Copy-Cat-Copywriting

It's all over the Internet. If you're poking around, reading marketing ezines, you can't miss the message: "Raise your prices." "You're probably not charging enough." "Want to get paid more? Just ask."

Sometimes these folks are right.

But when you're advised to charge more, I suggest you ask your mentor wannabe, "Do you know my market? Have you tested my market? Who sells higher-priced products to this market?

Now I want to introduce two cautions. First, I am not referring to one-to-one consulting. You can't leverage your individual consultation time.

And if you can charge eight hundred dollars for a bound notebook of 200 pages and 2 CD's (not even elegantly packaged), go for it. I know someone who does.

But I would add a few cautions.

(1) Internet consumers compare your offering with others.

I belong to Christina Hills's Shopping Cart Queen Club. I can't recommend it highly enough. For only $29 a month (first 6 months free if you buy the cart from her), it's a steal. Christina offers one 60-minute teleclass every month. Members get to submit questions. She answers every one, either in the class or via email to all club members.

You also get access to tools you can download. And every month she uploads a video demo for specific features, such as upselling or tracking.

These ideas may sound simple, but they save me time and earn me money. (If you're interested, you can go here: My link to Christina Hills's page.

Perry Marshall also offers a $29 Renaissance club, with a live call every month. Also a great value: Go here for my link.

So now let's say you want to start your own club. They're intensely popular these days. You'll probably see gurus charging $97 - $997 for monthly dues.

But I'm hearing rumblings of discontent. These clubs are being compared to Christina's club and Perry's club. If I belong to both those clubs for a total of $58, why would I join a club for $97 to get just 2 calls?

So these days you need to offer something pretty solid. A lot of marketers offer forums. A few years ago, forums were hot. These days, I am finding people are forum-ed out. They're not prowling forums searching for resources where they can pay big bucks. They're looking for free advice. I've gotten a few clients from forums. Every single one asked for bargain prices and demanded individual attention in the form of 32 phone calls.

No thanks.

Labels: forums, internet marketing, marketing clubs, rants