EP 92: Get Ruthed: Finding Your Focus When There’s Too Much to Do with Kathryn Bird

Today’s conversation with EBA student Kathryn “Kat” Bird is all about prioritizing and finding your focus when there are so many things to do. Kat is the founder of the RV travel site Wandering Bird, and she desperately needs help figuring out what to focus on to really start growing her business and her revenue.

When Kat started her blog under two years ago, she had no idea that people could even make money by blogging. Once she realized this, she set a goal of making 1,000 British pounds in a month. Since then, she has been hard at work creating content, and her results speak for themselves; her site has grown from 10,000 monthly sessions to 100,000 monthly page views over the course of 2019, and she just hit that initial income goal!

However, Kat isn’t fully taking advantage of the amount of traffic she’s getting. Her email conversion rate is low, she hasn’t created any products, and she’s afraid that she has given everything away for free already. And of course her goal has grown since she first set it. I’m excited to help Kat achieve bigger and better things! With the amount of traffic she’s getting, she should be making a lot more money than she is, and it’s time to start working on maximizing her income.

What I want Kat to understand is that it’s okay to re-purpose content that you’ve already put out there when you’re creating your product! We’ll dig into how to do that, as well as the difference between a lead magnet and a tripwire, the importance of having a product ladder, why Kat should be promoting her email list instead of her Instagram, and so much more. If you’re struggling with prioritizing and finding your focus as an online business owner, this is the episode for you!

Highlights

[00:50] – This episode is brought to you by Elite Blog Academy, a program that teaches you to build a successful online business! Join the waiting list to enroll by going to this link and clicking “Join the Waitlist.”
[01:14] – Welcome back to the show! Today’s Get Ruthed coaching episode features Kathryn Bird, founder of the RV travel site Wandering Bird.
[03:23] – Ruth welcomes Kat onto the show, and the two women banter about Kat’s nervousness over getting Ruthed.
[04:05] – Where does Kat feel like she’s struggling the most, and where does she most need help today?
[07:34] – The good news is that there’s tons of room for improvement here, Ruth enthuses.
[09:27] – Until a year and a half ago, Kat didn’t even know that you could make money by blogging.
[13:03] – Now that Kat has successful content, she doesn’t need to keep creating it at that same pace.
[13:55] – What is Kat’s big fear in creating products?
[15:11] – Ruth makes an important point: just because you’re giving something away for free doesn’t mean that people won’t be willing to pay to have that information in another format!
[17:38] – Kat’s next question is about how to know what should be a full product, a tripwire, or a lead magnet.
[21:48] – How long should you spend testing the pricing for a tripwire?
[22:55] – Ruth talks about whether a tripwire should be a certain length. She suggests re-framing the question as being about results rather than length.
[26:13] – Both messaging problems and product problems are research, not failures, Ruth explains.
[27:00] – We hear Ruth’s specific advice on how Kat should approach the baby seed launch part of the Elite Blog Academy program.
[29:47] – The danger for Kat is that she’s probably over delivering on content. Ruth cautions her to cut back and make things smaller than she thinks they need to be.
[31:15] – Ruth explains what a product ladder is, and how it’s relevant to Kat.
[34:38] – Kat asks for Ruth’s advice on a specific long, comprehensive, high-value post and whether to re-purpose it.
[37:10] – Let’s talk conversion rate! The thing that worries Ruth most is that Kat isn’t getting a lot of email conversions right now.
[40:57] – What should Kat focus on first: growing her email list or creating her product?
[44:37] – Ruth offers some advice about looking into affiliate programs so that Kat can start promoting products right away.
[46:27] – Kat shares the two things that scared her when she started blogging a couple years ago.
[49:49] – Now that Kat has some focused action steps to take, it’s time to get out of the mentality of chasing page views.
[50:47] – Kat asks one last question: should she close down or stop promoting her resource library?
[54:35] – Ruth recaps where Kat is in her journey now, and what action steps she needs to take right away.
[58:28] – Remember that Ruth loves to hear from listeners just like you! Feel free to reach out to her by email at ruth@livingwellspendingless.com or on Instagram.