Conversionrater has an post about what do when traffic drops during a holiday (like today) to drive more traffic to your websites or blogs - I think it’s a good post and builds on ideas I had but never fully executed on for some of my clients.

Some of my SEO clients are architects and sell house plans online - that usually peaks in January, stays hot through March then dies down during the summer.  Holiday periods like Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years - almost no activity happens during the day before - during and a day after - that seems to be the pattern.    Yet …what if you could at least - drive traffic to a site during that time….you could be part of the customer’s consideration set for house plans - even if you can’t always close the sale and sell the 500 dollar - 1000 dollar plan during the holiday - you can sell it right after.   I have one client right now who this advice helps.

Here’s the basic points:

1. Create content that is themed around the holiday

Pat give examples of this in   ProBlogger Darren Rowse who posted an article on his Digital Photography School blog about how to photograph fireworks, and then posted on his Problogger blog about the “holiday explosion” he got in traffic.  But really, your business ought to have a blog and a RSS feed for this.

Also, there’s two sites involved here, the School Blog (where the orig post is) and then Darron Rowse’s main Problogger blog.   It’s also interesting that Darren Rowse is Australian and got the benifit of the traffic even though the 4th is not one of his holidays!

"He also followed it up with another post about the traffic sources and what it did for his revenue and newsletter subscriptions. What’s great about this is Darren is in Australia, so he’s taking advantage of a holiday not even celebrated in his own country, now that’s a smart blogger."

  Tell me about it!

2. Create a contest based on the holiday.

Well, it would be nice if Pat could give a different example - but going back to Darren Rowse again,

"What if Darren Rowse had a contest on his Digital Photography School blog to pick the best 4th of July firework photo from user submitted photos? He could go a step further and allow users to vote driving traffic up even further."

I think this kind of contest is easier said than done.  It takes planning to set up something like that.  You have to have a traffic mindset to think ahead - what does your audience want - what do people - when they are searching - and not looking at FireWorks - search on?   How can you be part of that search?

Free give aways are an option, true; but I think the give away should be connected, in some branded way, with the holiday.  Give some one a Trip somewhere - like Philadelphia - if they are the 100,000th visitor and it’s Independance day - or a view of the Stature of Liberty, etc.    Let’s say your awarding an online prize, like money or Amazon Gift Certificates - that could work well - but it’s got to be worth your while (of the visitor) and Optimized Press Releases should be sent out a couple of weeks before and then again, just before, the holiday to drum up demand and interest.  Let the thing become viral - let friends tell each other about it.

3. Have a holiday sale.

Not very original - everyone is having a Fire Sale today (or the day after the 4th).

"Even if you aren’t an ecommerce site, a regular blogger or content publisher could easily make some holiday themed items with Cafepress or other similar sites that relates to your site in some way and sell them for a couple of weeks around the holiday for some extra revenue. Things like this also help build a community, and you could even tie this merchandise into your contest. Darren Rowse could make Digital Photography School t-shirts with a great fireworks picture on it and give those away as prizes in his contest."

What’s nice is that Pat tells you how to do it easy with CafePress - the holiday theme sale, that is.    Now, if we can just find a couple of other examples out side of Darren Rowse - we’d have the makings of a great PDF ebook, something to sell online.

You need more than one person, one example, you need about 10-12, many in a variety of industries which sell online.

It’s also interesting the Conversionrater post is about Web Analytics when it’s actually more about Marketing Strategy.  What is happening is Web Analytics, Maketing Strategy, SEO/SEM are becoming one - that’s right - it’s all the same pathway, the same  funnel.

By the way, I also think Web Analytics could also be Art too - as when you reduce the ideas of how people behave into patterns (so you can measure behavior) you come to things like "The Golden Mean" which is part of the language of painting - and I explore that more in another blog.

I’m actually sorry I did not drop Pat a line when he was coming to NYC recently, would have liked to have met with him - maybe next time.