As part of my Annual Review series, I’m looking back at the development of AONC and the related business during 2009. I hope you’re having a great December, wherever you are. *** The business side of AONC happened quite organically in the beginning. The only real business goal I had when starting the site was…
Read MoreFriends and readers, my first product in several months is now available. If you’re reading by RSS or email, come over and read all of the details here. The guide will help you become your own Travel Ninja – someone who travels wherever they want at any time. It’s all about Travel Hacking, creative international…
Read MoreOn Thursday morning, I’ll release my first new product in several months. The goal of Travel Ninja is to help readers interested in serious international travel. It’s all about travel hacking, Round-the-World flying, low-cost lodging, and overall strategies to help you travel anywhere in the world. If you’d like to go to the next level,…
Read MoreNow that our second Unconventional Guide is out in the marketplace, and the first one continues to sell every day, I’m ready to open up the affiliate program for these and future guides.
I’ll tell you about that in this update, but I’ll also tell you why most affiliate programs aren’t worth your time. If you have a web site, blog, or any kind of business, this should help you learn what NOT to do with affiliate marketing.
The short version is:
1. Most affiliate programs are heavily weighted in favor of the merchant. The merchant gets a lot of exposure and pays a token commission to its affiliates.
2. Then again, most affiliates don’t do any work or make any sales. In some cases, this can be as many as 98% of affiliates.
3. To fix this, the merchants need to restructure the terms and the affiliates need to add value somewhere.
My goal with the project is to create an affiliate program that doesn’t suck. That may not sound like a lofty goal, but as mentioned-- most affiliate programs are fundamentally flawed.
Here is how I’m trying to fix that with the small Unconventional Guides business:
1) By Application Only. We have to know each other somewhat before you can promote something I offer. This is not meant to sound elitist; it’s just that I don’t want you to waste your time with something that is not going to help you. And of course, I also need to maintain the integrity of the brand, so I won’t allow any promotion through unsolicited email, mature sites, etc.
2) High Commissions. I pay 51% on everything, meaning that my affiliates will make more money than me. I’ll also be adding a few bonuses to the program as more people get going with this.
3) Customized Promotions. This is where the affiliate’s work comes in. Putting up banners and hoping someone will notice does not work very well anymore (if it ever did). It’s better to take the time and write up something unique about what you choose to endorse. Why should people buy it? How will it help them?
On my side, I’ll help a bit with the custom promotions. If you have a high-traffic site or other responsive community, I’ll give you a special discount code exclusively for your readers. This will help increase sales and also ensure that all sales are 100% credited to you. If you want to do an interview for your audience, I’ll do my best to accommodate your request.
Regardless of whether my program is a good fit for you, think about these questions when deciding what you are going to share with people who trust you.
If you can answer "yes" to these questions for a particular opportunity, it's worth considering. If not, there are better things you can do with your time and energy.
If my program sounds like something you’re into, send me a note with some info on how you plan to promote the guides. I’ll get back to you shortly.
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As promised, here is the analysis and full results from the latest product launch. But first, a few notes on trust and authority – the good kind, not the kind you should fight against.
Having established that all purchases are highly emotional, and that buyers conduct an elaborate, internal analysis about price and value whenever they choose to purchase something, let’s talk know about trust.
We experience a certain combination of fear and trust whenever we buy something. The fear is that we will have wasted our money; the trust is the expectation that we haven’t. We look for immediate validation. Is the first song on the record good? Does the first article in the magazine hold my attention beyond the title?
If trust is confirmed, good. If not, we get worried. That’s why it’s important, whenever you sell something, to work hard at establishing and keeping the trust of your customers. Validation can come in many forms (and it’s good to mix it up a little), but the more, the better.
“Working for Yourself” Case Study
Two weeks ago, I launched my second information product, the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. I completed this one after a month of writing, including an all-night session in Sri Lanka, and a few days of recording audio after I had returned to Seattle.
It was no exaggeration to say that I was hesitant to create a product that had to do with making money. It’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with making money – we all need money, and I prefer earning it on my own instead of working for someone else. Aside from robbing banks, those are the only two options (and I suppose that bank robbers are technically self-employed).
I was hesitant because I knew that when you sell something even remotely related to finance and employment, certain people get twitchy on you. They think you are up to something suspicious, even if you have an established reputation you probably wouldn't want to squander.
By the way, most rational people don’t do this, only those who were suspicious or skeptical to begin with. The rational prospects look at the offer, consider the qualifiers and “reasons why,” and then make their decision based on the value consideration. If yes, they buy; if no, they don't -- but they don't usually think less of you for it.
It’s Kind of Like Saying Who You Vote For
This week I received my early voting packet for Washington State, and I was proud to cast my vote for Barack Obama. In 12 years of being an eligible U.S. voter, this is the only time I can remember being genuinely excited about electing a candidate. There are a lot of good reasons to vote for change, but for me one of the most important is that this election has the chance to restore America's standing in the rest of the world.
If you don’t like Obama, do I worry that you’ll be turned off by my saying who I voted for? Not really. I have friends who support John McCain, and I don’t suddenly think their opinions are invalid just because they have reached a different conclusion than I have. I read blogs that are somewhat critical of both mainstream candidates, and as long as they don’t hit me over the head with too much rhetoric, I don’t mind.
It’s only the people who decide that you are a bad person or somehow naïve for expressing an opinion who will get upset.
I don’t care much for intolerance anyway, so if someone stops reading because I say I like Obama, then I think they’d probably be offended at something else sooner or later.
In the end, I decided that the same kind of principle holds true for creating a product about finance and self-employment. A few people get mad because it’s “not what you are supposed to do,” and a lot of other people will happily support you. Others decide it’s not right for them, but that’s OK – because they still care about other things you’re doing. I'll show you all three groups in the analysis here.
When I launched the first guide on Discount Airfare, I was careful to explain my controversial (apparently) opinion that artists should be allowed to make money. I did that to preempt the complaints about selling a product, lest I be unfairly accused of "selling out."
This time I took the qualification process even more seriously, clearly explaining several good reasons to not buy my product at the beginning of the launch process. I did this because I wanted only the customers who I knew would be thrilled and find the product very useful to them.
The Launch Day
I always get up early when launching a new product. In this case, I set the launch time for 7am PST, and I usually need at least 45 minutes to review everything before the actual launch.
I used to launch products and web sites at 8am EST, which meant that after I moved to Seattle I’d need to be up around 4:30 a.m. to accomodate this preference – but I decided that 10am EST would be just fine for this one.
Test… test… test.
There are always a few surprises when you sell something new. No matter how many times you test things, something will always go wrong for someone. The order link won’t work, the thank-you message won’t go out, the site will go down – count on it. This is why it’s good to stay close to the phone and email during any launch.
This time I got up at 5:30 a.m., ran through all the logistics, placed a test order, and so on. A few minutes before 7:00, I made my coffee and uploaded the order page to the site.
The Response
Some of you said you liked how I was willing to share real sales figures in a recent update. I’ll do the same thing here.
My initial goal was to sell at least 100 copies of this product in the first week. Within 24 hours, almost exactly 100 copies had sold, helping me reach the goal six days early. Yay!
More copies have continued to sell every day since then, and a number of people have asked about setting up a consulting session – something I didn’t really like to do before, but now I’m considering as a limited commitment for people who have already started their very small businesses.
The total conversion rate from the first week of regular readers was about 3.4%.
Since 1% is a general marketing baseline and I deliberately tried to disqualify people from buying the guide if it wasn’t a good fit for them, I thought that 3.4% was great. If anything, I want to be sure that I don’t focus too much on this side business while I continue to work on the more important goals of getting my book contract (more on that in a moment) and building our community here.
After all, even though I sold about $4,000 in the first 24 hours, the figure of 100 buyers represents only a small subset of readers. I have to keep the focus on the reason why people come here to begin with: to hear about unconventional strategies for life, work, and travel.
You guys are why I am doing it, whether you buy something or not… although naturally, I greatly appreciate the support and endorsement of your investment.
Good News / Bad News
The bad news was that, like last time, I heard from a few people who were upset about something that seems fairly irrational to me. Without fail, these comments come in from people who have never bought anything, and in fact have never communicated with me before.
I’m going to quote from one of these emails below for your consideration:
You preach about everyone being the master of their own destiny, but expect everyone to buy your [expletive] ebook on making money. This was a good blog until you blatantly tried to rip us off. How could you possibly try to [expletive] tell me what to do?
At first I thought this guy had meant to send this message to someone else. Expect everyone to buy? Blatantly try to rip you off? Tell you what to do?
I’m at a complete loss as to how anyone could get these ideas. I actually told people why they shouldn’t buy the guide, offered a more comprehensive guarantee than any I’ve ever heard of, and said that the primary goal of the guide is to help people create their own freedom to do what they want. Ironic, isn’t it?
There’s not much I can do in these cases except say, “I wish you the best” and move on – never argue with a crazy person, my mom likes to say -- but it does make me a little sad to hear how misguided someone can be.
Anyway, I know that the vast majority of people don’t think that way. Such is life with any kind of marketing in the blogosphere, even the no-hype kind. I posted the email here not because I’m upset, but so you can see that there will always be critics out to write you off whenever you do something of interest.
The lesson for me in this case is to avoid being distracted by random, negative messages like that. Before the end of the first afternoon two weeks ago, I had 60 new customers who were excited about the new product. I should have been thinking about those 60, and then the additional 40, and then everyone else who is happy -- not one negative message that I don't feel is valid.
Here is a sampling of the feedback from new guide owners:
First of all, congratulations. You've put together a great guide. It's helpful, realistic and down-to-earth, and I think it's one of the best ebooks I've read in a while. Very well done, and I hope it gets picked up widely!
Every bit as good as I'd expected, so many congratulations on putting together such a fantastic resource. I know a lot of people will benefit from it, including me. I've been in business for more than twenty years, and my view is that it's loaded with invaluable tips and top ideas which I'll be putting into practice myself.
I especially enjoyed the strategies for starting a microbusiness - especially the parts where it's broken down into pros, cons, and next steps. Including actionable items that I could get started on NOW is extremely helpful, especially for getting me to get off my butt.
I have about 50 reviews like those so far, both from the new guide and the first one. I’ve also asked people to send in suggestions for what could be improved in a future version or an email series I’m doing for the buyers. The feedback I’ve received thus far from many of you has been excellent. We’ve already issued some new material on the basis of those comments, and more will be on the way.
What’s Next
I have three more Unconventional Guides outlined, but at least two of them won't be written until early 2009. For now I want to continue promoting the current guide and working with the affiliates who are selling it around the internet. I’ll probably do a short post on the unconventional affiliate program in the next couple of weeks, but for now if you’re interested, just check out that link and let me know.
My number-one, most important work priority right now is finishing the latest version of my "real book" proposal (it’s up to 40 pages; who knew such a thing had to be so long?) and getting the process for the publisher shopping fully underway.
Next spring, I want to take the business side of things further and do a series of webinars for those who are interested. The webinars will be like the guides, only in multiple sessions and highly interactive. Anyway, more on that later – as mentioned, the proposal completion and book shopping are the most important projects for me at the moment. Onwards and upwards.
Lessons Learned
Miraculously, I don’t think I made any huge mistakes with this product launch. I’m certainly open to constructive feedback, and I realize there are things I could have done to increase the sales further, but overall I’m happy with the results.
Here’s a couple of technical points, for those interested in the details:
(If those two statements don’t mean much to you, don’t worry, you’re not missing out on anything terribly important.)
The Best Lesson
When people trust you, they know you are going to put out good work. Some of them are actually willing to pay for it.
I’m tremendously grateful for that trust. Thanks so much.
And for everyone who does not want a very small business, as promised, I am not “selling out” (whatever that means). As you can see from recent posts, I will continue to write about lifestyle design, world domination, unconventional travel, and whatever else I come up with that you guys enjoy.
### RSS Feed | Email Updates | A Brief Guide To World Domination | Unconventional Guides: Working for Yourself: Creating Personal Freedom Discount Airfare: Surviving Stress and Maximizing Fun Did you enjoy this article? Please pass it on to others at StumbleUpon, or share your own thoughts in the comments section.
Read MoreHere’s an idea: if you sell something, think about why prospects don’t buy from you.
I don’t mean the unqualified people – there are always good reasons why people should not give you money.
But for the qualified prospects -- people for whom your product or service is a good fit -- why don’t they buy?
Maybe you haven’t done a good job with the sales copy, maybe they’re not in the right place at the right time, or something else. But at the heart of the matter, people are afraid, skeptical, or just plain not convinced.
To help prospects come over to your side of the fence, you need an incredibly convincing guarantee. This guarantee has to go far beyond an offer to get your money back.
The basic, “money back within 30 days” guarantee is no longer very convincing. It’s expected. It is the norm.
For Example
I haven’t eaten at Taco Bell in a long time, but ten years ago when I didn’t care about my health, I used to spend quite a lot of time and money over there.
Back in the day (and maybe now still, I have no idea), they came out with what they positioned as an amazing guarantee: “If you don’t like it, we’ll eat it.”
In other words, if you weren’t happy with your cinnamon crisps, they would refund your 59, 79, or 99 cents. I was new to marketing at the time, but I still remember feeling skeptical about this offer. If I hadn’t already been a Taco Bell customer, did they think this offer would bring me in the door?
I mean, my average bill for a full meal was about $2.70, so the risk was very low. They were promising to give me $3 back? Not convincing.
This is why you need to go above and beyond to convince skeptical prospects.
Not many businesses get this, but some do. Look at Zappos, which has done very well selling shoes and service. At Zappos, they actually encourage you to order multiple pairs of shoes and send back the ones you don’t want. They pay the shipping both ways, so you have effectively no risk. That’s incredibly convincing, since the idea of buying shoes online used to be considered strange and unmarketable.
For another good example, look at Kiva, provider of economic empowerment from Afghanistan to Zambia. Kiva facilitates loans between rich people (like you and me) and motivated entrepreneurs in poorer countries. They currently have a 98.6% repayment rate, which is good because the first objection most people have when they hear about loaning money to a farmer in Uganda is, “Does that work? How will I get my money back?”
98.6% is pretty convincing, I think, especially when our own banks in New York and Frankfurt aren’t doing so great these days.
As for me, you may have noticed that I will be releasing my second information product on Wednesday.
It’s called the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself: Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business.
I’m excited about it, and I know it will help many people. Since I’ve previously explained who it won’t help, I thought it would be fair to explain who it will.
Here is the goal:
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
I don’t want to guarantee too much, because as I’ve said before, self-employment is not for everyone and it takes a lot of work. But I also don’t want to guarantee too little, so that’s why we’re doing something unique.
The 60-Day, $2,400 Guarantee
First, the typical satisfaction guarantee applies. If it doesn’t rock your world, you get your money back. No problem.
But here is the second part.
In the first section of the new guide, I will be asking everyone to take the time to set a couple of goals for the new business they are going to start.
My second guarantee is that I will refuse to accept your money if it doesn’t work for you, according to these specific metrics:
SatisfactionEffectiveness GuaranteedIf, after 60 days, someone has read the guide, listened to the audio files, and put in a fair effort on their part (they will be the sole judge) but has not been able to start a project that earns at least $200 a month, then they get their money back even if they like the guide.
In other words, the burden is on me to deliver, or I don’t get paid a dime.
A minimum of $200 a month x 12 months = $2,400 minimum. There are no geographic restrictions or other fine print.
See, I want my products to actually help people. I’m interested in mass accountability, and this is the latest experiment.
What You’ll Get
The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself consists of an online guide and downloadable MP3 files:
As for the cost, in the future I will probably price the guide in the $60-89 range, but we’ll kick it off this week for less than that – probably around $45 or so, with a small discount for everyone on the newsletter list.
And in the end, the people who buy it will succeed at a measurable rate far greater than the purchase price, or I will insist that they keep their money. No exceptions.
Fair enough?
Oh, and one more thing: since I know this won’t be for everyone, to make it fun for the whole group we’ll be posting a few specific case studies beginning 45 days after the launch. The goal is to feature real-life stories showing exactly what kinds of "very small businesses" have been created as a result of this project.
Since I don’t know exactly what will happen, this should be interesting… but my hope is that we’ll get some people willing to show actual web sites and sales figures.
***
What do you think? Am I crazy to offer this kind of guarantee?
AND… if you already have a business, what kind of Incredibly Convincing Guarantee can you offer your customers? Is there a way you can rock their world so they keep coming back to you?
See you all on Wednesday morning…
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Read MoreMarketers tend to deliberately over-hype their products in an attempt to break through a crowded marketplace. In an environment where we receive 3,000 advertising messages on an average day, the idea is to be bigger and better – but if that’s too difficult, the theory goes, we can at least be noisier.
I’m coming out with my second information product exactly one week from today, and instead of trying to sell you on it, I thought I’d tell you why not to buy it.
On Monday I’ll explain how to create an Incredibly Convincing Guarantee. The idea is that most promises of “satisfaction guaranteed” aren’t that convincing at all anymore. Almost everything we buy has some kind of guarantee, but we still end up ignoring most of those 3,000 messages each day.
Since I’m in the marketplace of ideas, I’ve decided to create a guarantee for my own product that goes beyond the usual. I think I’ve found something unique, and I think it will resonate. I also can’t wait to tell you more about the guide itself – which currently runs to more than 55 pages and also includes several 25-minute audio segments.
I was going to write about both of those things today, but then I got worried… what if I’m writing for the wrong people?
See, I want to deliver great products to the right customers, and I am the first to point out that there are usually a number of good reasons to keep your money instead of exchanging it for something else. Therefore, I need to do some disqualification for your benefit and mine.
The next product will be called the Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. The subtitle is “Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business,” and that’s basically what it’s all about:
Creating Freedom = finding a way to work for yourself instead of someone else, or at least finding a way to bring in additional income that allows you to do more of what you want and be less dependent on a jobThrough a Very Small Business = not trying to start the next Google or Amazon.com, but instead building a microbusiness that brings in at least $200 a month, and potentially a series of these opportunities that eventually allow you to quit your current job
Please understand that this is not for everyone. Not everyone values freedom over traditional employment, and not everyone wants to have a business of any kind, even a very small one.
The ever-insightful Tim at Soul Shelter recently wrote a post entitled In Praise of Salaried Employment. Reading it was an affirmation that I (still) don’t want a “real job,” but I see Tim’s point -- and it also served as a good reminder that not everyone wants to work for themselves. Like most art forms, the way people on the outside perceive self-employment is quite different from the way it actually works for most of us who practice it.
Why Not to Buy the UG to Working for Yourself
As mentioned, there are many good reasons to not buy any particular product or service. A few of them for this one are:
If you’re looking for the quick path to riches. Feel free to keep looking for that – but please, not here. If I had found such a thing, I would probably not be selling it in a low-cost ebook. I might still travel around the world, but I don’t think I would sleep on the floor of airports from Rome to Dallas to save money.
If you don’t like to learn or aren’t willing to work. I use a lot of irony in my writing, but there is nothing ironic about this. A lot of people are simply not comfortable with learning new things, and if you have never worked for yourself before, there’s a lot of things you have to learn.
One of the things I mention in the guide is that you don’t have to be especially intelligent to earn money without a job, but you do need to be willing to work.
If your primary goal is to build a huge business. I have nothing against huge businesses for the most part; I just don’t know anything about building them. I’m far more interested in finding a way to pay the rent so I can do what I want.
On a higher level, I’m also interested in convergence and alignment, where my whole life is related to what I want to do for myself and how I think I can best help others. But in a nutshell, this guide is just about starting a very small business. Getting the cash flow coming in. Ready, fire, aim – that kind of thing.
If you are a complete beginner to technology. I write almost exclusively about online business because that’s what I’ve done for ten years. If you don’t know how blogs work or how Google makes money (for example), there will be more of a learning curve. The guide is targeted to the low to mid-intermediate level – not the guru who knows everything, but also not the complete beginner.
Don’t worry too much about this if you’re on the fence – I am a fairly low-tech person. I write on a $500 laptop and don’t do any programming or complex work at all. But I mention this because if you are going to work online in some kind of business, it does help to be fairly proficient with the world of computers. You should know what eBay is, you should probably have your own internet connection, etc.
***
Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business
I do not know how to create internet millionaires because I am not one myself. What I have done instead is find a way to create a lifestyle that works for me and gives me a great deal of freedom. It’s not a four-hour work week, but I spend a lot of time doing exactly what I want to do instead of being tied to a desk somewhere.
For me, the freedom itself is the most important thing – it is definitely the highest goal and most significant benefit of working for myself. That is what I know how to do, and that’s why the subtitle of the guide is “Creating Freedom through a Very Small Business.”
It can sometimes be unpopular to say so, but money and freedom are related to a certain point. Is there anyone who can argue that it’s fun to be poor? Let’s be honest: it sucks.
So you have to do something to avoid that, and if inheritance or litigation is not an option, then you either have to work for someone else or work for yourself.
I have chosen to work for myself. And if you’re interested, I’ll tell you all about what I do and how you can work towards creating your own freedom, doing it your own way, creating your own rules. By popular demand, I’ll include a lot of personal stories (especially “big mistakes” I’ve made along the way) and a lot of specific, actionable items you can take to get started right away.
The time for that will be Wednesday, October 8, at 10am EST / 7am here on the West Coast.
On Monday I’ll tell you all about the unique guarantee, what you’ll get, how it works, how much it costs, and so on.
Sound good?
For Everyone Else
I needed to address the fact that the Working for Yourself guide is not for everyone – which will hopefully be clear now. If it’s not for you due to any of the reasons mentioned above (or something else), you won’t be left out of the party entirely.
I write three times a week and will never charge for that. I’m currently writing the sequel to the World Domination Manifesto, which will be released in January. I have more plans for the next 6-9 months that all involve scaling up the project without putting ads on the site or selling anything other than a few more teaching products like this one.
And as we did last time, I’ll also post a detailed analysis after the launch with what went well and what I could have done better.
Here is the launch schedule:
Friday, October 3: Working from Any Country in the World
Monday, October 6: The Incredibly Convincing Guarantee
Wednesday, October 8 (10am EST): The Launch
Thursday, October 9: Chris retires! (Wait, probably not yet. It may take a few more days.)
Thanks for listening, and see you all next time. Feel free to share your feedback in the comments section.
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Read MoreToday’s (short) update comes to you live from DFW, also known as the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. Last night I slept on the floor here after flying in from Seattle prior to a 6am connection this morning.
There’s not a whole lot to say about sleeping on the airport floor, at least in Dallas. Anyway, it’s over, and now I’m flying to Miami and beyond. At the moment I’m posting this, it’s 5:12 a.m. local time, and we’re boarding in 10 minutes. Eventually I’ll get to Cairo and tell you all about that.
But first, I have an important question for you.
In early October, I’m going to launch the next Unconventional Guide. It won’t actually be about sleeping on the floor of the airport – as mentioned, that would be a pretty short guide – but instead, it will be all about money and freedom.
Specifically, I’m writing an extended series of strategies and tactics about Earning Money Without a Job. So far I’m up to 45 pages, so I need to wrap it up soon… but I’m also going to include a series of audio teachings to complement the written materials.
Over the next week I’ll be outlining those audio segments, and I thought I’d ask you this important question:
What do you want to know about earning money without a job?
On any given day, we have a broad readership over here. Some people are already successful entrepreneurs, some people are in the process of starting something for themselves, and others aren’t really interested in that at all.
But for all those differences, a key similarity is that most people, at least those who have sent feedback somewhere along the way, are interested in freedom. For me, having the freedom to set my own schedule and focus on the things I enjoy is by far the greatest benefit of working on my own. As any self-employed person can attest, it's not always easy, but I think it's safe to say that it's always worth it.
I’ll tell you more about the guide in a couple weeks, but one thing I want to make clear is that creating a small, online business is not especially difficult. There are a lot of people doing this who aren't necessarily smarter than any of the rest of us.
HOWEVER...
It does require a fair amount of work. If there is a 10-minute secret to wealth creation, I haven’t discovered it yet. I know this project won’t be for everyone, but I do want everyone to know that creating a life of freedom is not an instant process.
***
If you'd like to contribute, please let me know any or all of the following:
1) Do you have any specific questions about starting an online business?
2) If you currently work at a “real job,” what is confusing to you about people who work for themselves?
3) If you currently work for yourself (in some form or fashion), what were the biggest challenges to getting your cash flow going?
Finally, if you think of anything else that is relevant, send that along too.
***
You can comment below and I’ll consider using your question or general feedback in the audio materials. RSS and Newsletter folks, that means you have to click through to the site.
(Note that I’m traveling today, so if comments aren’t posted right away, that’s why. They should be up within 24 hours.)
Alternatively, if you don’t want to comment on the site (less than 1% of readers do, but everyone is welcome), then write me from the contact form.
OK, I’m out of time – AA 925 is boarding right now. See you on Friday.
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Read MoreNone of this is tremendously helpful in business, and in a lot of ways, it's made things more difficult than they are for other, more balanced people.
Instead, I trace my success at survival to two key skills: first, I am a decent copywriter. Writing well really does help you do a lot of things. Second, I have a fairly good understanding of the twin concepts of price and value.
There are some other "life skills" that are also important -- notably, persistence -- but in terms of specific business skills, that's pretty much all I've got. And for the most part, it works just fine, if a bit haphazard at times.
Today I thought I'd tell you about the second skill of understanding price and value, and I'll do so with a real-life case study from the launch of my first AONC product. I'll tell you what I did wrong, what worked well, and why I chose to market the product the way I did.
Ready?
First, all understanding about the whole subject of pricing comes from one critical principle:
Whenever we spend any amount of money, we undertake a complex, emotional analysis of price and value.
This process is hard to overstate, and few of us are immune. In fact, it is pretty difficult to buy much of anything without going through the process. It's often subtle or even subconscious, but it's definitely real. We often have expectations for how much something should cost, and when our expectations are unmet, we respond with emotion.
These feelings are not always rational -- have you ever known someone who will drive 30 miles to save a couple dollars? Or someone who uses coupons to buy products they don't like?
Like I said, our expectations of value are not entirely rational, but they are very real nonetheless. From a $4 latte to an $8 movie to a $15,000 car, we evaluate purchases based on the expected emotional benefit in exchange for the money we give up to receive it.
When we go to Starbucks, we complain about the $4 latte... but then we go back the next day or next week. Apparently, the latte is worth the price even though we feel a little guilty about the $4.
There is a lot to this - the great book Influence covers the topic in far more detail.
The important thing to understand is that buying something is not simple. There's a lot going on, and that's why it's critically important for businesses to get the pricing right.
If you price something too high, you alienate buyers. People will kick the tires, but most of them won't take the car off the lot without more persuasive selling. That may seem fairly obvious, but the opposite is true as well.
If it's priced too low, this is also a big mistake, because perceived value is directly related to price. People are skeptical of advice on the cheap. Free is good, and reasonable-to-expensive is good, but cheap is bad.
What if you heard about a consultant who works for $9 an hour, would you think, "Wow, what a deal?" I suspect that most people would think, "Wow, they must not be very good."
Again, this may not reflect reality -- perhaps there's an awesome consultant out there who just likes pricing at the low-end -- but true or not, it reflects how we perceive value. When you hear about a $300 an hour consultant, you might not be able to hire her, but you usually respect her. The perception is that a $300 an hour consultant is much better than a $9 an hour consultant.
For another example, say you walked into Best Buy and saw a $99 iPod killer on the shelf. Would you buy it right away?
I suspect not. You'd automatically think it couldn't possibly be as good as a real iPod. You'd be very suspicious, because you expect iPods and even iPod knockoffs to be more expensive because they're worth more.
Those are somewhat hypothetical examples, but you get the idea. Let's take a look at a real-life, recent, highly-personal example.
The UGDA Case Study
As many of you know, last week I released my first commercial product, the Unconventional Guide to Discount Airfare. This was definitely a labor of love and an emotional investment for me, because I've spent a lot of time working on the AONC site and building an audience over the past five months.
For anyone who believes that bloggers shouldn't sell things, let me assure you that there are a lot easier ways to make money. But on the other hand, I passionately believe that artists should be allowed to make money. (I wrote that post in part to preempt complaints about creating an online shop in addition to my free essays and other content.)
Since I've been an online entrepreneur for ten years, I'm not normally indecisive with pricing. I can usually look at something and know fairly quickly how much it should cost. But since this was a new market and my first "branded" product, I was a little nervous.
Before the launch, I sent off some emails to people I know and trust to get their advice on pricing. Unfortunately, there was no consensus.
My internet marketing friends, who sell ebooks every day for $67, $79, or $97, took a look at the guide and said I should price at $49. "Look at what you are giving people," said one.
"You're telling them how to get access to airline lounges, the truth and lies about upgrades, how to get elite status without flying, and on and on. This is worth hundreds of dollars."
Yes, that's all true. But I felt uncomfortable pricing at the $49 point -- I really wanted it to be more accessible. On the other hand, a few other respected experts said I should price lower than I expected.
$14.95, said one. $18 max, said another.
Yikes - I was equally uncomfortable with that idea. There is real value in the information I provide, and if I was selling it on the cheap, I'd rather just give it away. I'm not a mass-marketer; this is a niche product, and the average airfare costs $413 in North America. If someone can't afford $25, I don't mean to be insensitive, but they probably don't do much flying.
Thus, I had to make my own decision, and as much as I dislike the middle ground, that's what I went for - $24.97. I might sell more copies at a rock-bottom price point, and I might make more money selling at a higher price, but such is life with pricing decisions. You just have to make a decision and see how people respond.
So, how was the response?
Well, I won't be retiring to Monaco anytime soon, nor can I rely on this as anything close to a full-time income... but I think I have the potential to build a nice little business over the next year.
There were a couple people who complained about the price, and a couple people who said after reading the guide that they gladly would have paid more. I can live with that kind of healthy tension.
Oh, by the way - social proof is another important part of the price and value correlation. We'll have to cover this later, but in short, social proof is the public display of what other people think about your work.
Here are the early reviews, from real-life people:
I feel like I’ve stolen the book for that price. Well worth the investment. -Elliot Webb
And here's another, from Naomi who writes from Ontario over at Ittybiz:
"While I admit it takes a shotgun to my head or a hefty handful of Xanax to get me on an airplane -- I seriously considered taking a boat to Bali for my honeymoon -- sometimes it has to be done. This book actually makes flying seem kind of fun. Very informative, value packed, no fluff. The guide to airport lounges alone was worth the cover price. If you don't save money after reading this book you are quite frankly too stupid to be allowed on a plane without a chaperone."
(You may have noticed that Naomi is quite a direct person. Don't be offended. She's a friend.)
I have a lot more feedback like that, and I'll publish some of it on the product page over the next week or two. Elliot wrote his note to me at the same time someone else (who did not purchase) sent me a long rant telling me how expensive the guide was and how I was doing a disservice to the world, all marketing an evil, etc. I appreciated reading Elliot's note right after hearing from the unhappy person.
Despite the fact that the launch went well, there's always a few things you can learn from any success.
Here's my list of what-to-do-better in the future:
There is inevitably a lot of good content but also a lot of fluff in the average ebook, and I wanted to avoid that with mine. I focused entirely on practical strategies and tactics, and left the fluff out. (There's no blank pages for notes, for example, or long checklists that take up extra pages.)
However... I now realize that some people decide on value based on a price-per-page basis.
If you think about it, this is highly irrational. If someone drew you a treasure map, would you worry that it was only on one page? But as noted previously, most purchase decisions involve more emotion than rationality. Thus, even though I offer free lifetime updates and will be adding more to the guide in the future, I probably should have had a few extra pages in there. Point noted.
We're working on these ideas. I have to find the right balance there (i.e., I don't want 10 different guides for the same subject), but it's on my mind. For now, I have a makeshift solution for those international readers who are interested. If you're one of them, write me and I'll give you the details.
For the next guide, I'll take each of these lessons to heart and see how to make it even better. I'm working on it already, but it won't be coming out for a while. Like the first one, it's better to do it right than to do it quickly.
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Getting Back to Basics
There's no way to eliminate the emotional process of buying something, but I recommend taking the process into the open. Asking serious value questions - not "What color is it?" or "How many pages is it?" but "How will this improve my life?" helps reduce the tension and ensure better choices. Another good question is, "Do I value this item (or service) more than I value the x dollars it will cost me?"
When I started thinking more about this, I started making different life choices. I made my decision to visit 100 countries by thinking about price and value. I entered and completed a Master's Degree program by thinking about price and value... but then I turned down a Ph.D. program by thinking about the same thing. It wasn't the right time for me.
Your mileage, as they say, will vary. You might not do the same things or make the same choices - in fact, I hope you'll do whatever it is you want to - but when you think carefully about price and value when buying (or selling), you'll usually make wiser decisions.
Good luck out there.
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