How summer affects your traffic/income?

Newbie wonders... and I know it varies by website theme

[alephh]

I'm running history-related website, and this is going to be my first summer with adsense running. So I'm just wondering how much your website "suffers" during summertime - or does it make any difference at all?

[eeek]

A history site will probably see a drop as students stop visiting for the summer.

[SenseRely]

I've been with AdSense since december 2003 and both summers are horrible for me, not so much in terms of traffic (but there is a decrease for me) but in terms of earnings. Last summer the decrease started in mid june and by the end of july I was busy creating a new website with a new idea which came out because I was worried about low performance and wondering what if it stays low in september, october, always? :-)
In fact in september it began rising again and december 2005 was my best month ever in AdSense earnings! Since then it has been doing very good, I think I will do in 5 months what I did last year in 12 months.
But I'm ready for the sudden drop in june, if it doesn't happen this year, it's good. If it does, for sure I'm creating another website I already have the idea, just not the motivation yet.

[greedy player]

Big decrease of click value looks like high paying advertisers arn't making much money at the summer so they are waiting it out.

[hunderdown]

I think it really depends on your demographics. For some topics, people surf for information 12 months a year, and advertisers are happy to get their business 12 months a year.

I do usually see a slight traffic drop over the summer, and affiliate programs I belonged to before AdSense dropped too--but last summer AdSense did NOT drop off for me.

[alephh]

It would, sort of, make sense that:

1) Younger people (students) surf less during summer. But wouldn't this mean that surfers on average have more money to spend during summer?

2) There are less visitors but they stay longer - they can focus on their "hobbies".

3) Less high paying clicks - ie difficult to sell "battlefield tour" if it's holiday already, and maybe sellers themselves are on holiday.

Or something like that... :-)

Only really effective way to battle this would be creating a "summer focused site" ;-D

[larryhatch]

I have a non commercial (informational) website.
Traffic drops off markedly in the Summer, and springs back up in Autumn.
I see no good way to change that pattern in my case, lower numbers come with the turf. -Larry

[DamonHD]

Hi LH,

WARNING: OT

I thought you claimed in another thread that you'd been thoroughly Americanised: what's this "Autumn" trap you're falling into? B^>

Rgds

Damon

[Chapman]

"A history site will probably see a drop as students stop visiting for the summer."

Somewhat true, however, in this day and age most schools offer a variety of summer programs and many agressive students attend them.

[Mohamed]

before the summer my average daily income was around $8 per day and from end of april till now my average is $1 per day, so I related that big drop to summer.

[Lipik]

In your case - history - it could drop, but all depends on what kind of site you run.
I run a tourist-info site about a european country and July and August are one of my top-month's. from September until December it's "down".
So you see it all depends on what kind of content you have on your site.

[pmidds]

It's my first summer with a website. Traffic and as a result clicks are well down on just a month ago.

[fischermx]

I also have not completed a year with a website yet, and I was worried about the low traffic shown each next week since april.
But now I used the new trends tool from Google and I see that actually my main keywords have lower searches this past month, so that's why.

[netmeg]

Summers are fantastic for me - until July 5th, when it tends to drop off quite a bit. Picks up a bit in December before New Year's, but May/June/1st of July are the big earners. Should be obvious I'm talking about a specifically themed site. I'm working on another one for the fall months.

[Khensu]

This is my first summer with Madsense, I mean AdSense.

When I had my paid product I took a 20% drop in the summers, I am guessing the free version will have the same curve. It is possible that the free aspect might be immune to it, people off and more willing to surf.

What do people with sites that have a business related atmosphere experience?

[humblebeginnings]

If summer opposes some kind of problem, create some new sites targeted at a part of the world where it is winter...

[Hobbs]

Every year my wife keeps telling me "remember August", for every August my traffic, mood and earnings go down, maybe I should take August off this year.

[Khensu]

Thanks Humble,

An au & nz mirror, just the index page with links back to the main site in the US. I have been thinking about those for years.

Ofcourse uk and ca ones are on my mind also but they can wait till fall.

Anyone recommend a good domain registration co for those countries.

[bobothecat]

Summer is my best time - I usually make 60-70% of my Adsense income during the May-Sept time-frame.

I specialize in travel - so guess there isn't much doubt about the increased traffic for that time of year.

Though I make a considerable amount more with affiliate sales - Adsense does help to add to my bottomline.

[crick]

I think its totally understandable if the traffic drops a bit during the summer. Its hot and sun shining, people do not want be stuck infront of their computer screens. Also, some sectors will do worse than others. I can imgaine gaming sites doing poorly because their users are students across college and university campusses (usually playing games in IT labs rather than doing research or whatever) who will be off for the summer.