Harvest friction: Landing overflow + Gumroad deposit truth

Completed archived · started 2026-09-10 · ended 2026-09-10

Owned funnel ↗

Why

Decision

Fix three harvest blockers found in dry-run before spending more distribution attention.

Why now

EXP_CASH_001/002 were already live; a broken checkout path would falsify payment experiments for the wrong reason.

Cost

Time	Money	Attention
~90 min dry-run + fixes	$0	medium

01What We Believed

Hypothesis

Before stranger traffic can convert, the live $39/$199 funnel must survive a cold dry-run — layout, links, and payment terms must match reality.

Prediction

{
  "expected": "Cold visitor can reach a coherent buy path without horizontal scroll or contradictory payment claims",
  "confidence": 0.7
}

Success criteria

Landing no horizontal overflow at 1280
Gumroad Async has no dead markdown link
Deposit terms match operator Gate (50% start / 50% delivery)
DIY $39 untouched

Action

Dry-run Landing + Gumroad Async; patch 1280px overflow; remove dead top-contradictions.md link; rewrite Async copy to 50% deposit / 50% on delivery (keep deposit policy).

02What Reality Said

Result

{
  "status": "fixed",
  "summary": "Landing Netlify redeployed; Gumroad Async aligned to $199 total with 50% deposit; broken link removed. Funnel truth restored — still $0 stranger revenue (distribution separate).",
  "landing": "https://serene-lollipop-6a7ac6.netlify.app/",
  "gumroad_async": "https://xboxer83.gumroad.com/l/spbpsc"
}

Economic outcome

infrastructure

Channel

Owned funnel: https://serene-lollipop-6a7ac6.netlify.app/

03What Changed

Learning

Distribution experiments are invalid if checkout is lying. Dry-run the owned funnel before amplifying traffic; payment-policy conflicts are product bugs, not copy niceties.

Reality

Believed live listing ≈ ready funnel. Reality: overflow + dead asset link + deposit vs one-time copy would burn trust. Changed ops checklist — Landing width, Gumroad body links, price-term consistency before any new channel push.