At the end of a 4-week period, I earned $292 selling Notion templates. How did I do it? How did I market it? And will there be more to come?
I’m designing an amazing tool for Notion template creators. It’s going to be an incredible tool. I won’t give any spoilers right now, or else it might take away from my excitement to create it. Please be patient with me. 🙂
The name of my amazing tool is “Notion Plus Original”. It’s still in the planning stages. This idea came to me in 2022, but I have competitors to worry about. I needed to differentiate myself and reach my target audience. That’s why I had to sell something every month to build my customer base and increase my visibility. That’s why I started researching the Notion customer base and began creating a product called Notion Plus Classic.
What is Notion Plus Classic?
It’s possible to create a website using Notion. By creating a Notion template and uploading it to sites like Super.so or Potion.so, high-quality websites can be created. Ultimately, you need a Notion template to create beautiful web designs. Whatever you design on Notion, you can dress it up with CSS. The critical point here is, of course, the Notion template.
Inspired by Shuffle.dev, the idea of creating components as the necessary templates for websites that can be created with Notion came to mind like a butterfly. I immediately got to work by creating a solid plan. It took me about 4 weeks to complete. I was planning to release it in January, but I received some strong feedback, which caused the release to be postponed until February.
What Was Strong Feedback?
I have been a member of Komunite.com.tr, the Turkish partner of Acquire.com (MicroAcquire), for about 2 years. We hold weekly meetings on Tuesdays. During one of the meetings, Fatih Guner, the founder of Komunite.com.tr, was present and expressed that the project was truly a need. Although the website was built using Super.so, I had not polished it with CSS. Fatih Guner suggested having a meeting and provided strong feedback during it.
At that time there were 250 components. He said:
“If you create 500 components, it will be more valuable and you don’t necessarily have to design it with Notion just because it’s done with Notion. Also, redesign the landing page from scratch.”
Fatih Guner
He was right. I made it quite professional by supporting it with visuals. Also, I doubled the number of components and increased the number of variants to 1000. But the number of variants hit me the hardest. There were times when I dozed off in front of my computer. I even made an effort to finish it to the point of feeling sick to my stomach.
The reason why I put so much pressure on myself was that I had made a one-year plan and I was already one month behind the schedule. Even though I had told everyone that I would launch it in January, I didn’t release it. This put a lot of pressure on me, and it still does. The reason for this continued pressure is related to a fiasco with NotionWebsiteBuilder.com. I will explain this below.
Launch Day and Marketing
I didn’t do much for marketing. I just posted a lot of #buildinpublic. I asked 1 question on ProductHunt and IndieHackers on launch day. It was the question that could look like an advertisement but could support the product.
I can say that I didn’t do any extra promotion other than the launch. But I only made 9 sales in 1 launch. There are uses for this with discount coupons. The price of the product was $29. I earned $241 on the first day with discount coupons. About 1 week later, there were 2 more sales on different days.
In fact, the #buildinpublic account may have been a boost for marketing. Because they retweeted some of my posts several times.
Affiliate Offer
A day or two after publishing the product, I received a DM from Twitter. He wanted to sell the product with an affiliate. He gave his email address for Gumroad. I don’t use Gumroad much because there is no PayPal in our country. That’s why I can’t withdraw the money even though I sell with Gumroad. And I made a sale. There is about $29 in money, but I can’t withdraw the money from my bank.
I told him the LemonSqueezy affiliate feature is coming soon, but until then, use Gumroad. I identified it. If you want to sell Notion Plus Classic, I give you a 50% commission. Necessary information and link are included in /affiliate.
He (@TheVeller) told me that he has already sold @IAmPascio‘s products and made good money. I never expected this offer. I quite liked it.
NotionWebsiteBuilder.com
The Notion Plus Classic would arrive in January. In February, Notion Website Builder would arrive. But instead of waiting 1 month, I immediately released NWB as soon as N+C (Notion Plus Classic) was released, 1 week later. My two feet were in one shoe. I lowered the quality. The landing page did not look professional like before. Pricing was very complex. Worst of all, everyone misunderstood the product because of the name, and their dreams were shattered. Everyone really thought he was a website builder. But it was actually an info product. It showed how to make a website.
It was just like Titanic. You know, the Titanic didn’t just sink with an iceberg. There were many reasons. For example, iron bolts were used instead of steel bolts to make them cheaper. Iron rusts and becomes less durable. The lifeboats were few because they looked bad. There were many such reasons. While other ships were informed of the presence of icebergs, the Titanic was not. So it was reported, but the Titanic did not hear them. Because the telegraph team was not paid enough, they were also charging them to convey the messages of the passengers to their relatives. So they were very busy and didn’t hear the iceberg warnings. All combined and such a result was obtained.
I’ve never made a sale for more than one thing without being attached to something like the same Titanic. Still not sold! My iceberg was confusion. In fact, those who thought it was an official Notion product and clicked it thought it was a scam and closed it. Of course, that’s not everything, you know.
The worst thing for me is that I promised the future for this product. I was going to post his tutorial every time a new Notion website builder is created. Only 5 more have an education. I need to write 6 more. I was so confident that this would sell, and I was so depressed. And believe me, I don’t want to write. It seems like nothing will happen because no one bought it. But speaking to Notion website builders they expect their product to be published here. Again, I got my hands on my face. ‘:)
What Did I Learn From Notion Website Builder?
- Don’t give up on quality! Always make quality products. Even if you have a time limit, let the time go for a bit. Because not being able to sell because of poor quality gives a bad feeling while making a very bad advertisement.
- Give sufficient care to the landing page.
- Stay away from complicated pricing.
- Getting feedback is very important! Getting less than 10 pieces of feedback is harmful!
- Research before starting the product.
- Don’t promise the future!
Will I Continue Making Notion Templates?
I can’t say anything about this yet. Because when it is divided into different branches, the strength of the results I will draw by focusing on a single point decreases. That doesn’t mean I will never do it. Time will show that.
What Are My Future Plans?
I will continue to improve and not update Notion Plus Classic for some time. I will do this in Notion Website Builder. I can sell Notion Website Builder for at least $10,000 in the last months of 2023. But my limit is $10,000.
I want to switch to MRR in March. I want to launch a Micro SaaS that produces widgets under the name Notion Plus Original. I can’t produce much content on Twitter because I make an effort for this. I can’t write a blog. No matter what, I will continue there and try to produce content.
How to Sell Notion Templates?
Build the product and produce content on Twitter. Produce content in communities. Then launch on ProductHunt. That is all. Best Notion templates always implement such simple things. The cliché is cliché for a reason.
For example, you made the Notion weekly planner template.
Just imagine, where would you see these themes. Of course, those who produce content on those platforms or write content. If you search for Notion productivity templates, they will appear and be sold as a blog post or because it exists on that platform. Of course, there is one more thing. You can make a Free Notion template and put it in places that sell free Notion templates, that is, on the marketplaces, and you can get extra sales. I haven’t been able to get there yet. 🙂 I hope one day. 🙂