Category Archive

sponsored posts

“I had a 38,000 dollar return on investment from advertising with Offbeat Bride”

Tax season doesn’t normally bring me many smiles, but in the case of this testimonial from an Offbeat Bride advertiser… somehow tax season doesn’t seem so bad…

When is it cultural appropriation and when is it just kids playing dress-up?

Last week we ran a sponsored post for a family photographer that featured this image of two children playing dress-up, one of them in a Native American head-dress.

The photo struck several readers as objectionable. Let’s talk about why, and what it might mean.

Disclaimer for sponsored posts and other monetized content

My strategy for much of the advertising on the Empire has always been that it doesn’t FEEL like advertising. I do this not because I’m trying to trick anyone, but because I find disruptive advertising annoying and bothersome… so therefore, rather than have sponsored posts written by some random advertising client, all our sponsored posts are written by us, in the same voice that the rest of the posts are written in.

I’ve invested significant design and developer time/money into trying to be as transparent as possible about my monetized content, but there’s still confusion sometimes.