Business Tips

How to Set Up Free Alerts on Mention.com: A Video Tutorial

  |   Business Tips, Reputation, Video   |   16 Comments

A video tutorial on how to set up free alerts on Mention.com (the awesome social listening tool that will protect your blog + brand).

Do you remember a few months ago when I taught you how to begin monitoring your online reputation with Google Alerts?

While I love what Google Alerts can do for both bloggers + businesses alike, today I'm going to quickly teach you how to step up your reputation management game with a different, much more comprehensive tool: Mention.

I love it, and I'm 97.3% sure you will, too.

(Please note the margin of error of approx. +/- 2.7% Hey, nobody's perfect!)
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10 Introvert-Friendly Offline Marketing Ideas For Your Blog + Business

  |   Business Tips, Classy Marketing   |   57 Comments

10 Offline Marketing Ideas for Introvert Bloggers + Business Owners

You may or may not be surprised to know this, but it's true: I'm an introvert.

Promoting my business just does not come easy to me.

(Sisters, if I could run Olyvia while living in a comfortable hobbit hole and sharing it with absolutely nobody, I would.)

In the event you share my shy tendencies (or, you know, just like easy marketing tactics), today I thought it would be useful + a shamelessly amount of simple to share some introvert-friendly ways to get your name out into your local community -- without using online methods.

Because although I am a passionate proponent of using digital marketing, I'm also a believer in finding tiny little areas to dominate that others are not.

Do you know what that area is for blogs + online-only businesses right now? Good ole' fashioned, internet-free "guerilla marketing."

So here are 10 easy offline marketing ideas that will help you promote your blog or brand. (But won't result in sweaty hands + stomach knots.)

Try one and see how it goes!
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How To Get A Blog Post To Go Viral (Even If You’re A Small Blogger)

  |   Blog Income Report, Business Tips, Social Media Marketing   |   85 Comments

How to get a blog post to go viral (even if you have a small blog) -- step by step tips anyone can follow!

Pop quiz time:

There's a big company you admire + just so happens to have an audience full of people in your target audience.

And you want to get in front of them in order to grow your fledgling blog or business.

But you want YOUR blog post to be the one that's circulated among their fans and clicked on hundreds of times, not a guest post you simply wrote on their site.

How do you do it?

As part of my regular blog income and traffic report today, I'm going to show you how to get a blog post to go viral.  (And it's not as hard as you may think.)
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How To Get Clients To Pay (For Sensitive Business Owners + Creatives)

  |   Business Tips, Customer Service   |   24 Comments

How to get paid by clients: what to put in your contracts, the best way to invoice, + 4 polite client scripts. (For the shy, sensitive business owners + entrepreneurs.)

Dear fabulous creativepreneur, freelancer, or service-based business owner,

Does the prospect of talking with a client about money give you sweaty palms?

Have you ever ended up losing money -- or not getting paid at all -- because you were too afraid to push for payment?

Does your reasoning for not pushing said payment sound anything like the phrases below?

"I don't want to come off sounding demanding and harm my reputation." // "I'm afraid I'll look money-hungry." // "Well she IS a friend of mine." // "I really want to avoid starting a nasty fight." // "Maybe the check is in the mail and I'll get it next week." // "I have no idea what to even say!"

If so, I love you + let me buy you a latte.

You're not the only one, nor are you the "bad business owner" you fear that you are.

What you might be?

Shy.

Introverted.

Even "sensitive." (And by the way? I'm claiming that word for all positive things, NOT the "ohhh you're just too sensitive, get over it" remarks that not-nice non-sensitive people like to say.)

But lousy, incompetent, and all those other awful things?

No. Those words will not be uttered on my blog.

So let's talk, generous woman. How do people like you and I get clients to pay up without coming off as greedy + cold?

I just happen to have a few tips (plus 4 fill-in-the-blank client scripts!) for you:
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Want To Know How To Delight Your Customers? 13 Savvy Business Women Share Their Best Tips!

  |   Business Tips, Customer Service, Reputation   |   40 Comments

Great small business tips from successful women on how you can impress your customers and look like a professional. A must read for the entrepreneurs, freelancers, Etsy shop owners, and other creatives.

Knowing how to delight your customers is a big deal, and something that really, truly, seriously intimidates a lot of new entrepreneurs + freelancers.

I know because when my freelance business in web and graphic design started getting serious (you know, I wasn't doing things for free-ish), the burden to make sure my clients liked me + my work was super heavy.

I felt -- and still feel -- that the entire key to my success in business was going to hinge on how my clients perceived me. And THAT would depend entirely on how well I could serve them.

This would have to be achieved not just by doing GOOD work (hellooo -- clearly a non-negotiable!), but by making sure their entire experience with me was pleasant, smooth and, well, utterly delightful.

I know back then I was hungry for any and all simple advice from people in a similar space as me on how to deliver this great customer experience , which is why I decided to pull together the collective brains of some impressive entrepreneurial women in this post today.

They have been incredibly generous to share the little, unassuming things they do that make a biiiig impact on their customer happiness, and I'm so SO excited to pass them on to you.

Here's what they had to share with me:
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7 Pithy Quotes From The Middle Ages That Will Help You Run A Soaring Business Today

  |   Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Customer Service, Reputation   |   11 Comments

These 7 quotes out of the Middle Ages will boost your business savvy, woo your customers, + make you a happier business owner.

You're probably wondering how I came up with such a loopy topic.

Middle Ages? Business quotes? Wha?

All I can say is that I have a slight obsession with both subjects and decided the only fitting thing to do was to mash the two together and see what kind of mess I could create.

Forgive me.
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