My download store has a buy two get one free offer right now. I am amazed at how many people buy two without selecting the free third one.

- Did they just not see the offer?
- Do they already have the rest of my clips?
- Do I have clips that they hate so much they wouldn't have them for free?

It's no skin off my nose but it is a bit odd. I am assuming most people fall into the first category above...

Anyway...closing in on lifetime 1500 clips sold - WOOHOO!

Thanks everybody!

wammartyr

I consult in the field (not the muddy one) and suspect the answer is also (a).

A typical marketer would argue that's how it's supposed to work (the people who are attracted to your site thanks to the discount/promotion get it, everyone else obviously would have bought anyways).

However - giving the promo freebies to customers who aren't expecting it (e.g. including the free promo disc in with the order) is a great way to exceed customer expectations and build brand loyalty. At least IMHO.

DJ

I would have thought that it's nearly impossible to miss. UMD stores put big red notices right on the checkout page that let them know they can add another item to their cart to qualify for a free one, and it lets them know they can add another free video if they do already have the requisite number of items to qualify. I guess some people really don't like to read

Of course, they don't. Haven't you heard of "the Human Centipad"?

I've never sold a thing in my life. I've freecycled a ton of stuff
(given my deceased parents' old stuff away). That is agony enough:
deciding who gets first priority. Of course, in that situation, there is only one of the given item.

Nevertheless, I can see myself as a wam producer right now:
I'd start out by setting the price for my videos at $2, so I'd generate a lot of interest. But, then seeing how I was short-selling myself, in less than a week I'd raise the price to $15. But then the customers who hadn't yet bought my video but were about to (but at the $2 price), would get mad. So then I'd feel guilty about that, and drop the price again to $1 (to compensate for causing them undesired expectations), but then I'd get mad at myself and the world again ("everybody ELSE in the world is screwing everybody else" - that sort of thing) - so I'd raise the price even higher, say, to $23 - and back and forth in a diverging alternating sequence.

I've done promotional advertising in my life (I know, we're happy for you!).

The advertiser constantly has to have call-to-action messages in the ad, even to the point of multiple "submit now" language in ordering.

Why? For everyone who has all of your previous downloads and therefore will pay retail for new material, there are consumers who simply didn't see or who need to have the point hammered to them. A lot.

As Jimmy Durante used to say "dem are the facts."

Dr. Z -

No offense, but that is a really bad pricing scheme....

...you seem to be (imagining) bouncing between price extremes of too low and too high, when the simplest and best approach is to introduce a new vid at a reasonable price (figuring on .50 - 1.00 max per minute of video time)...this should get you the most sales over time...then, as the sales curve decreases, you can (after waiting a bit) reduce the price for those who thought it was a bit too much the first time, or newbies)...if you follow with new material (having established at least one good video, reasonably popular, say at 20 - 40 DLs [minimum] per month for the first 2 - 3 months), this new one can be either introduced at the same pricing rate, or, slightly more (if the first video was really popular)...then decrease the price every other month after the sales curve peaks...

but I would never offer a video for less than 2.00, and i would say never less than 3.00...credit car fee, web host fee (figured in), and any percentage split...and what you're left with is pennies (and not enough to produce another video, if that''s how you finance them).

this approach (assuming that one is interested in making more than one video) is probably the best way to go about selling a (decent ) video and will likely maximize your return....other producers may vary.

NOTE: If you were simply mocking new producers' pricing schemes, then please disregard the above.

carry on

I am 99% sure he was joking but he was making a serious point as well.

The key thing is knowing how much your product is worth. I am sensible enough to know that some of my models (e.g. MILF Bex or College Cutie Billy) were going to sell more than goth Alli, for example.) So I generally price accordingly, even though the cost/production values/length are exactly the same..

It was still great fun getting ALL of the messy though, which is the main reason why I do it!

Well, duh! That was part of my point.



No, I wasn't. Was just pointing out how terribly indecisive I'd be as a wam producer about setting prices.

Nine years doing this, the single most powerful thing I have learned and come to accept is... there is no rhyme or reason.

Or...as Monty Python put it:

Rule 4: There is no rule 4.

I think sometimes, especially if someone's in a hurry, they may not want to look at offers no matter how prominently they are displayed, as people have got used to the idea that there's always a catch and no-one really gives away anything for free, esp on-line. The net is awash with sites offering free MP3s or free iPads, but many of them seem to actually just go to endless survey pages, so lots of people auto-filter anything that looks like an ad or come-on to do something more than they have already decided to do in case it's a trick. I know when I buy things from non-WAM on-line stores I tend to avoid "extras" like the proverbial plague and focus only on what I originally went there for. I shop like that in real life, too - in, get what I came for, pay, out - the classic "guy" approach to shopping.

Might also depend on what the sets that are selling are - if a producer has say only two jeans sets, and someone comes along who is only into jeans and doesn't like anything else, then it won't matter if it's buy-2-get-50-free, of only two have jeans, those are the only two that customer wants. Given how individual and specific fetishes are, all kinds of things could trigger someone to only get the two - blondes, girls in tank tops, girls in jeans, specific kinds / brands of shoes, colour of gunge, pies with/without tins, the list is endless.

I keep my prices as simple as I can!!!

NO Half price Sales
NO Buy One Get One FREE

http://mostwam.com/store.html

Simples!!!

My customers don't have to waste time trying to figure out any extra tricky deals.

It's an interesting topic this. I've run similar sales to wam martyr's before and have had to email people before to remind them that they are entitled to a free vid. It was there on the front page of my now defunct vidown site but people still forgot. Some people just need a gentle reminder in that case.

When I first ran a sale, I felt bad about everyone who had bought my videos at full price. But then I realised that is the reality of sales and got on with it. At the end of the day, if people want something badly enough, they will pay for it regardless of cost.

Sales only make sense if you have deep back catalogue and it's unlikely anyone has everything you own.

..now now, there's no need to pull out the dunce cap emoticons!

...ok, I over-looked the sardonic tone of that one...

...but one never knows if the use of humor is secretly a CRY FOR HELP...

I'm here, Dr. Z, if you need me...