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The Month I Made $2,316 Selling a Product on Gumroad That I Built in 4 Days

It only took 4 days to make it all happen.

By ELIA MWAPINGAPublished 4 months ago 4 min read
Image by author

Have you ever had one of those weekends where you’re like, “Screw it, I’m doing this”?

No business plan. There are 47 YouTube videos lined up. No “masterclass.” Just me, a pot of strong coffee, a blank Google Doc, and that nagging voice in my head that wouldn’t shut up.

That was me four days before I hit “publish” on my first digital product.

By the end of the month, my Gumroad dashboard blinked back at me with $2,316.

And let me tell you—that money felt different. Not because it was a life-changing amount, but because it was mine. Built in four days. No boss, no office, no permission slip.

Read My 4 Digital Products That Make Four Figures Every Single Month

How It Started (Spoiler: Not Pretty)
Friday night I was scrolling through an online community I hang out in. People kept asking the same question over and over. Not just once, but dozens of times:

“How do I actually solve [this very specific problem]?”

Lightbulb.

I realized: this is the internet’s way of screaming, “Please, someone make this for me.”

So instead of overthinking, I opened a doc and drafted a quick outline. No fancy graphics. No Canva. No software subscriptions. Just text.

Saturday morning? I filled it in with everything I knew. By Sunday night, it looked more like a scrappy field guide than a polished course. But that was the point.

Monday morning, I slapped it on Gumroad and hit publish, and honestly? I thought I’d be lucky to sell five copies.

The First Sale

Image by author

The first $39 sale came in while I was brushing my teeth.

I stared at the notification on my phone for a good minute before I realized… it was real. Somebody had paid me for something I had typed up in my pajamas.

By the end of that day, I had 11 sales. By the end of the month? $2,316.

No ads. No massive following. Just a product that solved a painful, immediate problem.

Why It Worked

Here’s the thing most people mess up: they obsess over everything except the thing that actually makes sales.

I didn’t have:

  • A logo (my “brand” was literally black text on white background)
  • A funnel (it was a Gumroad page, period)
  • A huge audience (fewer than 1,000 followers total)

What I did have:

  • A burning problem people wanted solved yesterday
  • A product simple enough to build in 4 days
  • A way to get it in front of the right eyeballs

That’s it. That was the formula.

The Secret Weapon I Wish I Used Earlier
Now, here’s where I get brutally honest:Gumroad was great to launch fast, but after that first month, I started feeling the cracks.

I had no way to capture emails properly.
No way to nurture my buyers into repeat buyers.
No way to scale beyond “drop a link and hope.”

That’s when I moved my setup into System.io—and honestly, I wish I’d done it from day one.

System. IO became my home base.

  • I built a simple landing page (drag and drop, no tech headaches).
  • I set up an email list so I could keep talking to buyers.
  • I automated follow-ups and upsells and even tested other offers.

The result? Instead of being a “one-hit-wonder” on Gumroad, I started building a business.

Get System.IO Now

IMPORTANT:
I recommend you upgrade at least to their cheapest plan, which is $25/month.

PRO TIP: If you can, get the yearly plan to save even more money; I think it’s 40% off when you do.

Why upgrade?

Systeme.IO is amazing with their free plan, BUT you will “run out of” space and functions as soon as you start to connect everything; that’s just how it is. However, think about this:

When you have the paid plan, you can have a lot of funnels in your account, all the connections you need with emails, etc.

👉(Affiliate note: Yes, that’s my System.io link. If you sign up, I earn a small commission at no cost to you. But trust me—it’s the exact system that turned my weekend project into something that could actually grow.)

The Lesson Nobody Told Me
The internet makes it seem like building a business takes months of planning and flawless execution. Truth is? My product was ugly, rushed, and “unfinished.”

But people weren’t paying for perfect. They were paying for a solution.

That’s the part people miss. They build courses nobody asked for or polish for months before launching and then wonder why nothing sells.

I launched raw. I told buyers, “This is fresh. You’ll get updates as I improve it.” And that honesty turned strangers into fans.

What You Can Steal From This
If you want to replicate what I did, here’s my no-BS version:

  • Find a pain point. Something people are already asking for. (Scroll Reddit, Quora, Discord—you’ll see them everywhere.)
  • Build fast. Give yourself 3–4 days max. If it takes longer, it’s too bloated.
  • Ship it ugly. Done is better than perfect.
  • Use Gumroad or System.io to host it. Gumroad is great for speed; System.io is better if you actually want to build an audience.
  • Talk where your people are. Not “the whole internet”—just the corners where your buyers hang out.

Read My 4 Digital Products That Make Four Figures Every Single Month

Final Thought
The $2,316 I made that month wasn’t about the money. It was proof. Proof that I could build something real. Proof that I didn’t need permission. Proof that the people who laughed at me for “wasting time online” were wrong.

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to launch your own idea, this is it. Don’t wait six months. Don’t wait until it’s “ready.”

Sometimes the best products are built with nothing more than coffee, a weekend, and the guts to hit publish.

And if you’re serious about scaling beyond a one-off product? Start with System.IO. That’s the tool that turned my weekend project into the foundation of a business.

Read This

My 4 Digital Products That Make Four Figures Every Single Month

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About the Creator

ELIA MWAPINGA

I'm ELIA MWAPINGA, a passionate blogger & marketer with a unique approach to creating valuable content.


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