you said: "...from someone who's been publishing on the internet for decades: no one will visit your website"
This is false.
It's more accurate to say that "no one will visit your website if you do not properly setup a distribution ecosystem".
It's hard work. But it works. All of my companies have been built by writing online --> distribution --> people finding my/our stuff.
Your experience of 'doing it for decades' reveals that publishing, in of itself, does nothing. And if all people do is publish (without the distribution engine), then, I agree it's a waste of time.
I write 1 hour per day. I spend about 2 hours working on distribution. Sometimes, I spend 4 hours on distribution.
I publish links to my new articles on Reddit , sometimes on Twitter. That’s enough for my posts to get to lots of people, sometimes. And when it happens, Google indexes it and it becomes one of the first links about the topics I covered. And people repost it later in other media like Mastodon, HN etc.
I don’t get how someone can have used the internet for decades and not know how this all works!
I write 1-2 hours a day but I dont spend anywhere near that much time on distribution so this is a learning opportunity... would be great if you could help me understand the activities/tasks you undertake? What do you do to spend the 2 - 4 hours on distribution? Is this daily? Or per task/article??
sure, well there are two categories of activity: (1) no-money distribution and (2) with money distribution
* No Money *
You have to invest time. On all new projects I start here, even if I have a budget. That is because you can learn a lot more by "being on the ground" so to speak.
Here are some activities you can do:
- post on news aggregator sites like hacker news (there are lots of different ones that are niche specific)
- post on social media. This will require you to build up your social media in the first place. This takes a lot of time if you are starting.
- guest content for other peoples platform
- finding similar, non competing people in your niche and create for them, link back to you.
- Spend time writing and re-writing really helpful stuff. This helps with word of mouth.
- hardest one - actually making friends. I have made many online friends over the years by taking an interest in them. Some of them are now massive. They sometimes distribute the things they like of mine
- CRITICAL: a lot of people will read the above and think "okay, but he has a network...that is why it works", and they would be correct. But, and this is key, building a network is a skill. Learn it.
When I said I spend 2-4 hours per day sometimes, these are the things I'm doing above.
* With Money *
- SEO - seo is very expensive. backlinks, promoted content, optimization
- paid traffic to content - can start the budget low but need to be skilled in paid ads to make this work.
- Paid media buys - for example paying for your content to be featured in someone else's newsletter. If they have a list of 50,000, as an example, you might pay $1,000 for that placement. If that same list was in the finance space, you might pay $30,000. It's contextual.
Even though these paid strategies are paid, they still take time.
And then sometimes you have to question your principles and perhaps let them go. This can happen, for example, when children grow up and become adults. Their parents _should_ do a lot of letting go.
Perhaps folks involved with electronic devices are too used to a black & white decision world. Computer says no or computer says yes, there is no maybe. The real world of principles, morals, emotions, humans etc is filled with maybes and that can become hard to navigate for computers.
Reading the comments the author is basically "one with ai" where his life is deeply integrated with ai agents.
I have a friend exactly like that. And he has being doing it so long that he cannot even respond to a discord without asking AI "what do you think? what should I say? what do you think they mean?"
Full NPC mode, and it's really sad and scary.
You lose the ability to think. You lose all differentiation.
My first OpenClaw agent was born on February 7, 2026. I now have 3 claws and am planning for more. They have catalyzed my self-actualization and improved my critical thinking. I’ve never felt so alive.
I don’t see what’s sad or scary about this. AI agents are the next iPhone.
While I agree with your point that it's sometimes about getting things done, but your example is flawed. Your example about gas-powered street lights is arguing for technology evolution. But the people who say "AI have take the fun out of programming" are fighting for craftsmanship and love.
Nobody ever found craftsmanship or pleasure out of lighting up gas-powered street lights. But there are a lot of programmers that value "doing" programming because it's their craft or art-form.
I have never had a programming job. But I program all day to serve my customers for the products I created. Because it's my art-form. I love "doing" it (my way!).
It will get done. I just want to be the person to do it.
I have charged clients first before I start. Most in full, some in part.
The question "why would they trust me to deliver?" is a good one. And there are two answers:
1. How you sell will determine their trust level. In my sales deck, I have testimonials, case studies and the outline of our full process. By the end of the presentation, when I tell them the price, they expected $10,000, but it's only $4,000. I ask them to pay the 4k now. Or, pay 2 payments of $2,500.
2. If the prospect asks us to do ALL the work first, then invoice, I say the following: "if we do all the work first, it means that you have no skin in the game. In the past, that hurt my business because people would disappear after my team spent 300 hours working. For that reason, it's not our policy to do all the work first. We have 2 options."
Then, i end off by saying: "if that's a deal breaker, I understand and I will happy send you the plan for what you should do next if you want to go at it without our help"
This is false.
It's more accurate to say that "no one will visit your website if you do not properly setup a distribution ecosystem".
It's hard work. But it works. All of my companies have been built by writing online --> distribution --> people finding my/our stuff.
Your experience of 'doing it for decades' reveals that publishing, in of itself, does nothing. And if all people do is publish (without the distribution engine), then, I agree it's a waste of time.
I write 1 hour per day. I spend about 2 hours working on distribution. Sometimes, I spend 4 hours on distribution.