Field notes
Playbooks, teardowns and the occasional argument — everything we have learned helping creators grow across every major platform.
Filler is usually treated as a style problem. On a video with a fixed runtime it is an arithmetic problem, and the number worth reading is seconds rather than words.
Zero-width spaces, byte-order marks, non-breaking spaces and substituted quotes travel with copied text. Here is what each one is, where it comes from, and what it breaks.
Receiving something free is a material connection whether or not you were paid. Whether it also needs the ad label depends on one question: did the brand have any say?
The Endorsement Guides are shorter and clearer than their reputation. Here is what they actually require, which labels the FTC has ruled out, and what trips people up.
This is the one hashtag category that is a matter of published policy rather than rumour. Every network with an inauthentic-engagement rule covers these tags by name.
YouTube publishes the categories that limit ads. The opening of a video is weighted hardest, context decides everything, and no word list can see context.
RPM = CPM × your monetized playback rate × your revenue share. At a 40% monetized rate, a $14 CPM is a $3 RPM — and unmonetized views cost you more than YouTube's cut.
Spotify publishes album and artist images at 640, 300 and 64 pixels. There is no original behind the 640 — every 'HD Spotify cover art' result is upscaling the same file.
Gmail on a desktop gives a subject line about 340 pixels — the tightest surface in email. A phone gives more. The count that matters is a width, not a character total.
Google gives a desktop snippet two lines and a phone three. The useful target is one clear promise inside about 155 characters — and Google may still use a passage instead.
A title tag is cut by width, not by character count. The desktop column is about 600 pixels — which is anywhere from 45 to 75 characters depending on the letters.
Seven platforms let you build a short link from a URL. Five only issue one from their own share sheet. Everything else calling itself a shortener is a redirector.