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Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

gumroad.com

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Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#171

Post by jfoutz »

phoboslab wrote: post #47
sahillavingia wrote: post #2

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 "…

It's a weekend project. Implement your own and charge less.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#172

Post by hugh3 »

jeffclark wrote: post #14
evoltix wrote: post #10

Seriously? 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…

More likely usage scenario: pornography. Niche pornography.

(Hmmm, you may need to give some thought to legal questions raised when you're suddenly making money by selling every possible type of pornography into every jurisdiction of the world.)

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#173

Post by yoshyosh »

Am I missing something or could you just employ a download method rather than link? Maybe something like how istockphoto does it. Although the link leads to a purchase terminal, if they make the purchase it would prompt a download rather than a link they could share.

Also link shorteners + asking for credit card information immediately can get iffy in terms of trust and fraud. I understand that it is an mvp though. Later you might be able to employ a buy credits system like istockphoto does.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#174

Post by louismg »

rexreed wrote: post #153
louismg wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posted on it as well. http://blog.louisgray.com/2011/04/gumroad-launches-to-sell-d...

Wow - that's fast feedback! On a separate side-note would you be interested in early access to apps for similar sort of reviews / blog postings, or is that inappropriate to ask?

That's not inappropriate to ask at all. It's a fun hobby. Look through my site and you'll see I've done this a long time and have some big wins that launched first with me.

(TweetDeck, Beluga two examples)

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#175

Post by randallsquared »

JoachimSchipper wrote: post #136
phoboslab wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Bitcoins [...] _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today Putting aside numerous other issues, bitcoin.org states "The total eventual circulation will be 21 million bitcoins". [EDIT: DanI-S pointed out that bitcoins can already be subdivided. So this was switched from "there are too few bitcoins to support even American e-commerce" to "bitcoins are not valuable enough to support even American e-commerce". The n…

Bitcoins probably won't take off (cf the failures of all the other alternative digital currencies so far), but the whole number of bitcoins is no more a roadblock than the limited number of ounces of gold in the world was to getting everyone using gold as currency. The problems basically lie elsewhere.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#176

Post by markkanof »

phoboslab wrote: post #66
JoachimSchipper wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paypal already takes $0.30 plus a small percentage. I think the service is a neat idea, but microtransactions are not a solved problem.

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

I can't imagine bitcoins in their current implementation gaining traction as a form of payment with 'regular folks'. I mean the whole idea is complicated enough that even I as a technically minded person have trouble fully understanding how it works.

Plus it's not clear to me that there are enough bitcoins to go around. Some comments below point out the fact that bitcoins can be divided down to multiple decimal places. That's great and all but I can't imagine a 'regular person' being comfortable with the idea that they currently posses .00152 bitcoins. I doubt most people think of a penny as .01 dollars, because fractions are confusing. Plus even if that .00152 bitcoins is enough to buy a car, it still just seems like a minuscule amount.

I don't mean to be a huge downer. I think bitcoins are an interesting idea, but if you want to sell things now a more traditional payment method would probably make sense.

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#178

Post by Wolf_Larsen »

retube wrote: post #164
Wolf_Larsen wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, if you want to see the icon/graphic/design/whatever before you pay for it obviously the seller can show you a smaller/low-res/watermarked/whatevered version. The second question has been answered. This is a completely different model than ebay. These are really bad questions. I'm not putting you down - its no big deal, but just a little critical thought should answer these for you. Cheers,

> If you want to see the icon/graphic/design/whatever before you pay for it obviously... But that's the whole point. There's nothing that allows a seller to do this at the mo. > The second question has been answered. Sure, after my post. The answer to which seems to be "there isn't". So a valid question. > This is a completely different model to ebay. Perhaps from the platform's perspective, not from the sellers. The…

> Perhaps from the platform's perspective, not from the sellers. The motivation is to enable someone to quickly put up an item for sale. I can pretty damn quickly put up a single item for sale on ebay too.

You are completely wrong. The model is entirely different from the seller's perspective. See the author's original comment. I've included it below.

>How does this work for art though? I mean you want to see the icon/graphic/design/whatever before you pay for it. This is also answered by the original comment.

"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."

The seller will be sharing a link with a person who they have a seller/buyer relationship with. The product in question is the last step in a process that the seller has complete control over.

No more of this. Cheers,

Re: Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad

#180

Post by jasonlotito »

Natsu wrote: post #155
jasonlotito wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cool. Far too many people ignore what a solid relationship with the upstream payment provider can give you. Glad the fees are capped. I saw a $100 link, so not sure about what the cap is. As for collecting CC data, if it's passing through your code, even if you don't store it, you are accountable for it. I've seen the silliest things with people claiming they aren't storing CC data. And yet, you can browse fil…

> I've been doing this for 10 years now, and as soon as someone opens up a payment system like this, money laundering and other schemes will review how to abuse it. So when I see something like this, I get nervous. I ask: how would I exploit it. Maybe you should write a guide of all the ways you've seen people go wrong and the best ways to do things (and why). That could be useful to a lot of people on HN.

I should. =)

I take what I know for granted too much, I think.

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