Where and how to find better, higher-paying audience?

[edmundloh]

Here's what I'm going through right now, and if you've been this way before and out of it, I would like to hear how you did it - here goes...

Currently I sell information products within the Internet Marketing niche - usually in the form of Private Label Rights. I've been doing it for years and money has been good. However there's a harsh reality I have to face lately:

- Information products that used to sell in volumes at $197 years ago now gets priced lower and lower in the marketplace i.e. $97, then $77, then $37... and now to an all-low $5 - $15! (It's like how TVs and computers used to sell at a premium last time, but today are more affordable)

- This has to do with the marketplace and the kind of business associates / Joint Venture Partners I have in my circle. Most of the partners I used to know and work with in 2006-2008 are no longer around today (either they moved on or life changed for them) and the new business associates I've connected with 2011 - present peddle products mostly to a forum marketplace where people are used to buying stuff at just $5 - $15.

- Speaking of this forum marketplace, the people here have changed over the years as well. After talking to many other experienced sellers to this forum marketplace I found out that this audience rarely pay for anything beyond $37.

IMO that's pathetic, given that almost everyone there has the mindset of buying Internet Marketing products and expect the price to be no more than a few bucks (it's like an online flea sale!) and with my products and services, I believe they yield a higher price and value elsewhere - I need to find a new audience.

Unfortunately, within a year I built a list of buyers from that forum and almost everyone on my list has been poisoned with that mentality. My fault. Didn't think it through.

Putting aside the price issue, I went to the wrong crowd of people who demands more from me for less, bitch about the minor details (my higher paying customers and clients don't even talk like that) and are very rude when it comes to refund requests.

Has anyone encountered this problem before and got out of it to find a better audience who pays better for your products, and don't bitch as much? Would appreciate your insights. Thanks.

Edmund

 

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[JAJT]

I found out that this audience rarely pay for anything beyond $37.

I don't sell info products so take this with a grain of salt but to me this would indicate the market perceives the value of the product to be $37. Are others selling the same information for less?

If yours is actually better - charge the world for it.

I'll give you a site I used to go to (not affiliated with at all). It is I Will Teach you to Be Rich

He's totally a guru (which I know is shunned around here) but his info products sell like hot cakes and they are NOT cheap. He makes it a point to offer free information that beats out other people's paid information (so he says). I've seen some of his stuff and I'd say if I were marketing an information product I would be paying very, very close attention to what he does.

 

[edmundloh]

I don't sell info products so take this with a grain of salt but to me this would indicate the market perceives the value of the product to be $37. Are others selling the same information for less?

If yours is actually better - charge the world for it.

I'll give you a site I used to go to (not affiliated with at all). It is I Will Teach you to Be Rich

He's totally a guru (which I know is shunned around here) but his info products sell like hot cakes and they are NOT cheap. He makes it a point to offer free information that beats out other people's paid information (so he says). I've seen some of his stuff and I'd say if I were marketing an information product I would be paying very, very close attention to what he does.

JAJT,

Thanks for sharing! Am going to check it out.

Let me offer a perspective:

- the marketplace audience I am in is already spoiled over a long period of time as many other vendors started 1 1/2 year ago to sell products cheaper and cheaper. The only good part is that there's higher volume of buyers, but when it's 1000 copies x $10 it's still just $10,000 - unlike before I didn't have to work that hard to sell many copies but with higher price I'd make more than that easily.

- the audience is spoiled to buy Internet Marketing related products and software at dime sale prices now; and by 'not willing to spend more than $37' meaning I couldn't walk them through my sales funnel up to my premium services. (obviously I am not going to charge my services such as product creation and email advertising at $37)

- I know there are audience elsewhere willing to pay more; the site you gave is one such example. My main problem is that over the years I've been selling to the same/similar audience and my network of joint venture partners hang around here too. This time I want out and I want to start anew. How I got here in the first place years ago was, well, I'd have to say owed to some sheer luck and things started from there. Now I want out of this audience and find new ground again with the same products I have, and price them the way they should be (definitely not $5-15!).

Hope this gives a better perspective.

Edmund

 

[theBiz]

I have heard many stories of some people entering a market and charging $997 for what some are charging $47 and they claim to make more money overall.. perceived value... i have always been skeptical but i do not do sales via email and such so maybe try sending out emails to some of your list at a crazy price and see if you get anybites. It may be more difficult than that a proper multi stage sales funnel may need to be set up to be effective so dont give up right away, sign up and see what the other guys do charging big numbers and replicate it. I do however like the idea of giving out better free info than most paid, honestly if you know what your doing and i see results from your free info... you may get me regardless of price. So if i follow one of your marketing tactics you teach me about twitter and i get some new customers then you email me saying did you like that... well you can 10x those results INSIDE my (whatever e book)

Whatever you do try to combo stuff to make the perceived value higher dont just sell me an "e-book" include a resource database make me feel like im getting something tangable and just keep stacking on the perceived value with cheap to build products/resources for me included.


Then ill say to myself well i was going to buy that other guys SEO manual for $37 buuuut this guy gave tons of free info and for more money hes giving me SEO manual, PPC manual, high PR link in excel format, etc so ill say this is all i will ever need and maybe offer some GUARANTEED tech response if they have any problems and outsource that, guaranteed response in 3 days. I dont know just a rant but some ideas.

 

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[Nick]

If the marketplace finds your product to be similar (even vaguely) to other products at 5-15$ range, it is very hard to command a premium for your product, and that is a harsh reality (no business wants to lower their prices, they are forced by either customers or competitions).

I work in the mobile app industry, and the trend is similar there, once it was considered cheap to pay 20$ for an iphone app, but since new apps are priced lower and lower, everything that is more than 0.99- 1.99$ is considered an expensive app nowadays and people had to adapt.



Some of them make up for the price in volume, especially if the product is digital, so you have no additional cost per unit
Some of them try to upsell - subscriptions, in game purchases, etc
Some of them try to do something totally different, so there is no similar alternative on the market, and they can price it how they want.

Finding a new audience seems like a good solution for you, if you think that is still possible. But maybe there is not a problem of finding a new audience, rather than adapting your product to fit with your existing marketplace.

People used to buy online calendars. Now every online calendar is free. There is no new audience where you can make money by trying to sell people online calendars anymore, this is just the reality of the marketplace, and people had to adapt.

Good luck.

 

[healthstatus]

Hi Edmund,
The IM market is really saturated right now, with Tristan, Kenster and several others over at Warrior showing people how to make IM products it is flooded with crap and buyers are wary and the WSO of the day isn't quality half the time. A lot of people that got in in the last few years are very discouraged after Penguin and Panda updates (2 people in my mastermind quit the Internet because they lost most of their traffic).

I have purchased some of your PLR before and you do a good job, I don't believe your products are the problem.

So how do you rise above the noise? Can you offer customized versions of your PLR products where your team will actually put the buyers name and logos on the products and maybe customize a wordpress template for them. I think a lot of people with busy schedules and a lot on their plate would pay a premium for that. Can you offer built to order products? What about prebuilt sites already loaded up with a little bit of traffic? You may also need to market with the message "This is for the IM group that has outgrown Warrior Forum", "Only the talented IMers will use our products successfully", "You have to apply to get access to our products", that kind of are you good enough? marketing.

I am always looking for people with Health products that are willing to co-brand for a revenue split. I have massive traffic and want more products. If you can find people like me in the IM market or just have a great blog with traffic that has your kind of buyers it may work. I am not talking about a clickbank kind of JV, but actually branding your product to their site, handling the transactions on site and controlling the entire funnel.

We have more than doubled our software prices in the last 4 years, and have less complaints on software that costs $30k, than the whiners that spent $2.99 on a phone app.

 

[edmundloh]

Some of them make up for the price in volume, especially if the product is digital, so you have no additional cost per unit
Some of them try to upsell - subscriptions, in game purchases, etc
Some of them try to do something totally different, so there is no similar alternative on the market, and they can price it how they want.

Finding a new audience seems like a good solution for you, if you think that is still possible. But maybe there is not a problem of finding a new audience, rather than adapting your product to fit with your existing marketplace.

Thanks for sharing.

At this point, I have a choice to either:

(A) Adapt to the current marketplace climate where everyone is used to expecting a ton of value for just ten bucks. The only good thing about it is volume sales, but this is an audience who have little respect to the value of my work and I haven't seen so much bitching at my support helpdesk in my previous years. And the idea of many of them complaining and even boldly ask for my premium services to be priced at 2-3 digits just makes me sick inside.

OR

(B) Find new audience. I am convinced there is a healthier audience elsewhere that's why I am exploring the possibilities. I'd like to hear if anyone had experienced the same and got out of it - instead of 1000 units x $10, it's $1000 x 100 kind of real-life account.

I have my Upsells and back-ends, yet I realize the type of people walking through the Front-End are just not in the right frame of mind.

Edmund

 

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[edmundloh]

Hi Edmund,
The IM market is really saturated right now, with Tristan, Kenster and several others over at Warrior showing people how to make IM products it is flooded with crap and buyers are wary and the WSO of the day isn't quality half the time. A lot of people that got in in the last few years are very discouraged after Penguin and Panda updates (2 people in my mastermind quit the Internet because they lost most of their traffic).

I have purchased some of your PLR before and you do a good job, I don't believe your products are the problem.

So how do you rise above the noise? Can you offer customized versions of your PLR products where your team will actually put the buyers name and logos on the products and maybe customize a wordpress template for them. I think a lot of people with busy schedules and a lot on their plate would pay a premium for that. Can you offer built to order products? What about prebuilt sites already loaded up with a little bit of traffic? You may also need to market with the message "This is for the IM group that has outgrown Warrior Forum", "Only the talented IMers will use our products successfully", "You have to apply to get access to our products", that kind of are you good enough? marketing.

I am always looking for people with Health products that are willing to co-brand for a revenue split. I have massive traffic and want more products. If you can find people like me in the IM market or just have a great blog with traffic that has your kind of buyers it may work. I am not talking about a clickbank kind of JV, but actually branding your product to their site, handling the transactions on site and controlling the entire funnel.

We have more than doubled our software prices in the last 4 years, and have less complaints on software that costs $30k, than the whiners that spent $2.99 on a phone app.

Wow you know exactly what I'm talking about here! I didn't want to name the forum, also for search engine purposes but oh well LOL

Thanks for sharing, and good to hear how you can sell your software at premium; that's the kind of thing I'm looking forward to know and hear! :eusa_clap:

Edmund