It took Shelly some time to figure out what type of content really resonated with her audience. One she got that figured out, though, she’s been on an ambitious publishing schedule of three posts a week ever since. Now, Shelly has a whopping 3,500 posts on her site and gets about 75,000 page-views a month from about 60,000 unique visitors, mostly from Pinterest. Unfortunately, despite all her content, Shelly doesn’t have a good monetization strategy. She’s stuck chasing page-views, and it’s not paying off.

One of the biggest potential frustrations with running an online business is when you’re doing everything right, and still not getting results. Luckily for Shelly, that’s not what’s happening in her case! As Shelly and I talk about how to finally start maximizing this platform that she has created, we figure out pretty quickly that her on-site conversion rate is remarkably low. Fixing (or at least dramatically improving) this issue should be pretty easy, and we go over some strategies for how to do that.

Of course, building your email list only helps you if you have something to sell. That’s why I want Shelly to focus on channeling all of her energy into creating paid products instead of writing more posts! After some back and forth about what’s realistic for her, we settle on a specific limit for how many posts she’s allowed to create each month, with the rest of her time going into creating paid products instead.

Don’t miss this fantastic episode full of actionable advice and suggestions for anyone who’s struggling to break free of the cycle of chasing page-views! Your entire business shouldn’t be dependent on the ever-changing algorithms of social media sites and search engines, and I’m here to help Shelly (and you!) break free.

Highlights

[00:51] – Welcome to the Do It Scared podcast, brought to you by Elite Blog Academy®, a program that teaches you to build a successful online business! The doors to this academy only open once a year, and your opportunity is coming up soon! Sign up for the waiting list at this link to make sure you don’t miss out.
[01:15] – We hear about today’s Get Ruthed guest, Shelly Olson, and what she’s been struggling with when it comes to her blog.
[03:54] – How long has Shelly been part of EBA? And what has she been struggling with the most?
[06:48] – Shelly talks about her email list, and explains that she doesn’t think that her opt-ins have been really resonating with her audience.
[10:40] – Ruth talks about Shelly’s low on-site conversion rate, and offers some insight into how to make it about 30 times higher with several specific recommendations.
[15:21] – We hear the “but” that comes after Ruth’s recommendations for increasing Shelly’s conversion rate.
[17:21] – Ruth points out that building your email list only helps if you have something to sell, and that a business involves selling something.
[20:10] – We hear about what Ruth found as she was doing research into how efficiently different bloggers are making money.
[22:30] – Where is Shelly spending most of her time right now? And how many posts does she have on her site?
[25:15] – Ruth explains one of the problems with traffic from Pinterest.
[27:44] – Shelly admits that she’s “extremely bad” at promoting her own products, with just one link to her shop on her blog.
[29:25] – It’s okay to try more than one thing, but you need to keep asking and offering because different people are ready at different times.
[31:39] – Sometimes a pricing problem actually comes into play when you price something too low, not necessarily too high.
[33:19] – Ruth offers Shelly another tip: just be bossy! She also offers specific advice on timing for emails when selling.
[37:12] – Ruth points out that Shelly already has so much going for her and so many of the pieces in place.
[39:33] – How much time has it been taking Shelly to create three posts each week?
[40:59] – Can Shelly actually go down to writing just two posts per month? Ruth gives her permission to do a few more, but encourages her to spend her time elsewhere.
[43:08] – Ruth would like to see Shelly actually set up sales pages, she explains.
[46:57] – What are Shelly’s most popular posts?
[49:08] – With the conversation part of the episode over, Ruth takes a moment to recap Shelly’s current situation.
[51:00] – We hear a quick review of the four biggest action steps that Shelly needs to take right away.
[54:24] – Ruth reiterates how important it is not to confuse page views and traffic with revenue, and points out that focusing on products is a better way forward.
[56:47] – Remember to get your FREE copy of How to Blog for Profit (Without Selling Your Soul)! And if you have any questions or topic ideas for future episodes, please feel free to reach out to Ruth by email at ruth@livingwellspendingless.com or on Instagram.