7 Content Experiments I Ran in August—and What Happened

16 Sep 2025 #misc

Back in August, I shared 7 content experiments I wanted to try.

As part of my daily routine, I write 10 bad ideas every day to keep my creativity muscles in shape. I wrote 10 ideas that day, but only posted 7.

I acted on some of those ideas. Here’s what I actually did:

#1. I redesigned the interior of my C# Idioms book. For the first version, I used Canva. Nothing wrong with Canva. But I wanted a more professional, less hobbyist design. So I added a copyright notice, an introduction, a table of content. The basics of a publishable book. Now, it’s available for $0.99. Next move? Offer it via Amazon.

#2. I uploaded all my coding courses to Gumroad. I have to admit the experience of Gumroad as a student isn’t as polished as Udemy for video courses. But it works well enough to show a video lesson with a description. Now, they’re available here: C# NullReferenceException Demystified, Getting Started With LINQ in C#, and Mastering C# Unit Testing with Real-world Examples.

#3. I packaged all my beginner’s material into the “C# Fundamentals Bundle.” That’s an ebook and more than 2 hours of video lessons to learn C#, at 20% off. It’s available here: C# Fundamentals Bundle.

After launching these, I notice a challenge: Gumroad doesn’t have a powerful discoverability feature. As creators, we can’t simply rely on Gumroad showing our products to users. At least, we shouldn’t expect it. We have to redirect traffic there ourselves. Now, my only source of traffic is my newsletter.

#4. I changed all prices to end in .99 and increased the suggested prices., I offer my books and courses as “Pay what you want.” I’ve received $1, $5, $7, $10, and $20 as payments. So I changed my current prices based on those anchor points.

Results? 10 free downloads and no sales. Not that bad. I learned about interior book design and practiced my copywriting skills. That’s helpful for any future project.