Creating “zero click” content
Creating “zero click” content As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a growing problem with Google is the number of “zero click” searches on there — searches that don’t lead to another click, because Google answered the question for you. It’s generally a good thing for users, but it’s a bad thing for companies wanting to get more website traffic. In the case of Google, there’s not much you can do. In other cases, though, it might be best to just lean into this trend. Most social media sites quietly ...
Grateful in the macro and the micro
Grateful in the macro and the micro When you ask someone what they’re grateful for, you often get the same kinds of things – health, family, friends, etc. Those are all wonderful things, and we should all be grateful for them, but being grateful for smaller things can sometimes have a bigger impact. In a recent episode of “My First Million”, the hosts (Sam Parr and Shaan Puri) interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk and it was a fascinating conversation. I encourage you to listen/watch the entire thing w...
Shortform for long books
Shortform for long books I’ve been using Blinkist for some book summaries for a few years now, and it’s great! However, I’m noticing a growing problem in the gap between long books and Blinkist, in that the “Blinks” just aren’t long enough to really share the heart of the book. Blinkist and most related platforms are proud of the fact that they give you “15 minute summaries”. Those are a fantastic way to get an overview of a book, but then they leave a bit gap between that 15 minute summary a...
Creating “zero click” content
Creating “zero click” content As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a growing problem with Google is the number of “zero click” searches on there — searches that don’t lead to another click, because Google answered the question for you. It’s generally a good thing for users, but it’s a bad thing for companies wanting to get more website traffic. In the case of Google, there’s not much you can do. In other cases, though, it might be best to just lean into this trend. Most social media sites quietly ...
Grateful in the macro and the micro
Grateful in the macro and the micro When you ask someone what they’re grateful for, you often get the same kinds of things – health, family, friends, etc. Those are all wonderful things, and we should all be grateful for them, but being grateful for smaller things can sometimes have a bigger impact. In a recent episode of “My First Million”, the hosts (Sam Parr and Shaan Puri) interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk and it was a fascinating conversation. I encourage you to listen/watch the entire thing w...
Shortform for long books
Shortform for long books I’ve been using Blinkist for some book summaries for a few years now, and it’s great! However, I’m noticing a growing problem in the gap between long books and Blinkist, in that the “Blinks” just aren’t long enough to really share the heart of the book. Blinkist and most related platforms are proud of the fact that they give you “15 minute summaries”. Those are a fantastic way to get an overview of a book, but then they leave a bit gap between that 15 minute summary a...
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While RSS has almost completely disappeared from the tech landscape, I’m still a big fan of it. I get the majority of my information via RSS, and it’s fantastic. If you’re not familiar with RSS, it’s essentially a way to subscribe to news sites and blogs. It’s not unlike getting email updates on every new story they publish, but instead of my email inbox they all go into my RSS reader and I catch up when I have time.
I’ve been using RSS for a few decades, though I’ve eased off a bit from my crazy days in the past. What’s interesting now is that it’s really easy to notice when a site stops posting human-generated content and just lets AI spit it out. I’ve seen this happen in a few ways.
First, there is a friend of mine whose blog I’ve followed for years. His posts used to be fairly short and personal, and frankly, often riddled with grammar and spelling errors. I didn’t mind, as I was just glad to hear his thoughts.
His posts had the same tone for many years, and then one day they just flipped. They instantly become 5x longer, with lots of bulleted lists on the page, a super deep vocabulary, and no typos. He absolutely switch to AI, and I was quite disappointed. I stopped following his site because I wanted to hear his thoughts, not just perfect AI stuff.
Second, I’ve seen two other marketing agencies do similar things. In their case, the tell was their pace. They went from a post or two per week up to multiple posts a day. As with the previous example, the posts become much longer, with many more bulleted lists, and vocabulary that seemed way out of context for how they normally spoke.
To be clear, they’re absolutely able to do this if they want. There’s no laws or restrictions against it, and I support their right to generate content however they want. Perhaps this will benefit them in terms of SEO down the road.
For me, though, I’m just sad. All three of those blogs were ones that I followed for insights and information, and now they’re just full of regurgitated fluff. I’m hopeful that this isn’t a sign of where things are going, but I fear that this is exactly the path that many more companies are going to follow.
I encourage you to fight the urge and keep some humanity in your work.
While RSS has almost completely disappeared from the tech landscape, I’m still a big fan of it. I get the majority of my information via RSS, and it’s fantastic. If you’re not familiar with RSS, it’s essentially a way to subscribe to news sites and blogs. It’s not unlike getting email updates on every new story they publish, but instead of my email inbox they all go into my RSS reader and I catch up when I have time.
I’ve been using RSS for a few decades, though I’ve eased off a bit from my crazy days in the past. What’s interesting now is that it’s really easy to notice when a site stops posting human-generated content and just lets AI spit it out. I’ve seen this happen in a few ways.
First, there is a friend of mine whose blog I’ve followed for years. His posts used to be fairly short and personal, and frankly, often riddled with grammar and spelling errors. I didn’t mind, as I was just glad to hear his thoughts.
His posts had the same tone for many years, and then one day they just flipped. They instantly become 5x longer, with lots of bulleted lists on the page, a super deep vocabulary, and no typos. He absolutely switch to AI, and I was quite disappointed. I stopped following his site because I wanted to hear his thoughts, not just perfect AI stuff.
Second, I’ve seen two other marketing agencies do similar things. In their case, the tell was their pace. They went from a post or two per week up to multiple posts a day. As with the previous example, the posts become much longer, with many more bulleted lists, and vocabulary that seemed way out of context for how they normally spoke.
To be clear, they’re absolutely able to do this if they want. There’s no laws or restrictions against it, and I support their right to generate content however they want. Perhaps this will benefit them in terms of SEO down the road.
For me, though, I’m just sad. All three of those blogs were ones that I followed for insights and information, and now they’re just full of regurgitated fluff. I’m hopeful that this isn’t a sign of where things are going, but I fear that this is exactly the path that many more companies are going to follow.
I encourage you to fight the urge and keep some humanity in your work.
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