Years ago, when I was just a snot-nosed wastrel learning how the real world worked, I was managing the second storefront of a small chain (i.e., “two”) of comic shops. My boss, who was the manager of the flagship store, had some very sage advice for me one day.
One day, I asked him why it was that we priced every single back issue, no matter the actual demand, at no less than a quarter over cover price when you could find a lot of the runs we had in stock in someone’s quarter bin. He looked at me with that look you give someone when you’re being extremely patient with them and said to me, “If you price something at a quarter when the cover has a great big ’60¢’ staring them in the face, they’ll figure it’s not worth anything. If it’s got a sticker on the bag with ‘$1.00’ on it, people who actually read the books are more likely to buy them. Trust me, been doing this awhile, and it sounds crazy but it’s true.”
It immediately made sense to me. Sure, we all want deals, and we all think getting something for free is better than paying for it. The catch is, psychologically this only works for things we already know we want and for which we can shop around. If it’s the only place you can get it, and it’s an impulse purchase, the perceived value of the item affects your buying pattern.
The reason I bring all this up is that I have been wondering, half-jokingly, if my blogs would get more traffic if they had ads. I wonder if the fact that I keep them ad-free gives off the impression that I don’t care if people read — or worse, that I don’t think my crap is worth reading. After all, why wouldn’t I try to make some money that costs the reader nothing at all?
I just don’t know if the same background mental processes work for something which is inherently free anyway. Just an odd Sunday morning musing.
