Hey y’all. It’s been quite a week. The world seems really heavy now, and it’s been a challenge to focus on work.

Just a reminder to give yourself the room to think about others, and that it’s ok if you don’t feel like being productive.

Better days are ahead, I hope.

Here’s this week’s roundup 👇

Social Media & The Creator Economy

• Another week, another report from TikTok detailing trends. In the second edition of their “What’s Next’ report you can see trending topics, growth, and more. It’s a report that’s actually fun to read — which is rare.
• LinkedIn released new post analytics features this week, among a flurry of other updates. I think I saw something about the metaverse somewhere on that page too — but can we not?
• Reddit rolled out a Discover Tab this week, which is designed to help you do what? Anyone? Anyone? Discover things!
• This crazy Twitter thread from LittleThings.com Co-Founder details how over reliance on Facebook cost them $100M, 110 jobs, and ultimately the entire business.

SEO, Website Stuff, & Content Marketing

• Bounce rate is one of the few metrics on your website you actually want to be lower. Here are 20 proven ways to reduce your bounce rate. Wondering what’s considered a bounce anyway? It’s when a user lands on your website, and exits without visiting another page. So, the lower the rate, the more engaged your users are.
• One of the core tenants of SEO is creating, and managing, topic clusters. Topic clusters are a way of interlinking in-depth content to other pieces of related content. Ahrefs put together a great guide on how to plan a cluster in 10 minutes or less.
• SEO Vs. PPC—what’s the appropriate channel? This article from HubSpot breaks down the pros and cons from each. Plot twist — their recommendation is the same as mine: do both if you can. Shameless plug: I can help you with both.
• Google emailed merchants this week and made a pretty bold statement: you can rank higher if your site provides a good customer service experience
• Here’s a great tip from the RankMakers newsletter about why you shouldn’t put your blog on a subdomain (unless it’s already there!).
• This article from Ariyh caught my eye this week: startups that continuously experiment perform 30% to 60% better after one year. Always be experimenting :)

Copywriting, Branding & Advertising

• Current world events have made for some awkward advertising moments this week. Most notably, the Appleby’s ad that went viral for all the wrong reasons.
• But that’s not all, Google and others are serving ads on Russian propaganda sites. Even though they claim not to.
• Coinbase’s CEO took to Twitter last week in a Twitter thread congratulating himself and the company for coming up with their QR code ad all by themselves, without the help of an agency. It was all good until he got dunked on by Kristen Cavalo, CEO of Martin Agency, who actually pitched the ad idea to Coinbase in the first place.
• Peloton ran ads that paired negative reviews with positive reviews from the same users after time had passed. Pretty smart!

You made it to the end!

This week, I’m not going to ask you to support me or the newsletter in any way. Just use your time, money, and good will to help someone in your life.