Muse & e-book feedback

[hamishjazz]

Hi

This is my first post on this forum so be gentle with me ;)

I am the process of finalising my first muse before starting to test it. I wanted to ask the community three questions but first I should give you the background.

I have 15 years experience within my industry (media) and have been fortunate to work with a lot of big artists in that time so have credibility. During that time I've also built up a lot of contacts within my part of the industry and these contacts are valuable to artists because they are quite specific. My original product idea was to do 4 information CDs on my method, a 1,000 page directory listing 9000 contacts within this part of the industry and a 50 page 'How to succeed (in this specific part of the industry). The CD and book would also contain my conversations with other respected individuals that do the same kind of job as me and share the secrets of how an artist can succeed in this area.

However after using Tim's price test analysis tool I realised that such a big directory was really going to eat away at my margins. I want to have a product that sells around $150 because the only other competitor I have sells just the equivalent directory in pdf format for $850 and in printed format for $1000. Also he doesn't give a method as to how to actually get business from these contacts.

So I'm now thinking that my product combination should be purely digital and I would use Shopify or BigCommerce and it would consist of:

* 4 digital download albums with me describing method & discussions with successful people in this part of the industry.
* 1000 page pdf directory of 9,000 contacts
* 50 page pdf guide of the method

Therefore my questions are:

1. Do you think I should make the directory available on a subscription model where customers get access to the data on a secure site as opposed to a pdf directory? My main concern here is people just emailing the directory to their colleagues for free. I also want to use outsourcing to update this directory every year.
2. Does that mix of elements (download albums, pdf directory, pdf guide) look right for a product that will sell at around $150. Should I have some kind of software created for the method as well. At the moment the upfront development cost will be around $500 without doing software.
3. My only competitors site it terrible but gets 3,000 uniques a month without using Google Ads. There are around half a dozen magazines with readership over 15,000 that caters for this area. Does this sound like a market of sufficient size?

Any advice is greatly welcome.
Thanks
Hamish

[Screeps]

If your product is the same thing as the $800/1000 product, I would not try to sell it for $150. A significantly lower price will hint at an inferior product.

If your sure that your product will be superior to your competitor, and you can present it correctly, than why not charge even more? Your competitor has shown you how much people are willing to pay- and since your market size isn't that large- you have to make the most of it.

Your reasoning seems to make sense about avoiding a PDF file, but other than that I would stick close to your competitor and than just show that you are the better choice.

On another note- maybe breaking down this directory to 2 or 3 separate directories would be a good idea. Again I'm not an expert, but 9,000 contacts seems a bit overwhelming. I would try and categorize them sell them independently- and than offer a complete package.

IDK just some thoughts...good luck.


Zac

[hamishjazz]

Hi Zac

Thanks for your feedback. Yes I think you are right about the pricing and that I need to break down the list. I'm also conscious that I don't want to offer too many choices. What I think I'll do is offer bronze, gold & platinum options.

I'm going to aim to best the competition but showing more credibility indicators and also providing a system & list rather than just a list. Not sure what kind of money back guarantees I should give on a digital product like this.

Still not sure whether I should do the list as pdfs of an online resource accessed by password. What I'll do is micro-test as pdfs and then see what uptake is first.

If anyone else has any thoughts about my muse and whether I am better doing a pdf or online password accessed list let me know.

Thanks again Zac.

Hamish

[hamishjazz]

Hi

Thanks to Zac and Screep for their feedback on my initial muse idea and the site is now live at www.jazzbookingguide.com (http://www.jazzbookingguide.com)

I tested some different prices before I launched and it seemed that people would pay between $100-200 for it.

Would be good to get everyone elses feedback as I'm wondering about the following:

* Should I add a free something like a 10page tips and hints e-book in order to get email addresses?
* I am using the Topspin shopping cart which is popular for music artists like Paul McCartney and Tom Waits because of home simple it is. Topspin also provide widgets I can place on other sites. What does everyone think of it?
* Should I have a blog on the site as well?

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Regards

Hamish

[nic3456]

Nice looking site, however did you notice that your checkout does not appear to be secured? I'm not a web expert, but doesn't it need to have the https?

[maxpr]

Just curious; but have the 9,500 contacts all independently confirmed that it is OK to give out their contact info and for them to be contacted?

Maybe you could differentiate the directories by location, size etc.? Maybe include some pertinent forms too?

[hamishjazz]

Hi Nick

My site doesn't have SSL but the checkout system does so when you click on the buy link you'll notice that the Checkout system (run by Topspin) is secure.

[hamishjazz]

Hi MaxPR

Yes these are contacts I've built up over 10 years of working in this industry. My plan is to also email customers every year and offer them the new version with an up to date list. I'm currently looking into outsourcing the updating of my contact list as well.

I had wondered about dividing up the direcctory but I was conscious of what Tim said about not giving people too many options. I could divide the list up by country, type (promoter, club, festival) but I thought it would start giving customers too many choices. What do you think?

One comment I've had back from friends that have seen the site is that it is too wordy and salesy. Do you think I should simplify things which would mean putting a couple of tabs on the site (blog, FAQ, about, example list)?

Yours
Hamish

[vtamethodman]

I've found multiple torrents of my ebook which isn't much of a problem for me as I'm primarily service based but I would pay somebody to build a digital database through a membership program like amember where customers can log in and use the service. Based on what you're charging I'd put a basic version of the database up for 50 dollars per month. You're average stick rate for a membership service like this is 90 days which should give you 150 per customer.

Take whatever you've made/going to make from your initial site and invest it into a membership database for the following reasons.
- You can upsell them through the membership site
- Pdf's get passed around
- Your overall bottom line will probably be higher through a membership program
- You can easily update the database on a continual basis
- Members could add contacts to the database as well, which only makes your product better.

LM

[hamishjazz]

Hi LM

That is fantastic feedback. Thank you so much. Will start work on that now.

Regards

Hamish

[lex6819]

You could also use Kunaki to basically print your stuff on a DVD or CD on demand.

http://www.kunaki.com

You could ask for the higher price because it is a physical product instead of a download, and so would have a higher perceived value.

If you decide to just sell a single digital product, I would probably go with Clickbank, e-junkie, or payloadz. I don't think you need a full-blown ecommerce site like BigCommerce or Shopify to sell an ebook type of product. You just need a sales page, a download page, and an account on one of the sites that specializes in digital products. Clickbank has lots of affiliates also, so you could set a % to pay an affiliate for each sale they bring to you.

As far as membership sites, I think you can use Wordpress to create a membership site pretty easily. I'm not sure how it's done though, you should do some research on that first. A membership site is a good idea if this market is already used to subscribing for this kind of information anyway.