By Willie Crawford / Published on June 17th, 2007 / eCommerce
At my recent Internet Marketing How To Workshop, several speakers admonished attendees, not to get stuck selling just twenty dollar ebooks. We all reflected upon how it felt the first time we checked our email and saw that we had an order and had just earned twenty dollars. We admitted that this use to get us excited. However, we also had to move beyond that point, we had to shift our thinking to greater possibilities if we were going to earn a full-time living from the internet.
Study any successful internet marketer and you will see that he offers a range of products at different price points. That's what I do. My least expensive product is $9.97 and my most expensive product is currently $2495. In between I offer audiotapes at $197, videotapes at $297, and consulting at $250 per hour. I offer this range, because different people want the information I offer in different formats. Different people learn best according to how their brains are wired.
Some people prefer learning by listening to audiotapes.
Some people prefer learning by watching videotapes.
Some people learn best by actually practicing and doing it. They need to attend workshops or actual classes, although these can be virtual classes too.
Some people understand best when you explain it to them on the phone or via email. They need the two-way interaction to fully clarify points.
Some people prefer to print something out and read it. I am a reader who will read the same book several times if it contains really good information... absorbing something more with each reading. I also have tons of audio and videotapes though.
As an information product marketer, your task is to offer your product in as many different forms as possible so that you don't overlook any segment of the market. You should offer ebooks, printed books, course, CDs, and all of the other forms. The amazing thing is that this in NOT that hard. If you've already written an ebook, it's easy to be interviewed on the topic and turn this into a marketable recording. It's easy to package the audiotapes and transcripts, plus some additional notes, into a three-ring binder and call it a course. It's easy to organize your notes and then physically teach the material either at a workshop, over the internet, or even at a local community college.
The thing I see too many beginners get trapped into is creating a great ebook on a topic they know a lot about. They check to see what similar ebooks sell for and choose $19.95 or $29.95 as the price. Then they settle back and watch the sales roll in. These sales may be a slow but steady trickle, which satisfies many people. It's thrilling to do the work once and generate a continuous income stream from it. It's somewhat intoxicating. However, the writer also becomes infected with the twenty dollar ebook syndrome and never tries to create anything higher priced. He reasons that his market has shown him that they want, and will buy, twenty dollar products. He's afraid to risk offering them something more expensive.
How do I know lots of authors get infected with this ailment? I talk to and email them every day. When I suggest to them that they need to create a $97 product or a $297 product, they tell me that their customers can't afford these products. I have news for them! Their customers are buying these products. They are just buying them from your competition. They tell me their customers won't spend a thousand dollars for a seminar seat. I have news for them, their customers are spending two thousand dollars for a seminar seat, they are just buying from the competition. Your competitors are earning $500 commissions ... I do regularly.
The purpose of this article today is to prevent you from falling victim to this "syndrome." Consider this. If you sell one $297 audio product and make $200 or more profit, you've just earned more than if you had sold ten $20 products and made 95% profit. And you've only had to deal with 1/10th the potential customer service issues. And you've only had to process one transaction. And believe, it or not, that sale was probably just as easy ... maybe easier.... than the $20 sale.
One other insight I'll share with you - people who buy higher ticket items seem less prone to complain or request refunds. They are people of action, so they buy the product, use it, and get the results they sought. Many who buy twenty dollar products are looking for some magic solution or all-encompassing answer for only twenty dollars, and that doesn't exist. Part of that expectation is admittedly due to the hype used to sell the $20 products. We condition our prospects to expect something for nothing... and in the process sabotage our success.
So your job for the next few days is to plan out how you are going to convert your twenty dollar product or idea into something much bigger. No excuses, just do it :-)
Willie Crawford is a writer, seminar host and speaker, and internet marketing consultant. He has been featured in tops sites such as Corey Rudl's Secrets Of Their Success. Get his free 20 Lesson Internet Business Success Course today at: http://williecrawford.com