I want to make a profit selling information products online. I say I am doing it to help other people. Maybe it's just the circles I hang out in, but I often get the questions: Why are you charging so much? Wouldn't you benefit more people if you charged less? What about those people who need your help who can't afford to pay? Isn't there a conflict of interest between your desire for income and your desire to help other people? Aren't you really just trying to get money out of people by preying on their neediness? Allow me to explore my answers to such questions. There seems to be an assumption that motives should always be pure: purely profit driven or purely service. In real life there are always a multitude of motives, and one of the most important functions of the ego is balancing them. For those of us motivated to help other people and to live in reasonable comfort ourselves, going too far one way or the other would be unsatisfactory. If we go completely towards self-sacrifice in the service of others, we will quickly burn out. If we abandon our values and seek only profit, we will be filled with self-contempt. There are several things we have to consider in setting our prices. There is always the micro economic consideration of supply and demand. Beyond that, there's a consideration of how the price relates to the customer' s commitment to benefit from our services. The higher you set the price, the more commitment it shows to pay it. Do you really want to spend your time on people who are not committed to benefiting from it? If you set your price essentially at free, you will attract people who are ambivalent and confused and don't know what they want. Stephen Beck still marvels at offering a CD of valuable information for essentially free -- just the cost of duplication and shipping -- and receiving a call from a woman asking what color the CD was. The color was obviously not the real question. Remember, the more time you spend with people who will not benefit by what you give them, the less time you will have to spend with those who will. If your goal is really to benefit people, then you must at least charge enough to attract the committed. Of course there is always the concern that some who would benefit greatly by your service will not be able to afford it. This can be balanced against the people who can afford it but who won't benefit. Wherever you draw the line, there will be people who arguably should be on the other side of the line. I can certainly pay for fiddle lessons, but I was encouraged to quit by my teacher because I hardly ever practiced. And what if you do very well? What if you have six-figure paydays? That may also help to benefit other people. If you show the outward signs of success, that will lead people to trust that you can help them. If you show no signs of success, why should they believe in what you offer? Your attention is a scarce resource. Price is a way to allocate it.
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