Good luck!

I’ve sold thousands of dollars worth of e-books in the USD$40-50 range. People want unique, inside information. They’re buying quality problem solving advice, not just a book.

Unfortunately, many e-books, and in particular internet marketing e-books, are just a rehash of the same ol’ stuff.

I’ve never had to do it, but I’ve seen ebook writers/sellers tell their audience they can print out the ebooks on their computers. For your ebooks, you might want to do the same, especially if your target audience isn’t very tech savvy.

Thanks for the kind – and thorough – review.

To all those who seem to be panicking at the price, let me pass along the words of Warren Buffet:

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”

Think of it from a business standpoint, from ROI (Return on Investment). If you can spend X to learn how to make 5X, or 10X, or whatever, it doesn’t matter what “X” is.

The idea of “X is too much” is an emotional one, not a logical one, and it’s not a good call for people who are serious about their business. The only thing that matters is can you get a high ROI, and how fast can you get it?

A few years back I bought Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula for $997. I had balked at the price for a long time until if finally hit me that “Hey, if I can make more than $997 by learning this stuff, it’s totally worth it.”

I made back my $997 – and more – in 5 days because of what I learned there. With a small list, too (only a few hundred subscribers). And what I learned from this product has paid for itself 15X over, and continues to do so.

Is $97 too high? It is, if you’re not going to use the material. If you’re not committed to working your business, then any amount of money is going to be too expensive. If you’re planning on writing an ebook and just “hoping” it magically sells, then you’re not going to get value out of this.

But if you want to learn how to build a list from scratch, write a compelling offer and promote it to your audience – no matter how small – then it should be plain to see that $97 is a pretty small investment.

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”

All things being equal, I’m not leaving this comment to justify the price of the book – in fact, it will likely be doubling in the middle of 2009. The ebook is $97. It shows you how to make more than $97. It even has a 200% money back guarantee.

Buy it, don’t buy it, that’s your call. But whether you’re thinking of this ebook or any other training product, in any format, there is only two questions you need to ask yourself:

Can you get a high ROI, and
How fast can you get it?

That’s what running a real business is about. It’s easy to get caught up in the price – believe me, it took me over 12 months to decide to buy Product Launch Formula at $997. But I saw the potential for ROI (and the guarantee), I tried it, and it worked. I’d say $10,000 of my income just last year came from what I learned from that product.

And in January, I bought a $3000 training product. In February, I booked over twice that in contracts based on what I’ve learned.

Spend money on training, people. If it doesn’t live up to its promise, return it. But invest in yourself, rather than typing up comments about how something you’ve never even tried is overpriced.

Like I said, I understand, I’ve been there. But I’ve moved past that. Do the same, and your business will blossom.

My best to all of you, and here’s to a great 2009 for every commenter on this thread. :-)

Dave

I buy a good number of information products, and I always try to measure the cost against how much additional revenue I can gain from the information. A $27 ebook is no bargain if it doesn’t really do anything for my business, and I’ve certainly wasted quite a lot of money on such products.

Dave and Naomi are both friends of mine, but I also wouldn’t jump in here with my support if I wasn’t extremely impressed by this book. I respect Darren and Problogger too much for that.

*If* you actually want to create a new information product and use it to help monetize your blog, it’s well worth the money. Of course, if you’re not there yet, this probably isn’t for you. In that event, I’d recommend hanging out on Naomi & Dave’s blogs, where they give a lot of excellent free advice on taking your online business to the next level.

(And no, I have no financial stake in the book!)

The supporting blog is excellent.

Thats like saying all you have to do to get rich is to “make a bunch of money”!

For me, mailing lists weren’t the challenge. Its the partnering to build traffic. What respectable blog lets you guest blog if you don’t also have a respectable blog? Its about overcoming the catch-22…

Even things like Desperate Buyers Only are less than that ($77) and they have a very well proven track-record.

For the book described in this review, I’d expect a $37 price. Obviously, I haven’t seen it and maybe it’s the best thing ever in the history of human thought, but I’m not going to gamble my $100 on it until it also has a very well proven track record.