Forum Moderators: skibum
So it is the middle of July, everyone is at the beach and on vacation. Heck, for most people the thought of the holiday season is a thing far off in the future.
However, smart and motivated online marketers(read smart marketers here on webmastersworld) are already busy formatting a plan for huge sales. This holiday season will be very lucrative to those willing to take action and develope sites that draw in targeted visitors.
So far I have purchase one domain and have started to develope the site with christmas in mind. I am currently mixing my "work" time with sites and programs that will most certainly result in higher commisions this holiday season. That being said I also have sites that will pull very well this shopping season.
What are your holiday plans?
Brian
Think Summer in Winter.
Well this is true, of course you could get your site(s) looking good for the months to come ;-)
That way you will not mind spending the money at Christmas time when you see your profits rolling in ;-)
Brian
There are so many things to try, so many ideas and unexploited niches, my to do list grows faster than I can get things done. For me, it's better to just focus on the tasks at hand and next on the list, continualy re-evaluating the priorities and making adjustments as needed.
In the end, mine is really just a plan with short term and long term goals. If I do better with something during the holidays, it's just gravy.
That is a very, very good point! Like yourself I continue to spot "possible" opportunities all the time. As I mentioned I am continuing down my regular affiliate path, just at the moment I am also putting about 20% of my time into a project that yields one nice car payment monthly. My plan is to double that take each month, christmas will be an added bonus.
Brian
I personally made a mistake by being a little too consumed with the past few Google updates. What shook me out of it is seeing MSN appear in the logs and I realized I could have been much further ahead if I had just kept building.
Although mine began mid-July, I suppose because I never take down much of my online Christmas stuff, it never ends.
The first year we went through a christmas rush we totally missed the boat. I was not thinking far enough ahead. Now I have all the major holidays covered.
Any thoughts on special services to offer e.g. "guaranteed delivery by christmas if you order by" xxxx? or price strategies - do most sites cut prices in the run up to christmas?
this is my first christmas coming up - selling standard widgets & widget gift boxes! i'm excited!
miam
Optimize early, get in quick and keep monitoring who's doing what!
If they're doing a deal will they get the business? if so you need to tweak your site a little - game on :)
After reading these posts I will have to get a start on it this weekend. Go after niche markets, build up some real web pages and push traffic through PPC. Thank you for reminding me.
-panic
1. Add many new products.
2. Refine systems to handle the orders.
3. Boost the AdWords and overture programs, and prepare for a sacrifice ($) in sept/oct to
pay off in Nov. and Dec. as people scout now to buy later.
4. Add new real-time shipping quotes.
5. Trim weight off the site, make it scream by Sept.
6. Email opt-in former customers with special discounts, both for them and friends and family, recommendation discounts and such.
7. Hope.
Have anyone tried using an order taking service?
Yes, and we were completely dissatisfied with it. The problems we had could have been specific to the company we hired and its personnel. We had reports of customers being treated rudely, order takers being ill informed, and orders being lost.
Yep, I figured that about two or three days ago and decided to do some keyword research and have started with a halloween site as well. The other christmas stuff does ok year round, just seams to get a extra boost around the holidays.
I am rushing now and figure I can crank out a nice site in about two or three weeks and pray I make it into google (full crawl) for the tricks and hopefully treats ;-)
Brian
Seychelles, Hawaii or possibly Cape Town....anywhere that has a difficult Internet connection is a definate advantage....depresses me to see slow sales during the holidays ;)
For those who make good sales during the holidays I would be thinking about the big yellow banana concept!
