Recently copywriter AL complained to me that another copywriter we know, FH, was selling a course on how to become a successful six-figure copywriter in a particular niche market ... for the eye-popping price of $4,000.

This raises the question: How high can you – or should you – price your info products?

Some info marketers believe the answer is: charge as much as the market will pay.

And I get that. After all, it's a free market. No one is forcing the buyer to buy. So if the buyer doesn't like your price, he doesn't have to buy.

Consumers complain when drug companies charge outrageous prices for medications.

But the patient has to have the medication – in some cases, cannot live without it. So to price a drug out of reach of sick people seems unfair ... and even cruel.

Info products, on the other hand, are "nice to have" products, not "must have" products. They are luxuries, not necessities. So it's not equivalent to a heart medication.

That being said, what is the maximum price you should charge for your information product?

My colleague, Internet marketing master Fred Gleeck, has this rule: The product price should be such that the buyers, after reviewing it, feel it is worth 10X what they paid for it.

By that measure, if I charge $29 for an e-book, I have to believe it is worth at least $290 – and I do.

Interestingly, buyers also want and expect more than their money's worth – and have for decades.

Recently a buyer who asked for a refund on one of my e-books complained, "It is worth the $29 you charge for it ... but not more than that."

By the same 10X yardstick, a $4,000 product should deliver a value of $40,000. And not many do.

FH says that his product is worth the 4 grand price, because what it teaches has helped him personally make far more than 40K in his career.

But AL objects. He says the price is only justified if actual buyers of the product have achieved the same results as the author by using what the course teaches -- and are willing to attest to it in a testimonial.

It's not enough for the author of an info product to say his product can help you do X simply because the author has done X.

That's because the authors often possess personalities, skills, intelligence, guts, or other attributes the average buyer will likely not.

Only if past buyers have already achieved the results the author promises can he justify a price in the stratosphere.

At least that's what AL and I think. FH, purveyor of the $4,000 training, likely disagrees.

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On occasion I will get an e-mail from someone who wants one of my info products but pleads poverty, saying he does not have the money, and asks me to give it at a discount or more often for free.

They often promise to pay later when and if they make money with my advice, and say if I really believed in my product, I would take them up on that. Others tell me they have fallen on hard times, are desperate, or are in prison.

I warn you that I turn a deaf ear on this proposition and advise you to do the same. And here's why:

First, unlike FH, I am known in the info marketing universe for having prices that are modest and fair – among the lowest out there.

Of the people who ask me to give a $29 e-book to them for free, I suspect that 99% of them have more money than that in their wallet when they e-mail me.

Say I want a Rolls Royce. If I walk into the Rolls dealer in my former home town and ask him to sell me one for $30,000, because that's all I have in my bank account, he will send me down the road to the Toyota dealer ... which is obviously fine with me because I own 3 Toyotas.

Likewise, if you truly don't have $29 for my e-book, you can read about 5 dozen of my best articles on marketing on my web site for free here – so you have little to complain about, in my humble opinion.