The Old Value-Cost Conversation

cash register I’m an affiliate for the Beyond Blogging ebook. In the comments section of this post, people questioned the $47 cost of the ebook (which I think goes up to $97 after a fashion). It’s a question I’ve seen many times, and the question works something like this:

There’s no paper expenses. There’s no mailing costs. Why does this cost more than a traditional paper book?

First, let’s take free off the table. I covered that in the audacity of free. So, given that we believe there’s some value in what’s being sold, let’s talk about how pricing works OVERALL.

Pricing comes from these factors: perceived value, market value, product/brand recognition, and probably several factors I’m not at liberty to explain. Nathan Hangen and Mike Cliffe Jones priced Beyond Blogging to be in the middle pricing of most ebooks I’ve seen. I’ve paid everywhere from $9 to $150 for ebooks, depending on what I thought I’d learn from them.

In my mind, when I paid $150 for the ebook I bought (about product launches), it’s because I knew that if I learned what was in the ebook, I’d stand to make more than $150 back if I was able to incorporate what I learned.

That’s the real question to ask when presented with a price: is paying this going to earn me back that much or more value?

For instance, I buy videos. I just got Iron Man’s Armored Adventures, season 1, for $19.95. I have to decide if that’s worth however many hours of enjoyment I’ll get from it. The real answer is probably no, so maybe that was a bad purchase.

No one forces you to buy things. Instead, they recommend things they think will be of value. When I agree to be an affiliate for a product, such as the Thesis WordPress Theme, it’s because I believe it’s valuable, and I want you to consider it for your projects and growth.

I’m promoting Beyond Blogging because I believe there’s much more than $47 worth of information in there. For instance, that’s several hundred times less than it would cost you to pick my brain for a day, and I’m only one of the 15 people interviewed. It’s at least 3x less than an online course of similar content.

So, it’s all in how you slice it. I buy things that help me grow my business. Where do you put your money?

Photo credit mindluge

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  4. An Important Conversation About Conversations
  5. Extend the Conversation

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