Happy Sunday, creators!

On Gumroad, this week alone:

12,508 creators earned something

3,459 creators earned more than $100

600 creators earned more than $1,000

40 creators earned more than $10,000

1 creator earned more than $100,000

From ‘How-to’ Articles To $25k In One Month

Six days before graduating from Grinnell College, at 21, Philip Kiely launched his first product on Gumroad. And 24 hours later, Kiely netted $20,000.

But it didn’t start there.

Philip spent his four years learning the ins and outs of Computer Science (CS).

But even as a CS guy, Philip came from a family of writers. All throughout his educational background, he had done work for the school newspaper and English classes on top of his CS coursework.

This gave him an edge.

But it wasn’t until Philip read Nathan Barry’s book Authority: A Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Publishing that his mindset started to change.

This inspired him to start creating.

It Started With Client Work.

Before writing his own content, Philip started writing content for clients.

Within a few months, he was writing for some of the heaviest hitters in the tech magazine space like FloydHub, CSS-Tricks, and Smashing Magazine.

At this time, Philip was “just some college kid” who found an entry point that many developers didn’t feel confident about.

Many developers didn’t feel confident about writing long-form tutorials detailing how to do X in Python or do Y with JavaScript.

And he did.

Phillip was writing 2,000-word tutorials that were getting read by thousands of developers.

And In 2019 An Email Sparked An Idea.

Philip received an email from an individual who hired him his sophomore year for an internship.

It said, “Hey Philip, I see you’ve been doing all this writing stuff, can you teach me how to do that? Can you teach me how to get published?”

So, he did.

He wrote a short ‘how-to’ guide and charged a consulting fee.

But it was the fact that someone who had ten times more work experience than Philip was asking him for help and was also paying him for the help.

Philip quickly realized there are other people who need help and would be willing to pay for it.

This sparked the idea to write a book for developers.

And when COVID hit, his school shut down, and Philip was keen on turning this into his full-time job.

Full Time Meant A Book Full Of Value.

An outline turned into a 10,000-page book, but after zooming out, Philip realized what he had created was less ambitious than what he wanted to deliver.

He had much more to create around the subject.

So, he continued to add content and also used the power of cold emails to interview some of the top developers in the game and add their interviews to the book.

With this, he added 11 interviews from individuals like Patrick McKenzie, Tracy Osborn, Cortland Allen, Daniel Vassallo, and Chris on Code.

Now, he was ready to package and deliver.

Over the course of the next couple of months, Philip cranked out all the needed work to make his book immensely valuable.

And six days before graduating, Philip launched his first product online.

He was tense and nervous.

But then the first sale rolled in.

And then another.

After the first hour, he made $1000, then $3000 in the next three hours, $10,000 in eight hours, and by the end of his first day, Philip had surpassed $20,000 in sales.

This is just a part of his goal to generate multi-generational wealth through family-owned small businesses.

You can read his entire story here.

You can purchase his products here.

Gumroad Q2 2021 Update

Sahil discusses Gumroad's Q2 performance, what we've shipped, exciting new features, and more!

Click here to watch the recording.

What We Shipped For Gumroad Creators

You can now remove unwanted followers.

You can now go straight to your Gumroad dashboard by visiting http://app.gumroad.com

What’s Happening In The Creator Economy

Inspiring Gumroad Creators

Vlad Pasca crossed 1,000 customers on Gumroad for his personal Twitter Swipe File
Elena Madrigal created a Notion starter pack to help creators optimize their time
Gabi Fuller created mobile presets to turn your unedited photos into art
Meredith Gunderson helps you become centered and calm with her 10 days of meditation
Adam Klink helps you run faster and get stronger with his 10-week fitness program

After Your First $1 The Possibilities Are Endless

Every creator you admire first made $1 before making thousands or even millions.

Jack Butcher advises creators to focus on making their first $1 on the internet.

This tiny achievement will change your life.

Because if you can make $1 then you can make $10.

And if you can make $10 then you can make $100+.

The cycle continues until you reach your financial goal.

The Internet Gives You The Ability To Define Your Own Success

Many people see success as being at the top of a hierarchy.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote: “Contrary to orthodox belief, success isn't being on top of a hierarchy. Success is standing outside all hierarchies.”

The internet gives you the ability to do this.

The ones who define their own success found their pocket on the internet and built up their brands within these spaces.

The more you scale this, the more successful and free you will become.

Use this 5-day course to learn how to generate daily sales for your product and start your journey of creating the lifestyle you desire.

Until next week,

The Gumroad Team