In big cities like San Francisco and NYC, spare room listings on Craigslist get hundreds of email inquiries. So, in 2014 I created a guide on how to write the perfect roommate email so folks could stick out in the crowd, and created a simple landing page to let people pay to download it.
![How to make extra cash selling useful guides on pretty much anything (a guide)](https://20627419.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/20627419/hubfs/The%20Hustle/Assets/Images/1730017519-Screen-Shot-2018-01-23-at-8.38.47-AM.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1730017519-Screen-Shot-2018-01-23-at-8.38.47-AM.webp)
To make it popular, I asked websites that came up on the first page of Google for “moving to San Francisco” to link to my guide and we’d split the profits. A few said yes.
Since launching, The Miracle Craigslist Guide has sold thousands of copies. My girlfriend even bought it before we met!
The secret to making this work was a website called Gumroad
Gumroad makes it dead easy to sell simple e-products like PDFs, music, or digital subscriptions. Gumroad lets you accept payments, build a simple sales page, and payout affiliates.
So, looking for a weekend project? Do this:
- Pick a valuable piece of information. Something everyone asks you about, like a resume or a nutrition plan.
- Create the document and upload it on Gumroad.
- Write a badass landing page. (Don’t know how to do that? Take this course offered by my buddy Neville. It changed my life.)
- Google what customers would search for to find your product.
- Email the top 50 results, and offer to split the profits that come from linking to your page, using Gumroad’s affiliate feature.
- Do people love the product? Expand.
— Sam, Chief Roommate Matchmaker
PS: What other products would you like me to write about? Comment here and tell me.