
Show HN: my weekend project, Gumroad - sahillavingia
http://gumroad.com/
======
sahillavingia
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 of features missing (I'm working on AJAX
file uploading next!) but I think it's reached that - buzzword alert! - MVP
stage where I want to see if anyone's actually going to use the darn thing
(I'm thinking about taking a 30% cut).

Here's an example Gumroad link: <http://www.gumroad.com/l/hjbaod> \- I use
Stripe for payments. Here are some screenshots I took while making it:
<http://letscrate.com/gumroad/gumroad-progress> \- I didn't use Photoshop so
no crazy time-lapses!

I think it has some potential. What do you guys think?

~~~
phoboslab
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 "highly" priced links wasn't your intention in the first place?

[1] <http://impactjs.com/> (Can't mention it often enough :))

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

~~~
phoboslab
Thinking about it, Gumroad is the perfect application for Bitcoins:

<http://www.bitcoin.org/>

~~~
JoachimSchipper
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?

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

~~~
JoachimSchipper
[EDIT: the text below is correct, but a bit too snarky. My apologies.

Also, the site owner _could_ just trust the client to actually run his/her
bitcoin-generating code for a couple of hours and send any generated coins -
this should earn him/her ~$0.20/hour, rounded down because lots of people have
crufty computers. Still not feasible, and generating bitcoins will only get
harder in the future, but not as bad as I suggest below.]

Sure, if you're willing to leave your browser consuming 100% CPU for a couple
of weeks. And if you're willing to pay the entire resulting 50 bitcoins
(~$40-45) you generated (at the cost of ~$60 in electricty, I'd guess)[1], or
trust the site to return you the rest. In either case, you'd need to trust the
site code to tell you that it's generated a coin, instead of silently sending
it back to the server and continuing to run.

At least, that's my understanding of how bitcoins work.

[1] Only GPU-based generation is currently profitable, and there's no way NaCl
can be given full access to the GPU - GPUs typically have DMA access, so being
able to run arbitrary code on them is more or less equivalent to kernel-level
access. In theory, you could verify the GPU code - but that's an enormous job,
and there are lots of GPUs that you'd need to check for security holes. And
security was not design criterion #1 for these devices, I'd guess.

Something like DirectX/OpenGL access makes sense, but running crypto
algorithms through OpenGL (instead of CUDA or the like) is probably
infeasible.

~~~
mnutt
Good points. I figured it was probably totally infeasible, thanks for filling
me in on why.

------
JoshTriplett
Interesting idea, but I see two main issues with this.

First, anyone who pays and gets to the resulting link can trivially share
_that_ link; of course, you can always ask them nicely not to do so, and in
some contexts that will work, but in general the security model just doesn't
work unless you authenticate each paid user at the destination. You need to
come up with an answer to this.

Second, if you market this as a link shortener which requires payment, I think
you'll get backlash from people who currently use link shorteners to share
links on Twitter and similar; from that perspective it feels like the kind of
thing you'd see used by Twitter spammers/scammers. Suggested fix: flip it
around, and present it as an astonishingly simple payment system based on
URLs, which happens to behave like a shortener.

~~~
gavinballard
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 to do this for content hosted
by third parties).

For those who aren't fussed about security, you could offer it as a really
easy way to optionally pay for content - eg a rapid "Donate" method.

~~~
JangoSteve
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 link I want users to pay for,
and Gumroad charges each user, serving up the content, but never sharing with
them the link that I gave Gumroad. You could do this by fetching the content
on the back end, and serving it up through Gumroad's own single-use URL.

~~~
gavinballard
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.

~~~
JangoSteve
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 ;-)

~~~
sahillavingia
I'm thinking about them hard. :)

------
bhousel
Clickable: <https://gumroad.appspot.com/l/jxrvbk>

~~~
sahillavingia
Trying to sell the link to Gumroad for $100?! Stop trying to profit off of my
work! :D

~~~
bhousel
It's profit all the way down.

~~~
Maro
_"But I make a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg by selling them for
four and a quarter cents an egg to the people in Malta I buy them from for
seven cents an egg.

Of course, I don't make the profit. The syndicate makes the profit. And
everybody has a share."_

\-- Milo Minderbinder, Catch 22

------
kqueue
Traceback (most recent call last):

    
    
      File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 634, in __call__
        handler.get(*groups)
    
      File "/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/main.py", line 60, in get
        if is_logged_in():
    
      File "/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/main.py", line 110, in is_logged_in
        s = sessions.Session()
    
      File "/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/appengine_utilities/sessions.py", line 562, in __init__
        self.session = _AppEngineUtilities_Session.get_session(self)
    
      File "/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/appengine_utilities/sessions.py", line 142, in get_session
        ds_session = db.get(str(session_key))
    
      File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py", line 1422, in get
        keys, multiple = datastore.NormalizeAndTypeCheckKeys(keys)
    
      File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py", line 180, in NormalizeAndTypeCheckKeys
        keys = [_GetCompleteKeyOrError(key) for key in keys]
    
      File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py", line 2339, in _GetCompleteKeyOrError
        key = Key(arg)
    
      File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore_types.py", line 364, in __init__
        raise datastore_errors.BadKeyError('Invalid string key %s.' % encoded)
    

BadKeyError: Invalid string key
agdndW1yb2FkciMLEhtfQXBwRW5naW5lVXRpbGl0aWVzX1Nlc3Npb24Y.

~~~
pbreit
I got an error like that also when trying to log in.

------
jasonlotito
Things you have to look at fast.

* Money laundering. Cap fees now.

* You are using Stripe, but you're still collecting CC data. Are you PCI compliant?

* Does Stripe allow you to do this? Really? Basically, you're acting as a third party processor, an IPSP. People can sell anything through your service (Think adult content)

I'm really interested if Stripe is aware of what you are doing and fine with
it.

~~~
pixeloution
PCI compliance is only an issue if he's _storing_ CC data.

~~~
ojilles
I'm no expert, but I don't think this is true. I've witnessed a few payment
systems being implemented, and just having this data pass through your system
you need to adhere to some compliance rules (which are softer vs. actually
storing the data though).

~~~
train_robber
Correct. We are doing a PCI compliance certification right now, for a service
that does the same CC flow as this. We don't store, but just forward. But even
that requires a PCI certification.

------
Xk
You have an XSS on the login form. I create a page which posts to the login
page with the name

" onclick="alert('do evil here')" onfocus="alert('do evil here')" foo="

It errors out, and my javascript is now in the input box. They click the name
and then it runs my javascript.

It's great you've escaped < and >, but you need to do more.

------
mgkimsal
As with many ideas I see floated and mvp'd on HN, I'm jealous. Great idea,
good execution. I'd agree with others that the 30% is too high. 5-10% would be
acceptable.

~~~
cachemoney
Why be jealous? He has no traction. Copy it and do it slightly better.

~~~
sahillavingia
I have 50,000 page-views worth of traction and over 1,000 users - many of them
making real money. :)

Kidding aside, I dare you (not sarcastically, I would love to see another
approach to the same problem).

~~~
mgkimsal
I may do that, but perhaps focused on a particular niche. Thanks.

------
evoltix
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.

~~~
jeffclark
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 template, you get a dollar - all in like 2 minutes
while your oatmeal was cooking.

~~~
aw3c2
And 2 minutes later the "secret" link is shared on Twitter.

~~~
sahillavingia
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!

~~~
JoachimSchipper
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.

~~~
cyanbane
I think this has tons of value, almost like a mini-kickstarter without the
need to advertise for a kick for communities of people (forums, etc) who want
new features or some kind of quick bit of work done.

------
petercooper
Loving the simplicity of the idea. The simplicity is worth a higher cut
(though maybe not 30% ;-)) and makes it a lot more attractive to use in small
situations. One thing you need to beware of, though, is the filing
requirements.. you might have to start issuing tons of 1099s and that process
will cost you.

------
donnyg107
If this becomes a high traffic site, it could really help fight internet
piracy. If I have a high demand, hard to find video, I'm far more likely to
try to sell it than just give it away. And even if I can't because the site is
closely watched by the actual copywriter holders, the idea that money can be
made off any online property can give internet knowledge and assets the
feeling of physical worth, to the degree that people may grow hesitant to just
give away their video and music files. It also has potential to detract from
the information free-for-all of the internet, as people may also grow hesitant
to share in general, but that would only be for sellable things, so blogs and
general information are basically out. If successful, this site could make
major change in the attitude of the internet. In essence, conflict exists
between copyright holding companies, who believe their intellectual property
should be paid for, and the general population of the internet, who freely
share information constantly. This conflict could seriously benefit from a
general shift toward the resounding feeling that information and online assets
are worth something and should be bought and sold. That could be of serious
detriment to the culture of the internet, but the communities could also
gradually adjust. After all, the feeling that assets have monetary value is
the way we live in the real world, its only a matter of time before the
internet starts to follow.

------
btmorex
What do you plan on doing about fraud? Seems like it would be way too easy to
move money around with stolen credit cards.

~~~
krakensden
He's not doing the payment processing, Stripe is.

~~~
btmorex
In the world of payments, that doesn't really matter at all. Payment
processors can't afford to have high fraud % customers, so if fraud becomes a
problem they'll just drop him.

------
retube
How does this work for art though? I mean you want to see the
icon/graphic/design/whatever before you pay for it.

Also - once you've been redirected to the page, what's to stop you taking the
link and sharing it yourself?

Also also: if I've got something to sell, can't I just bung it on ebay?

~~~
stef25
Thought of this too, I guess you can watermark images.

Not sure how you would sell JS scripts since showing a working demo would
require the file to be accessible to the user.

~~~
personalcompute
That script you make is copyrighted, if they take it without paying you for it
(if that is the deal), then they just broke the law.

~~~
joshuacc
Sure, but the question is how to make it more difficult.

------
cavilling_elite
This looks like a really expensive way to get Rick Roll'd :)

~~~
hugh3
Yes, how _do_ you deal with the (hundreds, thousands, millions) of annoyed
customers per day who were promised one thing but wound up paying for another?

This can't be a minor problem, either. At any given time the percentage of
your users who are being ripped off by some nasty scam will be between 10% and
90%. You'll have to be _very_ careful about policing things, otherwise the
first mention of your business in the media will be "gumroad enables porn
bait-and-switch scammers".

------
fizx
Please put a video on the homepage. If I'm on the fence, I'd rather watch a
video than create an account.

~~~
clarkevans
can I quote you?

------
jcapote
If the payment fails, will you still redirect to the link?

If you only redirected based on successful payments, you could use this as a
simpler paypal for charging clients on your site using unique gumroaded links.

~~~
sahillavingia
You only get redirected if your payment goes through. Yes, that is a potential
use-case.

------
barredo
Is the redirect-link unique in any way? I mean.

If anyone buys the access to a a non-unique-link (ie:
<http://mybook.com/book.pdf>), and then shares the redirected URL to a third
person, this third person could load the link without paying, right?

~~~
sahillavingia
Yup. For now, there is no security built into the link once you get through
that payment wall. I'm thinking about how to do that without hurting UX -
though it's low on the priority list anyways.

------
fuscata
I get a broken lock icon, and "Connection partially encrypted" message. You
need to make sure all externally linked resources on the page use SSL.
Specifically: change
<http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cabin:regular,bold> to <https://..>.

~~~
sahillavingia
Thanks for the notice, I'll do that.

------
kloncks
The copy on the re-direct page is bothering me a bit. Anyone else?

 _You're being shared Gumroad!_

With the "You're being shared". Sounds confusing.

~~~
zach
"You got Gumroaded!" Wait, no. That sounds wrong for some reason.

------
aquark
Interesting concept -- how do you deal with the legalities?

If I buy something am I buying it from you or from the original owner?

How long do you hold onto the funds to deal with any potential chargebacks?

------
rokhayakebe
This may just be the simplest way to sell digital goods.

I think all content should be uploaded to your servers otherwise if someone
gets to the final link they can just send others to it.

------
mgeraci
I like the simplicity of the home page, but I would want to see what a user
would see when supplied with a gumroad'd link before singing up.

~~~
sahillavingia
Agreed. Added that to the to-do list.

------
dools
I'm already giving this away for free with a PayPal donate link at
<http://pickdropapp.com/> but what the hell: <http://gumroad.com/l/cvhhwi>

------
mtw
Are you collecting taxes? if it's a company registered in the US

Also how do you deal with chargebacks?

------
suprafly
Traceback (most recent call last): File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py",
line 634, in __call__ handler.get(*groups) File
"/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/main.py", line 60, in get
if is_logged_in(): File
"/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/main.py", line 110, in
is_logged_in s = sessions.Session() File
"/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/appengine_utilities/sessions.py",
line 562, in __init__ self.session =
_AppEngineUtilities_Session.get_session(self) File
"/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349472656690944858/appengine_utilities/sessions.py",
line 142, in get_session ds_session = db.get(str(session_key)) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py",
line 1422, in get keys, multiple = datastore.NormalizeAndTypeCheckKeys(keys)
File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py",
line 180, in NormalizeAndTypeCheckKeys keys = [_GetCompleteKeyOrError(key) for
key in keys] File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py",
line 2339, in _GetCompleteKeyOrError key = Key(arg) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore_types.py",
line 364, in __init__ raise datastore_errors.BadKeyError('Invalid string key
%s.' % encoded) BadKeyError: Invalid string key
agdndW1yb2FkciMLEhtfQXBwRW5naW5lVXRpbGl0aWVzX1Nlc3Npb24Y.

------
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.

------
schwabacher
I really like you color pallette. How did you come up with it?

~~~
sahillavingia
I took it from Colorlovers. Here's a link:
<http://www.colourlovers.com/palette/1473/Ocean_Five>

------
mekarpeles
Traceback (most recent call last): File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py",
line 636, in __call__ handler.post(*groups) File
"/base/data/home/apps/gumroad/1.349498677539326613/main.py", line 292, in post
db.delete(link) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py",
line 1491, in delete datastore.Delete(keys, config=config) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py",
line 516, in Delete keys, multiple = NormalizeAndTypeCheckKeys(keys) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py",
line 178, in NormalizeAndTypeCheckKeys keys, multiple =
NormalizeAndTypeCheck(keys, (basestring, Entity, Key)) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/datastore.py",
line 157, in NormalizeAndTypeCheck (types, val, typename(val)))
BadArgumentError: Expected one of (<type 'basestring'>, <class
'google.appengine.api.datastore.Entity'>, <class
'google.appengine.api.datastore_types.Key'>); received None (a NoneType).

------
tezza
Seems good.

How long until exact clones appear? What makes GumRoad the micro-paywall of
choice?

How long until shortened<\-->lengthened websites appear which reduces how many
people pay up?

------
nyellin
You can tell clients to check the http referrer for your domain. That would
(mostly) stop people from posting now-useless destination URLs online.

http referrers are easily spoofed, of course, but it'll be enough to prevent
most people from sharing secret urls on twitter. You could also pivot and
allow people to upload files to your own server, but that's a different story.

~~~
sahillavingia
That would hurt the UX. For example if someone gets the link to a blog-post-
in-the-making they shouldn't have to go through Gumroad to access it every
time.

~~~
JoshTriplett
Not bad to have the option, though.

------
bryanh
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.

------
hugh3
I'd work on the name. Gumroad? What does it mean?

To me it brings up an image of a road, covered with gum. I'm trying to get
where I want to go, but there's all this gum on the road slowing me down. It's
a huge and annoying obstacle. And _that_ is a bad mental image, given that
what you're selling _is_ a sort of obstacle.

It's not too late for a different name.

~~~
ryusage
Huh...I guess that makes more sense, but actually my first impression of the
name was to think of Candyland. Like the Yellow Brick Road, but with gumdrops
and such. Cheesy, but positive. I wonder which interpretation is more common?

------
eddieplan9
Nice product!

Feature request: use the top half of the screen to show a preview of the
linked page rendered as a PNG. Use the other half of the screen for soliciting
payment. I want to know what I would get with the payment. How much of the
target page is shown should of course be configurable by the page owner.

------
jimminy
First off, I like the idea, but there are some noticeable flaws, many which
have been brought up.

One interesting one for me, which is more an oversight, is that anyone can
make money off of the sale of a link. There is no way to validate that the
person posting the link, is the owner of the content. So someone could sell
links to a page on HN, Reddit, Techcrunch, etc. at no expense to them.

If this did occur, I think it would cause a quite negative view of Gumroad
links, as being scammy. In which case, people would begin to avoid them,
reducing their effectiveness as a possible sales medium. Without oversight, as
to who is selling a link, this might end up smothering itself out.

~~~
peteforde
While providing an authority model is often a great business, it's a fallacy
to say that provenance is mandatory to be taken seriously. See: Twitter, eBay,
4chan, TechCrunch

------
mizerydearia
<http://please.bitcoin.me/now/>

------
bokonon
I saw it mentioned here already, but the idea of a "Name your Price" option
would be really cool. Just like how Bandcamp does it. I'm always more
motivated to support artists that chose this option.

------
lux
What are your fees? Didn't see that anywhere on the homepage.

~~~
sahillavingia
Honestly, I'm not sure - hence them not being listed - but I think I'm going
to go with 30%. And then for people making >$x a month dropping that in tiers.
Thoughts?

~~~
lux
At 30%, unless my product is pure profit I'm going to look elsewhere. A Paypal
(or WePay!) buy now button isn't that hard to create after all...

~~~
kmfrk
Yeah - I'd rather try my luck at Kickstarter and pay their 5% fee and PayPal's
2.7%.

You'd have to write up some very specific usage scenarios that make that cut
viable.

Apple's cut makes sense so far that you get some tangible advantages in terms
of such things as exposure. You'll have to explain people what they _get_ for
the 30% cut.

Right now, I'm unconvinced that you get 30%'s worth. But, on another note,
it's probably always better to start at a high price and dial it down than to
launch a product and increase the prices over time. People will be crying bait
and switch - justifiably.

------
erikch
I've been thinking about this exact problem for a few weeks now. I have gone
as far as buying a domain for it (epayfiles.com) and I just started coding. I
think I'll continue on with my project I'll just focus on a different payment
niche.

After doing some quick research I found five or six sites with similar ideas.
Most of them focus on selling digital files not links. The link idea sounds
novel. The presentation is also very clean. Looks good.

------
primigenus
There's some potential for gamification here. Here's a Gumroad URL which, when
paid for, unlocks some kind of challenge that you must solve in order to find
a new Gumroad URL. Which unlocks another challenge that leads to another
Gumroad URL, continuing for n steps until you unlock the final reward. Each
step costs less than a dollar.

How would this have played out if eg. Dropbox had run their challenge on top
of Gumroad?

------
kloncks
Is this what you've been working on in SF, Sahil :) ?

~~~
sahillavingia
At least for the past two days, yup. Just a small part of the rest of my life
though!

------
icco
Seems cool. I wish you'd render the about text box for products with Markdown
or something though so the links were clickable.

------
tlrobinson
I already dislike URL shorteners, there's no way I'm going to give my credit
card info to one.

------
caioariede
If the value is zero the user is being redirected to home, after accessing the
link url.

------
livejamie
I like it, there's a lot of functionality missing, as you said but tons of
possibilities.

I'd like to see a "pay as much as you'd like" feature, where you can set a
minimum amount (like radiohead and girl talk do) but still allow them to pay
more.

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DrOkter
Why wouldn't stripe just implement this themselves? Since their payment
processing service (and API?) is 99% of the project, seems like they'd make
their own and cut you off if this gained any traction.

~~~
sahillavingia
It's not 99% of the project, it's one line of code (among over 2,000).

~~~
JoshTriplett
_One_? That sounds like a rather awesome API, unless you just redirect to a
payment processing system over on their site. Mind sharing the one line of
code? :)

------
potomak
This is my daily fail: [http://potomak.tumblr.com/post/4361901296/developer-
business...](http://potomak.tumblr.com/post/4361901296/developer-businessman)

Developer ≠ Businessman

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tommoor
I think it's a great idea, and really well implemented so far.

Best of luck with it!

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ck2
Just a caution, if you are taking in money via paypal and then paying out via
paypal, paypal will probably shut you down within a month. They don't like
competition.

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franze
i love the idea, i hate the new "We have a tiered system for pricing:"
basically it says: if you earn less, we will take even more. so basically if -
lets say - earn 2 dollars (casual user who sold a psd template for 1$) this
service now takes 2$ - 2 _30c = 1.40$ - (1.40$_ 0.3) = 98c

this tool should encourage casual use and it makes a perfectly simple product
complicated.

please overthink your pricing-strategy. make it as simple as possible, iterate
from there.

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Noleli
I saw this post the other day, then came across Pulley. Is there a difference?
<http://pulleyapp.com/>

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ojilles
sahillavingia, your personal site looks awesome too!
<http://sahillavingia.com/>

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Flam
How do I know that, when I pay, I am actually getting what I am paying for?
How do you handle chargebacks etc..

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woodall
Really neat way to sell vulnerabilities.

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dps
Great idea. Your email address matching is case sensitive, you might want to
fix that.

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jorangreef
Well done this is brilliant.

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bauchidgw
please tell us when the first (real) vc are knocking on your door ... this is
just awesome and has more potential then the most startups covered by
techcrunch and co

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suking
Nice - how about this as a feature: # of downloads allowed. This would allow
people to sell just 1 copy or set up something like a groupon-esque clone.
First 50 people get 50% off. Then after 50 people say you're too late. Just an
idea.

~~~
jasongullickson
I really like this idea, especially for art. It solves the "what if someone
just passes the final link around" problem because if you're getting 1 of 25
copies of something you're less likely to go out of your way to reduce the
rarity of the item you bought.

~~~
suking
Expanding on that if there is a limited # you could choose to list # left to
create a sense of urgency or keep it hidden and mysterious. Good luck!

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huge_ness
So it's funny that this happens today:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2407969>

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ddkrone
There is no way to stop re-selling of the content once somebody has bought it
short of implementing some horrendous DRM system.

