Charge $1 now and $96 tomorrow? Will it work?

15 years ago

Hi Jonathan,

If you really "feel confident that the information I have compiled is worth $97", then why not charge them $97 and be done with it?

Just offer a lifetime money-back guarantee -- if they don't like it, they can refund!

-Erica

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JonathanR

15 years ago

I do offer a lifetime money back guarantee and have a refund rate of about 3% usually because they don't realize it's an ebook and not a physical book. I'm just thinking that if someone could part with only $1 now and have complete access, that they would have an easier time pulling out the credit card. Once they have the information, I think most people are honest enough to let their card be charged. If not, my software can disable access.

Worth a shot or am I thinking a little too outside the box?

Thanks
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ericabiz 15 years ago

Originally Posted by JonathanR

I do offer a lifetime money back guarantee and have a refund rate of about 3% usually because they don't realize it's an ebook and not a physical book.

That's where I would focus. Find a fulfillment house that will let you publish and ship on demand (there are several out there). Then upsell this for an additional $x (something ridiculously low, like $10.)

My strategy has always been to go where your customers want. Sounds like your customers have spoken!

-Erica
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- JonathanR 15 years ago
  
  Hi erica. Thanks for the comments. That's actually what I have finally done and I'm just about ready to make the paperback available for sale.
  
  The ebook has been selling for $67. If I don't do the $1 thing, then my idea is to offer the ebook alone for $67 or BOTH the eBook and the paperback for $97. There won't be a paperback only option unless you want to buy at least 6 books (this product appeals to people like defense attorneys who can give to their clients).
  
  What do you think? Would you pay $30 more to have a paperback in addition to your ebook? Or more importantly, would you pay $30 more than the eBook price because you really prefer to have a paperback?
  
  Thanks
  
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indexphp

15 years ago

Dude... that is a killer strategy and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I think it was the late Gary Halbert who said "trail offers" make millionaires... or something like that.

Trial offers boost response... and then not everybody will cancel. You should try testing 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, and 30 days. See what is working. Who cares if some people end up getting the product for $1. F it.

You need to test that stuff out, though... and overdeliver. If your refund rate is high... it means you need to add some more value... simple as that.

Read http://thegaryhalbertletter.com ... he was a genius.

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Will Edwards

15 years ago

Hi Jonathan - you can do what you have described with both ClickBank and Paypal.

Good luck

Will

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Dave777

15 years ago

Study a similar business model that Chad and his brother use in their WSO's...

WSO Tracker - Tracking, Notifications, Watchlist, RSS Alerts, Stats and more... | Warrior+Plus

Dave

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JonathanR

15 years ago

Thanks for the encouragement. Where can I read how to set up this kind of payment in PayPal? Also, I use secure-book.com to package the book. The price is set from within secure-ebook. If I set the price in secure-ebook to $1, can I tell paypal to charge $1 today and $96 tomorrow? Can anyone point me to a link within paypal? Thanks!

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Dave777

15 years ago

You might find it here...
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we...erview-outside
Try contacting Chad through PM or email. He might be willing to share some other related tidbits and tricks of the trade too...

Chad puts out some great free info and videos so definitely ask to get on his email list...

Dave

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novasoft

15 years ago

Originally Posted by JonathanR

I have an ebook that I sell for $97. My idea is to sell it for one dollar with the remaining $96 automatically charged 24 hours later. If the customer doesn't want to be charged, all they have to do is send me an email and tell me they don't feel that the information I have compiled is worth $97 and they will not be charged.

I feel confident that the information I have compiled is worth $97. What do you all think of this strategy? And can I setup paypal to charge $1 now and $96 24 hours from now?

Thanks for any ideas!

Hey Jonathan,

GO FOR IT!!

This works like gangbusters and I use this model. It reduces refund rates dramatically.

You can set up a paypal subscription that's $1 for period #1 which is the "trial" period and then itll bill them the remainder in the 2nd period and then the subscription completes.

Cheers,
Satya

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AnneE

15 years ago

I think it's a good idea, but I would give people more than 24 hours. I remember, perhaps it was Gary Halbert, but someone saying that the longer the 'get your money back' period of time, the less likely someone is to demand their money back. For one thing, they kind of forget about it. If they think about requesting a refund, they figure there is no hurry.

Similarly, if I downloaded a product and knew that I had 24 hours to evaluate it, then I'd be darn sure to look at it immediately and apply a pretty tough standard to whether it was worthy $97. Three days or even a week and I'd be much more easy-going about it. But that's just my opinion. It would probably make sense to test out more than one option.

Good luck!

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hosayliow

15 years ago

Try $1 for 7 days, receive my bonus as a paying member if you stayed on, and my killer methods after 30/60 days money back.

Regards

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AlexKaplo

15 years ago

Hey there Jonathan,

I've seen other marketers pull this and it has worked very successfully so don't worry about that and just as posted above this can work with both PayPal and Clickbank. Good luck and I hope this was helpful!

Best Regards,

-Alex Kaplo

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Kamran 15 years ago

Let us know how it went
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- ShayB 15 years ago
  
  I think it is an excellent strategy, but I, personally, think giving more than 24 hours is a good idea.
  
  OTOH, don't give such a long gap that people forget what your charge is and dispute it.
  
  I worked in a call center and this was the strategy they used - $1 now, and then $X a month after that. It works!
  
  Thanks
  
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Ivancho

15 years ago

This is a exellent strategy sir. I have done this with one of my product and it have actually worked pretty well...

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Chris Lockwood

15 years ago

I've never heard of anyone doing this with a 1-day period. I think that would just confuse people with 2 charges in 24 hours.

What Halbert talked about was charging them nothing upfront and the full price after 30 days (or perhaps a series of payments for a more expensive item). Remember he dealt mainly with mail order and physical products, so the customer had to return the item within the 30 days to avoid being charged.

It may be different online where the customer can download it, keep it, and cancel that 2nd payment with no real penalty. You will end up getting people who see your real price as $1.

Remember that with a Paypal subscription (which is what this would be with PP), the person can cancel at any time, even though they still owe you money. Marc Goldman sold a physical course that way, with 3 payments if I remember, and got burned by lots of people canceling the payments after receiving the item.

I would love to see that tested vs just charging the $97 now and offering a money-back guarantee.

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BlogBrowser

Banned 15 years ago

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Rob Howard 15 years ago

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radhika

15 years ago

Originally Posted by BlogBrowser

Let me see if I got it right. You will offer FULL content for $1 and let them decide, once they've already consumed your content, whether they send you the rest of the money??? that's very bad business my friend. You're "hoping" that people, even if they like your stuff, will pay you AFTER they've received the merchandise. I am sure you will find tons of free-loaders who won't pay up the second payment.

Charge them full and offer a money back guarantee. At least the money is in YOUR pocket instead of theirs.

Exactly my thoughts ...

It is not the question of trust. There are people who just buy it and ask refund with in few hours. (When you make a sale tonight, tomorrow morning you can expect a refund. That is how it goes with some people.

WHAT I'D DO IF I WERE YOU:

Offer first few chapters for $1.00 and give them time of 1 week and send an automated reply of reminder two days before the second charge of $96.00. If they want to continue, they will ignore that email or cancel it.

.

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MaskedMarketer

15 years ago

It is not the question of trust. There are people who just buy it and ask refund with in few hours. (When you make a sale tonight, tomorrow morning you can expect a refund. That is how it goes with some people.

When a person is purchasing something online- it has everything to do with trust and more. The people who buy it an ask for refund in a few hours DO NOT MATTER.

Why?

Because if you're business is set up the way it should be then you make money on the back end and those people will never get to see it.

WHAT I'D DO IF I WERE YOU:

Offer first few chapters for $1.00 and give them time of 1 week and send an automated reply of reminder two days before the second charge of $96.00. If they want to continue, they will ignore that email or cancel it.

I would give them a sample of the entire ebook with all the important stuff not there and/or possibly the first few chapters. Do not charge them for the first few chapters/ or a sample.

Make it as easy and simple as possible for the person to trust and believe you.

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radhika

15 years ago

Originally Posted by MaskedMarketer

The people who buy it an ask for refund in a few hours DO NOT MATTER.

These people do matter with this type of strategy. Giving away the whole book and expect those people to buy again? This strategy increases the piracy and with in days, you will see the ebook floating around on the torrent sites and free download sites.

If he trusts his buyer, better offer 1 year money bacxk guarantee. Not this 'initial $1.00 and later 96.00' strategy.

.

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MaskedMarketer

15 years ago

Originally Posted by radhika

These people do matter with this type of strategy. Giving away the whole book and expect those people to buy again? This strategy increases the piracy and with in days, you will see the ebook floating around on the torrent sites and free download sites.

If he trusts his buyer, better offer 1 year money bacxk guarantee. Not this 'initial $1.00 and later 96.00' strategy.

.

I understand what you mean and agree it has negatives and positives.

Its different for everyone because its not just about the 1$ trial- its about his customer service, his coaching consulting (or lack of) about backend products, its about an entire strategy that does not relate to just the trial.

As with anything- test. Set up properly this could work, but i'd be doing it with a continuity program and not just an ebook.

thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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Mohamed_Mnafeg

15 years ago

Originally Posted by BlogBrowser

Let me see if I got it right. You will offer FULL content for $1 and let them decide, once they've already consumed your content, whether they send you the rest of the money??? that's very bad business my friend. You're "hoping" that people, even if they like your stuff, will pay you AFTER they've received the merchandise. I am sure you will find tons of free-loaders who won't pay up the second payment.

Charge them full and offer a money back guarantee. At least the money is in YOUR pocket instead of theirs.

this is the best advice because human nature never change

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jnapier

15 years ago

I like the $1 trial, but I'd do it for 14 days. Give the reader time to read it and decide if they want it.

Jay NaPier

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cclou

15 years ago

Definitely try testing it (and other variation) and let us know how it works. I think that a 1-day trial might be a bit confusing. Three days, seven days, and thirty days seem to be ingrained, but only testing will tell you what is best for your market.

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DNATruth

15 years ago

I like the strategy but 30 days trial would offer more value. If your product is good you should get a great response!

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Andy LaPointe

15 years ago

Great idea. Low upfront but I would go with a 15 day or 30 trial.

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JonathanR 15 years ago

Wow! This ended up getting a lot of responses.

The idea was to let them see it all online. If they stayed on after a day, then they would also receive a paperback.

From the responses, it seems smarter to hold the bonus material back. You only get the bonus material if you pay the full price. I'll also try two days instead of one.

My idea is that basically, they probably don't have the time to read the entire guide in the first couple days and that by offering it for $1 up front I will have many more people order than normal. Some will ask that I don't charge them anything more, but I'm thinking that I'll end up with a larger number of people paying full price than if I just charge $97 up front.

I'm also thinking (perhaps I'm naive) that people will feel guilty to send me an email and tell me that this information is not worth $97. I'm quite confident that it is and I think the average person will realize this. Finally, I can remotely pull access to the eBook. So if they tell me that it's not worth $97, then they won't be able to read it anymore.

I have contacted paypal and see that this subscription payment can be done rather easily. But I don't trust making PDF's available to customers who can just email them to other people so I use secure-ebook. I'm not sure how to integrate this subscription payment with them. If I can, then I will run this for a month and report back.

Also, how do I direct 50% of visitors to the $1 page and 50% to a page that just asks for $97 straight up?
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- Lance K 15 years ago
  
  Do you really think they'll be able to get through your whole book in 1 day?
  
  What I see happening is some otherwise legit customers skimming through and not taking the time to understand the content because they feel rushed to make a final decision. Which may lead to people who would otherwise complete the transaction emailing you telling you to cancel the charge.
  
  The trial idea is a good one. But if you really want them to try you out and give you a fair shake by consuming the content, then make the trial period longer. I'd say start with 7 days and test other alternatives after you have good baseline figures.
  
  Hope that helps. Good luck.
  
  Thanks
  
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Mark Brock

15 years ago

Originally Posted by JonathanR

I have an ebook that I sell for $97. My idea is to sell it for one dollar with the remaining $96 automatically charged 24 hours later. If the customer doesn't want to be charged, all they have to do is send me an email and tell me they don't feel that the information I have compiled is worth $97 and they will not be charged.

I feel confident that the information I have compiled is worth $97. What do you all think of this strategy? And can I setup paypal to charge $1 now and $96 24 hours from now?

Thanks for any ideas!

Great strategy Jonathan.

What I suggest you do though is follow the advice of the majority that posted here and charge the initial $1 and then the remaining $96 maybe one week after purchase.

This way your customers might be more inclined to buy as they will have been given time to test your stuff out for a week before making their minds up instead of just a day!

Altogether though, an impressive strategy. I hope it works for you.

Mark

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Charge $1 now and $96 tomorrow? Will it work?

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