1️⃣Shopify
I spun up a store in a weekend and it converted from day one. Shopify handled payments, checkout, and abandoned cart recovery while I focused on products and traffic.
Address: 151 O'Connor St, Ottawa, Canada
- Launch a store in hours
- high-converting themes out of the box
- optimized checkout with Shop Pay
- massive app ecosystem
- built-in email and automations
- reliable analytics
- 24/7 support
- Monthly fee
- apps can add up
- learning curve for advanced customization
2️⃣ConvertKit
My newsletters and automations printed sales on autopilot. Landing pages and checkout links let you sell without a full website.
Address: Boise, USA
- Best-in-class deliverability
- visual automations
- creator commerce checkout
- tagging and segmentation
- free migrations
- clean landing pages
- solid integrations
- Design options are limited
- cost scales with list size
3️⃣Teachable
Courses brought in high-margin revenue with simple setup. Upsells and bundles helped raise AOV, but you still need traffic.
Address: 470 Park Ave S, New York, USA
- Easy course builder
- one-click upsells
- bundles and coupons
- affiliate program tools
- payouts handled
- Transaction fees on lower plans
- checkout customization is limited
- needs consistent audience building
4️⃣Gumroad
For small digital products, Gumroad let me ship fast and get paid anywhere. It's perfect for testing offers before investing in a full site.
Address: San Francisco, USA
- No website needed
- fast product pages
- global payments
- simple VAT handling
- supports files and memberships
- Higher fees than running your own checkout
- payout delays for some regions
- limited branding control
- basic analytics
5️⃣Google AdSense
Display ads monetized my niche content while I built affiliate and product revenue. It's simple, but rates swing with seasonality and traffic quality.
Address: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, USA
- Set-and-forget setup
- fills inventory automatically
- huge advertiser demand
- easy to test alongside affiliates
- RPMs fluctuate a lot
- strict policies and sudden reviews
- requires substantial traffic to matter
- can slow pages if misconfigured