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Field notes, sorted by publication.
Showing 43 articles · Updated 12 September 2026
- 01 12 min ↗
The content brief, twice: one for a staff writer, one for a freelancer
A content brief takes nine fields for a staff writer and twenty-one for a freelancer. Both templates, the three fields everyone leaves vague, and why.
- 02 19 min ↗
The enrollment cliff: how much of your enrollment is actually exposed
The enrollment cliff removes an upper bound of about 22,000 first-year students a year nationally. Your real exposure depends on your source states.
- 03 14 min ↗
Indie game marketing: the launch calendar the platform hands you
Steam fixes most indie launch dates for you: a two-week store page floor, a T-14 date lock, fixed Next Fest offsets and a 30-day discount cooldown.
- 04 15 min ↗
Brand audit: score your brand on 20 checks before you change anything
A brand audit scores twenty checks across identity, message, surfaces and market — three points each, sixty maximum. The band decides what you fix.
- 05 15 min ↗
Server-side tracking: what actually moves, and what it costs to move it
How server-side tracking changes the request path and the cookie, four problems it does not solve, and Google's own price of $45 an instance a month.
- 06 15 min ↗
Value-based pricing: from "they would pay more" to the number on the invoice
Value-based pricing starts from the buyer's next-best alternative plus quantified differentiation. The five-step calculation and a worked B2B example.
- 07 20 min ↗
Higher education marketing: what one enrolled student actually costs
Higher education marketing costs $1,335–$4,160 per enrolled student when the funnel is bought outright, and federal law bans paying anyone per enrollment.
- 08 12 min ↗
Vector or raster: what to ask your designer for, and how to check you got it
Vector vs raster images by deliverable: which format each job needs, how to spot a fake vector in ten seconds, and what a logo package must contain.
- 09 12 min ↗
ACoS: the formula, the ROAS it converts to, and the break-even that decides both
ACoS is ad spend divided by ad-attributed sales, as a percentage. It is the exact inverse of ROAS, so a 25% ACoS is a 4x ROAS, and your break-even sets it.
- 10 15 min ↗
Types of LinkedIn advertising: a decision tree, not a catalogue
LinkedIn markets 14 ad units, but your objective, your audience's region and your lead capture decide which are eligible. The full matrix, with dates.
- 11 13 min ↗
A good email open rate in 2026: 21% clean, 34% as your dashboard counts it
Across industries a good email open rate is 20-25% measured cleanly and 33-43% as dashboards report it. Apple MPP creates the gap; here is how to close it.
- 12 10 min ↗
ROAS formula: one line of arithmetic, and the two numbers that decide the answer
ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend. The formula in three notations, the three revenue-and-spend pairs behind it, and where each number is exported from.
- 13 14 min ↗
Only 17.7% of a YouTube banner is guaranteed to be seen
YouTube wants a 2560 x 1440 banner under 6MB, but only the central 1546 x 423 survives on a phone. Device crops, both safe-area figures, free templates.
- 14 18 min ↗
Advertising crypto on Google, Meta and X: where the three rulebooks disagree
Google, Meta and X allow different crypto products, in different countries, under different licences. A product-by-product map of what each one runs.
- 15 10 min ↗
CAC payback period: why the same customer pays back in 8 months or 12
The CAC payback period runs a third longer once gross margin enters the denominator. The formula, what annual prepay does, and where 12 months came from.
- 16 13 min ↗
What Zillow Leads Cost in 2026, and What the Price Actually Buys
Zillow leads cost $139–223 per connection in 2026. What that price buys, why it changes between two ZIP codes, and the conversion rate it breaks even at.
- 17 14 min ↗
Account-based marketing, and the contract value that makes it worth running
Account-based marketing explained: cost per account for one-to-one, one-to-few and programmatic, and the contract value each tier needs to break even.
- 18 11 min ↗
How to calculate engagement rate when six formulas give six answers
Engagement rate is interactions divided by audience — but audience means followers, reach or views. Six formulas on one post, and which number to report.
- 19 14 min ↗
Medical advertising on Facebook: what Meta rejects, and the wording that runs
Meta rejects clinic ads under four separate standards, not one. What each one blocks, the wording that triggers it, and the version that runs instead.
- 20 25 min ↗
Meta Conversions API: the identifiers that matter and the setup that fits
Which identifiers Meta actually ranks highest for Event Match Quality, how event_id deduplication breaks, and five ways to ship server-side tracking.
- 21 14 min ↗
Steam wishlist ranking: what the number on the chart actually measures
Steam's Top Wishlists chart appears to rank recent activity, not lifetime totals. What each threshold means and which pool it is measured against.
- 22 13 min ↗
Brand guidelines examples: we opened 12 official brandbooks and counted what is inside
Twelve official brand guidelines examples measured page by page: 12 to 75 pages, what every brandbook contains, and the sections almost none of them have.
- 23 18 min ↗
How to run a product-market fit survey and read a score that lands under 40%
One question, a 40% pass mark. The full question set, the sample size the test really needs, and what to do when your score lands in the 25-39% grey zone.
- 24 13 min ↗
Customer lifetime value formula: the cohort version, net of returns
The standard customer lifetime value formula ignores returns and invents a lifespan. Here is the 12- and 24-month cohort version, with a fill-in table.
- 25 13 min ↗
The content calendar that survives past week six
A content calendar needs nine columns, a cadence your team can staff, and a refill rule. Here is the schema, the arithmetic, and why most die at week six.
- 26 16 min ↗
How to write a video script a production company can shoot from
How many words fit 15, 30 and 60 seconds once silent beats are subtracted, the two-column format in full, and what a vendor needs before it can quote.
- 27 19 min ↗
Media kit examples: eight real kits, and the two different jobs they do
Eight media kit examples opened side by side, plus the two kits people confuse: the brand kit a newsroom downloads and the creator kit a brand prices.
- 28 16 min ↗
Facebook ad sizes by placement, and the safe-zone numbers nobody can source
Every Meta ad size by placement, checked 10 August 2026, plus the safe-zone numbers published guides disagree on and what one asset loses per placement.
- 29 15 min ↗
How to write a design brief: one filled-in brief, field by field
A design brief filled in field by field, the five lines that each buy you an extra round of revisions, and a copy-paste template for any deliverable.
- 30 16 min ↗
A marketing plan template, filled in three times — and what changes between them
The same nine sections, filled in for a plumbing company, a skincare brand and a B2B vendor. What changes is not the template but the arithmetic.
- 31 14 min ↗
What is B-roll, and how many shots two finished minutes actually need
B-roll is supplemental footage cut over your main shot. What counts as B-roll, five shot families on a corporate set, and how many shots two minutes needs.
- 32 11 min ↗
The SEO audit report template: seven sections a client will act on
An SEO audit report template needs seven sections and one ranked fix list. Copy the skeleton, score findings by impact and effort, then ship it.
- 33 13 min ↗
LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads: the permission flow, the limits, and the offboarding gap
Thought Leader Ads promote an employee's own post. The exact permission flow, which post types qualify, what you cannot add, and what to do when they leave.
- 34 15 min ↗
How to Get Real Estate Leads Without Buying Them From a Portal
Eight ways to get real estate leads without buying them, compared by cost per lead and weeks to a signed deal, plus the follow-up cadence that saves them.
- 35 12 min ↗
What is in a pitch deck, slide by slide — and what kills each slide
An investor deck runs about twelve sections over 18 to 20 pages. What each slide must answer, how many seconds it actually gets, and the line that kills it.
- 36 14 min ↗
Google Ad Grants: the rules nonprofits meet after the account is switched off
Google Ad Grants gives nonprofits $329 a day, not $10,000 a month. The 5% CTR floor, the $2 bid cap and the rules that get accounts switched off.
- 37 17 min ↗
Marketing qualified lead vs sales qualified lead: where the line actually sits
MQL vs SQL explained: conversion benchmarks by industry, the criteria that make a lead sales-ready, and how to fix a definition your teams disagree on.
- 38 12 min ↗
The technical SEO audit, in the order the checks depend on each other
A technical SEO audit checklist of 41 checks in five dependency-ordered gates, with the tools for each stage and how to triage the findings.
- 39 13 min ↗
2D or 3D: choosing an animation format by what it has to do
2D vs 3D animation for business video: a use-case matrix, what a finished minute costs in each, production timelines, and what video two really costs.
- 40 24 min ↗
Press release examples, annotated: which blocks a journalist actually uses
Three annotated press release examples, marked block by block — headline, dateline, lead, quotes, boilerplate — against data on what survives into print.
- 41 16 min ↗
Media pitch examples: six story types, six different emails, six different odds
Six media pitch examples by story type, each with the send window it needs and the reply rate it earns — against a 3.43% baseline from 405,964 pitches.
- 42 10 min ↗
Website redesign cost: the line items a quote leaves out
A website redesign costs $2,500 to $250,000+, and most small-business projects land at $10,000–$40,000. Here is what a quote leaves out.
- 43 9 min ↗
Google Ads cost: the three numbers behind your real bill
Google Ads cost $1–$5.42 per click and $1,000–$10,000 a month for most advertisers. Here is the full bill: media, management and the learning period.
Start here / Owner’s brief
A marketing plan template, filled in three times — and what changes between them
The same nine sections, filled in for a plumbing company, a skincare brand and a B2B vendor. What changes is not the template but the arithmetic.
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