My addiction to -----.com is a $100 million online business

I think I might be addicted.

What started out as an innocent way to pass some time, has turned into more and more time on this website.

That's right, I'm addicted Chess.com.

I blame YouTube and their suggested videos about Magnus Carlsen for starting it all.
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One minute I'm watching Magnus Carlsen play amateurs, the next minute, I decide I should try playing some Chess online.

Chess.com enters the room.

I start playing and win some...and lose some. What did I do last night right before bed? Lost a game of chess.

I notice that they have a monthly subscription option (I haven't given in yet). I notice that they have display ads.
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I notice that 344,411 people are playing on Chess.com right now.

I notice that 15,830,550 games were played today!

I realize that Chess.com is an absolute monster of a business! Some quick research and a Twitter thread reveals that Chess.com is doing over $100,000,000 in subscription revenue each year!
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And with the crazy growth it's had, this might be a billion dollar business!

Insane.

According to Similar Web, Chess.com gets 276 million visits and is the 113th largest website in the world.

And nearly 88% of all their traffic is direct. Search accounts for less than 10% of their traffic (and I suspect that most of the search traffic is for the phrase "chess" or "chess.com").

So, what website can you build that gets mostly direct traffic and has a high return rate (i.e. I might be addicted)?

Here's a couple of interviews with the founder of Chess.com talking about how they built the business.

• ​Noah Kagan interviews Chess.com founder Erik Allebest​
• ​How to copy Chess.com business model: My First Million​
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Pardon me now while I go lose a few games of Chess...

How to Know if a Google Doc You Are Reading is AI Generated?

Many authors write their articles for your website in a Google Doc to start.
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With ChatGPT and other tools becoming widely used, how can you detect if your authors are generating AI content or writing it themselves?
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Well, Originality.ai just launched a major update to their free Google Chrome extension that does just that.
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Originality.ai has always been able to detect AI content. However, now you have the ability to actually review and see what their author wrote in the Google doc.
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You can see them typing the actual words in the document. If it was AI generated, it would likely just be dumped all at once.

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The best way to understand what the new Chrome extension does is to watch it in action right here.

So, you can get an AI vs Human written score. But you can also verify that score by seeing if they actually typed out the words in the Google doc.

Go ahead and download the free Originality Chrome extension right here.​

How Niall Doherty Makes $15k/Month Sharing User-Generated Reviews of Online Courses

If you'd like an extra boost of inspiration to start your weekend, be sure to check out our latest success story on Niche Pursuits.

Niall Doherty escaped his 9-5 to freelance while traveling across the world, and in 2018 he launched his own affiliate site.

He now makes 6-figures per year from a unique strategy that you want to miss!

Today he shares:

• What his initial idea for his website was
• What his review process entails
• What makes his reviews unique
• What sometimes happens when he publishes a negative review
• His SEO strategy
• How he does keyword research and creates content
• His future plans for his email list
• The accomplishment he's most proud of
• The advice he would give to other entrepreneurs
• And a whole lot more...

​Learn how Niall managed to quickly grow and likely future-proof his site here!​

New Niche Sites Available on Motion Invest

This 2 year, 4 month old air purifier starter site is new to the marketplace. The site is currently monetized with Amazon associates however it has yet to capitalize with much affiliate content.

An estimated 70% of its ranking keywords target informational intent. So, the new owner should focus on adding more affiliate-focused content and going after topics that will help expand traffic across the site from different sub-categories.

​Get more details here​

This 3 year old solar power site is making an average of $347 per month from Ezoic and Monetise. The site has 362 posts live and traffic is mostly on an upward trend with the majority of traffic coming from the United Kingdom.

An estimated 68% of the currently ranking keywords target an informational intent so there's a lot of room to update existing content and expand content opportunities to target more affiliate opportunities.

​Get more details here​

This 3 year, 9 month old gaming site has also just been added to the marketplace. The site has 176 articles live, making an average of $33 per month from Amazon associates.

An estimated 38% of its ranking keywords target an informational intent so there's a lot of opportunities to expand their informational content. And most of its traffic comes from Bing, which depending on how Google Bard plays out, could turn out to be a blessing in disguise!

​Get more details here​

Thanks again for reading!

Spencer

PS - Did you like this newsletter? If you could hit the reply and let me know what you liked or didn't like, that would be super helpful. Thanks!