Growth Strategies for SaaS - CM #33
Marketing strategies catalog, library of free online courses and diplomas, world directory of newspapers and magazines. Data-driven opportunities. PersonalTab new mini-app.
In this issue:
Intro
3 Real-World Examples of Curation Monetized
3 Data-Verified Curation-Based Business Opportunities
Introducing new mini-app PersonalTab
This time of the year, it is very hot here in Koh Samui. The temperature rarely falls below 85°F/30°C.
Best place to be is inside the water.
Very privileged to live in a little house with plenty of light, where butterflies can fly through and a constant sea breeze keeps me cool and awake. (check out what my eyes see in this wonderful corner of the earth).
I just wish there were more of you here, individuals interested in exploring and creating value for others, to exchange and socialize with in person. I am a person that craves intellectual and emotional bonding, and when I live in places where social life is reduced to its minimum, I really suffer.
The only way to counter-balance this external void for me is to work on me. Taking the circumstances as a special gift for focusing with the least possible distractions and as inexcusable/unavoidable opportunity to change and improve me as a human being:
Learning who I am
Helping others realize their independence dreams
Leaving something of value behind
It is both painful and rewarding, but I do feel that this is a challenging path I want to stay on.
I hope you will enjoy what I have brought back for you this time.
Robin
Curation Monetized Real-World Examples (3)
In this section find real-world examples of existing online projects that generate revenue by organizing existing information, resources or tools as well as additional key opportunities that such projects (or similar ones) could leverage.
1) Database of Marketing Strategies
Boring Strategy
Catalog of practical case studies from 7-figure businesses to grow startups and SaaS.
Niche
Problem it solves: Finding effective, proven strategies to grow new startups.
Audience: Creators, startup founders, entreprenuers.
Tech
N/A
Business
Business Model: Direct sales.
Price: Starts at $59
Sold via: Stripe
Author(s)
Simone Canciello
Curator’s Job: Research, analyze and organize detailed information on the history of successful startups and on the marketing strategies they have adopted. Find indie sources, magazines and publications that report on such startups and that interview their founders. Identify data sources to get detailed info on individual startups, size, earnings, etc..
Key Insights:
BoringStrategy.com characterizes itself by turning real-world, low-hype marketing tactics into a neatly structured, actionable resource for indie creators and small businesses. Instead of relying on flashy trends or theoretical models, it dissects proven strategies from overlooked companies and packages them as straightforward case studies, templates, and tactical checklists.
The real value lies in its editorial judgment and selective curation: it filters noise to surface what actually works, then presents it in a fast-to-digest format that saves users time, energy, and decision fatigue.
More specifically BoringStrategy offers detailed breakdowns of proven strategies from successful startups, including:
- actual revenue numbers,
- specific tactics, and
- step-by-step implementation guides.
Each case study is thoroughly researched and includes real examples.
Key Opportunities:
1) Tiered Membership + Community Platform
Transition from one-time access to an ongoing membership/community model that includes:
Weekly live strategy calls or Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) sessions
Member-only expert webinars on topics like SEO growth, email funnels, or ad copy testing
Access to a private Slack/Discord community for peer feedback and networking.
This approach leverages customers willingness to pay for ongoing access to live mentoring, and a community of peers
2) Certification & Practitioner Program
Position Boring Strategy as a certified marketing training provider by build a structured curriculum with modules on prototyping, launch tactics, conversion frameworks, etc. and then offer a "Boring Strategy Certified Practitioner" credential upon successful completion (including tests or project submissions). Promote this credential to agencies and startups looking to hire vetted growth talent.
3) Data Product Dashboard
Convert the case study database into a powerful data product or SaaS offering that allows users to filter strategies based on KPIs, growth stage, industry, budget, etc.. Sell site licensing to marketing agencies, incubators, or startup studios so their whole team can access the tool. Offer custom reporting or white-labeling for agencies to showcase these strategies in client proposals.
2) Catalog of Free Online Courses, Certificates & Diplomas
Alison
Free online learning platform with thousands of certified courses and diplomas across professional, technical, and personal development subjects.
Niche
Problem it solves: Finding free online courses on a wide variety of subjects.
Audience: Learners, students.
Tech
N/A
Business
Business Model: Advertising, Affiliate Commissions, Courses, trainings, guides, Certifications and diplomas.
Price: N/A
Sold via: N/A
Author(s)
Mike Feerick
Curator’s Job: To source and curate quality educational content, licensing or organizing existing materials into structured learning paths that attract broad interest. Focus is on identifying what’s valuable, aligning it with global demand, and making it easily accessible.
Driving massive traffic through SEO, social media, and content marketing, turning reach into ad impressions and paid certification conversions.
Key Insights:
Alison is essentially a free‑for‑all learning platform offering 5,500+ CPD‑accredited courses and diplomas at zero cost, reaching over tens of millions of learners worldwide.
It’s free to users, yet sustainable thanks to a blend of ad‑driven traffic, paid certification, and affiliate partnerships.
What many miss is that Alison isn’t just a catalog of courses, it’s a learning ecosystem that supports individual learners, corporate upskilling (via a Free LMS), career planning tools, psychometric tests, and an API for integration. Alison captures value by converting attention into revenue streams across multiple touch-points (ads, certs, affiliates, enterprise tools).
Key Opportunities:
1) Premium LMS Upgrade
Sell a premium version of the LMS to organizations: features like advanced analytics, custom branding, compliance tracking, and workflow integrations (e.g. LMS + HR systems).
2) On‑Demand Coaching & Peer‑Mentoring Marketplace
Overlay the free courses with:
optional 1:1 coaching,
peer study groups, or
live Q&A sessions facilitated by alumni, experts, or top‑performing learners.
Monetize this strategy via session fees or subscription to mentorship circles. Benefit: adds human touch to self‑study, increases engagement, and opens recurring revenue beyond passive sales.
3) World Directory of Newspapers and Magazines
AllYouCanRead
Global online directory of top newspapers, magazines organized by country and category.
Niche
Problem it solves: Finding global news and magazines sources.
Audience: Journalists, researchers, anyone looking for reputable news sources by region or topic.
Tech
N/A
Business
Business Model: Advertising, Affiliate Commissions.
Price: N/A
Sold via: N/A
Author(s)
N/A
Curator’s Job: Researching, verifying, and updating listings - ensuring each site remains active, reputable, and relevant. This includes spot-checking broken links, adjusting rankings, adding new publications, and removing defunct ones to maintain trust and usefulness.
Optimizing for discoverability, using SEO best practices (country-specific keywords, metadata) and building relationships with publishers for potential sponsorships or cross-referrals.
Plus, the curator would monitor analytics to identify high-traction categories and tweak the editorial strategy accordingly.
Key Insights:
AllYouCanRead.com is a curation engine for global news that doesn’t create content but organizes its key sources. What makes it unique is its global categorization by country and subject, which helps users discover top-tier news sources beyond their regional ones.
Key Opportunities:
1) Membership Tiers with Premium News Collections
Create curated "Global Press Packs" (newsradars) for professionals—e.g., weekly briefings on fintech, sustainability, or emerging markets, delivered as PDF or email digests. Monetize via subscription plans (monthly/annual). Key benefits: recurring revenue, perceived premium value, strong appeal to agencies and analysts.
2) B2B White-Label Solutions for Enterprises
Offer enterprises and educational institutions a white‑label version of the directory embedded into intranets or LMS platforms, complete with custom categorization and analytics dashboards.
3) Sponsored "Featured Source" Sections & Insights Reports
Sell sponsored placements or highlight sections for publications seeking global exposure. Additionally, compile annual reports on media trends (e.g., regional coverage shifts, top news sources per niche) and sell these insights to media agencies, consultancies, or academia.
Were these opportunities and examples valuable for you?
If the answer is YES, please do click the heart / like button at the end of this newsletter, so that other people can discover it.
Data-Verified Curation-Based Business Opportunities (3)
In this section find curation-based niche business opportunity keyword-ideas validated by data. Selection criteria are: min 500 monthly searches and keyword difficulty below 20.
These keywords represent concrete potential commercial resources such as directories, catalogs, collections and libraries of specific information or tools for a specific audience and need.
1) Best AI for Coder
Opportunity for expert coders capable of testing and reviewing new AI-based coding platforms to showcase and critically compare and analyze their key strengths and weaknesses across features, performance, reliability, scalability and costs.
Monetizable via:
Advertising & sponsorship
Affiliate commissions
2) ChatGPT Newsletter
Compile a growing categorized index of newsletters focusing on ChatGPT for those interested in knowing everything about the developments, features and other stories from the popular AI platform. Curate and organize the best from those newsletters into a ChatGPT weekly/daily newsradar.
Monetizable via:
Pay to be featured
Pay to edit and update directory entry
Ads and sponsorship for newsletter
3) Stripe Alternatives
Create a directory of alternative platforms that allow accepting payments online directed at entrepreneurs, creators, startups/SaaS looking for a solution. Create value by showcasing / listing companies already using each solution and gathering their feedback and critical comments.
Monetizable via:
Affiliations
Pay to be featured
Pay to edit and update
Sponsorship by complementary product/service
Data source: BuildTheKeyword
Personal Tab
Productivity App - Chrome extension
Productivity tool, allowing for instant access to unlimited notes, lists, and links widgets that you can customize to your specific needs.
PersonalTab is a productivity Chrome extension, that facilitates instant note-taking, creating lists and link-pads (groups of web pages you need to visit or open together).
I have designed it for those like me looking for a private, instantly accessible, not-in-the-cloud digital space, where to:
jot down ideas, notes, snippets or stuff you don’t know where to put
create small lists of items, things to buy, tasks to do
curate link lists of sites you need to frequently access
monitor the latest posts/news from any website, social media, news site
feel safe from prying eyes (everything is private and local to your machine)
+
works across PC, Macs and any other device running the Chrome browser but it is definitely designed for desktop use.
integrates a handy and modular RSS feed reader to keep you updated with the latest posts from any magazine, newsletter or news site you want to keep open tabs on.
first prototyped and tested three years ago, I have now rebuilt it from scratch, with zero coding know-how by experimenting with AI coding tools such as Poe, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Github CoPilot, SAME and Bolt.
PersonalTab will be available this week to all my Premium subscribers on Substack.
*N.B.: Some readers have shown interest in accessing PersonalTab and the other mini-apps I have created, through a low one-time lifetime fee. If interested, please comment or message me.
Premium subscribers to this newsletter:
a) can contact me and ask me questions privately
b) get access to the new mini-apps for creators and indie entrepreneurs that I am building with AI assistance and releasing monthly. Two mini-apps already available (WebPage TimeDetector + CCPD Video Finder).
c) receive the Curation Monetized Database Catalog containing 100+ real-world examples of successful curation-related commercial projects.
Stop searching for something new.
Organize and add value to what is already there.
from sunny-hot Koh Samui (TH)
Robin Good
.