Free ebooks vs paid ebooks

[Kania]

I was wondering what some of you think about free vs paid ebooks. I read a post just recently that said that sometime when you charge a very low price for an ebook it will be more popular than a free ebook because people will think that free ebooks must be worthless.

What do you think about this? Is it true you think?

 

[Storm]

That's interesting. I have read some things about that type of thing. It's something called perceived value or something like that. If something is free then many people will think it isn't as good as something that is paid.

 

[ulterios]

I have seen some discussions about this around the web and with some things I think it might have an affect but with ebooks that are a dollar or two versus a free ebook I don't think that there would be much of an affect.

You can always try the theory out and setup 2 sites offering the same ebook. One for a buck or two and another for free and see what happens.

 

[Dean]

I think that a perceived value for something like an ebook that is free vs. an ebook with a price tag of a couple of dollars won't have that impact much.

I think if the ebook was maybe $10+ then there might be a value perception going on but I doubt that something that has a difference of a dollar or two will see any kind of impact in perceived value.

 

[Kania]

That's interesting. I have read some things about that type of thing. It's something called perceived value or something like that. If something is free then many people will think it isn't as good as something that is paid.

Yes that is one of the things they were calling it. That is why I am asking you marketing experts. I just do not know that much about these things.

 

[Kania]

I have seen some discussions about this around the web and with some things I think it might have an affect but with ebooks that are a dollar or two versus a free ebook I don't think that there would be much of an affect.

You can always try the theory out and setup 2 sites offering the same ebook. One for a buck or two and another for free and see what happens.

I like that idea. Maybe I should do that to test and see what happens so then I would know more for sure.

 

[Marcos]

I think that if the ebook is free or has a very low price then this will not much matter. If the paid book was more expensive then this idea might apply but not for ebooks that are so cheap.

 

[Storm]

Yes that is one of the things they were calling it. That is why I am asking you marketing experts. I just do not know that much about these things.

I don't know about that either but it seems to me that the cheaper stuff won't really see much of a difference. I may be wrong though.

 

[Kania]

I don't know about that either but it seems to me that the cheaper stuff won't really see much of a difference. I may be wrong though.

I do not think they mentioned the price amounts and if it was only for high priced things but that may be what they were meaning.

 

[Storm]

I do not think they mentioned the price amounts and if it was only for high priced things but that may be what they were meaning.

I did a little looking and I didn't see anything that mentioned if it is high or low priced things but I think that the higher priced things makes more sense.

 

[Traveler]

I don't know if that is true or not. I have bought ebooks that were complete junk and got free ones that were great so I don't think that just because it is a paid ebook it is better.

I think most people will just look at where they get it more and if it seems to have what they want in it.

 

[Kania]

I don't know if that is true or not. I have bought ebooks that were complete junk and got free ones that were great so I don't think that just because it is a paid ebook it is better.

I think most people will just look at where they get it more and if it seems to have what they want in it.

I have done that too. I have bought some ebooks on gaming and got to download some free ones and the free ones were better than the paid ones. I think it only matter who made the book.

 

[Catherine1]

I think many people are going to have the perception that free things are not very valuable when compared to paid things so I would understand how this may seem. I just don't know if there would be much of a perception difference between something free and something real cheap.

 

[Kania]

I think many people are going to have the perception that free things are not very valuable when compared to paid things so I would understand how this may seem. I just don't know if there would be much of a perception difference between something free and something real cheap.

I started to think that there would not be much difference if the ebook was free or real cheap. I just did not know at first.

 

[Smith-K]

You are right upto some extent, but you have to consider that the ebook that is being sold might be a rehashed of the information that is available for free on the internet. But no doubt in mind an ebook should be sold as that will weed out the freebie seekers.

 

[Catherine1]

I started to think that there would not be much difference if the ebook was free or real cheap. I just did not know at first.

You can try to set up 2 landing pages with the same ebook and charge a price on 1 of them and give it away for free on the other and see which works best.

 

[Kania]

You are right upto some extent, but you have to consider that the ebook that is being sold might be a rehashed of the information that is available for free on the internet. But no doubt in mind an ebook should be sold as that will weed out the freebie seekers.

Is it good to weed out the freebie seekers?

They probably will never make any sales for me so they can just be wasting time I guess.

You can try to set up 2 landing pages with the same ebook and charge a price on 1 of them and give it away for free on the other and see which works best.

I have been thinking about trying this as you suggested to see what happens. Maybe it will prove which way is the best one.

 

[KeralMTG]

It might be true to some people because some people think that if you get something for free then it might not be worth anything because it did not cost them. You can take the same ebook and test to see if this is true or not.

 

[Kania]

It might be true to some people because some people think that if you get something for free then it might not be worth anything because it did not cost them. You can take the same ebook and test to see if this is true or not.

I have given thoughts about testing this theory and I might do it. I was thinking about trying it on some free wordpress.com or blogger blogs and not on my own blog though. That way it can look like they are from different people and not on the same domain.

 

[KeralMTG]

I have given thoughts about testing this theory and I might do it. I was thinking about trying it on some free wordpress.com or blogger blogs and not on my own blog though. That way it can look like they are from different people and not on the same domain.

That is a good way I think. If you have the same ebook for free and paid on the same domain it might make people confused.