AdDeck started as a simple idea: build a site that teaches digital ad formats, while actually serving digital ads — learning the craft by doing it in the open.
This journal is the written companion to that project. It's not a traditional blog, and AdDeck isn't a blog site. Think of it instead as a working notebook — somewhere to record what I'm learning, what surprised me, and what I already knew from years spent around advertising and media in its many forms.
What you'll find here
A few threads I plan to pull on over time:
- Building AdDeck in the open — the technical and practical decisions behind the site, from choosing a domain to getting through AdSense review.
- How digital advertising actually works — the mechanics behind the formats and metrics, explained the way I wish someone had explained them to me.
- Lessons from traditional media — reflections on advertising beyond the screen: print, publishing, and the parts of the industry that shaped how I think about all of this.
- The craft of measurement — why the numbers matter, where they mislead, and how to read them honestly.
Why write it down
Two reasons. First, writing forces clarity — you find out what you actually understand the moment you try to explain it. Second, the act of learning something is worth documenting, not just the polished result. If any of it is useful to someone else picking their way through the same territory, all the better.
More soon.