It should be fairly obvious, but if you are launching or promoting a site that is in any way seasonal (or could benefit from a seasonal lift) then you need to plan it early.

I am planning a site based around Christmas, and despite the fact that it’s not yet June, I am already planning it, working on templates, getting content sources, and working out how it might generate revenue.

The thumbnail graph above is from Google Trends, a new service that allows you to graph how many times one or more terms are searched over the past three years.

With something as obviously seasonal as Christmas, you can see that searches begin in earnest around the beginning of the fourth quarter, peaking in November and early December.

Just as you’d expect, sure, but now apply that to your idea. If you start publishing and promoting it in only weeks before the event, you’ll probably miss most of the traffic. Maybe that’s not a huge problem for an annual event (though you’ll have to wait another 12 months to see significant traffic coming to you), but imagine doing it for a one-off event.

So, whilst it might seem strange to be planning an event site half-a-year or more in advance, it really isn’t. Get the advantage now.

Generally, the bigger the event is, the more media buzz there is around it, and the more people are likely to be covering it, the more prepared you need to be if you are to stand any chance of getting visitors and revenue from it.