I Sold on Payhip for 3 Months

And Not on Gumroad

Selling digital products online has become an increasingly popular way for entrepreneurs and creators to generate passive income.

Platforms like Payhip make it easy to get started selling ebooks, online courses, templates, and more with just a few clicks.

After hearing the success stories of others selling on Payhip, I decided to give it a try myself. In this post, I’ll share my experience getting started and selling on Payhip for 3 months (not on Gumroad), including how much money I made.

Why I Got Started Selling on Payhip

I first learned about Payhip from some YouTube videos and blog posts about how to make money online. The idea of setting up an online “storefront” and earning passive income from digital products appealed to me.

Some key advantages that drew me to Payhip:

• Low barrier to entry: You don’t need a website or hosting. Payhip handles all the backend for a flat 5% transaction fee when you have sales.
• Instant payouts: You get paid instantly when someone buys your product, with payouts deposited directly to PayPal.
• Marketing tools: Payhip has some built-in marketing features like affiliate programs to help drive sales.
• Ownership: You retain full ownership of your products and brand. If you stop using Payhip, you take your products with you.

After researching Payhip more, I decided to give it a shot and set a goal to commit to selling on the platform consistently for 3 months.

The Advantages of Payhip Over Gumroad

Selling digital products online has never been easier thanks to ecommerce platforms like Gumroad and Payhip. They allow you to quickly set up a storefront, upload products, and start selling.

While Gumroad is the more well-known option, Payhip has some unique advantages that make it a better choice for many creators and entrepreneurs.

As someone who has used both platforms extensively, I’ve found Payhip to be simpler, more customizable, and offer a better affiliate program.

If you’re trying to decide between Gumroad and Payhip, here’s why you should choose Payhip:

1. You Can Easily Customize Payhip to Look Like Your Own Website

One of the best features of Payhip is the ability to completely white-label the platform and make it blend seamlessly with your existing website. You can customize everything from colors, fonts, logos, and more.

This level of customization means you can maintain a consistent brand identity across your sites. Visitors will never know your Payhip store isn’t a part of your main website. Keeping the user experience and visuals cohesive fosters trust.

With Gumroad, you don’t have any control over the look and feel. You’re stuck with their template and branding, which may clash with your own aesthetic.

But Payhip gives you the flexibility to create an integrated experience across your properties. Consistent branding equals a professional, polished user experience.

2. Payhip Allows You To Set Up An Affiliate Program To Recruit Influencers

One of the most effective marketing tactics is leveraging influencers on social media. Payhip makes this easy by offering a built-in affiliate program.

You can recruit influencers on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to promote your products in exchange for a commission on sales.

The greater your network of affiliates, the wider your product reach will become. Just a single post from a relevant influencer can drive a surge of traffic and sales overnight.

Payhip’s affiliate dashboard also makes it simple to track referrals and payouts. You can easily see which influencers are driving the most conversions and adjust your promotions accordingly.

Gumroad lacks any sort of affiliate capabilities natively. You’d need to splice together multiple third-party platforms to try and recreate Payhip’s seamless influencer program.

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

3. Repurpose Payhip Blog Posts into Pinterest Pins to Boost Traffic

In addition to publishing long-form blog content directly on your Payhip store, you can exponentially increase its reach by repurposing it on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a highly visual platform perfect for promoting your blog posts. It isn’t solely a social media platform but a search engine for vertical photos.

Simply take your posts’ link from Payhip and create eye-catching pins featuring key info, stats, images, and more from the content.

Make sure to link each Pinterest pin back to the full post on your Payhip site.

Pinterest’s huge user base will allow your content to reach new audiences organically. The highly sharable nature of pins means your posts can get in front of thousands of new potential customers.

Repinning and resharing on Pinterest creates a compounding effect for driving more traffic back to your store over time. User-generated content powers the platform.

Gumroad stores lack any capacity for content creation.

So you miss out entirely on this easy free traffic source from Pinterest and other content platforms.

Payhip’s built-in blogging engine sets you up perfectly to tap into Pinterest and expand your organic reach exponentially.

4. Repurpose Your Payhip Content on Medium to Expand Reach

To maximize your organic reach even further, you can repurpose Payhip blog content on Medium.

Turn your Payhip posts into shorter snippets and publish them across your Medium profile. Then include calls-to-action in each article driving people back to the full piece on your Payhip store.

This allows you to tap into Medium’s existing audience and domain authority while creating a bridge back to your products. It’s an ingenious method to increase organic traffic.

Again, no options like this exist on Gumroad. You only have control over your narrowly focused product pages.

5. Answering Relevant Questions on Quora Drives Traffic

In addition to Medium, another great traffic source is Quora. The Q&A site has a huge search volume. Answer questions on Quora and drive traffic back to your Payhip blogs.

Establishing yourself as an industry expert by regularly answering niche questions can drive targeted traffic back to your Payhip blogs. Make sure to organically work mentions of your products into helpful responses.

There’s no easier way to demonstrate your credibility than by being a valuable resource within your topic area. Quora makes it possible.

The best part is this strategy costs nothing other than your time. The payoff in increased organic visibility is immense.

Choosing My Niche and Products

The first step was deciding what type of digital product I wanted to sell. I looked at thriving niches and what aligned with my skills and interests.

A few potentials I considered:

• Facebook Monetization Guidelines (because Facebook Monetization Tools were released early in 2022 and are booming right now)
• Facebook Content Creation Tested strategies
• Social media and marketing courses

I ended up settling on blogging/Facebook content as my niche. Some reasons this niche appealed to me:

• I have experience blogging and freelance writing.
• Content marketing is a growing field.
• Helpful “how-to” info has a wide appeal.

For my first product, I created 25 Chapters with a 242-page ebook, called “The Rising Content Creator”. It covers things like:

• Secrets even big content creators miss
• Offering 5 year’s worth of trial and triumph in content creation
• Mastering Facebook monetization with expert tools, tips, and tricks
• Endless strategies for content creation that keep your audience captivated
• Perfect for aspiring influencers and seasoned content creators alike
• Monetization strategies aside from Facebook Monetization tools
• Traffic-boosting tips

I priced the ebook at $36.75, which is reasonable for the length and value of more than 5 years of experience provided.

The Rising Content Creator on Facebook

Creating My Payhip Storefront

With my first digital product ready to go, it was time to set up my Payhip store.

The process was very quick and intuitive. Here are the key steps:

1. Signed up for a Payhip account
2. Customized my store name, tagline, and logo
3. Added my ebook by uploading the PDF file
4. Wrote a product description
5. Priced my ebook and enabled the sample download feature
6. Set up my payout details with PayPal for instant transfers
7. Set up for landing pages
8. Writing Payhip blogs
9. Created affiliate program, coupon codes for launches and promotions

And that was it — my store was ready to start processing orders! The site looked very professional while only taking about an hour to set up.

Promoting and Selling My Ebook

With my store ready to go, it was time to drive some traffic and sales. Here are some of the marketing tactics I used:

• SEO: Optimized my site and product listings for keywords. This helped people find my store through search.
• Social media and other sites: Promoted my launch on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Quora, and Medium. Ran some paid ads on Facebook targeting my niche.
• Email marketing: Sent broadcasts to my subscriber list announcing my new ebook. Sent follow-up promos.
• Affiliate marketing: I tapped Facebook Content Creators with more than 10,000 Followers as my affiliates. I gave them my ebook for free so that they could create content out of it. Their followers are mine too. I tapped as many as I could until I got a total of 10 million followers (their followers.)
• Online communities: Posted in Facebook Groups, Quora Spaces, and subreddits related to my niche. Engaged to build relationships.
• Content marketing: Wrote blog posts on Payhip Blogs and guides related to my ebook topic and linked to my store.

It took consistent effort, but traffic and sales started rolling in through these channels. The affiliate program in particular became a significant source of sales.

My Payhip Earnings After 3 Months

So after sticking with Payhip consistently for 3 months, how much was I able to earn selling my blogging ebook?

In total, I made $7,974.75 in sales over my first 3 months on my one ebook alone. The demand is good. Although I have only a 0.47% conversion rate, this is extra money.

Payhip Earnings on The Rising Content Creator Ebook (Screenshot by the Author)

My affiliate program drove 46% of sales, meaning it generated $3,668.38 on its own.

I was pleasantly surprised to get this amount in 3 months in passive income from this one digital product.

Key Takeaways and Lessons Learned

Here are some of my biggest takeaways from selling on Payhip for 3 months as a beginner:

• Pick a niche and product that matches your skills and demand. This makes creating and marketing products much easier.
• Have a plan for driving traffic. It takes consistent effort to get sales. SEO, social media, affiliates, and email marketing were key for me.
• Reinvest profits to grow. I used some earnings to run more paid ads on Facebook and improve my store. Reinvesting accelerates growth.
• Don’t quit too soon. It took a couple of months before sales picked up. Patience and persistence pay off.
• Provide excellent value. My ebook over-delivered on value. This earned me customer loyalty.
• Learn from failures. I tweaked my marketing plan based on what worked and what didn’t. Failures in owning a website provide data to improve.

Overall, I’m thrilled with my Payhip earnings so far. The 3-month experiment was a resounding success. I plan to add more products to my store and continue leveraging Payhip’s selling tools and affiliate program.

Ready to Start Selling Your Own Digital Products?

I hope reading about my experience gives you a better idea of Payhip’s potential for earning passive income online.

With a well-made digital product and some smart marketing, you can start seeing sales and income fairly quickly as I did.

Payhip makes it so easy to get started selling. You don’t need your own website or cover any processing fees.

So if you’re looking for a side income stream online, definitely consider setting up your own Payhip store!

To recap, here are some tips to get started:

• Choose a niche — Pick a specific topic that you have expertise in. Make sure there’s demand.
• Add high-value products — An ebook, course, template etc. Produce excellent content.
• Make an eye-catching store — Use a logo, color theme, and inviting design.
• Set up your account — Add payout details so you get paid instantly when you make sales.
• Market consistently — Use social media, SEO, affiliates, and communities to promote.
• Provide excellent service — Respond to customers quickly and deliver value.
• Learn and improve — Track data and results. Tweak your system to maximize sales.

If I can earn over $7,000 in 3 months with my first product on Payhip, you can absolutely do the same, if not better!

Ready to start your own profitable Payhip store? Comment below and let me know how can I help you.