A Million Compliments and No Sales

That's the comment I got from a crocheter recently on my Lifetips site in response to a tip on how to price your crocheted goods (a rough starting point: calculate the cost of the materials you used and multiply by three).  She said she never knew how to price her items and that she gets a million compliments but very few buyers.  Pricing is such a tricky part of running a crafts business.  We all know that the love and labor that go into making items is incalculable and that the cost of materials alone often doesn't really capture the value of the finished product. But, the "problem" is how much are others charging?!  If you are creating something really unique, then you get to set the standard, but the rest of us really do have to take into account the prices of comparable goods (I know, how can something else compare to what you are making, but buyers don't necessarily think that way).  I vaguely remember from econ class that there is this phenomenon called "Giffen goods", where the more you charge, the more demand grows!  Suffice to say, especially these days, that's a rare phenomenon. 

So, your action item for today is to do some research and see how much three successful sellers are charging for their items and see if you need to make any price adjustments to yours.  Now, I'm not necessarily suggesting that you should, as a result, drastically drop your prices (because, once dropped, it's really hard to raise them again).  Instead, first try experimenting with discounts, BOGO (buy one, get one free), gift with purchase, or other types of value-enhancing strategies.  Hope this helps those of you struggling with the right mix of products and pricing!

SEO and BOGO

SEO, search engine optimization.  I'm still not sure I fully understand how the optimization part of it works, but I do try to think about using "key words" in blog entries and crochet tips on Lifetips.  I watched a webinar today about some new tech tools that Lifetips is rolling out to help us Gurus post more tips and get our books ready, so it was pretty motivating.  I like the fact that they seem re-energized themselves about their mission and seem open to innovative ideas (soon including the posting of YouTube videos!).  I'm looking forward to more webinars, especially the one about SEO.

Oh, but more importantly, a special offer for this anniversary month -- the BOGO offer -- buy one, get one free!  If you buy a pattern on Ravelry (just click on the icon to the left) and send me an email telling which other pattern of the same or lesser price you want, I will email it to you for free :-)  This offer is good until April 30, 2010, and don't worry about registering your information with Ravelry, you will be glad you did.  It's very secure, and they make payment and download so easy!  I'm hoping to get a few new patterns posted soon, so go set up your Ravelry account!

Today's Thought:  Food Rule # 50 -- The banquet is in the first bite.  A great reminder to slow down and enjoy the taste of your food.  As Mr. Pollen says, no bite is as good as the first, and each subsequent bite will give you less and less satisfaction.  We've tried to implement this rule just by slowing down and savoring each bite and trying to stop before we feel all bloated and stuffed.  One strategy we use in restaurants involves cutting everything in half and asking for the doggy bag up front!