The current situation
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 12:59 pm
I'm sure it has not escaped your notice that updates have been sporadic in recent months, with a slowdown overall during the past year or so. It's not that I'm planning to shut down my OpenCart stores, but at the same time, I don't have the stamina to film new content every week and update frequently the way I used to. I realize this is key to being noticed in the world of selling, the ever present need to jump and down and shout "Me! Me! Me!" to get noticed. (Singer David Rosenberg wrote: "All I need is a whisper in a world that only shouts"). Now that I'm a septuagenarian, I don't want to have too much pressure in my life. I plan to shoot a couple of times per month, but that's probably not adequate to boost things very much. We'll see.
Funny how things turn around. Year ago, the income from the OpenCart stores was my primary source of revenue with Clips4Sale a bit of an afterthought. Now the roles are reversed. Without Clips4Sale, I would definitely go out of business. I do keep my stores on there updated, but with recycled content for the most part. It keeps everything very active, which is great. If I do that in the OC stores, however, the reaction is: "Yes, very nice, but we've seen this before. Where's the new stuff?"
Advertising: C4S is very good at that. They have a lot of programs that reach out and seem to get a good response. It's all automated of course. Here, I would have to do that manually, and I am no social media junkie. I just can't face spending my days sending spam into the world, which means the OC stores will probably continue to decline. It's okay for now, but their revenue is sliding ever closer to the operating costs, which is a concern. Because the OC stores are so bad at handling downloads (as is all off-the-shelf store software), each store needs a dedicated server to run. My hosting company won't allow them on shared servers because, when busy, they kick off other users. Alas, it's expensive to maintain. I could save myself a significant chunk of change by getting rid of them. Would Clips4Sale do even better if they vanished? Probably. For five months back in 2013, everything was sold through C4S and income from there doubled. Ultimately, it may be the way things have to go. Certainly, after my death, the OC stores will close down. My wife cannot deal with maintaining them and it would probably not remain viable if she tried, once the updates have stopped.
What to do. For the moment, I am going to change the discount deal in all OC stores. I'm going to remove the tier system and have a blanket 20% off on everything $5 and above, and see what happens.
Addendum: It didn't make a lot of difference so I've switched it back to normal.
Funny how things turn around. Year ago, the income from the OpenCart stores was my primary source of revenue with Clips4Sale a bit of an afterthought. Now the roles are reversed. Without Clips4Sale, I would definitely go out of business. I do keep my stores on there updated, but with recycled content for the most part. It keeps everything very active, which is great. If I do that in the OC stores, however, the reaction is: "Yes, very nice, but we've seen this before. Where's the new stuff?"
Advertising: C4S is very good at that. They have a lot of programs that reach out and seem to get a good response. It's all automated of course. Here, I would have to do that manually, and I am no social media junkie. I just can't face spending my days sending spam into the world, which means the OC stores will probably continue to decline. It's okay for now, but their revenue is sliding ever closer to the operating costs, which is a concern. Because the OC stores are so bad at handling downloads (as is all off-the-shelf store software), each store needs a dedicated server to run. My hosting company won't allow them on shared servers because, when busy, they kick off other users. Alas, it's expensive to maintain. I could save myself a significant chunk of change by getting rid of them. Would Clips4Sale do even better if they vanished? Probably. For five months back in 2013, everything was sold through C4S and income from there doubled. Ultimately, it may be the way things have to go. Certainly, after my death, the OC stores will close down. My wife cannot deal with maintaining them and it would probably not remain viable if she tried, once the updates have stopped.
What to do. For the moment, I am going to change the discount deal in all OC stores. I'm going to remove the tier system and have a blanket 20% off on everything $5 and above, and see what happens.
Addendum: It didn't make a lot of difference so I've switched it back to normal.