Fourth-quarter is such a great time to boost your affiliate income and email sign-ups because your audience is primed to buy! Learn to create seasonal lead magnets that drive traffic to your blog for the holidays AND grow your email list at the same time!
Boost your holiday traffic with our FREE gift guide template! It’s the PERFECT compliment to all of your gift guide posts that’ll be sure to bring in more email sign-ups and affiliate revenue!
Is it just us, or does it feel like the holiday season comes faster year after year?
You blink, and it’s already time to start planning (again) for gifts, Christmas dinner, the in-laws coming to visit, recitals, and plays…
While you may not be ready for the holidays, your blog must be because we all know that quarter-four matters!
Now, we get it. You’ve been busting your butt all year long to get closer to your big WHY.
It’s no wonder that quarter-four is when most bloggers get blogger-burnout.
We know you may not want to hear this, but this is the time to give your blog everything you’ve got.
People are ready to buy. Heck, they WANT to buy.
Use this momentum by creating seasonal lead magnets that compliment your holiday content to grow your email list and make money blogging!
The best part? You’ll set yourself up for a fantastic new year where you can spend less time behind the computer and still make more money than ever.
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In fact, we know a lot of bloggers that take the entire month of December off.
Yes, the ENTIRE month! Talk about goals, huh?
Our goal for next year is to do the same because blogger burnout is very real, and it sucks.
What makes this worse is that it’s your livelihood! Getting burned out from your primary source of income is just NOT up for negotiation.
That’s why it’s so important to plan – the right way.
Now, what do we mean by that?
You can absolutely plan to take the entire month off and not have a single thing set up. You can miss out on holiday traffic, email sign-ups, and even product sales.
Or, you can have your holiday blog posts written and optimized, seasonal lead magnets to capture email addresses, and products ready for purchase.
Related Post: How to Pick a Holiday Color Palette For Your Blog
If you plan right, quarter four can be a total game-changer for your blog.
This is the time of year that people have problems that need solving. They’re stressed and looking for answers. They’re motivated to make changes for the new year.
Not only will seasonal blog posts bring you tons of extra traffic, but perfectly-timed seasonal lead magnets can boost your email list and prepare you for a hot start to the new year.
Because even after the holidays are over (and you get back to your blog), those subscribers are still there, just waiting to be emailed by you!
So, let’s start planning the right way by creating seasonal lead magnets to pair with your brilliant holiday content.
#1: Planners
Planners are the perfect way to leverage those new year’s resolutions because everyone wants to ‘plan’ to be better at something.
Think of the most common resolutions you hear about.
- Lose weight
- Get more organized
- Save money
Planners hit all of those points because most have meal planning and budget sections in addition to the monthly and weekly planner layout.
You can also personalize this to your own niche by adding sections that your audience won’t be able to resist.
Planners also make great paid products, so another option is to pull out certain pages of your lead magnet and sell the complete planner as a tripwire.
Related Post: 6 Best Tripwire Ideas That Turn Subscribers into Customers
If you want to save even more time, grab our FREE planner design worksheet to help you get off to the right start!
You can even create a couple of seasonal lead magnets (like a planner and challenge) that funnel together into a paid product.
#2: Challenges
Challenges are probably the most profitable of the seasonal lead magnets mentioned in this post.
First, they’re so easy to make. Using email automation, create a 5, 7, even 30-day email challenge that’s sent straight to their inbox.
Each day you’re giving your audience something of value whilst nurturing and priming them to buy at the same time.
Use this challenge as an opportunity to funnel your subscribers into your (related) paid product.
For example, a free 5-Day Healthy Living challenge could lead to a cookbook, workout program, meal planner, or 30-minute consultation.
Decluttering challenges are also huge this time of year. Use this to promote your book, eCourse, or product line.
Again, consider the most common resolutions people generally make. You can poll your Facebook group or email list to find out their own resolutions to help brainstorm the best seasonal lead magnets for your audience.
Design a challenge related to your niche to attract your target audience.
You’ll help your people and grow your list all at the same time.
#3: Gift Guides
A Christmas gift guide is a perfect opportunity to leverage the holidays and grow your bank of seasonal lead magnets.
Not only can you make a PDF-style gift guide and use it as an opt-in, but you can also use the opportunity to sell your own products or promote your affiliate links.
Related Post: How to Leverage the Holidays for Maximum Blog Growth
Growing your list, making money, AND helping your audience be more organized for their holiday shopping? Win-win-win.
Are you worried about the Amazon “no links in a PDF” rule?
- Make a page on your blog that includes all your Amazon links with numbers that correspond to the gift guide
- Add a section or page to your gift guide that says, “Want the links for these products? Visit www.yourblog.com/linksforholiday to check it out!”
That way, the link will go to your website and NOT Amazon.
Plus, you’re still getting them excited about the product in your gift guide without violating Amazon’s TOS. Most other affiliate programs approve the use of linked PDFs.
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, we HIGHLY recommend the Lazy Guide to Affiliate Marketing by Elizabeth Goddard. It’s perfect for those of us that would rather set-it-and-forget-it approach than push regular sales on our readers!
#4: Checklists/Worksheets
Holiday checklists and worksheets make great seasonal lead magnets for those that want things quick yet impactful.
If you have a killer holiday recipe or full-on Christmas dinner blog post series, make a grocery checklist to help them get in and out of the store fast.
Maybe you blog about budgeting and have a heavily-monetized blog post that shares how you paid off $50k of debt in two years.
Budgeting is huge for quarter four because so many want to go into the new year with a debt-free plan. So, take advantage of that traffic by creating a budget worksheet that walks them through it.
Related Post: 5 Easy Ways to Create Worksheets to Grow Your Blog
Help your audience build confidence in you by actually implementing your process to success. Work on that know, like, and trust factor right from the get-go, which will lead to recurring sales!
#5: Templates
Our most profitable quarter is hands down Q4. Our template sales go through the roof because, like all other resolutions, bloggers want to grow year after year.
They want:
To specifically leverage our holiday traffic, we designed two seasonal lead magnets to go with our holiday blog posts that both funnel into our paid holiday products.
See what we did there?
We built a holiday sales funnel that starts with a seasonal blog post –> seasonal lead magnet –> seasonal paid product using ConvertKit’s email automation.
Related Post: The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Funnel That Converts
Now, even if your niche isn’t blogging, you can still create seasonal templates to boost your Q4 sales.
Holiday tag templates for gifts, letter writing templates for kids – the sky’s the limit with niche-specific templates!
Or, keep it generalized with planner and calendar templates.
Templates make great additions to your seasonal lead magnets regardless of niche because they can be used over and over again. This makes them incredibly popular for those who want to cut down on single-use waste.
We’re totally serious when we tell you that the fourth quarter is a huge opportunity.
Not only when it comes to traffic but for income and growing your list. Never forget that the money is in the list.
That’s why we talk about list growth from the very beginning as often as we can!
Plus, when you plan out your seasonal lead magnets ahead of time, you can set yourself up for some awesome passive income while taking December off.
If you’re still unsure which seasonal lead magnets are right for you, check out these popular niche-specific holiday printables.
Blogging IS a rollercoaster; there’s just no other way around it. We’d be surprised if it didn’t send you through all the emotions in just one day.
Blogger burnout is no joke; we don’t want you to give up. Keep pushing through, friend. All your hard work and sacrifices WILL pay off, and it’ll be oh-so-worth-it.
To help get you there, pick one of these seasonal lead magnets and start making it happen! You’ll be surprised at the energy boost a successful holiday opt-in can give you!
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:
- FREE Gift Guide Template
- How to Pick a Holiday Color Palette For Your Blog
- How to Leverage the Holidays for Maximum Blog Growth
- ConvertKit
- Printables You Need to Create for Holiday Traffic
- Holiday Gift Guide Bundle for just $27
Don’t forget to grab your FREE gift guide template! It’s the PERFECT compliment to all of your gift guide posts that’ll be sure to bring in more email sign-ups and affiliate revenue!
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Brenda Mueller says
This is a great post! I love the idea of the gift guide. I would have never thought of this and I’m looking forward to using this idea in the future. Thank you for sharing!
roamy says
Really motivating and informative,thanks for sharing. Will sûre use the gift guides,I may be late this year but then, next year is not too far away.
Yulia says
This content is a true gem, Kara. I am pinning it now. I was thinking of what holiday giveaways I should do for my brand. This is very helpful.