“‘Tis called the ‘evil:’
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do.”
For centuries, English and French kings used to claim they had a divine gift. They had the “king’s touch,” which could heal disease on contact.
Mostly, these monarchs specialized in healing one disease — a nasty condition called scrofula. This was a tumor-like lump on the neck, along with ruptured skin there.
Scrofula even became known as the “king’s evil.” If you had the evil, you could push your way towards the king… get touched… and with almost miraculous certainty, be healed. In this way, the “king’s touch” gave the monarchs a special authority and position, separate from the money and power they controlled.
“Yeah yeah,” I hear you saying. “Enough with the history lesson. Tell me how I can make money.”
All right. So continuing with my recent series, here’s a great way to make money, one I first heard from Ben Settle:
Charge premium prices. $97/month for a 16-page print newsletter… $499/month for access to an insiders’ community… $986 for a paperback book.
There are good practical reasons for this premium price strategy. Ben explains it by saying he’d rather have four quarters than 100 pennies.
Sure, both might add up to $1.
But it takes a lot less work to pick up four quarters than a hundred pennies… plus the quarters are likely to have changed hands less often and therefore be cleaner… plus they are easier to carry than a clunky jar full of copper.
So there’s that.
But there’s another, more powerful reason to charge premium prices.
It goes back to the king’s touch… and the king’s evil. Because scrofula rarely resulted in death, and it usually disappeared on its own. That was the explanation for the kings’ divine gift.
And in a similar way, along with a few other things Ben does, premium prices select a special part of your market.
They select the part that was most likely to succeed anyhow. That was most likely to succeed with your guidance… or with somebody else’s guidance… or without guidance at all, just with some extra time.
And just to be clear — I’m not trying to take away anything from the stuff Ben teaches. There are many profitable ideas inside his paid products. Many I’ve personally used and made money from.
But if you take the extra step, like Ben does, to get those ideas into the hands of people who will most likely succeed, sooner or later, one way or another… well, once they do succeed, you can credibly claim to have the divine gift. The king’s touch. A special authority and positioning, separate from your marketing or the quality of products you sell.
But you say you want more scrofulous business and marketing ideas.
Well I’m not surprised. But I am quite sleepy. So if you do want more, sign up to my email newsletter, and I’ll have a new marketing idea ready for you tomorrow.