Top all-time · #3533
Lars Lofgren
Personal blog · larslofgren.combusinessstartups
Lars Lofgren's personal blog at larslofgren.com covers business and startups. Since 2012, 20 different Hacker News readers have linked it 25 times, most often “Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (11) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Lars Lofgren's posts on Forbes Marketplace and similar sponsored sites that rank in search results, such as CNN Underscored and USA Today Blueprint, and on a Reddit reputation attack on a bootcamp.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 11 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Putting KPIs on rocket ships since 2010. Then watching them blow up. Working on more sustainable paths to growth these days.
Most-linked posts?
- Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2024-09-19
- A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-10-08
- The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything Is Fake2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-08-30
- The Billion-Dollar World of Parasite SEO: How to Cash In2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-10-24
- Three Engines of Growth2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-02-14
- CNN and USA Today have fake websites, I believe Forbes Marketplace runs them2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-09-27
What Hacker News says?
The discussion at https://larslofgren.com/codesmith-reddit-reputation-attack/ is not going well for Mr. Novati. Edit: oops, that was the wrong link! I meant to link to the reddit post discussing that article: https://www.reddit.com/r/codingbootcamp/comments/1o1guxj/tho... I think one of the most telling facts is that pro-Novati poster u/Ok-Donuts has posted numerous comments that are clearly a violation of all norms…
Comment linking /codesmith-reddit-reputation-attack/
on “A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator”Submitted A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator as a story · 1305 points
HN discussionTop google result for "best pet insurance" and "best CBD gummies" are Forbes (actually Forbes Marketplace), and they've moving into sports betting. https://larslofgren.com/forbes-marketplace/
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “CNN and USA Today have fake websites, I believe Forbes Marketplace runs them”Submitted CNN and USA Today have fake websites, I believe Forbes Marketplace runs them as a story · 760 points
HN discussionBecause it became an embarrassing news story ( https://larslofgren.com/forbes-marketplace/ , also mentioned in this article). They would have lazily left it unfixed if everybody weren't laughing at them.
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “Google stops letting sites like Forbes rule search for "Best CBD Gummies"”Submitted Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host as a story · 646 points
HN discussionWhich is also CNN Underscored Money: https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/money . And also USA Today Blueprint: https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/ Details here: https://larslofgren.com/cnn-usa-today-forbes-marketplace/
Comment linking /cnn-usa-today-forbes-marketplace/
on “Google stops letting sites like Forbes rule search for "Best CBD Gummies"”Submitted The Billion-Dollar World of Parasite SEO: How to Cash In as a story · 13 points
HN discussionWas probably a whole company right? Pretty good argument that Forbes the traditional media property and Forbes the seo giant are 2 different things: https://larslofgren.com/forbes-marketplace/
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “Google stops letting sites like Forbes rule search for "Best CBD Gummies"”Submitted The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything Is Fake as a story · 5 points
HN discussionFound on the front page today, an article about exactly this kind of "marketing" https://larslofgren.com/codesmith-reddit-reputation-attack/
Comment linking /codesmith-reddit-reputation-attack/
on “Circular Financing: Does Nvidia's $110B Bet Echo the Telecom Bubble?”Submitted The Sleazy World of Reddit Marketing, Everything Is Fake as a story · 5 points
HN discussionGrowing Virally (where virality coefficient and cycle are really important[1]) is different than growing with Paying Users (where Lifetime Value (LTV) and Cost to aqcuire customers (CAC) is really important[2]) that its different than growing through very high retention rates[3]. You can achieve P/M fit with any of them. You can argue that you don't need growth. Which investors won't particularly like (in particula…
Comment linking /marketingbasics/the-three-engines-of-growth-with-eric-ries
on “Everpix, Snapchat, and the Startup Lie”Submitted The Billion-Dollar World of Parasite SEO: How to Cash In as a story · 4 points
HN discussionForbes is blogspam: https://larslofgren.com/forbes-marketplace/
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “Google's Unannounced Update Scans All Your Photos”Submitted Forbes Marketplace: The Parasite SEO Company Trying to Devour Its Host as a story · 4 points
HN discussionAdditional information about Forbes' downward trajectory: https://larslofgren.com/forbes-marketplace/
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “Purdue University approves new AI requirement for all undergrads”Submitted The Stupidity of Google's Site Reputation Abuse Policy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSEO has multiple faces. The average real estate agent would come to an SEO and wish they could sprinkle some pixie dust on a site for sore eyes and get people to come. A good SEO will say, "Look, write a good blog about things going on in your town and you'll become the #1 real estate agent in your town" and they'll say "I can't do that", and the SEO will say "You make enough in one commission to hire somebody part…
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “The Evilization of Google–and What to Do About It”Submitted Two Mistakes I Made on the Engines of Growth as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's always been a tough market since the time Google got on the scene. In principal comparison sites could give a lot of value, in practice the vendors want to control the narrative and Google sure as hell wants to extract all the value it can out of the ecosystem. They made the decision to make Forbes.com rank #1 for many comparison queries: https://larslofgren.com/forbes-marketplace/ probably because they were ti…
Comment linking /forbes-marketplace/
on “Ask HN: Is it worth building a comparison site when people can just use AI?”Submitted Three Engines of Growth as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Stupidly Simple Medium Hack That's Generating Page 1 Rankings in 2.5 Months as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Delusions from the Halo Effect as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Three Engines of Growth as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
