The holiday seasons is quickly approaching and a little known fact is that app developers get a sort of year-end bonus during the holidays. What was happened each year is that sales go up as people have a week or two of idle time after a hectic shopping season when they play with their new iPod, iPads, Macs and iPhones (and before that post-holiday credit card hangover).

How Can You Maximize the Holiday Sales Spike?

So this little tip actually goes for any seasonal event, not just the Christmas season.  What you want to do is either release special apps just for the season or released themed versions of your app for the season.

It’s really that simple and the reason you do this is because people are always looking for something fresh to play with and during big holidays these things are on people’s minds.

Getting Featured on the App Store

Perhaps more importantly, these things are on Apple’s minds when they are deciding what to feature.  For instance, if you look on iTunes today you would see this image:

Now, wouldn’t it be nice to have a Halloween themed app right about now?

My apps have been featured in promotions like the one you see above and one happened to a be Pocket Santa and it was featured during the shopping season.   During those weeks my sales went up by 200%.

Blogger Bait

Just like Apple, bloggers who cover apps know that seasonal themed blog posts get more clicks.  That’s why you always see lists come out around the holidays like “Top 5 Gift Apps” or whatever.  Now, as I’ve mentioned before you can’t really count on being featured by apple or bloggers as a solid marketing strategy but if you can bait them to feature your app it certainly can’t hurt.  Plus, it can be a bit of fun for you and your customers to put a holiday app out there.

Have you noticed any of the Big Apps changing their tactics around the holidays?  List them below!