How to Create Content That Makes Money for Fall 2020

To say 2020 has been a unique year is an understatement. That isn’t a political statement either. This is a marketing blog and I keep things on a marketing level.

This year we’re facing multiple groups of people that feel very strong about their opinions when it comes to fall holidays and shopping seasons. We have pro-mask and anti-mask mobs. This year is also an election cycle. The drama even extends into a child’s well-being with groups of people for opening in person classes and groups of people against it.

Nobody is going to be happy with everything you do, so for this year forget trying to make people happy. Instead try to provide them with sound advice and strategies to celebrate and just try to live their lives.

Nobody is going to be happy with everything you do, so for this year forget trying to make people happy. Instead try to provide them with sound advice and strategies to celebrate and just try to live their lives.

Below you’ll find three of the upcoming shopping seasons and holidays and how you can create value adding content that can be easily monetized, attract backlinks, and help grow your subscriber base.

• Halloween (this is the longest section)
• Back to School
• PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte Season (it’s bigger than you think!))

Halloween 2020

I’m starting with Halloween content ideas because I love Halloween. It makes me happy just like PSL season so I’m ending with that.

Halloween is going to be unique this year. Americans are split on how to handle the covid-19 pandemic.

Some parents will not want their kids to go to indoor community centers for trick-or-treating where everyone is in the same room and the virus can spread. Other parents will insist on it because it is safer than being around strangers outside and it is what their children are used to doing.

I personally think that some communities are going to go back to traditional trick-or-treating with kids running outside from house-to-house.

Going back to outdoor trick-or-treating will allow for more social distancing. Not to mention that Halloween in general supports mask wearing which science has proven reduces the chances of covid-19 spreading. Outside trick-or-treating also provides families with some much needed outdoor exercise and family bonding time.

So how can you monetize this and grow your subscriber base? Simple, provide solutions and make sure they are accurate by sourcing them like I just did above with the CDC website.

Provide solutions for quarantining candy.

One of the first topics you can help people with is how to sanitize or quarantine candy.

People like me that are germ freaks are likely concerned about all of the hands touching the candy bars, especially if hands have been in mouths and everyone is breathing heavy from running door-to-door.

You can provide solutions to store the candy so that your kids cannot access it until the time frame for Covid-19 to die off has passed. Or you can look for an alternative options to sanitize the candy in a safe and non-toxic way.

For example:

1. Decide how much candy your kids are allowed to have each day after trick or treating.
2. Now label a few bins or plastic bags with each day of the week on the label.
3. Next safely open the candy without touching it and drop it into the marked containers.
4. Once the virus is supposed to be dead, you’ll be out of daily bins and can release the mother load back to them.

You have basically provided a way for children to eat their candy allotment each day while the rest remains in quarantine. But remember to contact a licensed medical expert to verify this is in fact safe. I am not a licensed medical professional and cannot provide that advice. This is just a random idea I had while writing this post.

You can monetize this by selling the food safe sanitizer, the bins and of course CPM/CPL ads if your story gets picked up.

Provide solutions for temper tantrum adults

One thing many parents will fear if it is door to door is anti-mask parents coming around and throwing a fit. Because halloween is less than a week before election day there will be plenty of insults hurled if there is a Biden or Trump sign in the yard. This is another opportunity for you as a content creator.

Interview a behavioral psychologist or someone that is licensed to deal with behavioral problems on your channel and get them to provide tips and ideas on how to deescalate the situation.

Of course nothing will be perfect or work for everyone, but at least you have a starting point in case an adult becomes a child and throws a temper tantrum.

Some ideas you may want to start with to deescalate or prevent crowding at your house (but again talk to a licensed expert and not me) include:

• Have a list of responses to combat their claims in a calming and data backed way.
• Create a toss and catch game with markers on your walkway. The kids can open their bags or set them in front of their feet. You then gently toss the candy and try to land it in the bag.
• Provide fun ideas for decorating candy bowls. Now place the candy bowls away from your house if you have an at-risk person inside.  This way you can still enjoy the trick-or-treaters coming around.To monetize, create tutorials and “how-to” guides offering ideas with colored lights, dry ice and cobwebs for creating a cool Halloween themed scene with the candy bowls that the kids will notice and want to engage with. This will distract them from the initial instinct to ring your doorbell (a high touch space).
• You could even space the bowls with 6 or 12 foot spaces in between and have a different candy in each. Now the kids have to do cartwheels, spin jumps and other tricks to get from one bowl to the next. You can theme the challenge to the type of candy.In order to do the tricks safely they have to go one at a time which helps them to social distance.
• Put together a mini haunted path on your yard for the kids and families to walk across. By having everyone follow the same path everyone can social distance and get their candy. If you set it up like a haunted house then you can time people too so that groups wait six feet apart so they don’t spoil the surprises for the trick-or-treaters.
• Work with your neighbors to set up one way sidewalks and a map of the neighborhood. You can label it as “maximizing their time and candy yields”. The map can also show the addresses of houses participating in trick or treating and houses that do not want visitors. This is an added bonus for people that do not want to participate.

Each of these can be monetized through affiliate links as well as CPM and CPV ads if you create rich media to demonstrate them.

Create a list of costumes that already cover someone’s mouth

Coming up with a list of costumes for kids, adults and families that already incorporates a mouth covering is a great way to celebrate the holiday while helping to prevent the spread of the disease. You can monetize this through the costume sales, sewing patterns, and accessories like makeup and themed tote bags.

Create tutorials on setting up haunted features and tricks

If house-to-house trick-or-treating does take off again, then you have a ton of ways to build a subscriber base and make money.

• Demonstrate creating spooky or kid friendly yard features like zombies coming out of the ground.
• Come up with funny tricks and pranks like setting up decoy monsters and having the person dressed up in a costume elsewhere.
• Include cool and easy-to-make recipes like fake blood and smog that is chilled so it stays low to the ground and then show how to light it up green/red/purple/etc… with flash lights for a creepy effect.

Back to School

Back to school is a hot topic right now. But it is something that will happen whether it is in person, online, or a mix of the two. One thing you can do is recommend products to help parents cope (aside from wine and spa kits). But remember, this is a hot topic issue so expect fall out and backlash no matter how helpful you try to be.

• Provide your audience with at home educational ideas like STEM subscription boxes.
• Create online study groups for your kids with their friends. Or better yet with parents you know from other places in the country. School districts curriculum’s change based on where they are located. For example you don’t get “Texas history” if you live in Boston.By having your kids work with children from other areas they’ll not only work on social skills, but they’ll also get to see what students their same age are learning elsewhere. It could be very eye opening for everyone.
• Find after school groups and instructions that can be done online, or create one with other parents. You can post to community bulletins or your PTA to find students with the same interests. By doing this you can create groups like a chess club, band practice or even a D&D RPG group.

PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte Season)

Wondering why I’m calling this a season? Check Google trends or any other predictive content tool. Pumpkin spice is a $600M seasonal market!

People go crazy developing new recipes, brands modify their classic recipes to include it, and of course you have the massive demand for the popular Latte drink.

This year people are more hesitant to go out and pick up their classics which “creates” a big opportunity for you as a content creator:

• Create a recipe hack that tastes just like the major brand.I’ve stopped going to some of my favorite places because the food handlers do not wear masks. By being able to recreate the same tastes, smells and textures without having to go to these shops I can feel safer and very likely save money. I’m willing to bet a lot of people feel the same and would be opened to creating it on their own safely in their own homes.

  You can provide these solutions for your subscribers as the season approaches. By starting now you can keep a tally of the errors and share what to do and not to do (not to mention a fun bloopers tasting reel if you create video). Now as your “recipe hack” is ready to go you’ll have lots of modifications to design the product for their individual tastes.

  You can make money on impressions and by selling the supplies like baking pans, espresso machines and pumpkin spice through affiliate links.

• Entrepreneurs are jumping onto the subscription and marketplace bandwagon at a record pace. If you’re a crafter, contact these SMB owners and offer to make custom labels and vynil prints for their packaging starting with a PSL for fall theme.Many will be creating PSL products and some will definitely appreciate supporting you as a small business just like you would support them.

PSL is an open game this year. Look at current food trends from dumplings to desserts and then make a PSL version. Even if nobody wants to try it, you could end up with backlinks from the worst recipe and food ideas list posts including major media websites which at least counts for something.

No matter what you do this year you are going to get backlash and people complaining. I’m likely going to get some from this post. That’s just the world we live in. Do your best, be helpful and keep plugging away. This fall season is a huge opportunity for you to make money if you’re creative.

If you found this post helpful, I’d love a social media share. Thank you again for reading!