Happy Sunday, Creators,

Today, we’re covering:

The five steps to financial freedom
EU e-Publication VAT rates
How to boost your productivity
If you’re truly living free

Let’s dive in!

The Five Steps To Financial Freedom As a Creator

The internet has given creators the ability to generate an income that leads to financial freedom. But getting to the level where you achieve financial freedom is difficult.

1. Building An Audience

The recipe to creating an audience is simple, create and distribute content. But, the best creators learn how to master a platform, test content, and scale the best performing content. They’re then able to leverage this audience to monetize their skills.

Use this Grow Your Audience Challenge to start building an engaging following.

2. Forming An Identity

One of the most important aspects of building an audience is forming an identity. Your identity is what people know you for. The more your identity is defined, the more you will attract people to your social channels. Think of it as a magnet bringing people who feel like they share the same values and interests as you.

3. Building an Email List

You don’t want to rely solely on a social platform for distribution, communication, or promotions as a creator. That’s why the most successful Gumroad creators also build email lists. Because, unlike the algorithms that determine the reach via social platforms, your reach via email marketing doesn’t change. With this, creators use their email lists to forge even deeper relationships with their audience.

Use this 5-day course to start building your email list.

4. Launching A Membership

One of the key elements to creating financial freedom is recurring revenue. As a creator, you do this by launching a membership. A membership can help you predict your monthly recurring revenue, annual recurring revenue, and customer lifetime value. These metrics will help fuel the right decisions to scale your online business.

Here’s every resource needed to launch your Gumroad membership.

5. Creating An Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to scale your business. Gumroad creators like Vegalia and Daniel Vassallo have created effective affiliate programs by finding creators similar to them, with different but relevant audiences, that promote their products for a split in revenue share. For Daniel, his affiliate program led to over $25,000 in additional revenue in 2020.

Here’s how to launch an effective Gumroad affiliate program.

By following these five steps, any Gumroad creator can turn a side hustle into an income that leads to financial freedom.

If you haven’t already, join 5,000+ other creators who support each other within our community here.

Here’s What We Shipped For Gumroad Creators

You can now mark products as an e-Publication for VAT purposes. You can read the full post here.

We now support direct bank transfers to four more countries.

We now support Google Analytics 4.

You Can Now Organize Files in Folders. You can read how here.

More amazing features are coming soon.

Make sure to check your inbox for updates.

What’s Happening In The Creator Economy

Best practices for product cover photos and thumbnail images
Nine things Manisha learned after launching her first product on Gumroad
Nine ways to make $100k a year
Sahil’s advice to level up in life
Here’s how to embed an email subscribe form on your site
Gumroad affiliates earned over $4,300,000 in the past 18 months

Sahil Started His Career Chasing Unicorns

In one weekend, Sahil built the prototype for Gumroad.

And from there, it was off to the races.

As a nineteen-year-old solo founder, Sahil raised over $8 million in venture capital, recruited a superstar team, and could see the unicorn in the distance.

Little did he know this was the beginning of his journey as the minimalist entrepreneur.

And now he's pulling back the curtain for free by giving access to anyone who wants to read the first chapter.

All you have to do is DM him here.

Are You Free?

Before the creator economy...

The focus was growth at all costs.

But the tides have shifted, and now as a creator, the focus is freedom at all costs.

The internet has given every creator the leverage to experience and define freedom how they choose.

This gives you control over how you work and live.

And through this, your productivity rises.

But many times, we don’t know how to determine if we’re free or not.

This thread gives you six signs if you’re truly living free.

Improve Your Productivity Today

Don’t mistake being “busy” for being productive.

Too often, creators fall into the trap of feeling busy without progression.

Instead, think of your day as multiple sprints and not a marathon.

Quick, intense bouts of work where progress is made.

And ditch the long hours where nothing on your to-do list gets done.

Like Naval says, treat yourself like an athlete who “trains and sprints” then “rests and reassesses.”

We’re Launching The Gumroad Podcast

Next week, we’re launching The Gumroad Podcast and we’re so excited to share it with you!

You’ll love our guests and the actionable tips from each episode, but more on that soon.

Until next week,

The Gumroad Team