Latest posts
-
I Found a Better-Looking AI Website. Then I Compared Its Business With Mine.
I discovered two AI design websites and compared their costs, pricing, SEO, conversion rates, and profit potential with my own $4.99 product, CutDone. The surprising lesson? In the AI era, building software is cheap—but finding paying customers is still the hardest part.
-
Maybe I’m Just Not Meant to Make Money
I built a website, sent over 100 outreach emails, and watched Google Analytics show almost nothing. Then I remembered someone telling me that some people simply aren’t destined to make money. At 46, I’m starting to question what failure, luck, and trying really mean.
-
How Much Should a Digital Product Cost? I Asked AI, Studied the Market, and Changed How I Think About Pricing
How much should a nearly finished digital product cost? I thought $4.99 sounded reasonable—until I started comparing real products, running the math, and asking AI what price would actually maximize revenue. The answer turned into a deeper lesson about value, pricing, and why small founders should stop competing only on price.
-
I Bought a Domain for $1 — Here’s What I Built With AI + GitHubI Bought a Domain for $1 — Here’s What I Built With AI + GitHub
I bought a domain for about one dollar. That sentence sounds like the beginning of one of those internet stories where, three paragraphs later, the writer tells you how they turned $1 into $10,000. Here are 17 lesser-known ways to use GitHub. https://ordinarymantrying.com/ai-taught-me-17-surprising-ways-to-use-github-for-a-one-person-website-business/ This is not that story. My internet revenue is still: $0. I…
-
AI Taught Me 17 Surprising Ways to Use GitHub for a One-Person Website Business
For a long time, I thought GitHub was basically Dropbox for programmers. You write code, you upload it, other developers look at it. That was about it. Then I started building small websites. One of my newest experiments is: ChineseFortuneTools.online It is not meant to be a huge business yet. It is a laboratory. I…
-
AI and I Came Up With a New Website Idea. Then I Asked: Are We Selling Combs to Monks?
A cheap server, too many website ideas, and one business idea I’m still not sure anyone actually wants. There is an old Chinese business story about selling combs to monks. Monks traditionally shave their heads, so selling them combs sounds absurd. The story is usually told as a lesson in creative sales: perhaps the monks…
-
I Bought HotPot101.com Because I Think Food Might Be One of the Best Ways to Understand China
Wondering why I suddenly started building websites? Check out this article — it’s because Hostinger’s hosting is just too cheap. Of all the websites I have started building, this one might be the most fun. I bought HotPot101.com because I kept thinking about one simple idea: HotPot101.com Hot pot is probably one of the easiest examples. You…
-
I Built ChinaRules101 Because Understanding China Is Different From Learning About China
Wondering why I suddenly started building websites? Check out this article — it’s because Hostinger’s hosting is just too cheap. You can read hundreds of articles about China and still make a very simple mistake when you actually interact with Chinese people. You can know what a Chinese New Year red envelope is. You can know what…
-
I Built a Website to Help Foreigners Create Chinese Names
Wondering why I suddenly started building websites? Check out this article — it’s because Hostinger’s hosting is just too cheap. At some point while building websites about China, I realized something. There is a big difference between learning about China and having your own identity in China. A person can learn about Chinese culture for…
-
I Broke My Own Google Rankings. Here Is Exactly How I Did It (And How I Fixed It)
I accidentally told Google to stop crawling 1,500 pages of my website. It took me three months to notice and one afternoon to fix. Here is what happened, what I found, and what the recovery looks like.
-
We Almost Built ChinaEntry101. Then We Bought HotPot101 for $11.
I almost built a visa website. Then I spent $11 on a hot pot domain instead. Every time I finish one website, I can’t help but start thinking about the next one. So far, I’ve built three: ChineseFortuneTools.com — a collection of tools for exploring Chinese traditional culture, including the Chinese zodiac, BaZi, Feng Shui,…
-
Five AIs Helped Me Choose a Domain Name. So I Bought It.
I had a problem. I wanted to build another website. Not another personal blog. Not another AI wrapper that generates something nobody needs. I wanted to build a small English website for foreigners who want a Chinese name. The idea was simple enough: You enter your English name and a few preferences. The website gives…
-
The SEO Strategy Most AI Tool Builders Ignore: GitHub Awesome Lists
I discovered GitHub Awesome Lists as an SEO strategy. Here is what actually happened after 42 pull requests: 2 merged, 9 rejected (5 by the same person), 31 still pending.
-
AI Didn’t Replace My Voice. It Finally Let the World Hear It.
A disabled Chinese woman sews shoe insoles with her mouth to feed her daughters. One afternoon, I used AI to make sure the world could hear her story.
-
I Asked 4 AIs Which One Lies the Most. They Named Names.
I asked four AI models the same question. Not “which AI is best.” Not “which AI do you recommend.” I asked: which AI lies the most — including yourself? I expected deflection. Corporate hedging. Careful non-answers about how “all models have limitations.” Instead, they named names. Including their own. The Question I Asked All Four…
-
I Asked Each AI How to Squeeze the Most Out of Its Rival
I paid $480 a year for Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus. I was pretty sure I was only getting about 30% of the value. So I ran a simple experiment: I asked each AI how to squeeze the most out of the other one. I expected both to quietly promote themselves. Instead, one of them…
-
I Paid ¥1,000 for an AI Content Course. Here’s What I Got. (Failed Experiments #2)
I paid ¥1,000 for an online AI content course run by a WeChat influencer who promised to make me rich. Here is exactly what happened — and why that ¥1,000 now buys something much more useful.
-
I Asked 8 AIs: What Will Humans Still Be Better At in 2040? Eight Answers. One Core Idea. One AI That Said You Shouldn’t Fully Trust Any of Them.
Episode 7: I asked 8 AIs to name humanity’s last irreplaceable advantage in an AI-dominant world. All 8 rejected creativity, empathy, and consciousness — and converged on the same structural insight: AI cannot lose anything. But the framings differed sharply. And Claude made the most important move in the series: used this question to argue…
-
AI Experiments: 8 AIs Answer the Same Investing Question — Every Episode, Ranked
All episodes of AI Experiments — a series where I ask 8 AI chatbots the same investing question, separately, then make them judge each other’s answers. Four episodes so far: investment philosophy, stock picks, cognitive skills, and asset allocation.
-
I Asked 8 AIs What Skill to Learn for the Next Decade. They Disagreed. Then They Voted — and It Wasn’t Close.
Episode 3: I asked 8 AIs what single cognitive skill would matter most in the next 10 years. They gave 8 completely different answers. Then I made them vote on each other — and 5 out of 7 first-place votes went to the same answer. The AI that won had ranked itself third.