Two things happened recently that got me thinking about how I sell my web design services. The first is the “sale” of an eBook for $0.00. The second is Louis C.K.'s spectacularly successful sale of his comedy special.
The author of the eBook, Johnny B. Truant (Google that for details) made a compelling case as to why he expects to eventually make more money by giving away his eBook for free. To clarify, it’s free for the first 5 days, then there will be a small charge. He admits that he’s probably losing revenue from the first 1,000 or so people who otherwise would have paid for it. His premise boils down to two things: lack of friction and popularity. By giving something away for free, there’s no “friction” to buy. After all, what do you have to lose? And by offering his eBook as a “gift”, more people may be likely to grab it, let their friends know about it, and have the popularity skyrocket (at which point even more people may be willing to spend real money for it).
Louis C.K. (for those of you who don’t know) did something remarkable for a big-name entertainer. Instead of doing the traditional comedy special, where a huge entertainment conglomerate pays him a one-time fee but retains creative control, syndication rights, and other future revenue, Louis said, “Screw that!” He sold tickets to a show for a few nights, hired his own audio/video crew, taped the show, edited it himself, and then (ready?) sold it online for a mere $5 instead of the typical $10-25 the conglomerate would have charged. Louis’ costs were about $250,000 which were covered by ticket sales. In a matter of days, he earned almost $2 Million, $5 at a time. He paid his staff a large bonus, kept a small percentage (I think it was about $200-300K) for himself, and gave the rest away to several charities.
The lesson I’m getting from these two events is that sometimes you can earn more by giving things away for free or selling them really inexpensively. So now, I wonder, is there a way I could do something similar with my teeny tiny one-persom web design company?
I’ve been a professional web designer for about 15 years and am pretty good at it. My clients are usually SMBs who don’t have large budgets for web work. I make time estimates for each project, then propose a fixed project fee. If I do some math involving the fee and the actual time spent, I’m earning the equivalent of about $40-80 per hour. But I’m in a tough spot there: The bigger “boutique” firms charge the equivalent of $150-300 an hour, and the off-shore, college student, and/or less-than-experienced Craigslist/oDesk type designers charge much less than I do. So it’s hard to compete because clients who can afford a lot want to go with the bigger agencies to get a more full-service approach, and the clients who can’t afford much at all go in the other direction.
I’m trying to figure out (and would love to hear your thoughts) if I could somehow offer something for free (or very cheap) that would entice the “big spenders” and even middle-of-the-roaders to sign on with me. I’m confident I can do good work and provide excellent customer service, but those are the kind of things that aren’t believable by a client until he experiences them. Would it make sense to do something like these ideas?
> “Free 3-Page Web Site!” (I’d do some basic, template-based work, then try to upsell additional pages and/or custom design work)
> “Free Web Site” (I’d offer a one-page, business card-type site, then later pitch something like, “Hey, your one-pager is getting lots of traffic, but your visitors want to know more about you.” and offer to build out the site.
> “5 Page Web Site for Just $89” (I’d do a quick, template-based site, maybe contingent upon signing a 1-year web-hosting contract with me, on which I could earn a little extra income.)
What do you guys think? Do you have any ideas along the lines of the eBook author and the comedian? How can we web designers climb outside the box and offer something our prospects can’t pass by?
Would really love to hear your thoughts!..
