Maybe It’s a Sign of Growth
Maybe It’s a Sign of Growth
In the second half of 2006 I stopped caring (as much) how many sales of The Journal I got per day.
Before that, I’d been tracking “new sales” and “upgrades” on a daily basis for … a long time (The Journal is over 10 years old now, almost a preteen). The focus was on new sales, of course, because that’s where the most money comes from. Upgrades are a nice addition, but not a huge percentage of overall revenue.
In July 2006, though, I started paying more attention to “daily revenue” instead, combining sales revenue from both new sales and upgrades. For the very simple reason that daily revenue is, well, where the money is. 
Daily revenue is also much easier to track, and you can know immediately if you’re hitting your goals or falling short.
Daily revenue is also much easier to track, and you can know immediately if you’re hitting your goals or falling short.A single “new sale” of The Journal (that is, a sale to a new user, and not an upgrade by an existing user) can range from $39.95 (or somewhat less, if there’s a discount involved) to $89.95. In other words, how much I take in from 10 new sales on Monday can be very different from another 10 new sales on Tuesday. And while having a strong average number of new sales per day is good … the bottom line is … well … yeah, the bottom line.
And so I created a new set of daily benchmarks. I have 2:
- Doesn’t Suck
- Good Day
“Doesn’t Suck” is set to be about 2/3’s of the way to “Good Day”. Days which come in below the “Doesn’t Suck” level, predictably, “Suck”. So I guess that’s 3 levels, but still only 2 benchmarks.
Back in 1996 and 1997, when I was struggling to get even a single new sale per day of The Journal, revenue-based goals didn’t seem that important or useful. Now, though, unit sales per day seem secondary to actual revenue from those sales. Which is why I say, “maybe it’s a sign of growth.”
At the least, I figure it Doesn’t Suck.
-David
what’s a suckyday?
$0, for example, would be Sucky Day.
-David