Tough love: are you making these marketing communication mistakes?

I LIKE MARKETING. Done correctly, I strongly believe that it can be helpful, useful information. Done poorly, it’s irritating. Done really poorly? It’s a form of assault.

My Empire work makes me a target for a lot of marketing campaigns from both small businesses and large corporations alike. Both make marketing mistakes. Here are a few that you can learn from…

Online etymology: is “DERP” ableist?

Oh, DERP. You ridiculous meme. You have replaced words like DUH, DOY, D’OH, and DER in the vernacular of millions, a quick three-letter word to say “That was hilariously stupid of me!” Unfortunately for DERP, there are some people who’ve used it derisively, using it to mock those with developmental delays or disabilities. Based on these contexts, some people now see the word as offensive.

So, why do you occasionally see the word on Offbeat Empire posts?

20 year goals

So, today’s my 37th birthday. I celebrated last night by doing a reading at the Salon of Shame from my 1993 diary, about losing my virginity in a turqouise lace bra & panty set from Fredrick’s of Hollywood. (Keepin’ it classy!) As I was flipping through the diary, I stumbled across this little cartoon that I drew almost 20 years ago…

Offbeat Bride’s year-over-year traffic: 80% more visitors in 2012!

Every month or so, I go into my Google Analytics and do some serious digging around to see how things are looking with the sites.

The big reveal today is that Offbeat Bride is KICKING ASS, with visits up 45%, visitors up 85%, and pageviews up 22%. All awesome (and all pointing to an impending increase in our ad rates).

But the most insane number to me is looking at referrals, ie websites that direct traffic to the site…