An example - I've been thinking about writing product reviews again. I hate watching a dozen YouTube videos full of crap to know what a thingy does and I want loads of high-res photos of it and 1000-2000 words explaining what it's like to use, along with a public mechanism to talk to the reviewer to ask questions about the thingy's operation. A blog/forum is an excellent way to achieve this.
I spent years writing this type of product review at MacTalk, Reckoner and PC & Tech Authority up until about a decade ago and really enjoyed it, but whenever I think about doing it again in 2026, there's questions I don't know how to answer:
How will people know it exists? Search is broken. I refuse to pay for advertising on Meta/Linkedin/Reddit. Nobody clicks links on social media.
Can I sell advertising on the site old school style, with the ads on the same domain as the site to avoid ad-blockers? Maybe, but then the perception of whatever I write is tainted, true or not.
Will LLMs just scrape my work and show a tiny link that 0.1% of people might click and I get nothing? Yes, absolutely.
If I put up a paywall (e.g: $10/m - $100/yr), would I be able to get at least 2,000 people to pay it? To justify the cost of a small team of reviewers to keep the content flowing? Going by my latest Sizzle efforts, it'll be pushing shit up hill at a loss for years.
It used to be you could publish stuff and the internet would just find it with a little bit of effort. People shared links with friends, search engines worked, social media didn't discourage external links, people used RSS/bookmarks to catch up on their favourite sites, people particpated on forums - but that's all evaporated now.
decryption
npub187…ueh70
2026-10-13 00:41:49 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…dduf
Author Public Key
npub187d524jd9mwqnv0jp0w4esmym9n6k8rgx7x6uav3txd8alszrzqsaueh70Seen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2026-10-13 00:41:49 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "a085ef1d92f2d6661e4ddf99cea130f0cbcb7a6dea7316ebc51162578dce2def",
"pubkey": "3f9b45564d2edc09b1f20bdd5cc364d967ab1c68378dae7591599a7efe021881",
"created_at": 1791852109,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"p",
"3f9b45564d2edc09b1f20bdd5cc364d967ab1c68378dae7591599a7efe021881"
],
[
"e",
"a1d1a2babd524ee4026d935b09ba53061ac7f10ccff9bc0b20d062a5fb5334cd",
"",
"root",
"3f9b45564d2edc09b1f20bdd5cc364d967ab1c68378dae7591599a7efe021881"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://aus.social/@decryption/117430819872821952",
"web"
],
[
"proxy",
"https://aus.social/users/decryption/statuses/117430819872821952",
"activitypub"
],
[
"L",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"l",
"pink.momostr.activitypub:https://aus.social/users/decryption/statuses/117430819872821952",
"pink.momostr"
],
[
"-"
]
],
"content": "An example - I've been thinking about writing product reviews again. I hate watching a dozen YouTube videos full of crap to know what a thingy does and I want loads of high-res photos of it and 1000-2000 words explaining what it's like to use, along with a public mechanism to talk to the reviewer to ask questions about the thingy's operation. A blog/forum is an excellent way to achieve this. \n\nI spent years writing this type of product review at MacTalk, Reckoner and PC \u0026 Tech Authority up until about a decade ago and really enjoyed it, but whenever I think about doing it again in 2026, there's questions I don't know how to answer:\n\nHow will people know it exists? Search is broken. I refuse to pay for advertising on Meta/Linkedin/Reddit. Nobody clicks links on social media.\n\nCan I sell advertising on the site old school style, with the ads on the same domain as the site to avoid ad-blockers? Maybe, but then the perception of whatever I write is tainted, true or not.\n\nWill LLMs just scrape my work and show a tiny link that 0.1% of people might click and I get nothing? Yes, absolutely.\n\nIf I put up a paywall (e.g: $10/m - $100/yr), would I be able to get at least 2,000 people to pay it? To justify the cost of a small team of reviewers to keep the content flowing? Going by my latest Sizzle efforts, it'll be pushing shit up hill at a loss for years.\n\nIt used to be you could publish stuff and the internet would just find it with a little bit of effort. People shared links with friends, search engines worked, social media didn't discourage external links, people used RSS/bookmarks to catch up on their favourite sites, people particpated on forums - but that's all evaporated now.",
"sig": "66a1230c225a57cc17e79538005875fc631073fc5a3bb7cc64c67cc86f7ce450878276bc2c249e987722b6b5fa1a24c5f7dcbc70d586e9655681eac665479cf4"
}