BBP 119: Healthy Business, Happy You: Tracking Metrics on Your Terms with Kelsey Silver
Shownotes:
In the podcast, Liz Stapleton and Kelsey Silver discuss the importance of tracking key metrics in a blogging business, emphasizing leads, products, conversion rates, and revenue. They highlight the need for flexibility in monitoring these numbers according to one’s energy levels and mental health. Listen to find out how!
About Kelsey
Neurodivergent people are 3x more likely to become entrepreneurs, but most of the biz advice out there is structured for a neurotypical brain. With her decade of experience as a licensed therapist, corporate consultant, and MIT trained analyst, Kelsey is on a mission to support neurodivergent entrepreneurs in scaling their business, even on low spoons days, with strategies that work with their brain, not against it. Through her company, The Neurospicy CEO, Kelsey shares simple strategies to help neurodivergent entrepreneurs achieve success by embracing a business strategy that honors their neurodivergence and bankrolls their life.
Synopsis
Today, we’re diving into something crucial for your blogging journey—tracking the key numbers in your business. I know, I know, numbers can be intimidating. But don’t worry, we’re here to make it fun and manageable. With insights from Kelsey Silver, we’ll explore how to track essential metrics without letting them take over your life. Ready to transform your blog into a thriving business? Let’s get started!
Understanding the Importance of Key Metrics
Tracking the right numbers is like having a health check-up for your blog. Kelsey Silver, a data analyst at heart, emphasizes the importance of focusing on four key metrics: leads, products, conversion rate, and revenue. These numbers provide a snapshot of your business’s health and help you make informed decisions.
Leads: Growing Your Audience
In blogging, leads often translate to your email list. Unlike social media followers, your email list is an asset you own, making it a reliable metric for growth. Kelsey suggests defining what leads mean for your business, whether it’s page views or email subscribers, and tracking them consistently.
Products and Conversion Rates
Knowing what products you offer and how well they convert is essential. Your conversion rate shows the percentage of your audience that takes a desired action, this could be purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter whatever you’re trying to grow. By tracking this, you can identify what’s working and what needs improvement.
Revenue: The Bottom Line
Revenue is the ultimate measure of your blog’s success. However, Kelsey advises not to obsess over these numbers daily. Instead, set a tracking cadence that aligns with your energy levels and mental health. This way, you honor yourself while ensuring your business remains sustainable.
Balancing Tech and Tools
Technology can be both a boon and a bane. While new tools promise to solve all your problems, it’s crucial to be selective. Kelsey shares that she gives herself a neuro-spicy tax—a portion of your budget dedicated to impulsive tech purchases, allowing you to experiment without guilt.
Conclusion:
Tracking these key metrics will give you a solid foundation to grow your blog into a thriving business. Remember, it’s all about balance. Keep an eye on your numbers, but don’t let them rule your life. By following these tips, you’ll ensure your blogging journey remains exciting and sustainable.
Tools and Resources Mentioned
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- BBP 068 How To Use Data From Google Analytics To Improve Your Affiliate Marketing
Transcript
[00:00:00].00] – Liz Stapleton
Hello, my fellow bloggers. Today we’re diving into something super important, tracking the key numbers in your business. Hey, I’m Liz Stapleton, your host of the Blogger Breakthrough Summit podcast, where we share snippets from the fantastic speakers at our annual virtual summit. Now, I know what you’re thinking, numbers can be scary, right? But trust me, it doesn’t have to be that way. We’re going to make this fun and manageable. So with the help of Kelsey Silver, let’s dive in.
[00:00:30].19] – Kelsey Silver
Having a way to track the important numbers in your business, but in a way that isn’t constantly looking at your numbers, constantly festering over them, constantly wondering what you want to do, is a really great foundation. There’s four numbers that I always suggest we look at. That is how many leads you have, what are your products, what’s your conversion rate, and what’s your revenue. Now, there’s plenty more. I’m a data analyst at heart, so there’s a thousand things that I could look at. But having those four things lets you see what the health, it has your health check of your business. And you can, by tracking those numbers, you can do it at whatever cadence works for you. If you’re having a really low day, you’re at a low energy place, you’re at a low mental health place, don’t look at your numbers. Just don’t. Look at them next week. Because these numbers aren’t things that you necessarily need to look at every morning. But if you are that person, every morning, you can sit down at your desk and look at those numbers. But so you’re setting up a foundation that can be done at a cadence that works with your energy level, with your mental health, with where you’re at in your place.
[00:01:49].05] – Kelsey Silver
So you’re honoring yourself while still making sure that you’re looking at things in a way that’s going to drive your revenue forward, that’s going to make sure that your business is sustainable.
[00:01:59].17] – Liz Stapleton
Yes. And for just blogging context, because I feel like when you use leads, it’s more seen in the context of if you’re offering services, we’re going to say email list, like growth, your audience growth. And I would say email list over followers on social media because you don’t own a social media platform. You don’t own your Instagram, they could shut you down tomorrow. But your email list is an asset in your business you own. Exactly. I wanted to interject that.
[00:02:25].11] – Kelsey Silver
And to hone in on that a little bit more, because that’s a really important point. Leads It might be two or three different numbers, right? So it might be page views in addition to email. Or page views might be your leads, and you look at the email under your conversion rate. That’s fine, too. It’s really that’s the flexibility of the model is as long as you know and you’ve defined what those four numbers are for you and what’s meaningful for your business and your brain, that’s where the flexibility piece comes in.
[00:03:00].07] – Liz Stapleton
Yes. Make sure you’re having some data dates is what I like to call them. Okay, so you mentioned tech being a focus for business owners, right? Because there’s always the, oh, this is the magic tech wand that’s going to fix all my problems and make me super rich and sell all my things. And there’s always new tech, so it’s a hard thing to learn to pull back from. I may or may not have had to recover from an AppSumo addiction.
[00:03:36].07] – Kelsey Silver
I was just going to ask if you were a recovering AppSumo addict. I knew it. I had you pegged.
[00:03:41].20] – Liz Stapleton
You did. You did. Now, if there’s something that I’m like, okay, but this could apply. I actually bounce it off my sister, who worked as my VA for a little while. She doesn’t anymore, but she knows enough about my business where I’m like, am I allowed to buy this? Because I need that outside perspective, because otherwise I will just… You know So let’s chat about the tech in the ways it can support you, but also in the ways it can detract from what you’re doing.
[00:04:10].11] – Kelsey Silver
Yeah. So I have a model within my business. I use it with my private clients and also my group program. I call it the fellowship mess that I’m a huge Lord of the Rings nerd. My daughter is named after an individual in Lord of the Rings. It’s just my life. It is what it’s. So I call it the fellowship model, and it’s tech, team, and talent. And so tech plays a huge role in the structure of your business. But there’s some really important parameters around that technology, as you’ve mentioned. First and foremost, we’re talking about flexibility. I tell all my clients, You got to work in a Neura-Spicy tax. There is a portion of your budget that is for things that you… That costed money because you are spicy. That’s just having a part of your budget, first of all, that you acknowledge is going to be… I bought a thing on AppSumo that I probably shouldn’t have bought. And so it gives you grace to play without feeling guilt and detriment and all that. It’s a small portion, but it’s there. And so there’s this little neuro-spicy tax that I always say.
[00:05:14].03] – Liz Stapleton
All right, so there you have it. Tracking these key metrics will give you a solid foundation to grow your blog into a thriving business. Remember, it’s all about balance. Keep an eye on your numbers, but don’t let them rule your life. Until next time, keep those day to day fun and your blogging journey exciting. I’ll see you then.
