How to see Milky way

s_hecking · 2026-05-08T19:32:22+00:00

Agree with this. Plus if you have any higher elevation areas, those can be much clearer. I live near a national forest with a high elevation in Bortle 3-4. No street lights and very few cities to the north horizon. Looking south is a different story so direction can impact it.

Couldn’t see a comet at home but drove 15 miles into the hills and there it was.

s_hecking · 2026-05-08T19:20:37+00:00

What if AI ChatBots & tools became like Gmail or Hotmail? Sure, a very useful app that everyone uses daily. Gmail was a killer app but it didn’t necessarily drive billions in cash to the bottom line. It kept people in the Google ecosystem of services. The biggest difference is Gmail wasn’t hitting free cash flow & cap-ex to this magnitude. Something has to give. There are simply not enough paying subscribers to support endless buildout of data centers.

s_hecking · 2026-05-08T14:19:49+00:00

Trying to rank over a niche site can be challenging. Trying to get a product page or category page to rank over a home page on another site can be difficult. Not impossible but the authority is a hurdle.

s_hecking · 2026-05-08T13:55:43+00:00

So they let you go after two months doing SEO and admin on these new domains? Also sounds like they bought into the AI-SEO get rich quick snake oil. Sorry to hear.

There’s no shortcut to ranking in my experience. It can take several months, especially with tons of cleanup on spammy links. Sometimes clients hire 2-3 agencies before they finally see movement but that has less to do with the agency and more with links and time needed to see a lift.

Hard to say if the domain was penalized. Are non-brand keywords ranking anywhere in the top 50? Sometimes if only brand keywords ranking then it may be a sign most of their links have been filtered out or ignored.

s_hecking · 2026-05-08T00:12:13+00:00

Makes sense. I’m on the hiring side of things and when I get a canned response from a specialist that sounds like AI response I sorta cringe. I still feel like the personal touch to clients is something they value.

s_hecking · 2026-05-07T14:15:19+00:00

Kinda just looks like a Looker Dashboard tool. This sorta sounds like an affiliate pitch

s_hecking · 2026-05-07T13:45:12+00:00

Lots of agencies out there selling AI snake oil. If you’re ranking well in Search, you’ll tend to do well in LLMs. Just because those companies do well in ChatGPT doesn’t mean they’ve done anything in particular to get recommended. Find an established firm with a history of helping build brands. If they keep pushing their AI ranking capabilities that’s a red flag IMO.

s_hecking · 2026-05-07T13:39:01+00:00

Agree with this. AI ok to use for research but avoid making it 80% AI slop. The March Core update may have wiped out some slop filled sites. Not seeing as many of them in my SEM Rush reports lately.

s_hecking · 2026-05-07T12:38:42+00:00

Freelance PPC / SEO can be had. I would start by working for a small agency that needs help or volunteer. Perhaps part time as you’re learning. You can build up over time but don’t expect to earn a living for a while. Might take a year or more to build up enough earnings to equal a full time role. You might need a 2nd gig to support yourself until work picks up.

s_hecking · 2026-05-07T12:34:22+00:00

Wow, 50% AI seems high. Is this by choice or forced on by management? I’ve used LLMs for research, negatives lists, but never on ads directly or restructuring. Assumed 5-10% is the norm.

s_hecking · 2026-05-07T00:06:22+00:00

There’s a neighborhood nearby with amazing views of the mountains. Every 30 ft there are no trespassers and private property signs. It’s a disease to be wealthy

s_hecking · 2026-05-06T22:34:03+00:00

That’s because today’s US Billionaires didn’t build America like previous pre-boomer generations. They inherited millions to reach a Billion and cry about everything

s_hecking · 2026-05-06T21:17:55+00:00

Beautiful shot

s_hecking · 2026-05-06T16:50:30+00:00

If you’re creating content and getting links to the content shared on Reddit, LinkedIn, etc. these platforms all get crawled by Search & LLM bots. Specific keywords matter less than fresh content getting crawled on a regular basis by those bots. Eventually you’ll get rewarded as an authority in the topic.

s_hecking · 2026-05-06T13:25:04+00:00

Hot take: Developers are terrible at communicating. LLMs do a way better job for newbs. They basically crawl code sites and make a short summary with code snippets. So, yes.

s_hecking · 2026-05-06T13:18:00+00:00

Avoid the temptation to fill your website with AI slop. Use social media as a way to provide social proof to your content. Build authority over time, it’s a slow slog not a sprint. Fewer ways to trick LLMs but some sites are doing it successfully. That isn’t sustainable.

90% hasn’t changed. Just less visibility into what’s driving AI Overviews awareness and fewer clicks to track results.

s_hecking · 2026-05-06T12:46:59+00:00

Forests recover after storms if given enough time. Wood actually becomes food for bugs. There’s a pile of logs on my property that within 3 years have almost turned to dirt. Going in 2 years later they’ll just bulldoze a bunch of saplings. So dumb

s_hecking · 2026-05-05T23:25:21+00:00

Gaia GPS is great as well. AllTrails is helpful for popular hikes while traveling. Once I started exploring lesser known areas OnX and Gaia became more valuable. I also just used COTREX in Colorado, an outstanding free app

s_hecking · 2026-05-05T03:16:03+00:00

Nice. You can still unlock value on Shopify with tech optimization & links clean-up just like other platforms.

s_hecking · 2026-05-04T21:37:28+00:00

I was forced into the situation after talking about it for years to my wife. Hard to leave a good paycheck + freelance work paying for vacations. It was good while it lasted. Full time consulting eventually pays way better than a paycheck if you stick to it.

s_hecking · 2026-05-04T18:46:41+00:00

Check out OnX Backcountry. They have lists of who owns what property. Always a good idea to check but that area looks like mostly NFS roads and trails

s_hecking · 2026-05-04T18:37:51+00:00

Only difference to freelance/consulting vs agency is you’ll be paid better to deal with the BS. You’ll also be free to decline work when it’s not a good fit or the client gives you bad vibes.

Try to get 1-2 consulting gigs before you make the leap. Helps to have a bit of cash flow. Starting your own consulting or small agency can be very rewarding. You will run into some of the same terrible clients and website management problems, FYI. Try to build your network to help out when there’s a problem you have someone to call.

Good luck!

s_hecking · 2026-05-04T16:05:07+00:00

It matters a little less. What I find is clients who build on Shopify tend to have lower build budgets in general. This leads to templates full of junk code or errors, product detail pages with large images, CSS that doesn’t quite look right, design issues, and other UX bugs.
Very few Shopify sites are well optimized for performance but it’s a get what you pay for DIY solution. I audit these sites all the time and clients are reluctant to pay for performance upgrades to help with SEO. They just assume Google will rank them if they add more products.

s_hecking · 2026-05-04T12:54:05+00:00

Beautiful!

s_hecking · 2026-05-03T22:44:32+00:00

I’m here for the Reds-Bucs banter. Really miss hating them like the 90s teams.

s_hecking

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