3 ms·

I'm not entirely sure why but this seems a bit unethical to me. It is quite clever but maybe you should make it more clear that you are doing a survey and not a

by chki 10y ago

I'm not entirely sure why but this seems a bit unethical to me. It is quite clever but maybe you should make it more clear that you are doing a survey and not actually selling your book.

_ah 10y ago
The only valid signal for willingness to pay is ACTUAL WILLINGNESS TO PAY. Ideally, you'd even collect (and discard) a credit card number. Asking people to take a survey gives inaccurate results
- brianwawok 10y ago
  At that point why not just sell the thing? The per unit cost of an ebook is under a penny, who cares if it sold for $6 or $9.. if they pay, give them the download.
  - 2_listerine_pls 10y ago
    Tell them to check back in a week and learn how much attachment you product has.
  - insickness 10y ago
    There were a few reasons why I chose to say 'This product is not yet available yet' rather than sell it. First, I was going to do a full product launch and didn't want to release the product into the wild yet. Second, as comments stated below, if one person bought it at $100 and realized someone else bought it at $5, they would be angry. They would ask for their money back. If I were going to eventually charge $50 for the product (which I did), the people who bought it for more would be pissed.
    - dhimes 10y ago
      You could give it to all your first customers for the lowest point offered. That is, they said they would pay $60 but you only charge them $20. Tell them why. Tell them this is basically an introductory price and it will go up, but because they helped you they are special. Of course, this limits the N you get for your testing, but it gets rid of the ickiness of it all.
ashark 10y ago
It seems unethical because it is. Making what appears to be a genuine offer to sell at a given price then saying "haha, sorry, just wasting your time to help me but without paying you for it, I'm not selling" is unequivocally a dick move.

by chki 10y ago

I'm not entirely sure why but this seems a bit unethical to me. It is quite clever but maybe you should make it more clear that you are doing a survey and not actually selling your book.

_ah 10y ago

The only valid signal for willingness to pay is ACTUAL WILLINGNESS TO PAY. Ideally, you'd even collect (and discard) a credit card number. Asking people to take a survey gives inaccurate results

brianwawok 10y ago
At that point why not just sell the thing? The per unit cost of an ebook is under a penny, who cares if it sold for $6 or $9.. if they pay, give them the download.
- 2_listerine_pls 10y ago
  Tell them to check back in a week and learn how much attachment you product has.
- insickness 10y ago
  There were a few reasons why I chose to say 'This product is not yet available yet' rather than sell it. First, I was going to do a full product launch and didn't want to release the product into the wild yet. Second, as comments stated below, if one person bought it at $100 and realized someone else bought it at $5, they would be angry. They would ask for their money back. If I were going to eventually charge $50 for the product (which I did), the people who bought it for more would be pissed.
  - dhimes 10y ago
    You could give it to all your first customers for the lowest point offered. That is, they said they would pay $60 but you only charge them $20. Tell them why. Tell them this is basically an introductory price and it will go up, but because they helped you they are special. Of course, this limits the N you get for your testing, but it gets rid of the ickiness of it all.

ashark 10y ago

It seems unethical because it is. Making what appears to be a genuine offer to sell at a given price then saying "haha, sorry, just wasting your time to help me but without paying you for it, I'm not selling" is unequivocally a dick move.