Well well well, another day another lesson learned.

Welcome to Creator Talks where I share the business behind the scenes of being a creator with you. This newsletter edition is a doozy. A ridiculous story where if I think of the missed opportunity too much I might actually cry.

But first some backstory. In 2024, when I started this arm of my business working with content creators I knew I needed an email list. So I started one with a free lead magnet of a social media content calendar Notion template. It worked nicely but after doing a business course I realised that the people signing up via this free template did not match my ICP (ideal client profile). So I got rid of that lead magnet BUT I kept the template up for free on Notion’s marketplace because why not? I figured a few people might come across it in the vast sea of templates and find it useful. A few people… HA HA HA

During this time I’m thinking about turning some of my other Notion databases into templates to sell but that becomes really complicated with the EU’s Digital Goods Tax. Instead I sign up to the waitlist to be able to sell directly on Notion’s marketplace which sorts all that stuff out for you. I set it and forget it thinking I’m way down the list and it’ll be a while until I can sell directly.

Then last week at 4PM ON A FRIDAY I get an email from someone at Notion saying congrats on the engagement on my template and would I like to be in Notion’s partner program. Excuse me what?! I go to check and low and behold…

My mouth is on the floor. 95,000 downloads, over 1,000 reviews, most of them 5 stars 🤯 and you know what else? Not. A. Single. Email. Or. Penny. 😂

Who are these 95,000 people? I’ve no idea and I need to accept I will never know. I hope they are enjoying the template whoever they may be!

I have since turned email collection on (a feature that was definitely not available to me when I first listed it) and added a little note in the template listing introducing myself and linking to my website (the BARE MINIMUM)

I can also now charge for templates - when did I get off the waitlist for this? Also unknown…

So, now what? I actually don’t have the answer at this point (maybe you have some advice for me)

Part of me thinks I need to just accept defeat and leave the free one as it is but make selling my other Notion templates a priority and hope some of the success of the free one trickles down to the paid ones.

I posted a very quick video on social media about what happened and many people in the comments are saying I should just change it to $1. I DON’T KNOW.

I always promise to keep these newsletters short and sweet so I will leave there for now. I hope there are some learnings for you from this silly situation here (always get the emails 😂) and perhaps I will have an update soon on what I decide to do.

Til next time

Hannah

P.S. I offer a 1:1 Patreon Strategy course and am currently working on developing it into a group program. If you are interested you can book in a free 30 minute discovery call here.

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