As I mentioned in my previous articles here and here I’d like to share the results of my Pay What You Wish week ( Oct 30th – Nov 5th).
One artist wrote–
“Dear Marie, hope you’re well, :-D! I’ve just purchased 2 of your wonderful ebooks from your “pay what you wish” campaign. I’m in not-so-good economic times and I could only provide a small amount of 5 dollars per ebook. I know the value of your ebooks is much higher. And I know you’ve worked hard to write them. I can’t pass up the opportunity to get this great stuff, but I feel bad about not being able to pay a fair price. I hope you do not consider an offense, my small contribution, and accept a compensation from me. I can send you an original piece of my art, an original drawing, for example. Maybe, after reading your ebooks it’s time for me to open an eShop and start selling online! :-D”
I really love this artist’s note. Also, I did let the artist know that I’d use his kind words for my article, and that I consider that full compensation–though I do love his offer of to send me an artwork!
But he absolutely got my point. I want to give artists ideas for setting up their own “Pay What You Wish” digital files. These could be digital images of artwork for download as wallpaper/screen savers, or e-books sharing various “how to” details of their art-making practice. The possibilities are endless.
Now, I will share some insights and statistics from my week of allowing buyers to pay what they wished for the items in my webstore here.
First of all, I noticed that most of the sales came on the first day and the last day of Pay What Your Wish Week. I posted an announcement on my blog at the start of the sale and another on the last day of the sale. I tweeted about it on the days in between.
Here are the Stats from my *Pay What You Wish* week of webstore sales-–
33 sales at minimum item price of $1.95/$1.99 = $64.70
8 sales at $2= $16.
24 sales at $5. =$120.
1 sales at $5.95= $5.95
1 sale at $8.00 = $8.00
4 sales at $10.= $40.
————————-
71 sales totaling $254.65
Allowing buyers to Pay What They Wished netted a little over 10% of the total amount of 67 sales at regular prices ($2355.15).
So basically, artists may choose to sell select items to buyers at higher set prices, and have a few Pay What You Wish items for a higher volume of sales– perhaps achieving sales that they may not have gotten at the higher prices.
photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
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