This is the first in a series of three extra issues we’ll be sending you through the end of the year — a short series focused on monetizing your website, presented by our partners at Google AdSense.
We’re kicking it off with an easy win: updating your archive.
The content machine always demands more. New outputs. But only a small portion of anybody’s audience consumes everything they put out, and an even smaller portion remembers it all. Some of our most popular issues this year were those where we rounded up archive issues through a new, focused lens!
If you have a website, for the next few weeks, during the holidays, every visit is worth more than at almost any other time of the year.
In this issue — a checklist to make the most of that holiday traffic.
Not monetizing your site yet? Turn on monetization before the holiday peak.
— Francis Zierer, Lead Editor
P.S. In part two of this series, coming November 19th, our partners at Google AdSense have offered to answer a few reader questions — anything you’d like to ask them about monetizing websites using their tools? Just reply to this email.
Your archive is worth more than you think
Google’s data on why holiday traffic is worth more
Google AdSense documentation is explicit about holiday traffic and ad price trends: “seasonal increases in traffic and CPMs generally begin in September, peak late November, and drop back to normal in January”
Last year, our partners on the Google AdSense team ran a report on 2024 holiday-season traffic and advertising spikes. Their findings are below:
Ad impressions are worth 15% to 18% more right now: Advertisers flood the market with peak budgets from October through December, driving global eCPMs up +18% in EMEA and +15% in both the Americas and APAC compared to the rest of the year. Starting now lets you earn maximum revenue for the exact same audience size.
Holiday readers are actively looking to buy: Unmonetized creators often worry readers will be annoyed by ads. In reality, purchasing intent peaks during Q4, driving a 22% to 26% global increase in click-through rates (CTR). Your audience is in discovery mode and far more receptive to recommendations.
Desktop engagement commands a premium (+46%): For creators with desktop readers (work newsletters, B2B, or long-form reads), the Americas saw Desktop eCPMs surge by 46% during the holiday peak—outpacing mobile and tablet growth combined.
Fast traction without the learning curve: You don't need a monetization strategy mapped out months in advance. In real-world publisher tests, simple ad optimizations drove an 8.3% lift in Impression RPM and a 12% revenue jump in just one week.
Zero downside to user trust: Case study data shows publishers introducing reader-choice monetization (rewarded units) saw a 74% total ad revenue increase while maintaining core engagement metrics—bounce rates and pageviews remained steady. Monetizing during peak season does not compromise reader loyalty.
A five-part archive audit checklist
Traffic spikes, and ad impressions are worth more during the end-of-year holiday season. Alright — how do you play that period to your advantage?
Identify content worth refreshing. Open up Google Analytics, Search Console, or your platform of choice’s post analytics page and filter to October–December of last year.
Identify your top 20 pages during that period by pageview, and then by search clicks.
Record the pages that appear in both filters — this is your shortlist.
Sort your shortlist by type. Use three categories:
Seasonal: Gift guides, holiday-specific content, end-of-year roundups. These will surface in audience searches again (and you may already be planning to push them via newsletter or other channels).
Evergreen: How-tos, explainers, and resource lists that may receive steady traffic throughout the year.
Dead: Outdated, partially broken, or just irrelevant. You’ll skip updating these.
Refresh your content. You have your priority list; now act on it. If there’s a specific year in the title or throughout, update it to this year. Scan all the links, click them, fix any that have broken since publication. Rewrite the intro with a focus on this year.
When you’re making pages like this (gift guides, end-of-year roundups), I’d recommend giving them a universal slug (e.g., creatorspotlight.com/p/gift-guide), forgoing dates, so links to the page remain relevant after you refresh.
Recirculate. Don’t rely on search traffic alone. Go generate traffic — send a newsletter bumping your refreshed content! Give people a reason to click, highlight relevant updates. Re-share on social, too — any channel you have, push the updated webpages.
Monetize. This is where Google AdSense comes in — to capitalize on all this renewed traffic, and holiday-spiked ad pricing.
If you aren’t already using Google AdSense, it’s easy to set up. You add one snippet of code to a webpage and turn on Auto ads, which analyzes your pages to place ads where they’re likely to perform well.
(Even if you’re using a platform that doesn’t sync with Google AdSense, you should be capitalizing using affiliate links, at the very least. Or, if you’re able to predict likely traffic spikes based on previous years, you might directly pitch advertisers looking to reach your audience.)
One example from our interview archive
When German sewing creator Nastja Mohren (aka DIY Eule) joined us on the Creator Spotlight podcast last year, she walked us through her blog setup, which uses Google AdSense.
Her blog is the home base for all of her sewing projects; any given post rounds up a YouTube tutorial, a downloadable pattern, and relevant brand links.
Traffic to Nastja’s blog compounds over time; while new posts draw her audience from Instagram and YouTube, older posts attract an organic search audience. The larger your archive, the more there is to re-activate. A good play I’d advise for Nastja? Build a gift guide linking entirely to archive pages, promoting it through both YouTube and Instagram videos.
Ask the Google AdSense team a question
We’ll be sending part two in this series come November 19th. Want to ask our counterparts at Google AdSense anything about monetizing websites using their tools? Just reply to this email.
In the meantime — put your archive to work.
If you would like to learn more about seasonality, AdSense has a webinar coming up on the 5th of November, register here. When you register, you’ll be asked for a “Publisher ID” — please enter "beehiiv Q4 2026".
