Jacob Donnelly of A Media Operator examines the launch of FinLedger by the parent of HousingWire.
Donnelly writes, “First, the second site needs to be adjacent to the first one. We can see that with HousingWire, which covers real estate, and FinLedger, which is for financial services. Banking is immediately central to both of these industries since most people take out mortgages to buy a home. This is important because you may have some crossover in audience, but also there’s the possibility to sell advertising to some of the same companies across the two verticals.
“Second, the sites should share a similar design and technological architecture. The reason here is two-fold. The designer for the first site should be able to deliver similar types of design work for the second. Additionally, if it’s the same tech stack, it’s not hard to maintain the second site.
“Third, there should be similar products for sale, whether that’s subscriptions or advertising. This benefits the sales team, which is used to selling similar products. It also benefits the operations team, which is used to supporting those same products.”
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