Although this strategy may generate short term sales, it can make running a business very difficult. The most obvious reason for this is that you will realize smaller profits from each sale, so you will have to sell more products or services to generate a sufficient income.

The less obvious problem with underpricing your products or services, though, is that it creates the perception that what you offer has less value than what your competitors offer. Customers are more likely to take advantage of businesspeople who offer what they perceive as “inferior” products. This means that you’ll likely be dealing with more refunds, “special requests”, and in the case of services, changes in scope.

All of these things add hours of administrative work to your day. Instead of spending your time working on growing your business, you’ll spend that time answering countless emails, listing to customer complaints, and issuing refunds.

I see this all the time in the field of copywriting. Copywriters often attract clients by competing on price. The larger the project, the more willing they are to offer discounted rates.

The result is unsurprising. Clients who buy content based on price are typically not well versed in marketing, so they aren’t quite sure of what they are looking for. Most copywriters would rather not think about the number of clients who completely change the scope and direction of a project after it’s well underway.

Also, the lower the price per page, the more demanding the clients tend to be. Copywriters get video conferencing requests nearly every day, even on weekends, to discuss the progress of a project. And since many copywriters work with clients that are based overseas, the conferences are scheduled during hours that are convenient for the clients, but not for the copywriters. After a few 3AM conferences, it’s pretty easy to feel like you’re being taken advantage of.

By properly pricing their services, instead of trying to compete on competition, copywriters can not only increase their profits dramatically; they can eliminate quite a few of the administrative headaches as well.

To give a more “real world” example… think about how many times you have sat in your car at a McDonalds drive-thru, watching the guy ahead of you argue with the cashier about his order. Maybe he was mad because the price of a Big Mac rocketed from $2.79 to $2.89. Perhaps he was upset because the manager wouldn’t allow burgers to be cooked medium-rare. Or, he could have been angry because he had to pay an additional 69 cents for extra bacon. Whatever the reason, it’s a scene that most of us have witnessed more than once.

Now, think about the last time you saw a similar scene in a five-star restaurant. Chances are, you haven’t. That’s because (among other things) the perception of value is much higher. Expensive restaurants hire gourmet chefs who know their stuff, and there’s little room for argument. You tell the waiter that everything was fantastic, pay the check, and go on about your way.

If you’re currently underpricing your products or services, it’s time to take a step back and look at what your time is really worth.

In a future post, we’ll take a look at premium pricing – a model that can significantly increase both your sales and your profits.

Potential advertisers will look at, in part, the number of daily page views your blog receives. This will determine whether they want to advertise on your blog, and how much they are willing to pay. More page views makes your blog more valuable to advertisers. And the best way to increase page views is to keep visitors engaged, compelling them to read more of your posts and pages.

Here are 5 WordPress plugins that will help you increase your daily page views:

1) Similar Posts

The Similar Posts plugin displays a customized list of related posts at the end of each entry. The plugin automatically chooses posts with similar content; however, you can configure the plugin to factor in tags and titles as well. Before you can use this plugin, you’ll need to install the Post Plugin Library (this plugin doesn’t do anything on its own, but it facilitates the use of several other plugins).

Why it helps: The Similar Posts plugin offers recommendations based on the post a visitor has just read. Readers don’t need to search for related information – this plugin tells them where to go next.

2) Popular Posts

Like the Similar Posts plugin, Popular Posts is designed to help visitors navigate your blog. This plugin calculates which posts have received the most page views, and displays a list of the most frequently visited posts. This plugin also requires the Post Plugin Library plugin.

Why it helps: Visitors want to know why other people like your blog. The Popular Post plugin shows the posts that others find the most interesting… these are the posts that define your blog. This strategy is based on the concept that readers like to be led, rather than spending hours searching for the most valuable content on their own.

3) Most Commented

Like the Popular Posts plugin, the Most Commented plugin automatically uses site statistics to create a module for your sidebar. This module shows the posts that have received the most comments.

Why it helps: Again, new visitors to your blog want to go straight to the information other readers have found the most valuable. This plugin gives visitors a way to quickly access the posts which have generated the most discussion. Because the posts shown in the Most Commented module have raised the interest of your current readers and subscribers, new visitors will want to read them, too. 

4) What Would Seth Godin Do?

This plugin uses cookies to differentiate first-time visitors from repeat visitors. It allows you to create separate welcome messages for new and repeat visitors – these messages can be shown before or after the first post on the front page of your blog.

Why it helps: The new visitor welcome message can be used to point readers to the most important posts on your blog, or to encourage them to subscribe to your RSS feed and/or email newsletter. Getting visitors to subscribe right away increases the chance that they’ll be back to read more of your posts.

Not everyone uses the “return visitor” message feature, but even a simple “Welcome back! Glad to see you again” sort of message can help returning visitors feel special – like they’re part of an “insider’s circle”.

5) Post Teaser

The Post Teaser plugin lets you show only a paragraph or two of each post on the front page, and provides links to the full posts. The teasers can be any length you choose - after a bit of experimenting, I found that 100 word teasers work best for me.

Why it works: This plugin doesn’t need a great deal of explanation - the visitor has to click on the “Read Full Post” link below the teaser to read the full post, so you get at least an extra page view per visitor (assuming the visitor lands on your home page first).

I certainly don’t mean to put off those of you who are using another blogging platform, but since many of my readers have been asking questions about WordPress over on one of my other blogs, Blogger’s Workshop, I thought it was time to provide some nuts-and-bolts info about blogging on this platform.

Lee

Twitter: @JJMbuzz

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