📝 Notion Templates: Building in Public, $100,000 in 1 Month, Micro-Templates

In this Trends.vc Report, we talk about 1:1 onboarding, freemium, all-in-one templates, micro-templates and more.

🔍 Problem

You need to organize your life and work.

💡 Solution

Notion templates help you manage notes, tasks and projects. All in one place.

🏁 Players

Notion Templates

Lifestyle Tracker • Focus on things that matter by Rosie Sherry
Property Listing • Property portfolio for real estate agencies by Santosh
Freelance OS • Track your projects and clients by Easlo
Task Architect • Task management system by Pascio
Notion Agency Kit • Launch and scale your agency business by Matt Bio
Knowledge Hub Template • Collect and save important resources by Marie Poulin
Ultimate Brain • Organize your notes, tasks and projects by Thomas Frank
Airbnb Super Pack • Property manager for Airbnb hosts by Alejandra Cienfuegos

🛠 How to Build Notion Templates

Offer micro-templates. These are simple templates that focus on 1 job-to-be-done.

Psclla made Food Diary to track eating habits.

Ithakka made Risk Register to log project risks.

Hamza made Fiverr Quick Responses and Project Questionnaire.

Red Gregory made a Pomodoro Planner, Podcast Calendar and more.

Build in public to earn trust and early customers.

Victor Bigfield is building Buildearn OS in public.

Pascio shares how he made $144,000 with Notion templates.

Thomas Frank shares strategies to make $100,000 in a month with Notion templates.

Find inspiration in others’ work. Take the guesswork out of what to build.

Smoul based Grow with Naval Ravikant on Naval’s mental models.

Wesley Anna based Ultimate Notion Dashboard on templates by other creators.

Fernando Cordeiro based User Research Playbook on The Mom Test and Deploy Empathy.

🌱 How to Grow Notion Templates

Offer freemium templates to lower customer acquisition costs.

Ismail offers free and paid versions of GTD Dashboard.

Julian Paul offers 2 free templates as part of Bootstrap OS.

Rosidssoy offers free and paid versions of Finance Tracker.

Offer free templates as lead magnets to build an email list.

Ben Issen offers his Invoice Template for free.

Matt Bio offers Weekly Habit Tracker and Project Proposal for free.

Sarthak Sharma offers Basic Employee Management System for free.

Use affiliate marketing to get others to share your templates.

Matt Bio lets you become an affiliate for his Notion templates.

Jess Lozano offers a 20% commission for selling Ultimate Agent Hub.

Pascio says his best affiliates made $12,000 for sharing his templates.

💰 How to Monetize Notion Templates

Offer one-time pricing to lower buyer fatigue.

Bootstrap OS costs $53.

Finance Tracker costs $19.

Obsidian Life OS costs $45.

Build custom templates for a fixed fee.

William Nutt builds smart workspaces.

iNotion offers custom workspaces for up to $1,289.

Miha makes cinematic videos for Notion templates.

Sev Estil helps businesses build custom workspaces.

Rames Quinerie builds custom templates for up to $9,995.

Tem Nugmanov helps to optimize Notion workspaces with Optemization.

Upsell a 1:1 version with personalized help. Done-with-you is more valuable than do-it-yourself.

Davis W. Frank charges $69 for a call on using 1-1 Tracker.

Triz charges $69 for a 45-minute call on using ProjectOS Pro.

Ben Taylor upsells a custom Notion CRM setup with 1:1 consulting.

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see more custom widgets for personalizing Notion templates.

Blocs offers Pomodoro, water and habit trackers.

Notion Plus offers dozens of widgets for custom templates.

Widgets.so helps to boost productivity with custom widgets.

Kairo Notion Blocks offers colorful time, habit and goal tracking widgets.

SaaS products will be inspired by Notion. They will try to be as simple and elegant.

eFounders built folk, a CRM inspired by Notion. They officially compare the two.

Marie Martens and Filip Minev built Tally. They wanted to build “Notion of form builders”.

Christophe Pasquier is building Slite. He wanted to build a knowledge management tool that is easier than Notion.

We’ll see more all-in-one templates. These are operating systems for your work, business and life.

HiveMind is a template for early-stage startups.

UX Chunks is a manual for designing great products.

Student OS has everything you need for your academic career.

Web Designer Hub helps to manage web design projects in one place.

Small Business OS helps to build, grow and operate small businesses.

Newsletter Operating System helps to curate, write, grow and monetize newsletters.

😠 Haters

“Templates have limitations. It’s better to find a SaaS for your needs.”
Most SaaS are closed-source businesses. They too have limitations. But you can’t tailor their interface to your needs.

“It’s hard to differentiate.”
While the core is the same. You can add a “service” to stand out. It’s harder to copy a 1:1 call, cohort-based course or community.

“These templates are easy to clone.”
Second Brain is a popular template type. Easlo sold 4,640 copies. Thomas Frank made $760,000 with Ultimate Brain. Simon sold 1,902 copies of the Life OS bundle. Do not fear the competition. Distribution is what matters.

🔗 Links

Making $500,000 with Notion Templates • The thread behind this report.
Building a Report on Notion Templates • The tweet behind this report.
Selling Notion Templates • Beginner’s guide on making and marketing Notion templates.
$100,000 MRR Selling Notion Templates • Thomas Frank talking about building and marketing Notion templates.

📁 Related Reports

Audience-First Products • Validate products, build distribution and stay accountable.
Micro-Education Businesses • Micro-education helps you learn new skills fast.
Personal Brands • It is what people say about you when you are not in the room.
Build in Public • Make a habit of sharing struggles, wins, milestones, questions and lessons.
Digital Products • Share your knowledge in a scalable way.

Become a Trends Pro Member to get the full report on Notion Templates.

Do you want to get the next free Trends.vc Report? Join 60,000+ founders discovering new markets and ideas.