Interesting article about a project generating $21.6M per year

SEO+sticky content+ads. Users come for the math, then they stay for the games, and their stay is monetized through ads OR a "no ads" subscription.

Interestingly, at least one of the games (Astroballz) can be found elsewhere on the Internet with, as far as I can tell, same source code, which makes me believe that games are not original content. Looks like a clever content bootstrapping+aggregation strategy?

Have you ever seen those free software download sites? Ever wonder how they make money? Surely it’s from the fake ad buttons next to legit ones... Nope. They make majority of their money by bundling their installs with additional crap like browser bars and home page defaults that cannot be changed easily. It’s how many of the big search engines of the past grew their reach asides from pc preinstalls. There are a ton of obscure download sites like wallpapers and clip art that do the same thing and make a ton of money. Perhaps things have changed lately as I haven’t followed that industry but it’s interesting nonetheless.

amazing to see so 90s designed website with numbers like these