Timing Is Everything

Have you recently launched a new product online? Perhaps you are about to?

It may help you to know that your timing may be off a bit.

The last week of June through the middle of July can be some of the slowest time for sales online. I've experienced that in the past, and this year is no different.

I estimate that right now my sales for the last 2 weeks have been off by about 30% or so. That's a rough approximation but it is pretty close.

Its not just one of stream of income in particular. It is across the board with a variety of products I have online right now.

Explaining The Slump

Its pretty easy to understand the slump in sales.

People are on vacation. Kids are on school vacation (distracting their parents) and right now is a peak vacation (holiday) time for the U.S. as well as other parts of the world.

This weekend in particular will be very slow for U.S. sales.

It is "Independence Day" weekend (the Fourth of July) for the U.S. It is a very popular holiday which usually includes cookouts with friends and family, along with fireworks at night.

In other words, there are a lot of distractions pulling people away from their computers right now.

What can you do during this slow time? You can:

• give an incentive to buy by offering a limited time only discount. In fact you may have found some of these discounts in your email recently from other companies trying to boost sales a bit. I know I've received several this week alone.
• spend the "down time" working on other projects. Get them ready to go for when sales pick up again. They should do so in the next few weeks.
• take some time off like a lot of other people. There is more to life than work! Enjoy some quality time and relax a bit. You may find yourself coming up with new ideas to implement once you go back to work.

As for me?

I am headed to beautiful upstate New York. Its about a 4 hour drive for Kathleen and me.

We plan to spend some time with my her family on a boat watching some 4th of July fireworks. I'm not worried about a sales slowdown. In fact I welcome it a bit as it reminds me that other people are taking some time for themselves as well.

Enjoy your weekend!