How much would you be willing to pay?

Hi guys,

Been opening a lot of new threads lately but I like to get feedback before launching anything.

I'm working on a new site (no pre-sell here!) which will:

- Offer exclusive discounts to various products and services in the IM niche (20%+)
- Have various resources free for members to use
- Have exclusive interviews with various IM experts

It will be a monthly fee, but I'm trying to figure out how much to charge. It can't be too cheap as that doesn't offer any value to the product/service providers who are offering a good discount as they are getting access to serious buyers.

Setup a poll, feedback much appreciated. Please be honest in your replies. I don't need any ass kissing

Thanks!

i think if this website includes the methods / threads that are included in Jr.VIP + all the above it could definitely be a 97$ . If not , a 27$ per month could be a very nice bargain . My opinion always

panarasgr said:

i think if this website includes the methods / threads that are included in Jr.VIP + all the above it could definitely be a 97$ . If not , a 27$ per month could be a very nice bargain . My opinion always

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No, it won't have any methods in there, nor will I be stealing anything from Jr VIP.

It's more about access to discounts and other exclusive deals.

I really want to learn site flipping from you do you offer a new guides for it?
about the poll
access for the discount?? I think 27$ a month is fair enough

rulez05 said:

I really want to learn site flipping from you do you offer a new guides for it?
about the poll
access for the discount?? I think 27$ a month is fair enough

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This also has nothing to do with site flipping

Just a quick tought, I think you should set up a demo of the website, or choose few trusted BHW memebers and let them do an alpha test of the website and give us feedback, again just a tought

meathead1234 said:

No, it won't have any methods in there, nor will I be stealing anything from Jr VIP.

It's more about access to discounts and other exclusive deals.

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Sorry if i said it wrong . I didn't mean that you will be stealing anything , just speaking general about the site's content!

I would try and price it as close to free as is humanly possible and try to monetize with kickbacks from sellers. Prices can always go up and you reserve a power section at higher cost with exclusive offers.

IMHO, in this economy you have to start out low - if / when it gets popular - and the economy hopefully improves - you can always raise the rates.

27$ a month is just enough for u to bring profits on the large scale, and just enough to attract members on a large scale.
Usually some people are not even interested in similar services but they still buy them for curiosity along with the cheap price.

47$ is somehow the most common price for IM products and people often see this particular number as nothing special, after buying many useless 47$ Clickbank products.

I know it sounds stupid, but it's not all about profit for me. I want to offer a product that offers great value and hopefully the profits will follow.

I can't price it too low as then vendors aren't going to want to offer really exclusive discounts. The whole reason they are willing to offer a discount is people paying a monthly fee are likely to be serious buyers, whereas if we made it free, there would be less of a selling point for them.

Were are you planning on getting your customers from? If it was an invitation only gig then I could see you getting a high monthly subscription and a select membership of qualified people that would get your suppliers excited .

Duffers5000 said:

Were are you planning on getting your customers from? If it was an invitation only gig then I could see you getting a high monthly subscription and a select membership of qualified people that would get your suppliers excited .

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It won't be invitation only and I'll be promoting it in a few different places. I will be offering free memberships to my existing clients with large budgets, but the majority will be paying.

I have purchased tons of software and to be perfectly honest, I would never pay a membership for such site ... and I have the feeling I am not alone - maybe you should look into other ways of monetizing - like building a list?

meathead1234 said:

I know it sounds stupid, but it's not all about profit for me. I want to offer a product that offers great value and hopefully the profits will follow.

I can't price it too low as then vendors aren't going to want to offer really exclusive discounts. The whole reason they are willing to offer a discount is people paying a monthly fee are likely to be serious buyers, whereas if we made it free, there would be less of a selling point for them.

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You can't price too high either, though. It's not like if the buy in price is $27/m as opposed to $97/m you will be able to factually draw any type of conclusion on the type of traffic you are getting (unless you actually split tested and worked it out). At the end of the day, people paying $97/m for such a service are likely to be bigger spenders, but at the same time they will expect more from your service. Further, I'm assuming you'll make less sales at $97/m.

Whereas, offering it for $27/m you're attracting those who would have bought at $97/m as well as a whole new group of people who would have never bought at $97/m but are happy to pay $27/m. At the end of the day, if someone is paying you ANYTHING to be part of the exclusive community, then it means they're serious about it. No one is even going to bother setting up a monthly subscription, even if your service was $5/m, if they were not genuinely interested. So that being said, I would price it at a level that will meet your profit expectations, while at the same time be attractive to the general populace.

Just my opinion. Good luck with the idea. I had a very similar idea for developing a market place for SEO sellers a few months ago. There is definitely money to be made (check out Fiverr.. a lot of gigs in the IM niche). You could even offer it as a "free" membership completely to the end-user but receive a kickback per each order placed with your sellers. Actually, if you were able to enforce this properly you would likely end up making a lot more than $27/m per user (in some cases). Maybe I shouldn't have even given you that, haha but in either case, I've got too many ideas in my head and won't be implementing this one so good luck with it. I know it can work because I even thought of something similar myself

hpv222 said:

I have purchased tons of software and to be perfectly honest, I would never pay a membership for such site ... and I have the feeling I am not alone - maybe you should look into other ways of monetizing - like building a list?

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The concept is certainly not for everyone, but if you're buying products/services on a regular basis, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't pay a monthly fee for discounts.

If you're saving on average 20% by having access to the site and you spend $1k a month on products/services, you're saving $200 a month. Surely it's worth paying $XX a month for that?

I don't want to say how long is a piece of string but it all depends on how much of a saving I can make by joining up. If I can save a few hundred a month and get access to offers that I genuinely can't get anywhere else then you are worth $97 a month easy. You will get good referrals from your existing client base but converting new customers from scratch might be harder. My main biz is not IM related but I think anyone knows the Market is very price conscious at present.

I would look into offering a 2 month honeymoon period at a subsidised rate, once in if the savings are real then they will stay.

meathead1234 said:

The concept is certainly not for everyone, but if you're buying products/services on a regular basis, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't pay a monthly fee for discounts.

If you're saving on average 20% by having access to the site and you spend $1k a month on products/services, you're saving $200 a month. Surely it's worth paying $XX a month for that?

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Well actually, now this makes me think of another point. At some stage, your customers will find a service provider on your site doing a good job at a good price. This will leave them able to leave your service (stop paying you) and just deal directly with the service provider at the lower price (service provider will honour it, no doubt, to make the sale). So essentially, after a few months your customers might get 'sick' of paying for your service when they've already found the gigs they like and essentially they no longer justify paying your fee. It may not happen in all cases, but it certainly is a possibility.

So one way to avoid this is the logical one --- don't charge your customers a fee. If they're not paying you a dime for your service, then they have no reason to move off-site at all. Not in 1 month, not in 6, not in 12. But if they're paying you $27/m or $97/m and end up finding a small group of gigs they like, they will at some point start thinking about cancelling as they've secured the lower price and they've already found what they needed.

So again, offering it for free might be good for you (strictly in the long term -- which I am sure is more important to you than the short term profits).

You would have to set up a system though to take a cut of each sale from each vendor. I am sure they won't mind, as if you're pushing volume then they will be happy. And you can certainly push volume if you have no barriers to entry and really promote the site/marketplace all over IM forums.

I think I am saying a bit too much at this point.

The way I'd go about is not by asking how much others would be willing to pay for it, but checking to see that by purchasing services through you, will they make a profit? Anyone will purchase something even for $1000 if it saves him $2000, but they won't purchase anything even for $27 if it doesn't save them atleast $27.
You need to target your market, and perhaps have tiered pricing structures offering different services to each level. Such as article writing in the lower level, and some of the more expensives services in the higher tiers.

It's all about the users being able to make atleast a $1 profit off your service, without it being inconvenient(such as a bad inteface, ordering system etc.), and only the users of the service getting the benefit(such as not sharing coupon codes outside the service if that's how you are doing it)

Perhaps make it free to the users and charge the companies who's products your promoting at a discount. There are so many sites like this now that I think you would have a tough time charging out of the gate.