I Started a Gumroad Store

Ever the entrepreneur, I started a Gumroad Store to sell digital items.

I’ve only got one item on it so far - a Daily Productivity Planner for only a buck - a single US dollar.

Cover image for the Daily Productivity Planner

Idea Generation & Document Creation

Creating it wasn’t hard - I used ChatGPT to generate the idea and general format. I then went over to my local copy of Microsoft Word to create the actual two-page document.

I didn’t want to sell a Word document, so I used print-to-PDF to generate the PDF itself. After I printed the PDF, I used ExifTool to update the metadata in the PDF.

Image Creation

Once the PDF was ready, I also needed a couple of images - a 1280 x 720 cover image and a 600 x 600 thumbnail - for the Gumroad pages. To create these, I used a combination of Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Snipping Tool, Paint.net, and Inkscape.

Tool Selection

Why Microsoft Word instead of, say, Google Docs? Two reasons, mainly. One, I prefer to work with local applications rather than browser-based cloud applications. And two, I’ve been using some form of Microsoft Word since before I was in high school back in the 90s.

As far as ExifTool, it’s the simplest metadata editor I’ve found. It’s a command-line application, and I’m quite comfortable using the command line.

The Windows Snipping Tool is already on my computer (which runs Windows 11). Adobe Acrobat Reader is the defacto PDF reader. I simply loaded my PDF into Adobe Acrobat Reader and snipped a screenshot of each page.

Inkscape and Paint.net are both free tools. I’ve been using Inkscape for years and Paint.net even longer. I’m familiar with their commands and find them both easy to use.

Conclusion

If you want to look at my Gumroad store itself, head on over to https://joehx.gumroad.com/.