Be careful if you increase your prices

[teramangala]

Hello comrades, in January I had a good month (about 1 sale per day). My Featured Gig was $10 with an extra + $5 that almost everyone was taking. My 2nd Gig was $5 with an extra + $5 that almost everyone was taking.

So I tried to increase the prices by including the price of the extra in the price of the Gig: so for my featured Gig $15, no extra, and the 2nd Gig $10, no extra.

Big mistake, sales have almost stopped … It took me a while to realize it, believing that it was the “famous rotation of the Gigs” and the aftermath of my recent upgrade to level 1.

However, I was still placed in the same place in the search (between pages 1 and 10 according to the searches in incognito mode), but impressions were dropping.

I understood that my buyers were probably filtering the Gigs in my category by price and that I no longer appeared in the majority of searches !!

I’m not sure, but since I handed in my prizes as I did at the start, I have 1 sale per day again!

Your opinion, because I am not sure of anything, is it just based on my observations and tests?

[genuineguidance]

I think it would be a different experience for everyone, as there are so many different parameters here.

I raised my prices by quite a bit and it has not stopped those who have come to me in the past - they still come and pay up to 10x what I was charging them initially. Of course, I get new people as well who have no idea I used to sell things for $5 back in 2013. I have a bit of a lull anytime I do raise prices, but, I just stick it out (as this is not my only place I offer services) and, it has never disappointed.

GG

[english_voice]

I think, as a seller, the best guide is to compare your basic offering with what the rest of the marketplace offers. Now, before other sellers say we should price our gigs based on experience and skill - I also agree, so bear with me!

There is a lot of truth in what you say about buyers filtering search results by price. But to to be quite frank, buyers are stupid to do so. For example, I’m a proofreader and my basic gig is $10. But what does that $10 buy? In my case 1,000 words. There are other sellers offering 500 words for $10, and others offering 5,000 words for $10. My point being that buyers who filter by price only are not getting the full story. Most of my buyers purchase two or three gigs to cover their order.

To take the above further, if my gigs started at $20 for 2,000 words or even $30 for 3,000 words, then I know that most buyers would instantly dismiss my services based on price alone - as it would appear far more expensive than the competitors, even though it is exactly the same price.

In other words, play the system. Ensure your gig is priced fairly for the marketplace (taking into account what others are charging) but only offer a relatively low level service for the fee so that buyers have to purchase multiples of your gig to get what they want.