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Month 2: Chinese guy building an English AI blog. First HN front page, 0 AdSense revenue, still going.

I'm an ordinary guy in China — not a developer, not a marketer. Two months ago I started an English blog documenting real AI experiments: investing, side hustles, daily life decisions.

What happened this month:

  • Published a post where I gave 9 AIs the same data on China's biggest chip IPO. They all got it wrong.
  • That post hit HN front page. First time.
  • Traffic spiked. Engagement time: 5 seconds average. Reality check.

Current numbers:

  • 44 articles, 47 tools live
  • Hostinger affiliate: rejected
  • AdSense: not applied yet
  • Revenue: $0
  • Regrets: 0

What I'm learning:
AI can't predict crowd psychology. Neither can I. But I keep experimenting anyway.

The blog: ordinarymantrying.com
Happy to swap notes with anyone else building in public from a non-Western perspective.

on July 27, 2026
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    The HN spike is an interesting signal, but the 5-second average engagement is probably the more important metric.

    What would convince you that the issue is improving distribution, rather than the content attracting curiosity clicks that don't match the audience you want to build?