The Blog Archive

AI Traffic Intelligence - What I Run Before I Create Anything

Before I write a word or spend a dollar on traffic, I run seven research agents against my own business. Here's what they found this week, the tools that power them, and three levels of prompts so you can start building your own AI traffic intelligence today... from a single free prompt to a fully automated pipeline.

I Drew Font Stickers by Hand in 1998. Now AI Sketchnotes Are a Thing.

I've been hand-lettering and doodling my whole life... I even designed commercial sticker fonts for a scrapbook company in 2000. Turns out, AI just made it possible to turn that instinct into a full visual content format. Here's my exact workflow, the custom Gemini Gem that powers it, and everything you need to start making your own AI sketchnotes.

Your AI Traffic Strategy Is the Most Underrated Play in Online Business Right Now

Everyone's using AI to create more content. Almost nobody's using it to get that content seen. The traffic landscape has split into six distinct channels, and the one most solopreneurs are still using is the one that's dying. Here's the new map, with one move you can make in each channel this week.

Why I Waited This Long to Launch an Official Paid Substack Tier

I've had 19 paying subscribers with nothing behind the wall. This week, that changes. Here's why it took me 18 years to build the right paid product.

An AI-Built Booking Site, a Talking Turtle, and Zero Followers

I'm building a direct booking website for a friend's beachfront condo in Costa Rica, and I'm doing the whole thing with AI. The site is live with a homepage, property page, local area guide, and an AI chatbot concierge named Tito... a 47-year-old olive ridley sea turtle with opinions about everything. This is Part 1 of a five-part series covering the planning, design, build, and marketing of a faceless vacation rental brand. No developers, no designers, no copywriters. Just AI, clear direction, and two years of local knowledge.

The 6 Layers of a Good AI Agent (And What You Might Be Skipping)

I didn't really understand what I'd do with AI agents until I bought one from someone else. That experience taught me something most tutorials skip: every good agent is a stack of six layers, and understanding them from a human perspective matters more than technical skill.

How I Used Claude Design to Rebuild a Landing Page I Was Too Embarrassed to Promote

I almost became a graphic designer in 1990. 35 years later, AI finally let me build at the level I could always see. Here's the full story behind the AI Advantage Profile Assessment... the design process, the results page, the custom PDF, the personalized email sequence, and why "good enough" nearly killed my motivation to promote it.

Stop Performing. Start Building Where Nobody's Looking

Everyone's using AI to build AI businesses. I'm using AI to build a credit education platform and a direct-booking vacation rental site, neither of which require my face, my name, or my daily presence on any platform. Here's why, and the market math behind both.

The Product Framework That Changed How I Think About My Newsletter