Stephanie Woodin:
Being a web creator in 2026 is no easy task. This season, we heard from a lot of creators who are going through it.
Joanne Gallagher:
It's so chaotic.
Aimee Page:
I just don't know how to make YouTube happy.
Addison LaBonte:
Not nice, Google.
Tim Konrad:
You're constantly guessing and trying to read the tea leaves.
Jamie Broadnax:
We're just trying to be seen out here in these online streets.
Stephanie Woodin:
So to wrap up our season, we've distilled some of the best lessons we've learned from our roster of experts to help creators navigate the road ahead. Number one, as Paul Bannister told us, easier said than done, but try to focus less on what Google is doing and more on your own brand.
Paul Bannister:
You watch Mad Men, there's a great scene-
Stephanie Woodin:
Love it.
Paul Bannister:
... where Don Draper is in an elevator with a junior guy from the agency or something. I can't even remember who it was anymore. And the junior person says, "I feel bad for you," to Don Draper, and Don Draper just looks straight ahead and says, "I don't think about you at all."
Stephanie Woodin:
Yes, that's like the best line in TV history.
Paul Bannister:
Exactly. One of my favorites.
Stephanie Woodin:
So good.
Paul Bannister:
And I think a little bit, I feel like that here. Focusing so much on that, I'm a little bit like... And easier said than done, but focusing on your audience and your brand and your social and what you are about and what makes you tick and what you're passionate about, that feels like where we should all be focusing. Google should be secondary.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number two, take control where you can and keep your site updated. These tweaks can be small, but as Tom Critchlow said, they can make a big difference in how you show up in search.
Tom Critchlow:
Helpful Content Updates is Google really cares about this authority and kind of trust profile on a site by site basis. And so what we've been encouraging sites to do is go back through the archives, clean things up, and typically this is content that isn't getting traffic right? So this is typically content that is getting zero or very, very few clicks from search.
Stephanie Woodin:
I see.
Tom Critchlow:
The basic methodology you can use is just take all of your pages, stack rank them by Google page views and just look at the bottom 1%. Go through those pages, clean up when needs to get cleaned up, delete what needs deleting, and really kind of slim the site down to its current focus on authority and reputation profile.
Stephanie Woodin:
Very Marie Kondo of you, Tom.
Tom Critchlow:
Totally, yes.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number three, MaryRay Lombardo taught us that advertisers want sites with loyal, engaged followers, so put your relationship with your audience first.
MaryRay Lombardo:
I heard you say in your question, are people going to start to feel like I'm inauthentic if I start to bring in other categories? And that's where you do your job the best as the editor, as the CEO of your brand. You have to listen to your community and if your community wants you to broaden out and if there's demand for expanding categories, then by all means you should do it if it is authentic to your brand. But the way you will continue to attract premium advertisers is by having a clean, engaging site with rich content experiences and a community that is really, really engaged with your content.
Stephanie Woodin:
Four, when it comes to YouTube, be everywhere you can be. Remember what Linda Petta shared. When it comes to short form and long form, you don't have to choose. You just have to be nimble.
Linda Petta:
So again, back to what is your value? Make great content. Now, here's what's interesting. The reality is that almost 50% of YouTube viewership is coming from connected devices, which is effectively TVs in the living room. And what's really interesting is we are seeing a ton of YouTube Shorts viewership happening on those connected devices. That means viewers are now watching YouTube Shorts on their big screens.
Stephanie Woodin:
That's wild.
Linda Petta:
It's so wild when you think about it because user behavior is changing, right? It's like-
Stephanie Woodin:
It is.
Linda Petta:
... I'll watch a 12 minute video and now I'm going to watch a 30 second clip and now I'm going to a 22-minute video. And so I think what's cool about that is we know that connected devices tend to have a much higher CPM against them because they're a premium environment. So I expect that we're going to see those premium CPMs across Shorts too.
Stephanie Woodin:
Wow.
Linda Petta:
So today when I'm talking to you, I say to you, the revenue's coming from long form, but I truly believe with the moves that YouTube is doing, the real way to play that game is to be everywhere where you can.
Stephanie Woodin:
Five, Emily Robinson gave us a PR masterclass and it really boils down to one key idea. Stay focused.
Emily Robinson:
That's a way to really have your message cut through. If you have positioning all over the place and you can't say your elevator pitch of what it is that you're wanting people to take away from your product or your content, how can you expect to ever really cut through that noise and the cluttered marketplace if you're saying 25 different things? So try to really focus on just a few positioning points that you can always go back to when you're talking about your brand, so everybody else is saying similar things.
Stephanie Woodin:
And as Jo Piazza said that one thing over and over and over again.
Jo Piazza:
I talk about my books constantly. I talk about selling my books. I am unabashed about it, and I kind of joke about it too. I'm like, "I'm a marketing monster. I'm so sorry, I have to do this." They actually don't seem to mind that. And I try to remind people of that because again, you might think you're doing a lot, but people are really only seeing about 10% of your content, so they're not being served it as much. And also, we're being marketed to in every aspect of our lives these days that we're so used to it, the content fatigue is less being marketed to in that there's just too much from everyone and from every angle. There's too many Substacks to read. There's too many Instagrams to scroll. But I don't think that people should feel ashamed about promoting their things and promoting their books and using these platforms to do it because like I said, we're being sold crap from every corner of the internet in every which possible way. Why not give your audience something that they'll genuinely love? They're following you for a reason.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number six, we heard some wise words from Josh Zimmerman. Creators have a lot of roles, so cut yourself some slack.
Josh Zimmerman:
Yeah, they have around 16 to 20 jobs. What I would say to anyone listening is take a moment and write down all the different things you do to put out one piece of content because you're the writer, you're the producer, you are the editor, you are the sound, you are the R&D, you are the cook, you are the prep cook, you are the associate editor, you're the director, you're filming, you are the SEO expert, you are finance, you are payroll.
Stephanie Woodin:
My gosh.
Josh Zimmerman:
And they're wearing all of those hats at the same time.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number seven, look out for Google Discover. This platform is not going away. And as Eddie Mercado said, it's changing the game.
Eddie Mercado:
Discover is now really the bigger opportunity and figuring out how to lean into that, that's really, I think, essential. And I think that's what has confused a lot of entertainment and newsy type of sites because they were all told for many, many years, and it was right, that you had to write a certain way for Google, and that was really about writing it for Google organic search, a way of writing content that will have a very, very long shelf life. Google Discover is going to have a much shorter shelf life, but it's going to have a really, really high return.
Stephanie Woodin:
And do your best to adapt to all the Google Discover changes. This space is moving fast, but we're lucky to have people like Tom Critchlow at Raptive with their finger on the pulse.
Tom Critchlow:
I fundamentally believe that the Google Discover feed is going to radically change in the next year. I think that we're really going to see, Google's going to lean into this personalization. They're going to lean into Gemini. AI is going to radically reshape your discover feed in all kinds of ways. Who knows what that means? There's a kind of optimistic side of me that's like, that could be a real boon for the web. The fact that it can actually really understand what you're interested in and then serve you articles that you really want to read and really want to spend time with, that could be great, right. For people publishing niche focus, stuff that their community really enjoys, stuff they have unique expertise around, that could be great for the web, right?
On the other hand, they could use AI to do all kinds of bad things, like AI now just writes you a feed of content that it thinks you're interested in, but it just made it up or is summarizing stuff and doesn't link out and doesn't drive clicks back to the web. So there's ways I could also imagine that Google could mess things up and do things that are bad for the ecosystem.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number eight, and maybe the most important of all, protect yourself where you can, as Mark McCollum told us.
Mark McCollum:
No one is going to pay for something that they're getting for free.
Stephanie Woodin:
Exactly.
Mark McCollum:
So if you as a creator have any desire today or in the future to make a case to any of the AI companies to pay for your content, then you have to stop giving it to them for free, which is what you're essentially doing if you are not using blockers today.
Stephanie Woodin:
And creators should remember, you do have power, especially when you work as a collective.
Mark McCollum:
So use your platform to spread information around this issue to not only encourage other creators to take a stand and block and participate in other type of advocacy activities, but also your audience, who by the way, are voters and people who care about your content and about issues like copyright protection.
Stephanie Woodin:
The internet is what it is because of incredible creators and publishers like you. Thank you for all of your hard work. We see you and wish you a productive, creative, and fulfilling 2026. For more information on how Raptive supports the next generation of independent publishers, visit Raptive.com.
Being a web creator in 2026 is no easy task. This season, we heard from a lot of creators who are going through it.
Joanne Gallagher:
It's so chaotic.
Aimee Page:
I just don't know how to make YouTube happy.
Addison LaBonte:
Not nice, Google.
Tim Konrad:
You're constantly guessing and trying to read the tea leaves.
Jamie Broadnax:
We're just trying to be seen out here in these online streets.
Stephanie Woodin:
So to wrap up our season, we've distilled some of the best lessons we've learned from our roster of experts to help creators navigate the road ahead. Number one, as Paul Bannister told us, easier said than done, but try to focus less on what Google is doing and more on your own brand.
Paul Bannister:
You watch Mad Men, there's a great scene-
Stephanie Woodin:
Love it.
Paul Bannister:
... where Don Draper is in an elevator with a junior guy from the agency or something. I can't even remember who it was anymore. And the junior person says, "I feel bad for you," to Don Draper, and Don Draper just looks straight ahead and says, "I don't think about you at all."
Stephanie Woodin:
Yes, that's like the best line in TV history.
Paul Bannister:
Exactly. One of my favorites.
Stephanie Woodin:
So good.
Paul Bannister:
And I think a little bit, I feel like that here. Focusing so much on that, I'm a little bit like... And easier said than done, but focusing on your audience and your brand and your social and what you are about and what makes you tick and what you're passionate about, that feels like where we should all be focusing. Google should be secondary.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number two, take control where you can and keep your site updated. These tweaks can be small, but as Tom Critchlow said, they can make a big difference in how you show up in search.
Tom Critchlow:
Helpful Content Updates is Google really cares about this authority and kind of trust profile on a site by site basis. And so what we've been encouraging sites to do is go back through the archives, clean things up, and typically this is content that isn't getting traffic right? So this is typically content that is getting zero or very, very few clicks from search.
Stephanie Woodin:
I see.
Tom Critchlow:
The basic methodology you can use is just take all of your pages, stack rank them by Google page views and just look at the bottom 1%. Go through those pages, clean up when needs to get cleaned up, delete what needs deleting, and really kind of slim the site down to its current focus on authority and reputation profile.
Stephanie Woodin:
Very Marie Kondo of you, Tom.
Tom Critchlow:
Totally, yes.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number three, MaryRay Lombardo taught us that advertisers want sites with loyal, engaged followers, so put your relationship with your audience first.
MaryRay Lombardo:
I heard you say in your question, are people going to start to feel like I'm inauthentic if I start to bring in other categories? And that's where you do your job the best as the editor, as the CEO of your brand. You have to listen to your community and if your community wants you to broaden out and if there's demand for expanding categories, then by all means you should do it if it is authentic to your brand. But the way you will continue to attract premium advertisers is by having a clean, engaging site with rich content experiences and a community that is really, really engaged with your content.
Stephanie Woodin:
Four, when it comes to YouTube, be everywhere you can be. Remember what Linda Petta shared. When it comes to short form and long form, you don't have to choose. You just have to be nimble.
Linda Petta:
So again, back to what is your value? Make great content. Now, here's what's interesting. The reality is that almost 50% of YouTube viewership is coming from connected devices, which is effectively TVs in the living room. And what's really interesting is we are seeing a ton of YouTube Shorts viewership happening on those connected devices. That means viewers are now watching YouTube Shorts on their big screens.
Stephanie Woodin:
That's wild.
Linda Petta:
It's so wild when you think about it because user behavior is changing, right? It's like-
Stephanie Woodin:
It is.
Linda Petta:
... I'll watch a 12 minute video and now I'm going to watch a 30 second clip and now I'm going to a 22-minute video. And so I think what's cool about that is we know that connected devices tend to have a much higher CPM against them because they're a premium environment. So I expect that we're going to see those premium CPMs across Shorts too.
Stephanie Woodin:
Wow.
Linda Petta:
So today when I'm talking to you, I say to you, the revenue's coming from long form, but I truly believe with the moves that YouTube is doing, the real way to play that game is to be everywhere where you can.
Stephanie Woodin:
Five, Emily Robinson gave us a PR masterclass and it really boils down to one key idea. Stay focused.
Emily Robinson:
That's a way to really have your message cut through. If you have positioning all over the place and you can't say your elevator pitch of what it is that you're wanting people to take away from your product or your content, how can you expect to ever really cut through that noise and the cluttered marketplace if you're saying 25 different things? So try to really focus on just a few positioning points that you can always go back to when you're talking about your brand, so everybody else is saying similar things.
Stephanie Woodin:
And as Jo Piazza said that one thing over and over and over again.
Jo Piazza:
I talk about my books constantly. I talk about selling my books. I am unabashed about it, and I kind of joke about it too. I'm like, "I'm a marketing monster. I'm so sorry, I have to do this." They actually don't seem to mind that. And I try to remind people of that because again, you might think you're doing a lot, but people are really only seeing about 10% of your content, so they're not being served it as much. And also, we're being marketed to in every aspect of our lives these days that we're so used to it, the content fatigue is less being marketed to in that there's just too much from everyone and from every angle. There's too many Substacks to read. There's too many Instagrams to scroll. But I don't think that people should feel ashamed about promoting their things and promoting their books and using these platforms to do it because like I said, we're being sold crap from every corner of the internet in every which possible way. Why not give your audience something that they'll genuinely love? They're following you for a reason.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number six, we heard some wise words from Josh Zimmerman. Creators have a lot of roles, so cut yourself some slack.
Josh Zimmerman:
Yeah, they have around 16 to 20 jobs. What I would say to anyone listening is take a moment and write down all the different things you do to put out one piece of content because you're the writer, you're the producer, you are the editor, you are the sound, you are the R&D, you are the cook, you are the prep cook, you are the associate editor, you're the director, you're filming, you are the SEO expert, you are finance, you are payroll.
Stephanie Woodin:
My gosh.
Josh Zimmerman:
And they're wearing all of those hats at the same time.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number seven, look out for Google Discover. This platform is not going away. And as Eddie Mercado said, it's changing the game.
Eddie Mercado:
Discover is now really the bigger opportunity and figuring out how to lean into that, that's really, I think, essential. And I think that's what has confused a lot of entertainment and newsy type of sites because they were all told for many, many years, and it was right, that you had to write a certain way for Google, and that was really about writing it for Google organic search, a way of writing content that will have a very, very long shelf life. Google Discover is going to have a much shorter shelf life, but it's going to have a really, really high return.
Stephanie Woodin:
And do your best to adapt to all the Google Discover changes. This space is moving fast, but we're lucky to have people like Tom Critchlow at Raptive with their finger on the pulse.
Tom Critchlow:
I fundamentally believe that the Google Discover feed is going to radically change in the next year. I think that we're really going to see, Google's going to lean into this personalization. They're going to lean into Gemini. AI is going to radically reshape your discover feed in all kinds of ways. Who knows what that means? There's a kind of optimistic side of me that's like, that could be a real boon for the web. The fact that it can actually really understand what you're interested in and then serve you articles that you really want to read and really want to spend time with, that could be great, right. For people publishing niche focus, stuff that their community really enjoys, stuff they have unique expertise around, that could be great for the web, right?
On the other hand, they could use AI to do all kinds of bad things, like AI now just writes you a feed of content that it thinks you're interested in, but it just made it up or is summarizing stuff and doesn't link out and doesn't drive clicks back to the web. So there's ways I could also imagine that Google could mess things up and do things that are bad for the ecosystem.
Stephanie Woodin:
Number eight, and maybe the most important of all, protect yourself where you can, as Mark McCollum told us.
Mark McCollum:
No one is going to pay for something that they're getting for free.
Stephanie Woodin:
Exactly.
Mark McCollum:
So if you as a creator have any desire today or in the future to make a case to any of the AI companies to pay for your content, then you have to stop giving it to them for free, which is what you're essentially doing if you are not using blockers today.
Stephanie Woodin:
And creators should remember, you do have power, especially when you work as a collective.
Mark McCollum:
So use your platform to spread information around this issue to not only encourage other creators to take a stand and block and participate in other type of advocacy activities, but also your audience, who by the way, are voters and people who care about your content and about issues like copyright protection.
Stephanie Woodin:
The internet is what it is because of incredible creators and publishers like you. Thank you for all of your hard work. We see you and wish you a productive, creative, and fulfilling 2026. For more information on how Raptive supports the next generation of independent publishers, visit Raptive.com.
