Gumroad Does More Than You Think

Here’s How I Use It (Together With Substack)

Jun 23, 2025

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If you think Gumroad* is just a platform to sell your $9 eBook or that Notion template you made while avoiding real work… well, you’re not wrong.

But Gumroad is a lot more.

It’s a surprisingly flexible toolkit for creators. It offers small and big features, an easy-to-use platform, and all for free.

Let me show you how I use it, not just to sell stuff, but to run a good chunk of my creator business from one clean, minimal dashboard.

1. Selling Digital Products (Duh…)

Let’s start with the obvious. Gumroad was built for selling digital goods. E-Books, courses, templates, designs, and everything in between.

Set up is super easy.

Upload your file, write a product description, slap on a price tag, and you’re in business.

Gumroad handles everything behind the scenes: checkout, file delivery, customers, refunds, fraud detection.

I’ve sold all sorts of things here: writing guides, content planning tools, productivity templates.

And Gumroad just works.

It doesn’t try to upsell you on features you don’t need. It’s not a funnel-hungry monster. It’s a simple tool that does what it’s supposed to.

But it gets better…

2. Email Collection and Newsletter-Lite

Every time someone buys something from you , or even downloads a freebie, they’re added to your email list on Gumroad.

That list is a huge asset.

You can segment these people based on which product they bought, how much they paid, or where they came from. It’s a simple CRM with powerful connections.

And there’s more.

Gumroad lets you send email broadcasts directly from their dashboard. You can write and send a newsletter to all your customers or just a segment. Want to email everyone who bought your “How to Be a Minimalist” guide with an upsell for your “How to Be an Even Better Minimalist” course? You can.

I use Gumroad as a newsletter platform for certain niche audiences, while my main newsletter lives on Substack.

Gumroad is for the people who bought my productivity tools, writing guides, Notion templates, and designs*. Instead of juggling a separate email platform, I can talk to these people right where they are.

It’s not as fancy as ConvertKit or as bloated as Mailchimp, but it’s enough. And sometimes enough is perfect.

3. Email Automations Without the Price Tag

Gumroad also offers basic email automations.

After someone buys a product (or grabs a freebie), you can schedule follow-up emails. This is gold.

For example:

Day 0: Thanks for grabbing the product!
Day 2: Here’s how to use it well.
Day 5: Want more? Here’s another tool I made.
Day 10: Tell me how it’s going.

It’s all inside Gumroad. And it has a lot of power. I use this automation capability to run my Medium Masterminds newsletter.

And it’s all free. You pay a lot for capabilities like these on other traditional email marketing platforms like ConvertKit or MailerLite. And I mean A LOT!

Gumroad is perfect for me. I don’t need more.

4. The Blog You Didn’t Know You Had

Here’s a feature you might not even know exists: Gumroad Posts.

That means, you can blog on Gumroad. It’s not Ghost or WordPress. It’s not trying to be. It’s simple, minimal, and free.

I don’t blog on Gumroad. I use Substack for that. But if you don’t have a blog, but use Gumroad, you may as well try.

Bonus tip: Because posts can be public or only visible to customers, it adds a nice layer of exclusivity.

5. Buy Me A Coffee

One of my favorite things about Gumroad is using it as a tip jar, a replacement for Ko-Fi or Buy Me a Coffee, both of which I used in the past.

I set up a simple tip jar “product” on Gumroad and let people pay what they want. Some give $5, some give $15, and some wonderful lunatics drop $50 just because they liked something a lot.

Better yet, I can use this “donation” product as a backdoor into my email list. Everyone who donates becomes part of the same customer group.

I can send them thank-you notes, exclusive goodies, early-bird links to new stuff, all from the same dashboard I used to upload my digital products in the first place.

That kind of simplicity matters when you’re a one-person brand.

6. Taxes

If you’ve ever tried to sell a digital product in the EU, you've come across VAT, short for “Value Added Tax“.

It’s a paperwork nightmare. Different countries. Different rates. Different rules.

And the worst part: You, the humble creator, are supposed to keep track of all that.

Unless you’re on Gumroad.

Gumroad acts as the merchant of record, which is a boring-sounding term that actually means: they handle the tax headaches so you don’t have to.

Here’s what that includes:

Automatically calculating VAT based on the buyer’s location.
Including it in the price if needed
Filing and remitting the VAT to the proper authorities (EU, UK, Australia, etc.)
Generating downloadable VAT invoices for your buyers, which keeps your digital storefront compliant and professional.

This is a huge deal if you’re a solo creator in Europe (like me) or selling to international customers. If I had to register for VAT in every country I’ve made a €5 sale in, I’d be crying right now…

But with Gumroad, I don’t have to worry about it. They collect, file, remit, and reconcile. All invisibly.

You just get your payouts. Sure, they take a 10% cut, but for the service they’re providing, it’s worth every cent, in my opinion.

Gumroad’s handling of VAT is one of the most underrated features of the platform.

Other platforms leave you alone with that. Or don’t even mention that everyone who sells to customers in the EU (and some other countries) has to handle VAT in each of those countries. Even if you, the seller, don’t live in a country that even has VAT, like the US.

7. So, Is Gumroad All You Need?

Honestly? Sometimes yes.

If you’re a creator who doesn’t want to juggle a dozen tools just to run a modest digital business, Gumroad can wear a lot of hats.

It’s not perfect. But it’s useful in a quiet, trustworthy way.

I still use other tools, like Substack for more editorial newsletters, or Medium for my blogs and stories, but Gumroad is the hub that connects sales, communication, updates, and a little bit of community.

All for free. Apart from the 10% cut. I think that’s pretty cool.

The Bottom Line

We live in an age where everything is either a massive platform or a micro-SaaS startup with more features than sense.

Gumroad is somewhat… normal.

It won’t dazzle you with motion graphics or make you feel like you’re behind for not AB testing your onboarding email sequence.

But it will:

Sell your products
Collect your emails
Let you write and publish posts
Send newsletters
Deliver updates
Handle taxes
Accept donations
and more

All with few clicks and no monthly fees.

So yeah. Gumroad* is great. I use it for almost everything. You probably could, too.

*this is an affiliate or SparkLoop* partner link. I’ll get a commission if you decide to sign up.