Out-of-season link building

[Webrevolve]

Hi all,

We have a couple of seasonal websites (Artificial Christmas trees).

Now, its fairly easy to develop good content that people are interested in when the season is approaching, and even easier mid season.

However, this somewhat stalls when everyone has had their fill of Christmas, between Jan and Sept.

So, my question is, how would you suggest an approach to link building for a seasonal ecommerce site such as this?

Obviously my aim is to develop links now, so when September comes, the site is up there.

Thank you

[Webrevolve]

Great Ideas Doug

[DougRoberts]

Keep an eye on the climate / issues affecting real tree growers. Anything newsworthy in your industry (think broadly) might be something you should have an opinion on.

What were real tree vs artificial tree sales like this year? The perception here (UK) as a punter was that the cost had gone up, that many trees had suffered with the unusual weather pattern (dry over winter, very wet over summer) and had unusual shapes. Many of the real tree sellers didn't sell out this year. Is the ratio of artificial vs real a good marker for the economy - or people's confidence at least!)

Do you have any e-commerce data that you can use? Does anyone by artificial trees out of season? What's the most popular month of the year outside of the Christmas season? Can you reach out to any of these purchasers to find out why they need a tree?

Are there any unusual out of season uses for Christmas trees?

Christmas tree "fashions" through the ages?

Even if you can't actually build links today, you've got plenty of time to identify possible targets and build assets so that you can reach out to them as soon as the season starts.

Bit of a ramble, hope this helps!

ps. Don't forget about april the 1st. Be nice to see a feature of an artifical christmas tree farm... You could get some good press with something quirky!

[Webrevolve]

Cool,

Good suggestions Charles.

[Webrevolve]

Hi Charles,

I agree -and i've recently instructed a new copywriter, one I am very confident in.

I just need to seed a few ideas and then find a place to get the content published - which is the issue, who would want to use it now, in March?

Pinterest is a good shout, as we can use this years new ranges and begin promoting them .

[Webrevolve]

Hey Tom,

Making furniture could be a great concept, as is the idea of conservation - trouble is we are selling Artificial predominantly, although those articles could still develop some links.

Cheers!

[TomRayner]

Probably a bit too late now in March, but ways that you can recycle your tree is an idea for Jan/Feb. There's this 70 old retired man near where I work who takes in everyone's old trees and makes the most beautiful furniture out of it. A feature on that or a guide of what you can do in the home with left over trees would probably get some traction.

Might be a chance to look at all the hard work and conservation that goes into growing the trees. With all the razzmatazz of Christmas gone, the unsung heroes as it were are still planting away, with soft pines taking about 2-3 years for a small tree and bigger ones 5+. That's a lot of work for something we put up for about 1 month a year - maybe a piece on those that make a key part of Christmas happen might be interesting.