Topbuy.ai

What was it?
Topbuy.ai was an attempt to build a system that programmatically generated millions of comparison pages. In doing so it would provide value by analyzing reviews for a specific use case or dimension and comparing within that use case. For example searching reviews for two mattresses that specifically mentioned side sleepers, then aggregating that up to "Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers".

What went well?

• I learned a lot about SEO
• I put to use some new technical knowledge
• I made a real thing! Both some demo pages for webcams and real pages that rank on google still today in the garden niche. I even made some affiliate $ (around $20-40 total probably over the last two years).

What didn't go well?

1. Technically challenging
   The automation process didn't go smoothly. It was tricky to produce high quality output that was meaningful in an automated way. This was something I could work towards, and now would just use ChatGPT to do the same, though this content would likely be heavily penalized in google.

2. Scaling issues
   The way I wanted to implement it ended up taking a long time to generate one page and also the other main issue was that I was very limited in how I could pull data in a standardized way. This heavily interacted with the technical challenges.

3. I just didn't care anymore
   Because of the quality issues from #1, I didn't feel good about putting out tons and tons of crappy content in hopes something stuck. At the end of the day I didn't feel like I was doing anything worthwhile.

4. SEO challenges
   Just because you make it, doesn't mean they will come. Though topical authority is important for SEO, there's really not an easy way other than actually build a good website. Because of problems #1 and #2, I didn't feel like I had link worthy content.

5. Wanting it to be right (again)
   A recurring theme across all my projects is that I have a very rigid mindset, that is fatally scared of being wrong publicly. Caring so much about what other people think, and having to get the project exactly right leads to paralysis. It leads to the false state of "if I don't try I can't fail", which I can see also happens in other areas of my life. I frequently avoid playing a game, thinking by being outside the game then I don't have to admit defeat. The root of all this is insecurity combined with a competitive mindset.

In the end I picked a challenge that was at the edge of my capabilities that didn't quite get there from a technical perspective. The value of the project was mostly in the output of the system being good (I still think that's true) which it wasn't.