In a day and age where Google is making it harder and harder for small publishers, we’ve got to maximize the revenue potential of every single visitor.
Today’s email applies no matter whether you’re using SEO or Social Media to drive traffic to your content.
It involves Mediavine and their just-released 2025 Best CPM Calendar. But that’s only part of the story.
Let me show you how to use this and a few other data points to 5x the earnings your content is getting.
Quick Navigation
The Status Quo Content Producer
The Status Quo Content Producer… this is where most content creators land. And, until 1 year post-HCU, me too.
You make content, get traffic, and you make money. Many of us make a lot from ad revenue, which is directly tied to traffic volume and RPM (Revenue Per Mille, or the amount you make per thousand pageviews).
FWIW, Mediavine calls it CPM in their report. CPM focuses on the advertiser’s cost for showing ads, whereas RPM focuses on the publisher’s revenue for displaying ads. For today’s conversation, we’ll consider them similar enough.
When you’re a “status quo content producer,” you don’t really think much about your RPMs. They are what they are, based on the niche you chose.
- You celebrate the higher RPMs when they come during certain times of the year (we all love that sweet holiday traffic).
- When RPMs are lower, you move on and just roll with the punches.
The benefit of this? It’s easy. No major strategy changes. You keep creating content like you always have.
But here’s the drawback: You’re leaving a LOT of money on the table.
Covid was a good example of this. In the months following lockdown, traffic to many of my sites spiked. People were home looking for things to do. But, at the same time, RPMs plummeted. So, in the end, I made a little more than normal, but not by much.
This highlights the inverse relationship between traffic and RPMs that can happen sometimes.
An example closer to home is my food site. Because of the specific niche it’s in, traffic naturally peaks in January and February. But as you know, RPMs are at their lowest then.
Let’s dive deeper into that example. Here are January’s traffic and RPM numbers:
Good traffic (especially for a site decimated by the HCU), and RPMs at $40.
But now let’s look at that juicy November 16 through December 15 period that Mediavine highlighted as the highest RPMs:
RPMs are almost double! But… traffic is only 30% of January’s totals. You can see the downsides of being a status quo content producer. You make what you make… but you leave a lot on the table.
And, if you’re not on a premium ad network like Mediavine, now is a good time to change that. Journey by Mediavine is accepting sites with 10k sessions per month… and perhaps even lower! Get signed up so that you can take advantage of what I’m going to show you next.
Because there’s a big difference between the Status Quo Content Producer and what I’ll call the next level…
The Seasonally Focused Content Producer
Now we’re getting more strategic. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t do much of this until post HCU. That was dumb.
The Seasonally Focused Content Producer doesn’t just produce content willy-nilly. They look at seasonal data and plan their content around when certain topics or niches tend to explode in popularity.
- You identify the seasonal traffic spikes.
- You create content that is 100% aligned with those peaks.
- You publish content targeted at that high-traffic season, knowing the RPMs will be… well, what they will be.
If you’re focused on generating traffic through SEO, you can use Google Trends. For Pinterest traffic, I use PinClicks. Let me show you with a random example from the fashion niche:
- Navigate to Keyword Research in PinClicks
- Type “what to wear easter”
- It shows me all of the top keywords that I can target
Look at some of those! Lots of different topics to make unique articles, and PinClicks found those in a matter of seconds. You can fire up Koala Writer and feed it an outline for the base level listicle idea creation. Then, add lots of additional perspectives, quotes, and images.
But here’s the thing: even though RPMs during your high season might not be sky-high, you’re still capitalizing on the traffic. And that’s what matters.
Here’s a real-life example from my own DIY site:
- In the lead-up to Father’s Day, my site always gets a huge traffic bump.
- I purposefully create gift guides tailored for dads, so my traffic ends up increasing quite a bit for the season.
- But… the RPMs during those weeks? Average at best.
Without the Father’s Day content, I would make a lot less in June. The traffic increases lead to a 2x in earnings or so for the month.
Not bad—but imagine if I could time that traffic spike with higher RPMs.
So, what if you could… time your content for those higher RPMs?
The Dollar Driven Content Producer
This is where you step it up even further, and it’s where you start making some real money.
- You not only create seasonal content, but you also intentionally focus on when RPMs are at their highest.
- How do you figure this out? I already showed you. Mediavine makes it easy with their 2025 Best CPM Calendar. This chart shows you exactly when the best ad rates tend to happen.
Here’s a quick peek at some high-RPM time periods:
- End of June
- End of October
- Black Friday / Cyber Monday
Additionally, the second half of September and early November are also key periods.
Now, here’s how to take advantage of these timeframes:
- Identify high-RPM seasons using the chart.
- Find seasonal topics in your niche that align with those time periods.
- Publish and promote your content in advance of the high RPM periods starting.
For example, on my food site, I created some Thanksgiving-focused content, which works perfectly with both the high traffic potential of seasonal content and high RPMs of late November.
And look at that, the top earning article of the month? And, how about those RPMs.
This one article accounted for more than 25% of my earnings for the month!
If you time it right, your content is working double-time for you—reaching peak traffic and generating the best RPMs possible.
Increase Your RPMs and Profit from Seasonality
It’s simple: Maximize your earnings by being strategic about the combination of seasonal content and high RPM periods.
I’ve been pretty haphazard about this but in looking back on my food site in 2024, I ended up more than doubling my earnings with targeted seasonal content. And I only did a little bit of it.
My target for 2025 is a hyper focus on seasonal, high RPM content in addition to my normal evergreen content. I’ve already used PinClicks to find all of the various seasonal topics to target for Pinterest. Now we’re just writing the content and creating the pins.
My back-of-the-napkin math is targeting a 5x earnings increase from this strategy. It might be a bit aggressive, but it also might not be.
Remember, it’s not just about creating seasonal content or publishing during traffic peaks—it’s about aligning both timing and topic with high RPM opportunities. By combining these two elements, you’re stacking the deck in your favor.
