I have been toying with the idea of a poll as a way to set a price for my product. It's too early to go into detail yet, but I'll post here again when my testing is done and let you know how it works

I'll have to go along with Dear Ol' "X" as his thoughts parallel those of a long time expert in Direct Marketing that I like to follow, Denny Hatch. Reading Denny's editorials when he was at Target Marketing and going through his compilations of successful marketing pieces always say sell and prove.

Eben and 'X' are both right. I think to a large extent that it depends on your particular market and testing in your market is vital to getting the correct answer for YOU.

Having said that, I do think that even in markets where testing shows it to have a positive correlation, that we as marketers often go overboard about building the relationship, when the reality is that we need to offer much less free info and content then we currently do.

I'm working on an entirely new business for me - one that "supposedly" requires careful building of that relationship.

Having seen what I've seen over the years though, I think 'X' is mostly right, and as a result, my control will start out by giving away only that which I feel is absolutely essential, and no more.

I'm a nice guy and an ethical marketer, but being a nice guy marketer hasn't provided the results I've wanted. So I'm making the slight shift to remaining an ethical marketer, but no longer will I be a wimpy one.

Is Eben Pagan just plain wrong or is that what works for him? I know he is a testing fool.

Anyone with a similar interest might also look into something I uncovered for myself earlier today....CommunityServer.org

I was looking at Ning the other day, and wondered if you could use it for a paid membership site. I didn't spend much time looking, but hadn't seen how to set a ning site up as a paid site. Now that I've seen it done, I'll have to poke around some more.

Thanks for not charging $17 for this.

uummm...I get my ass chewed...an often reamed an new one for my website...by everyone...guru's and critics...except my customers...it's true.

Stepper
gourmet coffee snob
always drink better coffee
SpotaJava Coffee | Flavored Coffee Beans

Wow,

I've never heard it put that way before :-)

Makes a lot of sense.

I think giving away too much stuff, is certainly not really going to help.

I think the one thing people want the most is "proof". Proof of your knowledge, proof of your credibility, proof that your product works as advertised.

If you can give them real, solid proof, then I don't think you have to give squat for free.

- Ravi Jayagopal