August 2026

August was both a productive and relaxing month at the same time!

I visited my partner's hometown of Buriram, located in the northeastern province of Thailand, where we rented a car to drive through the (oddly well paved) country roads and visit her maternal family for the first time.

Life was slow and slumberous in rural Thailand - as if the only connection to the outside world was gas prices and the local airport which hosted two daily flights to Bangkok.

Building Websites With Claude

Last month, I completed a rebuild of my agency website using Claude Design and I was absolutely blown away by the creativity, attention to detail, and website performance.

It's completely changed how I approach building websites now.

The new website is a simple 1-pager, but it's fast and customizable, while still running on shared WordPress hosting.

Even without a CDN, the website passed Core Web Vitals and scored almost 100 on GT Metrix:

Going forward, I believe custom websites built with AI will become the norm, while plugins and page builders decline.

Derm Detective

• Revenue: $1,840 (+5% MoM, +275% YoY)
• Sessions: 6,646 (-4% MoM)
• RPM: $277
• % of Revenue (Amazon): 85%

Revenue inched up slightly last month while traffic was mostly unchanged.

Revenue from Amazon was about 50% regular commissions and 50% creator connections campaigns.

Earnings per click (EPC) from Amazon is now $38.95 per 100 clicks, up 2.7x vs. 2024 and 1.25x vs. 2025.

For Derm Detective, I'm planning to launch a new performance-optimized website built using Claude Design in Q4.

I'll be building the website purely as a custom WordPress theme, rather than relying on a page builder like Oxygen.

The strategy is to build a parent theme, then use a child theme for each individual website's branding and specific needs.

Shenzhen SEO Conference

Next up, I'm preparing to deliver a workshop on Monday September 14 at this year's Shenzhen SEO Conference.

I'll be speaking about how conversion rate optimization (CRO) is an indispensible tool for brands that can be leveraged to scale sales, improve user experience, and reduce customer acquisition costs.

This year, Convert Better will be an official sponsor of the conference and I'm really excited to meet all the attendees and presenters! Here's a preview of our marketing flyers:

After the conference, I'll be back in Bangkok for another month before returning to Canada by the end of October.

To Flexibility and Freedom,

Tom