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Developers tend to see peaks and valleys in their
software sales statistics. Dwelling on a slowdown
or a surge may not make sense, as few software
developers have a high enough sales volume to
generate statistically significant short-term
samplings. In other words, if you normally sell
100 copies a month, and then suddenly have a month
with only 90 sales, is the 10% sales decline a
significant value, or indicative of a trend to
be seriously concerned with? Probably not. When
volume is small, short-term trends may not be
accurate reflections of the current circumstances.
If you see a sudden sales increase or decrease,
there are a number of things that you, as a MicroISV,
can evaluate. Here are a few things to look for
if you see an abrupt change in sales...
1. Holidays, Weekends, Seasons
Is it a holiday in one of your major markets?
Consumer software will often have sales spikes
during a holiday season, while business software
may suffer during the same time period. Consumer
software sales tend to drop during the US summer
months, while business software sales often increase
at the end of the calendar year. Software sales
can be sensitive to the calendar, and seasonal
sales trends are not uncommon.
Busiest
Days of the Week
2. New Release
Did you recently release a new version? If the
answer is yes, be sure to test your download links,
and go through the install process on a clean
drive. Make sure there are no issues with your
new release. Pay particular attention to any unusual
support queries, and attempt to recreate any reported
problems. Chances are, if your sales volume has
taken a downturn following a recent release, and
a customer is having an issue, it is likely that
other customers are having similar problems as
well.
3. Web Update
Did you recently update your company or product
website? Visit the recently updated website in
question, clear your browser cache, and test all
of your links and images. Make sure that the website
appears as it should and that all links are functioning
properly. Test the website using both Internet
Explorer and Firefox, and with as many of the
other popular web browsers as you can (i.e. Netscape,
Opera, Safari, etc).
4. Order Pages
Test your order pages to make sure your e-commerce,
ordering, shopping cart, and payment systems are
all working properly. Also, make sure any links
within your software are properly directing customers
to your purchase webpage.
5. Marketing Campaigns
Check any marketing campaigns for accuracy and
broken links. There is nothing worse than paying
for traffic to a broken link.
6. Web Logs
Check web logs for traffic pattern changes. Are
there any significant changes apparent? Any new
referrers sending traffic?
7. Check SERP
Check the major search engines for search engine
ranking on pertinent keywords and keyword phrases.
A sudden drop in website search rankings can significantly
impact traffic, which can significantly impact
sales.
8. Competitors
Evaluate your competition. Have any of your competitors
recently released a new update, or launched a
new sales or advertising campaign? Is it possible
that they are "poaching" your traffic? If so,
it is time to ramp up.
9. Check For Cracks
Software cracks can impact sales by as much as
30%. Use the search engines to see if a crack
is available for your software. If you are using
the FileKicker service for your file hosting,
block any known crack sites from accessing your
download. If you find a crack, issue a new version
release that will basically "break" any cracks
that are in the wild.
10. Ego Feeds
Set up ego feeds for your company or product name.
This will assist you in locating traffic sources
as they occur.
How
to Setup Ego Feeds
Remember... don't become overly worried if you
experience occasional sales dips -- they are quite
common for MicroISVs.
Related Articles:
Referring Sites
Statistics
Emetrix
Sales Tracking Trends
Days
to Sale
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