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.

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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.

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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.

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How many task do you do to keep your blog running? 6? 9? 17?

Not sure?

I was in the not sure category. Many days I would do most of the tasks or activities to drive traffic or add links. Some days I would all of them… then other days I would get almost nothing done.

It became clear to me that I was inconsistent at best running this blog. It was time to get better organized… or organized in the first place.

Trying different organizing tools available didn’t help. I tried a day planner, several online application and even a to do list. But, I could not find one that worked… well actually one that I would work on a consistent basis.

Then one day while I was cleaning up around my desk I found an 3X5 index card holder. I suddenly remembered that I this was how I used this as a follow up system while in sales. It worked great even though it is a very low tech solution.

So, I figured it would probably work just as good for running this blog. The video shows the setup and how it works. It’s much easier to show than to try to write about it.

Here’s the video…

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Last night I stayed up till 3:30am reading Scott Boulch’s new ebook “The Internet Marketing Cure”. You can grab a free copy here. All I can say is wow… great stuff.

This is not your typical bash the “Gurus”, and then set up the author as the only true person to follow. You don’t have to worry about him skimping on the content… then at the end rolling out some shiny new product “you have to get now! We will only be releasing 22… And Then Shutting The Doors FOREVER!!!”

From what I’ve read Scott has gained a reputation for publishing controversial stuff. And this one is no exception.

It seems like he has coined a new term “Dorus”, and it really fits. Basically he says to only follow & buy stuff from folks who are actually doing what they are selling.

Why what you drive can make you a better salesperson…

Let me tell you a story… This will be quick so stay with me here. I use to sell Hondas for a living. And I was always either 1st or 2nd in sales month after month after month. Why? Well I applied proven sales strategies. I qualified the customer, demonstrated the product, overcame objections and closed the sale. But, so did the other top salespeople.

There was one advantage I had over the other sales people. You see almost every customer that came to look at Hondas asked one question. And my answer to this question gave me instant credibility.

Customers would ask… “What do you drive?” I proudly said a Honda. I was usually the only sales person who owned a Honda. In fact it went beyond the Honda dealership… the Toyota guy didn’t drive a Toyota, the Ford guy didn’t drive a Ford, The Chevy guy didn’t drive a Chevy…

Customers asked this question everywhere… because I also worked at a Chevy & a Nissan store. And guess what? The customers asked the same question at those dealerships.

Here is the thought that goes through a customers mind when you tell them you don’t drive what you are selling… Why are you trying to sell me this if you are not proud enough to own one yourself?

What speaks louder than words…

It’s all about finding someone who is taking action with the stuff they are teaching. Imagine, actually expecting someone to sell stuff they have had success already using. The basic message is to avoid theory “weenies” like the plague.

Really common sense information.

Some of the other stuff he covers in the report…

This report is 59 pages long, and covers quite a bit of information. It is pretty content packed, with a few “a-ha moments” I found myself nodding in agreement many times. He also shows you…

• How to distinguish valuable knowledge from junk.
• How to tell the difference between a Guru & a DoRu from approximately 1 mile away.
• Why web 2.0 might kill the “Rock Star” Gurus.
• What’s the acid test to take before you buy another product.
• What is the best model to follow to really make it online.

Scott also gives you a couple cool tools you can use to start putting a plan into action.

Click on the link to grab your free copy of “The Internet Marketing Cure”.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Rick Butts for giving me the heads up on this. His blog post Unsubscribe From Whomever Emailed You Stompernet got me to download the report.

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Pay close attention to what Chamillionaire says in this video. He repeats over and over again that he found out where his fans were going… and he went there. He didn’t try to force fans to him… he followed his fans, and made sure his content was in front of them.

He gets it! Chamillionaire understands the power of social media. He has started using the many social sites to feed the demand for his fans. They are demanding more content, and he realizes if he is not there to feed the demand they will go elsewhere.

Here is the video I watched today.

Chamillionaire also JV’d with Weird Al Yankovic to explode his sales. He knew this would give his video new life, gave Weird Al permission to make a spoof video. He knew that Weird Al could reach an audience he couldn’t reach.

The video that Weird Al made has to date over 27 Million views… how’s that for viral. It’s titled White & Nerdy a spoof on Ridn’ Dirty. Here is the video

Oops, I bet you mashed on the play button and nothing happened. Why won’t Weird Al video play? It’s because big dumb corporations still don’t get it. This video’s embed feature has been disabled.

The big dumb corporation still clings to the belief that they must force people to the content. They don’t understand that the new way is to put the content where your fans gather. Watch and learn from Chamillionarie… find out where your fans are and add your content there. Get in front of them… Make it easy for them to find you.

In case you would like to see the video here is the link… White & Nerdy It is classic Weird Al… Hilarious.

You see if they like the content they will come to your website and check out what else you have. Now they are arriving because they trust you, and like what your are providing. This will make it easier to make sales… they are coming pre-sold.

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I saw this comment left on an earlier post titled The Shortest Survey You’ll Ever See.

Hi Keith, I couldn’t think of anything to say lol, but wanted to ask you if you have seen Skribit.

A very cool widget enabling you to get “consistent” feedback from readers as they type it in themselves…I just installed it yesterday, very cool.

Dennis Edell
6 May 08 at 12:56 pm

Hey Dennis,

I have heard of Skribit. In fact I 1st read about it from Darren Rowe when he wrote about it on his blog here Skribit - Find Out What Your Readers Want You to Write About. It seems like a great way to find out what information readers are really looking for. By using the widget in the sidebar you can answer the question asked. Then through voting readers can prioritize which topics they would like to see covered here.

To answer the question “Why Are You Using Skribit?” 

It looks like a powerful tool to gain feedback from readers. It can be a way to provide content

I noticed Darren did something that others didn’t do with their Skribit widget. Most people just popped up the widget, and it sat there with no answers to the question. Darren went to his Twitter account and asked people what they would like to see covered on his blog. He then took some of the answers and added them to the Skribit que. He put up the widget and it looked busy already.

This was a smart thing to do because it seems to be human nature to not use something that’s not busy. It seems like no one likes to be first. It’s almost like the mentality of not eating at a restaurant that has an empty parking lot… If no cars are there, then something must be wrong.

So, I followed Darren’s lead. I set up a quick survey here on the blog. I took the answers I got and added them to the Skribit widget. I did see answer several times like; how to get traffic, conversions and such. In that case I just took one of the answers and added it to the widget.

I invite you to look at the Skribit widget and answer the question, or vote on one of the answers.

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Not Exactly!

Another way to say this is “Do What You Love And The Money Will Follow”. I’m not sure where this “advice” came from, but I’ve been hearing it since I could remember.

On the surface it sounds like sage advice. But there is a fatal flaw with this advice, and it is this…

Do What You Love And You Could Find Yourself Bankrupt!

How could I say that?

So many people tout the ‘follow your passion and the money will follow’ it must be true. After all there are television shows, magazine articles, books, movies showing people following their passion to millions.

Yes, there are plenty of examples of people following their passion to millions, but one key element is left out. This one element is the reason you are going to make money or go broke with your ‘passion’. And unfortunately many want to gloss over this key element.

It’s popular for authors, speakers and gurus to wax philosophic about this subject. They want to talk about how awesome it is to find your passion, embrace it and run out there sell it to the world. It’s warm and fuzzy, and that’s makes it a popular topic.

But the cold hard reality is this…

If your ‘passion’ is not a something people are willing to pay for, then you just have a hobby… not a business. You have to have a passion that people are willing to give you money for something you have to offer.

Think about this… how many times have you run across someone with a “great” idea for a business? They are passionate about this idea. They eagerly tell anyone who will listen about this ‘great’ million-dollar idea. And they go on and on about this business.

Why are they only one in the room who doesn’t recognize that this idea is a dog? And if you try to point out any flaws in their idea… they get incredulous. All you did was try to point out that there’s no market for this idea… but they accuse you of being a dream stealer.

Here’s a silly example…

I like to joke about a new service that I want to start. It’s for people who are high achievers, and just too busy to do this activity for themselves. I would take this problem off their hands, and give them one less thing to worry about doing everyday. In a way they would be outsourcing this to me, and I would gladly do this for them everyday.

My service is a nap taking service.

After all I love to take naps… I take them every chance I get. And I would be thrilled to take naps for other people.

The only problem so far is I can’t find anyone willing to pay for this service.

It’s great to follow your passion, and build a business around it. You have to do your research, and make sure there is a market willing to pay money for solutions to their problems.

Remember to first find a market… then find out their problems… Then make a product or service that solves the problem…

And make sure they are willing to give you money to solve this problem.

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This is something that has been long over due.

I submit to blog carnivals, and have had several people kind enough to publish my submission. Well it’s about time I start thanking them.

Did you know blog carnivals is a great way to help build back links? You also get traffic, but the back links are good to get. It’s easy just go to http://www.blogcarnival.com find a blog carnival that matches your blog and submit your best post from the last week.

If your post gets accepted it will be published with a back link from the blog that hosts the blog carnival.

Here are the last few places that published my submission… go check them out.

http://leadinspectors.blogspot.com/2008/05/carnival-of-leads-to-making-money.html

http://www.oibo.org/internet-business-blog-carnival-edition-11.html

http://vidacomesperanca.org/socialentrepreneurshiptoday/?p=13

http://womeninternetmarketers.com/2008/05/06/blog-carnival/

http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/carnival-of-business-and-entrepreneurship-18/

http://www.successpart2.com/a-make-money-blogging-carnival-april-25-2008/

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