Ask HN: Startup Growth Hacking: ROI of Free Tools vs. Content

https://thinkgrowth.org/building-tools-can-provide-better-roi-than-blogging-ec87e304c47d

It made me curious enough to do some cost calculations.

Cost for publishing an article in a growing startup:

Authors: They can be very expensive sometimes, though it varies from business to business. let’s assume $200-$300.

Reviewers/Proofreaders: You would need people to review articles and send questions, or feedbacks. Estimated cost: $30-$50

Graphics: Startups tend to use more graphics in order to make articles more interactive. Estimated cost: $100.

So, as a sum, it would cost you approx $330-$500 to publish one article.

The article(if good enough) can bring 5k-10k visitors to your website.

Subscribers: You can expect around 10-20

Qualified leads: Maybe 1 or 2.

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Cost of Building a tool

Taking an example of Crew, who survive their mainstream business by just building free tools for their target users.

They built Unsplash(for stock photos) with a $19 Tumblr theme and 4 hours of work.

Total Estimated cost: $150

ROI(in terms of traffic etc): Over 50k Visitors right after they went viral on here(HN).

Afterwards, they built Launch this year, How much to make an app and many other free tools.

Over the year, these projects brought them millions of visitors, signups, referrals, and what not.

So, I think it’s safe to believe that free tools can bring you more ROI than blogging. What do you folks feel?