Free for newspapers & publications
Columns you can run for free
I write a handful of recurring columns on AI, local visibility, and getting found online. Every one is free for your newspaper, newsletter, or trade publication: keep the byline (Christopher Ross, thisismyurl.com) and a link back, and it’s yours. Each one ships ready to run: plain text, with the headline, word count, and credit line already in the file, so it drops straight into your layout.
AI for Business
Practical AI for Canadian business owners, operators, and SMEs. Covers AI tools, workforce training, and operational adoption without the hype. 700–1,100 words. Available in regional and national business press registers.
What does “more productive” actually mean
Most AI adoption claims can't be verified because the baseline was never measured. Two numbers, recorded before and after, are all you need.
The filter you can’t explain
AI screening tools speed up hiring but create a specific problem: if you can't explain why a candidate was ranked below others, you've made a decision you can't account for.
What you’re agreeing to
AI vendor contracts include data use and training consent clauses most buyers don't read. Three search terms and ten minutes will tell you what you need to know.
The meeting notes looked fine
AI meeting summaries report what was said, not what was decided. They round unresolved items up to confirmed, and you have to catch that.
Letting AI sort your email (and when not to)
AI inbox sorting only works after you've told the tool what urgent means in your specific business. This article shows how to set the rules in under thirty minutes.
Making Sense of AI
Making Sense of AI translates artificial intelligence into plain language, helping non technical readers understand everyday uses, risks, and benefits, so they can make informed decisions at home and work.
Use it to think, not just to look things up
Most people use Copilot like a search engine. But it's often smarter as a thinking partner, asking you the questions that clarify what you're actually deciding.
When the first answer isn’t quite right
Copilot doesn't try to nail it on the first try. Thin instruction creates generic output. Learn how iteration and better feedback turn a bad first draft into something useful.
How to get AI to write a first draft you can actually use
An older friend of mine needed to write a note to a woman who had driven him to a medical appointment every week for three months. She'd refused any payment.…
How to talk to AI for the first time
ChatGPT is free, opens in a browser, and you don't need to know anything to try it. This article walks a complete first-timer through opening it and asking their first…
On the Map
A recurring column for regional and community newspapers about helping small, tourism-adjacent businesses get found online. 500–700 words per issue. Road-trip traveller voice: practical, zero jargon, one actionable tip per column.
Outdated listings are costing your entire community
One wrong set of hours doesn't just cost you a customer. It teaches visitors to distrust the whole street.
Someone on the highway wants to ask if you have room. Right now, they can’t.
There's a stretch of road in the hills where the radio gives up and the gas stations get further apart, and that's where I started looking for a place to…
Your reviews are a conversation. Right now you’re the one not talking.
The booking went through before I'd finished my coffee. Usually I'm slower than that. I'm a reader, I scroll the reviews, all of them, the four-stars and the angry ones,…
Google already made a listing for your business. It probably has the wrong information.
Three different people, in three different conversations, told me the same thing: if I was driving through that part of the county, I had to stay at the white farmhouse…
Your description says nothing and a stranger is trying to decide if you’re worth the turn
The name was the best thing about it. The Old Mill. Off a two-lane road in farm country, the kind of name that makes you slow down before you've decided…
Your Google hours are wrong, and you don’t know it
The problem is invisible: your town reads as closed online even when everything's open. Here's why it happens and who needs to fix it.
What Actually Works
Each week, Christopher Ross breaks down real-world business problems (visibility, marketing, customer response, time pressure) and shows what’s actually working right now using simple, accessible technology. No hype, no jargon: just clear, actionable insight you can use immediately.
Why summer is where most businesses fall apart
Your marketing dies in July because the plan assumed a version of July that has never existed. Shrink the plan and bank the season.
How to respond faster without working more
Most of your messages are the same five questions wearing different clothes. Write each answer once, keep the first line personal, and take your evenings back.
The AI tasks your business can hand off this week
Your visibility dies in the gaps between posts. Here's why consistency matters more than perfection, and how AI removes the friction that kills your posting discipline.
Using these columns
- Free to run. There is no licensing fee and no need to ask first. A byline credit is required on every use.
- Attribution:
Christopher Ross, thisismyurl.comwith a link back wherever the format allows one. - Print and online both count. Run it in either or both, at no extra cost.
- Available means no other publication is currently running the column. Running means it is live in at least one outlet, and it is still yours unless geographic exclusivity has been arranged.
- Geographic exclusivity is available on request. Get in touch before you publish if you need first-run rights in your market.
Questions editors ask
- Can I edit it?
- Trim for length and fix it to your house style. If a change would alter what the column argues, ask me first.
- Do I need permission before running one?
- No. Take it and run it. Tell me where it appeared if you would like it on the record.
- Can it run under a staff byline?
- No. The byline is the whole fee.
- What format does it arrive in?
- Plain text, with the headline, word count and credit line already in the file, so it drops straight into your system. Every column has a download link.
- Can you write one for our readership?
- Yes, a limited number of custom column and feature assignments each year.
20 columns are ready to run right now. 99 more are written and scheduled behind them. Each series adds a new column every week or two. Subscribe to the column feed to see new ones as they land.