How's your business this month?

[luckychucky]

There was a great little thread going a while back. Someone complained about how awful his sales were for the month of June, and a bunch of people replied with... pretty much the same.

As a solo entrepreneur it's really comforting and useful to read what others are going through. So-- in that spirit, just wanna find out where I am, and how others are doing:

June sucked for me, July's a little better. Kinda sporadic, mostly. Like, 3 days no orders, then an all-out overload of orders, then a flatline ghost town again. Strange, unpredicable behavior. It sort of coincides with the traffic Google sends my way, but there is not always a correllation. Sometimes traffic is fine but sales suck. Sometimes traffic is low but sales are strong. Like, all in all it sputters and coughs along but by the end of the month I've survived. This is a recent phenom; long term, sales have always been steadier and generally more predictable.

BTW, anybody know of a site where you can find out how small businesses are really doing, not just fed & corporate interest-rate/employment stats blather? [Sometimes I think it would be cool to start a site called howsyourbusiness(dot)com or similar--you can steal my idea if you promise to make it a good one].

Anyway, feel free to let us know how you are doing lately, OK?
Thanks

[Essex_boy]

Selling tons of wasp repellent. wonder if it would keep the exwife away......

[ogletree]

Best month ever. It is hard for us to tell since we are wokring real hard to increase traffic. I don't know if I would have more traffic because of what G is doing. Our site is always getting more traffic. Our sole goal in life is to increase traffic.

[webwoman]

July is about the same as June - which was very very good. I'm not sure exactly why June was so good - but I did make quite a few usability improvements to the site. Income doubled in June. July it's running around the same levels as June.

[luckychucky]

What do you guys sell?
Service
Product
or...

[digitman]

or?
its software for me,which isnt ready yet

[luckychucky]

Just so I don't seem like a total loser (I have my pride, you know) I rank between 1-3 for most of the money terms in my trade, which is jewelry. And I usually make oodles of sales. Suddenly June and July are sluggish. Just to clarify. And solidify my ego.
:o)

[ecommerceprofit]

June, July, and August are always a little slow for us - many people are away on vacations - working in their yards and outside more on the weekends.

[tigger]

June started very shaky but ended OK this month is my best month ever in 5 years of affiliate marketing

[eyeinthesky]

Is this a zero-sum game or what? Some up some down?

As for myself, June sucks (sales down 30%) and July is slightly better so far. But then I did some tweaking so can't really tell the seasonal effects.

With the Olympics in August, wonder how things will turn out ... perhaps an Olympic record in sales :)

[percentages]

I see about 30% growth year on year across the board. Some up, some the same, a few down a tad.....but overall 30% growth in net $$$$.

I don't know if this is good, bad, or ugly.....all I know is that I am happy!

[chodges84]

hey Essex_Boy, in the hardware shop I work in (not an online shop or even presence) we are selling wasp repellant by the truck load, finding it hard to get hold of now as well, especially the Wasp nest foam.

Just thought I'd let you know.

[luckychucky]

That's it.
I'm quitting the jewelry trade and going into the wasp business. A ten year career, all for nought...

[Sunshyn]

Our sales this month are not terrible but are a little slow. This tells me that our previous two years of July anniversary specials (buy $50/$75 worth and get a free widget) really were responsible for the excellent sales those years. I hadn't thought such a promotion could have that much effect.

[duckman]

Interesting thread. Wanted to ask this question for quite some time now.
Chucky - I'm sorta in the same business as you. This entire year has been pretty soft for us. But June was a great month, But now July has fallen back. Though summer time in the past has been pretty week for us. August and September are usually better months for us historically.

[JasonX]

Hows it going fellas. Maybe yall can give me some pointers. I know this is stupid but I haven't made a single dollar from my website in the past 2 years. Do yall have any suggestions. I am pretty much trying anything and everything for advertisment. I have yet to sell a single product. THanks in advance.

[luckychucky]

What do you sell?
Send me a stickyMail with the URL and I'll check it out.

[JasonX]

I sent you a sticky mail and its also under my user profile info.

[George]

Jason X:
Where do you advertise? You might learn if you read round here a bit, but you have a PR0, flash, and only one page on google. No surprises you are selling nothing.
Before you ask any more...read, read, read.

As for business, june was best ever. July first two weeks good, but the last two suck. Average to an OK month.
Next month? I do not expect alot, it is the summer afterall, and in the UK all the spending is focused on that. Recession coming? Not yet.

[bekyed]

record month for us in July.

Bek.

[mahlon]

record month for us in July.

same here :)

[Go60Guy]

Its inevitable. Whenever someone comes on here saying that business has been lousy lately, usually the very next post states that they're having their best month ever. You can never draw any conclusions from these threads. So often, it depends on the line of business you're in. And, seasonality is just a fact of life in a majority of instances.

[blaze]

Well, the threads would be more interesting if people put some specifics about their industry and why seasonality affects it.

At least we'd learn something.

[luckychucky]

Why can't we create a WebmasterWorld forum topic ('How's Your Business?") from this thread? I bet it would be a hit, and undoubtedly useful.

[George]

Unfortunately one of the reasons WW works so well is that we do not post specifics. It would be interesting, but would also be seeded with false info :)

We know that net sales are growing, and as Go60Guy says, seasons affect different industries in different ways. (My Christmas present site is dead right now.)

You are right Go60Guy, these threads do make me rise to the "well I am OK I think"!

Also there is such a diverse selection of advertising, I think it is difficult to read anything into these discussions, even if we knew specifics. For example I do offline advertising, have affiliates, S/Es, shopping feeds etc (no viral stuff, I am not imaginative enought I think!)

[eyeinthesky]

With 5 more days to the Olympics plus summer, I'm seeing a brutal drop in traffic and sales this past week. Of course, it could be Google "dancing" too.

Anyone else seeing this?

[luckychucky]

Suddenly, August sales are very, very strong...

[Raymond]

Just want to add my 2 cents to this thread.

June was a sad month. Sales dropped 35%, as compared to May. July sales was average. Sales recovered from the sudden drop in June.

So far, August seems to be a little higher than July. But then Olympics is coming so I am not sure what will happen after the 13th August. Sales is always great at the begining of each month, so I wouldn't estimate August sales based on just the performance of the first week.

Cheers!

[shigamoto]

Great sales for July, probably thanks to the rainy summer we have had, people tend to buy more computer games and software when the weather is bad and they are on vacation :)

[Lovejoy]

My sales have been increasing every month since I hooked on with a really good affiliate selling my information products. I've been selling online since 1997 and have been gradually increasing the number of low cost automated downloads, (under $4.00) which people seem to like.