DMs Guild Pay What You Want on the DMs Guild - An Analysis and Explanation

[Morrus]

Interestingly, I once tried a "free product for reviews" promotion. I let anyone who agreed to write a review (good or bad) have a product for free. Around 3,000 people responded and got sent product (nearly $20,000 of product).

I got one review. It was 12 words long.

 

[Mark CMG]

The lack of ratings is a pretty serious issue with no solution though. I used to check all of my products multiple times per day for new discussions and such, but I quickly learned that was a massive waste of time. Now I just check them once per week if at all.

I get an email notification when one of the products I have on OBS sites gets a rating or a review.

 

[Morrus]

I get an email notification when one of the products I have on OBS sites gets a rating or a review.

Maybe I do too. It being about an annual event, I probably wouldn't notice.

 

[Mark CMG]

Maybe I do too. It being about an annual event, I probably wouldn't notice.

heh I hear ya. I get more of them on the free Cooperative Dungeons than anything else but fortunately not too many pot shots from "adoring fans." I sometimes wonder if some older products should be retired lest someone think everything is at that level of production value but it's hard to remove anything that still makes money. I did throw a whole slew of older stuff in a zip which I called a bundle (before the bundle feature was actually available) and I think that covers that potential problem fairly well.

 

[Giant2005]

I get an email notification when one of the products I have on OBS sites gets a rating or a review.

It is more the discussions I was concerned with (although I'd love to receive a review once in a while - one of my products even received a much undeserved 2 star review and I was happy to take it! Being slammed is better than being ignored).
Although I have never received an e-mail telling me that I have been reviewed either. They might be ending up in my spam or something.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Interestingly, I once tried a "free product for reviews" promotion. I let anyone who agreed to write a review (good or bad) have a product for free. Around 3,000 people responded and got sent product (nearly $20,000 of product).

I got one review. It was 12 words long.

That is... disheartening.

 

[Sunseeker]

I like PWYW, but so often they equate with "free". Which is easier to dismiss.
When I opted to price my products, I wanted them behind a pay wall to avoid the "free" stigma. I also wanted them priced low, as PWYW often asks people to throw in a buck or two and I didn't want people paying that much for my content. I wanted them to pay... but not that much.

I agree with Jester, a set price gives your product, and by extension, the creator a set value. You're not just saying "This is worth X", you're saying "my time is worth X", "Me as a person is worth X". If people don't want to pay that, fine that's a risk you have to accept when pricing a product. But I dislike some of the language behind support for PWYW, it runs very close to "doing it for exposure", which is a complete and total load of words I can't use on this forum. Beyond that, people have more respect for what they MUST pay for, than what they choose​ to pay for, or don't pay for at all.

I value my time and effort. Effort expends resources that cost money. Time takes away from time I could be making money, or doing fun stuff. So if time costs money and effort costs money, then naturally I should be paid in wom...er...wrong anectdote... That is to say, I should be paid for my time, even if I'm doing it "because I want to".

If I ever upload anything I've created to the DMGs, it will have a price, even if a low one.

 

[Giant2005]

I agree with Jester, a set price gives your product, and by extension, the creator a set value. You're not just saying "This is worth X", you're saying "my time is worth X", "Me as a person is worth X". If people don't want to pay that, fine that's a risk you have to accept when pricing a product. But I dislike some of the language behind support for PWYW, it runs very close to "doing it for exposure", which is a complete and total load of words I can't use on this forum. Beyond that, people have more respect for what they MUST pay for, than what they choose​ to pay for, or don't pay for at all.

I value my time and effort. Effort expends resources that cost money. Time takes away from time I could be making money, or doing fun stuff. So if time costs money and effort costs money, then naturally I should be paid in wom...er...wrong anectdote... That is to say, I should be paid for my time, even if I'm doing it "because I want to".

If I ever upload anything I've created to the DMGs, it will have a price, even if a low one.

Keep in mind that the minute you start selling something, it becomes an economic product. You can't just price the product by what you, the supplier thinks it is worth. Demand must be taken into account and by doing so, the price isn't what you think the product is worth, but what you think people will pay for it.
Some of my products are worth a lot more than what I have them priced at but I know that demand will never meet their value so I lower the price due to 6 sales at $2 being worth more than 1 sale at $10.
Considering a product to be less desirable because it has a lower price point is extremely backward economically speaking and I'm not trying to insult you, but it does sound very elitist. Would you consider a physical product in a store to be less desirable to you simply because it is cheap? If you want something, you should be glad that it has been priced at a point where it won't break the bank.

 

[Sunseeker]

Keep in mind that the minute you start selling something, it becomes an economic product. You can't just price the product by what you, the supplier thinks it is worth. Demand must be taken into account and by doing so, the price isn't what you think the product is worth, but what you think people will pay for it.
Some of my products are worth a lot more than what I have them priced at but I know that demand will never meet their value so I lower the price due to 6 sales at $2 being worth more than 1 sale at $10.
Considering a product to be less desirable because it has a lower price point is extremely backward economically speaking and I'm not trying to insult you, but it does sound very elitist. Would you consider a physical product in a store to be less desirable to you simply because it is cheap? If you want something, you should be glad that it has been priced at a point where it won't break the bank.

What you're suggesting is absurd. The implication is that any potential seller should do market-wide research for their product, and while that applies to large companies, it certainly does NOT apply to small-time sales in places like the DMGs. It's not even remotely feisable. If this is some kind of argument that every product should start at $0.01 and go up until it finds equilibrium, that's even more absurd, nobody does business like that.

That aside, you are factually wrong. I can name whatever price I want for my product. Does that mean people will buy it? Of course not. But there's nothing stopping me from deciding how much my time and effort is worth. "the market" won't stop me. I just won't sell anything (or sell very little).

Sorry, I work with my wife to help her manage her art business. People who get things for free or extremely cheap, people who get "deals" will get pissy and act like you are purposefully against them when you demand fair rates. They then stop doing business with you because you're not giving them what they want and/or throw a massive fit over it.

People who pay a reasonable market price for a product respect it more and that's just flat out experience talking.

So I guess if demanding fair pay for my time and energy is "elitist" then yeah, I'm elitist and not one bit ashamed of it.

 

[Giant2005]

That aside, you are factually wrong. I can name whatever price I want for my product. Does that mean people will buy it? Of course not. But there's nothing stopping me from deciding how much my time and effort is worth. "the market" won't stop me. I just won't sell anything (or sell very little).

That is the whole point. It is extremely rare for anyone to post an item at the price they think it is worth because it attracts less sales. Instead they post them at a price that they think people will be happy to pay.
Therefore the price listed on the site has nothing at all to do with what the writer thinks it is worth.

More than that though, the notion of being willing to buy a product at an expensive price (say $10) but not being willing to buy that same product at a cheaper price (say $2) is absurd and flies in the face of economics. If you genuinely think that way, you aren't anyone's target audience - you are a statistical anomaly.