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My 3 Secret Research Techniques I've Never Told Anyone Before
Sometimes the best tech for topic research isn't tech at all.
Tim Hanson
April 10, 2025
We updated a bunch of stuff in Penfriend.ai this week. Like a lot. So here’s the goodies. Does this count as sponsoring my own newsletter?
New Spoke suggestions in Cluster
This one I’m hella pleased with. The old one wasn’t the best. The new one? Dayum. Way better. Gives way more variety. Better context too. Covers way more ground.
Can you tell what I’m craving this morning?
Toggle hide Penny’s recommendations
IYKYK. If you don’t, lemme tell you. We have a feature in Penfriend where the AI tells you what it can’t do. These are the things where you need to spend your time as the human. Crazy right? Anyway, you can toggle these on and off now if you want. Makes it way easier to copy/paste the article.
We back-dated it to all your articles you’ve made.
Fixes for bullet point formatting inside the editor
Stability updates
Other needed, but otherwise not sexy backend fixes.
Penfriend v3.2.5
Day 51/100 Second half baby.
Hey - It's Tim.
Just found a Reddit thread about "What nobody tells you about having kids."
8,882 comments. Raw. Unfiltered. Honest. Gold for parenting product copy.
Top answer is truth. They are mean.
That's digital dumpster diving.
Here's how you do it:
1/ Reddit's obscure subreddits
Skip the main subs. Dig deeper:
r/DataHoarder - People obsessed with collecting information
r/YouShouldKnow - Problems people didn't know they had
r/whatisthisthing - Questions Google can't answer
The magic trick? Search "I finally solved" or "after years of searching" inside these subs.
People sharing solutions to problems they were desperate enough to spend years solving.
Copy their exact words. Your customers are searching for the same things.
2/ Wikipedia talk pages
Everyone reads Wikipedia. Nobody reads the talk pages.
Behind every article is a "Talk" tab where editors argue about what should be included.
These are experts fighting over what matters most about a topic.
The talk tab is at the top, under the topic.
This one here on Tendinopathy is great. Comments on spelling. Figuring out the numbers. Removing promotional content etc…
The most contested points = what people care about most.
Want a content angle nobody else has covered? Look for the line: "This is important but doesn't belong in the main article."
Your next blog post title. Right there.
3/ YouTube comment timestamps
When someone comments "14:37 changed my life" on a YouTube video, that's a signal.
I search long (30+ minute) expert videos and sort comments by "top."
Look for timestamps. People are literally telling you which 30 seconds out of a 60-minute video solved their problem.
Watch those exact moments. Take notes.
Last week I found a 17-second clip from a 49-minute developer tutorial where the comments went wild. That tiny segment explained a concept everyone was struggling with.
Don't reinvent the wheel. Find where it's already rolling.
Digital dumpster diving isn't gross. It's smart.
The best research happens where people are being genuine, not where they're being surveyed.
✌️ Tim "Web Archaeologist Without The Cool Hat" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai
P.S. Got a weird research source? Hit reply. I'm building a treasure map.. 🗺️
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