Unless you are selling gifts or other Christmas-related items, December can be a deadly slow time of the year. Marketing-related sales can fall off by 50% or more. On the other hand, January often kicks off with a roar as thousands of new customers enter the marketplace thanks to well-meaning New Year's Resolutions that involve working from home and making more money.
So what can you do about it? Here are some ideas.
1. Work on your site.
If you've got a To Do list, now is the time to attack it with a vengeance. Fix those graphics. Rewrite that sales letter. Add those new products for which you purchased resell rights. Get your infrastructure ready for new customers.
2. Test
Now is also a great time to test new ideas. Create a new sales page and see how it pulls vs your old page. While it may take a bit longer to get a statistically significant sample, at least you will know what works better when hot-selling January rolls around.
3. Build your autoresponders
If you don't have an email list you are continually promoting to, now is the time to start one. You can't find a guru that doesn't agree that the list IS your business. So how do you start? There are gigabytes worth of products, eBooks and advice on eZines our there. Jimmy D. Brown's Ezine Profit Producer is one of the most respected (http://www.cbmall.com/pvm/epp.asp)
4. Strengthen your Affiliate Program
If you have an affiliate program, now is the time to make it better. What have you offered your affiliates lately? Create some new banners. Write an article or ad they can use. Give them some new promotional ideas that seem to be working for you.
This idea worked great for me. I created an upgrade program that included significant new benefits. Not only did it increase the commissions earned by my own affiliates, but many of them took advantage of the upgrade as well, increasing my sales. (Make any offer like this attractive to your affiliates, mine only paid 50% of what others would pay.) Every product should have an upsell option - does yours? If not, create one!
5. Join new affiliate programs
This is a great time to research new affiliate programs that can add multiple income streams to your web portfolio. Look for programs that fit well with your target niche, offer significant ongoing income potential, and provide excellent customer support.
Another tip: Carefully analyze how much work program demands. Can you make enough extra money to justify the additional work required on your part? Remember, your time is the most valuable asset you have.
Summary
While this may be a slow season for sales, December offers great opportunities for webmasters to improve the performance, effectiveness and income potential of their internet business. Take advantage of this time by working on the things you can leverage when January sales take off.