Publish the annual state-of-the-niche report
Recurring original data. It becomes the thing journalists and AI answers cite by default.
Inside this
- Pick the three questions your niche argues about and cannot answer with data1h
A report earns coverage by settling an argument. Choose questions where buyers already hold opposite beliefs.
- Choose the data source: your own users, a survey of 200, or public records2h
Your own anonymised usage is free and nobody else has it. A survey needs a sample you can state: print the number of answers beside every percentage.
- Collect the data and keep the raw file15h
Journalists and assistants ask to see the data. A report you cannot reproduce falls apart at the first follow-up.
- Write the method box: sample, dates, what was excluded1h
Half a page. It is what separates a finding that gets cited from one that gets ignored.
- Write the report around the three findings that surprised you12h
If nothing surprised you, nothing will surprise a reader. Lead with the finding and the number, not the method.
- Cut each finding into a chart, a quote and a one-line claim3h
These are what get posted, embedded and quoted. Make them readable without the report around them.
- Put next year’s edition on the calendar and keep the same questions10m
The same questions year on year turn one report into a trend line, which is the thing worth citing.