Hyper Publishing: The Wiki Strategy

Author: David Perell URL: https://www.perell.com/blog/wiki-strategy One-line: Hyperlinks are the foundation of the internet — and the “Wiki Strategy” (a term from Nat Eliason) uses them to turn one-time visitors into loyal readers by interlinking evergreen content into a compounding network.

Note: Companion to Hyper Publishing; this installment is the conceptual ancestor of the wiki Kyle is building — a network of hyperlinked, evergreen pages that compound in value.

Key claims

• Hyperlinks are the foundation of the internet — “tour guides that guide from website to website” — and most companies underestimate their power. They juxtapose unrelated ideas and reshape the relationship between companies and customers.
• The Bible is one of the world’s largest hyperlinked documents — 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, 63,779 cross-references — and stays influential by connecting disparate stories into a cohesive structure. “A network of individuals is infinitely more intelligent than any single person.”
• The hyperlink predates the internet. Ted Nelson coined the term in 1965 (Project Xanadu), inspired by Vannevar Bush’s 1945 essay As We May Think, which envisioned a machine that mimics the mind’s associative “trails of thought” and supplements human memory.
• Books store information but can’t create idea trails — too much friction. Every webpage, by contrast, is “both a node and a connection in a vast, global network of information.”
• Wikipedia is the proof of concept — an anomaly that defied precedent and demonstrated “the under-appreciated power of large crowds of coordinated individuals acting in their self-interest and contributing to a collective goal” (15B+ page views/month).
• Social media is a nightclub; a good blog is a college campus. Blogs signal status and expertise, benefit from word-of-mouth, and the faster a site turns a new reader into a loyal one, the more successful it is.
• Evergreen content compounds. Past critical mass, websites become “expansive ecosystems of articles and ideas”; repeat visitors have higher lifetime value and evangelize the brand (Personal Websites).

Notable quotes

“Hyperlinks are the foundation of the internet.”

“By incorporating insights from countless individuals, the Bible remains the most influential text in human history. Held together by a web of hyperlinks, the Bible connects hundreds of disparate stories and ideas into a cohesive structure.”

“People who doubted Wikipedia didn’t just doubt the power of networks — they doubted the power of the hyperlink.”

“As the Bible shows, a network of individuals is infinitely more intelligent than any single person.”

How it connects

• Hyper Publishing — the parent essay; this extends the modular-publishing thesis to hyperlinks.
• Wikipedia / Roam Research — the canonical and personal models of hyperlinked knowledge.
• Ted Nelson — coined “hyperlink”; the prehistory of the linked web.
• Nat Eliason — origin of the “Wiki Strategy” term.
• Personal Websites / Writing — the practical surfaces where the strategy plays out.
• This wiki itself is a working instance of the Wiki Strategy described here.

Verbatim source notes — restored from Roam, 2026-09-21

• Roam Research is the original idea of the internet
• Since every webpage is connected through a web of hyperlinks, every blog post is both a node and a connection in a vast, global network of information. Over time, each webpage contributes to an interactive “web” of connections.
• The benefits of evergreen content compound in value over time. The benefits of writing multiply themselves, which fosters momentum and accelerates growth. Once they reach a critical mass, websites become expansive ecosystems of articles and ideas. Personal Websites
• Ever bullet in Roam Research is an individual node in a tapestry of thought activity.
• The essay argued that humans should focus on high-value thinking activities. To make that happen, machines should automate as many repetitive or rules-based tasks as possible. Whenever logical thought processes occur, there is an opportunity for a machine to automate the system. Humans create trails of thought. Bush (in 1945!) conceptualized a device that replaced human memory and stored information from books, record, and communications in a fast and flexible way. By doing so, humans would use computers to supplement their memory.
• In the photo above, every single line represents a Biblical verse. The length of each line is proportional to how many times that verse is referred to in some way by some other verse. The bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. Books alternate in color between white and light gray. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. The color corresponds to the distance between the two chapters, creating a rainbow-like effect.
• Good blogs are like a college campus. Relationships built in college often last a lifetime. Over time, the campus feels smaller and smaller. People tend to stay a while and it feels like everybody knows one another. Writing
• To kickstart the growth of a network, start writing. Through hyperlinks, blog posts cease to be atomic units; instead, they join a network of interconnected blog posts — the sum of which are greater than its individual parts. Writing
• The Bible is one big Roam Research public database
• This is exactly what the best blogs do. By incorporating insights from countless individuals, the Bible remains the most influential text in human history. Held together by a web of hyperlinks, the Bible connects hundreds of disparate stories and ideas into a cohesive structure.
• The term “hyperlink” was coined by Ted Nelson at the start of Project Zanadu coined in 1965, long before the internet. Nelson had been inspired by a popular 1945 essay called As We May Think, written by Vannevar Bush.
• Blogs, like universities, signal achievement, status, and expertise. University graduates continue to promote their alma mater, even after they graduate. Cross-pollination between students inspires new relationships and fresh opportunities. Likewise, blogs benefit from word-of-mouth marketing as loyal readers forward their favorite posts to friends and colleagues.
• This is what Sean Linehan was talking about
• Generating online traffic requires a deep understanding of hyperlinks — the language of the web. Nobody uses hyperlinks better than Wikipedia.
• Jumping between books, though, is much more difficult. To do so, a reader must own a physical copy of the book, then find the right page. If the reader does not own the book, this process might take weeks.
• By tracing the history of ideas, from the Bible to World War II, to Wikipedia, we can understand how ideas are formed and why some ideas persist over time. Then, we can use that knowledge to encourage repeat website visits, cultivate an audience of loyal readers, and build a brand.
• The Bible is a library of connected stories — 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses. It has 63,779 references. This makes the Bible one of the world’s largest hyperlinked-style documents.
• Writers should use the “Wiki Strategy,” a term coined by Nat Eliason. Once readers visit their site, the Wiki Strategy will encourage them to stay.
• On average, the faster a website can turn a new reader into a loyal one, the more successful it will be.  Product
• **As the Bible shows, a network of individuals is infinitely more intelligent than any single person. **Networking
• Wikipedia proves the power of a well-organized crowd, working together at internet scale. Its success demonstrates the sheer scale of the internet and the under-appreciated power of large crowds of coordinated individuals acting in their self-interest and contributing to a collective goal. Today, Wikipedia reports more than 15 billion page views per month, 900 million edits, 42 million total pages, and 31 million registered users globally.
• Social media is like a nightclub. It’s an excellent place to meet somebody, but it’s hard to build a relationship there.
• Wikipedia was an anomaly when it was created; the open-source encyclopedia defied precedent and few people thought it could succeed. **Wikipedia has exceeded the expectations of even the most open-minded, speculative thinkers. People who doubted Wikipedia didn’t just doubt the power of networks — they doubted the power of the hyperlink. **
• Roam Public is a demonstration of that; we spent time Roam-anizing various works in order to “contribute to a collective goal.”
• Hyperlinks encourage new methods of thought, content creation and reshape relationships between companies and their customers. Hyperlinks juxtapose unrelated ideas together. They’re central to the foundation of the internet.
• Without hyperlinks, the online reading experience would resemble that of a book. Online dialogue is quick because of hyperlinks.
• Hyperlinks are like tour guides that guide from website to website. Many companies and marketers underestimate the power of hyperlinks.
• Writing in As We May Think, Bush observed that the human mind worked by association and wanted to create a technology to mimic human thought patterns.
• Hyper-publishing increases the chances that the audience will make a purchase in the future. A well-executed Wiki Strategy will boost site visits, page views, and average time spent on time. Customers who repeatedly visit a well-designed website with thoughtful content are more valuable than customers who only visit once. Repeat visitors have a higher lifetime value and are more likely to evangelize the brand. Personal Websites