Experiment & Experience

by MySix
14 replies
I sell ebooks (surprise, surprise!) and just wanted to relate to a recent experiment I did. Now, granted, I only did this for one day.

One of the ebooks I sell has a sales page that has about 850 unique hits a day. The ebook sells for somewhere around $46. From these hits I make about four (sometimes more) sales a day (or just short of about $200) and never, ever does anyone ever request a refund. So I got to thinking, I sure would like to get $1 for every unique hit to my sales page ($850 a day) as opposed to $200 a day in sales!

So, my idea formulated. Could these 'potential customers' actually all become REAL buyers if the product was set to only $1? Could I actually make $500 - $850 a day instead of only $200?

Then I started thinking: I use PayPal and PayPal charges 2.9% plus 0.30 per sale. That would pretty much eat up the whole $1! So, if I raise the price to a mere $2.50 I would make about $1.80 per sale. IF only half of my unique hits purchased at ONLY $2.50 I would clear about $765 a day - far better than the $200!

Makes sense, no? Would YOU buy a great ebook that you really wanted if the price was only $2.50 "TODAY ONLY"?

So I set the price at $2.50 - claimed it was a 'special one-day sale' (and it was)...(and, as a note, I wouldn't offer this deal to my 'list' as it would really upset all the previous buyers who paid the full $46!)

Here are my results of my special 'one-day only' sale.

5 sales at $2.50 = profit about $9
1 refund request = profit now down to only $7.20 (my first refund request LOL)
AND, the REAL KICKER...
....1 sale at the original price of $46 (the option was there!) = profit of about $44.50!

And that, my fellow Warriors, is how not to do it!

Maybe it's true that people really do think the MORE they pay the BETTER and more LEGITIMATE the product is :confused:
#experience #experiment
  • Profile picture of the author MaryKathan
    That reminds me of a 'marketing' story I heard....this is the best I can remember of it....

    I am not sure which country you live in.... but in America several years ago they decided to sell a "pet rock" - basically a rock in a brown box that you could pretend was a pet. First, they had a very low price (it was just a rock) and hardly sold any.

    Then they raised the price to $10.00 and sold a TON of them across the country at Christmas time especially. They discovered that people would not pay $2.00 for a gift because they would appear too cheap - but they were more then happy to pay $10.00 for a Pet Rock for gifts to co-workers, acquaintences, etc.

    Very strange - but that is the way humans are I guess!
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph G Spiteri
      Hey Mysix really nice experiment just go's to show cheaper is not always better.
      Thanks for this thread.

      Live Your Dream
      Joe
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  • Profile picture of the author MySix
    I've heard that story! LOL Thanks, MaryKathan Maybe I should sell stick people (made with real sticks)?
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    You ran into the "perceived value" brick wall. Since it's so cheap, it must suck. But still, I think you're on to something. Obviously, $2.50 was too little. But how about $17 or some other price point? I wouldn't toss this idea out just yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Photalian
    Yeah, test it at $24.99 and see what happens! That's a great pricepoint. Even $19.95 hahah the TV infomercials have to be on to something there...
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I've done the same type of experiments, but the best price point I found was $17 for some of my ebooks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Meaney
    We tried to give away an old tv stand, left it outside the apartment with a note saying it was free for whoever wanted it. We had to take it back inside the first night, nobody took it.. tried it again the second day, and again nobody wanted it.

    Then we decided to have some fun with it and changed the note saying the stand was £30; inquire within.

    Went out for lunch and the stand was gone... somebody "stole" it. Didn't last the morning.

    The perceived value increased the desire to own it, I guess.
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  • Profile picture of the author MySix
    That's funny, Mick!

    And for all the others, I have experimented when so many different price ranges and, surprisingly, have found that the more I ask for it the more sales I make! No complaints there LOL!
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  • Profile picture of the author zaco
    Nice post! this is what Apple does, if you notice that the Apple store will barely have anything on sale, its on boxing/black Friday where they drop their prices 20$ to show they are doing something..Apple users will feel disrespected if they buy anything from Apple on sale or anything cheap.

    Actually I have seen people staying inline waiting for the iPhone 4 for 3 days and they had to come back the next day because Apple only sell around 100 units a day, you should have seen the people how disappointed they were but they come back the next day and stay for hours! this is the art of Marketing.. I don't like their Marketing plan but hey! they are successful so its working..its the reverse psychology
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  • Profile picture of the author officer_iron
    This is truly an amazing fact. I'm glad you shared your experiment with us. It's reminded me to play around with this again.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    Why don't you use split testing software on rotations. So sometimes the product is 19.95 sometimes 29.95 ect. Now if it gets that many hits why dont you offer a portion of the ebook so when they exit that page they are presented with a popup that says, don't leave get the first three chapters free here now. or something.
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  • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
    What do you mean you sell ebooks surprise. I sold ebooks in the early 2000's but got tired of being undercut. Wish I would of kept sellerofebooks.com it really is a market now, with nook and kindle and all the tablets.


    P.S. I still own the name if any offers, let me know. domain is empty though.
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  • Profile picture of the author MySix
    hustlinsmoke - I was being 'pleasantly' sarcastic because I assume most of us sell some kind of ebook/informational product I guess it was my failed attempt at humor. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
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    • Profile picture of the author hustlinsmoke
      Originally Posted by MySix View Post

      hustlinsmoke - I was being 'pleasantly' sarcastic because I assume most of us sell some kind of ebook/informational product I guess it was my failed attempt at humor. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
      Actually I was just kicking myself in the ass for getting rid of my website. Bad thing was I let the domain go and picked it back up a couple of years later. I would of had a domain name over 10 years old in that niche. Yeah I could start one back up but I have too many fires in the furnace right now.
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