Newsletter #15 

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The Sonic Scrubber & The Value of an ebook.

Someone in a forum posted that they had purchased a Sonic Scrubber from an infomercial on TV. They were explaining that there were 7 automated One Time Offers during the purchase process by phone.

Seven upsells is a bit over the top but that's not what this newsletter is about.

It's about ebook value.

After looking at the site out of curiosity I couldn't help but wonder why people pay $47 or $27 or even $97 for an ebook. Personally I have purchased maybe 3 ebooks that were worth the price. The rest were either junk or just not worth the price (good material - just overpriced). 

With the sonic scrubber you get a physical product that you have "seen in action" for $16.99 + S&H. Now that I am a stay at home dad I could probably use one of these (how do these kids make such a mess?).

A $17 ebook of about 40 to 60 pages half stuffed with fluff, affiliate links, large fonts, wide margins, double spaced pales by comparison to the sonic scrubber or a good hardback book.

Take Made to Stick written by Chip & Dan Heath.

This is an outstanding book for any marketer. It has around 280+ pages of solid information backed up with real world examples.

It cost around $16 plus shipping. If it was an ebook it would probably cost $197. There are very few ebooks out there that can compare to the quality of most good hardbacks.

Here is the exception...

There are some "timeless" ebooks & newsletters out there like Jimmy Browns List & Profit Newsletter. Or Paul Myers Talk Biz News. The last issue of Talk Biz news was worth more than most $17 ebooks.

As a comparison an ebook Paul recommends Small Changes Big Profits is 157 pages. If Paul recommends it then it is good.

Robert Plank has some great ebooks that explain php & hprecisesly how to use it in your marketing efforts.

So what about all these $7 ebooks and the like...

Some are actually very good like Kevin Rileys recipe series. They solve a specific problem, like installing the $7 script step by step with clear instructions and screen shots. Others are juts fluff and crap. I believe most are made with the intention of offering plr or master resell rights. I run the membership site Spare Change Profits. The members join to acquire source code, plr & mrr items for resale. The site provides a great value but it is not in 80% of the products you see there - its in about 20% of them. Those plr ebooks that solve a problem written by someone who knows the subject then only sold 20 to 50 copies of the ebook with rights. Those are the gems - I try to point them out.

What's my point?

If you write an ebook, a "real" ebook (not resell fodder) try to give it real value and price it accordingly. Outside of graphics and some (very few) scripts - most of the plr or mrr packages sold to be resold to a target market of "newbies" are not anything the "newbie" needs despite the fact that they get snapped up all day long.

I'm guilty as charged.

I provide some of these products to resellers who in turn sell them to those new to im. I do this because there is a good market for it and resellers sell because its a good market. The loser is the new person that keeps buying stuff they don't need.

There are some very good products in my membership site that can really help out a new person - especially the how to videos. The unfortunate reality is that about 50 to 60% of the products could simply be deleted. Of course I would not have many members then.

I just want to see the quality of products increase. No more selling junk. No more expensive membership scripts that end up unsupported or not updated when a browser changes or a payment processor makes a change. I believe people would be happy to pay for an update and a well supported item vs. the chaos of a broken script. There are still ebooks out there being sold in packages with dead links etc. While I don't have such trash in my membership site I am going to start with myself. I'll be taking a much closer look at my membership products before I purchase them and hold out for quality over quantity.

Take care,

Tom