The Internet For Good

Twenty-five years ago, the Cluetrain Manifesto launched a revolution. “Markets are conversations,” they declared, and we believed them.

We were going to democratise communication, give every business a voice and connect across the digital divide. We imagined what life would be like when data would be virtually free.

We were explorers. Inventors. We had joy in our work because we were building the future of human connection, Web 2.0.

Positive Change

And so it was. We are open, connected and transparent, for better or worse.

Digital ads became a playground. Cheap as chips to experiment with and hugely productive. It was pure ‘sales on a page’. Lots of fortunes got built. It was hard to fail.

Why it worked sometimes and not others was a mystery. It bothered us for years. But learning has always been a reward for trying things.

We Lost Ourselves in the Machine

The software companies convinced us that numbers told the story.

Google and SEMrush turned our conversations into keyword lists. We stopped connecting and started chasing spreadsheet data. We became optimisers instead of communicators. Hamsters on wheels that spin faster every quarter.

The joy was systematically extracted, replaced by bounce rates, difficulty scores and competition metrics.

The Internet Squeezed

Now ad clicks are low definition. Analytics has stopped working. Free clicks are separated, one half into information clicks intercepted and served by AI.

Commercial clicks are topped by ads, maps, map ads, videos, and everything else Google can think of to push organic results down.

If Value Is Harder to Get

If paying for clicks becomes the norm, as seems likely, we will need to convert more clicks. That’s what this piece is about

But performance has been declining everywhere. The original Borg was Microsoft. The new Borg is Google, and all the platforms extract more money for less value.

This Is How Performance Gets Better

But the vision was right. Markets ARE conversations. We missed the turn, we need to go back. It is simpler than we think.

The answer isn’t more sophisticated tracking or better ad targeting. It’s going back to what markets tell us, and how audiences work.

Understanding more about what people are looking for and who they are can make our content resonate once again. It solves things.

What Markets Are

A market is the thing people want help with.

Not a demographic. Not a geographic area. Not an industry vertical. The thing they want help with.

Orthodontics is a market. Web development is a market. Marketing automation is a market. CRM is a market.

That small-looking point gives clarity. The market has a depth of field. It makes planning communications easier.

Mapping Market Conversations

The lists of keywords are raw data; we need to process and map each market. Extract, duplicate and lay it out for all to see.

Simple. Concrete. Actionable. Human.

Here’s the key insight: each market has its own complete buyer journey.

When you map that, then we see clicks in higher definition. We have way more scope for generating a reaction. We have more to go on, for longer in fact.

Predictable value

Each market buyer journey follows the same predictable universal conversation patterns. You can see exactly what content you need and how it will convert, in advance. This applies to anything.

This makes website content and results predictable for the first time.

Markets ARE Conversations (Still)

You can see the same universal decision-making pattern apply to each one. There is a beauty to the order it brings across every product in every industry.

A simplified example.

If we zoom out from keywords, we see this kind of pattern in everything, we can anticipate them.

• Subject conversations: “Is orthodontics something I should consider?”
• Topic conversations: “What are the different approaches to straightening teeth?”
• Type conversations: “Are metal braces right for my situation?”

There are many pathways to build. But, because every market follows this trajectory, we can develop our content to serve at the right time, consistently. Timing is the missing component from all our content. It is the depth we are lacking.

The key insight: It’s their conversation. We organise around their topics. It’s about them, not us. It is in our own best interest.

Architecting Helpfulness

Traditional websites scatter decision-making market content randomly across pages.

Why do we make our visitors hunt across blog posts, resources, services, and case studies to construct that single market conversation in their heads? We’ve never seen how to do it. That simple.

Market-driven websites bring that conversation together:

A market hub makes for 3-dimensional content, more real, with depth over time.

Journey Level Content Description

• Selling Ideas – Why does it matter? Thought leadership that challenges the status quo and inspires better futures.
• Selling Solutions – How do you choose between approaches? Comparative frameworks without product bias.
• Implementation Guidance – How does it work? Process-focused, practical help.
• Provider Selection – Why work with us? Decision-ready, conversion-focused content.

Each market gets its own hub.

We’re simply rearranging things for improved performance.

For the visitor, the market is what the conversation is about. Complete it for them, order it logically, and we become more respectful of where people are in their thinking. They can skip what they already know instead of wading through a single inaccessible, dense, randomly organised page.

We are crammed into tiny websites. We need new conventions, our websites need to expand, with a place for everything.

More Fulfilling Work That Actually Pays

When you rally around what people need, change the content objectives to match their progress, then everyone wins.

• Visitors get complete conversations instead of scattered fragments. They find what they’re looking for and trust you to guide them through decisions.
• Businesses get higher conversion rates, stronger margins, and deeper relationships. Earlier influence reduces price sensitivity. Complete market coverage captures opportunities competitors miss.
• Marketers have more to play with, which makes work meaningful again. You’re helping people think through real decisions, rather than relying on gaming algorithms. The joy returns because we gain purpose and the scope to make an impact.
• The content makes more of a difference than the click.

This alignment of interests isn’t a coincidence. It’s how things are supposed to work.

We need to remember the foundation: organise around market conversations – the things people want help with – instead of keyword targets and internal org charts.

The Revolution Isn’t Over

The Cluetrain Manifesto was right twenty-five years ago. Markets are conversations.

This is the path back to work that feels worthwhile. To marketing that helps, rather than manipulates. To websites that serve instead of extract.

The revolution isn’t over. We just need to remember who we wanted to be.