Summer’s here – 10 tips on how to survive the quietest time of the year

The kids have broke up from school for the Summer holidays, the sun is out (mostly), the light nights are here and people are either outside enjoying themselves or going abroad on holiday. Either way, the back end of July and the whole of August are traditionally the slowest time of year for online businesses. In my experience things start to quieten down about now, August is pretty much completely dead and September will get off to a slow start, but by mid September we'll start to see traffic getting back to normal levels, then growing right up until Christmas. So what can you do in this quiet period to keep your head above water? Here's some ideas: 1. Dust the cobwebs - I use this quiet time to mainly tidy up old sites that I've neglected over the busy periods. Have a look through your old sites, check for dead links, see if everything is working as it should be and generally administer a good old tidy up. Maybe add some fresh content, check for new affiliate merchants that will be suitable for the site and then put some fresh links up. 2. Prepare for Christmas - right now I'm updating my toys website, this sector always goes crazy at Christmas so I'm making sure that everything is up to date, links are working and I'm adding fresh content. What will be the big trends this Christmas? Do some research and make sure you're in a position to capitalise on what will be big. 3. Sales! - we aren't the only ones finding things quiet at the moment. Most retailers are too and the Summer sale season is well and truly here. As well as some fantastic sales happening right now I've seen merchants offering never-seen-before special offers and deep discounts. Are you making the most of them? There are some real bargains to be found online right now so push them out to your readers, you may find that some are just too irrestiable to turn down! 4. Content is SEO - Take advantage of the lull to build up and "bank" some content for release later when you don't have time to write it! Remember you can never get enough good content so write away, file and save. 5. Try something different - have you always had a project in the back of your head that you've wanted to launch but have never had the time? Well now's the time! Do something fun and not to make money, you never know it may just be the next big thing! 6. Get out and network - you can't use the excuse that you're too busy so why not attend the A4U roadshow in Glasgow on the 13th August or Manchester on the 10th September? More details here. 7. Arrange tenancy agreements - email your contacts at the affiliate networks and give them the first refusal for your prime "real estate" on your sites for the last quarter of the year. Do it now or you'll soon be so busy that you'll forget about it in the run up to Christmas. 8. Cleanup your email lists - tidy up, dedupe and get rid of the rubbish in your email database. Make sure you have as clean a list as possible for the silly season. Don't have an email list? Well nows the time to get one put in place! 9. Get social - join Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, FaceBook and various webmaster forums. Subscribe to your favourite blogs, seek out new blogs and above all join in the discussion on all of the above. Get your name or your website known, build your brand and your reputation online. Every bit helps and more often than not we don't have time for this in the day-to-day grind. 10. Take a holiday - if you can't beat 'em join 'em. Take a break now and recharge your batteries before the mad Christmas rush as you won't have time later. What I'm listening to right now - Martine Gerault - "Revival". Anyone remember this? It would make my day if someone did! Pure class.