Same disclaimers as always.

Capsule summary: Best month ever.  Would have done better had I not disabled CD orders inadvertently for most of it.  I’m giving myself about a 50-50 chance of hitting my $1,000 target for April.

Sales: 30, including 2 CDs (instead of 15 — d’oh), 1 purchase in Euros, 1 in pounds, and 0 refunds.

Gross sales:  ~$760

Expenses:

Paypal: $10.50

SwiftCD: $10.76 

e-junkie: $5

AdWords: $54.02  

GoDaddy: $7

Total: ~$87

Net Profit: $673

Commentary:

AdWords has been working really well as of late ($.34 per demo download sustained over the entire month.  Close to my best ever.)  With $90 budgeted I could pay for more traffic but I haven’t found the keywords yet to bring it in without costing an arm and a leg — there is not too much play in $24.95 to go crazy with keywords costing, e.g., 15 to 25 cents apiece. 

SEO continues beatifully, and I’m slowly but surely climbing the ladder on some key terms.  A big thanks to everyone who linked by Free Bingo Cards post, without me even asking.  Its great when the community helps each other out like that.  I have been using the features in the Google webmaster console and have been noticing more links this month from school districts, including several direct to AdWords landing pages.  Thats just beautiful — they put my software in front of hundreds of prospective customers AND they give me an authority link.  Content, its the gift that keeps on giving.

Speaking of gifts which keep on giving, this blog will hit its hundred thousandth page view before I get up tomorrow.  I nearly went googley-eyed when I saw the counter.  The majority of my readers continue to be uISVs or folks thinking about taking the plunge, but I’m getting increasing mentions from folks as diverse as librarians and customer advocates, and the blog is fighting hard with MSN and Yahoo to be my third largest source of downloads (after Google and download sites).  I’d like to take a moment to say “thank you” to everybody who reads, RSSes, links to, comments on, etc, this blog.  I’m overjoyed and humbled by your support, and couldn’t do it without you. 

Happy Palm Sunday.   A funny story from Mass this morning: first, to hit the highlights of Palm Sunday for those who aren’t Catholic, Jesus comes back after fourty days in the wilderness (Lent) to Jerusalem, where he is welcomed as a king.  He rides in on a donkey, and people throw their clothes and palm fronds in the front of his donkey to honor him.  As we are heading out of church, one of the little kids says to his Mom “Its not fair, you know”.  “Oh whats that, honey?”  “Palm Sunday.”  “Why do you say that?”  “All the palms did was get stepped on.  It should really be Jesus Sunday.  Except every Sunday is Jesus Sunday.  So we should make it Donkey Sunday.  Poor donkey, he does all the work.”    I love kids.