So, how have sales been lately?

[Ben]

This May is one of the worst months for me in years, it seems I got penalized by the latest panda and went from 7k to 2600 visitors a day. Sales really dwindled too, averaging now 1 or max 2 sales a day, but on some days zero.

But I hear some people whose traffic hasn't changed much in May that sales are also pretty bad. How are yours?

[Bec]

Mine took a dive too, and I see some PR changes, so I'm sure that's part of the problem. Also, don't forget that college is winding down for the summer, so all that lovely Fratboy traffic has gone home!

[nickbaer]

May 2013 was my best month in a year.

My revs were down from Sept to Dec 2012, because of the 2012 Election, Hurricane Sandy, Newtown school shooting, and Fiscal Cliff drama. Adding to the normal decline during the summer months. Usually, US Election years are down compared to non-US Election years, but 2012 did not recover at all after the election was over - because of the other disasters. It took until January 2013!

I had a several new videos on AEBN in March and April 2013, which carried over into the first half of May.

I sold a LOT of DVDs. The full-retail package DVDs on partner sites Amazon and TLA actually did better than my less expensive In-Sleeve option on my own site. Although it is hard to compare as my partners only sell my soft core titles, while I sell both my softcore and hardcore. And my hardcore is the more tame solo and oral, with much less reliance on anal.

Photo eBook sales were at a 2-year high in May 2013. Kindle's popularity dropped, because Amazon has been doing some censoring of male nudity. Three other portal partners more than took over for Kindle's loss!

I would suspect that with the gains in the stock market, people are tapping their portfolios for some discretionary spending.

It was tough having the Election year declines in revenue, as I was traveling in the UK at the same time. With 20% VAT (Sales Tax) and 1.52 currency exchange rate, the cost of living (lodging and food) in the UK is about 65% higher than in the US. Having revenues decline while costs were high, caused me to quit my travel in France on Dec 31, and returning to the sanity of US prices and costs.

I'm going to save up a bit more before heading back to the UK and Europe next time.

I am looking for photo sets - all ethnics and all world countries. In fact, I would like to put a collection together of (at least) one male model representing each World country (I have the US covered!). if you have some (that you have the rights and docs to) I am interested. Including photos that promote your sites - for cross promotion. I look for photo sets ranging from $0 - $15.

Several new content sellers here have some nice looking videos, but solo JOs represent the least selling scenes on the VOD and DVD market now. It's too bad - the models are hot, but cash buyers are not that into cliche solos. They are probably OK for all-you-can-eat monthly member sites, but not so much in the pay-per-minute or DVD market.

I shoot my style for $200US, it is hard to pay more, for less.

[nickbaer]

One thing I am concerned about, is over the past 7 years, JUNE has NOT been a good month compared to May, ending the Winter revenue season.

However, in each year except 2012, JULY was BETTER than June, comparing more favorably to the rest of the Winter months.

What a roller coaster ride.

[Evil Chris]

I've not suffered as much as some of you out there.
We have been developing some domains, and so Google, having found new stuff on them, is giving us a little more love each day.

[dirtyratstudios]

April was probably the worst month for adult sales since about 1998 when I was starting off. May was back up to the not-great average of recent months .

CCBill seems to have died for me.

[Bec]

Just another thing to remember, a site with a lot of dead links won't get a lot of g**gle love, so it is worth it to 1. use a link manager system and/or 2. go thru a site on a weekend and remove trades and affiliate programs that are defunct.

It may not be CCBill per se -- but the sites you use that are under their payment system may have gone belly up.

[dirtyratstudios]

Good advice. It was down to just a couple of sellers until recently. The problem with removing links and content these days is that you can end up with half empty pages and nothing similar to replace the content with.