Week 1: Creating an Online Store Plus The Landing Page

This week, I took a major step in building California Digital Nomad—I created my online store using Gumroad and launched my first product page for a lead magnet. Here's the complete documentation of how I did it and why it matters.

As I started building my presence on social media, I realized something critical: social media alone isn't enough. You don't own your audience there. The algorithm controls who sees your content, and your followers could disappear overnight if a platform changes its rules.

That's why I needed my own store—a place I control where I can:

Your online store becomes the hub where interested followers can take the next step with you. It's the bridge between discovering you on social media and becoming part of your core audience.

Part 1: Setting Up Gumroad

I chose Gumroad because it's free to start, simple to use, and handles everything—hosting, payments, delivery, and even email collection. Here's what I did:

The entire setup took less than 20 minutes. Gumroad's interface is incredibly intuitive and easy to use.

Next, I created the landing page for my first lead magnet: the National Park Passport Collection Guide. This free resource teaches people how to collect passport stamps at National Parks, which aligns perfectly with my California travel content.

Here's how I built the product page:

Now that my store is live, I have a complete funnel working:

1. Social Media = Discovery People find my content on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube about California adventures and National Parks.

2. Link in Bio = Gateway My bio links point to my Gumroad store or directly to the lead magnet landing page.

3. Landing Page = Value Exchange Interested followers download my free guide and join my email list in exchange.

4. Email List = Owned Audience Now I can communicate directly with people who want to hear from me, independent of any algorithm.

This is how you grow an audience you actually own. Social media brings attention, but your email list is where you build a real relationship.

Since this is a new Gumroad account, I can't send emails until I reach $100 in sales. But there's an easy workaround: I can automatically send new leads to my Beehiiv account using Make.com automation.

Alternatively, you can download your sales data as a CSV file (which includes all email addresses and purchases), then manually import it into your email service provider like Beehiiv.

But, do not worry about this till much later. It’s too much work for someone who is just getting started. You should focus on setting up your store, launching your first product, and then building an audience from there.

Now that the store infrastructure is live, I can focus on driving traffic to it through consistent content creation. Every piece of content I create should ultimately lead people to this free resource, growing my email list week by week.

In the upcoming weeks, I'll document how I drive traffic to this landing page and track conversion rates. For now, the foundation is set.