and what used to work many years ago is slowly dying. And with that, your ability to connect with potential clients diminishes as well, which makes you become
more and more invisible.
hey, random question but do you ever look at your inbox and just… notice it's quieter than it used to be?
like not dramatically quiet. just. fewer people reaching out than a year ago
hmm, it's busier actually, lots and lots of emails, everyone tries to sell you something. Even with job postings. But, it looks like most are automated with AI, if you interact or don't interact with them, there's no outcome anyway.
haha yeah fair point, busy with noise
but that's kind of what I mean actually — real conversations, real potential clients reaching out. that's what feels thinner
like I used to get a few decent leads a month just from people finding me. now it's mostly… nothing organic. just cold spam from bots pretending to be humans
that's exactly how I feel as well, and don't get me started on organic and SEO. It's like everything changed. I've made a special script to detect human visitors on the website, as posthog as well as cloudflare, told me I have thosands of visitors each month ... yet nobody said hello!
wait thousands of visitors and zero hellos?
that's actually kind of unsettling when you put it like that
so the traffic is there but it's just… passing through? like people window shopping and never walking in?
no, not people, ... just a few, the resta are AI bots or other spiders
oh
so it's not even window shoppers. it's just robots reading your window display and reporting back to their robot bosses
that's… a very different problem than I thought. I was about to say "just fix your SEO" 😅
nah, and SEO is changing, it looks like it's no longer the only one that matters
what do you mean, like Google changed the rules again?
that too, google now has this search with AI, on one hand, on the other hand, people are no longer searching on Google as they used to. They spend their time other places
like TikTok and Instagram you mean?
I know people discover stuff there but I never thought of that as "search"
yeah, tiktok, instagram, x ... some on threads ... some prompting AI all day (including me) :)
ha, same honestly, I've basically stopped Googling half the things I used to
so wait — you're saying there's like three different things happening at once?
yes, but it's a mixture, some people having changed anything, some adoped everything that's new and most of them are on a journey, between old and new.
right so it's not like the old way just died overnight
it's more like… the audience is scattered now. some still Google, some ask ChatGPT, some scroll TikTok until they find what they need
which means if you're only optimized for one of those you're invisible to everyone else
that's kind of the thing, I'm looking at my scenario, and I have to optimize my content strategy for 7 social media networks, and the website for search engine optimization, still valid, but less relevant, and generative engine optimization, which is the new kid on the block of search engines land.
7 networks plus SEO plus… what was that last one, generative engine optimization?
I've not heard that term before
well, it's AI searching the web, be it chat GPL, claude, grok, gemini or others
oh so when I ask Claude something and it gives me an answer… it already visited a bunch of websites to find that answer
and if your site isn't one of the ones it finds… you just don't exist in that conversation
well, sometimes you get links, sometimes you click on them, so it does bring some of the traffic back.
okay so it's not a total blackhole, some clicks still come through
but still… you went from "rank on Google, get found" to now you have to play on like 8 different surfaces simultaneously just to stay visible
that's a lot more work than it used to be
which is good, in my opinion. find a niche and stay on it, you can do most of it alone
wait really? I'd have assumed more channels = more overwhelm
how does niching down help when the landscape is that spread out?
well, some of the process can be automated, some helped by AI. Yes, there is more to do, but not directly proportional more :)
ohh so the same AI that's eating your traffic is also helping you produce for all those surfaces
that's a bit poetic actually 😄
yeah, kind of. Well, at least I've tested and failed multiple times trying strategies. I have a strong feeling this time it's the strategy that will work. The one that I'm doing right now, as I talk to you.
wait, what are you doing right now exactly?
like you're literally testing the strategy while we're having this conversation?
yes, and many more to come. I only have one big problem, to manage to get consistent and fight my depression, otherwise most of what I need to start is in place.
hey, thank you for saying that. that's not a small thing to drop into a conversation
consistency is hard enough without fighting your own brain on top of it
I think this one gets longer that I anticipated, so I'll have to cut it short. Dedicate some of this energy to other topics as well.
makes sense, don't burn it all in one place
good luck with it — genuinely curious how it plays out
see you in the next one mr Claude Sonnet
haha see you on the other side 👋