What we learned running the numbers.
Find the One Element That Works and Amplify It
Instagram began as a check-in app.
Each Email Isolates One Lever: Writing a Sequence From a Pillar
In a well-known study, shoppers who tasted from a smaller selection of jams were more satisfied than those faced with a large one.
One Variable at a Time: A Facebook Ads Testing Recipe
A ship's surgeon in 1747 split twelve sick sailors into six pairs, changed one thing for each pair, and found the cure for scurvy.
Operations Disguised as AI Problems: The Executive Field Guide
Most enterprise AI problems are operations problems in disguise.
The Page-2 Problem: 1,745 Impressions, 5 Clicks, and What We Changed
Our eleven articles were shown 1,745 times in Google in 90 days and clicked 5 times.
What Each Platform Is For
In 2025, 84 percent of US adults said they use YouTube and 71 percent Facebook, according to Pew Research.
Assumptive Questions: Never Let the Reader Ask
In 1962 the second-largest car rental company answered the question every customer was silently asking: if you are only number two, why use you? "We try harder.
Problem Pages, Not Product Pages
Most business websites are built from product pages: here is what we sell.
Bootstrapped SEO for a Productized Service
A property site became a household name by putting public records into a form people could use.
Programmatic "AI for [Industry]" Pages Without a Google Penalty
You can build one page per industry from a template without breaking Google's rules, if every page passes five tests.
Promo Calendars and the Catalog Model
Singles' Day began as an informal celebration among college students.
The Promotion Cap: Sell Too Often and the Audience Dies
A fishery that fed a coast for five centuries fell to one percent of its size because the catch outran the stock.
The Proof Grid: Nine Kinds of Evidence Every Offer Needs
Testimonials answer one question out of nine.
Publish Someone Else's Expertise
In 1991 a small publisher released DOS For Dummies, written by Dan Gookin.
Qualify Before the Call: Questions That Flip the Lead
People queue for hours to have a stranger tell them what their teapot is worth.
Quick Win Offers: Replace the Free Audit With a Paid First Step
The free audit and the free proposal ask a busy owner for an hour and give back a sales pitch.
Quiz Funnels That Make the Visitor Feel the Problem
Most quiz funnels sort people.
Reach Is Not Audience Size
TikTok has said that follower count is not a direct factor in what it recommends.
Reading Ad Data: Which Metric Is Broken and What to Fix
An ad account shows forty numbers and most owners watch one.
Why Posting Volume Should Rise and Fall
A sea slug stops flinching when you touch it the same way ten times.
Risk-First Buyers: Closing Every Information Gap
Computer salespeople once had a name for a sales tactic: fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the competition.
Risk Reversal Is Not a Guarantee: What Buyers Fear Losing
A money-back guarantee covers the one loss buyers fear least.
Copy the Rules, Not the Ad: What Makes a Winning Ad Win
Copying a competitor's winning ad almost never works, because you copy what it looks like and miss why it worked.
What Makes People Act: Safe Place, Unsafe Place
Under almost every purchase is one question: will this leave me safer or less safe? A drug maker answered it in 1982 by pulling 31 million bottles off the shelves, and won its market back.