How I Hit 163 Sales Selling a Freebie on Gumroad

Sarvam Fating
The Side Hustle Club
4 min readJul 11, 2022

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I built a Free Notion Template and it went Viral

The image you’re looking at above is the analytics page of my Notion Course Tracker.

I made 160+ sales within 2 days of launching my Free Notion Template. Learn more below.

Why Did I Create a Course Tracker?

I realised that I needed a Dashboard to track all my Courses. Because this is what happened to me :

  • I enrolled in courses but left them pending
  • I kept stacking pending courses and lost the urge to complete either of them
  • I jumped from course to course without completing either of them

This left me frustrated and I decided to look for a solution that would help me :

  • Store my Course Details
  • Take Notes
  • Set Tasks in a Calendar
  • Track my Time + Productivity to avoid Distraction

That’s when I learned how to create Notion Templates.

Why Did I Build a Course Tracker on Notion?

No-Code Tools come with their own Learning Curve. Look in the wrong places for resources and you’ll end up wasting your time & giving up on them.

But Notion caught my special attention because it was different for me. Here’s why :

  • Past experience using Notion as a note-taking app for school work.
  • Found it flexible and easy to use.
  • Intuitive design and features that made it seamless to use.
  • It’s completely free. No hidden charges or catches.

But my perspective on Notion changed for me when I found out I could build and sell its Templates to help others and make money in the process.

How Did I Learn to Build and Sell Notion Templates?

Looking for and learning from the wrong resources can be a big waste of time. Fortunately, I was on Twitter and found out about Easlo and how he’d built a $100k business just by creating and selling Notion templates.

So I looked him up and found a couple of his Free Notion Resources to start with. I’ve listed them for you below :

Turn them into your Notion Bible and implement everything you learn inside.

These are the exact resources I used to learn how to build Notion templates and sell them.

How Did I Get People to Download my Notion Template?

I began by signing up for a few popular Notion Marketplaces like Notionery and Prototion. [You’ll find more inside the free resources shared above]

But the majority of traffic came from Facebook Groups — Notion Made Simple & Free Notion Templates.

Sales are still hitting my Gumroad account although it’s already been 3 days since the launch and FB posts.

I couldn’t imagine that people would actually be interested in getting my Course Tracker. But I guess I could crack a few reasons behind them. Here they go :

My Notion Template was supposed to be Free, but someone generous decided to pay me for it. [notice the $5 on the Screenshot above?]

[Note : Gumroad, platform I used for selling my Notion Template, has a “pay what you want” feature. This is how anyone can pay you any amount they want to even if your product is free.]

My Takeaways

I never expected so many people to actually get my first Notion Template. But I guess I might’ve had a crack at it. So here you go :

  • I validated my Course Tracker inside a Discord Community before launching it in Public.
  • I built and trashed several Notion templates before building the Course Tracker.
  • I looked up things I was having trouble with as a Writer. Apparently, it resonated with others.
  • I used a few useful Widgets (Clock + POMODORO) in my Course Tracker to make it less boring.

If you’re planning to get into building and selling Notion templates, don’t forget to keep these in mind — they’ll fast-track your journey for sure.

Btw, don’t forget to get my Free Course Tracker if you’re struggling to organize your Courses in a single place. Grab it below.

What Next?

I plan on building several other Notion Templates in the coming weeks. Most will be free, some will be paid. Want a sneak peek at a few of them. Here you go :

  • Notion Entrepreneurs Toolkit
  • Life Planner OS
  • Twitter OS [Managing your Twitter from inside Notion]
  • LinkedIn OS [Managing your LinkedIn from inside Notion]
  • Resource Kit for Writers — Beginner to Advanced

If you’re interested in either of these, please feel free to get in touch with me on my Twitter. I’ll be more than happy to take your suggestions on them.

Building a Notion Templates is a “cool” side hustle for Writers. The best part?

  • No Coding skills required
  • Completely free to learn and sell
  • Just 1–2 hours a day is enough to learn and start creating Templates
  • No maintenance cost
  • You make money selling them!

Quick Question : What’s your favourite Side Hustle? Drop yours in the comments below.

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