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The summer slump is almost over for Internet marketers and if you have not yet taken the time to prepare for the busy season then, it is time to set aside the sun screen and flip flops and dust off your keyboard.

As schools and businesses in the offline world start to gear up to say good-bye to summer vacation, online businesses will see an increase in traffic as well. Soon traffic levels and income levels will begin to rise.

While I am always sad to see the summer end, especially this summer when my son heads off to kindergarten, I am always glad too see my traffic and revenue rise. However, now is the time to take stock of your e-business to make sure that at the least, your business will be able to attract the same level of traffic and income as it did during pre-summer slump and hopefully perform even better.

How do you make sure your Internet business is ready for the busy season? You will need to set your traps, bait them, and then regularly maintain your trap line.

Set Your Traps

Setting your traps means making sure that you have a good Internet marketing strategy already in place or in the process of implementation. This means making sure you have a good network of backlinks for your site or sites and that you are continually working to add more. You should also work on other ways to attract search engines and drive traffic. My three favorite methods of attracting visitors are ezine and email marketing, article marketing, and blogs and RSS feeds however when I need a quick influx of traffic I will ad pay-per-click into the mix.

Bait Your Traps

Baiting your traps means checking your web sites and blogs to make sure they are working correctly, fully optimized for search engines, and user-friendly for human visitors. Now is the time to add some new content if you haven't done so in a while. Now is the time to freshen your design or organization to make the site more attractive and user friendly. Remember, while attracting visitors is essential, if your site or blog doesn't keep those visitors long enough to take some positive action (signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase) then that traffic is useless. Brainstorm to come up with fresh ways to add content and special features to make your site both interesting and useful.

Trap Line Maintenance

This is the hardest part of running an Internet business. So many Internet entrepreneurs buy into the hype that running an Internet business as simple as setting up a web page or blog then sitting back and cashing the checks that roll in. Successful (profitable) web sites and blogs are regularly maintained and updated. This means ongoing traffic promotion, frequent addition of new content and features, and regular site maintenance and redesign.

I have spent my summer reworking design and content for my web sites and blogs as well as working to build traffic through back links and search engine optimization. I also took advantage of time away from my computer and office to dream up new ideas and directions for my Internet enterprises that I will implement this fall. I expect big returns for my summer's work but even if you spent the summer at the beach you still have time to kick it into gear and prepare for the busy season.