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11 March

How To Get A Blog Post To Go Viral (Even If You’re A Small Blogger)

Erika Madden   |   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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04 March

How To Get Clients To Pay (For Sensitive Business Owners + Creatives)

Erika Madden   |   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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25 February

Olyvia Works: An Interview With Julie Harris of Julie Harris Design

Erika Madden   |   Olyvia Works   |   30 Comments

Julie Harris of Julie Harris Design shares her thoughts on the key skill women entrepreneurs should have today, her top budget-minded branding + marketing tips, and her favorite business resources.

What do you do when the career path you always thought you wanted -- and what you spent years preparing for -- ends up taking a much different path than you originally intended?

Life has a funny way of revealing our unique talents + passions to us while we're busy pursuing something else, and that's where we begin our interview today.

Enter: Julie Harris, self-proclaimed "theatre nerd" turned brand and business designer + strategist at Julie Harris Design.

Full disclosure? Julie is one of my favorite BBFs (business best-friends) and I'd be lying if I didn't admit I've been waiting for this interview for-FREAKING-ever.

She is 100% class, 100% smart, and 100% kind -- which, if you're keeping up here, makes her 300% pure awesome. ;)

Today Julie is going to share:

  • When she realized she loved being a behind-the-scenes director more than an on-stage star

  • Why starting her own business terrified her...

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04 February

January 2015 Blog Income + Traffic Report

Erika Madden   |   Blog Income Report   |   31 Comments

The January blog income and traffic report: my tips on increasing visitors' time on site, setting up passback ad tags, + more.

It's a new year (February already? what?) and I'm excited to dive into some of the behind-the-scenes of how I made my money with my blog last month.

(My hope is that by doing these income reports you can you can learn along with me, so please let me know in the comments if there's something more or different that you'd like me touch on next time!)

If you're just joining me, this is my third month monetizing the Olyvia blog. The first month I made about $90 and the second I made only $2.

Let's see what happens!
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28 January

Want To Know How To Delight Your Customers? 13 Savvy Business Women Share Their Best Tips!

Erika Madden   |   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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