Fans

You’re Not Charging Enough

Garth Beyer

I get asked a lot if a price someone is charging is enough.

“Should the app just be free?” “How much should the admissions ticket be, I was thinking $10.” “I really want to work with this client, should I lower my price?”

More often than not, I get a “Oh… Really?” response when I tell them they’re not charging enough. That is, until I explain why they’re not charging enough.

When I worked with my dad in his painting and remodeling business, I learned there were often jobs he had to bid for. Did he lower his price to compete with other bids? Or did he keep it high, reflective of the quality of work he would produce?

It was more of a question about the fan base he wanted, not how much money he would make. Often times he would bid a higher price to decipher whether the business was a raving fan or not. (Better to work for a fan, a friend than someone who feels they’re in a position to constantly criticize.)

Imagine Dragons can charge $300+ a ticket because they don’t need to allow critics in their concert. The price you charge is the first gateway to deciding what audience you’ll attract. Quite simply, a low price exposes you and your art to people who may not be avid fans. Is that what you want?

Free can help you in some ways. Free can attract the mass. But free won’t get you where you want to go in the world of your craft.

 

Stay Positive & So, Yes, You’re Not Charging Enough

 

What Do You Have?

What Do You Have?

Garth Beyer

Blackhawks Fans

Clients? Members? Customers? Friends? Bypassers? Fans? Impulse buyers?

The people you interact with for business success. What do you refer to them as?

The answer gives me insight into your business model. Changing the answer, then, means changing your business model, and, by extension, your level of success. Chris Brogan has friends. Seth Godin has members. Edelman has clients. The Blackhawks have fans.

 

Stay Positive & People Foremost Love Being Friends And Members

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Long Form Vs Short Form

Long Form Vs Short Form

Garth Beyer

Long form

I made a not-so-pretty big mistake when I started my blog. I wrote long form posts, I wrote tall orders, I wrote laundry lists instead of a few bullet points. I wrote posts that would take four minutes or longer to read. That was a mistake.

For any business, a blog is essential, press releases are essential, newsletters and other forms to update people are essential.

Getting the length of them right – even more essential.

Now I can get away with writing a long form post. I couldn’t before because I didn’t have any true fans, no passionate customers, no connected friends to what I was writing about.

Think of the websites that you go on to read, whether it’s for news, fiction or self-help. Now filter through the authors and pick which ones you would read a five-minute post if they wrote it. Your list of authors dwindles, doesn’t it?

When writing anything, knowing how to write to your audience is everything, but knowing how also means knowing how long or how short you can make it so they will read.

New readers, new customers, new fans, new friends, new strangers – none of them will spend their time reading a long form piece from you. 140 characters to 200 words is about all you have to work with.

Let me make something clear. I don’t think the internet has made us incapable of focusing our attention on something longer than two minutes. I simply think that it’s more difficult than ever to have a true and passionate follower.

Well worth the work though.

 

Stay Positive & Tell Me Again Who Your Focus Is On

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