindset-complete

    Although there's way more info on the real landing page where I try to direct traffic:
    https://madsbrodt.com/mastering-coding-mindset/

    Really curious to know your thoughts on either - thank you so much!

    1. 1

      Most of this looks really great (fix a typo: "Over 70+ minutes of video" delete over or the plus). Before I make any suggestions: what are your conversion rates website -> gumroad and gumroad -> purchase? How much traffic to the website and to gumroad resulted in these 45 sales?

      1. 1

        Thanks, will get on that. I use the Gumroad pop-up overlay, so it's a bit harder to track. The website landing page has gotten around 2000 hits, and 3 of the sales were free giveaways come to think of it - so a little over 2% conversion rate. The Gumroad stats look like this: https://imgur.com/a/StZVro3, and I assume it counts every view of the pop-up as a view from my website. Thanks again for doing this 👌

        1. 1

          To be honest, your conversion rates and site design look pretty good. I'd focus on the top of your funnel. Lots of people want to become developers, but the space of "how to become a dev" is very competitive. I'd focus on whatever content or outreach efforts you're doing to expand your personal brand so that people don't just want to learn to become a developer, but want to become a developer like Mads. If you have successful artifacts for doing this, link them prominently on your sales pages.

          1. 1

            Great advice - definitely agree that focusing on generating more traffic is the most efficient use of resources right now. Thanks for the feedback!

  16. 1

    Thanks for doing this, Philip, I really appreciate it.

    Please review my product, How to Pass Every Salesforce Certification Exam:
    https://gum.co/pass-every-exam

    1. 1

      Overall, the copy on this page is really good. You've done a great job of breaking up what is admittedly a wall of text with formatting, although a bit more spacing would be beneficial.

      I think it would be valuable to add names and preferably links to your testimonials section. There is nothing on the page to prove that you didn't just make up those customer accolades yourself (although I know you didn't because I looked at some on Twitter). Ofc make sure you get peoples' permission before using their name on your sales page? I did this pretty effectively for WfSD with embedded tweets.

  17. 1

    Hi Philip

    Sharing the link to my e-book (not yet released) https://gum.co/sjMWd

    Please also take a look at the other products I have - https://gumroad.com/contrarianliving

    Thank you for doing this.

    1. 1

      Working with a brand that is an idea "Contrarian Living" rather than a person "Philip Kiely" can be very powerful in the long run when selling information products. However, up front, a person has the advantage of inherent presence and consistency. Bring your icon and banner from twitter over to Gumroad, Indie Hackers, etc and start to develop that visual identity. Put it on your products as well. If people don't know the source of financial information, they'll be skeptical to trust it.

  18. 1

    My product is licenses that unlock advanced features for my open source library. (open-wa). I'm sure it can do better to convert.

    https://gum.co/BTMt

    1. 1

      I'm assuming because this is an open source product people are familiar with the product before they get to Gumroad, Gumroad is just the checkout page. Still, even before your important note, I'd put a paragraph describing the project as a whole.

      You have a lot of pricing tiers, which can be good, but seven seems a bit excessive. See if you can narrow that down to a few that directly address your users' needs without compelling anyone to overpay for features they don't use. I'd also draw a clear distinction between supporting for the sake of supporting and making a SaaS purchase, which are very different actions for a customer to take.

  19. 1

    Here is my first product; I used it checkout the sales process on Gumroad. https://gum.co/QOjzD

    I would appreciate your feedback

    1. 1

      It took me a moment to figure out what the product was. It looks like it is a short course on design, not the final designs themselves? The main image made it seem like this is a template that I could use to make apps, the other images made it look like a course (and you cannot count on customers to go through the image slideshow). Start by making it clear exactly what you are selling and who the audience is.

      1. 1

        Okay thank you! I'll make the changes.

        Can I also get your feedback on this one? https://gum.co/FjNiw

        1. 1

          Solid pitch, very niche product but that is what you want. Nice work productizing an otherwise single-use artifact.

          My main question on this sales page is what skills I would need to actually use this template. In the copy itself, describe the experience and software needed to effectively use this template. Otherwise, I can imagine people purchasing it expecting a click-and-drag or automagic experience and being disappointed when they are unable to effectively operate expensive and complex prerequisite software.

  20. 1

    Thanks, here's my product page.

    Yes, I know, it's, um, way suboptimal at best.

    But there are a few reasons. First off, I have been on Gumroad as a creator for only a few days. I just wanted to check out the process and tools for creating a new product, an ebook I originally published on another platform. Where, in turn, I never got a chance to revise and optimize the copy, for more reasons I won't elaborate on to prevent a stack overflow 😄

    1. 1

      Hey Paolo,

      One thing I really like is that your sales copy is conversational, honest, and focuses on the reader's needs while sprinkling in information like the feature on Google+. It gives the reader a good sense of the project's state. Also, a 30-day money back guarantee is the best way to operate, so congratulations on that.

      I like your third paragraph the best, consider leading with that one?

      I think your pricing is needlessly complicated. I kind of like the "free preview" with the 0+ because it gets you an email to do upsells later. However, I do a free preview with a simple link because I want to get the content in front of the reader as quickly as possible, hoping that the content of my book itself does more to sell the reader than a follow-up email would.

      I don't think it is the right call to differentiate by a few dollars for different digital formats. How do you know that your readers even know the difference between PDF, ePub, and mobi to know which one they want? Why are you making your customers make a relatively unimportant decision during the checkout process? Especially because you are doing $N+, I'd advise choosing one price point and selling all formats at that one price. Here is a twitter thread that I did about pricing with many digital formats. Just say "all formats" and pick a price, get rid of the other tiers.

      Best of luck with your sales!

      1. 1

        Thank you for the great feedback and insight. I mentioned Google+ because it's the only social proof I have.

        I rearranged the first paragraphs of the product description to lead with the third as you suggested. I also linked the free sample from the description. This is actually what I originally did as I hadn't figured yet how to edit the right tier structure.

        The uniformity of the format tiers seemed appealing. My inspiration for such a structure was this book. But pricing the first and most prominent option at $0+ felt odd and gave a contradictory pricing message. I removed all of the tiers and left only the one with all formats. Now it's indeed less confusing.

        Thanks again.

        1. 1

          I added a couple of photos to create a carousel.

        2. 1

          It looks to me like those improvements helped a lot!

          1. 1

            Thanks, I'm glad I'm on the right track.

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