1. Charge what you’re worth. Why are you letting me define you, in either direction. You can do math. Decide what your day is worth, and charge that.
2. Charge what you can get. I told you my day rate. I didn’t tell you my logic. I charge that much because I don’t want hundreds of takers. I want 2-3 takers a month at that rate.
3. Charge for the value of your content. My information is worth what I charge. It saves companies money. It makes companies money.
4. Pay what you want. You get [chrisbrogan.com] for free every day. I write posts every day. There are YEARS of ideas in here you can use to make money. Other people do. All the damned time. Other people even wrap my stuff into their courses that THEY charge for. (As long as we’ve agreed to this, hey, I’m happy to help where I can.) But you don’t HAVE to pay to read [chrisbrogan.com]. I do it for free. Have for years. Same with my newsletter.
5. Make more than one price point: My blog is free. My books are around $20. Third Tribe is $47 a month. Most events where you’ll see me range from $99 – $500 (their fees, not mine). You want a day of my time all to yourself? $22,000. You can afford ONE of those price points, right?
6. Never let others set your rates. You know what you’re worth. You ask for what you’re worth. You defend the value you deliver.

Did I miss anything? What the market will bear? That’s kind of built into it all.

Pricing. This isn’t black magic. It’s business. It’s commerce. It’s fairly basic.

Are you undercharging? Maybe? Can you get $22,000 a day? I don’t know. I can’t charge what Seth Godin charges for a day, or Guy Kawasaki. I charge what I’m worth.

But are you measuring against me? Maybe not a good plan.

Photo credit jo jakeman

When I’m done, I check Facebook to see who’s looking for a friend request (because they have a limit on friends, I have to be picky). I see who’s sent me Facebook mail (normally junk inviting me to someone’s dumb marketing webinar). I try to remember to check the birthdays.

I check in on my blog’s comment stream, making sure to cull out spam, and then diving in to answer questions wherever I see them. I follow some of the comment links back to the authors’ sites so I can learn a bit more about who spends time with me.

I open up Tweetdeck (or once I get re-sizable columns, Seesmic Desktop), and see what’s gone on there since I last checked in. I answer some of my direct messages, and see where people have tried to direct my attention while I haven’t been around.

I write my blog, of course. (Hey, here I am writing my blog.) I find a picture for the post. I might upload or edit some of my other media. I might shoot a quick video for a post. Basically, I have media making chores, too.

Of course, I still have email to contend with. I get close to 500 a day right now (it’s actually gone down over the last several weeks).

Oh, and my job, which is all of those things above, but not just all willy nilly like that. My job, such as it is, is to help companies decide which of these tools to use in what mix and to what end. (That’s at least part of what I do.)

These tools are powerful, useful, wonderful, connective, and they add hours to one’s day. To simply use the tools is probably just as useful as going out and buying a complete set of oil paints, some clay, and a loom and calling yourself an artist. Learning how they apply to your needs might be a prudent step before committing to using up time managing everything.

For those of you worried that this “social media” stuff adds chores and time to your days, it does. It definitely does. And yet, we find new value in it every day. Why? Maybe you’ll share some thoughts on this?

Photo credit chrisada

Applebees Isn’t Lying

The bartenders at the Applebees where I ate knew everyone who came in, many by name. There were clearly lots of regulars here. But I was treated every bit as warmly, was brought into the jokes, and felt very much like a valued part of the evening. When I finished my meal and got up to leave, the bartender wished me a great night and invited me back. I felt with all my heart that he meant it.

The people working at the Applebees where I had my dinner truly lived the spirit of making it a neighborhood grill and bar.

Cafe-Shaped Business, Again

That’s how I first got to know Carolyn. That’s why I like buying comics from Mick. I think the purpose of us all figuring out blogging, figuring out twitter, accepting friendships in Facebook relates to this notion. I think the idea of putting a social network around our conferences so that you know the people before you get there is part of it.

We like to feel known. We like to feel wanted. We like to feel like we belong to something. It’s part of being human. And that’s where it comes back to you.

You are Important to Me

I try in many ways to make this obvious. I try to show you by speaking with you, by commenting back when I can, by responding to your messages and reading and commenting on your blogs, when I can. I friend you on the various services, and in general I connect.

To me, that’s the crux of what we can all do with these various outlets. We can reinforce that we appreciate someone, that we want to connect, that we like interacting with them, that we appreciate their business.

Are you using social media in that way? Are you using your blog to connect and to reach out and to tell people that you appreciate them? Look at what John does at Simply Gourmet. He has a customer of the day blog post.

Will it Scale?

No. No, it will not scale. You cannot — I cannot — maintain a 1:1 relationship with every single person who interacts with me. But I will go down trying. I think the same is true of using these tools within an organization. Only, the beauty is this: inside an organization, you can spread the connections out a bit. Not everyone has to talk with Tony Hsieh at Zappos. They might want to, but they will find that there are plenty of other great folks there.

Ditto Comcast. Ditto Dell. Ditto every brand that’s trying to figure out these tools and this space.

It will not scale, but if you want the bottom line return on investment value, you’d best remember to remind people that they’re important to you. And that’s what these tools do best. Lucky us.

No matter how many of our fluffy toys make business more human, there are still real, solid goals that need to be met before marketing teams of the world embrace these tools as part of their set.

So today, while I’m at the conference working with the hot exchange of information, I wanted to give YOU my blog ,and have you write your thoughts and ideas on how what we’re doing helps the process.

What value are we giving to the larger communications world? Not even marketing, but how are we helping MEANINGFUL communication evolve?

That’s my question for you. Your job is to make the comments section way better than the post section.

Good?