How Simon Vielma Scaled Finance Affiliate Sites to $250K/Month

Background and Early Experimentation

Simon Vielma arrived in the U.S. fresh out of high school and enrolled in Computer Science and Economics. While peers chased internships, he launched his first venture: a Latin America–focused car-listing platform. He offered free ads, layered in Google AdSense and affiliate links, and discovered valuable lessons in user behavior, traffic acquisition, and niche selection.

Building Bidwise and Initial Growth

In 2016, Simon formalized his efforts under the name Bidwise and spun up a handful of simple affiliate sites. These early properties focused on consumer queries, monetizing through Amazon Associates and other networks. By year-end, those sites generated $150K in revenue. The next year saw explosive growth to $1.1M, driven by refined content strategy and better payout channels.

Seizing a Domain Opportunity: Money Ranger

During the 2021 pandemic, his team spotted MoneyRanger.com on GoDaddy for $7,500. The domain carried pre-existing authority in the finance niche. Within two weeks, they relaunched with new content and saw one credit-card comparison article pulling in $1.5K daily. That proof of concept turbocharged Bidwise’s confidence.

Diversified Portfolio and Scale

Bidwise now runs multiple niche sites—Money Ranger, Apprenda (tech/cloud), Top-Best (reviews), SuperOffers (deals) and ReturnPolicy. Combined they attract over 6M visitors per month and record roughly 100K affiliate clicks each day. Simon’s team of in-house and freelance writers create SEO-driven content around long-tail keywords to avoid head-to-head competition.

Proprietary Automation: BART System

To remove manual wrangling, Bidwise built BART (Bidwise Automated Revenue Tracking). It measures affiliate payout per demographic and automatically switches to the highest-​return partner—be it Awin, Rakuten or direct deals. This automation frees writers to focus purely on content quality rather than tracking links.

SEO-First Link Acquisition

Rather than outreach, Simon’s team invests in free calculators, interactive maps and statistical tools that naturally earn backlinks. They model sites like NerdWallet and Bankrate, creating truly helpful resources that dominate SERPs for niche queries without relying on blackhat tactics.

Team Building and Metrics Discipline

Hiring skilled developers and content experts was challenging amid big-company competition. Simon chose to automate or defer tasks rather than compromise. Internally, every campaign is tracked in BART, and close monitoring of profit margins guides advertising spend.

Key Lessons Learned

From domain flips to building a proprietary platform, Simon’s journey underscores the power of niche focus, systematic SEO, and smart automation. His goal now is to consolidate all sites into Top-Best and hit $10M ARR by year’s end.