$85,000 in 19 Months of Making Google Sheet Tutorials

Launched originally April 7th 2020 Better Sheets was supposed to be a side project.

Supposed to be...

I was supposed to be making SaaS. I was supposed to be creating a business to help creators monetize.

After creating CreatorScape, Influence Directory, running Influence Weekly for 3 years, ultimately selling the newsletter, and being a creator/influencer myself I was deeply embedded into the industry. I had mapped the creator economy and I thought I was going to be a part of the creator economy.

After 2 years of making websites I couldn't monetize and arduously selling ad spots every single week I thought "There's gotta be a better way".

The answer my friend

Paywalls!

What was wrong with me?

I had never just threw up a paywall. I had a stripe account for years. I used Gumroad.

But OMG, just put up a little screen "Pay Me!" instead of asking for donations via buy me a coffee. Instead of hoping to sell ads later.

in early April 2020. I locked myself down for 24 hours and created Better Sheets. Originally $30 and Lifetime Access. It's still Lifetime Access but it's a bit more pricier now. Launched literally with 8 videos. 4 free, 4 paid.

7 Sales in the First Month

Got 7 sales in the first month and turned my sights to other projects.

19 Months Later

approaching 3,000 members and surpassed $85,000 in total revenue.

Take Home Pay

Take off roughly between 20%-30% for selling on AppSumo Marketplace

Take off another 20% to go to the Taxman, man.

A few newsletter ads bought for just over $1k.

A few partners get a cut of Bundles I created in the past few months comes to around $3k

A few affiliates on Gumroad total just under $1k.

My Take Home pay comes out to less than $50k for Better Sheets that was supposed to be a side project.

What is Better Sheets now?

I struggle to define Better Sheets as a course now. It's more of a Google Sheet product Studio which includes sheets for sale, templates, tutorials, membership, workshop(s), Software and more.

While the main Better Sheets membership grants access to everything. I have begun to unbundle Better Sheets into mini-courses, individual templates, and products for sale.

Here are a few examples:

• OnlySheets: A google Script to empower you to sell access to google sheets.
• Better Letters: A Newsletter Command Center in a Google Sheet
• Dark Habits: A google sheet to track and destroy bad habits.
• 100 Twitter Templates: 100 pre written tweet formats to conquer writer's block on Twitter.

AppSumo Marketplace

AppSumo has been a wonderful promotion vehicle and I'm excited to continue with them for the foreseeable future. Without them I would have probably been stuck to about 7-10 sales per month. Which comes out to about $5,700 if I never raised prices. So we're talking a 10x difference between doing it myself and being listed on AppSumo Marketplace.

What's next for Better Sheets?

Currently working on building a new site. Been excited to do this for a few months but had to hunker down and learn. Learned Ruby on Rails. Already built a product: Coupon Maker with RoR.

While I've tried to add bandaids to the state of Better Sheets through the months. I never really could pull everything I do as part of Better Sheets into one place. Sell on AppSumo. Redeem on Gumroad. Watch Videos on Loom. Communicate on Gmail.

For the past year I've been using Outseta to try to wrap everything. up into one place. I made the site and just used Outseta for login/payments. But it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like the site itself does enough. About 33% of Better Sheets members have asked for and been granted access. I never was confident in the site.

So I'm making a new one. Using Ruby on Rails to be able to offer login and everything myself. But Outseta is a pretty good deal. $29 a month and 1% of payments. Been making just over $100 a month from the site as is.

But I know it can be better.

Raise your glasses for a better Better Sheets!