It's all in your head ??

A salesman who worked for me once told me "It feels like I'm going ten steps forward, and nine steps back".


I told him "That's how life is for all of us, all the time. All attempts are nines steps back for ten steps forward. That's how fortunes are made. Because at the end of the day, after all that work....you are now one step ahead. And that puts you ahead of almost everyone else."

Humans.

And on the other side of this coin, is the advanced marketer, who thinks (but never says) this: who are MY bitches going to be today? Er, uh, customers I mean. Cause we all know that IM especially believe in serving the customer first right? Or is that more marketing propaganda?

If one is in the money making mode, then it is probably a good strategy to find who is buying similar stuff NOW. It makes the use of propaganda (copywriting) much easier, because they have already drank the Kool Aid.

So, one might argue, how do I find the biggest lake of believers of this ______ and that is where I will cast my net.

And, to the point of indoctrination, so many of our insecurities and needs/wants come out of that childhood too. Like many sociopaths, I've never felt the need to belong to any group...maybe a 3 stooges sub conscious implant when MOE would say, I don't want to belong to any group that would have someone like me as a member.

GordonJ

What strategy do you advise people to use to discover the price people will pay.

This isn't mine, per se, but comes from an association with some very big, and very small albeit, successful marketers. The strategy is TESTING.

Test a product at market price.
Test it at above market, and also below market, with a split test of similar people.

I'll give you an example (and history too, yea)...Joe Karbo sold his LAZY MAN'S book for 10 dollars.

Ten bucks was the going rate back then for buying a book similar to this one; a few who were also charging 10 bucks were: Bud Weckesser, Jerry Buchanan, Melvin Powers, Hubert Simon, Dean F.V. DuVall, and countless others. It was considered the "market" price of this type of book.

A decade or so prior, the avg. market price for a similar sized book was under 4.00.

So, TODAY. I have 21 PAYPAL buttons currently in my PayPal account. The high is 100 and the low is 3...with an average of around 15, and most of the reports are 10 dollars, a sweet spot for these things. We did sell over 10k dollars in a single day of a specialty report, Headlight Cleaning Manual at 97 dollars. That price was never tested, we just wanted to get that much for it.

But here is a look at one of the products, the AUTOMATIC PRODUCT VENDING REPORT...which I brought out at 10 to the public, offered it for 3 to my list, and then, after the initial rollout, tested it at 19.95...where it still sold within a good %. and then it faded at 24.95.

Now here is the thing to think about here. What is the INTENT of the product?

You see I had different intents for the same product, to my list, it was a "reward" buy, a deep discount, and at that low price I get over 90%...a lesson learned from J.F. Jim Straw with his peanuts on the bar strategy.

AT 24.95, the intent was to eliminate looky loos, tire kickers and time wasters...most of those guys won't to over 20 bucks.

So, with INFORMATION products, what do I intend for it to do? A lot of eyeballs, newbies, and those who don't know me, a LOW COST introductory offer...maybe 3 bux.

My list, a discount and a BONUS. But all my information products have offers within them for other things, and sometimes, it is more important to get people on your list (although I prefer 1 dollar over free)...but free works too, although it attracts a crowd, like WF, which I don't really want as a customer.

But my background is in TESTING offers, as well as Real Life Focus Study groups and I adapted much of that Corporate testing strategy into my own.

How to: find as many similar products as you can, establish a price range from low to high and have an AVERAGE market price.

Then what ADDED VALUE can you deliver (higher price), and give them a reason to pay more.

Or, give them a special introductory price (below avg) and see how that goes.

But, aside from long winded answer here today, TEST your price points...but see it in the bigger picture of what a long range strategy is going to look like.

GordonJ

Last question, personal info: none, other than email. I think that is one reason for longevity, having had some on my list for 25 years, and they still buy, even though I don't have as much as I did.

See, why would I want it? (Yes, I know there are many reasons why some collect it), But, for me...it never mattered.

Yes, it was refined down from a 5 figure list to a mid 4 figure, very manageable and responsive and with my low cost offers, I did 4 per year, and two 25 dollar offers twice a year. And a few off line consulting gigs too.

So, I zigged when the syndicate zagged into 2000 dollar launches, which always left me in need of a shower...just not my style, but more power to those good ol boys who pulled it off.

Well, sort of list building, but when we choose to work within an evergreen, and easy to find/ready to buy niche of that market, it is less about BUILDING a list and more about making the right kind of offer to those folks, and let them sort of "join" a group of like minded folk.

I came online from decades in the Entrepreneurship, Home Business, Money Making Opportunities world, which has always been evergreen, and is still so. Now your question:
Do you also have the points to mention down to get the people who buy at this price point to buy the first product from you and get them on your list.

I do. It is one point which I have polished to perfection, and it is this: Buy OR Don't, I don't care. Now, I have given away so many freebies, and others have used them too, so it is unlikely they come to my stuff completely unaware...but if they do, they get a very quick dose of Gordon:
You being my customer isn't ever going to make my day.

Sometimes, I quite literally say that...cause what is your 100 bux a year going to do for me?

But that is me. My advice to someone new, and you will find this same advice here for the last 2 decades, I'm not one to change my tune... Create something of value, like a HOTSHEET, and sell it for very low cost, or use it as an intro piece.

I actually had a special report on doing that. My favorite example is Warrior (apparently inactive) Barb Ling and her associate Dennis Becker, who have been around since early days...Barb created a one page list of LINKS, which she offered for, I think it was 3.99 and she sold over 1k? as I recall, it was a 3 or 4 thousand dollar product in a very short time...that sort of thing can be used to add people to a list.

But I want to rant just a minute Odahh (and this time not toward you or any other Warrior)...but about the "Dream", and greed, and enough being enough.

Today, a HOT topic which comes around every so often...and if you are on Facebook at all you see all kinds of ads for building a MEMBERSHIP course. I watched one reviewer, whom I agreed with, she paid for the course they were hyping, and basically told her to sell her 300 dollar course over 6 months dripped at 99 a month, thus, DOUBLING HER INCOME and adding astounding profits.

To her credit, she was a bit turned off by the idea.

But hey, IM is about making money, milking the cash cow for every drop and churning out more and more cause....a new Lambo? McMansion? Yacht? Paying off FDA, FTC, and all the other fines one has gotten? He he.

I think you can relate to this. For some, money is a yardstick. A way to compete and compare. Oh, I like competition in golf (at one time) or monopoly, or even trivia night...but things? More money to have more things??? Just not for me.

The point being, when I had a much larger list, I was in a "greed" mode, how much more can I make? And I think my customers suffered, some early ones being caught in the funnel...which I have come to dislike. So my refinement went to stand alone, or possibly complimentary product lines without the need for upsells, down sells, cross sells or whatever OLD school the IMers employed.

So the TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT attitude was never about me...if the offer didn't present value in and of itself, don't buy it. Simple as that. Could I have used my copywriting (propaganda) skills to increase the value, up the price and put more tchotchke on my mantle?

Sure.

But today, I suggest an offer of VALUE to a ready to buy market, and with out the need for persuasive copywriting at all...just a good description (and pic if possible) and a target market, an AVATAR which doesn't need more than that to make a decision.

GordonJ

A little boy's prepubescence fantasy while playing with light sabers.

Conquer the world is one thing, then what do you do...manage all that your conquer? Sounds exhausting.

Most Warriors have a hard enough time conquering their time, egos and poverty.

Good luck to you in your ventures. As always, thanks for your enlightening contributions...now I must bathe again today.

GordonJ

Paul Myers was a very quotable Warrior:

https://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...roaches-3.html Post #1.

GordonJ