Keith Goodrum

Ryan Healy answered a pricing question on his blog today. A regular reader asked his experience with pricing.

Here is his response…

Should Prices End in 7?

“…There are all kinds of opinions.

I’m not big on ending in the number 7.

Just test it and see what works best…”

Wait a minute… Are you saying that we should test pricing points?!?

That’s CRAZY talk!!!

Aren’t we suppose to follow the herd, and not question the mighty “7″?

All kidding aside… I’ve tested pricing with my off line business. There were some interesting results.

But first a little background…

My offline business was residential window cleaning. So, I would go in and give an estimate. They would book on the spot, call me for an appointment or not have us clean their windows.

When I first started out only 1 in 3 would book a window cleaning appointment. That was a lot of estimates to give out, and a lot of time spent running around town.

Finally A Customer Came to The Rescue…

This went on for 2 months, and it was tough earning a living. I couldn’t figure it out. I was establishing good rapport with the customers. I looked professional with a nice clean truck, clean clothes with an embroidered polo shirt… I looked the part.

Finally a customer took me aside and told me what the problem was. My prices were too low! She said that my pricing lack credibility. It seemed to good to be true. I was shocked to hear this… I thought I was giving a good value for my services.

I went out on the next estimate and raised my pricing by 25%. Over the next few months my closing ratio jumped to 84%. My calender stayed booked out for 6 weeks… it was great.

Another Valuable Piece of Advice

This time Dan Kennedy said in his newsletter if you are up to your eyeballs with customers then it’s time to raise your prices. I was afraid to follow this advice. I thought all my customers would jump ship.

I finally decided to give it a try…

It took almost a year of thinking about this to give it a try. I timidity inched my prices up by 10%. No one said a word?!? So, I kicked it up another 10%… no one noticed.

Now I got bold.

I decided to see how far I could go with this… I kept raising my prices 20% at a time. Now, my closing ratio started falling. But I kept raising my prices.

I kept going until my closing ratio fell to 47%. And I was thrilled. Why? Because I was making more money while cutting back on my hours. It was nice not working sunup to sundown.

Well, Ryan that’s one of my experiences with price testing. Maybe I write about another one next week.

This Post has an ulterior motive for me. I’d like to introduce the many benefits of guest posting. Hopefully you’ll see the benefits & get excited about the of guest posting… Then take me up on my offer to guest post on this blog next week…

Guest Posting is a great way to get yourself in front of targeted traffic…

One of the best methods of marketing is finding targeted traffic. Birds of a feather flock together… and that is so true with blog readers. They are interested it the same subject, and are a sympathetic ear.

Steven Snell at Pure Blogging makes a great point about how guest posting is get past the advertising defense by demonstrating your expertise…

The Best Blog Advertising is Free – Are You Using It?

Despite the title of this post, I do realize that guest posting is not really advertising. However, it allows you to accomplish many of the same objectives that an advertisement would, and in most cases it’s even more effective. …

Darrin Rowe over at Problogger makes a powerful case why guest posting is a effective way to find new readers…

Finding New Readers for Your Blog with Guest Posting

Perhaps one of the most powerful ways of exposing your writing to a new group of people is to put some of your best content on other peoples blogs – and not your own …

Jason at The University Kid goes over how to make sure you are putting out quality guest posting content. You can get a leg up on your competition if you remember to follow these steps with your guest posting…

How To Annihilate Your Competition With A Guest Post

A lot of people get sucked into the whole guest posting spree and churn out posts for various blogs in their niche… and then neglect their own website. Remember, people are notoriously fickle – their views about how good a writer you …

So, how can you take advantage of what you’ve learned at these blogs?

Simple… I’m taking a week’s vacation starting Sunday. I’m looking for some guest posters. If you would like to guest post for me next week head on over the my about me page. fill out the contact form, and submit it. I’ll get back to you, and see if we can make arrangements.

Happy birthday to Wordpress. This awesome blogging platform was started 5 years ago today. They are having a party tonight at 9pm…

WordPress Birthday Party — 3 days ago

On Tuesday, May 27th, WordPress will turn 5 years old. We’ve come a long way from that original 0.7 release. To celebrate we’re throwing a party in San Francisco at 111 Minna, starting at 9PM. You can get the full details and RSVP on Upcoming.org or on Facebook. I hope you see some of you there, should [...]

If we still lived in San Francisco we would attend. Hope they have a great time.