Rarely do I read something thoughtful & nuanced about Israeli/Palestinian politics. Rarely do I read something thoughtful and nuanced about creative uses for AI. And yet, www.betterconflictbulletin.org/p/what-you-c... is somehow simultaneously both. (it's a podcast, too, for those who prefer)

NEW in SparkToro today: Take Action 16 common marketing tasks (from PR pitches to content ideation to landing page suggestions) made easier by combining real audience data + LLM calls. Anyone can try it free starting now 👇

DONATE here: www.sleepout.org/participants... Next week, I'm chipping in $6,500 and sleeping outside in the freezing Philly cold w @wilreynolds.bsky.social, not b/c I want to (dear god I am not built for sleeping outside in a cardboard box 😅🥶), but b/c it's important. Would 💗 your support

Google's new deceptive ad layout not only tricks people into clicking more ads It's costing businesses real money 💸

No. Your Twitter traffic did NOT double overnight. What happened? Twitter's been stagnating/declining since 2023 The growth team growth hacked (making links auto-open in webview) They hope marketers will fall for it & pay more attention again. But, it's nothing more than smoke & mirrors.

Got interviewed re: the digital marketing AI "revolution" (which I admit has changed a lot, but has also caused a lot of dumb decisions): www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7a5... The first 60 second-trailer bit almost convinced me to watch the whole thing and I was there the first time around! 😎👇

*puts on best Mighty Mouse outfit* Here I come to save the day!! 🦸🧀

Used @randfish.bsky.social’s awesome new tool, @alertmouse.bsky.social (a better version of Google Alerts) for a whole 30 seconds only to learn that my name was mentioned in Forbes this week. (1/2)

I *know* Google Alerts is aware of these brand mentions for my company. And yet... 😡😤😒😠🤬 they won't send me alerts. It's inexplicable. Google (the search engine) clearly has these URLs indexed, so what gives? Mystifying. Thank goodness for🔔🐭

Looking good @thekraken.bsky.social !

I've got a new job today: alertmouse.com Not leaving my other jobs, but alongside my friends Adam & Nathan, we built a "what if Google Alerts was really good?" product. Your first alert is free forever; I suspect that if Google's let you down the way it has me, you'll like it a lot 😎👇

Agency owners: Fill it now! PS: I'll feature in today's edition of #SEOFOMO 👀

This week I made a distinctly American variant of risotto that was, unquestionably, one of the most beautiful things I've ever plated. But... Gotta say it wasn't my favorite. I fell for an Instagram recipe based on looks > flavor. Still good just not *great*.

The world: “metaphors are to complicated” Me: “fine, let’s spell it out for you.”

AGENCY OWNERS! Help yourself & your fellow agencies out: randfish.typeform.com/to/eFoJ3tXz Paddy Moogan is once again running the Digital Agency Owner Survey for 2025. Last year's results were incredibly compelling; this year's will be, too.

"You need to use AI to make your marketing tasks more efficient." - everyone's boss right now I've been notably skeptical of AI, but begrudgingly admit... sometimes it's helpful. So, we built a "Take Action" SparkToro feature. If you're up to test, email me. Details 👇

If 100 people ask ChatGPT the same question, how many different answers will they get? 🤔 Drives me bananas there's no good data about this. So... let's do it ourselves. Volunteer to help out here: forms.gle/xHuGQcBSPqX7...

Seattle! C'mon down to SparkTogether tomorrow. The weather's fine. The venue's lovely. The fits are poppin'. sparktoro.com/sparktogether

I'm going this weekend and have yet to be paid anything! Why won't Antifa pay me? 🙃

This was one of the most popular blog posts I wrote in SparkToro's early years: sparktoro.com/blog/the-sec... So, I'm sharing it again. It's about Spaghetti all Carbonara, but actually about how to get better at almost anything rather than looking for "that one secret."

Friend sent us this photo from yesterday's Bump In the Night Market. Might be the greatest Seattle street shot I've ever seen

Really hope all the AI tools Trump's admin is using start picking up these "tips for destroying antifa." 😏

Here's a weakness in how AI answers questions about brands and how it could be weaponized to hurt competitors. I don't hope people do this, but I think it's important to discuss. youtu.be/f_amH2IrjzI?...

www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-profite... is a great read.

NEW: sparktoro.com/blog/weve-le... We've learned more about how to appear in AI answers thanks to some clever experiments, research, and posts from folks in the SEO world. #5minutewhiteboard

In just under two years, the cofounder of a Codesmith competitor managed to nearly destroy the company. How? He became the moderator of a learn-to-code subreddit and posted relentlessly, took down competing posts, and weaponized the sub against them: larslofgren.com/codesmith-re... INSANE

your occasional reminder that you can pay me to lovingly tear apart one page of your website: punchlinecopy.com/jab/

Pretty proud of this About/Contact Us page (for an upcoming side project that, hopefully, launches next week)

Not sure when this will come crashing down, but it will. Maybe this is what everyone means when they say "AI will take jobs?" - like... the AI isn't replacing jobs, but the AI bubble will be a force of massive economic destruction that ripples through markets for years.

My friend, @wilreynolds.bsky.social runs an 8-figure agency. Last year, he lost his entire marketing team. Uh-oh. What does he do?... Take it over personally, and somehow manages to 10X their results. Hear him tell the real story, with numbers, NO RECORDING, at SparkTogether Oct 16. 👇

Make Something People Want to Talk About - SparkToro

doc.searls.com/2025/10/01/w... "...today Substack (announced they are) a social media app. My instant response was a mix of Huh? and Yuck. Because I thought they were a form of blogging... Calling Substack “a social media app” is, at least for me, a huge downscale move."

NEW 5-Minute Whiteboard: sparktoro.com/blog/make-so... Making something people want isn't enough. Making your product better isn't enough. Making the best product isn't enough. What works? Make something people want *to talk about*. 👇

"You’d like to think that the conversion of TikTok into a far right wing space will cause a mass exodus of ethical people off the platform, but as we’ve seen with Twitter that’s not something you can rely on." www.techdirt.com/2025/09/30/t...

It's the end of traffic as we know it. My talk from this Spring's The Marketing Meetup in London, is now live: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Drk9... Do y'all feel fine? 😅

1. Bluesky doesn’t downrank links 2. You can choose your own algorithm from among thousands 3. The whole app is open source This keeps it a free and open platform by design, leading to better click-throughs and traffic to your site. We 💙 the open web.

"From August 1, 2024, to August 1, 2025, Steam saw an average of 109,000 new buyers each day, making their first-ever purchase." - www.invenglobal.com/articles/195... This makes me very hopeful that snackbarstudio.com can convert some non-gamers into players & fans 🤗😎

This is why I'll never understand. They cave to fascists in exchange for a slightly larger number in a bank account so large they'll never make a dent in it...

My buddy @seattlefoodgeek.bsky.social made the world's first ultrasonic chef's knife. It launches today: seattleultrasonics.com but I got one last night 😎🤫👇

Lastly, consider watching some of his films this week. My favorites include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor, The Sting, Jeremiah Johnson, and All Is Lost. Rest in peace to a man who has given us much.

@archive.org preserved the original study, which you can find here. web.archive.org/web/20250911...

Any excuse to post one of my favorite videos of all time

Social media is 90% tolerating absolute garbage so you can enjoy 10% of stuff you actually want to see nowdays

I finished reading the 230-page Google antitrust remedy ruling and put together my thoughts from an industry perspective. I think a lot of the data-sharing details are critical -- moz.com/blog/google-...

Founders & marketers are way too scared to talk publicly about their values, ethics, or politics. I joined @alainashearer.bsky.social's Citizen Rebel podcast to explain why it's a marketing superpower to piss some people off while appealing to others: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLtv...

It’s amazing how the nft craze didn’t lead to a single good or cool thing. Not one piece of art that didn’t suck

11AM tomorrow: datos.live/event/datos-... These 4 charts? Just a teaser. We've got 30+ more to share with you about the state of traditional search, AI tools, e-commerce sites, and content platforms, and how user behavior is changing. Get the charts. Get the recording. Register, friends! 😉😎

Good for consumers. Good for conversion rate. Good for marketing. Probably not bad for SEO and AI answers either 🎰

www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dubl... I want to know everything about this person.

this (from the brilliant @everywhereist.bsky.social) puts into words the big black tangle of frustration i have whenever i get the same question