THE METHOD

The Conflict of Interest We Almost Didn't Disclose

2026-09-19

While building out the automation tools on this site, we came across Blotato, a genuinely useful tool for repurposing one piece of content into scheduled posts across platforms. The first draft of its listing said exactly that: useful, well-built, solves a real problem for solo creators.

What that first draft left out was where we'd heard about it. Blotato is most heavily promoted by its own founder's very popular AI newsletter. That's not disqualifying. Founders promote their own products; that's normal. But leaving it out of the listing meant presenting the tool as a neutral recommendation when the loudest voice behind it has a direct financial stake in you signing up.

It's a small thing, and it's exactly the kind of small thing that erodes trust when it's missed often enough. Every best-tools list online has some version of this problem: an affiliate link, a sponsor relationship, a founder's own promotional reach, quietly doing the work of a recommendation without being labeled as one.

So the listing got a line added: worth knowing it's most heavily promoted by its own founder's newsletter, cross-check independent reviews before committing. That's the whole fix. Not removing the tool, not pretending the conflict doesn't exist, just naming it so you can weigh it yourself.

We're going to keep making this kind of mistake in the first draft. The commitment isn't to catch everything before you see it. It's to go back and fix it out loud when we don't.