I'm fairly new to the whole online advertising and am obviously hoping to find some kind of success in doing so. I know things will be frustrating for quite a while for me as i try to build the PR and links and relevance of the site in general. But i'm wondering...not counting today's economic climate.. ... what should i xpect over the course of the next month or two with Christmas just about out of the way? Do most of you successful sites generally find a big difference in sales after the holidays or just slightly, if at all. I would like to have an idea of how cold my winter will be.
Really depends on the niche you choose to promote. This year I had the highest sales in oct and nov. December has been slumping for me surprisingly. I would expect a downfall of sales after this month, credit card bills will be coming in and people will be realizing they don't have any extra money to spend. But that shouldn't stop you from building a site with quality content to get started. You can't win if you don't even try.
ahuddy - thanks for the reply.. .. and yes - i have every intention of building what i am trying to build this winter and hoping for dividends come next holiday season. (fingers crossed, of course) I guess what i'm trying to put in place, as far as knowledge goes, is to be able to find out if I'M doing something wrong - or if it is a product of the 'Post Season' that will be hindering my stats. I know i shouldn't really worry too much about getting visitors at this early stage, as my content for the time being is not in place yet, but i have hundreds of questions to ask throughout this process and i will be relying heavily on the experts that i have seen here to steer me a bit. I Love this forum!! Thanks again .. and Merry Christmas Everybody!
If the stuff you promote is needed all year round, then you've got no problem. Usually, from Dec 18-25 is slower, with Dec 24 or 25 hitting the bottom, then it moves back up. I figure there's a lot of: "Dang! That's a cool gift! Lemme buy some accessories!" I'm hoping that January is close or better than October. Personally, I wish every month was December When I started AM last year, January and February were kinda slow. This year I've got more sites, and they're varied.
I feel like a lot of the hoopla about bad economy and a slumping advertising world is going to end up being less than expected. Also, if you're an advertiser, your first choice is the internet in that you can track ROI better than anywhere (TV,mags, radio, etc).
I think we have to add more content in 2009. December was really great because Christmas sales are really great. In december I usually post the gift collection in my blog in after that, just promote all year long sales product...
I find January is the worst month and then sales gradually ramp up, best sales for me are September-December. Google likes sites that are +6 months old so now is the perfect time to build for next year, don't worry about slow sales for the next few months but keep at it.