This guy makes ~$100K/month... with a blog.

What's up friends,

Today we're talking about this guy. His name is Pat Walls.

Pat built a business having people write about their businesses, called Starter Story.

Today we're talking about the origin, the growth, and the money behind the business.

If you're anything like me, you'll be inspired to go build stuff by the end of it.

The Background

Starter Story is a blog/newsletter started in 2017, where founders talk about about their business.

They talk origin, tools they use, and monthly revenue.

I even appeared on it once upon a time...

The mission is to bring existing entrepreneurs together, and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs with fresh business ideas.

To give you a visual, here's what the home page looks like:

Pat started the site as a side project, but eventually grew it to where he could quit his full-time job as a software engineer.

Now, the site acts as an all-in-one resource for generating business ideas and inspiration.

Five years after launch, the site currently has:

👉 1,600,000 monthly visitors

👉 93,000 newsletter subscribers

👉 4000+ case studies

👉 2500+ people on a paid membership

👉 1 kick-ass founder

So, how'd he get here?

The Growth

The business started in 2017, while Pat was a software engineer.

He grew the original audience for Starter Story by posting on Reddit..

My understanding is that he'd share business breakdowns, with a CTA about Starter Story at the end of it.

It was a slow grind. But a grind that paid off.

Pat would continue to interview founders and entrepreneurs, growing his database of interviews.

One of my favourite parts about this story, is that Pat blogged the journey - month by month.

Being that Reddit wasn't scalable, Pat had to employ a new strategy to grow this behemoth...

I'll give you a hint: 3 letters. 2 vowels. 1 man.

Rumor has it, his full name is Pat SEO Walls.

Seriously, he's a machine.

He said they 10x'd site traffic in 1 year by writing articles with content strictly aimed at doing well in search engines.

From here, as simple as it sounds - the guy stuck with it.

To this day, he still crushes the SEO game with Starter Story.

Okay, now to the real meat🥩

Let's Talk Money

Buckle up. You're about to see some financial wizardry.

Financials for Starter Story aren't public.

But, Pat made a blog post a few months ago talking about the business' growth.

As of November 2022, Starter Story had 2500 people on paid memberships, bringing in $30K/month.

Pat said the breakdown of revenue at the time was:

👉 Paid memberships - ~38% of revenue

👉 Sponsors and ads - ~57% of revenue

👉 Affiliates - ~5% of revenue.

In the blog, he said the memberships were bringing in $30K/month.

$30K/ .38 = Total monthly revenue of $78,947 (or just shy of $1M/year, and growing)

$78,947 x .57 = $44,999.79/month in sponsorship fees.

$78,947 x 0.05 = $3947.25/month in affiliate fees.

Not. A. Bad. Business.

Additionally, I noticed Pat has an SEO course available. If anyone should be selling an SEO course, it's this guy.

According to his site, he's sold:

👉 100 copies at $79 = $7,900

👉 100 copies at $799 = $9,900

👉 150 copies at $119 = $17,850

For an additional $35,650 in revenue. Not life-changing, but nothing to scoff at.

The course currently goes for $299.

What can you and I take from this

Pat's story is one of my favourites in this online business world we live in.

His mission is motivating. It's inspiring. And it's created a resource/community all of us can benefit from.

As for Pat himself, he's living proof that if you:

👉 Relentlessly pursue your goal, with no quit, no matter what

👉 Ideate, innovate, and iterate on ways to grow

👉 Put community first

... you will succeed.

Easier said than done? Of course. Possible? Definitely.

See ya

Anyways, that's all from me today.

Tell 3 friends to tell 3 friends about the newsletter, if you know what I'm saying:

Thanks for reading. Hope you come back.

Your friend,

Stewart The Koala.