This week’s podcast kicked off with a story we’ve covered extensively in the past, but now it’s hit the mainstream press. Bloomberg just published a piece titled “Google AI Search Shift Leaves Website Makers Feeling Betrayed” — and it puts the spotlight squarely on Google’s Web Creator Summit held back in late 2024.
If you’ve been following our podcast, you already know the gist. Google invited around 20 small publishers to its campus — folks who’d been hit hard by the Helpful Content Update and the updates that followed. The idea was to hear them out, understand their pain points, and (presumably) make changes so that high-quality, independent content creators could once again rank in search.
Since then? Crickets.
Now Bloomberg is telling that same story, with a national lens. It’s not just the SEO and content community talking about this anymore — it’s the wider world starting to see just how far-reaching these algorithm shifts have been.
Watch the Full Episode
Google Promised to Help Small Publishers. Then Nothing Happened
The Fallout from Google’s Promises:
- Creators like Morgan McBride (who we interviewed previously) and Jake Boly are prominently featured in Bloomberg’s coverage.
- Morgan lost 70% of her traffic and 65% of her income. Jake put it bluntly: “If you drive away all enthusiasts and small publishers, then we’re going to be overrun by spam and the few players who can afford to pay to play.”
- A SimilarWeb analysis showed traffic drops across 67 small publishers in verticals like travel, DIY, and food — confirming what we’ve seen anecdotally.
Despite following Google’s EEAT guidelines, these sites aren’t seeing recovery. In fact, traffic continues to decline. That’s where the real sense of betrayal comes in. Publishers were told they were doing everything right — yet nothing changed.
And in a time when Google desperately needs good PR, this story is becoming another stain on its reputation.
TikTok’s Countdown: 75 More Days to Find a Buyer
Let’s pivot to another platform that’s been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons: TikTok.
Back in January, TikTok faced potential shutdown in the U.S., and after a few hours of actual downtime, the government gave parent company ByteDance 75 days to sell the platform. That deadline just got extended — they now have until mid-June 2025.
What’s Happening with TikTok Now?
- Multiple buyers are rumored to be in the mix, including Oracle, Amazon, and private equity groups.
- The uncertainty has advertisers spooked. CPMs are down significantly, and eight of TikTok’s top ten advertising categories cut their budgets in Q1 2025.
- Despite the chaos, TikTok is still projected to generate nearly $15 billion in U.S. ad revenue this year — even more than YouTube.
Thomas and I both agreed: while TikTok’s long-term viability remains unclear, there’s a real short-term opportunity for creators and advertisers.
- Fewer creators are publishing due to the uncertainty.
- CPMs are lower, which means cheaper exposure.
- Brands willing to stomach the risk might find this is the best time to get into TikTok advertising.
If TikTok sticks around — and we think it probably will — the creators and advertisers who stuck with it through the turbulence may find themselves in a great position.
The Latest in AI Image Tools: MidJourney v7 and More
We also covered the ongoing arms race in AI image generation. MidJourney released version 7, following closely behind OpenAI’s GPT-4.0 image tools and Ideogram v3.
How Does MidJourney 7 Stack Up?
- MidJourney v7 is a significant upgrade in realism and visual nuance.
- It still struggles with text-heavy prompts compared to GPT-4.0.
- You need to “train” the model to your style by selecting preferred images in setup — about 200 of them.
Where it really shines is in creating images that don’t look AI-generated. There’s even a prompt hack using filenames like “IMG_4147.HEIC” to trick the model into generating images that look like they came off a phone camera.
So what’s the TL;DR for content creators?
- Best all-around tool: GPT-4.0 image generation. Great with text and has advanced editing features.
- Best for design layouts and API work: Ideogram v3.
- Best for artistic or photorealistic work: MidJourney v7.
Side Hustle Update
One of Jared’s Calculator Sites is Starting to Rank
On the side hustle front, I shared an update on one of my five calculator websites. After some early yo-yoing in rankings, one site is showing signs of taking off.
- The homepage calculator just jumped from position 72 to 13 for its main keyword — which gets 60,000 monthly searches.
- Engagement is strong: over 130 users in the past week and a 51-second average engagement time.
- The keyword is driving most of the traffic, and if it cracks the top 10, this could turn into a steady earner.
This is the first of the five calculator sites to really show traction. And while it’s still early days, it’s encouraging to see movement like this from a very lean build that relied heavily on AI tools.
Thomas’ Newsletter Revenue: First Month on Beehive
Thomas also shared his first full month of revenue numbers for his “AI in Real Life” newsletter, which he recently moved to Beehive.
- 14 emails sent in March to a list of about 3,000 subscribers
- Total revenue from Beehive’s built-in ad program: $257
- Highest earning emails were tied to specific high-value AI advertisers
It’s not a full-time income, but it’s early days — and the revenue scales with list size. Plus, it fits well into a broader content and monetization strategy that includes YouTube and affiliate offers.
Weird Niche Sites of the Week
This week’s “weird niche” picks featured two very different but equally interesting examples: TireSize.com and PerishableNews.com.
TireSize.com
This is a powerhouse calculator site in the automotive space.
- 315,000 organic visits/month
- Over 20,000 indexed pages covering tire sizes, comparisons, gear ratios, and more
- Monetized via both display ads and affiliate links to tire retailers like Amazon and Discount Tire
What stood out was how tightly integrated the calculator results are with the affiliate buying journey. It’s a great example of not just solving a problem, but seamlessly guiding the user to a purchase.
PerishableNews.com
Thomas brought a hyper-specific niche news site to the table this week.
- Covers the perishables industry: produce, meat, floral, etc.
- High DR (71) but low reported organic traffic
- Likely drives significant short-term traffic from breaking news that tools like Ahrefs don’t capture
- Monetized via industry-specific display ads and conference promotions
It’s a great example of how niche news sites — especially those with a business or B2B angle — can thrive even if their success doesn’t show up in traditional SEO tools.
Final Thoughts
This week’s stories really drove home a central theme: the landscape is shifting fast. Whether it’s algorithm changes, AI tools, or platform instability, the only constant is change.
But with change comes opportunity. If you’re willing to experiment, stay nimble, and put your audience first, there’s still plenty of upside to be found — even in the face of setbacks.