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Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

gumroad.com

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Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That second formulation is how I thought of it in the first place. You could get around the link-sharing problem for those that wanted to avoid it by offering single-use URLs, and provide Gumroad either with a way of generating a new single-use URL for your resource, or a way to pull a new URL from your site. Both of these methods would require some degree of control over the resource, however (you wouldn't be able t…

To address the first problem, you should offer a passive solution and not require the user to set up anything special in the way of single-use URLs. In fact, I assumed the issue of payers sharing the end-link was such an obvious problem that the service would have already addressed this and had it built-in by default (but of course, MVP/first-release, I understand). The way I'd see it working is, I give Gumroad a lin…

Sure, that would make sense for content that could be so served (for example, the pencil icon used as the example here) - but not all content is like that. What about content you want people to interact with (a blog post on your site, a special beta registration form)? You also take on all the problems of becoming a content distributor rather than a link distributor.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#74

Over this past weekend I had the idea to build a sort of link shortener but with a payment system built-in. There have been many times in the past where I wanted to share a link - on Twitter or just through IM with a few friends - but did not want to go through the overhead of setting up a whole store. So I built Gumroad. I coded/designed from 12PM -> 11PM on Saturday and 8AM -> 11PM on Sunday. There are still tons o…

I love the idea! This makes it really easy to sell scripts (e.g. your own jQuery plugins or whatever) for $5 where it would normally be too much work to set up some payment processing. The 30% cut is way too high though. Especially for higher priced links - I wouldn't want to sell my $99 game engine[1] through your service. I think something like "5%, but at least $0.30" would make more sense. But maybe having such "…

I disagree. Take a bare minimum of 15%. That seems to be about what's competitive for non-merchant-account payment systems. You'll need to keep margins up.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To address the first problem, you should offer a passive solution and not require the user to set up anything special in the way of single-use URLs. In fact, I assumed the issue of payers sharing the end-link was such an obvious problem that the service would have already addressed this and had it built-in by default (but of course, MVP/first-release, I understand). The way I'd see it working is, I give Gumroad a lin…

Sure, that would make sense for content that could be so served (for example, the pencil icon used as the example here) - but not all content is like that. What about content you want people to interact with (a blog post on your site, a special beta registration form)? You also take on all the problems of becoming a content distributor rather than a link distributor.

I agree with everything you said. If this were my project, these are all problems I'd be thinking about and trying to address. Looks like you're on the right path ;-)

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#77
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And 2 minutes later the "secret" link is shared on Twitter.

I think people who use Gumroad won't really have that as a concern - but if enough people bring it up, I'll see what I can do about it!

For many of the things that people might want to do, a "patronage" model isn't so bad either: the creator demands $1000 for the work behind the link; people can leave an e-mail address and pay anything from $1 to the full remaining price, and will be notified as soon as the work is available.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking about it, Gumroad is the perfect application for Bitcoins: http://www.bitcoin.org/

No, it isn't. Bitcoins are clever and all, but how many people would be willing to set it up just to see a link?

Sure, at the moment only nerds use Bitcoins, but this _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today.

But yes, it probably doesn't make much (commercial) sense right now.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking about it, Gumroad is the perfect application for Bitcoins: http://www.bitcoin.org/

No, it isn't. Bitcoins are clever and all, but how many people would be willing to set it up just to see a link?

Just a crazy idea, when something like NaCl catches on perhaps gumroad could generate bitcoins client-side in lieu of payment?

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#80
Brilliant little idea, I think the big selling point is speed and ease of use. I might create a similar product to this for BitBuffet.com (a similar file selling service I created), as I think the process can be further streamlined.

Digital sale processes still need streamlining for everyday users (especially one-off users) and I can see a service like this taking off.

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