Unethical to put a false download limit on your product?

Aaron Elliott

15 years ago

YES - I close the browser when I see this.

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Steven Wagenheim

15 years ago

If the owner of the product legitimately decides that after those 24 are gone
to stop selling them, then there is nothing unethical about it.

If however, he has no intention of stopping their sales, then it is.

There are cases where scarcity is done ethically. Problem is, you can never
be sure when those cases are and aren't unless you actually see the count
going down and eventually see the page disappear.

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Allen Graves

15 years ago

If you consider someone telling an outright lie to be unethical then, yes, it is unethical.

I don't know who it was, but someone here recently said, "If you have to ask..."

Allen Graves

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Jamie Iaconis

15 years ago

Hi,

If you are running a special, I see no problem with it, as long
as you actually do limit the amount and keep up with updating
the amount of copies actually remaining at that price!

The thing is, marketers have become immune to these
types of things and an alternative method may be better.

HTH

Jamie

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kswr123

15 years ago

ok cheers!

digitalproductdelivery.com can actually limit the amount of downloads, but why would I want to do that?

Thanks. Maybe I should consider a 'one-month-only' offer, as my product's validity may run out after April/May

thanks again
Mubarak

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bombdiggity 15 years ago

Wouldn't this technically be considered fraud?
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kswr123

15 years ago

Yes, but I see it on SOO many IM sites, that it lead me to believe it was bog standard in product release.

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kswr123

15 years ago

for istance, I see so many WSOs saying "24 remaining", or products that only have a 1000 limit 'supposedly'

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TheRichJerksNet

15 years ago

" What Good Does It Do A Man's Soul If He Gains The Whole World But Looses His Soul "

Depends upon your morals and values.. personally I think you should be true to yourself and your business. No hype & No Lies - Plain Simple Truth.

James

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Martin Luxton 15 years ago

You limit the number sold so there is a scarcity value to your product.

This is particularly important with PLR.

If you then sell more than you stated, you are cheating everybody who bought from you.

To avoid this, you might see people use qualifiers such as

Only 24 left at this price!

which is fine because you understand the price is the factor here, not the quantity.

Martin
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kswr123

15 years ago

Sure, so maybe I can make the price INCREASE after a certain amount of sales. Anyone know of a script that does this? Or is it already in DPD.com?

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Black Hat Cat

Banned 15 years ago

Originally Posted by saq3m

Is it unethical to say
'Quick! Only 24 remaining'

When infact there are an infinate amount of digital eBooks remaining?

Thanks Mubarak

It doesn't matter how many can be sold, what matters is how many will be sold. There is nothing unethical about limiting sales to x amount. What is unethical is not sticking to your limit.

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kswr123

15 years ago

Sure! Thanks for that!

I guess I should just put the tried and tested:

I don't know how long the price will stay this low, so get in Now whilst you still can. When the price goes up, you're on your own!

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Bryan Toder

15 years ago

People will know and keep track of these things. I remember a "famous" guru who said on his site only 100 such items will be sold... and years later (unless no one really bought), he's still selling to the "first 100".

I'll never, ever buy from him.

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X

15 years ago

Hey Bryan -

Good to see you here.

X

Originally Posted by Bryan Toder

People will know and keep track of these things. I remember a "famous" guru who said on his site only 100 such items will be sold... and years later (unless no one really bought), he's still selling to the "first 100".

I'll never, ever buy from him.

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Jamie Iaconis 15 years ago

I don't know how long the price will stay this low, so get in Now whilst you still can. When the price goes up, you're on your own!

That is actually a good way to do it...

I have done it that way before.

Put that on your page and you're not lying, plus you
can increase the price whenever you want.

Jamie
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kswr123

15 years ago

really? Wow. Obviously you don't want to name any names but when you put it like that it seems kinda dumb.

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Michael Oksa

15 years ago

Originally Posted by saq3m

Is it unethical to say
'Quick! Only 24 remaining'

When infact there are an infinate amount of digital eBooks remaining?

Thanks Mubarak

Yes, it is unethical.

Note: I didn't read a single response to this post yet, but may add more comments.

All the best,
Michael

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1 reply

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TheRichJerksNet 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Michael Oksa

Yes, it is unethical.

Note: I didn't read a single response to this post yet, but may add more comments.

All the best,
Michael

Getting too old there Michael.. Post before you read huh ... lol

James
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Sarah Johnson

15 years ago

You need to give a reason behind the limit...whether it is at the particular price or it could even be that it is information that you only want to go out to a certain number of people so your "secret" doesn't go too far...

Bottom line...customers are not going to be too happy with you (and therefore probably won't buy from you again) if you trick them. Give them a credible reason and they will respect it.

But DO NOT lie!

~Mrs. Sarah Johnson
www.sarahjohnsoncopy.com

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kswr123

15 years ago

thanks for the thoughful responses!

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michael_nguyen

15 years ago

what about email marketing ? only 24 spots let get in early to avoid dissapointment ? I never believe that kinda stuff, who really is going to refund the extra 15 members or so ?

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Raydal

15 years ago

There was one Warrior (a few years back) who sold resale rights
to his prodcts and went waaaaaaay over the limit he stated.
As each reseller found out about the other (me included) we
became very upset about it.

The last thing I heard was that he was wanted by the police.
Haven't heard much about him since. It's a pity because he
had such a great start.

-Ray Edwards

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Mark Kaye

15 years ago

There is always the QVC method....

We only have 99 items at this price!
Sorry we are sold out.
(Later that week...)
This item was sooooo popular we brought it back!!!

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ecoverartist

15 years ago

I've done this with WSOs, even ones where I sell graphics. Yes, technically I could sell a million sets of them, I keep to my word and only sell X amount to keep the value high for everyone.

I think back when the "We only have X amount left" was first started, it gave people the urge to buy because of the scarcity. It's that way with tangible products so I can see how someone might think "there are only X ebooks left" even though they're just 1's and 0's.

I think people are much wiser today. I personally just overlook it when I see it on a site. The features of the product will make me buy it more than any scarcity or urgency tactic ever will.

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sparrow

15 years ago

I use the price factor for limiting my products when X is sold the price goes up

but limiting the amount hmmm.

Ed

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IMChick

15 years ago

I don't know how to do this and would like to figure out how. I think it's like the line of code to know how to change the date on the sales page but don't know where to look for the answers.

get the numbers to go down on their own
Put a timer on the top for a OTO

I agree that if it's false scarcity, it's unethical. Wrong is wrong and a snazzy marketing technique won't make it all better.

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joe.marsh

15 years ago

It gives you a reason to not believe or trust anything the person has to say.

Think about it.

Joe

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dessy01

15 years ago

To me, it is really bad. One of the qualities of a good internet marketer is to be honest. If you say 24 copies only for download, stick to it. Dont be greedy

I believe it is because of greedy that is why some of them make this mistake

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Capone 15 years ago

lying about remaining stock or price increases is done constantly by MANY, MANY marketers. I just laugh when I see it. Doesn't bother me much as I think consumers are to savvy for this to work anymore.
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howudoin

15 years ago

I have released several WSO's offering PLR articles or reports and I've always put a limit of 30 on each. I make sure that I sell only 30 copies of each product.

Works like a charm, not to mention the products are sold pretty quickly as well. I guess when it comes to PLR articles people are more concerned about the number of copies sold as compared to other IM related products. Also the opt-in rate on my download page is always between 60 to 70% because of the strict limit of 30 copies.

Bhupinder

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Unethical to put a false download limit on your product?

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