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The Modest Man
Clothing & Fashion B2B

The Modest Man is a men's style and confidence digital media brand (website and YouTube channel) that gives clothing and grooming advice, especially for shor...

themodestman.com · Founded 2012 · 33 public sources · Updated 1 day ago

Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 33 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →

How The Modest Man Grew

Men's style and confidence website for shorter men

How did The Modest Man grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

The Modest Man grew largely through content published on its blog and YouTube channel, with a focus on search traffic, shareable infographics, and relationships that led to guest posts and interviews. Website traffic nearly doubled in one year after the owner returned to publishing high-quality blog content with organic potential, which the owner said meant ad and affiliate revenue doubled too. Infographics about getting clothes tailored were shared tens of thousands of times on Pinterest and Reddit, and the site reached almost a million people each month across platforms, with over 166k YouTube subscribers. Affiliate programs, including Amazon, and display advertising were its main monetization channels, with the owner focusing on display ads and affiliate revenue.

Channels

14 channels · grouped by how The Modest Man grows

  • SEO

    · 7 mentions · 6 sources
    “And I kind of, I don't know, I was just enamored by the idea of like a low startup cost business that you could do from your home and work anywhere and whenever you wanted. So that's kind of how I got into the world of like WordPress and publishing and affiliate marketing. I tried a bunch of smal...”
    high
    Show 6 more quotes
    “Asfand is a WordPress developer and SEO expert. He makes sure every article is laid out just right so it looks great on your screen and is easy to read.”
    medium
    “All of the early traffic came from Google. I didn’t really share anything on Facebook because I didn’t tell anyone about the blog.”
    high
    “For the website, it’s simple: creating helpful, in-depth content with solid on-page SEO (here’s my exact process for that part).”
    high
    “For a long time, Brock was syndicating the same content on Youtube and his Blog. He found that people discovered his content much differently on YouTube than on his blog. Since they were so different, he shouldn't be handling them the same. YouTube content needed to have a bit of a “viral compone...”
    high
    “I’ve sort of gone back to the basics: publishing great blog content that has lots of organic potentials. ... Well, I’m happy to say that this strategy has been paying off. Website traffic nearly doubled this year, which means ad and affiliate revenue doubled too.”
    high
    “Unless you have a plan for some other non-SEO traffic source, there’s really no point in publishing anything on a website that doesn’t have organic potential. If you can drive traffic from social or an email list, that’s another story. But for most sites, you need to make sure you’re doing good k...”
    high

  • Organic social media

    · 5 mentions · 5 sources
    “TMM content is created for and published on YouTube, themodestman.com, Instagram and other social media channels. At the time of writing, TMM reaches almost a million people each month across platforms. YouTube is the “biggest” platform with over 166k subscribers.”
    high
    Show 4 more quotes
    “The Modest Man is one of the most popular men’s style publications in the world, reaching millions of readers each year.”
    medium
    “I run The Modest Man, a style blog and YouTube channel dedicating to helping men dress well and feel confident, with a special emphasis on the shorter build.”
    high
    “If you can drive traffic from social or an email list, that’s another story.”
    high
    “In that time period, I tried a lot of different things, got social media accounts, started a YouTube channel, which I still have.”
    medium

  • Affiliate program

    · 4 mentions · 3 sources
    “display advertising. advertising, affiliate programs, and then some digital products. ... So I really focused on display ads and affiliate. ... Before that, before I had enough traffic to get accepted to a premium network, it was all affiliate. And Amazon was definitely a big one throughout the e...”
    high
    Show 3 more quotes
    “The Modest Man is owned by Shawn Sheikh and funded primarily through advertising and affiliate commissions. When you buy something through one of our links, we may earn a small percentage of the sale, at no extra cost to you.”
    medium
    “TMM generates $10-15k revenue from advertising brand partnerships, digital products (an e-book) and affiliate programs.”
    high
    “For this reason, I focus on increasing revenue from affiliate programs and advertising, rather than working with brands.”
    high

  • Pinterest

    · 3 mentions · 2 sources
    “eventually you know started Pinterest ... same with Pinterest like I just couldn't figure it out hmm I would think Pinterest would do so well in this yeah so did I I I bought courses like I tried Tailwind like I tried agencies and I just I never really figured out Pinterest”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “These infographics and articles about clothing alterations got shared tens of thousands of times on Pinterest, Reddit, etc.”
    medium
    “I decided to make these little infographics about getting your clothes tailored, and they got shared tens of thousands of times on Pinterest, Reddit, etc.”
    high

  • Email List Growth

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “If you can drive traffic from social or an email list, that’s another story.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Using a free lead magnet to build a 20k+ email list”
    high

  • Email marketing

    · 2 mentions
    “The other good thing about a broker is they have a list of buyers. So they just email your your summary to all of their potential buyers and you immediately start getting interest in offers, which is something I couldn't have done on my own, you know.”
    medium
    Show 1 more quote
    “Selling a premium quality e-book via automated email funnel”
    medium

  • Brand collaborations and giveaways

    · 1 mention
    “As Brock has put himself on the map as an influencer, he was getting quite a few sponsored posts requests. ... These deals take a lot of time and work but are profitable. For a dedicated video, a brand would pay The Modest Man anywhere from $4-6k for a few minutes of visual content. ... The Spons...”
    medium

  • Video content

    · 1 mention
    “I run The Modest Man, a style blog and YouTube channel dedicating to helping men dress well and feel confident, with a special emphasis on the shorter build.”
    high

  • Advertising on social media

    · 1 mention
    “In a given month, TMM generates $10-15k revenue from advertising brand partnerships”
    medium

  • Press

    · 1 mention
    “It has been featured in Esquire, Huffington Post, Men’s Health, WWD, Fortune and more.”
    medium

  • Webinars

    · 1 mention
    “Then I had a part time operator. So he was kind of like my right hands, like managing the content queue, assigning articles to writers, receiving the drafts, and then sort of seeing it through formatting. And he basically managed the formatter.”
    medium

  • LinkedIn

    · 1 mention
    “I pretty much had every social media account you know like ... and Twitter ... and it just never it never made sense yeah it never made any money never got any referral traffic same with Pinterest like I just couldn't figure it out”
    high

  • Guest posts

    · 1 mention
    “And it could be guest posts. It could be podcast interviews. But you have to form real relationships. ... And eventually, I would say, hey, can I write for you? Or can we do an interview? Or can I get a link, or whatever? But it all started from a genuine relationship.”
    high

  • Reddit

    · 1 mention
    “I decided to make these little infographics about getting your clothes tailored, and they got shared tens of thousands of times on Pinterest, Reddit, etc.”
    high

How 3,222 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — The Modest Man’s highlighted.
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    64%
  • Social media
    63% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    58% ◀
  • Email
    47% ◀
  • Community
    37% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    35% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Events
    24% ◀
  • Paid ads
    23%
  • Outbound/Sales
    19%
  • Press/PR
    17% ◀
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    12%
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Influencer partnerships
    3%
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