If you haven’t heard of Gumroad yet, you will. The concept, from 19-yr-old Pinterest designer Sahil Lavingia, provides an alternative pricing and distribution model for anyone looking to sell their wares (as long as it can be uploaded or linked to). But it’s a bit more than that, in that it’s way less complicated than that. Including registration time, you can have your product for sale in less than two minutes and let all of your followers on Twitter know about it. Oh yeah, that reminds me – it’s designed for the social consumer. Interested yet?

Artists, musicians, graphic designers, writers, photographers and the like will immediately impact the Gumroad scene. But there are other, less obvious, industries that could take advantage of such a concept as well:

1. Architecture: Currently, the market for house plans is flooded, fractured and so rife with inferior products it’s nearly impossible for a consumer to navigate. Gumroad could offer legitimate architects a way to sell everything from garden shed plans to kitchen remodels and whole-house plans directly to the consumer, while giving the consumer a social component to review, research and ask questions directly from the source and from other consumers.

2. Legal: There are numerous legal website companies which sell various legal documents directly to the consumer. And, that’s the problem – they are legal website companies, not individual attorneys with a face and a name. The social/connected consumer requires a human component, one they can get to know, form a relationship with and check up on. Gumroad can make that happen.

3. Journalism: Independent journalism has yet to find a also able pricing model on the social web…until now. A journalist in Greece can write a story, shoot video clips, take still photography and sell the package immediately on Gumroad to their followers. This is the key point – how do buyers know the journalist is legit? Because they know them, have a relationship with them and their other buyers and are constantly connected with what they are working on via Twitter and other social outlets – which also provide the journalist a way to tease and promote their upcoming breaking news package.

4. Marketing: Social media ROI anyone? It doesn’t get any more obvious than making a direct connection between a specific follower and a specific transaction.

About The Author: Robert J. Munson is a marketing and public relations strategist based in Baton Rouge, LA. His firm, RobertJMunson, specializes in modern marketing strategies including social media marketing, content marketing and corporate social strategy. Follow Robert J Munson on Twitter.