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.
This is a great post. I am working on creating more products myself and my price point is about the same because some folks just can’t afford my coaching and consulting fees.
I think the $7 product is a great way to build a solid business income without the affiliate backing too. I am like you with the affiliate stuff :)
Thanks for sharing :)
You’ re so right! I changed the price of my product from 147 to 27 euro’s. I sold more copies, but every sale gives me a boost, i want to sell more instead of sell one or two!
7$, great food for thought. I’d be very hesitant to charge so little being very concerned about setting so a low value on myself. Your reputation is on the top of the charts. if you can do it, someone that’s working to build a reputation can do it too.
Starting to make our own product is a good idea, It can make us more confidence and independent..
Steve,
It’s great to see you here on Problogger after connecting with you almost a year ago. I would have to agree with this completely. I launched a $12 product and a $10 ebook and combined they produced about $300.00 in revenue and as you mentioned it wasn’t because of the mailing list or affiliates. It also didn’t take me more than a few hours to put together this stuff. I think this is a great way to test the waters with monetization strategies and build your confidence
You’re dead right about the risk Factor. Anything under 10$ is risk-free.
I’m working on a $9.99 product right now. Since I’ve done some research on it, I’m going to be trying a bit more complicated strategy, but the basic idea is the same.
I’m using my under $10 product as practice, and as a rough draft. Once the first version is done, I’ll contact a few bloggers in my niche and give them samples. Hopefully they’ll pass word along to their readers (for affiliate fees, which I’ll just send out at the end of the month) and I’ll get some sales.
Using feedback from those first sales, I’ll improve the product and double the price.
If this works, I’ll be using crowd sourcing for all of my projects, and having an introductory price for the first version (rough draft) each time.
I agree that it is risk-free in surfers eyes. Anything more than $10 and I’m thinking carefully about whether I really need it or not. $7 – I can live with that, even if the product isn’t great.
I think another thing about the $7 price tag is that you can provide more focused topics and buyers are likely to get more targeted info.
Thanks
I agree with you. Low pricing works best for people who are looking to use your product to make money themselves. They won’t usually want to invest a huge amount in learning the techniques to begin with.
This is really relevant for me right now, since I’m planning on revamping an old post series into a little eBook with worksheets, as sort of a getting my feet wet exercise, and your post confirms a lot of the things I was thinking about this project and its pricing. Thanks!
I wouldn’t go for such a low price and when making a product, you shouldn’t be thinking it’s taking you 12 hours instead of 8 to write the sales copy. It’s something that could bring you a lot of money and you need to work on it.
And you don’t know how to get to the affiliates ? That’s extremely easy !
Yes, You are very right less priced products get more sell than the high priced.
And as you said it will be affordable for most of the people who uses Internet.
Very true about the risk factor. For $7 people won’t think much. And in this sense, sometimes under $10 products can make a bigger sale than others because many will buy without much thinking and hesitation.
But if the product is worth say, $15, not a very big difference like say $30 vs $7, but still is a difference, what would you do? How to go about fixing prices in this case?
Hey Steve,
Interesting Post and amazing points.
I love how you create a product and sold it in $7. I think it’s really awesome idea to sold a product in $7.
To be honest i never thought of selling a product in $7.
Thanks for sharing this awesome Post.
I would say another reason is that it weeds out the people looking for freebies as well. Maybe it doesn’t apply so much specifically in the blogging industry, but anyone half serious about the niche they are in will be likely to purchase a $7 product. This is a great post!
Thank you,
Gabriel Johansson
$7 products do rock … (What can I say, 7 is my lucky number so I’m biased.)
> And what if you’re terrible at copywriting, like I do? Then it probably won’t sell.
Good point on the connection between the success of high cost products and great copy.
Has there been much testing on 5.00 for 5 days or 10 dollars for 10 days.? I think that this is a great idea and I have had some success with 7 for 7.
Good Article
yahh. i agree with you. 7 dollar is good for everyone. it was deal cheap for me.
In some cultures, 7 is considered a lucky number. So it helps if something is priced at $7.00
It’s like a Chinese merchant strategy, sell it low and sell a lot. Soon enough, you’ve money steadily coming in.
What an inspirational post for a Sunday morning. I think Steve is right, start off producing $7 products. That’s what I plan to do…
good entrepreneurship.
I hope this works because Amazon is selling my first ebook for exactly $7. I priced it at $5 but Amazon raised it.
What an easy idea! And workable. It’s simply intuitive that everything you’re saying is real and useful. I am putting this in MY toolkit. Thanks.
Nice idea but I worry setting the bar too low. If I see a $7.00 product I automatically think it’s going to be crap. I’m not saying that’s right, its just the way I feel. I don’t want to attract folks to my site looking for the cheapest thing. I would be more inclined to create a product I could sell for $7.00 and give it away to build my list. However, I do get your point about building momentum when you’re a new blogger. Thanks for the ideas!
Oh man, I get where you’re coming from dude, but I am SO sick of bloggers coming up with $7 products. They tend to generally say the same thing, operate under the “one size fits all model” and, in my experience, are a waste of $7.
Sure, I’d love to make a few extra bucks – I don’t know a blogger that wouldn’t – but this isn’t a particularly revolutionary idea. Besides avoiding spam, there are very few rules we can all follow successfully. So while I see a lot of people making the same “mistakes” online, I also think different people needed to be treated in different ways. Different issues need to be addressed. I’ve bought a product or two and have concluded they can’t possibly be a substitute for someone coaching you along the way.
I understand completely what you’re saying about people needing a cheaper alternative to coaching, but I’d like to see a few blogger step out of the mold for once.
As a new blogger, I found your advice exciting. I’d considered a $9.97 price, but never considered any lower. What you said makes sense and I’m going to try it. Thanks.
This is kind of what I was thinking …
I haven’t made a dime of my blog yet, well, it’s not the main mission of the blog. But it does take a lot of work which would be nice to get compensated for.
I don’t like the idea of monetizing and having ads for random somewhat related products which I cannot stand behind.
My plan, which aligns with the overall mission of the blog, is to put together some e-books and sell those.
I was thinking exactly that: that some very low price was needed. So here I go, $7 it is :-) Now just need to write the damn e-book.
Steve–
This is a great point. If potential customers do not know you, they are often more inclined to purchase a low-priced product just to check you out.
And what does this do? Three things happen:
1. It builds your email list.
2. Package together three of your $7 products for $16. You now have a higher-priced offering.
3. People who like the product will not hesitate to purchase when you have higher-priced offerings.
@ LaTara: That’s great to hear. The $7 products are a great stepping stone to greater and greater achievements. Start small and build. I’m sure your next $7 product will be a great success.
@ Srinivas: It’s great to see you here. You just can’t go wrong with the lower-cost products and obviously you’ve proven it to yourself – which is more important than any blog post can do. The confidence you get from releasing your very own $7 product is contagious.
@ Jane: this is in response to your questions about different price points… say between $30 to $7. What I’d suggest you do is survey and then test. You don’t want to assume that someone will buy your book for $30 and then put all of your effort into a $30 book that you later find out your subscribers won’t buy. Survey them and find out what they want first… then test different price points… you could start at $7 and then lift the price to $17.. and then again to $27 to see how many buyers fall off at the higher price points. I hope that helps,
If you are a really new face on the market – why not go even less? Maybe 5 dollars? Or 2 dollars?
Or is there a point where people may look down on your product because it is so cheap? Sometimes it can be tricky.
Either way, this post resonates with my own plan about selling my first product. I already have a rough idea in mind. I’m currently in the planning stages for building a product and also how to market it. I want to make sure that my first launch is a good one! (even though chances are it will fail and only serve as a good learning experience :) )
I’m encouraged by this approach and compelled to try it. I’d like to get the price point higher but I believe this approach is solid on many levels. The price point is a low entry and non-risk for the buyer. The seller gets a little something for their efforts and product knowledge. Simultaneously a relationship is developing which is probably much more valuable than $7. I wonder how this would work in a membership or continuity model.
Bill said that ‘If I see a $7.00 product I automatically think it’s going to be crap.’
I don’t think this applies to ebooks though. If there are many good pocketbooks worth our $7, there are surely more in ebooks don’t you think?
Wow this is such a great post I am working on a product price for my current website http://thedigitalfox.com and the $7 product is such a great idea. I am providing WordPress training videos.
[…] 6. 7 Reasons Why $7 Products Rock […]
These are some great tips. I’m in the process of growing my online business and I love the idea of providing value for such little money. Thanks for the ideas!
Whether you know it or not, the reason the number ‘7’ is used so often by Internet marketers (e.g. $7, $47, $97 etc.), rather than using whole numbers or the more usual ‘.99’ is because psychologically the number seven has the lowest value. Therefore, it doesn’t surprise me that $7 products sell so well.
I think if you are prepared to sell a good ebook for only $7.00 I say don’t bother. Give a summary report away for free. Perhaps jam it full of affiliate links. At least that promotes your site and you have a chance of some commission income too. In my opinion selling your ebook for $7 devalues you and your product. You also have to sell hundreds every week to make a living – whats the point?
I agree, $7 is great, not to much making people avoid paying out so much, but not to little, making people avoid it for the other reason, I know I can think like that sometimes, I Thought “Hmmm, why so cheap, must either be rubbish or a scam” it is just human nature to be weary if price is to high or low.
Great Post.
Dear Ray J.
What price do you think would be ideal then?
My topic (dog health issues) is broad, so it is possible to break it down into smaller sections or keep it together it bigger ones, depending on what the ideal price is.
For example I could do orthopedic issues, orthopedic injuries or ACL injuries. Even ACL injuries has enough for a small e-book.
Great info EC. You deserve to be called eCommerce consultant.
i also on my way to release my new ebook. Might be i will use 7 dollar as my price. It still cheap and many people can buy it.
I asked a bunch of my friends if they would buy a $7 eBook and they all said, “yes”. $7 is harmless to most people.
Excellent article.
This really gave me some ideas! I write tips for small businesses and non-profits and I’m told they are really helpful. I’m now thinking about offering a monthly fee of $7 to receive tips all month long in the inbox.
Targeted posts on tips! This sounds better than selling an ebook on a topic.
Great idea ProBlogger!!!
This came at the perfect time! I am currently developing an ebook that I figure I will offer for free until January 2011.
Was wondering what to charge!
great idea and thanks for this release, we all learn it
Great post! I’m currently reinventing my website and will take this under consideration. I like the way you think. Thanks!