Clik here to view.
Let's talk about clickbait
Archive photo. Original image source. A few weeks ago, I got this feedback from a longtime reader who was concerned about Offbeat Empire posting a lot of "archival material with clickbait headlines."...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pinterest vs Facebook: how different algorithms encourage different publisher...
Before I dive into algorithms and content marketing and bla bla, first let's talk about the big picture: 53% of Offbeat Bride's social media traffic comes from Facebook, and 44% comes from Pinterest....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Meet our new sysadmin, Travis Zajkowski!
Friends, for the first time ever, we have a gentleman on the staff! Some of you may remember TravisZ — he of the whiskey bucket? He worked for our longtime webhost doing tech support for many years,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Forums are dying
The Tribe's traffic since 2011 In September of 2007, I launched the Offbeat Bride Tribe, the private forum component of offbeatbride.com. It was an immediate screaming success — in fact, so much of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Six month redesign post-mortem: navigation bar changes
Oh some of you are going to find this very VERY amusing. Remember how when we did the redesign last winter, the biggest bone of contention was with intrasite navigation? Lots of you were like, "Wait,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Intrasite navigation added on mobile view
Ok, you know how a couple weeks ago I mentioned that I had totally shit the bed on the intrasite navigation during our redesign six months ago? I got the desktop version of the hooked up with improved...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Saying farewell to Caroline, the black glittery heart of the Empire
Summer of 2010, I got an email from a Canadian undergrad: Hi Offbeat Bride, First off: I love what you guys do. I have been reading for a couple of years now and it's very inspiring. I don't want this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Merging the Offbeat Families archive into Offbeat Home & Life
We're coming up on two years since Offbeat Families stopped publishing new posts, and what an interesting ride it has been. Traffic increased substantially after the shut-down, thanks to an aggressive...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Help us test a new commenting tool
Gotta couple seconds today? We're testing a new tool called Postmatic that could potentially transform the way commenting works on the Empire. Postmatic makes it easier to keep up with blog comments...
View ArticleClik here to view.
If I was your mentor, you could hear me rant about content marketing
I'm not bossy, I'm the boss cup from Etsy. I’m mentoring a young woman named Devon this summer (have you seen her posts?), and once a week we have a phone conversation where I ramble incoherently...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Psst, vendor friends: special invite for HoneyBook's tools for event planners...
Every once in a while I hear about one of my colleagues offering something y'all are going to love. Today, it's a service for my event planner friends and other small biz folks. Are you listening? Are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Our remote working team conflict resolution policy
Rage face earrings from Etsy seller 8 Bit Boom The Offbeat Empire is staffed by a team of contractors who all work remotely. Sure we're based in Seattle — but I'm the only person who lives here. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Required reading of publishers, content marketers, and social media dorks
I love reading tag from Etsy seller Babymoon Every once and a while I'll share an article on the Offbeat Empire's Slack, and tell everyone that they need to read it. It's usually something about the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My idea of fun: editing 800+ tag archive pages
If only our tag archives were all as pretty as Papertique's tags… Offbeat Bride has over 800 tags, ranging from 8-bit to zoot suit, accommodations to zombies, atheists to zoos. We also have more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why publishers love negative Facebook comments
Photo by Avarty Photos, used by CC license. Last week, Offbeat Home & Life's Facebook page shared a post from 2011 about Mormon mommy blogs. This post was originally written for Offbeat Families...
View ArticleClik here to view.
RIP Offbeat Bride Tribe: 2007 – 2015 (+ bonus musings on running leaner)
Fall of 2007, after dozens of requests from blog readers, I decided to set up an Offbeat Bride community on Ning.com. "It's an experiment!" I said. "We'll see how it goes!" I said. "If it doesn't feel...
View ArticleClik here to view.
100,000+ comments on Offbeat Bride
Today I noticed that Offbeat Bride has officially crested 100k comments. The site is two weeks away from it's 9th launch anniversary (!?!), so I guess that averages to about 11k comments a year. Now we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to handle affiliate post disclaimers… when EVERY post is an affiliate...
Let's talk about this disclaimer, and where it appears. I love Offbeat Bride and have for ages, and one of the reasons why I've always respected this site and the Empire overall is due to good...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Let's talk about the business goals and content strategy of offbeatempire.com
I got this tweet recently from an Offbeat Empire power-reader named Erica: Just kind of checking on you — no Offbeat Empire updates in a while. <3, a concerned fan. First, this gave me all the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rebranding the Empire: let your freak flag fly
First, some Offbeat Bride brand identity history I wish I could say that the branding behind Offbeat Bride and the rest of the Offbeat Empire was heavily strategized, but the reality is this: the...
View Article
