A Story of Rebuilding, Rethinking, & Redefining What’s Possible

Back in 2011, we stepped into the digital world driven by passion and a simple idea: people needed genuine recommendations of reliable product reviews. We spotted a clear gap in the online tech affiliate market that gave us the needed direction.

Users actively sought guidance on products, reviews, and detailed guides—insights often overlooked by competitors. Recognizing this unmet need subtly evolved into a commitment that defined us.

Like other industry players at the time, we focused on keyword volume rather than user intent. Our content consistently ranked well on search engines—a strategy that fit within Google’s less complex guidelines of that era. This approach generated targeted traffic and steady revenue for us.

Six months later, this strategy delivered results—our site reached 50,000 monthly visitors. By month eight, monthly revenue had climbed to $10,000. Hitting $150,000 in annual revenue with just a few people on board, we knew we’d discovered a winning formula.

The data spoke clearly: our content, finely tuned to users’ search requirements, converted visitors at a rate 3.4x higher than industry benchmarks.

Yet, this initial success marked only the beginning of our journey. Search algorithms operated with limited precision in those early days. Our profitable trajectory would soon face an unexpected challenge that would demand extraordinary resilience and transform our future.

Ever watched everything you built vanish overnight with no idea how to get it back? In 2013, Google surprised us with a brief yet devastating message in Search Console: “Manual Penalty Applied.”

Since the early 2000s, Google has employed human reviewers to assess websites for compliance with its guidelines. Our site fell victim to the Google Panda update. Our visibility collapsed instantly, profits dropped to zero, and we were left staring at traffic graphs in disbelief.

We were beginners, genuinely unaware of what we had done wrong. Structured learning was practically non-existent, leaving us to painstakingly audit thousands of links, revamp content, enhance user experience, and craft heartfelt proposals urging Google to reconsider the implementation of the manual penalty.

Each proposal highlighted our honest hard work, sincere efforts, and unwavering dedication to improvement. We analysed 19,767 URLs, contacted over a thousand domain owners for link removals, and filed disavow requests for thousands more. We desperately hoped that Google would recognise our commitment and lift the penalty.

Google’s response? Silence.

After a full year of relentless struggle, we made the tough decision: it was time to rebuild. Launching new domains, we started fresh, but this time we were better equipped in terms of knowledge and experience, embracing our past lessons and growth.

Then came the ironic twist: just as our new sites found footing, Google quietly lifted the penalty on our original site. But by then, it was simply too late—the site had already lost its magic. Little did we know, this painful lesson would unexpectedly shape our entire future.

By the time Google lifted the penalty, the original site had lost its spark. Instead of waiting around, we had already moved ahead. We launched new affiliate sites and survived, leaning on steady, recurring profits from our successful ventures from 2012.

Every tough moment became a valuable lesson. Refusing to leave future growth to chance, we documented each insight, using steady profits from successful ventures to craft “The Playbook.” It wasn’t just a record of past experiences; it was our blueprint for repeatable success.

Every small win and every hard-earned insight made it into The Playbook, turning resilience into routine and ensuring our growth was intentional rather than accidental.

Still, one question lingered: could the Playbook keep up as we levelled up?

By 2018, The Playbook was ingrained into our culture, consistently driving repeatable success. However, rapid growth revealed new challenges. Processes required structure, operations demanded clarity, and scaling needed like-minded people.

Each time we applied our Playbook strategies, we achieved the same predictable success. This remarkable consistency gave us the confidence to scale operations more aggressively than ever before. We had cracked the code—our methods worked reliably across different scenarios and projects.

In 2021, with ambitions to expand rapidly, we faced our most significant hurdle: talent scarcity. Finding passionate, like-minded individuals who shared our DNA wasn’t easy.

Instead of waiting, we created our talent pipeline by launching our first Affiliate Academy. Following our Playbook approach, we documented training sessions, captured insights, and built an internal LMS. Real-time feedback shaped every Academy session, ensuring each new recruit fully embraced our culture and methods. Over 100 diverse and passionate team members joined, closely aligned with our vision and core values.

By 2022, our growing team required sharper operational visibility. That year, we introduced “Brain,” our internal tracking system.

Brain became our operational compass, recording everything from content production and page indexing to keyword rankings and sales performance. Decision-making became quicker, more innovative, and consistently data-driven.

With Brain’s clarity, we aggressively optimised tasks. Projects that previously took 40 hours now took just 12. Content scaled rapidly from 100 monthly pieces to over 1,000, effortlessly transitioning from single-language output to a global, multilingual audience.

Inspired by HubSpot, we implemented our own “Growth Flywheel” in 2022. Post-implementation, we achieved extraordinary year-on-year success—71% revenue growth in 2021, followed by 69% in 2022, and a further 23% increase in 2023.

With Brain, we built a powerful Growth Flywheel focused on sales performance. The concept transformed our business economics by continuously improving lifetime value metrics and elevating us to top-tier affiliate status.

Our Growth Flywheel created momentum—each optimisation fed into the next, amplifying results through strategic automation. This systematic approach changed our client relationships fundamentally, delivering six-figure monthly revenue streams for partners while our systems handled complexity.

We felt confident as we cracked the code on scaling processes, culture, and people. With this shift, productivity soared, but success often brings unforeseen challenges. Were we truly ready for what came next?

January 2024: An uncomfortable silence filled our All-hands meeting after announcing we were going all-in on AI. The announcement followed a list of nervous questions:

• “Are our jobs at risk?”
• “Can machines really replace human creativity?”
• “Do we even have the technical capability?”

Truthfully, we didn’t have answers.

So we did what we do best! We returned to square one, reminiscent of our early days—exploring, questioning, and rapidly learning.

Uncertainty was familiar territory, but this time, the stakes felt higher. It was another “first step” moment, forcing us to rediscover curiosity and courage.

We experimented cautiously, testing ideas, discarding assumptions, and venturing into uncharted territory once again.

It wasn’t easy, as there were days we questioned if this pivot was even possible. But deep down, our DNA was built on resilience, exploration, and adaptability.

Once again, we embraced uncertainty, determined not to be defeated but reshaped by this next chapter of exploration.

December 2024 marked a significant milestone—the beta launch of KIVA. Nervous yet optimistic, we released our vision to acquire 100 beta users, hoping they’d see what we saw.

The feedback was immediate and electrifying. Positive testimonials flowed in, fuelling our excitement and confirming we were on the right track. Users praised KIVA for its depth, user-friendliness, and efficiency.

Our momentum accelerated dramatically after a standout launch on Product Hunt, where KIVA – an AI SEO Agent secured 2nd position as Product of the Day.

Every comment, every testimonial, and every suggestion during the beta period became our compass, shaping rapid improvements and refining our vision further.

Empowered by real validation, energised by thousands of early believers, we knew exactly what our next move would be: dive headfirst and launch Wellows to the world.