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BGonline.org Forums
Just wondering ... price ballpark
Posted By: phil simborg In Response To: Just wondering ... price ballpark (Stick)
Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2014, at 3:55 p.m.
My thoughts:
1. The number of people willing to buy and study annotated matches is very small. Most of those people who will find annotated matches interesting and helpful are Open players, or at least high intermediate. The higher level Open players can probably figure out most of what you have to say themselves ("most" of course is subjective, and I have no doubt that even the best players in the world can gain something from your insights, but it is relative).
Therefore, the market is small. Now, when you consider that market, the next question is: how many of them will you even reach with this forum and any other marketing means? Very few. And then, how many of them will buy? Some are too cheap to pay for anything, whether they can afford it or not, or they simply don't have a high enough priority in their life to pay to improve their backgammon skills. Others can't afford even a small amount.
But then there is the usefulness of the information. I happen to think that looking at random positions (as come up in a match) and trying to understand each one out of context to a set of similar positions, and without the depth of understanding the underlying concepts that make one play or cube decision better than another, is a highly inefficient way to learn, and therefore to teach. It is also tedious and boring. So even if you take a very interesting play and offer terrific insights into why you should hit or point, and you do that with every play that is interesting in a match, at the end of the day, has the reader/student learned more than he would have by spending the same amount of time, money and effort getting a thorough examination of just one play, or one area of the game that play represents? I doubt it.
So why does anyone buy or look at annotated matches? I certainly have studied some, and for me, it was tedious and confusing and all the things I mentioned above, so I would not be one of your customers, even though, as you and the world knows, I highly value your teaching skills and have learned much from you.
So, my bottom line is that the time is not worth the effort. If you are looking for a way to "mass-teach" people about backgammon and make some money at it for your efforts, I think that videos, like the one we just did, where we have sold over 30 in 2 weeks and have received much positive feedback, for $25 a video for an hour of discussion about a single position and how to apply cube and checker play theory to that position or type of position, is not only a far better product in that the student learns much more about the game, but it will also sell better to a larger audience. And of course, you can label your videos for advanced, intermediate, etc. (I would even suggest you say this is for players under 7.0 or for players between 6.0 and 12.0 etc. etc.)
To be specific, how much would I pay for a really complete annotated match by you? It depends. If it is an exciting, recent match that is full of very interesting plays, and if you discuss not only the plays they got wrong but also the interesting ones they got right, and if your explanations truly gave me some "take-aways" that would help me get plays like this right later, I would gladly pay $25 for that match. But I wouldn't buy very many, because again, I find them tedious and not that educational, and it would have to be a very special or interesting match.
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