Playbooks & Real Numbers

The portfolio, as of July 2026

16 tracked links across 9 categories, 1,754 recorded clicks. These are click counts from my own FIFO dashboard, not earnings. Clicks are not income, and I am not showing revenue — see the earnings disclaimer.

What this data actually taught me

1. My content was aimed at the wrong category. For a long time this site was almost entirely about creator software. That category is real, but travel, events and crypto together out-clicked it substantially — and I had written nothing about any of them. Demand showed up in a place I had not built for.
2. Distribution created the clicks, not the site. The biggest categories were driven by social posting, not by anything published here. That is a useful, slightly humbling thing to learn from your own numbers.
3. An untracked link is a wasted link. My highest-traffic destination was, for a long time, a plain storefront URL with no affiliate attribution on it at all. Hundreds of clicks went out the door unattributed. I only found that by auditing the portfolio.
4. Programs end. Every third-party affiliate agreement behind these links has since lapsed. Because every link is a short link with an editable destination, that is an afternoon of updates rather than editing years of posts.

The weekly review that keeps it honest

1. Open the overview. Total clicks this period versus last. One number, ten seconds.
2. Sort by category. Which theme is growing? Which has flatlined?
3. Check the referrers. Which channel is actually sending traffic — and which one you have been posting to out of habit with nothing to show.
4. Find the zeroes. Any link with no clicks in 30 days is either badly placed or promoting something nobody wants. Fix the placement once, then cut it.
5. Verify one destination. Click one of your own links end to end and confirm it lands where you think, with attribution intact.

The 7-day setup

1. Day 1 — Pick a category. One you can talk about weekly. Directory here.
2. Day 2 — Apply to one program. Read the terms fully before you accept them.
3. Day 3 — Set up tracking. Create your first short link, in a named category, before you publish anything.
4. Day 4 — Write the useful thing. A comparison or walkthrough the link genuinely belongs inside.
5. Day 5 — Publish with a clear disclosure. Close to the link, in plain language.
6. Day 6 — Post it in two other places. Same short link, different UTM per channel.
7. Day 7 — Read the numbers. Then do more of whichever channel won.