A Solo Creator Sells Notion Templates: $239K in a Year, ~$20K a Month, Zero Startup Cost

Process

Easlo — real name Jason Ruiyi Chin, from Singapore — sells Notion templates as a solo creator. With no team, no ads, and no funding, he did $239,000 in template sales in 2022 and now makes around $20,000 a month — starting from a startup cost of basically $0.

Stage 1 — The start: an 18-year-old student and a tool called Notion

In 2020, Easlo was just an ordinary college freshman. Like a lot of people, he was drowning in coursework, notes, and to-do lists, so he went hunting for a tool to get his life in order — and stumbled onto Notion.

But he didn't stop at "using it to organize myself." Slowly it dawned on him: the note system, task boards, and knowledge base he'd carefully built were, at their core, a reusable "template" — a whole method for getting your life and study under control, packaged so that someone else wouldn't have to figure it all out from scratch. They could just drop in their own content and go.

That small, unremarkable idea was the seed of everything that followed.

Stage 2 — Free first, build in public: putting his own growth out in the open on X

Most people's first instinct would be: "make a good template, hurry up and sell it." Easlo did the opposite — he gave it away free first.

He released his templates one by one, for free, and "built in public" on X (Twitter): constantly sharing what he was tinkering with in Notion, his productivity ideas, the new free templates he'd just made. No slick marketing — just posting, and giving, day after day.

Those free templates were stepping stones, and they earned him the two things that mattered most: a base of people who genuinely trusted him, and an audience willing to listen. His logic was plain — people first, product second: before you have anything to sell, gather the crowd who'd be willing to pay you.

Stage 3 — From "make once" to "sell unlimited": on Gumroad, one design becomes a gold mine

Only once the trust and the audience were in place did he bring out a paid product — selling paid templates on Gumroad.

Here's the most beautiful thing about digital products: a template he makes only once can be bought and downloaded by the 1st person, the 100th, the 10,000th — nothing printed, nothing shipped, not a single unit of stock — and each extra sale adds almost nothing to his cost.

His flagship was a $130 "Second Brain" template — and what it sells isn't "a Notion page," it's "a whole system to hold all your ideas, notes, and projects." That one product alone sold over $100,000.

Stage 4 — One person, zero cost, compounding into hundreds of thousands a year

From here, the snowball just kept growing. In 2022, template sales alone hit $239,000; today he brings in around $20,000 a month, has gathered 356,000+ followers on X, and has crossed $500K in total sales, heading toward a million.

And all of it — with no team, no ads, and not a cent of funding — from a startup cost of basically zero (Notion is free, Gumroad is free, X is free). The most impressive part: as a young Singaporean doing his national service, he built a big chunk of this on weekends, bit by bit.

"Build in public and create an audience before you have something to sell — and give your first templates away free to earn trust." — Easlo (paraphrased from public interviews)

Source: Indie Hackers · Justin Welsh · public interviews

Thinking

Insight 1: A digital product is the ultimate leverage — make it once, sell it unlimited, at zero marginal cost

One Notion template costs him almost the same whether the 1st or the 10,000th person buys it — nothing to print, pack, or stock. This is the highest leverage an ordinary person can get: package your knowledge or method into a digital asset you create once and sell infinitely. It's lighter than print-on-demand (no print cost) and more scalable than any handmade craft.

Insight 2: Free first, charge later — "free" is your best customer acquisition

He didn't sell on day one. He gave templates and methods away, built trust and an audience, and only then did paid products have buyers. For digital products, a free version is your cheapest, most effective marketing: let people experience your value, and paid conversion becomes natural. Don't be afraid to give things away.

Insight 3: Build in public — make the process itself your traffic

He built openly on X, posting his work, templates, and process, and grew a 350K+ audience. Building in public turns your own growth into content and a customer channel: people follow not just the product, but you and your journey. An audience is a digital product's biggest moat — products can be copied; your relationship with your audience can't.

Insight 4: Productize one specific method — you're not selling a template, you're selling a packaged system

He doesn't sell "a Notion page"; he sells a "Second Brain" — a whole packaged methodology. People pay to skip the time of figuring it out themselves: take a system others need but won't build, and build it for them. A problem you solve daily, a thing you do better than most — any of it can become a digital product.

Insight 5: Go deep on one platform, play the long game

He didn't spread thin; he went deep on one platform (X) and stayed consistent for years. Better to make one platform work than to dabble on five. Digital-product compounding takes time — audience, trust, and a product catalog all build slowly, and the people who endure the "long game" are the ones who collect the compound interest.

Action

Step 1: Pick a "system / method" you already do well that others also need

Some organizing system, workflow, checklist, or knowledge base you already use… find something you genuinely use that others want but won't build themselves, and turn it into a template (Notion, Canva, spreadsheet, e-book — all work). Starting from your own real need is the easiest way to make it good.

Step 2: Make a free version first and give it away to build trust

Don't sell on day one. Make a usable free template/resource and give it away, so people experience your value. The free version is your cheapest acquisition — it earns you your first base of people who trust you.

Step 3: Build in public on one platform, post consistently

Pick one platform (X, Xiaohongshu, YouTube, LinkedIn) and openly share your process, your method, your free resources. Don't wait for perfect — posting consistently beats posting perfectly. Your audience is your biggest asset.

Step 4: Launch a paid version on a zero-cost platform

Package the advanced/complete version as a paid product on Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Etsy digital downloads, or your own page — near-zero cost, zero inventory, zero shipping, sell once and forever. Price it low to test, then iterate and raise the price once people buy.

Step 5: Expand the product line, ride the long-term compounding

Once your first product works, make more templates/products around the same audience to build a catalog. Digital-product money compounds: audience, trust, and products stack up over time. The key is to keep going — don't quit after a few flat months.

Not for you if: you want to "make one template and earn passively" (the front end requires consistently building an audience, giving away free, and surviving the cold start); you won't share publicly or make content; or you want fast money today (digital products are a slow-compounding long game).