Weekly · Since March 2019 · Brooklyn, NY
A magazine for people who run their own marketing.
The TLC Blog is an independent editorial publication covering the working tactics of solo content creators, indie marketers, and small-team founders. The name stands for Tiny Lessons, Compounding Growth — the playbook that respects your time and your intelligence.
A signed note from the founder
Why we have never run a sponsored post.
I started The TLC Blog in March 2019 after six years on HubSpot's content strategy team, and I made a small decision on day one that has shaped every page on this site since: no sponsored posts, ever.
I watched too many publications I respected drift from editorial work into advertorial work — the same writer reviewing a tool on Monday and being paid by that tool's competitor on Thursday. The reader can feel it, even when they can't name it. Trust decays faster than any single piece of content can rebuild it.
So here is the promise, written plainly: every essay on The TLC Blog is written by a named editor or contributing analyst. Every revenue source is disclosed at the bottom of the page. Every tactic ships with a measurement plan and a sense of when it is not worth your time. And if we get something wrong, we correct it in public at tlc-blog.com/editorial with a dated note.
What you will never find here: a paid placement dressed up as an essay, a vendor relationship that isn't disclosed, or a "review" written by a writer who wasn't given the product on the same terms as a paying customer.
What you will find: a small team of editors who treat your inbox the way we'd want ours treated.
— Maya Okafor, Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Recognition & Citations
Quiet proof, third-party verified.
2024
Orbit Media
Editorial Authority Award
For sustained editorial independence in a category dominated by vendor content.
2025
Semrush
Top 25 Content Marketing honoree
Selected across 11,000+ nominated publications for editorial rigor and measurable reader outcomes.
2022
Content Marketing Institute
"One to Watch"
CMI's annual recognition for independent publishers setting the editorial standard in their niche.
Cited by
Industry publications
Ahrefs Blog · Moz · Shopify Plus · ConvertKit · HubSpot Academy · Animalz
Referenced as a primary source by editorial teams at Ahrefs, Moz, and Shopify Plus.
The T.L.C. Lab · A public archive
The numbers behind the publication.
1,412
documented marketing experiments
raw data, spend, and outcome — the largest open dataset of its kind run by an independent publisher.
41,327
paying newsletter subscribers
as of Q3 2025, all on a single opt-in list — no co-registration, no list rentals.
612,000
monthly unique readers
Similarweb, September 2025 — verified independently, not self-reported.
14
people on the masthead
9 editors, 4 contributing analysts, 1 audio engineer producing the weekly 90-second TL;DR.
Editorial Policy
Five promises we make to every reader.
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Zero sponsored posts since launch.
The TLC Blog has not run a single paid placement in its history. Revenue comes from newsletter subscriptions and the paid "TLC Pro" cohort — nothing else. This is verifiable on the public revenue page.
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Every revenue source is disclosed.
Affiliate links, partner relationships, and any product received for review are disclosed in plain language at the bottom of the relevant post. No exceptions, no fine print.
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Every author is named.
No anonymous posts. No ghost-written vendor copy. Every essay carries a byline, a short bio, and a link to the author's prior work on the site.
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Every tactic ships with a measurement plan.
If a post recommends a tactic, it also tells you what to track, what counts as success, and — just as importantly — when the tactic is not worth your time. We publish the kill criteria alongside the playbook.
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Corrections are public.
When we get something wrong, we issue a dated correction at the top of the post and log it in a public corrections archive. Silence is not an option.
Read the full policy at tlc-blog.com/editorial.