I’m curious about selling products online using PWIW and how it can work best. So, about six months ago I turned some communication tools I’d created over the years into products and began selling them in my store using PWIW.

Using PWIW for an Online Store

For my experiment, I wanted to figure out a strong way of selling a product online using PWIW. My first task (I felt) was to find software to help me with the buying and selling of my products. I needed a shopping cart tool to enable the sales transaction and to provide the product to buyers after sale. After doing research I decided upon using e-junkie. I have been happy with this decision.

The second decision I needed to make was how I was going to employ the e-junkie shopping cart with PWIW pricing. As with most online shopping carts, while it allows the customer to set the price of the item (often called a donation), it also requires the seller to set a suggested price.

Suggested Prices Signify Something

One of those things they can signify is what I think the thing I’m selling is worth. And for this experiment, that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted you alone to decide what the product is worth to you.

But this was not, and is not, an option currently with online shopping carts — to set NO suggested price — so I needed to set the suggested price at something. The value I decided to use (for every product’s suggested price) was what I felt was a ridiculously low value ($0.07). My hope was this suggested price signified, please think about what you value this at because this price is clearly not a fair one.

It was my hypothesis that $0.07 was such an insignificant value to give/pay that it would be altered by each buyer. Most of us would not feel good giving $0.07 to a person in need, nor as a tip for service. And what can we puchase for that amount, outside of loose candy?

Despite this truth about the value of $0.07, my experiment yielded a handful of people that had no problem in giving this amount to a faceless shopping cart in return for a communication tool created by me in support of them.

(It should be noted that no profit is made from online sales roughly less than $0.50 due to PayPal’s costs to process the transaction.)

A Curious Result

This is not to say there hasn’t been customers that have given generously and fairly, despite the $0.07 suggested price. The generous are the majority in my PWIW experiment. But I found it curious, this minority that used the $0.07 suggested price as their price. They, I feel, are something to consider further.

I theorized there was something in my communication, namely the suggested price, that was contributing to this outcome. I wondered if by setting the suggested price very low, I was unconsciously sending a message about how I valued my work. What does it say about me and how I value my products when I set the suggested price low?

My Question

If these people exist, those that do not consciously consider how they value a product, and you want to sell something online using PWIW, how can you improve the exchange so that they behave more fairly?

My Theory

I’m theorizing that when the suggested price is set extremely low and there is no human connection, the communication it sends allows others to more easily react from a scarcity mindset and not value the product fairly, nor pay fairly.

Trying Something Different

Rather than setting the suggested price ridiculously low ($0.07) for each of the products in my store, I’ve set it ridiculously high ($777).

I am still hoping the suggested price will signify, please think about what you value this at because this price is clearly not a fair one. I am interested in how this higher suggested price affects the behaviour of those customers who wish to buy unconsciously.

In six months time, I’ll let you know what my experiment yields.

photo credit: kevin dooley
Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Pay-What-It’s-Worth Pricing: Just the Facts, Ma’am
• Get Paid Your Value, Not Your Price
• developing My communication strategy
• A Pricing Approach to Raise Your Consciousness
• Why You Pay What You Do

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

Arn (Zingdad) Allingham
Dreamer, author, healer, and tea boy
Zingdad.com

I am:

The other you.

Beyond that I am an awakening soul working hard to remember who I REALLY am. And as I do so, so I discover, I cannot help but to also assist others around me to awaken and remember who THEY really are too! I write, I share and engage. I offer healing. And I live the most blissful self-sustainable life in an off-the-grid home in a beautiful mountainous forest in sunny South Africa.

My passion is for:

Reminding those who are ready to remember of who they really are: an eternal, immortal creator being of infinite power!

My business helps you:

What I do is centered around helping you to discover exactly that: that you are indeed an eternal, immortal creator being of infinite power. I do this by helping you to deal with your fears, pain and self-limiting beliefs so that you are willing to awaken to the magnificence of your own being. I walk the journey with you as you discover that this is really true. I help you to heal, to awaken, to be all that you truly are.

My biggest challenge is:

I am, as I have mentioned, the “other you”. I am a human being with human frailties to overcome. It is poetic that my biggest challenge is believing in MY magnificence, is it not? They say we teach that which we most desire to learn!

I make a difference by:

I have written and published a book called The Ascension Papers. The intention of this book was to help readers to make their way from victim to creator. The over-abundant volume of feedback I have received is that it does exactly that! I am busy writing my second book now.

I also have an “ascension school” which is about creating a real-life hands-on journey that you can engage with as you seek to discover, in your own personal experience, that you are one with the Oneness and the creator of your own life.

Beyond that I offer a one-on-one healing modality called Soul Re-Integration in which I assist clients to heal their inner-pain and discover and release ancient trauma. It is a deeply transformative journey.

I have lots of ideas about:

Connecting, healing, being an agent of love and helping without rescuing. Oneness. Discovering and living your potential.

I’ve learned:

The single greatest truth I have discovered is that All is truly One. We are all, really, one with each other, one with the planet and one with Life. We are all creating our own experiences. Mostly we don’t know this and mostly we are hard at work confounding ourselves by creating what we DON’T want. But that can be corrected! If we are willing to heal our own inner-pain and release the blockages in our souls then we all can (and will) find our way to creating with beauty love and joy. Fear and pain have their place… but they are optional! And because All is One, what you do to another you do to yourself also. It is possible, with a little work and awareness, to move your life to a place where you are only expressing that which is most congruent with your Soul’s Purpose. When you do you will be putting out awesome magnificent stuff 24/7. And Life will feed that back to you multiplied. It is not just possible but inevitable. Follow your heart and you will get there. And if you are stuck, come and find me on my website… I might be able to help!

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Stephanie Hamilton: March 2012 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• Bob O’Connor: March 2011 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• Living in the Real World
• Kara Sorensen: February 2010 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• Kai Soremekun: December 2011 Innerpreneur Spotlight

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

My point-of-view matters.

Who am I?

Why am I here?

These questions matter to my personal brand.

The answers not so much. It’s not really about them. My value lies in the asking, in the questions.

Exploring my distinct point-of-view is good for me, and it’s good for business.

For knowing I matter matters deeply.

I am contributing to my brand’s wealth whenever I focus on discovering more about what makes me uniquely and invaluably me.

I can hear my point-of-view when I listen inwards, and when I listen to what is reflected back at me by my marketplace and my community.

Through these acts of asking and listening, I am uncovering my voice, and what’s inside of me and my brand. I am coming to understand why my point of view matters.

The more I grow to I understand my voice, the more clearly I can communicate it, and the better you can connect with it.

It’s brand magic. Made by me and my curiosity towards how I uniquely add value to the world.

Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• 5 Tips for Finding Your Signal and Creating a Web Presence to Support It
• Prosperity is a Venn Diagram Away
• Don’t Take My Advice
• defining my market niche
• clarifying my website strategy

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

There is no demand for my message.

Personal branding isn’t about packaging myself up into a pretty box and showing only the good and glowing. The whole me, not my tidy little message, is what people want and will see, whether I attempt to control it or not.

Establishing a message for myself, deciding on a pretense, trying to make you think what I want you to think about me, is not of benefit to me. And it’s not of interest to you. You don’t care about what I want to pretend to be.

My personal brand, it is my Marketing, and it’s not something I do to you. Marketing is something I do with you. It’s about creating great conversations.

That’s what’s really in demand. Connection.

My message, my pretense, can only prevent me from reaching that place with you.

 
Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• It’s a Tactic, Not a Guarantee
• another thing I think I know about personal branding
• Help for My Helpful Condition
• Promotion That Feels Good
• Reflections on Value Pricing

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

In Peter Senge’s book The Fifth Discipline, he writes,

“The gap between vision and current reality is a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. We call this gap creative tension.”

It seems to me that when we allow ourselves to be in the gap between our dreams and our reality — to live in our own creative tension — we find our self most ripe with the solutions we need.

In this space we are living our questions, and the tense energy we create from “not knowing” activates our curiosity. This gap in “knowing” frees us to be the beginners we are.

If we can learn to enjoy the tension “not knowing”, and avoid those who “know” without questioning, I believe we can create our greatest possibility to discover our answers and close our gap between what is and what could be.

photo credit: garymacfadyen
Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• More Questions Than Answers
• I Just Don’t Know
• The Me I’ve Been Avoiding
• Asking Questions
• Let’s Not Form a Cult

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

Saskia Busch
Animal Communicator & Founder of Yap Yap Meow
Find Yap Yap Meow on Facebook | Pinterest

I am:

An animal communicator, communicating from the heart and dedicated to providing practical, easy to use solutions to resolve issues.

My passion is for:

Anything that emits energy.

My business helps you:

Gain a better understanding and relationship with your animal friends and resolve behavior or health issues.

My biggest challenge is:

Helping the human understand when the issue lies with them and not their animal.

I make a difference by:

Offering free initial consultations to first time animal adopters through shelters.

I have lots of ideas about:

Living in the country, developing useful tools and courses for my readers.

I’ve learned:

Without action there are no results.

“By ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual relationship with the universe.”- A. Schweitzer

Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Nicole Carlin: June 2010 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• Faux Restraints or Why the Elephants Don’t Lose Their Shit and Break Free
• Me Not Always Communicate Good
• Kara Sorensen: February 2010 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• Dawn Trautman: April 2011 Innerpreneur Spotlight

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

Does it make me less professional or less able if I don’t have THE answers?

Is it so bad to “not know”?

I know experts want to be seen as right — but I just want to see everything.

I’m curious.

I want to think beyond the answers spoon fed to me by others.

I want to think beyond their attempts to assert their “knowing.”

I want to see that there is never the right answer, only the answer that works best for me.

By “not knowing” I get to live in questioning.

In questioning I get to dig deep and uncover how and why I limit myself with “must be done’s”.

In my “not knowing” I get to move past my assertions of “THE answer” and move towards finding my true solutions.
Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Living in Creative Tension
• More Questions Than Answers
• 20 min to Your Life Purpose?
• Asking My Mentor About… Sharing What I Do
• Marketing to Innerpreneurs & Cultural Creatives

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

I’ve been told those who “know” things are experts, and that they can help me make the right choices. I’ve been taught that when I have a problem, an expert will have my solution. And I’ve been led to believe that, by asserting my own “knowing,” I can create evidence of my own professionalism and abilities – and be an expert too.

To not know and to admit it, to be open and asking questions can feel wrong in the world of expertise. It can feel shameful to “not know”, and it can feel safer to appear certain of things — even when I am not. “Knowing” can feel like more of an accomplishment, and proof of my abilities, than being honest about my lack of knowing.

I know others build their careers around this false belief, that by living as an expert, they will truly know what’s best. But I can’t help but wonder, where’s the room for curiosity and wonder in that perspective? Where’s the room for living the questions?

I’m thinking the only thing I really need to “know”, as an expert or as an amateur, is that I can’t possibly have the answers until I lived the questions. It’s in the questions that the answers can be found.

photo credit: Macarena C.
Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Living in Creative Tension
• Asking Questions
• I Just Don’t Know
• another thing I think I know about personal branding
• Where You Wish to Go

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

Austin Aoyagi
Musician (and home-schooled High School Senior)
Download Austin’s Songs (currently in progress)

I am:

Intent on living life to the fullest. I am always trying to expand my horizons and test my comfort zone. I am not afraid to make difficult decisions and go against the grain if I feel that it is the best option for my life. And I still have a lot of time to work on my intention, since I am only eighteen! :P

My passion is for:

Leaving a legacy that lasts. I want to make a mark on the world through my music, my writing, my choices, and my life.

My business helps you:

Realize your full potential and accept yourself. I write and sing about my personal experiences in the hopes that it can help others overcome their fears and inspire them to live their dreams.

My biggest challenge is:

Accepting my faults and shortcomings. Although I have improved tremendously, I still struggle to accept every aspect of myself. It is an ongoing process, but I am well on my way at least.
Managing my time. I tend to think too much and act too little. It becomes overwhelming, as I constantly think that I should do more and more with the same amount of time.

I make a difference by:

Living life. I believe that my choices and actions will serve as inspiration for many others as I progress on my journey.

I have lots of ideas about:

Health. Alternative medicine, the holistic approach to health, organic eating, and more.
Education. The faults of the public education system, education reform, and the un-schooling movement.
Spirituality. Intuition, meditation, the power of the mind and belief systems, and living from the heart.

I’ve learned:

To let go and learn from hardships. l have experienced heartbreak, divorce, depression, and deaths in the family, and those events have taught me to let go and learn from the difficult times in your life. Do not hold hatred, fear, or sorrow in your heart, for it only prevents you from experiencing happiness.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”- Mae West

Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Innerpreneur Spotlight: Michael Chadd
• Kara Sorensen: February 2010 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• John Miles: May 2010 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• Walking the Tightrope
• It Felt Right at the Time

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\

From the moment I learned of the existence of the web, I was immediately drawn to it. I couldn’t have told you why, I just was. I felt I belonged there, and I wasn’t used to feeling that way.

What I realize now is that I was so attracted to the web because is was the first medium that allowed the individual to share their unique perspective with the world.

Shine your light.

For the first time, we, the individual, have the power to touch and connect with people from all over the world. Before, we usually only had the opportunity to shine our light on those in direct proximity to us.

The web has created an opportunity for us to share our story with the people who truly want to hear it.

No one else is like you.

No one else is like me. No one else knows exactly what you know and communicates it in the special, amazing way you do. You have so much wisdom that only you can share.

And you now have the opportunity to make a difference in more people’s lives than you ever have before. We need to hear from you.

The very existence of the web is an open invitation for you to share your wisdom. This, I believe, is what it is here for and personally, I can’t wait to learn from you.

photo credit: kelley_leigh
Other articles that might tickle your fancy:

• Speak Up and Share Your Wisdom
• Stephanie Vincent: November 2011 Innerpreneur Spotlight
• The Perfection of Imperfection
• Doing the Impossible
• The Distorted Lens of Familiarity

/// I've created an exploratory checklist to help you determine if Pay What it's Worth pricing is for you and your business. Learn more and buy it here. \\\