Alex started by identifying that telehealth and telemedicine platforms were rapidly growing but had almost no review or comparison content online. He wrote the first 60 articles entirely himself, learning WordPress at the same time, targeting low-competition, long-tail keywords around brands and products he believed would be durable players in the space. The strategy was to be first — write the first substantive piece online about a given brand or product — and make it the best, either more in-depth or more concise and intent-matched than anything else ranking on Google. After roughly 6 months of publishing, he had accumulated enough organic traffic to approach brands directly with a confident cold pitch: "I'm pretty sure we're already driving you sales — there could be more if we work together formally." This direct brand partnership outreach, backed by real traffic proof, unlocked affiliate commission deals that turned the site into a legitimate revenue source. He did all of this as a side hustle while employed full-time, working roughly 2 hours a day.
Fin vs Fin
Health and wellness product comparison/review site earning affiliate commissions
8 moves, in order
- Pre launch / Niche Selection (2018)Organic seo niche research
Identified telehealth/telemedicine as a high-margin, high-momentum category with almost zero existing review content online. Deliberately avoided crowded niches where a new, low-authority site couldn't compete. Targeted longtail, low-competition keywords around specific brands rather than broad category terms.
Established a content beachhead in a wide-open niche before large publishers entered - Launch / Months 1 6 (2018)Seo content production
Alex personally wrote the first 60 articles while simultaneously learning WordPress. Each article targeted a specific brand or 'best X for Y' query, aiming to be either the most thorough or the most concise and intent-matched piece on that topic on the entire internet.
Site made $0 for months but built foundational organic authority - Month 6 — First Monetization BreakthroughDirect brand partnerships cold outreach
After ~6 months of publishing, once meaningful organic traffic had accumulated, Alex cold-pitched brands he was already ranking for, telling them he believed he was driving them sales and offering to formalize the relationship. Brands set their own commission terms. This replaced reliance on third-party affiliate networks.
First significant affiliate revenue; described as 'shockingly good' and the turning point that showed it could be a real business - Year 1 2 — Income ReplacementSeo content production
Continued scaling content production in the health and wellness niche, maintaining topical authority by staying within the lane Google associated with the site. Focused on covering brands likely to survive 3+ years rather than chasing every trend.
Annual earnings from the site reached $150k, replacing his full-time salary - Year 2 — Going Full TimeOperational
Quit his full-time job after ~2 years and bought out his business partner who wanted to keep it a side hustle. This freed him to focus entirely on partnership development and content strategy.
Sole operator; business continued scaling toward 7-figure revenue - Scaling — Portfolio ExpansionPortfolio site expansion
Built a portfolio of ~6 niche affiliate sites, each more narrowly focused than the flagship. Leveraged existing brand partnerships across all sites simultaneously to generate economies of scale — one partner deal could be placed on five sites.
~6 sites in portfolio; business reached $1M+/year revenue - Scaling — Team BuildingContent operations
Sequentially outsourced: (1) article writing to freelance writers, (2) publishing/admin tasks to a virtual assistant, (3) full-time editor to remove editing from Alex's plate, then (4) a designer and web developer. This freed Alex to focus exclusively on brand partnerships, his highest-leverage activity.
Freed founder time; enabled content output to scale without founder bottleneck - Diversification — Paid MediaPaid advertising
Approached existing brand partners with a paid media proposal: offer to run test ad campaigns driving incremental customers, funded by a small test budget from the brand. Pitched it as low-risk for the partner and highly scalable if it worked. This diversified traffic beyond organic SEO.
Described as 'scalable to the moon' if successful; specific revenue figures not stated
Professional background as a marketer at early-stage fintech and startup companies gave Alex deep familiarity with product-market dynamics, content strategy, and how to pitch brands. He also had the financial cushion of a $150k salary, allowing him to be patient and not rush monetization before the site had real authority.
direct_brand_partnerships
Alex implicitly acknowledged that chasing competitive/crowded niches doesn't work for new, low-authority sites. He also noted that stale content erodes Google rankings over time, meaning early "money-maker" articles inevitably decay — passive SEO without ongoing content refreshes fails. He also bought out his original business partner who only wanted a side hustle, signaling misaligned co-founder vision as a friction point.
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