Charging for Product Tutorials,..WTF?
Posted 13th June 2013 at 09:55 PM by Russell Hall
Have you noticed lately how some marketers (including many known on WF and JVZoo) are putting out awesome products and then charging for tuition as an up-sell?
Here's how it seems to go:
Listen up Warriors,..in my honest opinion I believe it is the developer's responsibility to provide adequate training on using the product and getting the best from it. NOT to take advantage of the purchaser and sting him for another major purchase just to get the training required.
On top of that,..these marketers are only giving free support and product upgrades for 12 months. So they're getting a double whammy.
The 12 month free support and upgrades perhaps could be justified but up until now all my products have come with lifetime support and upgrades.
Here's an example of why I think the above mentioned model sucks.
A recent well known marketer who shall remain unnamed released a new product that had wide appeal and at $47 took off and sold in the vicinity of 3,800 units in the first 7 days. Doing the math = $141,000. Take away $10,000 for R&D and marketing =$131,000. Affiliate payouts (30% of volume) $42,300 leaves a tidy profit of around $98,700 income within a week.
You'd think that the developer would be happy with that as being sufficient to provide training for free,... but NO,... greed crept in and integrity and customer respect went out the window just so they could extract another 20 or 30 thousand dollars+ from their dutiful and unwitting buyers.
Personally I think that this model of charging for tuition totally SUCKS. I refuse to subscribe to it and nor will I adopt it in my own marketing because it shows a complete lack of respect and integrity IMHO.
There are on the other hand some equally great product/software developers who provide ongoing awesome training for free and those are the guys who's stuff I usually buy without hesitation whereas the smart asses that charge for tuition get the big red flag treatment that they so appropriately deserve.
Here's how it seems to go:
- Buy front end product
- Go through usual up-sell (Developer license etc)
- Next get presented with an offer to attend a "Masterclass" or part series thereof for the same if not more than you paid for the product, For example, a $47 product comes with an offer for a $97 MasterClass (or buy modules of the masterclass for $37 each).
Listen up Warriors,..in my honest opinion I believe it is the developer's responsibility to provide adequate training on using the product and getting the best from it. NOT to take advantage of the purchaser and sting him for another major purchase just to get the training required.
On top of that,..these marketers are only giving free support and product upgrades for 12 months. So they're getting a double whammy.
The 12 month free support and upgrades perhaps could be justified but up until now all my products have come with lifetime support and upgrades.
Here's an example of why I think the above mentioned model sucks.
A recent well known marketer who shall remain unnamed released a new product that had wide appeal and at $47 took off and sold in the vicinity of 3,800 units in the first 7 days. Doing the math = $141,000. Take away $10,000 for R&D and marketing =$131,000. Affiliate payouts (30% of volume) $42,300 leaves a tidy profit of around $98,700 income within a week.
You'd think that the developer would be happy with that as being sufficient to provide training for free,... but NO,... greed crept in and integrity and customer respect went out the window just so they could extract another 20 or 30 thousand dollars+ from their dutiful and unwitting buyers.
Personally I think that this model of charging for tuition totally SUCKS. I refuse to subscribe to it and nor will I adopt it in my own marketing because it shows a complete lack of respect and integrity IMHO.
There are on the other hand some equally great product/software developers who provide ongoing awesome training for free and those are the guys who's stuff I usually buy without hesitation whereas the smart asses that charge for tuition get the big red flag treatment that they so appropriately deserve.
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