4 things we can learn about online marketing from Taylor Swift + the Eras Tour

4 things we can learn about online marketing from Taylor Swift + the Eras Tour

I'll be honest, that last few weeks have been pretty rough for me personally, but there's one bright spot that's helping me get through and it might not be what you think: it's Taylor Swift.

The 3 basic steps to start earning passive income from digital products

The 3 basic steps to start earning passive income from digital products

Creating and selling digital products can be an incredible revenue stream for your business or as a side hustle, but it can seem like a daunting task when you're just starting out. So let's boil it down to 3 basic steps.

My plan for a smooth and successful Black Friday / Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday weekend

My plan for a smooth and successful Black Friday / Small Business Saturday / Cyber Monday weekend


With Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday around the corner, it’s high time we start making plans for our sales and promotions, right? I’ve run a wide variety of sales over the last 5 years during the Thanksgiving week, and I’ve complied a list of my 5 best tips for ensuring your sales week is not only successful, but runs as smooth as a dollop of turkey gravy all week long.

6 places your personality affects your marketing (+ free personality quiz!)

6 places your personality affects your marketing (+ free personality quiz!)

Your personality spills into everything you do, that’s no secret. From the clothes you wear, to the food you eat, to the people you hang out with, to the place you go. So it must spill into your business, too, right? Have you noticed this with other businesses you follow? Someone with a big personality probably has evidence of this in their vibrant branding, their confident messaging, and even in the ways they choose to promote their products + services. Likewise, someone who is more reserved probably has a softer brand, more neutral messaging, and promotes themselves in more subtle ways. Some may call this introversion and extroversion, but we’ll get to that later… wink wink.

How to practically survive a launch (+ free launch planner!)

How to practically survive a launch (+ free launch planner!)

Raise your hand if you’ve had a launch, are in the middle of a launch, are planning a launch, or have one on the back burner? I’m gonna guess your hand is up…? Thought so. Launching in online business is being talked about so much these days – things like strategy, and list building, and promotion, and all the things. But what about practical stuff that goes on during your launch period? Like, oh I don’t know, eating food and going to the bathroom?

When too much automation turns your business into a robot (+ a goofy video)

When too much automation turns your business into a robot (+ a goofy video)

Automation. It’s the buzz word being slung around the Interwebs as of late. It’s that thing everyone is striving for, it seems like, to make their business totally automated and hands-off. But… what if that might not actually be the best thing for our customers? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a convenient app as much as the next gal (or guy! hey fellas.), but I’m afraid if we go so far down the automation rabbit hole, our businesses will end up looking and sounding like robots. Cold, hard, emotionless robots.

A mega roundup of platforms for selling digital products + how to choose the right one for you

A mega roundup of platforms for selling digital products + how to choose the right one for you

If you’re creating a digital product to sell online, a big “ freezing” point for you might be choosing what platform to house it all on. I did SO. MUCH. research on this when I was working on creating my first online course. I got ALL the free trials and read ALL the reviews and clicked Next on ALL the Google pages. And lemme tell ya, there are quite a lot of options out there. They each have their pros + cons, and this is certainly not an end-all-be-all list, but I’ve rounded up some of the platforms I think are the best on the market.

A guide to open/close launches and evergreen (+ my formula to decide)

A guide to open/close launches and evergreen (+ my formula to decide)

I’ve seen this question asked about a thousand times in about a thousand places, so I figured it was time to shoot straight. This topic can have some varying opinions, sometimes controversial about which way is better. But after trying both methods in the last couple years, I’ve discovered it all boils down to a few different factors to consider.

Why I use Etsy to sell my digital downloads (+ free Etsy how-to guide)

Why I use Etsy to sell my digital downloads (+ free Etsy how-to guide)

There’s no doubt digital products are on the rise, and a common question among newbies looking to break into this billion dollar industry, is where the heck do you sell them? That question elicits tons of answers, and it all depends on your personal preference, your product type, and your selling style as to which one you should host your products on. When most online entrepreneurs list off the best digital product websites, there’s one that doesn’t get included very often but deserves a spot on the list – Etsy

My favorite platform for building online courses

My favorite platform for building online courses

Anyone who’s considered building an online course has certainly gone down the rabbit hole of searching for the perfect platform to deliver it on. I’m a research junkie when I start a new project, whether it’s for me personally (like buying a car or finding a place to live), or for my business (like creating a new product or trying out a new tool). So when I decided to build my first online course,  teaching other creatives how to use the program Adobe InDesign, I did my research. I pretty quickly formed a list of the available platforms for course creation, along with some pros and cons for each. And I just kept coming back to one: Teachery.

My recipe for a great product launch (+ free launch planner!)

My recipe for a great product launch (+ free launch planner!)

Today is a big day for me, guys. Five months ago I started work on a project that would keep me up to ungodly hours. It would involve hours upon hours of planning, creating, writing, designing, strategizing, and more strategizing, and a little more designing, and then some more writing, and writing again. It’s been such a wild ride that had my mind racing with non-stop ideas since the beginning. And then the last two weeks, I hit a wall. I’ve prepped as much as I can prep, quadruple checked that everything’s ready, and I think it’s all catching up to me now. I’m tired, unmotivated, and would rather take a nap than write one more email campaign. 

How to create gift packages to promote your launch (+ free launch planner!)

How to create gift packages to promote your launch (+ free launch planner!)

I was just telling my friend Jamie the other day: you can take the girl out of the stationery, but you can’t take the stationery out of the girl :) This is my premise for using gift packages to promote launches or projects I’m working on – I LOVE giving gifts. I love curating the perfect collection of items that I think the recipient will love, especially when it’s centered around a specific theme or for an event – like a launch! Since I scrapped my physical product line earlier this year, I was itching to work something physical back into my business and sending these launch packets has been the perfect solution.

Why you should build your brand outside of Etsy (+ free Etsy starter guide)

Why you should build your brand outside of Etsy (+ free Etsy starter guide)

There’s no question Etsy is a powerful platform to sell handmade products to a hungry audience. Setting up a shop can be done in an afternoon, and you can hear the “cha-ching” go off on your phone by dinner time. Etsy is where Paper + Oats started in 2011, and I definitely wouldn’t be able to work full-time for myself if it weren’t for this platform. But with all the bad rap Etsy has been getting lately since they’ve revised some of their policies, many shop owners are looking to build their brands elsewhere. I had a light-bulb moment last year after nearly 3 years of being exclusively on Etsy. As my brand began to gain momentum, I realized that I was building my entire business on rented property. 

3 unique ways to use Squarespace cover pages

3 unique ways to use Squarespace cover pages

As a Squarespace subscriber, you get to automatically take advantage of new features they add to the platform on a regular basis. One of their latest features that's getting more popular is their new cover pages. A Squarespace cover page is basically a landing page with minimal information and 1-2 calls to action. The backend setup in your Squarespace account is different than your regular page designs. It has it’s own set of styles for fonts, colors, and sizing. Instead of using blocks like regular Squarespace pages, it has limited options for adding different types of content to the page. But this allows your cover page to stay super simple and to-the-point, hence the name “cover.” They are highly visual and can be used for a variety of reasons. 

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