Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
Career Category
This category tracks my various job hunts, career angst, bill issues, and money woes over the year. If you’re interested in my career stuff, you might want to check out my portfolio.
I worked with Wexley to make a facebook app, and I love this article about what fabulous freaks they are.
- 2 Comments
- Tags: ad agency, business, marketing, seattle
Literary pretense vs. the life of a working writer
30
Mar
2008
In: Career
This weekend I’ve been chewing over issues of literature and the literary life as compared to the work and life of commercial writer. I’ve paid my bills for a decade as a writer, I didn’t do that by sniffing at potential clients — I’ve sacrificed most of my snobbery when it comes to the written word. I am firmly in the writing proletariat, and you can see that in my style. Conversational, accessible, maybe a little pedantic and hipstery, but always accessible.
The issue for me flares up when I peek into the world of literature and recoil a bit at the pretence. Language can be used for the powers of good or the powers of evil, and I get cringey and pissed off when I see people using words for the powers of evil. Evil meaning “intentionally making others feel stupid to make themselves feel smarter.”
Read the rest of this entry »
- 27 Comments
- Tags: literature, polemic, rant, writing
View My World (wheeze!)
27
Mar
2008
In: Career
This video was shot last year, but it captures what I’ve been doing non-stop for the last two days related to this site:
I think my two favorite profilees this week were one guy who’s a speedcuber (he can solve a Rubik’s cube in 40 seconds) and another guy who makes fiddles in his spare time.
- 2 Comments
- Tags: microsoft, microspotting, work
- 2 Comments
- Tags: blogging, microsoft, microspotting, work
- 0 Comments
- Tags: microsoft, microspotting, radio
- 3 Comments
- Tags: microsoft, microspotting, work
This post is essentially a white paper about my Offbeat side project, which includes my book Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides and offbeatbride.com. It’s quite long and may only be interesting to marketers, authors, business bloggers, social media obsessives, etc.
Read the rest of this entry »
- 19 Comments
- Tags: advertising, marketing, pr, seo, social media, whoring
FAQ: Existential marketing
6
Dec
2007
In: Career
From a comment to my recent post: Don’t [marketing] events like this kill off some small part of your soul? Does every part of our lives need to be sliced up and laid on a platter as a feast for marketers?
I stick my finger into marketing — it smells of nothing.
(with apologies to Kierkegaard)
This is totally a hot topic for me, and I really appreciate the question. To understand my thoughts on marketing, you first need to understand how I got into the industry.
Ten years ago, I started writing for a free rave magazine. I was idealistic and enthusiastic and completely committed to the community I was serving. A year and a half later, I was promoted to Editor in Chief. It was my job to write/edit all sorts of awesome content all about the culture and lifestyle of raving, which I was beyond enthusiastic about. I made very, VERY little money (sound familiar, fellow magazine folks?) but was deeply committed to my work.
Since Lotus was free, it was supported entirely by its advertisers. Most of these advertisers were electronic music and event-related — lots of record labels, production companies, etc. As soon as I became editor, I started getting huge amounts of pressure from the publisher about editorial content. We needed more music coverage! More album reviews! More event listings!
Why did the publisher care? Because that’s what the advertisers wanted to see. Maybe they weren’t going to demand a review of the exact product they were advertising, but they at least wanted to know that readers turned to the magazine for information about that product, and therefore would be receptive to a related advertisement.
Read the rest of this entry »
- 6 Comments
- Tags: advertising, business, faq, magazines, marketing, WCF07, whoring
Is the arc of your life somewhat planned or is it as random as it appears. By this I mean, so many moves and job changes etc. Conversely, what are the unchanging elements that mean the most to you?
This is an awesome question. It’s odd to think of my life as seeming random because I am an obsessive planner when it comes to day to day things. I used to be a fan of 5 year plans, but honestly … I’ve had trouble with those lately because some life simply doesn’t go according to your plan and it can be very, VERY frustrating for a premeditated type like myself. In fact, it’s actually sort of nice to hear that my life looks random because it suggests that maybe I’m better at going with the flow than I feel like I am.
Then again, some of the randomness is just a factor of the blog format —
Read the rest of this entry »
- 10 Comments
- Tags: Career, family, faq, fickleness, home, moving, plans
I worked with Wexley to make a facebook app, and I love this article about what fabulous freaks they are.
- 2 Comments
- Tags: ad agency, business, marketing, seattle
Literary pretense vs. the life of a working writer
30 Mar 2008 In: CareerThis weekend I’ve been chewing over issues of literature and the literary life as compared to the work and life of commercial writer. I’ve paid my bills for a decade as a writer, I didn’t do that by sniffing at potential clients — I’ve sacrificed most of my snobbery when it comes to the written word. I am firmly in the writing proletariat, and you can see that in my style. Conversational, accessible, maybe a little pedantic and hipstery, but always accessible.
The issue for me flares up when I peek into the world of literature and recoil a bit at the pretence. Language can be used for the powers of good or the powers of evil, and I get cringey and pissed off when I see people using words for the powers of evil. Evil meaning “intentionally making others feel stupid to make themselves feel smarter.”
Read the rest of this entry »
- 27 Comments
- Tags: literature, polemic, rant, writing
View My World (wheeze!)
27 Mar 2008 In: CareerThis video was shot last year, but it captures what I’ve been doing non-stop for the last two days related to this site:
I think my two favorite profilees this week were one guy who’s a speedcuber (he can solve a Rubik’s cube in 40 seconds) and another guy who makes fiddles in his spare time.
- 2 Comments
- Tags: microsoft, microspotting, work
- 2 Comments
- Tags: blogging, microsoft, microspotting, work
- 0 Comments
- Tags: microsoft, microspotting, radio
- 3 Comments
- Tags: microsoft, microspotting, work
This post is essentially a white paper about my Offbeat side project, which includes my book Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides and offbeatbride.com. It’s quite long and may only be interesting to marketers, authors, business bloggers, social media obsessives, etc.
Read the rest of this entry »
- 19 Comments
- Tags: advertising, marketing, pr, seo, social media, whoring
FAQ: Existential marketing
6 Dec 2007 In: CareerFrom a comment to my recent post: Don’t [marketing] events like this kill off some small part of your soul? Does every part of our lives need to be sliced up and laid on a platter as a feast for marketers?
I stick my finger into marketing — it smells of nothing.
(with apologies to Kierkegaard)
This is totally a hot topic for me, and I really appreciate the question. To understand my thoughts on marketing, you first need to understand how I got into the industry.
Ten years ago, I started writing for a free rave magazine. I was idealistic and enthusiastic and completely committed to the community I was serving. A year and a half later, I was promoted to Editor in Chief. It was my job to write/edit all sorts of awesome content all about the culture and lifestyle of raving, which I was beyond enthusiastic about. I made very, VERY little money (sound familiar, fellow magazine folks?) but was deeply committed to my work.
Since Lotus was free, it was supported entirely by its advertisers. Most of these advertisers were electronic music and event-related — lots of record labels, production companies, etc. As soon as I became editor, I started getting huge amounts of pressure from the publisher about editorial content. We needed more music coverage! More album reviews! More event listings!
Why did the publisher care? Because that’s what the advertisers wanted to see. Maybe they weren’t going to demand a review of the exact product they were advertising, but they at least wanted to know that readers turned to the magazine for information about that product, and therefore would be receptive to a related advertisement.
Read the rest of this entry »
- 6 Comments
- Tags: advertising, business, faq, magazines, marketing, WCF07, whoring
Is the arc of your life somewhat planned or is it as random as it appears. By this I mean, so many moves and job changes etc. Conversely, what are the unchanging elements that mean the most to you?
This is an awesome question. It’s odd to think of my life as seeming random because I am an obsessive planner when it comes to day to day things. I used to be a fan of 5 year plans, but honestly … I’ve had trouble with those lately because some life simply doesn’t go according to your plan and it can be very, VERY frustrating for a premeditated type like myself. In fact, it’s actually sort of nice to hear that my life looks random because it suggests that maybe I’m better at going with the flow than I feel like I am.
Then again, some of the randomness is just a factor of the blog format —
Read the rest of this entry »
- 10 Comments
- Tags: Career, family, faq, fickleness, home, moving, plans
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
You're reading a page from the archives. Check the homepage for current content.
