Have you ever noticed that products in your niche are priced at varying levels – from $7 to $2,000?

If you are selling the $7 product, you may be asking yourself how anyone could sell a $2,000 product.  On the other hand, if you are selling the $2,000 product, you are probably asking how anyone can afford to sell a $7 product.

There is no magic formula that says “if you have 6 videos and 3 PDFs, charge this amount.” Instead you need to set your price based on the value you deliver. And to judge that value, you need to look at it from your point of view, as well as your customer’s perspective.

Pricing is a matter of comfort and expectations.  If you are selling at the lower end of the price range, you probably also buy in that same price range.  It is what you are used to.  You have a hard time convincing yourself that any product could be worth $2,000.  As long as you continue to buy less expensive products, you will have a difficult time raising your prices beyond your personal comfort level.

Price is about perception.  In our society, higher prices indicate better quality, more value, more expertise.

Does price guarantee any of these things?  Not necessarily.  You can buy a car for $8,000 or $80,000.  Will both of them get you to your destination?  Yes.  Do both of them sell?  Yes.  Is there 10 times the quality, the value, and the expertise in the higher priced car?  Maybe.

The point is price doesn’t guarantee anything, other than that you will pay more. But most people assume a higher price means a better product.

One other factor that you want to consider in raising your prices is customer service.  When asked, virtually all information publishers agree that the higher the price point on your product, the fewer complaints and customer support issues you have.  That single consideration is a strong recommendation for raising prices.

So, how do you raise your prices?  Just do it.  Announce the price increase if you want a flurry of last minute sales and give a specific deadline. Or just raise the price.

As you raise your prices you need to start raising your expectations as well. It is hard to sell someone a $197 product if you are not willing to pay that much for product yourself.

Raising prices is both a smart move and one that involves a change in your personal habits.  If you cannot believe your product or any product is worth that amount, you will not be able to sell it at the higher price regardless of the sales copy that you write.

Change your personal buying habits and raise your price.

So what do YOU think? Can you sell a higher priced-product when you aren’t willing to pay the higher price yourself? Let me hear your opinion in the comments below.

Q: I’m a writer and struggling with finding my online niche. Do you have any suggestions on how to do this?

A: The world is wide open to you as a writer! You don’t need to find a niche – you have one already. Writing. You can sell your services at writing sites, you can freelance. You can write a set of articles in a specific niche that fascinates you (and that you want to learn more about) and sell those articles as “PLR articles.”

If you DO want to find a niche you have a couple of choices. You can choose a niche you want to learn about and write articles, ebooks, reports, etc on that topic.

OR you can choose to write for people within a specific niche. For example, if you love gardening, you can specialize in writing articles for marketers in the gardening niche. Again, you can do these on a custom basis – or write generic articles that you sell to people in that niche. 

You could create a “do it yourself” ready-made newsletter. So each month you would create a set of 15 articles. Then each subscriber to your service could choose the 10 articles they want in their newsletter and you could assemble and deliver it to them, ready to distribute. It would be customized for them and their business.

As I said, with writing skills you have unlimited possibilities. Just get your mind working – and forget that you “need a niche.” You just need to figure out what you enjoy doing – and make money with that!

And if you can’t decide, then at least put up a website advertising your writing – and make money while you’re waiting for inspiration.

Just in case you’ve been able to ignore it, the Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on sites that mislead the public online. The important thing to recognize is that the ruling impacts everyone who markets online – whether you’re

• giving testimonials on products you purchased
• recommending affiliate products
• receiving products for review
• selling your own products

You can read a quick synopsis of the ruling from the FTC Site. Or you can pick up the November issue of Online Success News – which includes a 3-page article on the implications for your business. Plus legal policies ready for your customization.

Additional Resources:

Watch this short video. She also provides legal forms you can customize and add to your site

More legal forms – from another lawyer who specializes in working with internet-based businesses

Jim Edwards  interviewed an FTC official to get the “real” scoop! It’s a video so grab the popcorn and take notes.

What if you could hire someone to run your business – a Director of Operations. And you gave them an unlimited budget for hiring the people they needed to get the job done?

What would you tell them to do today? My list would look like this:

1. Build the new optin page for ____. Write the autoresponder sequence for 10 days of follow-up. Upload it to the autoresponder service. Turn the promotion of the page over to the social marketing team. Start a PPC campaign, including finding the keywords and writing the ads.