Let me be very clear about this right up front: I am NOT telling you that sharing is a bad idea - because it is not. I am also not telling you that charity is a bad idea - because it is not. What I am going to address in this posting is a more subtle but equally widespread tweak if you will, that could be the difference between financial independence and neverending poverty for YOU.

But first, a little story. A good friend and coach of mine, once told me about her background in Software support to merchants and end users. She was in a service oriented business and would answer various questions to troubleshoot issues for her callers.

One day she decided that it would make sense for her to adjust her rates and increase them, because she felt that she was always busy and many clients called back to ask her fos advise again and again. Since she was not the manager she sat down with her boss and informed him of her rate increase. At this point, not only did the manager not object to this idea, but none of the clients even mentionend that they were unhappy with the higher rates.

As a matter of fact she was even busier than before, except now getting higher pay for her time and expertise.

In Blogging and in many other business ventures, whether online or offline, some of use choose to get paid for our time and others for our performance. If you ever intended to really succeed in any business you have to know what you are worth to others and be prepared to charge them that rate. I know that this seems really obvious, but for every successful website I looked at in the past month I found at least 5 that are not ever going to make it in the way they are set up and run.

I’m not talking about the design, flashy code or banner spots. What I mean is a simple page that let’s people know the rates for advertising, reviews promotions and other services. You have to  remember that the customer will generally take the lazy route to get what they want from you. So if you have a clear and confident pricing structure with available space or time and an easy way to pay for it, you are half way home.

 And here is one other point that I cannot stress enough: Don’t be afraid to charge people for something that you are good at. Don’t pretend you are a charity, or that you are not worth the full price for some reason or another. I’ll let you in on a little secret from a marketing maverick that I greatly admire. His name is Donny Deutsch and he currently has a show on TV called “The Big Idea”. His background is the CEO spot of a large advertising firm so you better take note of his advise, since it’s battle tested.

He said: “When I submitted a proposal to a client, I always made sure that we were priced at the top of the competition. Firstly, because I knew we did great work and had success to back it up, and secondly because we could always negotiate and come down a little if the client had concerns or requests.”

I think that is a great philosophy that is totally underused today. How many times do you see businesses compete on the lowest this and the lowest that? Enough already ! If you are giving top tier value, charge a top tier price and leave the competition in the dust.

Everything else is leaving money at the table, and in my opinion, that giving your money away where you don’t have to.

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