Originally Posted by The Porn Nerd

I usually don't like to comment (anymore) in these types of threads but since I, too, noticed something dramatic I will comment here.

For the past 6 weeks sales have been outstanding. This is due to traffic increases, new websites, some differant marketing strategies and other factors like email marketing. That said, Sunday of this week (Dec.15) came and sales began to decrease (traffic was steady). By Tuesday Dec.17 sales were down 70%. While this means we were still doing some volume the change was dramatic and had me asking everyone I work with: 'what's changed?'

The answer, I think now after having read this thread and communicating with about 8 webmasters off-GFY, is what Captain Kawaii stated (thus why I quoted him). I checked my stats for mid-December for the past 5 years (as long as I have been in business) and see a similar pattern. Week before Christmas everything slows down.

So the "problem" here, I believe, is with VISA. Merch account, CCBill, Verotel, Epoch, it doesn't matter - if VISA says no then it's a no go. Plus, with Christmas coming mid-week this year (Wednesday) that means LOTS of last-minute shopping Mon-Tues so Visa is probably preparing for that. I also did not know about the Target situation Captain Kawaii mentioned so throw that in, too. My hope is sales return to "normal" beginning Sunday or before.

Hope this helps (probably not) but regardless: keep working, never ever stop.