I often buy book from logos.com and amazon.com, but since I discovered the logos.com Community Bidding Price, I’m so addicted to play and buy through this engaging method, that I think we implement it in some niches, like Seminar and Teaching.

The community bid pricing works smooth and with fun:
The seller plans to build a product, and estimates a production cost of, let’s say 1.000$. He describe the future product, and let the community to decide to pre-pay it.

Like the Kickstarter model, the product is built only if a market exist and if the demand pays for it.

The bidding price is quite different and here is the tricky part: each one of the potential customer bid to the highest price he would like to pay.
i.e. if 10 people bid 80$, the production cost is already at 80% of the total (800$). They will pay any price under 80$. Then other 10 people bid 50$.
So we have a peak at 80$ with 10 people ready to pay a 800$ total, and a peak at 50$ with 20 people ready to pay a total of 1.000$! Production cost covered, all 20 will get the product for the 50$ price.

Two days later the bidding closes and they all pay 50$. And the price moves to pre-sales prices at i.e. 150$, still discounted from the final market price of 200$.

You see now the catch?
How a little difference with Kickstarter makes it 10x awesome?
Like:

1. A day after the bid close, you feel like “Wow, I got this for a 66% discount, what a deal!”
2. You plan what you afford/feel right, but you will pay probably much less. Often
3. All people pay the same price, and get the same product. No cheat, no trick, no jealousy
4. The producer get is money and start building it

Now let’s focus on a different niche, the Seminar and Teaching field.

I want to teach a three days class about guerrilla marketing. To prepare the course I need maybe a 2 days of study, powerpoint, notes and thinking, which costs me my normal fee of 100$ a day.
I call the theatre in Rome which can hold conference for 30-100 people, for 500$ a day.
So 100$ x 3 + 500$ x 3 makes 1.800$ total.

I just write the description of A 3 days Guerrilla Marketing class for Middle-Management who wants to move to Top-Management. And the production cost of 1.800$. Deadline for the bidding 2 months from now. Max 30 people audience. Production completion after bid is 3 weeks. Final ticket is 300$. Done in 15 minutes.

I sit at my desk and forget it.

2 months later I receive a email saying “Your seminar bidding close tomorrow. The final price at the moment is 80$ for 25 people who signed. Production cost covered at 111% (2.000$)“.

Nice huh?

I study few days, powerpoint, word, whatever…while the website market the seminar for 300$ a person, with 90% discount for a week, and reedemable coupon to all pre-production buyers with a 50% discount to give to a friend.
Nice huh?

Do you like?
To setup the website and business I need about 3.000$. Any bid?

_{If you want to check my calculation, the trick is to sum all people who want to pay a price with the price point.
i.e. at 40$ point there are 34 people bidding, plus 5 people bidding at 80$ and a person bidding at 150$ max. So it’s a 40 people who’d pay 40$, a total of 1.600$, for about 90% of 1.800$.
Same at 5$ point, we have a total of 144 people who’d pay and it makes the 40% of production cost. Nice!}