How To Be Dumb

Posted by RP

February 20, 2008

Two days ago my friend Brendon posted an really informative … albeit angry … post about a couple guys with a really good business idea, ruining it all with really, really dumb decisions on how to get their product sold. I’m not going to recapitulate many of the specific … I’d suggest you read Brendon’s post yourself and see what you think.

The gist of the idea these fellows had was great. We’ve talked often here about making money online from your own product, and about the well proven fact that one great way to produce a product that will really sell … and net a good profit … is to produce an eBook on some subject that is in demand. These entrepreneur’s went the extra mile and came up with a really innovative idea. Instead of selling the book in one ‘chunk" for say, $29.99, they decided to sell it a chapter at a time for a nice price of $2.99 per chapter. Now I am not positive that this is a good way to sell and eBook, but it’s a brand new idea to me, it’s innovative, it costs virtually nothing to try out … and it could pay off well. they get full props for deciding on a course of action and getting out there and actually doing something … sitting around waiting to know all the answers is the number one reason everyone reading this blog is not getting rich.

But then they took their idea and did a coup-le things which I consider really dumb … aside from the atrocious anti-customer ordering process which Brendon describes in detail.

Here’s the place I think they dropped the ball big time, long before the silly customer order screen came into the picture. Here’s a free tip for you that will increase your profit on any venture like this 1,000-fold. Here’s the tip … you’ve heard it here before..

Keep Control of Your Product:

If you create a white paper, special report, eBook, traditional print book, software utility or any other item of value … sell it yourself. Be the single source for your own product. You can read some very good references on this in the report I posted on Jack T. Reed’s self-publishing book here (not an affiliate link, but a hearty recommendation).

For some reason we Americans have come to a strange idea that, especially when selling a book or other information source, we have to sell it through a ‘name brand" publisher, or it isn’t real. This is a wrong-thinking idea. And in the case of something inexpensive and innovative, like selling an eBook chapter by chapter it is a product killer. One wonders what possible value a publisher like Random House could add to a chapter-by=chapter eBook? For sure they are not selling it for free, so the authors are making perhaps $1.49 out of each $2.99 sale … the few that get made, that is after the customer wades through the brain-dead ordering process. Why would you give half your profit away to someone who only makes it harder to sell? Beats me.

Be The Only Source for Your Product:

When the customer knows you are the sole source, they won’t shop around
When a relationship is established with the customer, it will be your relationship
You’ll keep 100% of the profits
You’ll have total control of any losses so you can nip them in the bud
You will never have the situation where your "partner’ starts selling your product at too low a price … or even in direct competition with you. This happens all the time with the giants of the trade like Amazon, et al.

I think that’s five good reasons not to give away your product which is of such value to you … but the last point, on pricing … deserves a little amplification before I sign off.

I see literally thousands of reseller rights ‘deals" floating around on the ‘net. these are cases where an author or developer worked hard to come up with a unique product and then sold the rights away to others. In many cases the original creator tries to protect himself with a minimum reselling price in the agreement that lets others re-sell. I’m not a lawyer, and if you are thinking of doing something like this you need a lawyer. But i will tell you something any good lawyer will back me up on … these minimum price clauses in reseller agreements are not worth the digital paper they are printed on … in the US, at any rate, it’s almost impossible to enforce them … and in some cases trying to enforce them can even be illegal … falling under the heading of price fixing and restriction of trade for example.

So if you have a product that you don’t want to see selling for 98 cents? Do yourself a favor and keep it, sell it yourself and bee the sole source.

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