September has arrived at last and entrepreneurial bloggers and web-masters everywhere are rejoicing!
Why?
I’ll give you a hint…. Yesterday I was in one of my city’s big department stores and I saw something that shocked me a little – they’d begun putting up their Christmas decorations!
Traditionally August is a bit of a downer for many publishers attempting to make money online as it’s at the peak of when many people in the northern hemisphere take a holiday. I remember this time last year traveling through parts of Europe only to find some cities almost like ghost towns as large percentages of their populations migrate to the coast for August. There are similarities in North America over the summer.
I guess web surfing isn’t quite as high on the list of things to do when the sun is shining outdoors (go figure)!
Most web-masters look to the Labor Day Long weekend in the US as a point where things begin to pick up again in the lead up to the end of the year and Christmas (just 112 days to go) and the other holidays.
I just looked at some of my own traffic stats for the same time last year and on many of my blogs I saw a stead increase over the next four months – culminating in traffic in December over 35% higher than the August figure in most cases.
Of course these traffic trends depend quite a bit on the topic you’re writing on. If you have product related blogs then Christmas can be quite good, but if you have ‘summer related’ topics you could even see a fall in your stats.
Spring Cleaning
Here in Australia September also means that Spring has arrived (a little hard for some of you northern hemisphere types to get your head around I know) and I think the symbolism of a new season with lots of life (blossom on trees, new buds on trees etc) fits well.
Of course Spring means ‘spring cleaning’ so perhaps its time to get your blog in order in preparation for the end of year. Don’t forget that sometimes the changes you make on your blog take a month or two (or longer) to take effect in search engines – so if you’re a blogger wanting to position yourself for the end of year you might want to at least start to think about how you’ll do it.
Time to get shopping!!! Last year I swore I’d do everything online this year, so I had better begin.
Darren,
You did a similar post last year. It may have been this one (https://problogger.com/positioning-your-blog-for-a-profitable-christmas/), but I trace my first serious efforts at blogging for profit to that post. It really motivated me, probably more than any post I’ve ever read on your blog. And it’s all working out very well, so I just wanted to take a moment and say thanks. Here’s wishing you, me and all of us a very profitable holiday season.
thanks Rich – am planning on doing an update to that post in the coming days/weeks so keep an eye open for it.
Would you mind being more specific? What do you mean by adapting your blog for X-mas? And why is Christmas a boon for blogs in the first place?
Rico, I think he means for people who have product blogs/websites. I think it is going to be a PS3 Christmas if Sony can get it out on time.
Interesting. One of my site(my most successful actually), has it’s traffic peaks in summer funilly enough. Winter isn’t usually particularly good. Also, adsense revenue seems to go down per click compared with in the summer. That’s adsense for you though I guess.
My my…time does fly. It’s the ‘ber’ months already and just over a hundred days to go before Christmas. I guess more great stuf would be coming soon from Problogger. :D
As keyword prices usually goes up during holiday season, it may be a great reason to optimize AdSense ads too…
Hi Darren
Its me again. of course you don’t know me but I know you – who doesn’t anyway?
Please do send some traffic to my blog I just wrote a post on Nigerian scam and some of them may have something to learn from it.
thanks.
Movie and television collectibles have sold really well throughout the summer (in the UK) and hopefully will go from strength to strength during the ‘gift giving’ season.
Any thoughts of using an Amazon affiliate link or similar affiliate as a potential tip jar for loyal readers during the holidays?
If a loyal reader is about to do some Xmas shopping at Amazon, perhaps they would like to begin the shopping from your affiliate link. That way, they could provide a free tip.
This seems like it could be something to try before the holidays.
Last year Christmas was good for us. This year we are planning for 50% more than last year.
Should be a great year. We have put in place a handful of new blogs that are doing well in the search engines and these will help us increase by at least 50%.
Good to have goals.
“but if you have ’summer related’ topics you could even see a fall in your stats.”
Except if you live in Australia, right? :)
Seems like a win-win over there :)
Is also a good time to visit Australia. Travel blogs and site should position themselves for online travel and hotel bookings.