💡 Creator Spotlight featuring @dvassallo
🚶♂️ Daniel Vassallo’s self-employment journey through Gumroad started as an experiment.
💰 Here’s how he’s made $200,000 in the past six months after leaving Amazon to work for himself on Gumroad 👇🏽
🚶♂️ Daniel Vassallo’s self-employment journey through Gumroad started as an experiment.
💰 Here’s how he’s made $200,000 in the past six months after leaving Amazon to work for himself on Gumroad 👇🏽
❎ He didn’t set out to be a Gumroad creator.
👨💻 In February 2019, he left Amazon, wrote about his decision, and started building a social media following.
✍️ “I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing” he told us
👨💻 In February 2019, he left Amazon, wrote about his decision, and started building a social media following.
✍️ “I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing” he told us
🔨 After leaving Amazon, he started building Userbase, an ambitious SaaS product he knew would take time to scale.
🤔 He also knew he wouldn’t be able to make a living from Userbase immediately.
💨 Six months later he posted a tweetstorm about AWS.
🤔 He also knew he wouldn’t be able to make a living from Userbase immediately.
💨 Six months later he posted a tweetstorm about AWS.
💪 There was a strong response to the thread.
🙋♂️ Daniel started replying and answering questions in a tweet or two, and he soon learned he couldn’t encapsulate everything in the replies.
🗯️ The thread proved to him there was an opportunity to elaborate more.
🙋♂️ Daniel started replying and answering questions in a tweet or two, and he soon learned he couldn’t encapsulate everything in the replies.
🗯️ The thread proved to him there was an opportunity to elaborate more.
ℹ️ Daniel knew a lot about AWS and he also knew there was already a lot of information about AWS.
😁 He learned from replying that people were interested in learning about AWS from him specifically.
✨ This realization was the inspiration for his first Gumroad product.
😁 He learned from replying that people were interested in learning about AWS from him specifically.
✨ This realization was the inspiration for his first Gumroad product.
🤔 In August 2019, Daniel began to understand he could share his perspective.
💰 Still, the goal of creating a product was not merely to express himself but purely financial.
⁉️ “I had no idea whether it was going to sell anything or if it was going to make any money” he said.
💰 Still, the goal of creating a product was not merely to express himself but purely financial.
⁉️ “I had no idea whether it was going to sell anything or if it was going to make any money” he said.
⌛ He time-boxed about a month to create the product.
🎄 On Christmas Day 2019, he released “The Good Parts of AWS.”
💸 After 14 days, the e-book had made $45,000, and that week he exceeded $100,000 in total sales from that one product.
🎄 On Christmas Day 2019, he released “The Good Parts of AWS.”
💸 After 14 days, the e-book had made $45,000, and that week he exceeded $100,000 in total sales from that one product.
💨 Soon after Daniel’s first product began selling, he posted a thread on how the product was doing.
🙋♂️ He challenged people to ask him anything and he answered hundreds of questions.
🗯️ Like before, proof of demand and the kernel of a product idea came from these exchanges.
🙋♂️ He challenged people to ask him anything and he answered hundreds of questions.
🗯️ Like before, proof of demand and the kernel of a product idea came from these exchanges.
#️⃣ At the time, Daniel had 12,000 Twitter followers.
📈 A common question he was getting after his first Gumroad product was, “How did you build your following?”
😅 He was answering the same question repeatedly, but he could sense people weren’t getting all the information.
📈 A common question he was getting after his first Gumroad product was, “How did you build your following?”
😅 He was answering the same question repeatedly, but he could sense people weren’t getting all the information.
😃 This gave him the inspiration to try his second Gumroad product.
🔡 He worked hard to summarize everything, taking what he shared for free and organizing it on slides.
📹 He shared his screen, gave examples, and produced a 100-minute video tutorial.
🔡 He worked hard to summarize everything, taking what he shared for free and organizing it on slides.
📹 He shared his screen, gave examples, and produced a 100-minute video tutorial.
📢 Daniel uploaded the video on Gumroad and announced it on Twitter.
💸 Two months later, the product is fast approaching $100,000 in sales.
💸 Two months later, the product is fast approaching $100,000 in sales.
💬 In Daniel’s words, “There’s a limit to how much you can answer on Twitter. That spillover starts to become the
opportunity and potential for information products. Ultimately, this is about making money from products that have a broad interest where you can help people.”
opportunity and potential for information products. Ultimately, this is about making money from products that have a broad interest where you can help people.”
🔗 Links:
👨 Daniel's Gumroad Profile: gumroad.com/dvassallo
💻 AWS Course: gumroad.com/l/aws-good-par…
🐦 Twitter Course: gumroad.com/l/twitter-audi…
👨 Daniel's Gumroad Profile: gumroad.com/dvassallo
💻 AWS Course: gumroad.com/l/aws-good-par…
🐦 Twitter Course: gumroad.com/l/twitter-audi…
