Am I Fooling Myself -- Please Help!

sensibledreamer

Hi Everyone,
I am building an online business that I really hope will provide a great deal of good for people. Any feedback at this juncture will be greatly appreciated!
My site will provide guided meditations and other tools to help people find greater happiness and a deeper Divine connection. I plan to charge $25 for six months or $40.00 per year.
Questions 1:
There are a lot of sites out there that provide online meditation for free. Why should someone pay for a membership to my site?
My answer:
Because my site is presented as a gestalt that provides tools for meditation, prayer and support for those interested in a commitment toward practicing positive spirituality – a combined approach for achieving greater happiness and lasting peace. My competitors provide mostly stand-alone meditations.
Question 2:
Would that encourage you to pay for a membership if you had a basic interest in these practices?
Question 3:
Do you think that my prices are too little, too much or just about right?
Again, your input is deeply appreciated as I really want to provide an important and meaningful service!
 

MattTurpin

Back when I first got internet, first got a PC, I was on Netzero. It was "free". It sucked. That adbar was crippling for anything but basic web browsing. I`ve played several online games. Some were free and some were pay. The paid games were exponentially better. There was no comparison. I have many mottos, and one of them is, "You get what you pay for."
I don`t know much about what you offer, but I think the basis of your fee is probably the "support". Reading an online tutorial on some geocities webpage doesn`t get the job done, most of the time. It`s like going to the gym with only a sheet of exercises. Pretty soon, you`ll get hung up in a complicated process and without support, you`ll be likely to give up. Sometimes you need a staff, an expert when you have to ask, "What am I doing wrong?"If you`re going to be there to guide your customers through the process, I think that`s worth a subscription fee. If there`s no two way communication and they`re only paying for a higher tier of information, that`d only warrant a one time fee, like paying for a book instead of browsing wikipedia. You seem like you`re offering the former. I`m in no position to discuss your actual prices. I`ve never meditated, prayed or anything, well not since I was six or so and was trying to levitate, to no avail.There are a lot of disgruntled, stressed out people out there. I`m sure some of them are turning to new age practices such as yours. It doesn`t seem like a bad idea. If I were interested in self improvement in the processes you offer, I would seek to pay for it rather than get it for free. Pay adds authority to anything. If you`re good enough to charge, and you`re still around, that`s more evidence of merit than a free billboard somewhere. MattTurpin3/16/2009 11:42 PM

MattThomas

I think eVentureToday`s advice is pretty solid. Your justification for charging sounds like a valid reason, but you may need some free services or information to draw in your user and "whet their appetite", so to speak. You can establish a relationship with your customers by providing some free information, where they trust you and view you as an authority in this industry.  You can then charge for a "premium" service. What should be free and what you should charge is up to you. But I think offering something for free is a great way to attract initial visitors to your services.