Have you noticed the pricing of so many eBooks are $47, $67, $97 and so on. Why is that?

I guess it basically comes down to how any standard becomes the … standard. As with any product or service, many price points are tried and tested and once accepted they’re pushed hard onto the consumer. It eventually builds on itself and sure enough it becomes the standard by which everybody goes by.

Pricing the eBook was tried at various price points and for some reason these figures caught on. We’ve become conditioned into accepting such prices. In fact, when I come across one of those longish sales letter websites if I don’t see one of these prices my mind perks up straight away. And that should not be the case.

Personally, I think these price points are tired. They have been around for a number of years and with customers being more internet and marketing savvy the first reaction of many would be “oh, another one of those $47, $67, $97 product”.

But why not change that mindset with your information product? Start a new pricing point. One that is fair and affordable. Hey, it might even set you apart!

An example would be a 200-page ebook on a niche topic. Now unless it has some massive inside secret or is extremely timely then it really should not be selling for more than $19.95 to $29.95 - anything more and it becomes just a money grab in my opinion.

Obviously, for other eProducts that include audio and video and other special features you’d have to take that into account. The perceived value is really there in those instances.

Now let’s look at some hypothetical eProduct examples and see how I’d price them:

1. a 200-page eBook delivered via PDF ($19.95 - 29.95)
2. a 2-hour audio product (delivered electronically) ($39.95)
3. a 2-hour video product (delivered electronically) ($59.95)

But at the end of the day, it’s what the market is willing to pay and quite often it’s the perceived value of a product that sets the price - price it too low and the perception could be of poor quality. If you’ve built up some decent credibility along the way in your field of expertize then you are entitled to get a premium for your thoughts and ideas. That’s fair enough. But don’t go overboard and get greedy would be my advice.

But the natural tendency for the majority of (usually unknown) eBook publishers is to try and get the most out of each sale. Good for you if you have hit on an amazing idea and want to be a one-hit wonder and then get out.

But from a information publisher such as myself who wants to be in it for the long term, this is the first step (going against the pricing norm) in showing your potential customers that you are a serious information publisher and not just after the quick money.

I’m looking at producing and selling 10, 20, 30 new eProducts over the long term and my main goal is to sell more than one eProduct (and hopefully many more) to each customer.

What’s your view on pricing points? On pricing on perceived value?

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Further Reading:
- Price points at Wikipedia
- Psychological pricing at Wikipedia