Support me by leaving a comment, review and vote
visit my Pat**on at belamy20
you can read lots story
"Shane, you really know how to crack the whip. You come up with a random brain fart, and you dump all the grunt work on your brother, huh? You even set a deadline for me. What am I, your hired IT child laborer? How much are you even paying me? Shane, you big capitalist, say one more word and I quit."
Lip started cursing and grumbling, putting on a show like he was about to walk off the job right then and there.
Ian, sitting next to Lip, chimed in:
"Quit? You looked like you wanted to do it. I got up in the middle of the night to get water and saw you still tinkering with that stuff."
Having his cover blown, Lip paused for a second, the tips of his ears turning a little red. But he stiffened his neck and argued back:
"I was doing that for the labor fee Shane promised me, got it? I take money to do a job. I'm just fulfilling the capitalist employment relationship."
Shane looked at Lip. It was obvious Lip cared about the task he was given, yet he had to pretend he didn't want to do it. Shane couldn't be bothered to call him out.
That was just Lip. He cared about the family, but he always had to talk tough and say the opposite.
Fiona, sitting nearby, let her gaze drift between Shane, Lip, and Ian.
"Bitcoin? What is that?"
Before anyone could answer, Fiona shook her head.
"Forget it, I'm not asking. Even if I asked, you guys wouldn't explain it clearly anyway. As long as you aren't robbing banks or trying to turn the basement into a meth lab, I don't have the energy to care. Eat, eat, hurry up."
Debbie, sitting across from Shane and hugging her doll, asked quietly:
"What's a Bitcoin? Is it a new kind of chocolate? Is it tasty?"
Carl, his mouth stuffed with food, immediately jumped into the conversation.
"Did you guys just say lottery? Is that lottery ticket worth a lot of money? Can it buy a gun? Or can I trade it for that electric baton of yours? Shane, I want that stick."
Carl looked at Shane with a face full of anticipation, hoping Shane would say yes.
Shane put down his fork and looked at Carl.
"Carl, I just gave you a science kit yesterday. Are you bored with it already?"
He shouldn't have mentioned it. As soon as he did, Carl started complaining to Shane.
"I already played through that thing. You lied to me. That thing didn't explode at all. It did nothing."
Carl got more excited as he spoke, waving his fork in the air.
"I want a real bomb. I want that stun baton. Oh, and didn't you promise to give me a robot before?"
Shane reached out as if to twist his ear, scaring Carl into ducking under the table.
"Think about how much trouble you've caused these past few days. I won't even mention you trying to electrocute me—rigging wires at the door—but let's talk about that cat. Did Frank really scare it away? Think about it carefully yourself."
Shane said grumpily, "And you want a robot? I'll beat you into a robot right now."
Saying that, Shane acted like he was getting out of his chair to grab Carl and give him a thrashing.
"Enough!"
Seeing that the dinner table was about to turn into a scene of 'tough love,' Fiona slapped the table.
"Can we just eat first? Everyone, eat!"
She dragged Carl back up and pointed at his bowl. "Eat the green peas in your bowl yourself. You are not allowed to secretly push them over to Debbie, or no TV for you tonight."
...
Under Fiona's "tyrannical rule," the dinner table finally quieted down.
Before long, Shane finished his meal quickly. He went straight back to the basement and turned on the computer, preparing to edit the training course he had recorded that afternoon.
...
Finally finished editing the training content recorded this afternoon, he stopped to exhale and lit a cigarette.
He thought about it: besides the quality of the course being up to par, he needed to make users want to buy his course. After buying it, they needed to feel it was worth it, and even want to buy more.
He ran through his sales plan in his mind.
Start with the cheapest option: $6.99. This course would just be a PDF. The content inside is simple—just some mainstream movements and reminders about common mistakes.
The main selling point of this price is that it's cheap. It makes users feel like they can get a somewhat professional course for the price of a cup or two of coffee. Buying it to try it out doesn't feel like a loss.
Then comes the next tier: The $9.99 course. This course doesn't change much from the previous one, but it includes a 7-day diet plan.
This makes users feel that for just three dollars more, they get a diet plan, giving them the feeling of getting a bargain.
The next tier is the core product he was currently editing.
$29.99. This contains professional, high-efficiency training content.
His price point is at least half as cheap as a single personal training session at a gym.
The target audience for this course is people who want to work out but are tight on cash. This price point makes them feel it's just right—basically the cost of a few meals.
The next tier: If you are willing to add $5, making it $34.99, you can get a "Cheat Meal Guide." This teaches you how to eat burgers and pizza without ruining your training results.
And if you're willing to add another $5, making it $39.99, you can get a weekly cyclic diet plan.
The subsequent courses follow this logic, all the way up to his ultimate $199 course.
The more Shane thought about it, the more he felt this path was right.
From cheap to expensive, everything was interlinked. A user wanting to buy the cheapest course thinks, Hey, for three bucks more I can get a diet plan. Should I add it?
Someone who wants to buy his $29.99 course might grit their teeth and add another five bucks for the "Cheat Meal Guide," and so on.
He could almost imagine the users who wanted to buy his course pulling their hair out as they looked at these prices and the add-on content.
They might keep comparing prices, and finally, grit their teeth—
Originally planning to buy the cheapest one, they end up adding on until they hit the most expensive tier, probably thinking, "I'm already spending this much, a little more won't hurt. Might as well go all the way."
Thinking about this, Shane took a drag of his cigarette. But there was still one problem to solve: piracy.
In this day and age, once a digital product is sold, people can copy and spread it everywhere. He needed to add some anti-theft measures.
He figured that in 2010, he couldn't do anything too complex.
But he could add a unique watermark to every paid video, or embed the buyer's account name or order number into it. Make the text small so it doesn't affect viewing, but if anyone pirates it, the source can be found at a glance.
The PDF files could also be encrypted with a password, which would be sent to the user's email separately after purchase.
He also had to write clearly in the course introduction: Sharing is strictly prohibited. If discovered, you will be banned immediately, and you won't get any future updates or bonus content.
With this whole set of measures, although it couldn't prevent everything completely, it could at least scare off the majority of ordinary people.
If he really encountered the type who was hell-bent on pirating it, there was nothing he could do. He had done what he could.