Category Archive

Publishing

See it, click it: the follow up

This post I wrote six months ago may be the most important thing I’ve written all year. After we stopped publishing new posts on Offbeat Families in September. Then traffic and revenue then went UP… and it’s all because of shares on Facebook. Content recency is OUT. Content relevancy is IN.

Offbeat Families post-mortem: feels, Facebook, and traffic is UP!?

It’s been almost a month since Offbeat Families published its final new post, and I wanted to share some insights into how things have been going behind the scenes.

Four years is a good run: why Offbeat Families is ceasing publication (and how it will live on)

Over the years, I’ve made no secret of the fact that Offbeat Families (formerly known as Offbeat Mama) has been a challenge. The site launched in September of 2009, and I invested four years and about $40,000 toward growing the site into a sustainable, financially viable business. Ultimately, these efforts have failed. Offbeat Families will no longer be producing new posts.

How we do stock photography

Can you run-down how you guys handle posting your stock photos for each site? I know you use Creative Commons most of the time, but what are your criteria for picking photos? Do you maintain a database of photos that you think might work with future articles, just to cut down on time, or do you search and hope for the best?