I’ve been a freelancer, mostly, since November of 2007. (I closed about 4mm in loans in 2008, mostly 1st quarter). I’ve built websites, blogs, I’ve set up CRMS, and I’ve created landing pages, and sold a variety of e-books. I created an ill fated subscription service, (got it up to 30 members, then remembered the things I hate about loan officers) and I’ve built a ton of websites, done a ton of writing, and had an utter blast. I’ve delivered sometimes, f’d it up sometimes, and learned more faster than I ever have at any period of my life.
One of the things I learned…and that Dan Kennedy would freak out about is that lowering your prices means more profit, more relaxation, and better, happier clients with a chance to succeed. I used to charge people about $2,000 per blog. And I’d do a reasonable job with the blogs. I’d spend time training people in what WordPress does, I’d train them in how to post, I’d share my analytics with them, and I’d go through it. But for $2,000, you gotta have value. So people would continue to call. The service I offered wasn’t worth $2,000 to them, they felt like something MORE was needed. And honestly, they were right.
I had more time sunk into support and followup than the stuff that I was charging for. So, I thought some more about it.
And decided to lower all of my prices on everything I do. Because if you’re only charging $700 or $800 it’s a far different situation than $2,000. People can afford it, and it’s easier to meet that expectation. They have a level of indifference about the outcome because, honestly, $700 bucks isn’t going to make or break most months for most people. You can increase value by adding more information (videos etc) and it’s a BONUS and not an ENTITLEMENT.
To do that, though, ya need a defined process. The blue ocean thing: everyone was using the Thesis framework for blogs, why not make ’em look cool? I mean really cool? Take away the option from the customer, sell a Read more
