Selling Ebooks for $47, $97, etc...

[Lynn Terry]

The days of (easy sales on) $47 and $97 ebooks sold through ClickBank are slowly phasing out...

See my latest article on this topic at ClickNewz:
http://www.clicknewz.com/577/writing-reports/

"Forget spending 6 months writing a 300 page Ebook and trying to sell it for $47+.
Overdeliver doesnt mean Overwhelm."

Your comments are welcomed!

[johndilbeck]

Hi Lynn,

I agree with what you wrote in your article.

I bought a copy of $7 Reports from your link a couple of weeks ago and I'm thinking of what I want to do with this.

I've never felt that ebooks were worth $50 and more, unless they were tightly targeted and I knew I would at least earn double my investment from the purchase. I've bought only one ebook over $50 and was disppointed in what I received.

I also agree with you that I want to know more about the author before I buy, and if I can't find anything to satisfy my curiosity, I'll pass on it, even at $7 or less.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

All the best,

JD

[Lynn Terry]

[johndilbeck]

[Lynn Terry]

[Phil Tanny]

Thanks for the article Lynn.

There's something else going on here. I've been trying to understand, and find the words, perhaps you can help.

Like you said, buyer's expectations have risen. You did a great job of sort of making this sound like a good thing, but for the seller it means....

Give more, and get less.

Readers who are buying ebooks to become sellers might reflect on that, if they dare.

Readers used to snap up $97 ebooks, and the seller kept half.

Now readers want $7 ebooks, and the seller keeps none.

Yes, sure, there is the backend, but there's always been the backend. And surely the backend for a $7 product is less valuable than the backend for a $97 product. The backend now is, people who want products priced so that somebody, the merchant or the affiliate, is squeezed out.

Anyway, saying all this to point to something larger.

The webmaster market has traditionally been sold on emotion, not cool business-like logic. The seller creates a buzz, sorry a BUZZ!, and gets everybody worked up in to lather, and then closes the deal, and cashes the checks.

Imho, we are now reaping the rewards of this strategy. The webmaster market is emotionally exhausted, and falling asleep.

As sellers, we're told to improve the offer, and this is always good advice, the progress path.

But it doesn't matter how good your offer is if the audience you are pitching to is passed out on the couch asleep.

Asleep? Hmm, looking for understanding here. Help me please.

Jaded, burnt out, skeptical, reading fragments of sentences, not web pages. Mostly I think, just plain old tired from all the exciting stimulation of the last ten years.

In the 1950's people sat in front of tiny black and white TV's loaded with static, and were amazed, enchanted, delighted.

Now we have 12 foot wide monster HD TV's with 500 channels and the most amazing special effects imaginable, and we get bored and sleepy during the scene where the exploding helicopter crashes in to the pool full of naked girls causing an earthquake which brings on a tsnami and the invasion of the alien people eaters.

That's what I see when I read about $7 ebooks. What's coming next, $1 ebooks?

Writing this to spark discussion, tell me what you guys see.

[Lynn Terry]

Its a natrual progression of the web, and of society in general. Expectations arent just rising online - but everywhere, in all aspects of everyday life. People expect to reach you. People expect to be able to be reached. People get annoyed when they have no signal or service, instead of appreciating the convenience of their devices. A 10yo thinks she must have a cell phone. We expect our utility companies to automatically draft fees from our banking accounts and not bother us with paper and bills.

Everyone wants easier, cheaper, faster - everything. On demand. Or even faster - so fast you never even have to think about it.

[Phil Tanny]

Yes, yes, that's is, well said Lynn.

The psychology of more.

Historically speaking, or geographically speaking, we already have more than almost everybody. Quite literally, our reality is beyond the boundaries of the fantasy life of most of the people who ever lived, or are living now.

And yet, it's not enough, is it?

We are still working, working, working to get more, and worrying, worrying, worrying that we might not get it.

It's not just a specific thing we want. Once we get the car, we'll want a boat. When we have the boat, we'll want a plane, and so on.

In other words, like Lynn says, what we really want is.....

...more.

Would it be reasonable to say we are addicted to this process of more? Could we walk away, and still be happy?

One thing we want more of, perhaps the most important thing, is more freedom. Surely, this is the big appeal of working in affiliate marketing, yes? We encourage each other to be ambitious, and work hard for our freedom.

I wonder if we have enough ambition to seek freedom from the endless process of more. I wonder if I do.

Do you ever stand back, and take a close look at the consumer culture that consumes the time of the developed world?

A billion people, getting up everyday and commuting to jobs they don't really like, so they can buy tons of stuff, that they don't really need.

Well, we do need the stuff, and the process of more, for pyschological reasons.

Our brains, the most important server on the Net.

If we understood them as well as we understand Unix servers, what might be possible?

[Lynn Terry]

I am watching this from the sidelines myself. And finding it a struggle to stay "simple". I live by a concept I picked up from my grandmother when she made the comment that "the more you have, the more you have to take care of".

Its all fine and great to invest in real estate and rentals... until property taxes come due and they all need new roofs - for example.

I'm a "cash basis" kind of woman, who watches very little television and has a paid-off vehicle. Strange, I know, but I dont have the craving for "more" at all... because I know all too well how much maintenance comes with it

Money is nice because it affords me time - and even more simplicity. Like time, travel, comforts, good times, etc. But I am not stuck in the loop of living a miserable life to make a ridiculous amount of money that I would never have time to spend or enjoy because I am too busy living the miserable life to make it.

I said its a struggle because of the expectations of others. I have to put my foot down. Say no. Turn my ringer off. Turn down "million dollar joint ventures". etc. I made the joke to a peer recently that "this internet marketing stuff is going to cut into my naptime yet!"

I take my work very seriously, of course... but I take my naps pretty darn serious too LOL

[Alan Petersen]

[Lynn Terry]

[Alan Petersen]

[Lynn Terry]

[globalbizz]

Lynn

Please check your email re: broken link in the bonus $7 Reports .

Thanks

[Lynn Terry]

Got it - looking - will reply by email