Journal
Read the latest entries in the ELEVEN_J journal: personal notes, ideas, and reflections, collected one article at a time.
From Market Clues to a Testable Product Need
Connect ads, competitor traffic, outbound domains, archived pages, and real requests into a research process, then define a task a user can actually complete.
New Sites and Games: Turn Samples, Acquisition, and Failures into Action
Thirty-one game sites, an annual multi-site competition, a Bing-first launch, and four costly lessons show how to compare samples, win early users, and review a decline without inventing a recovery.
Brand and Content Sites: Structure, Identity, and Growth Evidence
Six cases — categories, live news, tool pages, brand confusion, a URL migration, and a $10K brand site — show how to separate first-party records, model estimates, and screenshots, and how to test a mechanism before copying a move.
Tool-Site Growth: Turn Big Numbers into Verifiable Work
Seven tool-site cases arrive with different sites, dates, and metrics. Separate the measurement windows first, then take the work process — validation, prototypes, iteration, and comparable windows — and leave the growth numbers where they belong.
From Visits to Revenue: Ads, Products, and Subscriptions
Organic search delivers people with a problem. A 2016 redesign, seven acquisition channels, and a resume-tool case show how to separate arrivals, task completion, payment, and receipts — and how to read every figure with its period and denominator attached.
Read the Metric Before Choosing the Tool
Traffic estimates, vendor scores, inspection panels, and a 2024 WordPress plugin list all answer different questions. Learn to read the column, the denominator, and the scope before letting any number choose for you.
AI Search and GEO: From Keywords to Customer Decisions
SEO foundations still stand while trust develops across more touchpoints. Separate GEO claims from evidence, work a nine-step acquisition framework, and measure AI visibility, visits, and business results as three different things.
Turn Algorithm Claims into Testable Page Actions
From the 2023 helpful-content update to the March 2026 core update, separate official facts, historical observations, and speculation before changing pages. Classify the evidence, inspect the competition, and test changes on a small group you can measure.