<i>This article from HubSpot says — Building free tools can provide better ROI than just pushing content.</i><p>https://thinkgrowth.org/building-tools-can-provide-better-roi-than-blogging-ec87e304c47d<p>It made me curious enough to do some cost calculations.<p>Cost for publishing an article in a growing startup:<p>Authors: They can be very expensive sometimes, though it varies from business to business. let’s assume $200-$300.<p>Reviewers/Proofreaders: You would need people to review articles and send questions, or feedbacks. Estimated cost: $30-$50<p>Graphics: Startups tend to use more graphics in order to make articles more interactive. Estimated cost: $100.<p>So, as a sum, it would cost you approx $330-$500 to publish one article.<p>The article(if good enough) can bring 5k-10k visitors to your website.<p>Subscribers: You can expect around 10-20<p>Qualified leads: Maybe 1 or 2.<p>——----------<p>Cost of Building a tool<p>Taking an example of Crew, who survive their mainstream business by just building free tools for their target users.<p>They built Unsplash(for stock photos) with a $19 Tumblr theme and 4 hours of work.<p>Total Estimated cost: $150<p>ROI(in terms of traffic etc): Over 50k Visitors right after they went viral on here(HN).<p>Afterwards, they built Launch this year, How much to make an app and many other free tools.<p>Over the year, these projects brought them millions of visitors, signups, referrals, and what not.<p>So, I think it’s safe to believe that free tools can bring you more ROI than blogging. What do you folks feel?