BuzzFeed

Say no to everything, then go 100% all-in on the wave

Sam's life strategy: default to 'no' on almost everything, then when you spot a genuine wave (Facebook for BuzzFeed, Facebook Live for Cheddar's $200M exit), go fully all-in. It's high-risk, fails more often than it works, but the risk/reward skews heavily in your favor.

“You say no to most everything. Then when you see the thing that you're like, this is it, you go 100% all in on it. Um, and, and so there's a few examples of this. So, uh, and, and when you go all in on it, it's a high risk, but it's high reward type of thing. So examples are you become BuzzFeed and Facebook gets popular. You launch an entire media company. Um, BuzzFeed, Cheddar did this as well. They launched an entire media company off Facebook Live and they sold for $200 million.”

Steal thisDefault to no, conserve focus, then commit 100% the rare time you spot a real wave.

BuzzFeed pegs Drudge Report at $30M/month in ad revenue

Shaan cites a BuzzFeed News figure putting the Drudge Report's ad revenue at $30 million per month — five times Sam's own back-of-envelope estimate.

“BuzzFeed News has him at $30 million in ad revenue per month.”

Amazon halved Sam's affiliate rate overnight on a $3-5K/month income stream

Sam's old blogs passively earned $3-5K/month from Amazon affiliate links at 6-9%. Amazon cut the rates roughly in half with no warning. Minor for him, but the same change wiped out huge chunks of revenue for sites like Wirecutter and BuzzFeed.

“it makes just like small amounts of money, like $3,000 to $5,000 a month off Amazon affiliates. And I don't even check it. It just runs because I've just written a lot of content over the years. They changed their rate and someone told me in the group, I think that I forget what I was earning. I don't even check it. I think I was earning 6% to 9% for affiliate revenue and then they changed it to— they like halved it.”