The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 71. Preparing for the Summer Slump in Blogging

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Today, we are talking all about the summer slump and how to navigate through those summer months when traffic to your site slows down.  We want to assure you that it is completely normal for a summer slump to happen and let you know what to expect so you are prepared for it. If you are worried about what will happen to your business in the summer slump, you don’t want to miss this episode! Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsCheck out The Blog Depot. This is a community and course that we have set up for you if you need questions answered before you start your blog. Join The Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, our online course and coaching that helps you build the blog that you have always dreamed of.Restored 316's TemplatesGet 20% off of Keysearch Starter Plan using this link and code: KSDISCCheck out the show notes for more information including links and resources mentioned in today's episode!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode71

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hey, welcome back to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today we are going to talk about something that if you are an established blogger, then you've definitely heard of it. But if you're a new blogger, it's something that maybe you aren't quite aware of yet. And that is the summer slump. And it's a real thing. It actually does happen. Traffic does slump in the summer. So does our motivation a little bit, if we're honest. And that's okay. It is just part of it. And I think when we know that it's coming, then it's easier to prepare for it. So Jennifer's here with me today. And we're just going to have just a conversation about this to help you change your mindset

surrounding it. Because I think that that's a really important piece too, is when you can prepare for it, then you can get your mindset in the right space when you log in and your traffic's down in June, July, August. And you don't have to say to yourself, what am I doing? Is this all my fault? Where have I gone wrong? But you can come back to yourself and say, okay, I can prepare for this. And I am prepared for this. And it's a real thing. And it's not just happening to me, but it's kind of happening generally across the board. Yeah. Our main goal with this episode is just to really make you feel like you know what to do, you know what to expect, and you know why you don't have to panic and think that a summer slump is like

the worst thing that's going to happen to you. Because there are really some benefits of it too, which we will talk about. But first, what is a summer slump? And when is it? So like Amy mentioned, we call it a summer slump for a couple of reasons. Number one is that we're getting less traffic to our websites. And this could be for a couple reasons. But the main one is that people are just busy doing other things. So they're not looking for as much stuff. They're not sitting inside. They're not looking at their phones as much. They're not on Pinterest looking for ideas. They're not Googling for recipes, etc. for ideas. They're not Googling for recipes, etc. So when is this specifically? It's just going to depend on your niche. But just know that it's completely normal and that you haven't done

anything wrong. If you start to see your traffic go down, whether that starts April, May, June, that's normal. And it's going to depend on your niche when it starts to fall. But that is... It's okay. And nothing is terribly wrong. If your traffic starts to go down, you haven't done anything wrong. The other piece of that is you're going to... If you're on an ad network, you might start to see less revenue. Because companies or companies that are advertising are spending a little less money at this time. A, they're just not reaching as big of an audience, but it also has to do with their budgets and their budgets might be down in the summer, especially come July. So that's just something to remember in that the amount that you're getting paid on your ads is just going to go down a little bit. It's going to be less revenue per sessions or less revenue per page view, depending on which ad company you're on.

And that's just something to plan for as well. And then there is a third component to this summer slump. And that is, for some bloggers, you yourself have less time to work. Maybe your commitments are that you have kids that are off of school all summer. So you're driving them to their summer camps or their activities, or you're trying to entertain them. And so you might just have less time to really focus on your blog in the summer. And that may feel a little bit like a slump too. Yeah. And I think something important to note here is that's the beauty of blogging. You're able to show up more in your life and your business can take the backseat for a little bit. Because when you're blogging. You're able to show up more in your life and your business can take the backseat for

a little bit. Because when you're blogging, that traffic is always coming because you're hopefully spending time working on SEO and keyword research all year round in order for those posts that you've worked so hard on to continually generate traffic to your site. So that's why when we harp on SEO and keyword research, that's truly why. It's so you don't have to pump out all this content all the time like you do on social media. This content is living for you all the time. So don't panic. That's the first thing I'm going to tell you about what you can be doing now. This episode is airing late April. So you might be asking yourself, why are we talking about summer?

Well, because it's like right around the bend, and it's going to be here before we know it. And for some of you, since Easter has already passed, you might have already seen a dip, especially if you're in the food space. You might have already seen just a little bit of a dip in traffic. But no matter what niche you're in, don't panic. Do not panic. You have probably not done something wrong. It is just this time of year. So what else can you be doing now to prepare yourself for this time, besides not panicking? Plan for summer expenses. So make sure that you are really familiar with what is coming up expense-wise in the summertime. So do you have anybody helping you? What do you have to purchase in order to blog? What is your overhead that you're going

to have? Just be really honest about what's coming up to where you're not backtracking, trying to figure out how you're going to pay for your business in the summer, but that it's just going to run nice and smooth. I think that's one of the best things that you can do for yourself. Just a gift that you can give yourself going into the summer is just to know, hey, traffic might dip a little, affiliate sales might dip a little, might not have as much sponsored opportunities

and things like that. So how can I plan for that? Maybe you need to pull back in some areas come summer. That's okay too. Another way to plan for this, and this is a little probably late this year, but it's something that we want you to think about going into Q3, Q4, is take advantage of the higher revenue months and drive traffic then. So make sure you have a Pinterest strategy that you are utilizing.

You can go back and listen to the episode that we've done with Kate All about using Pinterest in 2023. And I think that'll be really helpful for you. Another great way that Jennifer and I are both getting more traffic to our blogs currently is by utilizing web stories. And we had Lauren from Pinch of Parsley come on the podcast to talk about that. If you listen to that episode, get a notebook and be ready to take notes because she tells you exactly what you need to do in order to utilize Google Web Stories. tells you exactly what you need to do in order to utilize Google Web Stories. And I can tell you, it makes a difference. I just started. Jennifer has been doing it some too. And we have both noticed quite an increase in traffic by utilizing Google Web Stories. So that is definitely something that you might want to consider. That's something you can consider also in the summer as a different

way for people to connect with your content is maybe adding Google Web Stories as well. Pinterest is down a little bit in the summer. So just know that. I want you to think about your own habits in the summer. Are you in front of your phone as much? Are you searching on Pinterest as much as you do in the fall and winter? Likely not. And if you are, you're looking for a very specific thing. But I think historically, we just spend more time outside or spending more time on vacations. And we're just not as quote unquote lazy. It's not actually lazy, but we're just not as introverted. I think in the summer, we just are more extroverted. We're out and about more and we're doing more things because the weather is nice and beautiful. As long as you're not in an area that you're steaming hot.

And then maybe you are inside, hanging out on Pinterest because you're not sweating to death outside. So it just depends on where you're at, quite honestly, your region and all that. And where the region is of people that are coming to your site as well. What are they looking for? We can say that you might have a drop in traffic on Pinterest. But if you're a travel blogger, that might be your best time of year. And so you might have a slump in a different time. So while this podcast is for the summer slump, I want you to think about when your slump is as a blogger and utilize these things during that time as well. Implementing keyword research and competition analysis into your content strategy is a surefire way to improve your chances of people finding your content. And we love how simple KeySearch

makes it to find keywords we actually want to use in our posts. KeySearch is a powerful keyword research tool that makes finding relevant, low competition keywords for your blog simple and easy. If you think optimizing your blog and doing keyword research has to be hard, think again. Give this powerhouse tool a try and see how much easier it will be to create content for your blog. Not only is it reasonably priced, even for beginning bloggers, but you can use our code for 20% off your subscription. Click the link in our show notes to learn more. Okay, another thing that you can be doing right now to plan for summer is why don't you figure out what content you want to be going out during

the summer, what blog posts, maybe even what social media posts you want going out, what your schedule is going to look like, and maybe get some of that done now. Get it done ahead of time, get it scheduled, and then you can take some time off too. How novel would that be as a blogger just to take some time off? Doesn't that sound amazing? Yeah. Take some time off with your kids or your friends. Maybe take a trip. I mean... Without guilt. Without guilt. It's so easy to get caught up as a blogger. And a blogger is an entrepreneur. When you're an entrepreneur, you just get so caught up in more and more and more

because you want to see the impacts of your work. You want to see the results of your work. And so you just think, oh, there's always more to do. And yes, there is always more to do. But it's okay to plan ahead and take some time off and just revive your creativity, revive those good feelings and pace yourself for the future. Because honestly, the fall and winter can and pace yourself for the future. Because honestly,

like the fall and winter can be really busy for blogging. So plan now how you'd like to spend your summer and just really get excited about the possibilities. And think about the summer slump as a positive thing from that perspective is you got to get to choose what you're going to do with your summer. So there's a few things you can do when it gets to this point in the summer. Yes, take some time off. But the next thing is, once again, we're just going to say it now, don't panic. Don't see your traffic falling. Don't see your revenue falling and think,

Oh my gosh, I have to change everything. I have to get a completely new strategy. I'm going to be working all summer to fix this. Just hold off. And it's going to take you some time if you're brand new to blogging a year or two to figure out what your traffic dips look like, what the seasonality looks like. There's a couple places you can go take a peek. You can look at your keywords on a keyword research tool. You can look at Google Trends and start to get an idea of the ups and downs for your particular niche, the keywords that you use,

so that you have a good idea. But it's just going to take you a little time to figure out the ups and downs of your website. So never panic and never make big changes based on a change like this in your traffic. And then there's lots of other things that you can take this time to do if you do want to work during the summer. And just think of this as a really positive thing to block off some time to work on other things that you don't normally have time for. Maybe it's a time to work a little bit more on your website. You might want to update your theme. Maybe you've been wanting to...

Maybe you've had a theme for several years and you think maybe it's time to update so you can have a better user experience or you can display your content in a different way or maybe a theme that's a little bit more up-to-date, faster, cleaner. So this is a great time to do something like that, especially with traffic a little bit down on your site.

It's a little bit easier to get transitioned over. You can also just take some time to work on some of the content on your site in terms of your pages. you might want to improve those a little bit. Maybe you want to go back to your About Me page and update it. I see a lot of About Me pages that get really outdated quickly. Somebody's had a new baby or they've added a pet or whatever. So update those About Me pages, add a little bit more to it to give people an opportunity to get to know you and to know what you have to offer. And just really take in your website from the eyes of a user and just see what can you do to create a better user experience for your site. Yeah, I think going back to the About Me page, I think that's something you're going to want to make sure you're updating like once or twice a year because they do get outdated fairly quickly. So I think that's a great time to do that. And maybe you've got a new offer.

Maybe you have a course or a membership that you've started and you want to make sure that that offer is on your About Me page as well. Summer is a great time to focus on some of those other areas of your business. Maybe you're not on an ad network yet and so you are wanting to generate some revenue. Summer is a great time to use your creativity and maybe create a course or start a membership that can add value to your audience. And I know that that feels really kind of scary to think about that if you've never done something like that. But we have a great resource. Lindsay Bowden was on the podcast to talk about creating a course. And it can really be a great way to generate revenue as well. And also just help

you connect more with your ideal reader. They're on your site for a reason. You're offering value. And so that having a course or something that helps them does help strengthen that relationship between the two of you. And you are an expert in that specific topic or niche. And you can also learn a new skill. Maybe photography has been something that's been on the back burner. It's not something that you have wanted to dive into yet. But maybe you're going to pull back on blog posts per week, and you want to use that extra time to focus on photography, if that's something that you desire. I mean, you can learn lots of new skills with blogging. I think it takes...

Maybe you want to start shooting video. Maybe you want to start a podcast. you desire. I mean, you can learn lots of new skills with blogging. I think it takes... Maybe you want to start shooting video. Maybe you want to start a podcast. There's all kinds of things that you can do in this space as well that it's going to feel like you're not doing maybe what you always do, but that doesn't mean you're not doing something. So just know that. But sometimes the hustle looks different. Sometimes the work looks different. But as long as you're moving that needle forward, it's great. Unless you're taking time off and then enjoy your time off and come back to your blog later. You can also start a welcome or nurture series for your email list. And this is something that is really important. We've had Allie Groomer on the podcast to talk about email marketing and how

important it is, especially these two different sequences. And so maybe this is the time that you just really hone in on your email list. People are still checking their email in the summer. That's for sure. So maybe you're not putting out as much content, but maybe you're creating some emails that go out to them that generate them back to the content that you've already created. Look, guys, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Take the stuff that you're doing already and just make more eyes on it again. You've already spent all this time. Maybe it's something that you've created last summer that you want to make sure that eyes get on it this summer. Your email list and your readers do not know probably that, Oh my gosh, she posted that in July of last year. I can't

believe she's sharing it again. They have no idea. It's okay. You can do that. Your content is meant to be shared again. Update it, make it relevant to the current year if it needs to be, and then share it out again with your email list. Those are the people who have taken that extra step forward and said, I want to know more about what you're doing. I want to stay in contact. So use this time to really, really connect with them. Bloggers often feel like they need to spend a fortune on a custom website to have a professional online presence. Not only do you not need to spend a fortune, you can actually build your own website

with a beautiful theme that won't hold you back from success. That's why we recommend Restored 316 website themes. You can have the website of your dreams with a beautiful conversion-focused online presence without breaking the bank. We love Restored 316 so much. It's the only website themes we recommend to our

students because of the heart and soul they put into their themes. They're also so customizable. So even if you purchase a theme that someone else has, you can absolutely make it your own using the block features of Cadence. So it's customized to your needs without the price tag. To learn more about Restored 316 themes, click the link in our show notes. So Amy mentioned the email list. And another thing you could do is to create a freebie or lead magnet to go with your email list. So that would be something that you share on your site, on social media, and it attracts people to sign up because they're getting some benefit of signing up for email lists. So these are typically pretty easy to create, but we put them off because it's an extra thing to do. So summer is a great

time to sit back and think about what you could create to just attract some new email subscribers. Another thing you can do is honestly just get ahead on your fall and winter content. Start planning, start researching, and maybe make a content plan for those busier seasons so that you feel really solid about what content you need to create come those months. And then you could even get ahead and start working on some of that content as well if you know for sure what you want working on some of that content as well, if you know for sure what you want to create. And that will feel so good knowing that you have some content created and ready to go come those busier times.

Yeah. I know it's hard to get organized, especially if that's not what you lean into. I think sometimes a lot of creatives, the organization piece comes secondly to the creativity. But just know when you take steps forward to have that organization in your business, you will thrive. If you felt like in quarter three, quarter four of last year, you literally wanted to rip your hair out and you were going a million miles a minute, use summer to prepare to where this year doesn't have to look like last year.

Such a good point. Yeah. Okay. So we shared all of this not to make you stress or worry or overly anticipate the summer slump. What our goal today was, was to make you feel like you can embrace the summer slump. So I don't even like the word slump for it. We should come up with something new because this is such a time of opportunity. So if you can just sit back, know what's coming and know that this is a normal part of business that you can plan for, it will feel so much less stressful to you when you start to see these things happen and the traffic go down, etc. on your blog because you will have a plan. So use this time, like we said, complete projects that have been on your list.

Learn something new. Take a course or take some time off. Yeah. And it is a great time to take some time off. I think as bloggers, we need that permission sometimes that we are able to do that and that we can do that. Sometimes I feel like we think that we're lazy if we're taking time off. But you can probably get more done being more intentional and less time than giving yourself more time and putting a whole bunch on your plate. Sometimes when we have too much on our plate and too many days, then we get... It's like analysis paralysis. We can't move forward. So we do nothing. But if you actually say, okay, this summer, I'm just going to work 3 or 4 days a week.

And these are my set hours. And whatever gets done in that time gets done in that time. Have a very solid plan for what you're going to do in that time. And then go enjoy your summer. Your blog is going to be there. You've created content that's going to just generate traffic because you've focused on SEO, keyword research, and all of that because you've been listening to this podcast and you're a blogger genius now. And so just know that. Just go into the summer and have fun with it. See blogging as the blessing that it is. Truly. This is why we do this. This is why we are in charge of our schedule. We are more in charge of our time. And so go into the summer slump and embrace it. Embrace the summer and all that it comes with and know that quarter three, quarter four are going to be there waiting for you. And use the summer to prepare for that

and enjoy your summer and the fruits of your labor. So thanks for listening today. We appreciate you tuning in each and every week to the Ultimate Blog Podcast. And we hope that we have helped you take some of the fear out of what's to come here in the summer. And so you can enjoy your sunshiny days a little bit more. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at Spark Media Concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration. You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.