Great post.

Just like “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, value is in the eye of the beholder too.

In both cases, effective marketing allows you to shape those perceptions so that the beholder sees what you want them to see.

There’s been a whole lot of good marketing going on, even before the internet.

Look at all the married people in this world… some of them did an outstanding job of marketing themselves to their spouse

-Johnny

HOW you invest your money (or your time, for that matter) is the key to reaching your goals. I believe that is one of the more difficult pieces of the puzzle for those starting out, since they dont know where to start or what could potentially bring the desired results. But once you have a handle on your project, and what it will take to launch it, the key is in staying super-focused in regards to your “investments”.

Bottom line: you’d be smart to spend your $800 staying focused on the project at hand.

The real investment comes in terms of time, energy & creativity. The key is in placing a value on those elements, and using them as wisely as people tend to use their money…

“The amount of time in order to extract the value…” I love the way you word things! Excellent.

One aspect that often gets overlooked when analyzing an investment, is the amount of time that would need to also be invested in order to extract the value out of that product (or service, or event, etc).

As you pointed out in your comment, your expectations include what Stompernet can do for you. But in reality, a substantial amount of time would need to be invested on the buyers end to get true value out of the membership.

This is one of the factors that I consider heavily before making any decision or any purchase, given that I dont have a lot of additional time to invest at the moment. I’m curious how many of you feel the same about that – whether that plays a part in your decision making process as well.

Stompernet is not for my market.

Stompernet is for people with expendable income, as $800 for a lot of people is a mortgage payment. If I was a complete newbie in my situation, lets say, for that price tag I would expect a real person in my office 3 times a week, holding my hand, doing my dishes, and launching my first few PPC campaigns for me. I would expect a contract with a guaranteed ROI within the first 30 days.

It’s way too much money for a big chunk of the market. But the perception of the price tag will intrigue many many people, the price seems so outrageous that it has to work, right? I feel thats what most people will think once they start googling stompernet.

For the young professionals like myself though, perception doesn’t play as important of a role with a product/service like this. It’s not realistic, nor smart to invest that much money on something virtual, something intangible.

Great post, got me thinking.

I have yet to spent any advertising dollars for I fear the bad consequences.

Hi Desmond – What do you fear, specifically?

Advertising is an interesting example. I rarely pay for advertising outside of using Google Adwords ocassionally or perhaps buying a text link here and there. I’d love to hear more from you on that one…

My guess is “yes”. Coaching can be great for 2 reasons – for getting specific help with goal setting and goal achievement, and also as a point of accountability to self.

Can’t imagine paying $800/month, though. Maybe someday!