The Pubtact fieldnotes
Make the page useful before you make it impressive.
Practical, original guidance for deciding what your page should do, what it should contain, and what a visitor should understand first.
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Are paper business cards dead? No — they have been demoted
Paper business cards still work in the hand — what died is the card as the permanent record. The paper is now a pointer; design it that way.
In this guide
- What paper still does better
- The part that stopped working
- Designing the pointer
- Where NFC and tap-to-share fit
More from the fieldnotes.
Digital business cards for real estate agents: the follow-up is the product
What a real estate digital business card needs to carry, where the QR codes belong, and why a card that updates beats a card that impresses.
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How to sell digital products without building a website
You do not need a website to sell a course, template or ebook — you need one page that can take payment. What it must do, and when a real site becomes worth it.
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Linktree alternatives: the four questions that actually decide it
Listicles rank dozens of Linktree alternatives on features. Four questions — the address, the page, the price, the exit — decide it faster.
Read the guideNameDrop is great — until someone pulls out an Android
NameDrop makes iPhone-to-iPhone sharing feel like the future — and stops at the platform boundary. Where it shines, where it stops, and the layer that covers the rest.
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TikTok's bio link rules: who gets a link and what belongs behind it
TikTok gives personal accounts a bio link at 1,000 followers, business accounts one immediately. The rules, the workarounds, and what the page behind it owes a viewer.
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What is a link-in-bio page, and do you actually need one?
A link-in-bio page routes one social profile link to everything you want found. A plain definition, and how to tell whether you need one or just a better link.
Read the guideBlinq, HiHello, Popl, or a plain link: choosing a digital business card in 2026
The digital business card market splits into app-first tools and web-first pages. Which one fits you depends on who receives your card, not on the feature list.
Read the guideIs Linktree worth paying for? Run the numbers before you renew
Linktree's free tier is genuinely good. The paid tiers are where the decision gets interesting — here is how to work out whether the subscription is buying you anything.
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NFC business cards: what to know before you buy the tap
The tap is a great first impression, but the chip only stores a link. What that link points at — and who controls it — decides whether the card is still useful in two years.
Read the guideThe one link in your Instagram bio: what belongs on the other side
Instagram gives you one link and an audience mid-scroll. What that link opens should be built for a visitor with eight seconds and a thumb, not a homepage built for a recruiter.
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Whatever happened to the personal homepage?
about.me promised everyone a page of their own in 2010. The promise was right and the timing was wrong — and what replaced it says a lot about what your page should do now.
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Running a business on WhatsApp? Give it a front door.
For millions of small businesses, WhatsApp is the whole operation. It still needs one public page — because chat is where customers talk to you, not where they find you.
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QR codes people actually scan: placement, size, and the promise
Most QR codes fail before the camera opens — wrong size, wrong place, or no reason to scan. The fixes are mechanical, and none of them involve making the code prettier.
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Your email signature is a distribution channel you already own
You send thousands of emails a year, each one carrying four lines nobody designed. Treated deliberately, the signature outperforms most networking you will do on purpose.
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One payment vs another subscription: when lifetime pricing makes sense
Subscriptions suit tools that keep working for you. For a page that mostly sits still, the math tilts the other way — how to tell which one you are holding.
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The .vcf file: the most underrated way to get saved in someone's phone
Every phone can open a vCard, no app required. This thirty-year-old format is the difference between being saved properly and being a screenshot.
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LinkedIn is your résumé. It is not your page.
LinkedIn answers one question — are you employable — in a format the platform controls. The people deciding whether to hire, book, or buy from you are asking different questions.
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Digital business card vs link in bio: choose by visitor intent
A practical framework for deciding whether your next public page should prioritize contact saves, outbound clicks, a professional story, or business actions.
Read the guideHow to make a digital business card people actually save
Design and content decisions that turn a digital card from a decorative profile into a useful, saveable contact.
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The one-page website checklist for a local business
A lean checklist for building a useful local-business mini-site around calls, WhatsApp, bookings, directions, and enquiries.
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