By Jodie Cook,

Want to build a million-dollar business? Stop planning and start launching. While you perfect your business plan, someone with less experience is making more money because they took action. They built a basic product, found paying customers, and created momentum. All in a single weekend.

I’ve met and interviewed entrepreneurs who built seven figure businesses by testing ideas fast and doubling down on what worked. The path to a million-dollar business begins with a weekend of focused action.

You won’t hit seven figures by Monday morning. But you can build the foundation for a business that scales to that level faster than you think possible.

Why fast beats perfect in business success

The biggest business killer isn’t competition or lack of funding. It’s overthinking. Successful entrepreneurs launch before they feel ready. They put something into the market and improve it based on real customer feedback.

Waiting for the perfect moment means missing countless opportunities. Every day you spend planning, someone else spends launching and iterating. Every week you delay, potential customers find other solutions.

Technologies now exist that let you build in days what once took months. AI tools create content and designs instantly. No-code platforms let anyone build apps without programming skills. Payment processors set up in minutes. There’s no excuse. Here’s what to do.

How to build your weekend business framework

Friday evening: Identify a profitable problem worth solving

Start with problems you understand personally. What frustrates you daily? What would you pay to fix? Pick a problem that meets three criteria: you understand it deeply, others share it, and people would pay to solve it.

Identify the simplest possible solution. Figure out the minimum viable product you could build in two days that delivers value. Zero in on that core offering and nothing else.

As the day closes out, send messages to 10 people you know or suspect have the problem your business solves. Don’t tell them your solution outright, but get feedback on what they’d be willing to pay for.

Saturday morning: Create your professional brand quickly

Develop your brand identity using Looka. For $20, you’ll get a professional-looking logo and visual identity in minutes. Buy a domain that matches your business name through any standard registrar.

Next, construct a simple website using WordPress or Thrivecart. Both of their drag-and-drop interfaces let you create functional websites without writing code. Then you can build them, within Thrivecart itself or with a no-code tool like Bubble.io. Prioritize clear navigation and strong calls to action.

Use Claude to generate your website copy. Share information about your business concept, describe your dream customer, and watch pages of compelling messaging appear. Edit to match your voice, but let AI handle the first draft.

Saturday afternoon: Assemble your minimal viable product

Now build the simplest version of your solution. For a service, create your delivery process. For software, use AI and no-code tools to build a functional demo.

Perfection kills progress. Your goal is something you can put in front of real people by Sunday. It won’t be polished, and that’s okay. Concentrate solely on solving the core problem better than existing alternatives. That’s your only job today.

Sunday morning: Establish your customer acquisition system

Create a Typeform that says “Join the waitlist” or “Be the first to know when we launch.” Place it prominently on your website. This collects potential customer information and validates market interest.

Set up a payment processing system like Stripe. Even if you’re not selling immediately, having this ready shows you mean business.

Develop a simple email sequence that welcomes people who sign up, explains your solution, and prepares them for launch. Schedule it to send automatically when someone joins your list.

Five business models get you to a million dollars: Repeatable monthly income. Annual subscriptions, high ticket sales, high-volume-low-cost, or building up to a million dollar exit. Plan your way forward from this exact point.

Sunday afternoon: Launch, test and gather insights

Go public. Share your creation everywhere relevant. Post on social media. Tell friends who have the problem you’re solving. Probe those initial people you told about your idea. Message more people in your network who might benefit from your solution.

Your goal is feedback and validation. Talk to everyone who shows interest. Ask what they like, what they don’t, and what would make them pay for your solution. Here’s when you can build your offer to fit the demand.

Study how people interact with your website. Note where they click, where they hesitate, and where they leave. This data tells you what’s working and what needs fixing.

Watch for promising signs: people signing up, asking questions about features, or inquiring about pricing. These indicate you might be onto something worth pursuing beyond the weekend.

Turn your weekend project into a million-dollar business

Your weekend work is just the beginning. If you’ve found promising signs of market interest, double down on what works. Listen carefully to early users. Focus on generating revenue right away. Money from customers provides validation and freedom that investors never will.

Document your processes immediately. Systems let you delegate or automate tasks as you grow, so at some point you can make your business run without you.

Dreamers plan forever while doers launch imperfect businesses and improve them using real market feedback. Many successful businesses started with a burst of focused action like your weekend sprint. Start now and adapt fast. What are you waiting for?

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Jodie Cook

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Sourced from Forbes

By Jodie Cook

Your business owns you.

You launched it dreaming of freedom but spend days extinguishing fires, fixing mistakes, and answering endless questions. Your company controls your life, not the other way around. What if you could flip this dynamic by tomorrow?

These prompts will transform your business with systems that scale, turning chaos into predictable success and giving you back your time. Copy, paste and edit the square brackets in ChatGPT, and keep the same chat window open so the context carries through.

Scale your business with ChatGPT: build systems that create freedom

Track what steals your energy

Founders waste precious hours on tasks they should have stopped doing months ago. They rush from problem to problem without fixing the root cause. You pour your energy into low-value work that drains you daily. Know exactly where your time goes before you can free it up. Numbers never lie. You have to listen to data.

“Help me identify my most time-consuming tasks. I’ll list 10 activities I do regularly in my business. For each one, analyse: (1) whether it requires my unique skills, (2) how much it drains my time and energy, (3) the impact on my business if automated, and (4) how difficult it would be to create a system for it. Then rank these tasks from highest to lowest priority for systemization, considering both time saved and value created. Create a detailed plan for systemizing the top 3 tasks.”

Document your perfect processes

I founded my social media agency in 2021 and sold it in 2021. The sale happened because I had systems for everything. Systems make everything repeatable. No one buys a business that needs its founder for every decision. Your future hinges on turning your knowledge into processes anyone can follow. No documentation means no delegation. No delegation means no growth. No growth means you stay stuck.

“I need to document a key business process that currently lives only in my head. Ask me a series of questions about this process, focusing on: (1) the exact steps from start to finish, (2) decision points and criteria used, (3) common problems and solutions, (4) tools and resources needed, and (5) how to measure success. After gathering this information, create a comprehensive yet simple standard operating procedure (SOP) that a new team member could follow without needing to ask me questions.”

Create your “Yes but not yet” list

The old way won’t work. You have to keep finding new ways. This doesn’t mean chasing every shiny idea immediately. Average founders jump at every opportunity that crosses their path. Their attention splits. Their focus breaks. Nothing gets done properly. But that’s not you. Get a system for managing your own ambition before it derails your progress.

“I need a system to manage new opportunities without getting distracted from current priorities. Help me design a ‘Yes but not yet’ list for capturing and evaluating ideas. Create: (1) a set of criteria for quickly assessing new opportunities, (2) a template for documenting each idea with just enough detail to revisit later, (3) a scoring system to prioritize the backlog ideas, and (4) a process for reviewing this list regularly without it becoming another obligation. Include specific questions I should ask for each new opportunity.”

Build your quality control checklist

You deliver awesome quality output. But not every time. This inconsistency costs you clients. You can’t stop until you find what works. Once you do, make it work every single time. Your customers expect excellence with every interaction and a simple quality control checklist prevents mistakes before they happen. Protect your reputation from damage.

“Create a quality control checklist for [describe your main product or service]. First, ask me to list the 5 most common quality issues my customers experience with my product/service. Then develop a comprehensive QC process that includes: (1) key inspection points throughout the workflow, (2) specific standards for each point, (3) a simple pass/fail system that anyone can use, (4) troubleshooting steps for common issues, and (5) a feedback loop for continuous improvement. The checklist should be detailed enough to catch problems but simple enough to use daily.”

Design your exit plan from day one

Stop plateauing. Start scaling. Every business should run as if it might be sold tomorrow. Even if selling never interests you, exit-ready systems build a company that functions without your constant input. Freedom means a business that grows while you sleep. But your whole team has to play. You can’t do it alone.

“Help me create a 12-month plan to make my business less dependent on me personally. Start by asking about areas where I’m currently a bottleneck. Then develop a detailed roadmap with quarterly goals for: (1) documenting key processes, (2) delegating core responsibilities, (3) creating decision-making frameworks for my team, (4) establishing performance metrics that don’t require my evaluation, and (5) identifying what unique value I should focus on once these systems are in place.”

Transform your business into a freedom machine: systems that work without you

Stop making excuses about why systems won’t work for your business. Start with one system today and see what you can make happen. Track where your time disappears. Document your perfect processes. Create your “Yes but not yet” list Build quality control checklists. Design your exit plan from the beginning.

Your systems become your legacy, turning your expertise into something that outlasts you. Anyone can win big. You just have to keep showing up, building systems that operate even when you don’t.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Jodie Cook

Sourced from Forbes

Say goodbye to the limitations of the famous chatbot and hello to this tool designed for logos, art, articles, and more for only $65.

Sourced from PC MAG

By Florian Fuehren

What if I called you Ryotaro? Odds are, you’d either be super pleased that someone pronounced one of the rarest first names on Earth correctly, or very confused why someone used that name to address you.

And if you’re thinking that we’re just fishing for the strangest imaginable example of customer interaction gone wrong in a customer journey far, far away, then we must set your world view straight.

Even one of Germany’s biggest magazine publishers famously made headlines by sending marketing messages to all clients opening with, “Dear Zero!” Not because Zero is the most common name in Germany, but because they didn’t set up their email marketing platform correctly.

This just goes to show that personalized marketing was already challenging before artificial intelligence (AI). Now, with many enterprises trying to create the sense of a one-on-one conversation while also scaling their efforts with generative AI, it’s even harder. Let’s see how you can achieve that.

Why Personalization Matters in Marketing

Ah, content personalization — the noble art of making consumers feel like a brand truly sees them, hoping they won’t notice that a marketing campaign doesn’t have eyes.

I’m not saying this to be snarky but to make a point. And that’s because your take on AI-driven personalization will very much reflect your brand values. Some brands will try to mine customer data like 19th-century gold diggers. That’s the reason you browse hiking boots once and are then haunted by them across every device you own, as if your phone is subtly judging your commitment to the outdoors.

Yes, brands try to benefit from the data they collect about consumer behavior. But while some will seem like the creepy neighbor, others actually use their customer data platform to build relationships beyond the next business transaction. And that’s what we mean when we talk about the user experience.

If one of your customers regularly buys running gear and shares the marathon training routes stored in their fitness app with your community, suggesting a pair of running shoes could be genuinely useful. The recommendation feels relevant, timely and aligned with their interests.

If someone buys a single screwdriver for a quick home repair, and suddenly every ad they see is for power drills and woodworking courses, your AI-driven personalization can feel completely off the mark. You may believe you’re marketing to a professional carpenter while you’re really annoying a student who just tried to fix a loose cabinet handle.

Plus, the level of personalization clients expect is changing. While it used to be enough to put a name tag (hopefully not “Zero”) into your email copy and be available, the pandemic has made us all… well, spoiled. Nowadays, we don’t just expect solutions, but personalized engagement and a customer experience tailored just to us. In fact, 81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience.

Unless you want to sound like Grandpa bragging about going viral on Facebook with a Minions meme, it’s time to update your digital marketing strategy to create true rapport with your clients while boosting ROI.

The Challenges of Truly Personalized Content and How AI Can Shape the Customer Experience

In a perfect world, every brand’s marketing team would send each of us a hand-crafted letter on gilt paper the moment we so much as think of their product, and immediately stop sending those when we lose interest.

Alas, that day will never come, because it’s just not practical.

That means, you as a company have to figure out what type of customer data you’ll want to collect to inform your AI personalization. For truly innovative offerings that deviate from those of your competitors, it could even mean walking your clients through the process, explaining how an AI agent might use certain data points.

No matter if you’re running a young startup or an established corporation, though, some of the challenges of a personalized marketing campaign will remain similar (with differences of scale):

• Data collection: Gathering accurate user data that’s meaningful for your niche and product can be challenging due to fragmented data sources, incomplete profiles and tracking limitations.
• Segmentation: Defining meaningful audience segments requires balancing granularity with practicality while avoiding overfitting or inaccurate product recommendations (Hello, drilling tool!)
• Data privacy policies: Adhering to evolving regulations such as GDPR and CCPA complicates data usage, storage and compliance enforcement across different regions.
• User consent management: Ensuring transparent op-in/opt-out processes while maintaining a seamless user experience can be technically and legally complex.
• Scalability: Delivering real-time, hyper-personalized content at scale demands significant computing power, well-planned automation workflows and a robust infrastructure regularly auditing those processes.

Tough challenges, but AI applications can actually help address them. Where previously, content marketers could only rely on templates and name tags, AI-driven automation can help businesses optimize personalization and customer engagement to a degree that feels more organic and spontaneous. Think of it like the difference between a generic reference to your last purchase in an email and a personal chatbot assistant who anticipates your needs and guides you through the buying journey.

That’s not to say that AI-powered personalization is 100% superior and bots will never make a mistake. The difference is that, what used to be “Dear Zero” can now be an elaborately formulated suggestion. So even beyond traditional marketing formats, AI can enhance interactions in areas like chatbots, shopping cart messaging and recommendation engines. But getting it right also demands thorough preparation. A power drill is a power drill, even if you sound like Tolstoi.

How AI Enhances Marketing Personalization

So, you’ve seen the light. You’re ready to recommend a double-shot espresso machine to a client because they just bought a high-performance alarm clock and the comfiest weighted blanket — and you just want to give them a fighting chance. How exactly does AI help you personalize at scale? Here are some pointers:

• AI-driven segmentation: AI can analyze customer behaviour patterns and segment audiences more precisely and faster than you ever could. Yes, you should still check the results, but in the meantime, you’ll benefit from micro-segmentation, ensuring hyper-relevant messaging.
• Predictive pricing strategies: Think of how Netflix suggests shows before you even realize you wanted to watch them. Machine learning algorithms can anticipate customer needs based on past interactions, positioning yours as the company that “just gets clients.”
• Dynamic pricing strategies: With AI, it’s easy to adjust pricing in real time based on demand, browsing history and purchasing patterns. This not only helps you create personalized offers that convert faster; products that feel uniquely personalized also unlock premium pricing.
• Omnichannel personalization: Surprise, it’s not fun to enter your basic information in a quiz embedded in an email campaign, only to repeat the cycle on social media and in a voice assistant. With AI, you can provide a seamless experience across multiple touch points.
• AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants: While they require some prep work, these tools can engage customers in meaningful, personalized conversations, resolving simple queries in real time, so your service and sales reps can focus on more challenging cases.

Tools and Strategies for AI-Powered Personalization

If all of this sounds great but slightly overwhelming, don’t worry. There are numerous AI tools designed to simplify personalization for businesses of all sizes. Here are a few to consider:

• Chatbots: Tools like ChatGPT, Botsonic or Zapier Chatbots can provide instant, personalized interactions, ensuring customers receive relevant recommendations and support.
• Dynamic content platforms: Tools like Adobe Sensei and Dynamic Yield enable marketers to create hyper-personalized web and email experiences based on real-time user behaviour.
• AI-driven customer relationship management (CRM) systems: Platforms like Salesforce Einstein and HubSpot AI enhance CRM with predictive insights and automated personalization.
• contentmarketing.ai: Brafton’s AI-powered content marketing platform helps businesses craft personalized content strategies and flesh out the copy for everything from press releases to white papers.

To kickstart your AI marketing efforts effectively, follow these practical steps:

1. Prepare your data: Ensure you have a structured, compliant and clean dataset to feed into AI models for accurate predictions.
2. Train AI algorithms: Fine-tune AI models based on historical data and user interactions.
3. Test and iterate: Continuously monitor AI-driven campaigns and adjust them based on customer response and feedback.
4. Scale personalization efforts: Start with small test groups before rolling out AI-driven personalization across larger customer segments.

Risks of Using AI Tools in Personalized Marketing and How To Mitigate Them

Just like any other tool, AI isn’t good or bad in itself, and it’s not without its pitfalls. Just as you can use a hammer to drive a nail into a wall or smash a window, AI also comes with risks, including:

• Data privacy concerns: Collecting and using personal data without transparency can lead to distrust and legal repercussions. Develop a detailed AI strategy to protect your intellectual property, and make sure you discuss how business partners are approaching AI as well.
• Algorithmic bias: AI systems can inadvertently reinforce biases, leading to exclusionary or inaccurate personalization. Plan for human supervision and intervention at every step, so the ease at which AI can scale your efforts doesn’t turn into a horror scenario.
• Over-reliance on automation: Yes, it’s fun to have your personal butler, but relying too heavily on automation can cause lazy thinking and result in impersonal and even tone-deaf messaging.

AI is not just a futuristic tool. In time, it’ll become an essential component of every modern business strategy. By leveraging AI’s capabilities, your brand can move beyond cookie cutter personalization and create truly individualized experiences that foster deeper customer relationships.

That said, you should never lose sight of your responsibilities as a business. Marketers who prioritize transparency, ethical data practices and human-AI collaboration will find themselves ahead of the competition in delivering engaging and truly personalized marketing experiences. Everyone choosing the easy path will only put their customers in a HAL 9000 situation — an AI that takes personalization a little too far, refusing to let customers opt out while eerily insisting, “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Note: This article was originally published on contentmarketing.ai.

By Florian Fuehren

Florian Fuehren is a Senior Writer at Brafton in Germany. Before becoming one of Brafton’s first German writers, Florian has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, and lecturer. When he’s not brooding over puns for the SaaS or Web3 niche, he likes to go jogging or maltreat his drum kit.

Sourced from Brafton

By Eric Hal Schwartz

AI can’t sell you something you don’t want to buy

Like most people, I tune out when an ad comes on while I’m listening to a podcast or streaming service if I can’t just skip it. An ad needs something special to draw my attention to the actual product or service being pitched to me.

Spotify thinks AI can help businesses overcome ad apathy. The company just launched a feature called Gen AI Ads for businesses using its Ads Manager platform.

Gen AI Ads enables businesses to create audio ads with AI help from top to bottom. They can ask for AI help writing and editing a script and even get AI voices to perform the ad. The AI tools are built into the platform for no extra cost, meaning producing new ads should be faster, more affordable, and easier for any business. You can see how it works below.

Feature Image credit: Spotify

By Eric Hal Schwartz

Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He’s since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he’s continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.

Sourced from techradar

Sourced from Forbes

While digital marketing campaigns involving social media platforms and text messaging have become more commonplace in recent years, a well-thought-out email marketing strategy can still serve as a valuable way to target and engage directly with supporters.

However, with emails often being automatically directed into spam or junk folders or deleted unread, nonprofits have to get creative about enticing subscribers to open emails and engage. To help, 11 Forbes Nonprofit Council members offer advice on how nonprofit professionals can effectively increase engagement open rates and encourage clicks on their email newsletters.

1. Deliver Genuine Value

To boost newsletter engagement, focus on delivering genuine value in every email. Move beyond organizational updates and fundraising appeals to provide content that directly benefits your readers’ lives or careers. This could include industry insights, exclusive educational resources, curated job opportunities or actionable tips they can’t find elsewhere. Practical, valuable takeaways are key. – Jennifer Gremmert, Energy Outreach Colorado

2. Craft A Compelling Subject Line

An interesting subject line is a good way to grab attention. A great hook will always get someone to open an email. The catchy saying should be relevant to the content and provide some value to the reader. If you don’t think you possess the creativity, use an AI platform to generate a title for you. – Tara Chalakani, Preferred Behavioural Health Group

3. Include A Personalized Heading Or Greeting

Add a personalized heading or greeting in the email feed so that readers know the newsletter was intentionally sent to them. This will get their attention and make them feel less like another number on a mailing list. – Kimberly Lewis, Goodwill Industries of East Texas, Inc.

4. Keep It Clear And Transparent

To boost open rates and clicks, keep everything clear and transparent. Your message should grab attention—but don’t bury the lead. In today’s information-rich environment, clarity is key, especially as more people and organizations use AI tools to help summarize emails. Make sure your key points and calls to action are obvious so readers can quickly engage with your content and, ultimately, your mission. – Karen Cochran, Philanthropy Innovators

 Check out my website.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

Sourced from Forbes

By Barry Schwartz

A new report released by Rand Fishkin at Sparktoro with the help of Datos’ panel measure web browser activity showed that about 1/3rd of active web users don’t use Google all that much, by that much it means they only do 1-20X searches per month.

The data Rand put together is interesting, it not only shows you how much users use Google but what they are doing on Google.

It says that the American desktop web users in 2024 performed, on average, 126 unique Google searches each month and the median was 53 Google searches per month. From that Rand said, “5.35 billion humans are active on the Internet each month (GWI), and that ~81% of Internet users perform use a search engine at least once a month.”

Rand’s number is that Google does 5.9 trillion searches annually, which jives with Google’s over 5 trillion searches per year – but I think Google would have said, almost 6 trillion and not over 5 trillion. So maybe Rand’s numbers are a tad high?

Here is the breakdown of how much active web users actually use Google Search:

More interesting to me is what these users do when on Google Search:

87% use Google.com, almost 11% spend their time on Google Image Search (I almost never use Google Images), Google Maps (web, not apps) 0.64%, Google News 0.38% and Google Shopping only 0.23%.

The study goes way deeper, so I recommend you check out Rand’s story over here and let me know your biggest takeaway.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

By Barry Schwartz

Sourced from Search Engine Roundtable

By Maxine Harrison

Find out what words you should avoid searching on Google

We all use Google to answer the looming questions in our heads. But there are apparently some things we should avoid using the search engine for.

From searching symptoms we are experiencing to finding out the latest movie release, Google is certainly a handy tool when it comes to easily accessing information.

However, the top search engine in the world also has some sides to it that we should seek to avoid.

Most of us do internet searches every day, but there are some things it’s best not to know (Getty Stock Image)

Regular users of the search engine will be used to using Google Images. However, no matter how innocently motivated your search may be, some of these images should not be glanced at and are hard to leave your mind easily.

Unfortunately, Google Images does not come with trigger warnings, so consider this article a friendly warning before you decide to search any of the following five terms on Google.

In fact, these terms are so stomach-churning that they have been compiled in a report by It’s Gone Viral in 2023.

Try to remember that while it may seem harmless to Google health-related terms, if you have any concerns about your health, prioritize consulting a medical professional above searching for answers online.

Anyway, let’s proceed with the specific words you should avoid searching…

Larvae

The first word we highly recommend you avoid searching is Larvae.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is defined as ‘the immature form of an insect or animal that has hatched from an egg but has not yet become an adult’.

While this may seem like an innocent search, you could stumble across a condition of the same name.

According to WebMD: “Mouth larvae are parasites that hatch and live inside the oral cavities of human and animal hosts. These pests can cause a dangerous infection known as oral myiasis.”

The site adds: “People can develop oral myiasis by eating larvae in their food. Flies can also enter the mouth and lay eggs in wounds.”

The searches might seem innocent, but could end up scarring you (Getty Stock Image)

Degloving

Another word to avoid Googling is degloving.

WebMD defines degloving, also known as avulsion, ‘happens when a large piece of your skin along with the layer of soft tissue right under it is partially or completely ripped from your muscles and connecting tissues’.

Sounds incredibly unpleasant, right? Well so are the images so don’t dare to take a look!

Krokodil

While Krokodil may sound like crocodile, you won’t see anything near the reptile if you search that on Google Images – so beware of any typos when searching for crocodile images!

Instead, what you’ll be shocked to discover is that Krokodil has different meanings in different languages.

However, the particular definition defined in the It’s Gone Viral report refers to the opioid drug desomorphine.

A Time magazine report from 2013 dubbed it as ‘The World’s Deadliest Drug‘.

It started when doctors in Russia discovered ‘strange wounds’ on many drug addicts.

Later, it was discovered that they’d been injecting a new drug known as ‘Krokodil’. This was later dubbed as a ‘flesh-eating zombie drug’ in a report from CNN.

Definitely not the type of visuals you want your eyes to witness, right?

Some of these searches will leave you a lot more horrified than this (Getty Stock Image)

Fournier

While Fournier is a popular French name, it can also refer to an ‘acute necrotic infection’ of the genital area, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).

WebMD warns: “Fournier’s gangrene gets worse quickly and can kill you, so it’s always an emergency.”

Harlequin ichthyosis

The final word you should avoid Googling is Harlequin baby syndrome, also known as congenital ichthyosis.

Healthline defines this as a ‘rare condition affecting the skin’, which is a ‘type of ichthyosis, which refers to a group of disorders that cause persistently dry, scaly skin all over the body’.

The site clarifies further that the skin of a new-born with this condition is ‘covered with thick, diamond-shaped plates that resemble fish scales’.

Babies with this condition should be treated immediately.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image

By Maxine Harrison

Sourced from UNILAD

By Sara Karlovitch

Among senior marketing decision makers, 87% reported experiencing issues related to campaign performance.

While marketers are pumping out more campaigns, 87% report experiencing issues with campaign performance in the past 12 months, according to recent Gartner data. A little under half (45%) report potentially needing to terminate a campaign early due to poor performance.

With marketing budgets under increased scrutiny, problems related to campaign performance can add an extra layer of stress for marketers. Concerns around channel fragmentation and the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) have further complicated the picture for marketers.

“[Issues are caused by] a combination of the volume of campaigns, as well as the amount of channel fragmentation and data silos that just exist as a natural byproduct of the digital world that marketers are operating in,” said Greg Carlucci, senior director analyst at Gartner. “Combining those into singular stories can be challenging.”

Insights were drawn from the “2024 Gartner Channel Campaign Management Survey” and the “2024 Gartner CMO Spend Survey.” The channel and campaign survey was conducted online between July and mid-September 2024. There were 418 respondents, 194 from North America and 224 from Europe. While a variety of industries were represented, all of those surveyed were senior marketing decision makers. The CMO spend survey was conducted online between February and March 2024. Of the 395 surveyed, 200 came from North America and 195 from Europe.

Higher volume, more issues

With a 31% increase in the number of campaigns year-over-year, marketers are forced to do more with budgets that are increasingly under scrutiny. Additionally, only 45% of marketing budgets goes toward campaigns, while 55% goes toward technology and transformation, according to the research.

However, while marketers are producing more campaigns, they are also experiencing significant challenges. Measuring campaign performance is one particularly thorny problem reported by respondents. Seventy percent report facing moderate to significant challenges when trying to measure ROI and 66% report struggling to demonstrate the impact of campaigns to key stakeholders.

“I think the benefit of reporting is the ability to get extremely granular on outcomes or actions that customers are taking,” said Carlucci. “However, translating different metric types into singular business outcomes can be more difficult given there are a combination of metrics, channels are different and there’s influence among stakeholders on marketing campaigns.”

With channel fragmentation, managing campaigns is costly. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said they struggle to find the budget to adequately manage campaign resources. Even then, 60% of respondents say they struggle to align campaign strategy with business objectives.

The whole pie

While marketers face persistent challenges, there are things they can do to optimize campaign performance while minimizing challenges and set backs. A few best practices are evident among the 19% of respondents identified as “high performers” and who reported regularly meeting campaign goals and driving expected levels of engagement and awareness.

This group tended to approach campaigns holistically and prioritize c-suite relationships. Cross-department relationships are key to campaign success, with 25% of respondents saying sales teams hinder their ability to carry out campaigns effectively. High-performing brands are also more likely to embrace new technologies, such as AI.

“I think the biggest differences between the high performers and the rest were centered around channel strategy and objectives, as well as governance around what the roles are for the channels,” said Carlucci. “I think if I were to summarize it, it includes channel strategy and objectives, channel management, customer journey orchestration and routes to market.”

Feature Image Credit: dusanpetkovic via Getty Images

By Sara Karlovitch

Sourced from MarketingDive

By Samara Kamenecka

This week on Niche Pursuits News, hosts Jared Bauman and Thomas Smith cover a packed lineup of topics, from a fascinating study on AI search engines to a major lawsuit against Google, and fresh insights on the online business marketplace.

Plus, they share updates on their own side hustles and dive into this week’s weird niche discoveries. Let’s break it down.

Watch the Full Episode

AI Search Study: Who’s Citing Sources?

The episode kicks off with a discussion about a new study by Xfunnel.ai, which analyzed 40,000 AI-generated responses containing 250,000 citations across major AI search engines. The study explored how different platforms handle citations and what this means for content creators.

Key takeaways from the study:

• Perplexity AI led the pack, citing an average of 6.61 sources per response.
• Google Gemini followed closely at 6.1 citations per response.
• ChatGPT lagged behind, with only 2.62 citations per response (in standard mode, without search features activated).
• Earned content (editorial and independent blogs) still holds weight, with AI-generated responses increasingly pulling from user-generated content (UGC) like Reddit, Medium, and review sites.
• Citations vary depending on the buyer journey stage:
  • Top-of-the-funnel queries favour editorial content.
  • Mid-funnel queries lean toward UGC and review sites.
  • Bottom-of-the-funnel queries cite brand websites and direct competitors.

This data suggests that content creators need to rethink their SEO strategies for AI-driven search. Rather than just optimizing for Google’s traditional algorithm, understanding how AI search engines pull and cite content could shape the future of digital marketing.

Google vs. Chegg: A Lawsuit Unlike the Others

The next major topic is the lawsuit filed by Chegg against Google, alleging that the search giant’s AI-generated answers unfairly divert traffic away from content creators. Unlike previous AI lawsuits that have focused on copyright issues, this case takes an antitrust angle, arguing that Google’s monopoly in search allows it to profit from publishers’ content without fair compensation.

Key points from the lawsuit:

• Chegg claims Google’s AI overviews replace the need for users to click through to content providers, effectively reducing traffic and revenue.
• The suit alleges Google forces publishers to supply content for free in exchange for search index inclusion.
• Google is accused of anti-competitive behaviour, leveraging its dominance in search to crowd out content creators.
• Chegg itself has integrated AI tools, using Meta’s Llama models and working with OpenAI, indicating this isn’t an anti-AI lawsuit—it’s specifically about Google’s dominance.

This lawsuit could have wide-reaching implications for content creators. If Chegg’s arguments gain traction, we may see regulatory changes that alter how Google presents AI-generated search results.

Flippa and Ezoic Event: Market Trends and What’s Selling

Jared shares insights from an in-person event hosted by Flippa and Ezoic, which provided fresh data on digital business deal flow. The key takeaway: deal volume is up across the board.

• App sales have risen by 9%.
• E-commerce sales have grown 15%.
• SaaS sales are up 21%.
• Agency sales have skyrocketed by 46%.
• YouTube channel sales are up a staggering 170%!

Additionally, keyword searches on Flippa show where buyer interest is strongest:

• Shopify tops the list, showing strong demand for e-commerce businesses.
• YouTube is the second most searched category, reinforcing the rise in video content as a valuable digital asset.
• AI-related businesses rank high, reflecting growing interest in AI-powered tools and platforms.
• Affiliate sites, despite recent Google updates, remain a popular search term for potential buyers.

The key takeaway? If you’re building digital assets with the goal of selling, focusing on YouTube, SaaS, or AI-related businesses may yield the highest return.

Side Hustle Updates: Email List Growth and AI Newsletters

Jared and Thomas give updates on their ongoing projects, including:

• Scaling an HCU-hit content site via email marketing – They experimented with aggressive list-building via Facebook ads, but rapid growth may have impacted email deliverability.
• Profitable Facebook ad arbitrage – They discovered a highly effective ad strategy driving traffic at a profit, separate from email list-building efforts.
• Thomas rebrands his newsletter to focus on AI – Pivoting from “No Frills Influencer” to “AI in Real Life,” he moved the newsletter to Beehive for better audience engagement and monetization through built-in ads.

Weird Niches: Typing Tests and LEGO Collectibles

This week’s weird niche finds are:

• TypingTest.com – A 25-year-old site that recently sold for $2.5 million, generating $550,000 a year in ad revenue. The site offers free typing tests, monetized through aggressive ad placements.
• BrickFact.com – A site dedicated to tracking and selling rare LEGO sets. With a growing database and a dedicated app, this site caters to LEGO enthusiasts and collectors looking for hard-to-find pieces.

Final Thoughts

This week’s episode highlighted the rapidly changing digital landscape, from AI search trends to new business opportunities in the online marketplace. The key takeaways:

• AI search is evolving, and content creators need to adapt their strategies.
• Google’s legal battles could reshape the way AI-generated search results work.
• YouTube and AI-based businesses are booming in the digital asset marketplace.
• Scaling an email list requires a balance between rapid growth and deliverability.
• Even simple, niche websites can turn into multi-million dollar businesses.

For digital entrepreneurs, these insights serve as a roadmap for staying ahead in the ever-changing world of online business.

By Samara Kamenecka

Sourced from Niche Pursuits