Distribution plays · a map of the argument

Distribution without an audience

Seven channels that don’t need a single follower — from Melvin Luu’s essay, plus a read of all 27 sources it cites. Each play is its own short page; this is the map.

“Distribution means access to your buyers’ attention” — and you can own it, borrow it, or buy it.

Own Build an audience: 12+ months of content before anyone is watching. The essay’s argument: skip this — for now.
Borrow Ride attention someone else already aggregated — AI assistants, the answer layer, Google, your users’ feeds. Plays 1–5.
Buy / rent Pay for an audience that took someone else years to build. Plays 6–7.

The seven plays

1Turn an MCP server into a sales channelyour product as a tool inside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursorfast 2Be the source the AI citesanswer engine optimizationcompounds 3Build a free tool that sells for yougraders, calculators, generators — one step before the purchasefast 4Programmatic SEO: build 10,000 pages onceone template × real data × a thousand tiny keywordscompounds 5Build something users want to show offWrapped, streaks, share grids — identity, not featuresfast 6Buy the audience someone else builtnewsletter acquisitionfast 7Rent a hundred small audiencesaffiliates: pay only on resultscompounds

Pick two — but not any two

The essay names exactly one mistake: “picking two slow plays and wondering why nothing happens for six months.” Pick any two plays to test the pairing:

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