From Dreams to Reality with Typedream: Easlo the Notion Guy

2023-05-03

A fireside chat with Easlo, where we discuss how he got from zero to one selling Notion templates and courses, and how he utilizes Typedream to create landing pages to market his digital products.

Easlo is well-known in the Twitter community as The Notion Guy. He provides advice on how to build an audience and make money online through selling digital products. He has designed many minimalist, yet advanced Notion templates and tutorials, and have been using Typedream to create landing pages for his products.

About Easlo

So Easlo, people on Twitter and the no-code community know you as the Notion Guy. Can you tell us the story behind this nickname?

When I first became interested in Notion, I quickly realized that it was far more than the note-taking app I had initially thought it was. After self-educating myself on the different features of Notion, I began building my own setups to organize my life, including my finances. I posted screenshots of these setups on communities like Reddit and Facebook, which garnered positive responses. Eventually, I continued to share these screenshots for others' inspiration and even made them available for download. Seeing interest in how I created those setups, I also started to provide Notion tips and tutorials on other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The mostly Notion-related content I posted on these social platforms eventually built my brand, and I became known as "The Notion Guy.”

Perhaps it’s helpful for readers that we dive in with some examples. Among the many beautiful Notion templates you’ve created, which ones stand out to you? What’s in them and how people can get value from using said templates?

One of my most popular templates is the Second Brain template. I think many people find value in this template because they long for an all-in-one system that requires only a single app, Notion, to manage both their knowledge and productivity. The idea of this template is built upon the PARA method popularized by Tiago Forte, author of Building a Second Brain. Essentially, this template provides a system to organize your knowledge externally and retrieve it easily for your relevant projects and goals.

Another frequently downloaded template is the finance tracker. Finances is a big niche itself, and many people find this template relevant, especially as they transition to adult life. This is particularly true for my audience, which consists mainly of people in their 20s and 30s. It's definitely a good habit to spend time tracking expenses and budget, and despite it being a manual process, many people enjoy the time they spend logging their expenses, as it provides them with more clarity about what they're spending on. Eventually, this habit can help people become more financially responsible and literate.

And you put these templates up on Gumroad, right? Tell us a little bit about that. How has the journey been selling Notion templates from zero to where you’re at now? How did you make your first dollar and what have you learned along the way?

Yes, I put up both my free and paid templates on Gumroad. Gumroad allows for pay-what-you-want pricing, which allowed me to make my first dollar from a donation for a free template in my earlier days. I believe that not holding back on giving away my Notion setups, templates, resources, and tips helped me to build trust and loyalty in my audience. When I launched a paid template months later, I realized that this might become an actual business and that people were willing to pay for a ready-to-use setup in Notion.

I think the fact that Notion comes off as a daunting software with a high learning curve gives template creators an opportunity to provide ready-to-use solutions, saving users time and effort in learning and building their setups in Notion. Throughout my journey, I've learned the importance of giving before taking in any business and how niching down to a single software like Notion can establish you as a niche expert and not compete with many existing creators or competitors.

Getting from zero to one

You’ve probably inspired countless individuals to also create and sell templates and start their creator journeys of their own. You also teach people how to Notion through courses. Let’s talk about building an online business. If someone approached you right now and said “I want to build an online business but I don’t know where to start”, what would your advice be?

Can they succeed without knowing how to code?

Coding has always been thought to be a must-have skill, whether you’re building a website or application. But today, there are plenty of alternatives and solutions that don't require coding. Some would even say that what I create as Notion templates is comparable to applications. And there are tools to turn Notion pages or Google Sheets into websites instantly. Building websites without code is more prevalent than ever with tools like Webflow, Framer, and Typedream. Hence, honestly, the most important first step is actually figuring out where your interests and skillset lie and finding a niche in between. I think the fact that you can do what you love, talk about it online, and make money from it is really the dream for many. Once you know that, there are an abundance of resources out there to hone your skills and experts and creators out there to learn from their success and mistakes.

What are the tools in your productivity stack that could help supercharge a budding creator’s journey?

Some might say I’m biased, but my answer is no doubt Notion. It’s the app I wish I discovered earlier, and I have never looked back after spending the time to learn and build my own systems and setups in Notion from scratch. Having a personalized system for your needs and the fact that I have invested the time in it is what makes it a truly differentiating productivity tool that can benefit students, creators, and teams.

How can they stand out among many others doing the same thing they’re thinking of doing?

The first step is to niche down even further, focusing on what you're good at or what interests you. This can help you establish authority in that smaller niche before expanding out to target a larger audience with the brand or authority you've built.

Secondly, do the same thing differently. Often what appears to be original work is just a good mix of different inspirations put together. The same tweet can be written in a thousand ways, and the same idea can be presented in a thousand ways. The presence of competition and people doing the same thing shows that there is demand and a problem to solve. Be yourself, be unique, and be creative in coming up with a different solution to the same problem.

And once someone has chosen a niche they’d like to double down on, how can they start attracting attention and building a community? What are some important things they should pay attention to?

Choose a social or content platform to focus on and create content that inspires and educates in your niche. Once you start off by going all-in on different social or content platforms, it's hard to be consistent. Getting started on social media is actually the hardest part, and once you have some audience, it actually gets easier to grow. Hence, in the beginning, choose one platform to really figure out what content works for your niche and study the analytics of what type of content is working and what the top creators in the niche are doing on that particular platform. Once you start seeing audience growth and have a content system in place, then expand to try to reach your target audience on another platform.

How Typedream has helped Easlo

So for products such as CreatorOS and Second Brain, you’ve been using Typedream as your website-building platform. How did you discover Typedream? What made you start to use Typedream?

I first learned about Typedream on Twitter. What caught my attention was that Typedream uses an editor similar to Notion's to add different elements of a website, without requiring any coding. After trying it out, I realized that it is much simpler to build websites with Typedream compared to other no-code competitors. While it may not offer as many advanced features as Webflow, this simplicity makes it easy for new users like myself to get the hang of it quickly without getting overwhelmed by a plethora of possibilities.

How has your experience been with Typedream? How long does it usually take for you to go from setting up a website to shipping?

I start by planning out the content and copywriting for my landing page so I know the different sections I need. To keep my website minimal, I stick to a small set of color tones and maintain consistency in the style and color of elements like buttons or headings. If I’m trying to come up with a fresh design, it might take a few hours, but if I’m reusing a similar design Ii created for another product, it would probably take me less than an hour.

What are your favorite features about Typedream?

I appreciate that Typedream provides just enough features and customization to make a great-looking website. There is no fluff or high learning curve to put together a website.

How has Typedream helped you reach your goals?

Typedream has allowed me to better showcase the features of my Notion templates and guide my target audience towards acknowledging their pain points and providing a solution at the end. A good landing page can help improve conversion and keep your audience's attention longer, convincing them to make a purchase.

Follow Easlo 👇🏼

Twitter: https://twitter.com/heyeaslo

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@easlo


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