These are slow times for many typs of sites. Summer is when people are outside more often, going on vacations, and generally spending less time on the web than in the colder, school months.
If you’ve seen a dip in sales or traffic (or both), this is natural for many kinds of sites this time of year.
Rather than spend too much time wondering if it’s the economy or if you’re doing something wrong, be proactive. The fall traffic season is coming up fast and you can do a lot to prepare for your returning customers and readers!
Step One: Content Development List
Find out what questions and topics people are desperately searching for and compile a blog post development list to be ready for fall. Make sure that when people start getting settled in for holidays, cold weather surfing, and school days, you are providing them with multiple reasons to follow you and seek you out. You need to get started on this now to get a good bunch of well-written, buzz-worthy posts ready in time.
Step Two: Design, Widgets, and Site Fixes
This is the perfect time to take a look at your site and fix up what you’ve been putting off. Do you really need all those widgets in the sidebar? Is your design dated? Are you presenting readers with strong calls to action to join your list or subscribe to your feed? Now is the time to take a fresh look at your core web presence and make sure you are set to impress in the fall.
Step Three: Product Development, Advertising, and Affiliate Revenue Plan
Now is also a good time to work on monetization plans for your blog. Based on where you are personally with monetization, it could be time to look at developing your own product or service to sell from your site. If you aren’t quite ready for that yet, do you have enough traffic to attract advertisers? You need at least 5000 visitors per day to attract anything decent these days.
If you’re not ready for either of those steps, then it is time to look at some new affiliate products you can promote and be ready to come out in the fall with a bang up promotion. I’m talking about video reviews, in depth case studies on the products you choose to promote, and other ways of being a super affiliate for the products you choose to promote.
Get the calendar out and set deadlines for when you want your video reviews done and the posts to go up. Work backwards to set benchmarks and make sure the projects are done and ready for fall traffic.
Get Ready for the Rush
There’s nothing like the feeling of preparedness. There’s also nothing like the feeling of being left out of a profitable boom period that happens every year online. Be like a squirrel and start gathering your nuts for fall and winter and you will definitely get more traffic and make more money this traffic season!
