Journal

Notes from
the workshop.

Long-form on product philosophy, payment data, indie commerce, and the small pieces that make a creator’s business work. Written by people who use the product.

STRIPE$29.00PAY×LINK$29
Comparison

Stripe Checkout vs payment links: which one should you use?

A practical comparison of Stripe Checkout and dedicated payment-link tools — when each fits, what they cost, and how conversion compares.

Purpleturret Team·May 4, 2026
9 min
$9$19$49CHARGE MORE
Playbook

How to price your first digital product (a 2026 framework)

A clear five-question framework for pricing your first digital product. Avoid the three classic traps and pick a price you can defend.

Purpleturret Team·Apr 28, 2026
10 min
JP
Comparison

7 Gumroad alternatives for selling digital products in 2026

An honest, side-by-side review of Gumroad alternatives for indie creators in 2026 — fees, branding, analytics, and what each does best.

Purpleturret Team·Apr 21, 2026
12 min
POST /events/Purchase { "event_id": "pt_8Hq3LKz", "user_data": { "em": "a4f5…7b2" }, "value": 29.00 }
Engineering

Meta Pixel + CAPI: the no-nonsense guide to checkout tracking in 2026

How to set up Meta Pixel and Conversions API together so your Purchase events actually fire — even with ad blockers, iOS 14, and Safari ITP.

Purpleturret Team·Apr 14, 2026
13 min
Data

We analyzed 12,400 refunds. Here's what we actually learned.

78% of refunds happen in the first 36 hours and most have nothing to do with the product. What 12,400 refunds across the Purpleturret network revealed.

Purpleturret Team·Apr 7, 2026
8 min
/your-link
Playbook

How to sell digital products without building a store

You don't need a Shopify, a Squarespace, or even a homepage. A practical guide to selling digital products with nothing but a payment link.

Purpleturret Team·Mar 30, 2026
8 min
100 CLICKS47 CHECKOUT12 PAID
Playbook

12 small things that lifted creators' checkout conversion by 23%

Twelve specific, copy-paste improvements that raised average checkout conversion across the Purpleturret network by 23% in six months.

Purpleturret Team·Mar 22, 2026
10 min
MONTUEWEDTHUFRISHIP
Data

The 2026 creator economy in 14 numbers

Fourteen up-to-date statistics that capture where the creator economy actually is in 2026 — revenue, platforms, payment-link adoption, and what's growing fastest.

Purpleturret Team·Mar 15, 2026
7 min
somedaytoday
Opinion

"I''ll launch when it''s ready" is the maker''s worst lie

The thing you ship is the thing you learn from. A short, opinionated essay on why "launch when ready" quietly kills indie projects.

Purpleturret Team·Mar 8, 2026
5 min
REMOVED
Product

Why we removed the dashboard chart (and what we learned)

Sometimes the right call is to delete a feature people clearly enjoy looking at. What six weeks without a revenue chart taught us about dashboards.

Purpleturret Team·Mar 1, 2026
7 min
Manifesto

Stop building stores. The payment-link economy is here.

For a generation of indie makers, a "store" is a 6-month project. A payment link is a 60-second one. What changes when commerce gets that small.

Purpleturret Team·Feb 19, 2026
6 min
Editorial
“The point of the journal isn’t to grow our SEO score. It’s to write down what we’re learning while we ship, in case it’s useful to you. No ‘thought leadership.’ No funnel tricks.
Purpleturret Team