A monetization bet that grew into nine digital brands

01 · Context

The challenge

Host original content for our emails

Create and publish new content every month to send with client marketing emails, while improving bounce, click-to-open, click-through and unsubscribe rates.

Build a self-sufficient foundation

Design a website template that third-party advertisers would approve quickly, without compromising the experience for readers.

Make it scalable

Plan the brands so they supported each other instead of competing.

02 · Strategy

How we planned it

We worked with stakeholders to map objectives and define success metrics, starting with focus areas, high-impact opportunities and action items across social media, digital strategy, process and brand building.

03 · Process

Structure and process

We used a waterfall process on a Jira kanban board: planning, design, implementation, verification and maintenance. Each brand launched on WordPress with a proven set of plugins for SEO, security, maintenance and accessibility, then applied for monetization through Google AdSense, Taboola or both.

After launch we monitored site health, added analytics to our research library and refreshed content monthly.

04 · Design

Content and brand building

For each vertical we created two or three brand concepts. I led the design reviews where stakeholders, designers, executives and writers evaluated them, then we built content libraries with a team of freelance writers.

Our first three verticals were successful enough that we built six more over two years. The program averaged $120K in monthly revenue against about $8K in monthly overhead, and 9 of 11 sites were accepted for AdSense.

05 · Results

The impact