How To Charge For Something Others Provide For Free
By Anna Johnson on April 18th, 2010How do you charge for something your competitors provide for free? The answer is… you don’t.
If someone else is providing exactly the same thing as you, and they aren’t charging anything for it, then you’ll likely have little success slapping a price tag over it… unless you aren’t really offering the very same thing.
In other words, if what you are selling delivers greater value than your competitor’s free content, product or service, then you aren’t really selling an orange to your competitor’s orange. You’re selling an apple instead.
Your point of distinction could be convenience, for example. Sure, someone else may provide the ‘same’ thing for free, but you provide it in such a way that it’s so much more convenient for your customers to access and/or use.
Or perhaps it’s YOU that makes the difference. You imbue your product with your personality, authority, etc which, in turn, makes it significantly different.
Now, being different won’t, of itself, mean people will pay for your content, product or service. The key here is to offer something that people are willing to pay for. Sounds simple, and it is… it’s just not always easy to implement!
Your prospects will be asking themselves whether or not the value you offer justifies the price you’re charging. If the main difference between your thing and the other free thing is NOT value that people are willing to pay for, then, while you may have a unique offering, it won’t be something that earns you money.
So… when it comes to charging for something others are providing for free, you want to differentiate your content, product or service in a way that your target market is willing to pay for.
Again, the concept itself is simple. But, unless its obvious – either intuitively or by seeing what other businesses are doing in the marketplace – it may take some testing to find out what you can do that’s both different and justifies a price tag.
