Summer Sales Drop-off???

[Melford Bibens]

Hey gang, has anybody else seen a drop off in the last couple of weeks?

The sales of my products, my JV swap income and affiliate broadcast income has dropped off over the last couple of weeks.

I'm hoping that this is just a summer vacation lull, but misery loves company...anybody else suffering?

The guy that taught me the ropes said there are always a couple of weeks to a month of summer that sucks, I guess I just want to make sure I'm not alone-not that I want anyone else to suffer mind you!

Melford Bibens

[Kevin Marshall]

I have noticed a big drop off in my adsense revenue this week. There must be a lot of people on vacation this week.

[Rich Struck]

I've never been a believer in the summer slowdown. Usually it is more of a "webmaster slowdown" than anything else. There are still millions and millions of people online everyday, I just can't bring myself to believe that they aren't buying anything.

[sf_Imtiaz]

My sales are dropping continuously for more than a month now but thats mainly because my search ranking has dropped quite a bit

[derekwong28]

A summer slowdown is well known for shops that sell physical products that are not related to summer. There is a chinese saying that goes

In May you are poor
In June you are desparate
In July you start to recover

This has happened to us almost every year when we ran a shop selling electronic accessories.

[theteach]

I'm in the education field, so yes, summer is slow but September will
be huge so I'm glad to have some down time before the explosion!

I have friends in other online markets and they are saying the same thing, business is definately slower than normal.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Without giving raw numbers (tacky), here are the percentages of my income
for last year by the month. These figures have been fairly consistent (except
for December which was an anomaly) for the last 3 years.

Jan - 5.79%
Feb - 7.25%
Mar - 6.66%
Apr - 7.98%
May - 8.40%
Jun - 7.11%
Jul - 6.39%
Aug - 8.99%
Sep - 5.66%
Oct - 10.07%
Nov - 10.21%
Dec - 17.63%

As you can see, July and August (the 2 main summer months) were not
my worst months of the year and August was my best month through
the first 8 months.

I've yet to have a bad summer.

The key is just getting out there and doing just a little bit more than
you usually do.

Many marketers take off during the summer. So this is your chance to
reach people who they're not reaching.

I don't believe in the summer slow down myth.

And it's funny...I answer this same question at this time every year.

[garyv]

I've been selling products online for a decade, and there has always been a slowdown in the early summer months for most of my products. There are several factors. Many people make a living in the education/school system. They make much less money during the Summer. Also many people are spending their time/money on vacations. Also it takes some people a few months to pay off their April Tax bill.

Of course right now everyone is hurting from the recession.

[athibaul]

I think it must depend on the type of customers your product targets.

For example, if your product targets people who wish to start a new business, you might not notice a summer slowdown - your clients might decide to take some time during their vacations to work on their new business project.

For me, I never noticed a significant slowdown during summer. But I usually have an increase after summer, from September to December or January.

Alain.

[Melford Bibens]

Thanks for checking in guys!

Steven, I'd love to talk another Northesterner about articles marketing, I grew up in Connecticut, and live in New Jersey& New York for a bunch of years. OK if I drop you a PM? I need a wiz on my side!

Sorry to get off track in my own tread, but I need to get back on the money train ASAP...

Melford Bibens

[Davion Wong]

Hey buddy,

July sales has been very very poor. You are looking for company. Here's one.

My traffic volumes have increased by a lot, I am talking about targeted traffic, but conversions have been horrible, ie by comparison with other months.

Anyone care to shed some light on what is happening??

[JakeRhodes]

My sales have actually increased quite a lot in the last month or two without any huge gains in traffic.

What I did was create a few small products and package them as part of a "buy one get FOUR free!" deal. It's certainly motivated the customers.