What we are thinking about.
Notes from running 8 publications and building tools for them. Restaurant SEO, local marketing, the boring parts that move the needle.
Vue Enlists Taika Waititi in Desperate Bid to Rescue Movie Theaters from Streaming’s Smothering Grip
Vue’s latest gambit to revive theaters involves enlisting Taika Waititi, but celebrity endorsements won’t fix an industry crippled by complacency and streaming’s dominance.
Read →
Lenovo’s Latest Stunt: Becky G, AI, and the Soccer Kit Art Grift
Lenovo’s new campaign pairing Becky G with AI to ‘artify’ soccer kits is a tired marketing stunt dressed up as innovation. Here’s why it’s more grift than groundbreaking.
Read →
Budweiser’s 150th Anniversary Campaign: A Red, White, and Blue Overkill
Budweiser’s 150th anniversary campaign drowns audiences in patriotic clichés, exposing how big brands use flag-waving as a lazy shortcut instead of genuine storytelling.
Read →
Rao’s Hires Goodby Silverstein & Partners to Fake Iconic Status—Because Authenticity Was Too Hard
Rao’s pasta sauce is hiring Goodby Silverstein & Partners to manufacture an 'iconic' brand image—because real authenticity takes work no one wants to do.
Read →
The SEO Agency Grift in 2026: Why Most Publishers Are Paying for Vanity Metrics and False Promises
The SEO agency circus is still selling snake oil in 2026, charging publishers for hollow KPIs and marketing fluff while delivering nothing close to real growth. Here’s why the whole thing is a racket.
Read →
Structured Data for Google AI Overviews: Why Publishers Are Already Behind Before They Even Start
Google’s AI-powered overviews aren’t a feature publishers control—they’re a rigged game where structured data is just another piece of bait in Google’s self-serving trap.
Read →
AI Content Detector Accuracy in 2026: Why Your 'Safety Net' Is Garbage and Hurting Your Strategy
The AI content detectors you’re relying on are paper tigers—clunky, outdated, and actively sabotaging your SEO and content game in 2026. Here’s why dumping them is overdue.
Read →
Google Search Console Discover Traffic Attribution: The Broken Metric Publishers Pretend to Understand
Discover traffic in Google Search Console is a mirage. Publishers act like it's a robust KPI, but it's a broken, misunderstood metric that fuels lazy reporting and false confidence.
Read →
Core Web Vitals Signal Weight Is Overhyped Bullshit - Here's What Actually Moves the Needle
Google’s Core Web Vitals hype is a self-serving distraction cooked up to sell tool upgrades and agency retainer gigs. Here’s the real SEO muscle that actually drives rankings.
Read →
Why IndexNow Is a Peak Nothingburger: Debunking the 'Instant Indexing' Cargo Cult for Publishers
IndexNow promises instant indexing nirvana, but the reality is a lazy agency grift dressed up as innovation. Here’s why it’s a peak nothingburger for publishers.
Read →
Yoast and Rank Math AI Features: The Lazy Grift That's Killing Publisher SEO in 2026
Yoast and Rank Math’s so-called AI “features” are nothing more than cargo cult tech pretending to solve SEO problems they created. Here’s why these lazy shortcuts are wrecking publisher SEO today.
Read →
Agentic Marketing’s Multicultural Mirage: Why The Industry Still Can’t Get It Right
The so-called agentic marketing wave championed by agencies and brands alike is just another hollow buzzword, masking a persistent failure to truly serve multicultural audiences.
Read →
Publishers Ditch Old-School Ad Sales for Outcome-Obsessed Teams — About Damn Time
Publishers are finally shaking off the dead weight of legacy ad sales, replacing checkbox hunters with outcome-driven teams focused on real client success. The era of meaningless impressions is over.
Read →
Middle East War Shatters Advertising Budgets with Unpriceable Uncertainty
The Middle East war has exposed the advertising industry's fragile illusion of control, turning predictability into chaos no algorithm can tame.
Read →
TJ Palma: From College Athlete to Airbnb Hustler to Love Island’s Reluctant Content King
TJ Palma’s leap from college athlete and Airbnb host to Love Island star isn’t your typical influencer fairy tale. He’s rewriting the playbook on how creators build real business, not just fleeting fame.
Read →
Push Notifications and Peer Sharing Are Quietly Hijacking Publisher Traffic — And No One’s Talking About It
Push notifications and peer-to-peer sharing are quietly overtaking Google as the primary traffic sources for publishers, according to new Chartbeat data. It’s time to ditch SEO grifts and build real engagement.
Read →
AMC’s Upfront Playbook: More Than Just Nostalgia, It’s a Sports and Franchise Power Grab
AMC Global Media is redefining upfront season by ditching generic ad slots for tailored sports and franchise opportunities that actually engage audiences and advertisers alike.
Read →
Publishers’ Traffic Game-Changer: Why Push Notifications and Peer Sharing Are Stealing the Spotlight from SEO
Chartbeat’s latest data reveals that push notifications and peer-to-peer sharing are skyrocketing as publisher traffic sources, exposing SEO’s overhyped dominance.
Read →