Would You Rather Buy a Product That....

Hmmm.... Spend hours searching the internet for what I want, figure out what is b.s and what isn't gathering it into some order that makes sense and digesting that information or spend 27/37/47/97 bucks on a product where someone has done that for me.

Bit of a no brainer - I'll go for the product.

How would anybody be able summarize all of the information I wanted in one document...I don't even know what information I want.

It's not just the 'looking' that matters, it's also the ability to seperate fact from fiction.

Reinventing the wheel is rarely productive, nor is heading down the wrong path based on relying on someone else's judgement.

You need to do a little of both...self discovery and following known sources of wisdom and/or experience.

~Bill

The average person will live (in the US) for about 72 years, which means that half of us will get less than that. Personally, I'm 23 years old and I have been medically dead on 8 different occasions. Additionally, I have a wife, 15 month old son, and a daughter on the way. So what does that mean?

I consider my time to be exceptionally valuable. If that 'resource' saves me 5 hours of work, it's worth at least $100. If it saves me days, much more, etc.... Free is great, but you can never get more time; you can always get more money.

Sean

I'd definately buy the product.
Time is too precious to waste.

I prefer to not buy it.

That is just because I do not read instruction manual when I purchase something. I just plug the cable, turn it on, and figure it out that way. I learn faster by doing that.

When I actively seeking information, my brain works, thus I understand more. When it served in front of me....

Well... it's harder for me to take action upon it.

I'd prefer to buy it, assuming this report is from someone I feel I could trust.

Time is money, and we had touched on this in another thread about "free" traffic, where people were recklessly squandering away their time in exchange for this traffic.

I like to think in terms of opportunity costs. If it saves me 8 hours in terms of sifting through and finding the information that I need, then I have 8 additional hours to implement the technique and make money with it - so as long as the book/report costs less than what could be earned in 8 hours of implementation (in this particular scenario), then I'd say it'd be a worthwhile purchase.

Paul

That depends.

Have I got more time than money?

This is exactly what Naomi Dunford's SEO book does - (over at ittybitz.com). She sells an SEO book for around $50 I think, and she tells you that the information is all available for free on the Internet - but how much time you would spend finding it, collecting it together, separating the fact from the fiction, and actually implementing the strategies that work best is the trade off for getting information for 'free.'

If you were a newbie that info would take many hours of searching both on Google and on great forums like WF. People invest their time in their businesses - often they don't properly cost the opportunity cost of that time. For something like this, $50 is IMO cheaper than spending 15-20 hours finding the info out for yourself.

So the answer to Bill's original question is that if the info comes from a trusted source, and saves you time in the long run that you should consider it. For me - I 'cost' my time at around $100 an hour - it's a no brainer.

Bill,

You bring up a good one today!

It really depends on what I'm looking for at the time, how familiar I already am with the subject, and whether or not I was looking for a solution to a problem, or if a solution found me.

Case #1:

I like to read books, and you know what?

Many of the subjects I read on, I've already read many many books on previously. I don't expect to find an astonishing breakthrough, but I read them anyway. It's not so much about finding the secret, long-lost, technique, as much as it's about looking through the author's eyes.

I know you know what I'm talking about, and I know you do it too.

So... If this is the kind of learning I hope to gain from the product, I could care less. I want to hand you the reigns, let you take me on journey through your mind, and I'll sit back and enjoy the ride.

Case #2:

I really want to learn a new topic--something I know nothing about--and aspire to become a master of it.

I would be looking for the most comprehensive guides on the subject I could find. Sometimes, I might opt for a primer of sorts when first starting (if it's a very difficult subject, for example), but for the most part, I would be seeking all-inclusive materials. I would continue this type of learning until I reach a certain level of confidence in the subject matter, at which point see case #1.

Case #3:

I discover I want to do something, and I don't know how to do it... 0h No3s!

I don't really want to master the topic, or make a career out of it. In this case, I just want a solution to my problem. I hope to find a product, book, video, etc. which addresses the problem in the most complete, and efficient way.

What I'm seeking here is balance. I want the most direct, to the point, solution I can find, but I also want the solution to be written by a competent author who didn't leave any important details out. I don't, however, want to spend 3 months of my time learning the methods and sciences behind what you're teaching. If I did, I would be in a case #2 scenario.

I think this difficult for most product creators to pull off--good luck.

Case #4:

I wasn't looking for it, but it found me!

I don't think this needs much explanation. I didn't know I wanted anything, so it's your job to convince me I do. In this case, my conscious desires are irrelevant. You need to let your copy do it's magic (and deliver on it, of course).



Personally, I like #1 and #2 type products the most. However, I feel many more MMO info products (e.g., WSOs) fall in the type #3 and #4 categories, and I suspect these types are more profitable.

As they say, people are much more willing to separate from their money to alleviate pain, than they are to bring themselves pleasure.

The real challenge for you--the product creator--is to pick which audiance you're looking to target ahead of time, and realize you can't possibly appeal to all of them. Once you pull this off...

Don't know if you've ever seen the classic film Rashomon, by Kurosawa, but it's the story of four people who all witness a rape and murder. While all four saw the same thing, their accounts are very, very different. It was a matter of perspectives influenced by the nature of the people who observed it.

Similarly, when we get a product, even if the facts we find there are already known to us, we can get a new perspective on how those facts fit together. I think in order to grow as individuals it is important to try to understand perspectives of others that may be different than our own. It may help us down the road. --Mike

If the product costs to much, then i would start searching on the internet for free info, if it is at small cost, then i would buy it despite the fact, that the info is already for free on the net.

Personally as a product creator i know that if someone ask me to write in a niche i know nothing about then everything i write about will be recycled.

But saying that, so is really everything i know or have done about IM! All in all i try to take knowledge, re-write it into a more digestable format, maybe linking up bits of information that had not been linked before.
Really my aim would be to make people understand what is already out there more simply.

So this is where the toss up comes in;

If the person selling the information is respectable and you know they are good at simplifying things, then sure it is worth your time.

Really time is money as much as understanding is. I for one know that i have read something before and just written it off until i have seen it described in a different light.

So personally i am all open to different peoples takes on things. Even if the information is the same, it is peoples applications of this information that matter!

Kind Regards,
Connor

I could not agree more Paul. It is really good to see marketers take techniques and apply them to new areas.

There are the radical changes like social media and mobile Internet etc. that are left to the big companies.

Then there are the incremental changes like taking IM techniques and applying them to social media and mobile Internet that really make for interesting reading.

Its these small changes that help you hone yourself to a niche and become successful in it.

I personally am thankful if i pay $30 for a product and learn one new technique that i can build into my arsenal.

Kind Regards,
Connor

As a noob who has spent cash on things that were valuable but also on things that wasted my time AND money, I agree that there is value buying a product that saves me time. But since money is hard to come by I would have to have good evidence (via testimonials, etc) that the product would benefit me.

Posting my answer untainted by the other answers...in other words, I haven't read the rest of the thread yet.

Being kind of an independent sort, I'll probably make an attempt of some sort to find the information on my own before buying a guide. I may find the bit I need, in which case I both keep my money and avoid distraction from the other resources.

If I don't find what I'm looking for in a reasonable amount of time, I buy the guide without a second thought.

In a resource guide (i.e., "The _______ Black Book"), "...the fact that they learned something you did not know and shared it with you..." makes it more valuable.

I know I can dig out a list of resources, given enough time and effort. Buying the guide is essentially buying back my time and effort. If I get that extra insight or nugget or trick that I know I never would have come up with, it's a happy bonus...

There seems to be one missing element here.

I might be able to find all the information I want on Article Marketing by going through dozens or hundreds of threads here. I then have tons of information, maybe the identical information found in guides by Steve Wagenheim, TimG, Zeuss66, etc...

What I do not have is their process of using all of this data. I do not have a system. I simply have raw data. I have not tapped into their insights and years of experience.

Information gathered from scattered sources does not have equal value to information put together in an actionable system. I'll take the guide.

I'd go for the product any day IF (and it's a big if) I trust the product creator.

Great one, Bill!