The DailyWot is an online media destination site that provides its visitors with access to the latest trending and viral content from around the web. After being launched just a few years ago, the site now has tens of thousands of users from all over the world. What’s most interesting about it, however, is the way the business operates. This might be something that online entrepreneurs can learn from.
A global, distributed team
The company’s activity can be divided into a few different segments. On the one hand, it’s a content destination site, so it needs to source high-quality content and upload this for distribution to the site’s visitors. It manages to churn out massive amounts of fresh materials through a distributed, online team of content creators. These content creators have access to an online dashboard for uploading and publishing the content. All of it goes through editorial review before being released, to ensure that each article meets the DailyWot’s high standards.
All of the content creators work remotely on a freelance basis, so there are no overheads for running the core of the business – original, unique content creation. This works well for the freelances because they can work when and where they want to. It works well for the company because it keeps costs down and provides the management with content on demand.
On the other hand, the company is engaged in online media buying. This is the process of driving traffic (i.e. visitors) to the website. This media buying activity is 100% handled by a team of dedicated media buyers. These media buyers are also located in different parts around the globe and all work remotely. They are responsible for finding good traffic sources, sending traffic to the DailyWot, and then optimizing the traffic and the costs to ensure that it’s profitable for the business.
Finally, the business relies on selling advertising space so that its audience can be monetized. It seems to work primarily with cost-per-action (CPA) advertisers, meaning the DailyWot receives commissions whenever one of its visitors goes on to take a specific action, as defined by the advertiser. For example, the user may be required to register for a specific program, download a mobile application, or make a purchase. Whenever the defined action occurs, the Daily Wot generates revenue.
The operating model of the future?
Traditional media companies have long operated in a way that looks very different from the DailyWot’s operating model. However, it would appear that this new model is potentially a better fit for online media companies in an era when online media is getting increasingly difficult to monetize. Because the Daily Wot is able to keep its costs down, by avoiding expensive overheads (offices) and tapping into a global pool of talent, it has a massive edge over traditional companies operating in the media space.
As more and more people around the world get comfortable with the idea of remote work, it looks like there will be more opportunities for early-stage companies to build remote organizations that have a global reach from very early on. The DailyWot’s agile, distributed model seems like something that more entrepreneurs should consider emulating.