Blog, niche site and newsletter case studies — 2/3
Blog and niche site cases
25–48 of 62
Arvid Kahl: From 23 Subscribers to 7,600 — a $3,000/Month Newsletter Built Across 183 Issues After Selling His SaaS
Arvid Kahl sold a SaaS with $55,000 MRR in 2019, then started a newsletter from 23 subscribers. By issue 183 it reached 7,600 subscribers and $3,000/month, sold through 6 sponsor slots per issue.
Bitches Who Brunch: A Brunch Review Site Sells to a Sports-Community Company — Buying “the Readers’ Weekend Hours”
Bitches Who Brunch, a brunch review site with over a million monthly pageviews, was sold to Volo Sports, an operator of adult recreational sports leagues. A buyer seemingly unrelated to media came for "the same demographic's weekend hours" — a case that widens the lens on buyer selection.
BarBend, a Strength-Training Media Site With 31 Million Monthly Users, Joins Pillar4: A "Sale" Before Becoming a Buyer
BarBend, a strength-focused fitness media site started by three people, grew to 31 million monthly users and was sold to Pillar4 Media in 2023. BarBend itself then turned around and acquired Morning Chalk Up — one company embodying the entire media food chain.
Austonia: A City-Startup Media Site Joins 6AM City — Selling as a “Piece” in a Local-Newsletter Network
Austonia, an Austin-based city media outlet (20,000+ subscribers), was sold to 6AM City, which operates city-by-city newsletters nationwide. A network consolidation of local media, following the same pattern as Madison Minutes.
Dan Koe: From $10K to $2.5M in Annual Revenue in 4 Years — the “Zero Sponsors, Own Products Only” One-Person Business
Dan Koe's annual revenue: $10K in 2019, $100K in 2020, $150K in 2021, $800K in 2022, a projected $2.5M for 2023. We break down the structure of a one-person business built entirely on $150-$8,000 own-brand courses with zero sponsorship income.
15.05 million PV, $85,000/month. How a laid-off housewife in her 40s became a top blogger in 1 year 10 months
Nanao started a blog in October 2020, and 22 months later in July 2022 recorded 15.05 million monthly PV and monthly income of 12,554,345 yen. Google AdSense alone accounted for 8,660,091 yen. Starting from just 657 yen in the first month, she hit her peak in the second month after switching to an aged domain.
A stay-at-home mom's blog, year two: 203,000 yen annual revenue. PV grew 19x, revenue grew only 5.8x
The blog "Delako Blog" launched in March 2021. Year one: 26 posts, 4,050 PV, 34,700 yen revenue. Year two: 53 posts, 76,658 PV, 203,000 yen. This article examines from the numbers why revenue grew only about 5.8x even though PV grew about 19x.
WorldofTablet: Started With a $304 Domain, Sold for $115,000 Two Years Later — the Record, Regret Included
Two Latvians started a tablet-information site in 2019 on a $304.58 secondhand domain, grew it to 112 articles and up to $5,500 in monthly revenue, then sold it to Motion Invest for $115,000 in 2021. But the take-home was less than half, the reason for selling was a falling-out with the co-founder — a human-scale record, regret included, from a founder who now calls the sale "stupid."
The Neuron: A College Sophomore’s AI Newsletter Hit 500,000 Subscribers and 7-Figure Revenue in 2 Years — Growth Design, Up to the Sale
The AI newsletter The Neuron was launched in 2023, right after ChatGPT went public, by a college sophomore and a recent graduate. It went from 10,000 subscribers in month one to 200,000 in year one to 500,000 in year two, with 7-figure annual revenue. Using organic posting, Meta ads, and acquisitions of smaller newsletters, it sold to TechnologyAdvice in January 2025 for cash plus an earnout.
The Tilt: “Start a Business Already Knowing Your Sale Date” — Joe Pulizzi’s Third Exit
Content marketing veteran Joe Pulizzi sold his third venture, The Tilt (25,000 subscribers, $400K annual revenue) along with its event CEX, to Lulu, its biggest sponsor, in 2023, for six figures plus an earnout. "Why not just acquire us? You're already paying us everything anyway" — the real story of pitching a sponsor to become a buyer.
A "rustic wedding" blog sold to industry giant David's Bridal: the winning formula of theme specialization
Rustic Wedding Chic, a blog covering nothing but "rustic" style weddings, was sold by founder Maggie Lord to David's Bridal, the largest wedding retailer in the US. A case of "style-level specialization" inside a giant market becoming an acquisition target for a major player.
PsychCentral: Founded in 1995 With Zero Full-Time Staff, 7 Million Monthly Visits — a Mental Health Site’s High-Value Exit in Year 25
Psychologist John Grohol started PsychCentral in 1995. It grew to 7 million monthly unique visitors and $2M in annual revenue before selling to Healthline in 2020 for 3–4.5x revenue. The record includes details of a zero-full-time-staff structure and a negotiation tactic of walking away from the first offer to drive the price up.
A gadget blog run by a full-time employee: 600,000 PV/month, ¥1.4M/month — what Makrin built over 2 years and 330 articles
Ryota Arai (Makrin) kept his corporate job while growing gadget blog "Makrin" to 330 articles over 2 years, reaching 600,000 monthly PV and about ¥1.4M revenue in May, with retail affiliates driving over half of it.
Own The Yard: 600 Articles in a “Backyard” Niche, Sold for About $250K in 3 Years — the Calculated Exit of a Public-Experiment Site
Spencer Haws of Niche Pursuits built Own The Yard around "backyard recreation and maintenance" and sold it for about $250K (40x monthly revenue, 3.3x annual revenue) at 600 articles and $6,000/month. Starting in 2018, it was run for 3 years with the exit in mind from day one.
Pack Hacker: 4.5M Monthly Uniques and a Seven-Figure Sale for an Ex-Apple Designer's Gear Site
Former Apple designer Tom Wahlin's travel-gear review site Pack Hacker grew to 4.5 million monthly unique visitors, 370,000 YouTube subscribers, and seven-figure annual revenue before selling to AllGear Digital in 2023. Also documented: recovering from a 60% traffic drop during the pandemic.
Morning Chalk Up: A $900K/Year CrossFit Newsletter Sold to BarBend for a High Six Figures
CrossFit newsletter Morning Chalk Up, founded in 2016 by former political staffer Justin LoFranco, grew to 75,000 subscribers, a 70% open rate, and $900K in annual revenue before selling to BarBend in November 2023 for a high-six-figure sum. The foundation was a launch strategy that sealed off monetization for over a year to perfect the product.
116 free articles, 120,000 monthly page views, ¥150,000/month: the revenue breakdown of gadget blog "Kurashikilog"
A note without a single paid article for sale — just 116 free gadget articles pulling 120,000 monthly page views and about ¥150,000/month in affiliate income. The March 2025 breakdown was ¥92,473 from Amazon, ¥5,264 from Rakuten, and ¥53,900 from lead-gen deals, driven by tie-ins with a 10,000-subscriber YouTube channel.
Microgrid Knowledge: 3 Journalists Turned a Traffic Anomaly into a Seven-Figure Exit
Three energy journalists noticed that "articles about microgrids get read at an abnormal rate" and spun off a specialist outlet in 2014. It grew to 40,000 subscribers and revenue in the high seven figures on four revenue lines — media, an annual conference, and content production — before selling to Endeavor in 2022 after a multi-bid process.
Lively Table: A Recipe Blog Grown for 7 Years, Sold for $200K+ — Proof That “Buyers Only Look at Ad Revenue”
Registered dietitian Kaleigh McMordie's recipe blog Lively Table drew 200,000 monthly visits, ran mainly on ad revenue, and sold in 2022 for $200K+ (35x monthly revenue) after an 8-month sale process. Buyers valued only the ad revenue — her 50,000 Instagram followers were barely priced in at all.
Investor Junkie: Nine Years, Not a Single Outsourced Article, 80% SEO — a $5.8M Sale, and the $1.3M Resale That Followed
Investor Junkie, an investment-comparison site built by former engineer Larry Ludwig, ran on 300,000 monthly unique visitors (80% from SEO) with fewer than five employees, and sold to XLMedia for $5.8M in 2018. Five years later, the buyer resold the portfolio that included this site for just $1.3M — a case instructive all the way through to the buyer's own eventual fate.
Honeymoons.com: Why a Competitor With 10x the Traffic Still Bought It — How a Domain Name Produced a 7x-Revenue Price Tag
Honeymoons.com, launched in 1996, had a modest 12,500 monthly visits and just 300 articles — yet it sold in 2023 for 7x revenue, in six figures, all cash. The buyer ran a competing site with 10x the traffic. The "search power of a one-word domain" produced a price double the normal going rate — and after the acquisition, organic traffic to the combined site went up 10x.
A 300-article general-interest blog crosses ¥1M/month — the numbers Unicoblog put in the bank in 1 year 3 months, and the AdSense it abandoned
Reona Kobayashi's "Unicoblog," launched Jan 2020, hit 300 articles by April 2021 and started clearing over ¥1M/month by bank transfer, while AdSense revenue fell from ¥100K to ¥10K/month.
Substack Writers at Work: Zero New Subscribers for 2 Years, Then 2,000 in 6 Months — Selling How to Teach Substack, at $200,000+ a Year
Bestselling author Sarah Fay's first newsletter went 2 years with zero new subscribers. One phone call turned that into 2,000 subscribers in 6 months, and she split that method into a 3-tier subscription, reaching over $200,000 (about ¥30 million) a year.
Green Market Report: A Cannabis-Industry Financial News Site’s 3x-Revenue, Six-Week Speed Sale Amid Founder Burnout
Green Market Report, a financial and market news outlet for the cannabis industry, was founded in 2017 by a journalist, a PR entrepreneur, and an engineer. In 2021 it sold to legacy publisher Crain for 3x annual revenue, closing in just four to six weeks of negotiation. This is the record of a "fast exit" that happened as event revenue vanished in the pandemic and the founders admit they were burned out.