Category Archive

Author of three editions of the Offbeat Bride book and From Shitshow To Afterglow, Ariel Meadow Stallings acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites.

There but for the grace of pageviews go I: where blogging and my business are going

Last week, I sent an email to all the Offbeat Empire staffers with the subject line: Required reading. The email contained a link to this post: State of the blog union: how the blogging world has changed. This post was written six months ago, but whatever: it’s a big fucking deal. It spawned this enormous post.

Loving euthanizations, difficult moderation, and Facebook schemes: my interview on The New Disruptors

Do you want to listen to me talk for an hour about the Offbeat Empire? Glenn Fleishman interviewed me last week for his podcast The New Disruptors, and you can listen above! I talk about everything from humbling failures to recent commentroversies to my revelations this last year about how I was doing Facebook all wrong. Oh and Metafilter. And putting all your eggs in the Google basket. And how the web keeps me young with its shiny new toys. It’s a pretty dense interview, but for those of you who really want to get into the nuances of how I run the Offbeat Empire, feel free to listen in.

Want to get a publisher’s attention on social media? Don’t make these 4 social media marketing mistakes

So you’re a wedding photographer. Or a wedding planner. Or a florist. And you have something that you think your favorite wedding blog might love — a photo from a recent wedding! A new product you just released! A promotion you’re getting the word out about! You turn to your favorite form of social media (Facebook! Twitter! Instagram!) and you get ready to make your pitch to your favorite publisher.
Now stop for a second.

How to report a photo on any Offbeat Empire site that shouldn’t be there

My editors work hard to ensure that we only use photos on the site that we have full permission and licensing to use. We’ve had solid attribution policies in place since 2011, and tend towards the obsessive when it comes to crediting photographs. Sometimes, however, despite our best efforts and intentions, things go wrong.