✦ the journal

Field notes on getting named.

Fifteen no-fluff reads on teaching the machines to say your name. Pour a coffee.

Answer

How Do I Appear in ChatGPT? The Honest Steps

A plain-language walkthrough of what actually makes ChatGPT able to name you when someone asks who is good at what you do, and the...

9 min read →
Answer

Why Doesn't ChatGPT Know Me? The Common Reasons

The plain-language reasons ChatGPT and other AI tools might have nothing to say about you, and the one thing worth fixing first...

8 min read →
Answer

How to Check What AI Says About You (Simple Methods)

Plain, no-cost ways to find out what ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools say about you, including the questions to ask and the...

9 min read →
Answer

Can I Remove Myself From AI? What You Can Actually Control

An honest look at what you can and cannot control when it comes to AI tools mentioning you, including what removal requests can and...

8 min read →
Answer

What If AI Says Something False About You? Steps to Fix It

Practical, step-by-step guidance for when ChatGPT, Gemini, or another AI tool gets a fact about you wrong, including what actually...

8 min read →
Answer

Does AI Read My Website? How It Actually Uses Your Site

A plain explanation of whether and how AI tools like ChatGPT actually use your own website, what makes a site easy or hard for them...

8 min read →
Answer

What Is a Large Language Model? A Plain-Language Explainer

A jargon-free explanation of what a large language model actually is, how it learns, and why that matters for how AI tools talk...

8 min read →
Answer

How Does ChatGPT Know Things? Training vs Looking Things Up

A plain-language explanation of the two different ways ChatGPT and similar tools know things, what a training cutoff actually is,...

8 min read →
Answer

Is SEO Dead? The Honest Answer for Normal People

A straight, jargon-free answer to whether SEO is dead now that AI answers so many questions directly, and what actually still...

7 min read →
Answer

Will AI Replace Google? What's Actually Changing in Search

A grounded, plain-language look at whether AI chatbots will replace Google search, what's genuinely changing, and what that means...

7 min read →
Answer

What Is Gemini? Google's AI Explained Plainly

A plain-language explainer of what Gemini is, how it relates to Google Search and AI Overviews, and how it finds and talks about...

7 min read →
Answer

What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? Explained Simply

A jargon-free explanation of generative engine optimization, what it actually means for a normal person, and how it differs from...

7 min read →
Answer

First Steps to Get Known by AI: The Beginner Checklist

A simple, ordered beginner checklist for becoming someone AI tools can actually mention, written for people starting from zero...

8 min read →
Answer

Do I Need a Wikipedia Page for AI to Know Me? The Truth

The honest truth about Wikipedia, Wikidata, and whether you actually need either one to be known and mentioned by AI tools.

8 min read →
Do This First

How to Check If ChatGPT Recommends You (Free 5-Minute Audit)

Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and type the exact question a buyer would ask, like 'who is…

6 min read →
Ouch, But True

Why AI Recommends Your Competitor Instead of You

AI recommends your competitor because they are winning on at least one of three signals: Knowled…

7 min read →
Hot Take

Personal Branding Is Dead. People Engine Optimization Took Its Job.

Personal branding aimed at humans scrolling feeds. That still matters, but the highest-value buy…

6 min read →
Explainer

AI Overviews Explained: What Google's AI Mode Means for Your Name

AI Overviews and AI Mode are Google answering directly at the top of search, often without a cli…

6 min read →
Compare

Perplexity vs ChatGPT vs Gemini: Where to Get Named First

Perplexity leans hard on fresh, citable sources and often names people fastest. ChatGPT blends t…

7 min read →
Tactic

The Prompts Buyers Actually Type Into AI (and How to Win Them)

Your money prompts are the specific, buyer-phrased questions where being the named answer wins y…

6 min read →
Honest

Can You Pay to Appear in ChatGPT Answers? The Honest Answer

You can't reliably pay to be recommended inside ChatGPT the way you buy Google Ads. Recommendati…

6 min read →
Mindset

Entity, Not Ego: How AI Sees You as a Thing, Not a Person

An AI doesn't experience your charisma. It resolves you as an entity, a consistent, verifiable d…

6 min read →
Myth

Why a Big Following Won't Make AI Name You

AI engines reward depth, specificity and third-party references far more than raw follower count…

6 min read →
Timeline

How Long Until AI Knows Who You Are? A Realistic Timeline

Expect early signal movement in 60 to 90 days, meaningful presence in AI answers around 3 to 6 m…

7 min read →
Deep Dive

Wikipedia, Wikidata and Why Machines Trust Them About You

AI engines lean on Wikipedia and Wikidata because they are structured, cross-referenced and heav…

7 min read →
Map

The 7 Places AI Looks Before It Recommends a Human

Before naming a person, AI engines lean on a mix of your owned content, third-party press, respe…

7 min read →
Craft

Ghostwritten, Cited, Remembered: Publishing AI Actually Reads

AI names you for depth it can quote and attribute, not volume. Publish opinionated positions wit…

7 min read →
Reputation

AI Got the Facts Wrong About Me. Here's the Fix.

AI gets facts wrong when its sources are thin, outdated or contradictory. The fix is to correct …

7 min read →
Local

Being the Answer in Your City: Local People Engine Optimization

For 'best [what you do] in [city]' questions, AI names whoever has the strongest local signals: …

6 min read →
Explainer

What Is Answer Engine Optimization? AEO Explained Without the Jargon

Answer engine optimization, explained without jargon: what an answer engine is, how AEO differs from SEO,…

9 min read →
Essay

Do AI Models Play Favorites? How Familiarity Bias Decides Who Gets Named

Do AI models play favorites? Yes, through familiarity bias. How AI recommendation bias works, why…

8 min read →
Essay

Is AI Search Killing Google? What Actually Happened to Search Traffic

Is AI search killing Google? Zero-click searches hit 69%, yet AI sends just 1.08% of traffic. The honest…

9 min read →
Essay

When AI Invents Your Credentials: Hallucinated Bios and What to Do

AI hallucination about you is common: invented degrees, wrong employers, blended bios. Why models…

8 min read →
Compare

Googling Yourself vs Asking ChatGPT About Yourself

Googling yourself shows ranked links. Ask ChatGPT about yourself and you get a single story. Why the two…

8 min read →
Essay

Does AI-Written Content Hurt Your AI Visibility?

Google says it rewards quality however it is produced, yet most AI-written content never gets cited. What…

9 min read →
Essay

How AI Decides What Is True About a Person

AI does not verify facts about you, it weighs corroboration. How models decide what is true about a…

8 min read →
Essay

Why Your Website Matters More in the AI Era, Not Less

Do I still need a website? More than ever. Zero-click search took the traffic, but AI engines read your…

9 min read →
Essay

The Interview Effect: Why Podcasts Keep Showing Up in AI Answers

Podcasts earn AI citations because one interview becomes transcripts, show notes and quotes across a dozen…

8 min read →
Essay

Can You Make AI Forget You? Removal, Corrections and the Right to Be Forgotten

Can you remove information from ChatGPT or Google? What GDPR's right to erasure, OpenAI's privacy portal…

9 min read →
Essay

Should You Block AI Bots From Your Website?

Blocking GPTBot feels like control. Here is what robots.txt actually governs, which AI crawlers do what,…

9 min read →
Explainer

Google AI Mode Explained: How the New Search Names People

Google AI Mode now answers over a billion people a month. How it works, what query fan-out means, and how…

9 min read →
Essay

What a Knowledge Cutoff Means for Your Name

Every AI model stops learning at its knowledge cutoff. What that frozen date means for your name, your old…

8 min read →
Essay

Anatomy of an AI Answer: How AI Chooses Who Gets Named

Step inside the seconds between a question and an AI answer. How AI chooses sources, resolves identities,…

8 min read →
Myth

Seven AI Visibility Myths, Tested Against the Evidence

Seven AI visibility myths tested against real studies: llms.txt, follower counts, paying for placement and…

9 min read →
Essay

How the Next Generation Searches: Fewer Links, More Answers

Gen Z search behavior runs on AI answers, not blue links. Where the next generation actually asks…

9 min read →
Essay

When the Buyer Is a Bot: AI Agents and the Coming Shortlist Economy

AI agents now do the research and shortlisting for buyers. How agentic research actually works, what…

9 min read →
Essay

Why AI Quotes Reddit: Communities as the New Front Page

Reddit AI citations dominate answer engines, backed by licensing deals with Google and OpenAI. Why…

8 min read →
Essay

The Comeback of the Byline: Named Authorship Is a Ranking Asset Again

Author authority is a ranking asset again. Why the byline died, why E-E-A-T and AI answers revived it, and…

9 min read →
Compare

Small vs Big: Can an Unknown Beat a Celebrity in AI Answers?

Can you compete with big brands in AI search? Yes, in specific lanes. Where fame wins, where the…

8 min read →