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.

Why our links don’t open in a new window (and how to make it so that yours do!)

Once a month or so I get an email from a well-intentioned reader, politely complaining that it would be much more convenient for them if we would make it so that all links on Offbeat Bride opened in a new window. My response is always the same: Not having links open in new windows is a very conscious decision based on my 20 years of internet use.

Here are a few reasons why we don’t default links to open in a new browser tab or window:

How I engineered a viral post

Recently, a post I wrote about cell phones at weddings went WAY viral, getting shared 43,000 times in one day. It wasn’t an accident. Here’s how I did it.

The biggest business mistake I ever made

I started the Offbeat Bride Tribe on a whim as a way to test out a platform I was curious about, and I have regretted it ever since because A) community platforms suck and B) community management is emotionally difficult for me.

Sneaky-deep public relations

Because I have a background in copywriting and marketing, I’ve been known to accidentally hawk products on my blog … like when I once wrote on my personal blog about how I strangely love the crappy Olive Garden salads, and several people commented that now they wanted to try one. I was like “But wait! […]