Waste of time or killer business model?

Yesterday a business emailed me asking if I could move them to the top of a listicle for a monthly fee. Sounds simple enough. I just need to shoot off a quick reply email with my Paypal email and I'll put some bucks into my pocket. Once again, naive me assumes something will be much simpler than it turns out. I replied with you bet. Send me $500 USD per month via Paypal... and I'll take care of it. --------------------------------------------------------------- -PAID AD- ​[CWVIQ.com]() - Free email alerts for website loading speeds. ​ You already know how important website loading speed is for user experience as well as SEO. But running through Core Web Vitals once a month or two is not enough. Google captures information about your website every single day. Make sure your site is loading fast all the time. ​[Sign up for free email alerts on CWVIQ.com]() - right now, we are monitoring the URLs in our database once a day, and sending out alerts anytime loading speed is over 2.5 seconds. -END PAID AD- --------------------------------------------------------------- I've been down this road too many times so I should know better. Someone dangles a few bucks out of thin air and before I know it I've put in so much time into the effort my haul is less than minimum wage. It's never as simple as it should be. They responded with it's too much... do you have any data on that page?" I groaned. They want to make me work plus nickel and dime me for my effort. My initial thought is it's not gonna happen. I don't have time for this. Or... could I be on the cusp of something very good? I know some of you are thinking "hey Jon, you're missing the forest from the trees... play your cards right and you could waltz your way into $100+ rpms." That's true. The thought did not escape me. While I don't yet know what this company is willing to pay, if scaled, this could be a lucrative revenue stream. But for you all and the sake of this email, I'm happy to spend 5 minutes getting the data. What is the top spot in the listicle worth? The post in question received 6,265 visitors over the last 30 days. I don't know the click through rate. I'll have to make an assumption. It's a listicle listing out companies, each with a link out so I assume the click rate is high... let's be conservative and say 20% click rate for the top position... especially if I dress it up with a [Lasso showcase]() (affiliate link). Ahrefs reports the cost per click at $2.50 for the keywords I rank for. That means in theory, a top spot on that post for this business is worth: 6,265 x .20 x $2.50 = $3,132. I was never going to do all this work but it's been enlightening. It also made for a decent email which is always a good thing. Since I spent the time to get the data I might as well reply. Here's what I emailed them: Hey there, actually, $500 is the deal of the century. Attached is a GA screenshot. 6,265 visitors over the last 30 days. I don't have click data but it's safe to assume 20% click rate for top spot. That's 1,253 clicks. Ahrefs reports the average value of a click for those keywords at $2.50. That means the clicks are worth $3,132. I'll stand by my $500 USD per month quote. Give it a shot for one month. It's worth it. It'll be interesting to see what they say. Frankly, I think my off-the-cuff $500 was too low, but I'll honor it. What revenue rpm is $500 per month? It comes to an additional $79 rpm. That's additional to what the post already earns. What does that post currently earn? That post earned $354 from Mediavine over the last 30 days which is a $43 rpm. If this company accepts my $500 offer, I'll nearly 2.5x the rpm and revenue for the post. Mmmmmhhhhh, something to think about. Still not worth it for a one-off but surely this is scalable? Obviously this deal landed in my lap. They contacted me which makes it pretty easy. Scaling would require the following: 1. Publish and rank posts that would be attractive for businesses to pay premium placement. 2. Collect and put together the data to "make the sale". 3. Contact the businesses/companies listed in the posts. While the publishing part is totally fine, the data collection and outreach is a drag. But something "being a drag" is relative. If I could arrange 50 similar deals, that's $25K per month. $25K per month is more than adequate compensation IMO. This is not a new concept I'm certain there are many websites that do pursue this model at scale and have for years. I suspect for some sites, it's their number one revenue source. While there are several moving parts and it's more involved than display ads or affiliate links, it's scalable and potentially very lucrative. Will I scale it? I don't know. Sounds like a lot of work. The starting point would be working with what I have ranking. I'd comb through all similar listicle posts getting traffic. My hunch is the best approach would be contacting the smaller companies where getting a few hundred clicks per month would make a difference. If I get some free time, I just might do it. But it's really not worth pursuing unless I plan to scale it to the point where most of it or all of it can be delegated. I don't relish putting together 10 "data" reports every month. I don't have a problem paying someone to put together 50 data reports per month. The trick is signing 50 paying companies. Is this ethical? I should address the ethical angle? Should I give notice that the top spot is a paid spot? It depends on how the article is presented. In the above example, I don't state that one company is better than the other. They're merely options. Yeah, it's probably assumed by visitors the top spot is the best but I don't say that. I just organized it in the order it is with no thought. Which means I have no problem moving the paying company to the top spot. If, however, the post sets out "my favorite" businesses (or software or whatever the list is about), and the paying company is not my favorite, then I would need to indicate it's a paid placement. That's my take on the ethical angle. Thanks for reading. Jon Fatstacksblog.com ​ [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5