being human Tag

24 May

It’s Okay to Fail: A True Biz Story About What Happens When ‘The Hustle’ No Longer Makes You Happy

Erika Madden | Blogging Tips, Business Tips, Personal | 7 Comments

It's okay to fail: a true biz story about what happens when "the hustle" no longer makes you happy. via @OlyviaMedia

Most of the time, fail stories are humiliating to write.

That’s even more true if you’re an online business owner, and your failure is ABOUT your business. Who wants to hear about how tired, scared, and actually human you are, really? That’s not fun or sexy. It doesn’t promise people 6-figure incomes, 4-hour work weeks, or piña coladas in paradise.

I mean, eww.

Nevertheless, I have a fail story to share with you. One that I’m no longer the least bit upset by, and, in fact, one that now makes me happier to talk about.

Yeah, it sounds nuts.

But as you’ll see soon, nuts is how I like to roll. ;) #bam
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06 January

Prep Your Brand For 2017 With These 5 Seriously Smart Actions

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Customer Service | 4 Comments

Prepare your brand for 2017 by taking these smart steps to improve your social media profiles, audit your website, deliver better customer service, and more!

No matter what kind of business we run or blog we have, there is one universal truth among all of us: we all want more people to swoon over our brand.

Whether that means more social media followers or just more sales (though it's likely both!), we can spend a crazy number of hours searching for "the latest and greatest" way to market ourselves and make ourselves attractive to people. I've definitely done it, and I'm willing to hazard a guess that you have, too.

The problem is, "the latest and greatest" isn't always the best. And sometimes the info we get can be awfully flashy, skeazy, or downright ineffective.

Today I'd like to share with you 5 solid tips from my own experience in online business that will immediately have a positive impact on your brand for the upcoming year. These tips are simple, and yet will help you look more professional and be more likeable -- so that you can achieve more of your brand goals in 2017.

(For you maybe that means making more money, reducing customer churn, obtaining more speaking opportunities, winning more recognition, making more relationships, or _________. Whatever it is, doing all of the following can seriously, and perhaps surprisingly, impact what you achieve this year.)

I invite you to try them out!
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03 February

I Look Like an Imposter: An Open Letter Confessing My Secret Fears as an Online Entrepreneur

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Personal | 99 Comments

Can we just admit it right now, please? Being a business owner is freaking SCARY. This blog post is for all the courageous biz heroes out there who are secretly scared to death: scared to get out of their introvert shell, scared of looking like a fraud, scared of burnout. You are not alone, and you should read this.

Dear Friends and Readers,

Do you ever want to write something terribly important to you, but no matter how many different ways you think about it, when you sit down to put words to the screen, you can't seem to make it sound like the mighty words living inside your brain?

That's where I am right now.

I suppose the only thing to do in these situations is to blurt it out and hope it doesn't come out sounding too ridiculous. Too rough around the edges. Too whatever.

(But you'll just have to forgive me if it does. ;))

So, for the lack of a better idea -- and, apparently, better composition skills -- that's what I'm going to do now.
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23 September

Earning An Audience: How To Be Irresistible + Grow Your Brand Online

Erika Madden | Blogging Tips, Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Customer Service | 79 Comments

How to earn your audience: the actions that REALLY make you noticeable + irresistible as a small business and brand online. Get 13 beginner community-building tips + 4 advanced strategies with examples and questions to help you improve.

The best way I know how to share what I'm about to share with you about building a business on the interwebs is to start off with a little story-slash-confession. I promise, pinkie-swear, and cross my heart not to be boring.

Before I launched the Olyvia brand, I spent my time reading.

By my estimations, I read about 157 gazillion articles on business marketing strategies on a daily freaking basis in the months leading up to my website going live.

You see, even though I had experience in growing communities online -- launching + promoting around a half dozen blogs over the previous 10 years, advising non-profits on social media marketing, informally assisting my friends who owned small businesses, and other rather unremarkable things -- the truth is this:

I was certain that anything I knew would prove to be woefully, shamefully inadequate. Oh yeah: and I would fail.

In my mind there simply had to be the Holy Grail of marketing strategies out there that would guarantee my entrance into biz blogging heaven. I just needed to find it behind some internet guru's squeeze page.

(Don't even ask how many newsletters I signed up for in my quest for marketing enlightenment. #likewhoa)

But ~~sales pitch after sales pitch~~ errr, I mean webinar after webinar, all I found at the end of the rainbow were $2000 courses I couldn't afford -- and didn't trust enough to buy even if I could.

So, alas, the day came when I finally could do nothing more than push Olyvia.co into being. I hoped (and ohhh it was a desperate hope, I might add) that what I knew from my past online experiences -- in point of fact, what I had built my entire brand around -- would be enough to get me started.

What was my so-called strategy?

Only this: ...

22 May

5 Official Secrets To Getting More Blog Comments

Erika Madden | Blogging Tips, Business Tips | 60 Comments

How do I get more blog comments? Here are 5 secrets behind a busy combox + why you want one on your blog.

In assurance to makers, doers, and dreamers everywhere, they say "if you build it they will come."

But I'm about 102% certain that whoever the heck "they" is never had a blog.

(Picture who you may at this point, but all I see in my head is a young, baseball-playing Kevin Costner.)

"If you build it, they will come!"

See, I don't know about you, but I've built a large number of websites in my day.

And only a handful came to most of them.

(Especially that fun -- but ohhhmyugly -- "I-am-so-darn-fed-up-with-Britney-Spears!" site I created as a 15 year old. Ha.)

Along the way I did learn what it takes to steadily attract website visitors and get noticed online, but getting blog traffic is -- to continue our corny baseball + Costner theme we have going on here -- like only getting to first base on the baseball diamond.

So what's second base?

Getting engagement (otherwise affectionately known -- probably only by me -- as blog comment luv).

The baseball diamond of blog success! Olyvia.co

Before I "pitch" you the steps to get more blog comments (oh I crack myself up), let's be clear: simply because you don't have much engagement on your blog DOES NOT mean you can't make money from it or that it's one colossal failure.

You can monetize and sell successfully through your website as soon as you've started bringing in some visitors, and the fact you have little to no comments coming in right now doesn't necessarily mean your blog is failing you.

HOWEVER, there are good, business-y reasons for wanting engagement on your blog, which I will explain to you later on in this post.

With that, let's get to the 5 secrets to getting more blog comments!
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13 May

How to Handle Negative Comments Online (Like A Pro)

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service, Online Etiquette, Reputation | 33 Comments

How to handle negative comments online like a true pro. There are great customer service + reputation tips for creative business owners and entrepreneurs in here!

I know how it goes down.

You're busting your (sometimes) manicured nails on your blog, staying up until 1 a.m. hustling for business, and trying to convince yourself that:

1. you DO have something worth saying,

2. you ARE capable, and

3. gosh darn it, people like you.

And then, just when you think you've found your groove, what happens?

Someone comes along to tell you just how ridiculous, incompetent, fraudulent, and ignorant you really are.

(Or at least that's how negative online comments feel, yes?)

The experience can be horrifying.

And worse, it can make us want to be horrifying in return.

But I have a better way to deal.

(Because there's only ONE thing more destructive for your biz or blog reputation than critical, complaining, and rude comments, and that's a poor response to them.)

This is how to handle negative comments online, Chief Olyvia style. Ready to roll with me? Let's go!
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