What is the ONE question that your prospects would like answered? If that’s a burning question for them, would they be willing to pay big bucks to know the answer or solution?

Can you start an “Online Church” enabling those who are always on the move or don’t have enough to attend? I’m sure you will see a great demand and offer a GREAT service to people. And you can charge a monthly membership fee (I’m sorry if it doesn’t work like that or the appropriate term is something else – please let me know if that is the case). But this would allow you to bypass this whole product creation thingy. It will likely take more time to form partnerships, do your marketing, etc. But it will be much more fun and fulfilling and meaningful at the same time. And think of how many millions of people you can help!

I have to say, for some reason I never actually looked at it that way. That’s a great exercise to consider.

What can you do to increase the value of the product, or what would it have to be to be ‘worth’ that much?

Those are very valid questions. I can certainly see the point of a low cost product not generating as many affiliates.

I suppose my problem with this scenario is that I’m time poor at the moment. I don’t really have the time to do what is necessary to create a higher value on the product, even if I did have the skills or the wherewithal.

That was part of the appeal of making these books available online – they were already written and ready to go.

Still, I will have to give this one more thought. If nothing else, it certainly puts a new perspective on how I will approach creating my own future products.

Thanks for turning on the light switch!
Angie

Yes, of course the exact price depends on the niche. But I want you to think about this for a moment:

If you were an affiliate, and saw a product that costs $9, would you be interested in promoting it?

Remember that both PayPal and e-junkie will take their cut from the retail price before either you or the affiliate see a single cent, so that leaves very little for each of you.

As an affiliate, would you be interested in actively promoting a product that makes you 4′ish dollars per sale?

I hope you get my point.

But if you feel uncomfortable charging a high price for this product, I would like you to do this exercise:

Suppose the product cost $97 instead of $9. What features or components would it need in order to make the purchase justified at this price? What if the product cost $197? $297?

I am not just throwing these numbers at you randomly. I really want you to go through this exercise. Think about the product as if it costs $97, $197, and $297 respectively.

What form would the product take? Audio? Video? E-book? Something physical? All of these? A plaque with something nice engraved on it? What extra value would it provide to the buyer in terms of spiritual fulfillment or the attainment of whatever they are looking for and the product helps them achieve?

Suppose you get an actual priest to recite portions of your book, and record it, do you think it will add to the value of your product?

So my recommendation would be to pick a high price and then increase the value of the product so that the actual value delivered to the customer is MUCH higher than the price.

That way you can feel happy charging a high price, because you KNOW in your heart that the actual value delivered is much higher than the price you are charging, and the customers get a great product. That way both you and the customer are happy.

A win-win situation – the best thing possible!

Hope that helps a bit.

I’m just in the beginning of the selling my own product process. I wonder if the price issue and some of the other points will vary depending upon your niche.

Here’s my situation… I wrote a couple of Christian books for women a few years ago. This was before I started SBI or had any idea of internet marketing. I paid to have the books printed myself and then I was able to make enough back in sales of the books to cover the cost of my initial investment (which was my main goal at the time).

My ‘market’ was the ladies in the churches my husband and I visited while on furlough from the mission field.

Okay, fast forward 2-3 years and I’ve discovered SBI, built a couple of sites (unrelated to this niche) and finally started my newest site angieberg.com so that I CAN make my books available online and hopefully some future products, too.

I converted one of the books to pdf and set up e-junkie to make sales and have affiliates. I priced the book lower than what you would find in a Christian book store ($9) because I feel uncomfortable charging too much for what is in essence a “ministry” for me – although the extra income is a real blessing.

I still have to make some time to actively seek affiliates. I know that I won’t really start selling until I make that effort since my site is not at the point yet where I’m bringing in enough traffic on its own.

So, in this type of niche, do you think I should leave my prices where they are or increase them? Do you have any particular advice that may apply specifically to this situation? Your feedback is appreciated.

Blessings,
Angie

Thank you for such a comprehensive reply.

You are right – I want my book to contain gold, not iron.

At this stage, an ebook is the only way for me. I don’t own any video equipment and I have no idea how to do any of that other stuff.

It’s all a learning curve and I can’t rush the process.

Thanks very much Rohit. Just from your post, I got some more ideas. I’m sure that’s your purpose!

I’m going to plan my hibernation soon. It’ll work out well, it’s winter here!

My best to you

Kerry.

Please don’t do the product as an experiment. Doing an experiment means you are expecting it to fail. I don’t want you to expect the product to fail. When you put in the work, it MUST be a success.

Do your research and thinking upfront, and that will greatly increase the chances of your success.

There are several reasons why I asked to keep it at a higher price:

1. It will attract more affiliates.
2. It will increase the perceived value of the product in the eyes of the buyers. For many buyers, higher price = higher value.
3. It will force you to make it more valuable than competing products, which is a good thing if you think about it.
4. It will allow you to give special/exclusive rates/discounts to the customers of some big affiliates and STILL leave enough room for both you and the affiliate to make some nice cash.
5. A higher priced product will attract a different kind of customer than a lower priced product will attract. Think about that for a while too. Which kind of customer do you want, especially if you want to continue selling more products to them in the future?

When you do something, do it with the intention of dominating the market. This is because the top players get to keep all the money, and the others only get pocket change. For this reason, there is no point in being number three or four. Either you are in the top two, or you are out of the game.

So if you try to keep the price low to attract more customers, you will actually end up losing more sales than you think. That’s because fewer affiliates will be interested in promoting your product. And you can’t reach as many potential customers on your own as with the help of affiliates.

Now if you think that it’s going to take you longer to create a high value product, that’s not always correct. For example, consider the $97 report consisting of 11 pages that I mentioned in my post above. How long do you think it took the author to create it?

A higher priced product need not be BIGGER… it can just be better… or different. In exchange of $$$, you could give them tons of iron, or a little gold.

Try to produce gold. Then you won’t have to create a ton of it to make a lot of money.

You say to make your product a high price. Then you mention to do it and get it out, now. You also told Mimi that our books should have unique information.

So, when I think about those key points, I’m thinking that I should do my first book as an experiment.

I think I should make the price reasonable, so that it captures more of the market. The only way I’m going to do it now is if I stop procrastinating on making it the best it can possibly be.

My point is, if I make it exceptional, I can ask a high price. However, it’s not going to get done any time soon, if that’s the case!

Do you see my quandary?

Kerry.