EP 106: Get Ruthed: Ignoring Bright Shiny Objects and Staying Focused With Allyson Dennen

On her beautiful blog, Allyson wants to help women live their best life by providing them with guidance on money, travel, and self-care. And while I love her message, can you see the problem already? Instead of choosing one topic, Allyson wants to cover everything she’s passionate about. This lack of focused clarity comes through in her avatar too. Despite having a name, Allyson’s avatar Laura has an age range and several possible backstories.

As a certified financial advisor and an amazing single mom of two kids, Allyson is uniquely positioned to offer amazing advice to other people in similar situations. And since she dared to leave her abusive ex-husband to protect her kids, she has an incredible perspective that gives her invaluable insight that she can share. I want her to focus on these unique traits by narrowing down her blog’s topics and making sure that she’s writing to one clearly defined avatar who will really resonate with her message.

Right now, Allyson is frustrated because she’s been blogging for over a year but can’t get much traction. She has a little bit of traffic, but not much, and nothing that she has tried really seems to be working. If you’ve listened to the podcast much, you know that I’m not all about the traffic numbers… but Allyson’s are low enough that she definitely does need to get them up.

If you’re feeling stuck with your blog or business, or like you’re being pulled in too many different directions, this is definitely the episode for you. Tune in and listen as I help Allyson figure out where to focus her energy, how to niche down further instead of lumping various topics under the “single mom” umbrella, and take the next steps to grow her traffic and her mailing list. And I can’t wait to follow up with her in six months to hear about her progress! Allyson’s word for the year is “consistency,” so I expect to hear fantastic things from her when we check in later.

Highlights

[00:50] – Welcome back to the show! Today’s guest is Allyson Dennen, founder of Fab Life Now. Ruth talks briefly about Allyson’s goals and current frustrations.
[02:28] – If you have a blog or online business, or want to start one, grab a FREE copy of Ruth’s bestselling book How to Blog for Profit (Without Selling Your Soul)
[03:24] – What is Allyson looking for help with today, and where does she have the most work that needs to be done?
[04:02] – We hear about Allyson’s avatar, and what the focus of her site is.
[06:39] – Is Allyson opposed to paring down her site and sticking with just one topic instead of three? She answers, then Ruth shares some advice.
[10:25] – Allyson talks about whether she has felt like she’s all over the place sometimes.
[11:00] – How much traffic is Allyson getting right now? How many people are on her email list?
[12:22] – Ruth explores why it’s important to create opt-ins even if you don’t (yet!) have any visitors to see them.
[15:10] – Once Allyson has gotten clear on her avatar, she needs to think about a lead magnet, Ruth explains.
[18:40] – Allyson asks Ruth whether she should slow down on putting out content, or keep it up while focusing on creating her lead magnet and opt-ins.
[21:02] – We learn that Allyson’s traffic isn’t coming from her finance posts.
[23:58] – Allyson asks a question about monetizing based on an idea that she had about offering a membership option.
[26:34] – Ruth digs into one of the other benefits of creating a tripwire, which opens you up to the option of doing some paid advertising.
[28:06] – What was Allyson’s post that went mini-viral?
[30:17] – Allyson should talk to a trademark lawyer to make sure her name won’t cause issues, Ruth points out. With that said, changing your brand name isn’t that big of a deal.
[32:53] – Ruth and Allyson chat about what Allyson’s top fear types are on the Do It Scared Fear Assessment.
[34:08] – We hear the next few steps that Allyson needs to take with her blinders on to make sure she stays focused.
[36:09] – Allyson responds to Ruth’s advice and suggestions.
[38:32] – Ruth would love to see Allyson have a great static home page that speaks clearly to her avatar.
[40:15] – Allyson brings up another point that has gotten her stuck lately: her page speed is bad and no one can figure out why. Should she just keep moving forward anyway?
[42:29] – Does Allyson feel like she has a plan and clear direction now?
[43:50] – Ruth recaps some of the main points and takeaways from her conversation with Allyson.
[47:12] – Once Allyson is crystal-clear about who she’s talking to, she needs to create one amazing lead magnet and one closely related tripwire product to sell.
[50:37] – Ruth LOVES hearing from listeners! If you have any questions, ideas for podcast topics, or thoughts you want to share, reach out by email at ruth@livingwellspendingless.com or message her on Instagram!