In this report, I share a behind-the-scenes look at how I launched The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing, which resulted in over $1,000 in "Pay What You Want" sales in the first two weeks of release.
The purpose of this article is to give you a look "behind-the-scenes" of a book launch that used an uncommon pricing strategy (Pay What You Want Pricing).
My hope is that if you’re getting ready for your own launch – whether you're using Pay What You Want or fixed pricing – this report will show you what to do (and exactly what NOT to do) so your launch is a success.
If you have any questions or would like me to clarify any part of this, don’t hesitate to email me: tom at tommorkes.com. I always try to respond as fast (and in as much detail) as possible.
This is Tom Morkes,
If you’re reading this, you ARE The Resistance.
* * *
I started using Pay What You Want pricing (PWYW for short) back in March of 2013 as an experiment with the release of Notes From Seth Godin's Revolution Conference.
The book itself was a compilation of notes (over 60 pages worth) I took while at a 2 day Seth Godin seminar/meetup.
The reason for PWYW pricing was twofold:
First, I didn’t want to restrict access to the notes/book – I wanted it to be freely available to anyone, no matter their financial situation.
Second, it wasn’t really a book – not in the conventional sense. Just compiled notes from a conference, carefully curated and edited. And while I added my insights and ideas to supplement the notes, it wasn't original source material. I received permission from Seth Godin to share the book, but I still didn't know how to make it available (and Kindle forces a minimum $.99 price point on its platform).
From that perspective, it was a difficult book to price.
One thing I did know I wanted, though, was validation – both for the book and all the other work I had done up until this point (100+ blog posts, several guides and ebooks, a podcast, etc – all of which I gave away freely).
The only way to truly "validate" anything, though, is by means of an exchange of money…but how could I do that without creating a barrier to entry for some people who didn’t have the funds to pay for the book?
That’s when I discovered Pay What You Want pricing.
Pay What You Want is a pricing technique that gives the customer the power to set his or her price (rather than the price being set by the seller/producer). A completely unorthodox pricing technique to be sure, but I had nothing to lose.
To be honest, I didn’t think I’d make a dime.
I released the book and let my readers know they could take it for free…but, if they liked the work I had done up to that point, they could contribute a few dollars to support my creative work.
Instead of a bunch of people grabbing my book for free, I made close to $500 in the first month. I was completely shocked – I never expected people to pay money for something they could get for free…but here they were, not only giving money but giving generously (sometimes as much as $50 - $100).
The surprise success of 2 Days led me to test out Pay What You Want with a bunch of other stuff.
Since then, I’ve released several products as PWYW – from guides to workbooks to CDs.
I’ve had a lot of success (and some failures).
Each project has helped me to understand not only my own audience better, but how PWYW actually works.
In August of 2013, I documented the results of my PWYW book Notes From Seth Godin's Revolution Conference on ThinkTraffic.net (now Fizzle.co) and later my blog.
After my guest article on Think Traffic, I received dozens of questions about Pay What You Want:
I was blown away by the incredible amount of interest in the subject. What I had done as a small (but happily successful) experiment was something people wanted to know more about – a LOT more about.
So I got to work.
To answer these questions, I started connecting with entrepreneurs and artists from all around the world who were using PWYW successfully. People like:
+ Anthony Vennare of The Hybrid Athlete (a fitness website that sells PWYW products)
+ Tara Joyce (who’s been using PWYW for 5 years for her consulting business)
+ Joost Van Dongen (who created the PWYW video game PROUN and made $20k on launch)
After I’d collected hundreds of examples of PWYW being used successfully (and, in some cases, unsuccessfully), I began synthesizing this data into a useable framework.
I continued to collect, analyze and synthesize data over the course of 3 months (over 6 if you include my personal tests and tracking I did with Pay What You Want prior to creating the guide).
Figuring out the ins and outs of such a unique pricing model was time-intensive but extremely rewarding work (especially knowing I was answering a question that many people wanted to know the answer to).
When I finally launched, I made over $1,000 in less than two weeks.
In the following pages, I’ll show you exactly how I did it (and how you can apply it to your own product launch).
* * *
Here's how I organized my launch:
When I first came up with the idea to teach Pay What You Want pricing, the first question I needed to answer was:
How do I deliver this content?
There are lots of ways to deliver content online, including: eBooks, eGuides, eCourses, and Membership websites (among others).
From a purely ‘value’ based standpoint, eCourses and membership sites can sell for the greatest amount. But membership sites require a serious commitment to updating content every month, which means income from new members would be much less passive than an eCourse.
With that in mind, I decided to create an eCourse. Out of the various options that were available, I thought an eCourse would be considered the highest value and still deliver the content in the best way possible.
I created 6 modules, scripted out over a dozen videos and started recording the screen captures using a PowerPoint template to highlight specific content as I taught.
While it was looking great, midway through developing the course I decided that this information would be better digested as an in-depth PDF (plus additional bonus materials for those who really want to master Pay What You Want pricing).
Why the change of heart?
Not sure – it just felt right. I figured the product would be better this way, and I believe it is as a result.
But what I failed to consider was the impact that changing the medium in which the information was delivered (eGuide vs. eCourse) would so dramatically impact its perceived value (more on this later on in this report).
I officially announced the guide to my newsletter readers at the beginning of November, 2013.
I figured I was close enough to finishing the project that I wanted to set a hard and fast deadline to ship, otherwise, I’d let it trail into December (or possibly into the new year -- and that was the last thing I wanted to happen).
#ResistanceProTip: Set your ship date EARLY in the product creation lifecycle [click to tweet]
I chose 25 November arbitrarily – I simply wanted to have something ready to go before December. I also figured tying it in with Thanksgiving might encourage people to be more generous, (although I can’t confirm or deny this actually worked).
Prior to the launch, I wrote about 3 in-depth articles on the concept of Pay What You Want – what it is, how it works, and how it can help make you more money than fixed pricing.
Something interesting I noticed was that as I started to write on this topic, I got more subscribers than usual to my newsletter.
#ResistanceProTip: Teaching the material from your product will increase subscribers and sales [click to tweet]
Besides writing for my own blog (where I spend the majority of my time and effort crafting and creating content for my readers), I linked up with a couple podcasters to do interviews. One I reached out to, the other found me through a mutual friend.
Both podcasts aired their episodes on the week of release (coincidence), which let me share the content with my readers at the perfect time.
I also wrote up an article for Medium.com (a publishing platform that lets just about anyone write for it).
To be honest, I didn’t think this would have much effect, but I figured for the couple hours of time I spent on it, it wouldn’t hurt to spread the message further (as you can tell from above, I didn’t do much guest posting or a very good job of spreading the world about my new product beside writing to my own audience.)
#ResistanceProTip: Getting in front of other people’s audiences should be priority #1 for your product launch [click to tweet]
The Medium.com article ended up doing way better than expected. In the first day, the article caught the attention of Medium curators and they tweeted it out to their twitter list.
This brought in thousands of readers to my article in just a few days. I was getting ready to launch the guide the next day, so I immediately released the book and linked to it from the article, to hopefully capitalize on the attention.
I netted 20 sales worth $80 from this. Not a huge amount, but not bad for one article.
*note: the article also helped me get dozens of new twitter followers and subscribers to my list. So while it didn’t have the impact of guest posting on a website with a particular target audience (like my Think Traffic post), I was pretty happy with the results.
When the guide + bonuses were finally ready to ship (literally the day before launch…I didn’t give myself anywhere near enough time to properly prep this launch, if you haven’t noticed), I sent them to a couple dozen friends of mine with audiences online, and I asked them to share it with their audiences if they found the book and content at all helpful.
Some of the people I reached out to included:
They all ended up sharing it on Twitter at least once (and on a couple occasions, multiple times or on Facebook).
The result? 2 sales from Twitter for a total of $39 and 5 sales from Facebook for a total of $85.
*note: this may also have included my OWN shares on both channels, as I didn’t track which shares resulted in the sales (mine or someone else’s)
#ResistanceProTip: Social media is overrated (especially for launching a product) [click to tweet]
That said, it definitely didn’t hurt.
At the end of the day, if you can get tweeted / shared by the same person to the same audience several times – that definitely improves conversion and sales (but it’s also something you can’t demand nor count on unless you’ve made a prior arrangement). But even that isn’t nearly as effective as getting mentioned in someone else’s newsletter.
#ResistanceProTip: The highest ROI marketing tactic you can use for your product launch is leveraging other people’s newsletters [click to tweet]
I didn’t have enough time to properly coordinate this for my product launch, which means I lost out on potentially dozens (or hundreds) of sales. However, I’ve seen the tactic used to great effect for others who released similar style information products. The key is to target audiences that are similar to yours and could benefit from what you’re offering.
*note: you will see this tactic used all the time if you subscribe to any newsletter for a period of time, so subscribe to a few and study them if you’re interested in exactly how to do this.
I mentioned earlier I originally started creating an eCourse around Pay What You Want, but switched it to an eGuide midway through the product’s development.
This shouldn’t have been a big deal, but I made a couple mistakes that cost me a lot of potential revenue.
*for those looking to launch their own PWYW product or service, take notes on this section – it will seriously save you from losing out on hundreds if not thousands of dollars in contributions*
When it comes to selling content online, readers are generally aware of price ranges for certain types of products, and they’re usually savvy to the pricing of comparative, competing products. When you think ‘eBook’, you probably picture an Amazon Kindle book priced from $2.99 to $9.99.
For many of us, this price is anchored in our mind.
Therefore, if I’m writing an eBook, I’m forced to contend with this price anchor. Which means writing an eBook is not a great idea if you want to make decent money from your writing.
Guides and Reports aren’t anchored the same way as eBooks. Guides and Reports can sell from anywhere from $19 - $199+ depending on the material, the industry, etc. I’ve seen (and purchased) such guides and reports for over $200, so I know what is required to price a product at a premium like that. That’s why I put so many bonuses into ‘The Complete Package’ of my product – I wanted something that was easily worth $249.
But…
I failed to convey this value to my readers and customers.
Instead of clearly defining the benefits of what ‘The Complete Package’ will do for the user, I only explained the features (if people contributed over a minimum amount they get 12 bonuses, from cheat sheets, to video tutorials to expert interviews to a half dozen case studies, etc).
#ResistanceProTip: Benefits (not features) give a product value [tweet]
Had I continued with the eCourse version of this product, I have no doubt readers would have valued the product much higher by default. A guide or report could similarly sell for quite a bit, but there’s more work involved in explaining what differentiates a guide or report from an eBook (whereas an eCourse is already price-anchored in many readers minds in the several hundred dollar category).
The day I announced the guide (to a subscriber list of 444 people), I received about 30 preorders worth over $200. Not bad, certainly…but way below what I expected (I’ll explain below).
When it came to perceived value, I made things worse by ‘discounting’ the minimum contribution to receive bonuses for subscribers who preordered the product before it launched on 25 November.
In hindsight, this doesn’t make sense.
Think about it – the product is Pay What You Want…why would I discount it? What effect does that have on the reader or customer? And why would any reader contribute more than that discounted minimum (if the incentive is a lower price, then I’m basically telling them they ought to contribute less)?
I didn’t realize this until after the fact, but by giving a discounted price for early subscribers I was actually DEVALUING what I had spent months creating.
Instead of dealing with the standard eBook price anchor, I made things worse by lowering the minimum contribution to $4+ for all the bonuses.
The biggest problem with this is that it completely defeats the purpose of generosity.
The whole point behind why I use PWYW is to run a generosity-based business (for my writing and content on Tommorkes.com).
By lowering the minimum to get the bonuses, I effectively said to my audience: don’t be generous - contribute less.
Fail.
#ResistanceProTip: To increase pre-orders and sales revenue for a PWYW product launch, include exclusive bonuses for early adopters
Lucky for me, while I botched my PWYW pre-launch with a well-intentioned but misdirected incentive for my readers, many of them were still generous, contributing $20 or more in some cases.
Even after all the mistakes I made, I still consider my launch a success.
The day I announced the guide (to a subscriber list of 444 people), I received about 30 preorders worth over $200. Over the next couple of days, I received about 20 more preorders, worth over $350 cumulatively.
Not bad, but also way below what I could have made if I had (1) demonstrated the value of my product better to the reader, and (2) created a better incentive for contributing early (and generously).
Had I made those corrections I pointed out above, I have no doubts in my mind I would have made over $800 in pre-orders the first day (assuming the same number of readers would still preorder the product at an average contribution of $20).
The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing (Just the Book and The Complete Package) actually shipped the evening before launch day (25 November).
This meant people who preordered should have gotten their products earlier than the ship date (a good thing if you can swing it).
On the day of the launch, I sent out one email to my newsletter.
The newsletter headline: ‘Share Your Work – Make a Profit (new guide releases today!)
Subscribers: 467
Open Rate: 38.4% (179)
*average for my newsletter: 39%
Click rate: 12% (56)
*average for my newsletter: 9%
Unsubscribes: 2
This brought in about $150 in sales.
Many marketers will tell you to email-blast your newsletter 3 times in the days leading up to launch, and then another couple emails the day of and the day after launch. They also suggest pressuring your audience to buy by setting time limits on discounts, spaces available (if it’s a membership site), etc.
I didn’t do any of this because I don’t like that style. That said, I’m also aware that when it comes to results, the numbers don’t lie: the more you market (emails through your newsletter, shares on social media, or talking directly to people in person), the more you’ll sell.
#ResistanceProTip: The more you market, the more you sell [tweet]
I may have missed out on sales by not sending out several emails on launch day, but my hope was that readers would notice that they weren’t being bombarded and appreciate being on my list even more (there is no way to track this, of course, so it’s all blind faith).
Prior to launch day (25 November), I had accumulated over $500 in pre-orders of my guide.
For reference: it took me over a month to do that with 2 Days With Seth Godin. By that standard, I had far and away exceeded my prior benchmark in much less time.
The week that followed brought in even more contributors, this time with many more contributing at or above $19 (the minimum amount for all the bonuses). Within the first week of launch, I was closing in on $1000.
Here’s a breakdown of the purchases by price over time (*note: all the preorder receipts came due on 25 November, thus the large amount of sales volume on that singular day):
Here’s the results at a glance:
| First Week Sales | Revenue | |
| The Book | 31 | $118 |
| The Complete Package | 61 | $836 |
| Total | 92 | $954 |
I made $954 in sales from The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing (including both tiers: Just the Book and The Complete Package).
But $954 is not what went into my pocket.
Gumroad.com, the sales platform I used to sell my products, charges 5% + $.25 per download.
Since I sold 92 products, that’s -$23, and 5% of $954 is -$47.70, for a total of $70.70 out of my pocket and into Gumroad’s (of which I’m happy to pay, for the record).
So now I’m down to $883.30.
Because I’m a jack of all trades (I’m not really – mostly just stubborn), I did the cover design, interior design, and just about everything by myself (although I did pay $5 on Fiver.com to turn my 2d book cover into a 3d image), which helped me minimize expenses. I also had some incredible volunteers help me edit the finished product (thanks Tom and Diana Owens!), which gave it a professional spit shine without the steep cost.
So that means $883.30 is all mine, right?
While this would normally all be the case, I decided to enlist the help of my brother, Seph, to help me finish the product and ship on time. Having someone give feedback as I created the material helped me to finish and polish the book and bonus materials to a very high standard (from video tutorials to interviews to cheat sheets to the workbook etc.).
I told Seph that if he can help me create a quality product and ship on time, I’d split launch profit with him 50 / 50.
That’s a pretty big split, but there are two reasons for this:
1. Launching on time with a great product and splitting profit is better than launching late and keeping all the profit to myself.
2. Seph is a college student getting ready to graduate. I figured the best thing he (or anyone else in his shoes) can do is learn to run an online business, not only in the short term to pay down student loan debts, but because commerce is continuing to move online, and if you don’t know how it works, you’re at an incredible disadvantage (no matter what job or business enterprise you’d like to pursue).
I feel the best thing I can do is not only teach this stuff to as many people as possible, but when the time and money allows, help others learn by working directly with me.
So, after paying Seph half of $883.30, I’m down to $441.15 takeaway profit.
I’ve mentioned before in The Art of Instigating that many entrepreneurs, because of the hours they commit to creating something, work for sweat-shop wages.
My case is no different.
I worked on this project for about 1 hour a day in September, for a total of 30 hours that month (this is a conservative estimate).
In October, I spent about 3 hours a day on the project, coming out to about 93 hours that month.
In November, I worked on the project for about 6 hours per day for the first two weeks (84 total hours) and about 10 hours per day for the remaining 10 days (for a total of 100 hours).
All in all, I put about 307 hours into this product (conservatively)
$441.15 from 307 hrs of work = $1.43 / hour
So after at the end of the day, my time was worth about $1.43 (ouch).
Maybe I should have stuck to my day job…
Or maybe not.
I mentioned I made about$1.43 per hour from this product, but that ignores one important aspect of selling digital goods – this product is a new income stream, no matter how small, that supplements my other income.
Here are the results of the first three weeks after launch:
As you can see, after launch week, I’ve made another $100+ from the guide.
$100 a week isn’t enough to live off of in the States in most cases, but in Bali (where I’m currently writing this from) it goes a pretty far way.
What you’ll notice is that while the majority of sales came during the major announcements and hard sells of the product (5 November and 25 November), I’ve managed to maintain decent sales going forward. This is in part due to new people finding me from recent podcasts I’ve been on explaining Pay What You Want and how it works.
#ResistanceProTip: Once you’ve shipped a product, the real work starts – continue teaching, marketing and selling
So was it a success or failure?
In the end (after reflecting on this months later and doing an update to this post), I'd call it a draw.
You’ll see a lot more from me in the coming months as I teach and spread the word of Pay What You Want. Already, readers who bought the guide have told me they’ve seen an increase in sales and revenue.
Think about that for a second...pretty powerful stuff, right?
These are just two small examples, but they show the power of Pay What You Want (and the value of the book by extension).
It also tells me this message is important and more people should hear it (and use it).
With that said, financials aside – it was a success. And I’m looking forward to my next product launch…although this time I’m giving myself a bit more time to complete and ship it.
Interested in Pay What You Want pricing and want to learn more about how to use it?
Go here to pick up your copy of The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing.
If this article was informative, share it with someone you know.
Every single share allows me to continue producing content for you.
Thank you in advance for your support.
p.s. if you liked this report, subscribe to my newsletter (The Resistance Broadcast) to get stuff like this sent directly to your inbox about once a week.
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Started in Brisbane on the way to Cairns Australia (in a Juicy relocation 'Campa' van). Graphics were created on a terrace off the rainy streets of Ubud, Bali. Finished the article and finalized the PDF in Jakarta, Indonesia (with the help of a quadruple shot Americano).
Current beard length: 3 inches
Total writing time: 20 hrs
For the past two months my wife and I have been vagabonding through New Zealand.
Vagabonding is probably the best word for it – the majority of the time we’ve been living out of our backpack and a tiny red hatchback (The Getzya!).
The first weekend here, we rented a car (buses are too expensive and a car would give us more flexibility). Since then, we’ve managed to see more of New Zealand than most New Zealanders (we’re very curious and we don’t waste time).
We started in Auckland in the north (of the north island) and made it all the way to Queenstown in the south (of the south island), stopping along the way to see rocky, windswept coastlines, majestic waterfalls (lots of waterfalls), surreal-looking giant trees, and a never-ending supply of sheep grazing on rolling, green hills.
In a very nerdy way, it reminded me of the Nintendo game Zelda come to life (although there were no boss battles or treasure chests in the caves here).
Our time here has come to an end, but it’s been an incredible ride with just enough misadventures to keep it interesting the whole time.
But the point of this essay isn’t to gush about New Zealand (although, if you have a chance, definitely go visit), nor is it to brag (can you really brag if you’ve been living out of a car?).
The point of this essay is to tell you a story of a couple people whose work has impacted millions (including many reading this, I’d suspect), yet few of us even directly recognize their contribution…
***
Our last stop in the north island of New Zealand took us to the windy city of Wellington (they call Chicago the windy city in the States – it doesn’t come close to Wellington, where some days the wind could actually knock you over).
While there, we did what we always do in a new city: go for explorative runs, conduct hands-on research of the craft-beer scene and wander wherever we feel compelled to go.
One of those daily wanders led us Weta Digital.
Weta is the company responsible for the visual effects for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. From makeup, to costumes, to set design, to digital FX – Weta created it all.
Based on the record-setting box-office numbers and gluttony of awards they won, they obviously killed it. They brought Tolken’s Middle Earth to life, convincing the die-hards that a well-produced film could do the books justice, and convincing the masses that some fantasy stories are worth hearing (even if it means sitting down for over 3 hours to do so).
But what’s even more remarkable is that they did all this under seemingly impossible circumstances: Weta hadn’t officially been around for 10 years before Peter Jackson picked them for the project, and they didn’t do just one film, they had to do all 3 at once.
There’s no good reason they should have succeeded, but they did.
***
Of course, if this is where the story ends, where you close the browser and say got it, you miss the point entirely.
Weta’s story didn’t start with multiple studies, hundreds of employees and this extremely complex, multi-faceted, million-dollar blockbuster project.
It started as an unreasonable idea in the back room of Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger’s cramped flat in 1987.
It started as the kind of idea your peers would tell you to forget about (for your own good, of course), so you can spend more time making time-and-a-half and watching football.
It started as the type of idea that usually goes nowhere, so why waste your time?
It started as an idea that’s for kids and dreamers, not adults.
Lucky for us, Richard and Tonia didn’t care. Instead, they kept doing the odd thing, the childish thing, the unreasonable thing…
With each small project, they pushed the boundaries of their own creativity. They put their blood, sweat and tears into every creation, beyond any reasonable expectation of repayment. And with each new film, they improved, honed and sharpened their skill-set.
They also formed relationships that lasted.
They got their first major film gig in 1989. Their job: to create bizarre-looking muppets for an even more bizarre black comedy. The guy directing was a local to Wellington as well: Peter Jackson.
4 years later, they joined with Peter to expand their film effects company (RT Effects at the time) and formed what is now Weta Digital.
7 years after that, they got their big break: the opportunity to work on The Lord of the Rings.
Since then, they’ve worked on dozens of blockbusters, from Iron Man 3, to District 9 to the new Hobbit movies, and expanded into a total of 5 studios running the gamut of film production (from pre through post production).
***
There are at least a dozen good lessons to take from this story, but I’ll leave you with just one:
Life is for the unreasonable.
This goes for everyone and everything.
Your existence on this planet, in and of itself, is unreasonable. The chances of you being here, right now, just as you are – they’re so slim as to be non-existent. There is no random chance here.
Yet so many squander this gift by waiting, letting others go first, and favoring the safe and secure bet.
Richard and Tonia didn’t wait. They didn’t let someone else create the studio they dreamt up. And they certainly didn’t favor safety or security.
They were completely unreasonable.
And those who love their work and feel their impact are better off for it.
***
Of course, you’ve probably never heard of Richard and Tonia, unless you’re a huge LOTR fan. Most of us enjoyed the movies and might recognize a few of the actors and maybe the director - that’s about it.
So what’s in it for them if the masses of people don’t even recognize their contribution?
And what's in it for the rest of us if no one notices what we do?
I’m not sure what Richard or Tonia would say about this (I’ve yet to interview them for In the Trenches), but I know what one of Tolkien's characters would say:
"There may come a time for valor without renown." - Aragorn
Don't wait.
Be unreasonable.
___
Started, finished and shipped at The Sprocket Roaster in Newcastle, Australia. Fuel: double espresso. Soundtrack: Bon Iver
Total writing time: 5 hours
___
p.s. want an unreasonable way to sell your products or services? Check out my book: The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing. It might just change the way you approach your business, art and writing forever.
After 6+ months of testing, tracking and recording...
3 months of intensive research, study, and compiling...
And 1 month of all-consuming writing, editing, scrapping...and writing some more...
I've finished my new book:
The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing: How You Can Share Your Work and Still Make a Profit
Author Tom Morkes delivers. Some readers might think anyone advocating sharing and generosity advocate wearing "KICK ME" signs on our backs as people steal our creations. Not Tom. Instead of some BS-ing cheerleader long on promises and short on specifics, this guy creates a detailed game plan anyone could win with.
- Tom Owens, author | 101 PO'ed Poems: Frustrations in Free Verse
If you've been following me for a while, you already know what this book is about.
For new readers, here are some links to get you up to speed on the topic of Pay What You Want, and why it's important:
1. Pay What You Want: The Ultimate Sales Strategy (external link)
This was a post I did for Medium.com. It's kind of gone viral. People are tweeting Justin Bieber about it. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
2. Pay What You Want Pricing with Tom Morkes on the Content Warfare Podcast (external link)
I sit down with marketing expert Ryan Hanley to discuss why Pay What You Want is one of the most powerful marketing techniques available.
3. 3 Ways Pay What You Want Leads to More Profit than Fixed Pricing
I show you 3 case studies of people crushing it using PWYW pricing.
4. Get Unstuck and Start Making Money Now (external link)
I sit down with marketer Tema Frank to discuss my origins in the online world and how I got started using Pay What You Want pricing.
This is my reason WHY for what I do / create / write.
6. How Letting People Choose Their Price Can Make You a Millionaire
A case study of my first Pay What You Want product: 2 Days With Seth Godin.
***
The free resources above should get you started.
If you're at all interested in the subject and would prefer a more in-depth, yet practical look at the pricing technique (and how to apply it to your own business, writing or art), definitely check out the book.
I put my blood, sweat and tears into this one - I promise you that.
If this book isn't your style, but you'd like to support my creative work, any and all contributions are welcome.
So is sharing (I even made it easy):
If you're an entrepreneur, check out @tmorkes new guide The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing: https://gum.co/pwywguide [click to tweet]
Check out this killer new book by @tmorkes: The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing: https://gum.co/pwywguide [click to tweet]
Want to sell your art? Try giving it away to make a profit instead The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing https://gum.co/pwywguide [tweet]
The best sales and marketing book since Cialdini's Influence. Get it: https://gum.co/pwywguide @tmorkes [click to tweet]
Okay, that last one is a little self-aggrandizing...but if you do tweet it, you are awesome and will have a place in my heart forever.
***
So if you're this far down on the page and still haven't bought a copy, seriously grab one:
Thanks so much for reading, and thanks so much for your support - it really does mean the world to me.
***
Started, finished and shipped on 25 November 2013 in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Total writing time: 1.5 hours
Total time spent waiting for the massive upload that is 'The Complete Package' to finish: 5 hours (I'm not kidding)
I got a thought provoking email the other day from Resistance member Tom Owens.
With his permission, I wanted to share part of it with you:
You've done bang-up work on your two blog posts explaining PWYW and how it's helped you.
However...I think more than one person might pause. "If he's still doing so well with this business model, why is he letting others know? Why not a trade secret?"
...In other words, why are you sharing this?
I clicked the reply button in Gmail and thought about the question before responding.
Why not? Why WOULND’T I share this info?... I thought to myself.
To me, it went without saying why I was doing it. It seemed like something that spoke for itself.
But then I thought about that response (‘why not’) and realized it was a cop-out – it didn’t actually explain why I was doing what I was doing.
By responding with ‘why not,’ I wasn’t really answering his question. Instead, I was purposefully avoiding it.
Before I hit the send button, I deleted the few short lines I’d compiled and started from scratch.
When I finished, I hit the send button and didn’t think much more about it.
To be honest with you, I was shocked by his response.
Not because it was offensive – it was the opposite, actually. I guess I just didn’t expect my thoughts to be received this way…
With his permission, I’m sharing with you a portion of his response:
“you should use ALL OF THAT in your next blog post. That's a perfect response. I have not seen anyone spell this out so well…”
Because of his urging, and because I believe sharing my 'why' with you is important, I decided to share the email I sent him with all of you today.
*note: this is basically the same email, although I did elaborate a little bit more on some topics to give additional clarification to those who are new to me, this blog and my writing.
I started this blog a little over a year ago.
In that time, I’ve written over 100 essays, published 15+ podcasts, written several guides, and published 2 books – everything is free + Pay What You Want to support my creative work.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you know I write about the war of art, the conflict of creation, and why it’s important we fight the inner creative enemy every day to create our life’s work.
Life’s work…
Your life’s work is the cumulative results of all the things you’ve done in this life (creative or otherwise). It’s the compilation of all the projects you’ve ever started, finished and shipped. It’s your impact, your legacy, your story…
Life’s work...
That’s what it’s all about for me.
And I believe, deep down in my heart, that on the last day of our existence here on Earth, when we breathe our last breath, that’s what it’s all about for ALL of us. We’ll be judged accordingly.
I hope this doesn’t come off melodramatic – it’s not supposed to. If it sounds a bit intense, it’s because it is.
I believe everyone has creative work they'd love to do, that they OUGHT to do (because they want to), but life gets in the way. Can’t start today, today’s the football game, or I need to pick up dinner, or I’m so tired – I’ll start tomorrow.
Years pass and the ideas that were so inspiring once upon a time are now regret inducing memories.
What a shame.
What a waste…
But if I can help more people take action today to start building / creating / designing whatever it is they care about, and I can walk with them over the finish line to actually ship it to market...
Well I feel like that's MY life's work. I get honest joy out of it. In a way, it validates my existence.
And I think the best way to help people is by being on the ground with them, slugging it out in the trenches right beside them.
As a platoon leader in Iraq, I did that on a daily basis, training my platoon and taking them on mission every day. I was a convoy security platoon leader. My job was to take a group of non-infantry cooks, warehouse clerks, and mechanics, and train and lead them in security operations for our daily logistical resupplies to neighboring bases.
I was responsible not only for them (a task in and of itself), but as the convoy commander, I was responsible for everyone and everything moving from point A to point B.
What’s important to realize is that I was always there with them, for the training and for the missions themselves. And since I was one of them, the more 'secrets' I shared (tactics, techniques and procedures) the better off I was and the better off we all were.
I treat entrepreneurship and art the same way.
We ought to help one another out. Share our work. And share our secrets...
At least if we care about great work.
And not just creating the great work ourselves so we get credit, but so there’s more great work in the world, period.
***
So yeah, that’s why I’m sharing this info.
That’s why I’m writing this book.
And that’s why I give it all away.
I hope that answers the question. And I hope my work helps you start, finish and ship your great work.
If it does, let me know: your success is my success.
Take care.
- Tom
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Started, finished and shipped in Dunedin, New Zealand. Fuel: 2 double espresso's. Soundtrack: Yeasayer.
Writing Time: 3 hours