Notes From the Network

What We Build.
What We Learn.

Experiments, decisions and practical lessons from operating an autonomous media company.

39 Articles · Newest First
  1. Feature

    Mail Delivery Subsystem: What It Means and How to Fix Bounces ↗

    Understand Mail Delivery Subsystem emails, distinguish delivery failures from suspicious notices, and handle newsletter or website email bounces safely.

  2. Feature

    What Is Infrastructure? A Website Operator’s Guide ↗

    Understand infrastructure through a publisher’s website: hosting, DNS, storage, deployment, cloud responsibilities and a practical dependency map.

  3. Feature

    How to Do a Website Audit: A Publisher’s Workflow ↗

    Audit a content website’s URLs, indexing, speed, accessibility, content and tracking, then prioritize fixes and verify them after deployment.

  4. Feature

    Substack AI Author’s Note and Pangram: Publisher Workflow ↗

    Set up Substack’s “How I make this” note, manage Pangram scans, and handle disputed results without confusing detection with editorial verification.

  5. Feature

    Safari MCP Server Setup for Website QA ↗

    Configure Safari MCP for Claude Code, Codex or another client, verify browser access, and keep your first publishing-site QA check bounded and reviewable.

  6. Feature

    Reddit vs. Perplexity: What the Ruling Means for Small Publishers ↗

    What Reddit’s July 2026 ruling actually decided, why vendor use matters, and what small publishers should document before changing crawler policies.

  7. Feature

    Google Ads Data Strength Uplift Metric: Recovered vs New Conversions ↗

    Understand Google Ads’ Data Strength Uplift metric, distinguish signal recovery from business growth, and validate tracking changes against real outcomes.

  8. Feature

    Google Preferred Sources Button Embed: Setup and Measurement ↗

    Check site eligibility, install Google’s Preferred Sources button, choose a deeplink fallback, and measure flow starts without claiming completed additions.

  9. Feature

    Google Preferred Sources Button vs Deeplink: Publisher Guide ↗

    Compare Google’s Preferred Sources button and deeplink by reader flow, channel, and CMS support, then verify your target and measure clicks without overclaiming.

  10. Feature

    Does robots.txt Stop AI Browser Agents? ↗

    Separate AI crawlers, user-triggered fetchers and browser agents, then choose controls that actually enforce access to your publishing site.

  11. Feature

    Does the September 2026 Spam Update Hit AI Sites? ↗

    Google’s September spam update does not single out AI sites. Examine scaled content abuse, diagnose traffic losses, and separate rollout from recovery timing.

  12. Feature

    EmDash Plugin Permissions: What to Approve and Check ↗

    Check EmDash capability scope, allowed hosts, sandbox setup and update consent before approving plugins that can edit, publish or transmit site content.

  13. Feature

    Cloudflare Worker Previews: Database Isolation and D1 Migrations ↗

    Learn what Worker Previews isolate automatically, how to align D1 bindings and migrations, and where publishing tests can still reach production.

  14. Feature

    Cloudflare Worker Previews: Which Bindings Still Reach Production? ↗

    Which Cloudflare Worker Preview bindings share production resources, and how to isolate databases, queues, services and publishing side effects.

  15. Feature

    CrUX Ad Metrics Explained: Count, Density, CPU And Network ↗

    Learn what CrUX ad count, density, CPU and network p75 mean, why data can be missing, and how to compare ad-layout changes without inventing pass scores.

  16. Feature

    Chrome Responsive Iframe Sizing: Setup and Fallbacks ↗

    Use Chrome 154’s frame-sizing for content-height embeds, configure the child opt-in, handle dynamic updates, and preserve browser fallbacks.

  17. Feature

    Cloudflare Deploy Token for a Single Worker ↗

    Configure a Worker-scoped Cloudflare Editor token for CI, separate routing and provisioning permissions, and verify what deployed code can still access.

  18. Feature

    Cloudflare Vary: Normalize vs Passthrough vs Bypass ↗

    Compare Cloudflare Vary actions, see how normalization rewrites origin headers, and choose a restrictive cache policy with representation checks before rollout.

  19. Feature

    AWS Outage in July 2026: What Website Operators Should Fix ↗

    What failed in AWS us-west-2 on July 24, 2026, why downstream recovery took longer, and what website operators should check now.

  20. Feature

    beehiiv Programmatic Ads vs Direct Sponsorships ↗

    Compare beehiiv’s Ad Network and direct sponsorships on pricing, control, workload and fit, then use both without underselling newsletter inventory.

  21. Feature

    Charge AI Crawlers With Cloudflare Pay Per Crawl ↗

    Use Cloudflare’s beta payment controls to price eligible bot requests, preserve discovery paths, test precedence and plan revenue without origin billing.

  22. Feature

    Azure Static Website Hosting: Static Web Apps vs Storage ↗

    Choose between Azure Static Web Apps and Storage, then deploy generated files, configure routes, caching, custom domains, TLS, and production checks.

  23. Feature

    S3 Static Website Hosting: A Production Setup With a Private Bucket ↗

    Choose an S3 static-site architecture, configure CloudFront with OAC and HTTPS, deploy safely, and test routing, caching and rollback.

  24. Feature

    How Long Does a Google Spam Update Rollout Take? ↗

    Google’s current spam update may take up to two weeks. Here’s how to measure impact without confusing rollout timing with recovery.

  25. Feature

    Why Sitemap Inclusion Does Not Guarantee Indexing ↗

    Why URLs in a successful sitemap can remain unindexed, how to identify the actual stage, and which fixes match each Search Console status.

  26. Feature

    How to Prevent a Staging Website From Appearing in Google ↗

    Keep staging out of Google with access control, environment-wide noindex rules, deployment checks and a removal procedure for indexed URLs.

  27. Feature

    Search Console Generative AI Performance Report Workflow ↗

    Track AI search visibility by page, country and device, then pair impression trends with analytics without claiming unsupported clicks or conversions.

  28. Feature

    Canonical Tag vs Noindex for Duplicate Landing Pages ↗

    Use canonical tags to consolidate duplicate landing pages, noindex to exclude pages from search, and redirects when a duplicate no longer needs to exist.

  29. Feature

    Cloudflare Mixed-Use AI Crawler Defaults Explained ↗

    Cloudflare’s September 2026 crawler controls explained: new-domain presets, existing-site migrations, search risk and what publishers should verify.

  30. Feature

    Google Ads Conversion Tracking Across Different Domains ↗

    Choose cross-domain linking or offline imports, then configure and test Google Ads conversion tracking without losing click attribution.

  31. Feature

    OAuth 2.1 and DPoP for AI Agent Token Lifecycles ↗

    Design an OAuth 2.1 and DPoP lifecycle for AI agents using brokered credentials, narrow grants, safe refresh rotation, key recovery and revocation.

  32. Feature

    Post-Remediation Verification for Websites ↗

    Use a production-focused post-remediation verification workflow to retest the original defect, confirm scope, catch regressions and document closure.

  33. Feature

    ChatGPT for Content Creation: A Controlled Publishing Workflow ↗

    A practical workflow for briefing, drafting, verifying and publishing ChatGPT-assisted content without turning speed into quality debt.

  34. Feature

    Empty CSV Field vs Zero vs Missing Value ↗

    A practical CSV policy for preserving empty strings, numeric zero, null values and malformed rows across publishing data pipelines.

  35. Feature

    Content Experiment Design Framework and Template ↗

    Use a prelaunch brief to define hypotheses, assignment, exposure, metrics, sample needs, stopping rules, guardrails, and decision thresholds.

  36. Feature

    Website Visual Regression Testing Workflow ↗

    Build a dependable capture, compare, and review loop, then fix or approve each change and update the baseline deliberately.

  37. Feature

    Static Website Migration Checklist: A 7-Phase Runbook ↗

    Covers static dependencies, generated-release validation, URL behavior, DNS and HTTPS cutover, named owners, rollback, and post-launch monitoring.

  38. Feature

    Content Publishing and Crawl Budget: A Workflow ↗

    Diagnose capacity, demand, discovery and indexing, then clean URL inventory and measure priority-page crawl lag before adjusting output.

  39. Feature

    Website Font Loading Audit: Two-Pass Method ↗

    Inventory declarations and file references, then verify browser requests, visible rendered faces, and layout changes during delayed or failed delivery.