How I accidentally made my first dollar online
I recently published the Blender Python Cheatsheet on Gumroad a couple of days ago. In three pages, it is a collection of most frequently used functions and solutions to common problems you will encounter when writing scripts or addons using the Blender API. I released it for free and I did not intend to charge anything for it. To my surprise, the free downloads went up to a hundred in a few hours.
I have the Gumroad app on my phone, so it kept sending me notifications for every download. I turned off notifications for Free Downloads, because I got so distracted that I could not work. But, five minutes later, I received another notification. I thought Gumroad had a bug that keeps sending notifications regardless of my account preferences. But surprisingly, it was a sale – for $1.
Now, this one dollar may not be much, but it is my first dollar online – literally.
So far, the cheatsheet got downloaded 360+ times and I have made a total of $22 from 8 people. Money aside, this is one of the most wonderful feelings I have had in my life in a while. And, the best part is, it didn't take me much to do this. All I did was:
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Looked through my previous scripts and compiled a list of solutions to hurdles I faced regularly.
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Made it into a neat looking cheatsheet using Notion, Figma and Carbon.
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Posted it on Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and every possible Blender forum I knew. I also submitted it as a story to BlenderNation which gave me the most reach.
And that's it! That's all it took me to make my first dollar online when I didn't even intend to. 😅 I went from idea to first customer in just 2 days. If this is possible with such simple efforts, I can't imagine what all of us can achieve with deliberate and consistent efforts.
I am now feeling more inspired and confident than ever that I can do this for a living. I can't wait to share the many other things I am exploring and working on at the moment and see where it goes.
That's it for now. 🙌
Let me know what you think on Twitter.
P.S
If you are someone who wants to make a living while working for yourself on your own terms, I strongly recommend joining the Small Bets community by Daniel Vassallo. It's a community of 2000+ like-minded people who are working towards this goal.
If it wasn't for Daniel, the Small Bets community and some of the people I look up to, including Louie Bacaj, Franck J, Peter Askew, I am not sure if I would have got started on this journey.
Thank you all!
And thank you Sahil Lavingia for creating a wonderful platform like Gumroad.
🔥 Roast My Landing Page
You achieved good results because of the time and effort you put in to help others.
Thank you, Bucky! I appreciate that. 🙌🏻
The first dollars I made were from ads in my mobile app, not a cool story like yours but I know the excitement you might be feeling right now. Congrats 🎉
Currently I'm working on a movie app called Bingebase
Thank you, Aravind! 🙌🏻
By the way, I checked out Bingebase. The UI is so well done. It's beautiful and smooth all the way through!
What does the tech stack look like?
And do you have any blog where you write about how you're building Bingebase?
Bingebase looks good. You may add spacing in the texts, so that it becomes better and easier to read and get your point. 🙂
How are you thinking of marketing it Aravind?
Congrats!
Funnily enough, the first few dollars I made online were from referral money I got from paypal after I sent the referral link to my friend
But now I'm working on Evoke
Evoke 🚀
UI looks great 👍 Richard, how did you come up with the idea? 💡
I saw you yesterday in a comment regarding Topaitools 💬
Came up with the idea from my co-founder, who had difficulty setting up an AI model natively on his computer and instead wanted a cloud solution
Thank you, Richard! 🙌
By the way, I checked out the Evoke website. Looks interesting. Excited for what's coming up!
Do you also have a blog somewhere on building Evoke?
Thanks! Have no blog, but I do have a twitter where I post about it alot!
https://twitter.com/TheRealEtch
I see Blender, I upvote... 😉
But, well done with your earnings, and thanks for contributing the cheat sheets (not yet really for me, but maybe some time...)
Thank you! 🙌
congrats and thanks for making impact
Thank you! 🙌🏻
You are welcome. Also I have a question, though not related to an extent. It's about getting a skill and I choose a niche in tech. Quite stuck in javascript, but I don't have any programming language skills before. It's taking long to sink in, should I leave it and get a fast track skill set and get a job immediately. Though am a student, but don't want to give excuse on why I am not putting the efforts. But first I have to survive, while still hoping it sinks in.
If you are already good at JavaScript, I would recommend getting a job with your current skill set. Because, I believe, working on real business problems gives you a lot insights and you'll make yourself find practical solutions to them. This will expand your perspective on problems and techniques in interesting ways.
You can always pickup a new cooler technology/skill on the side while you still trying to survive. And, your organisation might even benefit from your newly acquired skill, because at the end of the day, they want their problems solved. Of course, this varies between young, smaller organisations and older, big corporate organisations. But, it's all a means to an end.
Congrats, Salai on your achievement! 🎉👏
Thank you, Aditya! 🙌🏻
Congrats on earning your first online dollars!
Thank you, Ricky! 🙌🏻