"Girls Can't WHAT?" - A chat with the creator. Part II

As promised, here is the second part of my Q&A session with Girls Can't WHAT? creator Gretchen Cawthon.

Today, Grethen talks about her wildly popular t-shirt line and the work she's doing for charity. Plus, as a special treat for the star-blogger in all of us, she shares a bit of advice about driving traffic to a blog or website.

Socially smart, artistically-inclined AND tech savvy? Talk about the girl who's got it all!
*****************************************************************
ROTGC: I notice that you are currently using your t-shirt and gift sales to raise money for charity. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

GC: I joke around that I'm doing it because "Shrek told me to!" but the truth is; I want to be able to give back to women's groups as much as possible. I like to set goals that are challenging, yet obtainable. One million dollars seems like a big stretch, especially when I'm starting at zero, but I'm used to starting with nothing and building. When I started Girls Can't WHAT? I didn't have any money to invest into the business at all. I started from scratch, never borrowed a single dime and today Girls Can't WHAT? brings in enough income to cover my expenses and be able to donate from charity. The referrals I get from the design of that site feeds my web development business which brings in my actual salary. My sole focus for Girls Can't WHAT is to be an inspirational platform for women and one way I can do that is by giving back to women's groups and supporting the dreams of others.


ROTGC: The t-shirt designs are fantastic. How do you come up with the ideas for different designs?

GC: I get requests for new designs from just about everyone. I probably get 2-3 requests via email every week and my friends and family frequently make suggestions. I am always scouting and coming up with new ideas as well. I keep track of all the requests and I have a place on the site where requests can be made and it lists which requests have the most "votes". I try to work on the most popular ones first, but sometimes creativity takes me in a different direction.


ROTGC: You get some great feedback on your blog posts. Since many of the readers here at Reign are also bloggers and big proponents of smart Mamas doing great things in the blogosphere, we've got to know how you're spreading the word about Girls Can't WHAT?. Social media? Word of mouth? Traditional advertising? Do tell!

GC: I've been fortunate in that a lot of other blogs link back to mine, usually to reference an article I wrote or a character I designed. Some of them just like the concept of the site and want to tell their friends. I am grateful that it's been inspirational to so many people.

I do use social media to spread the word about my site. Facebook has probably been the most influential tool. I have connected with so many of my high school and college friends and they have in turn told their friends and family about my site - not because I asked them to - they just did it on their own because they liked what they saw when they visited.

Recently, I hired a PR firm to get some more exposure. They have been pitching me to the blogosphere as well as to major print publications. I've gotten a fair amount of response from that and I am expecting a lot more to come from that relationship soon. It was an investment I have been pondering for quite some time and if things go as planned it will have been very worth it to let them handle those media outlets I couldn't reach myself.

One of my best "tricks" for getting visitors to my site is good SEO within the web design. My early experiences of learning to build my own site led me to additional work as a web designer/developer. Through that "accidental career" I began to soak in as much knowledge about SEO and Internet marketing as I could and that knowledge has been paying off in terms of search engine rankings and shop sales. Of course, I take that same knowledge and apply it to my web development clients and they have seen amazing results as well.

Thanks so much, Grethen, for the informative interview and kudos on creating such an inspirational site!
*****************************************************************
Head on over to Girls Can't WHAT? now for more smart-mama talk and real-deal girl empowerment. Don't forget to bookmark the site and follow Gretchen on Twitter and Facebook. You're not going to want to miss her site updates and new t-shirt designs. I'll see you there!