Gumroad's Future And Serious Newsletter Upgrades
#64 By Burk
What you’ll get in this issue…
Topics: Newsletter updates I’ve been working on & Gumroad exodus and the future of digital product sales
Read time: 3 minutes
#1 Personal: Newsletter changes
You might have noticed that I’m in the middle of changing my newsletter format.
In the past, I was publishing between 1 and 3 times per week, once per week being the most recent schedule. I will keep doing that if I can, but I’m changing the issue layout. I ran a poll on Twitter to find out what people think about newsletter frequency.
What do you think about frequency?
The changes
I used to only republish content I wrote for Medium (or other places) in this newsletter.
While this has resulted in some great growth on Substack for me, it has become clear that this republishing style has downsides. Many of you follow me on Medium and read my stories there which I appreciate immensely. But this means you might not want to read the same stuff here again. Makes total sense!
So, here’s the new approach:
I will add a recent (or not so recent) story of mine in many newsletter issues, but only an excerpt with a link to the full article at the end.
This link will lead to my Medium story. For all Medium members, this won’t be an issue. They can read as much as they want. (You should become a member*)
For all other people, it would be an issue once they run into the free reading limit on Medium.
Therefore, I decided to use a friend link to my Medium posts here. This has multiple benefits, some of which I outlined in this article.
Now anybody who’s subscribed to my newsletter can also read the full Medium article for free.
Additionally, I’m going to share a couple of other things with you in each newsletter issue, like in this one.
I hope you like this new format.
*This is my Medium referral link, I’ll get a small commission if you decide to become a Medium member via my link. You don’t pay more, of course!
#2 Digital products: Gumroad exodus
The bigger news.
If you’re a creator, you’ve undoubtedly heard it: Gumroad shocked all users by introducing a new flat fee of 10% (plus payment provider fees) on each sale. That’s a 300+% increase in fees for some people.
It is a substantial increase for me as well.
Not good.
This prompted countless creators to seek out alternatives that offer similar features with lower fees. I am one of those people.
Luckily, I had already been using an alternative alongside Gumroad for quite a while.
It’s called Payhip.
Payhip resides in the UK and offers much of the same Gumroad does, including handling VAT requirements while cutting Gumroad’s fees in half with 5% on the free plan. You can go up to zero fees with their paid plans which makes a lot of sense for high-value sellers.
I compared Gumroad and Payhip thoroughly in this article if you want to know more.
A couple of week ago, I shifted my focus to Payhip and removed (without deleting!) many of my products from my Gumroad store.
A new chapter.
If you’re still looking for alternatives, give Payhip a shot!
Until the end of Feb 2023, they’ll even remove all fees! Yes, zero fees on sales. They also help you migrate your stuff from Gumroad to Payhip. Genius!
If Payhip isn’t your jam, I tweeted out a list of other alternatives which went low-key viral with numerous other services responding. Check that Twitter thread out below.
#3 Thanks
This brings me to my last point.
Thank you all so much for being here and keeping up with me!
2022 was a crazy ride, ups and downs, thankfully primarily ups.
I intend to make 2023 even better.
I appreciate all of your support.
Thank you & and a great 2023 to all of you!
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I always enjoy reading your articles but I think I read more of them on Medium. (for no real reason I don't think) I honestly don't recall the layout of the newsletter before the changes. This one is fine. We'll see I guess. 😆
Fantastic news for all of us Burk fans like me 😉
Great coverage. Great alternatives. Great new adventure, my friend
👌🏻
Onward & Upwards✨