Sunday, October 10, 2010

7 Reasons Why $7 Products Rock

This guest post is by Steve Martile of Freedom Education.

I currently charge $400 monthly for one-on-one coaching. That’s a hefty price tag for some people, even though I know some coaches who charge up to $10,000 per month, which makes my coaching look like a bargain.

One prospective client said that she really wanted to do coaching with me. She saw the value in it. She needed it and wanted to buy, but she just couldn’t come up with the money. It was either buy the coaching or pay the rent. She decided to pay the rent.

Since coaching is the highest price service I provide, I decided to come out with a product that almost anyone could afford.

Enter: $7 products

The reason I started with $7 is because it’s low. I figured almost anyone in any country could afford that price … and that way I could at least test different price points and see what worked best for my readers.

I created my first $7 product two months ago on my Blogging for Coaches site. It’s a membership site where we provide coaches with mentoring on how to build their business using blogs and blogging—at $7 per month. It’s a steal for coaches who want to build their coaching business online.

The coaches must have thought so, too. When we announced this product to our mailing list of about 300 people, 11 of them bought. That’s a conversion ratio of about 3.6%. So if you think you need a big mailing list to start making money, you’re wrong!

Six weeks ago, I offered a $7 membership to my Freedom Education blog readers. Three weeks after that, I offered an audio book on motivation for $7. Both of these products sold. I love $7 products.

7 Reasons why $7 products rock

#1. They’re low-risk.

If you can reduce the cost of your products or services and package them into a $7 product, then your readers are more likely to buy. It’s a lot less risky. I mean it’s only $7… if they don’t like it, they haven’t lost much.

If that doesn’t convince you, try offering a product guarantee. Promise your buyers that you’ll give them their money back, no questions asked, if they’re not satisfied with the product. Very few of your buyers will come back to claim that guarantee.

#2. It’s easy to write an offer for them.

Your offer is also known as your copy. I don’t know about you, but I’m a blogger. I write newsletters and blog posts. I don’t write copy. Writing copy is a bit foreign to me. The last thing I want to do is write a ten-page piece of copy for a $500 product that doesn’t sell. What a waste of time.

What’s easier for me is to write a shorter piece of copy for a product that sells for $7.

It’s only 7 bucks—you don’t need to write a novel. Even 750 words will make it compelling, and that’s about as long as a blog post. Just make sure you focus on the reasons why someone should buy your product. You want to keep reminding readers why your product rocks and how it will help them.

#3. You don’t need a big product launch for them.

This gives you a huge advantage: you don’t need a big product launch to sell your $7 product.

You just want to make an announcement to your Newsletter and on your blog. Tell your readers about your product and how it will help them solve their problem. When I announced my new product, I sent three emails to my newsletter subscribers and published two posts on my blog over the course of a week. You don’t need to be that aggressive, but it’s really up to you and what fits your style.

#4. Producing them takes less time and skill.

Imagine writing a piece of copy for a $500 product. It could take 12-16 hours to write this if you’re a really good copywriter. And what if you’re terrible at copywriting, like I do? Then it probably won’t sell.

Instead, imagine a $7 product. It took me eight hours to create the copy, write the email announcements, and publish the blog posts for my very first product: just another Sunday afternoon for a blogger. Then I put my blog and newsletter on autopilot and let it all happen. I was out walking with my wife on Monday afternoon when I got my first sale. It was a great feeling.

#5. You don’t need affiliates to sell them.

I love this part. You don’t need affiliates for a $7 product. If you’re like me, you don’t have any idea how to approach affiliates or even how to set up an affiliate program. So instead of going through all the hassle, take the next baby step—which is to offer a $7 product.

#6. They’re easy to sell.

With a $7 product, more people will buy—even if the currency exchange is high—because it’s so cheap! You’re not going to get rich with this strategy, but it does get your feet wet. It gives you an idea of what your readers will buy and what they won’t. And knowing that helps you come up with new ideas for higher-priced products.

#7. They build your confidence.

I think this is the most important reason why you should start offering $7 products, especially if you’re new to selling products. If you just started blogging and you’re not seeing the return on your investment, consider creating your first $7 product.

When you sell your first $7 product online something happens internally. You shift inside: you start to believe you can make money from your blog. You start to see how you could go even bigger maybe creating $27, $45, $100, and possibly $500 products … and then it gets exciting.

But you’ve got to start small. Once you sell your first $7 product, you start to believe. You gain immense confidence in yourself and you realize that even you can make money online.

Steve is the creator of Freedom Education: Manifesting Your Desires and 7 Secrets of Rapid Transformation. He’s also the co-creator of Blogging for Coaches.

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