Why Clients Really Cancel: The Four Forces Every Agency Underestimates

Agency Management / By

Most agencies think clients cancel because “performance dipped” or “a competitor undercut price.”That’s rarely the truth. After decades of seeing why relationships fall apart—from enterprise retainers to fast-moving SaaS accounts—I’ve learned this: clients don’t cancel because they want a new vendor. They cancel because something stopped making sense. There are four core reasons, and if […]

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Stop Adding Friction: Make It Easy for Me to Give You Money

Rants, Web Effectiveness / By

Companies frequently discuss digital transformation, automation, AI, and “streamlined operations.” But most can’t get the basics right. You want me to pay you faster? Make it easier for me to give you my money. Stop hiding phone numbers, using the wrong terminology, building dead-end forms, and shipping chatbots that can’t handle the top five things

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Cloudflare’s Content Signals: A Courtesy Rule Becomes an AI Compliance Weapon

AI Thoughts / By

For decades, the web has relied on a fragile courtesy system called robots.txt. It was never law, never binding, and never secure — but it worked well enough because major search engines like Google and Bing chose to respect it. Now, Cloudflare wants to extend this convention with a new directive called Content Signals. The

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PMC v. Google: When your Business is Built on Borrowed Traffic

Rants / By

On September 12, 2025, Penske Media Corporation (PMC) filed suit against Google in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Penske Media Corp. v. Google LLC, Case No. 1:25-cv-03192). The complaint alleges that Google has unlawfully abused its dominance in general search to appropriate publishers’ content, divert referral traffic, and undermine the economic

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The Brand Gate in AI Search: What Vodka Taught Me About Eligibility

AI Thoughts / By

From Skepticism to Stress Test If you’ve been following the AI search chatter lately, you’ve heard the mantra: “You need to build your brand,” and one of the top tactics is to ensure your brand is listing and promoting it everywhere.   I’ve never been against brand-building, but I’ve been wary of this recent advice to

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In-Model vs. RAG Knowledge: Why the Distinction Matters for GEO and AI Search

AI Thoughts / By

Stop Chasing Shadows in AI Search The AI search industry loves its mantras. “Entities matter.” “Brand signals are everything.” “Google rewards authority.” These phrases get repeated like gospel at conferences and webinars. But for all the energy poured into them — and for all the content teams who’ve slaved over creating “the right signals” —

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Epiphany 32: How to Manage Up When the Boss Has Already Decided

Epiphanies / By

Adjusting the Variables Without Challenging Their Authority On our podcast last week, our guest Jason Kilgore outlined a challenge many of us face in our organizations, where executives have already decided to replace team members with AI. The decision was made, final in their minds. They didn’t disclose the variables they used to arrive at

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Epiphany 30: Solving Problems Without Saying “Problem”

Epiphanies / By

The Set-Up: When “Problems” Become Opportunities A few years ago, I was working on a global digital transformation project. After weeks of analysis, I compiled a readout deck for the executive sponsor prior to the broader audience presentation. It was filled with data, charts, and observations, then a comprehensive section called Challenges and Problems. I sent

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