For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on an icon set representing curly hair. If you have curly hair, you know that finding anything to represent you and your hair is a struggle. That’s why I’m making an icon set for all hair types, to help bridge that gap.
I’m so happy to announce that this icon set is now LIVE! Here’s how we got here…
What I Worked On
At the end of last week, I was almost ready to launch. All I had left was to review my product photos and create a ReadMe document to go in my product’s zip file.
I made some product mockups to showcase the icons in action. Originally, print and web mockups were separate, but I decided to combine them. I felt this better showed off the icon use cases and better filled the space. Aside from that, I made some minor tweaks, and they were ready to go.
To create the ReadMe file, I first laid out everything I wanted to mention in a separate document. This included some background on the product, an explanation of what was included in the pack, a size guide, color guide, file type guide, a licensing type description, and a little thank you and questions section. I wanted to fit this on one page, but I quickly learned two pages would have to do, especially if I wanted a sizing diagram as I had originally planned. So, I compromised with two pages.
Once my materials were ready, I filled out my shop application on Creative Market, hit submit, and waited to hear if my shop was approved.
A Setback
So, I heard back from Creative Market. I, unfortunately, didn’t get the response I was hoping for. My shop application had been denied. I knew this was a possibility from the start, but seeing that “no” was a little disheartening.
When Creative Market denies your request, all they really say is no. I’d love to know what I could do to improve and why my product didn’t meet their standards, but I’ve read it’s not really worth asking. So for now all I can do is wonder. Was it a lack of icon design experience? Was the quality not up to their standards? Is the icon market too saturated? Only the reviewers know.
This outcome, however, is exactly why I had a backup plan. It was time to pivot to Gumroad.
The Launch
Making the switch from Creative Market to Gumroad was easy, but it wasn’t seamless. There were a few tweaks I had to make to my product. First of all, I could make my price a little lower since Gumroad would take a smaller chunk of my earnings than Creative Market would’ve. I edited the description, which included some Creative Market-specific language. I had to edit the ReadMe document to remove the licensing section, since I couldn’t have those tiers in the same way as on Gumroad. This cut was able to get me down to the one page document I was hoping to have before, though, so I am quite happy about that. Then, I made a quick thumbnail image to show off the product on my profile.
After I made all the tweaks, I filled out the product page, uploaded the zip file customers could download, and input my payment information. Then, I hit launch. With that, my icon set is now live!
Come back next week for one more post on this topic. I’ll discuss what I learned from this process and where I want to go from here. If you’re in need of some hair icons, be sure to check out my listing on Gumroad!
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