GCU Forum - August Sales and Charts

Tom_133317

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August Sales and Charts
Sep 1^st, 2009, 3:54am

Hi All,

As I've shown in prior months, below are my August results. I do this to help my fellow artists realize that sales at GCU are growing smoothly, and to hang in there! When you first start out, it seems that sales are spotty and insignificant, but as you add more cards, sales expand and the numbers measurably grow in most cases. The key is to make competitive cards covering a range of popular categories.

My sales are far less than some other artists here, more than others too, but likely the trends are similar across the spectrum.

August 2009 has been my best month yet, following a terrible July as you can see in the first chart. Not only did I sell more total cards in August, my artist commission was 37% higher than my best prior month (April 2009) due to almost all my sales being near full commission. The sales commission per month is shown in the bottom chart, and for August it was $0.54/card on average.

In August I had 2 days with no sales and my best sales day had 27 cards sold (a mix).

Chart 2 is the curve illustrating total sales to date. You can see that it is parabolic - a sure sign of solid sales growth. I was able to derive an equation from this curve and have projected this curve out through 2010 just for fun (Chart 3). It suggests that by this time next year my total sales should be around 7000, or 2.7x higher than they are right now, and maybe over 10K by year's end. Not bad. The fun part is that this curve keeps growing "forever" and the numbers get HUGE out a few years. Go GCU!

BTW, some artists are well passed the 10,000 sales mark already. That's really inspiring!

One more interesting point. I have not added any new cards since late June, so you can see that we can still get great sales growth even without having to constantly add cards (though obviously that does help in the long run).

Comments or questions are welcome.

TOM

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« Last Edit: Sep 1^st, 2009, 6:12am by Tom_133317 »

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Pamela_135500 Gold Member artist Posts: 1945	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #1 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 5:46am Good Morning Tom, Good and inspiring numbers, Thank you. FYI For me August was a return to 'normal' sales per month after the awful July which was half of that figure. Pamela
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Damyon_138209 Junior Member artist Posts: 88	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #2 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 5:52am Tom- I am a newb. I know that in the stock photography industry there is a rule of thumb that for every image you have in stock houses, you will earn an average $1.00 per yr. Is there such a rule of thumb here?
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Cynthia_136824 Full Member artist Posts: 139	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #3 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 6:01am Tom, I think it's great of you to put this on here for all us and it did make me feel a little better! I guess I just need to keep making more? Thanks again! Cindy
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Tom_133317

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Posts: 2169

Re: August Sales and Charts
Reply #4 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 6:11am

Quote from Damyon_138209 on Sep 1^st, 2009, 5:52am:

Tom- I am a newb. I know that in the stock photography industry there is a rule of thumb that for every image you have in stock houses, you will earn an average $1.00 per yr. Is there such a rule of thumb here?

Not sure about that here. GCU is only a few years old and is growing mainly through word of mouth. All I can say is that the vast majority of my sales are on about 5% of my cards. You never know when you make a card if it will be a winner (popular) or not. I suppose that is true with stock photos too.

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Angela_134247

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Re: August Sales and Charts
Reply #5 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 6:24am

Tom, thank you so much for keeping us up to date! I have to say that July had been my best month, but August blew it out of the water! I can't quit my day job yet, but I keep hoping!
I made as much in the last two months as I made in last quarter! So yeah, pretty encouraging, especially when you consider there are no major holidays in July and August (except for 4th of July, and people have pretty much finished buying cards for that by then).
Everyone be encouraged and keep creating! Things are looking up!

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Carol_136775

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Posts: 165

Re: August Sales and Charts
Reply #6 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 6:37am

Dear Tom,

Thanks for all the hard work; it is an "upper" to know the more established artists are doing okay in these tough financial times. I'm relatively new, but 9 cards are in my sold column and my cards are not what I'd categorize as mainstream. Four of those cards were sold in August.

Time to go make more cards! It does look like more people are looking and buying.

Your work with stats is much appreciated.

Regards,

Carol

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Tom_133317 Gold Member artist Posts: 2169	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #7 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 7:09am Carol, congrats! My first month I sold 10, so we have all been there! The seed will grow. Here is another chart. It shows the wide range of cards sold per day in August for my store, which is pretty typical!
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Mary__137064 Gold Member artist Posts: 515	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #8 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 7:10am It's great to have a set of figures representing reality instead of those unreal numbers that dance around my head at night. Bright
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David_134612 Full Member artist Posts: 231	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #9 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 9:07am Thanks so much Tom. Its great seeing what real sales are possible on GCU. It definitely encourages me to post more cards,
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Kathleen_137290

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Posts: 498

Re: August Sales and Charts
Reply #10 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 12:08pm

Thanks Tom for the encouraging stats!

Was wondering if there is any correlation between sales and number of cards over the time you've been with GCU? Very interesting that sales are on only about 5% of your cards. Makes sense that if you have a large number of cards in large variety of categories, sales are more likely. However, as total cards grow on GCU, individual visibility would probably diminish. Can you tell if cards are sold to new or repeat customers? Also wondered if you feel a percentage of your sales are a result of your efforts to publicize in other venues that may link customers to GCU?

Appreciate your extra efforts in sharing your stats with us.
Kathleen

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Tom_133317

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Re: August Sales and Charts
Reply #11 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 12:59pm

Quote from Kathleen_137290 on Sep 1^st, 2009, 12:08pm:

Was wondering if there is any correlation between sales and number of cards over the time you've been with GCU? Very interesting that sales are on only about 5% of your cards. Makes sense that if you have a large number of cards in large variety of categories, sales are more likely. However, as total cards grow on GCU, individual visibility would probably diminish. Can you tell if cards are sold to new or repeat customers? Also wondered if you feel a percentage of your sales are a result of your efforts to publicize in other venues that may link customers to GCU?

Appreciate your extra efforts in sharing your stats with us.
Kathleen

Good questions. That 5% was just a guess, so I did a little closer digging and here is what I found:

3776 cards in the store
2633 cards sold to date
50 of my cards have sold at least 10 (1.3% of all cards) and account for 48% of all sales.
My top 10 cards account for 36.5% of all sales
My top 5 cards have each sold over 100, with the best one "only" selling 140 (No gigantic single sales yet)

Can sales and number of cards over time be correlated?
- Yes and No. Generally more cards and categories covered the better, but some of my original best sellers are no longer best sellers due to better ones being added by others. That is why it is important to really make a quality card, as good as any in the category. Another winning angle is to pick a niche that you can make your own and promote it (such as lighthouse cards for a variety of occasions).

Can you tell if cards are sold to new or repeat customers?
- Not really, though I sell a lot of cards to Texas so I wonder if the word spreads locally once someone buys my cards.

Sales growth from publicizing?
- I have done very little but I have plans to hit that hard later this year as I want my sales to grow even faster than they are. I'm open to ideas that really work. I know a number of artists do much more publicizing but it's never been very clear if they were able to correlate their efforts to a jump in sales. I'm hoping GCU begins a more formal promotional campaign, as they are still running on word-of-mouth like we each are as far as I can tell.

Some may wonder if it is all worth it as it is a ton of work and it won't provide an income for many years. Like others, I do it mainly as an artistic outlet with the dream of maybe getting a "break" in the humor business down the road.

Secondarily, all this work is not lost. As long as I am alive and GCU survives and grows, so will the commission payouts for my large body of work here. When I run the “Future Projection curve” out a few years, the income numbers get very attractive even if I stop adding cards.

TOM

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David_134612

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Re: a winner is a winner
Reply #12 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 1:42pm

Reasons to love GCU
#1 GCU artist & their forum
#2 GCU excellent printing-
#3 GCU Order Delivery speed & flexibility

Toms 5% quote seems to say and what many have seen with sold cards,
a "winner is a winner and the rest struggle to become one"

When by design, luck or accident, you create a great card that actually sells
   and is a winner (Like Tom and his 5% cards) it would Be nice if GCU
had a way for us to view this top 5 to 10% of selling cards who are winners and sold

To create winners it helps to see winners
and users appreciate and deserve great cards that are the winners in the sales race.

When its good for one its often good for others,
i love seeing what actually sells (mine and other artist) and how sales clump around great cards that stand up to sell themselves. This helps me to learn to make other great cards with this talent.

I believe the more great cards GCU has, the more we all sell
(even want to be Great cards , many OK cards, and many others i will not label)

When we share information, and create more winners,
we all do better and we draw more buyers to GCU who help spread the word .

   and I believe it helps draw more business for everyone
and i thank winners like Tom , Kathleen and many others for their gallent efforts
to share knowledge, experience , and great questions to help build a greater GCU .
A place for all to become winners, and a place with a lot of winners

There are more customers in need for great cards, than we have cards for
The more the better for all

At ValxArt we understand it seams there is "More art than the world has eyes to see"

But I am happy and proud to see more winners on GCU.
   and I say " BRING THEM ON" & "A WINNER IS A WINNER"

   Give them winners and they will come
   and we all will have a lovely dinner

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Janet_134086

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Posts: 610

Re: August Sales and Charts
Reply #13 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 2:00pm

Thanks Tom, It makes me feel better knowing we will all sell more cards at some point.
Ive Sold 115 Cards with 2278 Cards Total So Far.
Here is my chart.. Tongue

Year/Month/Cards Sold

2008
7>2
8>3
9>3
10>2
11>1
12>1

2009
1>1
2>2
3>1
4>6
5>37 (with a 25 card Bulk Sale)
6>13
7>20
8>19

Seeing is believing...

Congrats On Sales Everyone and Keep Up The Great Work!
Hugs, Janet Lee

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Tom_133317 Gold Member artist Posts: 2169	Re: August Sales and Charts Reply #14 - Sep 1^st, 2009, 2:06pm Quote from Janet_134086 on Sep 1^st, 2009, 2:00pm: Thanks Tom, It makes me feel better knowing we will all sell more cards at some point. Ive Sold 115 Cards with 2278 Cards Total So Far. Hugs, Janet Lee Wow, Janet, you have sure added a lot of cards - and now look at your sales since May! Really great to see.
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