The Gumroad Illusion: Why I Stopped Selling...

Let me guess—you’ve seen the tweets. "Build a Notion template in 2 hours and make ₹5 lakhs while you sleep." "Create a PDF checklist, put it on Gumroad, and wake up to passive income." As a digital marketer with a B.Tech in Computer Science, I bought into this dream completely. In January 2026, I decided I was going to launch my first digital product. I was going to join the "passive income" club. I built it, launched it, shared it, and waited for the money to roll in. It didn’t. Today, I’m goin