Polygon

Turning Search Demand into a $3–5M Annual Revenue Engine

ROLE:

Engagement Editor

IMPACT:

1B+ annual pageviews
$3–5M recurring ad revenue
212% YoY organic growth

GROWTH & MONETIZATION

DIGITAL MEDIA PLATFORM

CONTEXT & PROBLEM

Polygon is one of Vox Media’s largest gaming and entertainment brands, operating at massive editorial scale. When I took ownership of the Guides platform, Polygon had strong brand authority but lacked a scalable long-tail growth and monetization strategy. Traffic spikes were often tied to news cycles, and evergreen content was under-leveraged as a durable revenue driver.

The core challenge was turning an ocean of search demand into a system that had structured editorial output and predictable, compounding revenue.

WHAT I BUILT

I designed the organic growth and monetization infrastructure that transformed Guides into Polygon’s most valuable long-tail platform:

GUIDES PLATFORM ARCHITECTURE

Rebuilt information architecture and content structure to support evergreen discovery, intent matching, and internal linking at scale.

EDITORIAL TOOLING & ENABLEMENT

Partnered with product and analytics teams to improve CMS workflows, reporting, and performance visibility for editors.

SEO-DRIVEN PUBLISHING SYSTEM

Operationalized repeatable SEO workflows that aligned editorial planning, publishing, and refresh cycles to demand signals, not intuition.

PROOF & MONETIZATION NARRATIVES

Translated audience performance into sales-ready stories for branded content and sponsorship partners.

TRAFFIC-TO-REVENUE MODELING

Connected pageviews, RPM, and advertiser value to guide investment decisions and prioritize high-leverage content areas.

HOW IT SHOWED UP IN MARKET

These systems enabled:

  • A scalable evergreen content engine that reduced reliance on news volatility

  • Consistent search acquisition across hundreds of high-intent queries

  • Sponsored and branded guides aligned to both audience utility and advertiser outcomes

Polygon Guides became a platform, not a content section.

RESULTS & IMPACT

Outcomes

  • 1B+ annual pageviews driven by the Guides ecosystem

  • $3–5M in recurring programmatic ad revenue

  • 212% YoY organic search growth

  • Guides established as Vox Media’s most successful long-tail content engine