Writing about how AI search actually works. Building things to find out.
LLM citation mechanics, parasite SEO infrastructure, and an honest build log of the tools and dead domains that came out of testing it in practice — not just writing about it. This site's own Search Console numbers last month, roughly: a dozen-ish impressions, basically zero clicks. Make of that what you will.
Recent writing
I Used Spotlistr Every Week. Then Playlist Creation Started Costing Credits.
Spotlistr moved playlist creation behind a prepaid credit system. Here's the workflow that broke for me, the math on why a day-long rebuild made sense, and Track Down — the free, client-side alternative that came out of it.
The Portfolio: Every Project Shipped in the Last Six Months, Graded Honestly
A running index of everything actually built here — four real businesses, three live tools, three internal-only builds, one confirmed dead, one uncertain status. No cherry-picking, updated as the status changes.
Merle: A Guitar Pedal Site, Written First, Branded Second
The bet behind mmmerle.com — that content in a niche this specific only works if it exists before the branding does, and a one-day rebrand to prove it.
Track Down: A Playlist Tool With No Backend to Maintain
A bet that a genuinely useful Spotify tool could run with almost no server at all — trackdown.yyyokel.com converts playlists from anywhere with zero database and near-zero infrastructure to babysit.
US Debt Wire: Turning a Public Government Dataset Into a Real Tool
The bet behind usdebtwire.com — that CFPB complaint data, freely public but nowhere usable, could become a real lookup tool in days, not months.
The 2026 Distribution Playbook: Seven Channels Nobody's Fully Exploiting Yet
Five structural shifts broke most standing distribution advice in 2026 at once — YouTube Shorts became search-indexed, Reddit became the top cited source across every major AI engine, and AI Overview citation decoupled from organic rank. This is the index for a seven-part series built around what changed, not what used to work.
The 2026 AI Citation Playbook: Entity Density, Freshness, and the Death of Rank-Based Citation
AI Overview citation has decoupled from organic rank in 2026 — only 38% of citations now come from top-10 pages, down from 76% a year earlier. Entity density, structured data, and freshness now predict citation probability better than backlinks. Sourced stats on all four, plus why cross-engine optimization requires separate strategies.
Channel Triage 2026: Where Distribution Time Actually Pays Off
Reddit, YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn, and Telegram have edged out Quora, Medium, and Facebook Groups as where real distribution leverage lives in 2026. A ranked comparison of nine channels by current leverage, effort, and risk — what to deprioritize, what to keep as a reputation habit instead of a channel, and why that distinction matters.
Pinterest's Undisclosed Throttle: What Actually Governs Distribution in 2026
Pinterest's published API rate limits govern request volume, not distribution. A separate, undisclosed account-level trust throttle decides whether your pins actually reach anyone in 2026 — here's how to read the signal since there's no published number to chase.
Reddit's Contributor Quality Score: The Real Rate Limit Nobody Publishes
Reddit's Contributor Quality Score, not its published API rate limits, governs whether your posts and comments actually reach anyone. Reddit is also the top cited source across every major AI engine per a 2026 analysis of 680 million citations — here's how to sequence an account so both work in your favor.