You are probably also aware that there are many other seasonal times around the year when certain products or services have their peak.

Now be honest – are you taking advantage of this in your internet marketing business?

Are you only raking in the cash around Christmas (and maybe Valentine’s day) and ignoring all the other opportunities throughout the year?

What’s great is that there are seasons for all kinds of things – all months of the year. There is so much more than just holidays we can dive into.  Here are a few tips to get you going with some ideas.

Now remember, for any regular event or seasonal time of the year – always be prepared ahead of time. Set up your landing sites, your newsletters, niche blog, or whatever it is at least one month in advance so you can bring in the conversions and traffic before and during its popularity peak. Be ahead of your competition!

Wanna know items are gonna be hot for the Christmas season? Here’s a tip: check up on Oprah’s “my favourite things” list that she churns out every november. Millions of women follow her “choices” (which is really nothing but highly paid promotions / name-dropping) and will wanna buy that stuff.

Oh and, you have probably heard of “cyber monday” right? That first monday after Thanksgiving when the gross revenue in sales reaches a peak. Did you know that second monday after thanksgiving actually drives in the biggest revenue?

Keep an eye on when advertisers in the newspapers are changing their ad to get ready for a new season. Brick and mortar retailers have decades of experience when it comes to timing their ads for the right seasonal events. Watch your mailbox (yeah the snailmail one) for seasonal flyers, catalogues, etc. that are distributed by retailers in your area.

Commercial Days – the obvious ones (in the US)

Valentine’s day
St Patrick’s day
Mother’s Day
Father’s Day
4th of july
Halloween
Christmas

But there are so much more to seasonal business than those. This will sound cliché’d but it’s time to blow the dust off that old box we need to think outside of.  Think of all the physical goods that are top-sellers following the weather seasons.

Yard and gardening is a market with many sub-niches that has its peak in the spring and fall. Sure, in the summer too – but people tend to be more lazy in the midst of summer heat. Aside from moving the lawn of course. But in the springtime and fall is when you will see all the mail flyers with ad copy like “Just in time for spring cleaning!” and “Is your yard ready for winter?”

It goes without saying that summer is the season for recreational activities, fun, and sports. Hiking, camping, barbeques, scuba diving, water toys, sunglasses, cooling, boat equipment, bug repellants, bikes, wedding supplies, hammocks…make your own list. The products are there. Make sites that sell them!

Sports – Seasonal Cash Cows
There are so many sports to choose from, and most of them follow strict seasonal patterns year after year. For these, you can cash in twice a year, as each season usually has two high peaks when the interest is very high: Playoffs and Finals. At the beginning of any sport season, be ahead of the game with mini-sites, surveys, polls, and even newsletters. Fans of the sport are eager to vote for their favorite team, jump into popularity contests, and find news on this season’s teams, players, athletes, whatever.

At the end of the season, the interest for the sport will be reaching its climax, and you can cash in on merchandise, and even sports betting sites. Some affiliate networks have sports-related offers in the form of zip/email submits where users can get free merchandise or compete to win major event tickets. Can’t find an appropriate offer? No problem – just look for stuff that could still interest the key demographic of the sport. 

Here are just some seasonal sports off the top of my head; Nascar racing, dragracing, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and volleyball. And many sports of course have different leagues or series, as well as male and female series. There are thousands of people out there who follow these sports religiously. Bring them to you and monetize…

Once a Year…
The world of showbiz has its own annual highlights. The MTV Video Awards, the Grammys, the Oscars, the Cannes Film Festival, the Eurovision Song Contest and so on. What all these events have in common is that people are drawn to them like clockwork every year – curious about the latest buzz and news.

And don’t forget every parent’s rush at the end of the summer to prepare their schoolkids for another year. As a parent myself, I know first-hand that “back to school” is a great time of year for people who sell school supplies, backpacks, new kids’ shoes, clothes, etc. It’s like the California gold rush – every august!  Don’t you want to cash in on this opportunity as an affiliate marketer? I do. 

The same thing goes for college level kids. They just need different things, like a new laptop for their dorm room (not do download porn with of course…just to “improve their studies”) 

And what about hunting seasons? The majority of game is only allowed to be hunted at certain times of the year. Build an affiliate or datafeed mashup store around hunting gear and run the campaign at the right time each year.

Every So Many Years..
And then – we have recurring events that aren’t exactly seasonal, but still is destined to bring inevitable waves of traffic now and then:

The Summer Olympics (China 2008, UK 2012)
The Winter Olympics (Canada 2010, Russia 2014)
Political Elections (every 2-4 years)
World Championship Soccer (every 4 years)
Astrological events (passing comets, sun/lunar eclipses)

It’s all about timing. Buy the domains ahead of time. Start setting up different seasonal niche sites and fire up their campaigns in due time to profit from them. The rest of the year you can put the campaign on the backburner and disable them.

It’s easy cash you would miss out on if you didn’t.