Docu Academy: Partner Invitation. 

 

Hey there, I’m Tuomas, the person behind the Docu project. 

Perhaps you already know my story: I started Docu Magazine as a fun little side project in 2020. I’m a photographer and visual artist, and entrepreneurship was the last thing on my mind, but I’m very open-minded and I love to create different projects.

It was unexpected how this project kept growing bigger and bigger, leaving me with no choice but to set up a company for legal purposes. I had a nice job as a media producer, I did freelance gigs and collaborations with art galleries and was teaching workshops. Docu was just little project I worked on weekends for fun. Maybe the project gained momentum due to the pandemic, as everyone was online with plenty of free time for a couple of years…

Anyways, now we are here. The print magazine is doing great, the Ebook Library has been a success, and Docu Academy is up next. I’m a big nerd when it comes to education. Learning is what I really love to do, and I get a big dopamine rush when I learn something new.

Here’s the concept: In Docu Academy, you can share your educational videos or PDFs and offer feedback sessions, online workshops, and portfolio reviews. People can purchase these offerings. And when they do, you will get paid — it’s a very simple concept.

I’ve invited a select group of photographers to join as partner educators, using their expertise to teach and help others learn and grow.

Now here are the next steps:

1. Go to https://gumroad.com/

2. Create an account, it’s free. (Gumroad is the platform we use for our Ebook Library, we have been happy with it. It’s a place where you can sell digital products or services online).

3. Someone has made a great youtube video about how to do this, watch it here.

4. And the same youtuber has made a 2nd video about how you can add an affiliate partner. Watch it here.

5. When you are ready, you can add info@docu-magazine.com as your affiliate partner with 50% commission.

6. Finally, we will check your product and list your affiliate link to Docu Academy. (The website is still in progress!)

Here’s a simple blueprint on how it works:

+ Gumroad takes 10% fee for every sale.

OK, but what’s the point of partnering with Docu if you can do everything by yourself and get all the profit?

I hope Docu can get you a lot of new customers. We have almost 20K followers on Instagram, about 16K people on our email list – and our plan is to run Instagram ads directly to Docu Academy’s website when it’s ready. Also, our followers keep asking for feedback about their projects… 

 

And if you want to, you can also promote your own educational products and get 100% profit. It’s not one or the other, you can do both independent and affiliate partnership as illustrated in the blueprint.

 

Hopefully, Docu Academy will become a well-known platform where people come to discover new tools for learning photography.

OK, but what is Docu Academy? 

 

It’s the place online where we list all the digital products our partner educators have created. Perhaps it will look something like this:

This is just a very simple sketch to illustrate the idea. The website will be more stylish!

Our followers, readers and members are very interested in learning and getting feedback, we hope we can launch Docu Academy in December 2023 with just a few partners – and then make improvements as we go. 

Will this make you an internet millionaire? No. I’m sorry. But perhaps it pays the bills and gives you more time to do fun projects with no commercial pressure.

If you change your mind you can log in to your Gumroad account and delete Docu from your affiliate list anytime. Then we are no longer partners. You are the boss, you make the rules.

Practical example 1: 

Let’s say you want to offer feedback to a student. 

They send you a link to their photos -> you write a feedback report and email it to the student.

First, you create a “digital product” on your Gumroad account, name it “Feedback Report”. 

Then, you decide what’s the price… Let’s say you want to earn 50€ for 1 written feedback report.

You set the price as 100€ (not 50€). 

When Docu promotes it, you get 50% profit.

If you choose to promote it independently, you can offer a 50% discount to your followers:

Feedback Report: 100€ now 50€.

 

Practical example 2:

Let’s say you want to offer a PDF file. 

In this PDF file you write about how you created your photography project X, outlining the challenges you faced and the solutions you implemented. 

First, you create a “digital product” on your Gumroad account, name it “PDF: How I Created My Project X”.

Then, you decide what’s the price… Let’s say you want to earn 25€ every time someone downloads it.

You set the price as 50€ (not 25€).

When Docu promotes it, you get 50% profit.

If you choose to promote it independently, you can offer a 50% discount to your followers:

Educational PDF: 50€ now 25€.

 

Practical example 3:

Let’s say you want to offer a video. 

You record a video where you talk about how to become a freelance photographer. It’s a 1 hour video. 

First, you create a “digital product” on your Gumroad account, name it “Video Lecture: How To Become A Freelance Photographer”.

Then, you decide what’s the price… Let’s say you want to earn 30€ every time someone watches it.

You set the price as 60€ (not 30€).

When Docu promotes it, you get 50% profit.

If you choose to promote it independently, you can offer a 50% discount to your followers:

Video Lecture: 60€ now 30€.

 

Practical example 4:

Let’s say you want to offer a 6-month mentorship program. 

You have a Zoom call every Friday with your student, you help your student with his/her project. 

First, you create a “digital product” on your Gumroad account, name it “6-Month Mentorship Program”.

Then, you decide what’s the price… Let’s say you want to earn 3000€ when someone makes a purchase.

You set the price as 6000€ (not 3000€).

When Docu promotes it, you get 50% profit.

If you choose to promote it independently, you can offer a 50% discount to your followers:

6-Month Mentorship Program: 6000€ now 3000€.

The idea is that our partner educators don’t have to promote their own products if it feels awkward…

Or perhaps they don’t have a big marketing budget to run ads.

We drive traffic to the Docu Academy website so that potential customers can see what’s available. If they see something interesting, they can make a purchase.

When the digital product is ready, the partner educator doesn’t have to do anything. For example, with a PDF or video product, it’s a set-it-and-forget-it scenario. You won’t need to take any action; simply receive payments when someone makes a purchase. That’s it. Easy and simple.

(You can also offer an online course with multiple video lectures.)

But if you’re offering feedback or a mentorship program, it’s different. You have to engage with customers, and provide the agreed-upon services. It’s about delivering what you promised.

Here is information on how Gumroad will pay you when someone purchases your educational product.