Nice - how about this as a feature: # of downloads allowed. This would allow people to sell just 1 copy or set up something like a groupon-esque clone. First 50 people get 50% off. Then after 50 people say you're too late. Just an idea.
Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
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Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#32How does this work for art though? I mean you want to see the icon/graphic/design/whatever before you pay for it.
Also - once you've been redirected to the page, what's to stop you taking the link and sharing it yourself?
Also also: if I've got something to sell, can't I just bung it on ebay?
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#33Seriously? I'm not sure I could take anyone seriously that tried to sell me a link of "value." Why not just share the link for free like people have been doing since the beginning of time? Don't get me wrong. You did a great job getting this rolled out over a weekend and it looks nice. I must need some enlightening because I really don't get it.
Imagine you have a Fireworks iPhone mockup template. Instead of setting up a store somewhere to list your ONE item, you put the template up on your website and link to it through gumroad. Then, you give out the Gumroad link on Twitter: "Need a sweet Fireworks iPhone UI template? Buy it for a buck: gumroad.url" Your twatting friends click it, give you a dollar, get redirected to your website. They download the templat…
That Makes sense. How then do I make sure that they don't just go to the actual url once they know it instead of going through the paywall url?
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#34What are your fees? Didn't see that anywhere on the homepage.
Honestly, I'm not sure - hence them not being listed - but I think I'm going to go with 30%. And then for people making >$x a month dropping that in tiers. Thoughts?
Thought about it. How does this sound? "i think 30% below $10/month in sales, then 25% below $50, 20% below $100, 15% below $1000, 10% above $1000"
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#35This may just be the simplest way to sell digital goods.
I think all content should be uploaded to your servers otherwise if someone gets to the final link they can just send others to it.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#36Interesting idea, but I see two main issues with this.
First, anyone who pays and gets to the resulting link can trivially share that link; of course, you can always ask them nicely not to do so, and in some contexts that will work, but in general the security model just doesn't work unless you authenticate each paid user at the destination. You need to come up with an answer to this.
Second, if you market this as a link shortener which requires payment, I think you'll get backlash from people who currently use link shorteners to share links on Twitter and similar; from that perspective it feels like the kind of thing you'd see used by Twitter spammers/scammers. Suggested fix: flip it around, and present it as an astonishingly simple payment system based on URLs, which happens to behave like a shortener.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#37Seems good.
How long until exact clones appear? What makes GumRoad the micro-paywall of choice?
How long until shortenedlengthened websites appear which reduces how many people pay up?
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#38I get a broken lock icon, and "Connection partially encrypted" message. You need to make sure all externally linked resources on the page use SSL. Specifically: change http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cabin:regular,bold to https://.. .
Thanks for the notice, I'll do that.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, I'm not sure - hence them not being listed - but I think I'm going to go with 30%. And then for people making >$x a month dropping that in tiers. Thoughts?
At 30%, unless my product is pure profit I'm going to look elsewhere. A Paypal (or WePay!) buy now button isn't that hard to create after all...
Yeah - I'd rather try my luck at Kickstarter and pay their 5% fee and PayPal's 2.7%.
You'd have to write up some very specific usage scenarios that make that cut viable.
Apple's cut makes sense so far that you get some tangible advantages in terms of such things as exposure. You'll have to explain people what they get for the 30% cut.
Right now, I'm unconvinced that you get 30%'s worth. But, on another note, it's probably always better to start at a high price and dial it down than to launch a product and increase the prices over time. People will be crying bait and switch - justifiably.
Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad
#40How does this work for art though? I mean you want to see the icon/graphic/design/whatever before you pay for it. Also - once you've been redirected to the page, what's to stop you taking the link and sharing it yourself? Also also: if I've got something to sell, can't I just bung it on ebay?
I'd like to think that this has lower overhead than eBay. Nothing is there to stop you for now - I think this is more for casual use than building an entire business on top of. Yes, I'm thinking about adding in a preview option with cluttering up the experience.