IME the competitiveness of results is probably a much bigger factor, considering exact-match domains are a very old SEO trick and Google doesn't reward them (it penalizes them, actually). "AEO" is a brand new concept so congrats on finding a new wave! Double down on SEO if that's working for you. It's hard enough finding 1 channel that works. The fact that you hit $500 MRR on the open web is actually pretty impressive, and you can likely scale significantly if you're aggressive about growth. Good luck!

Oh didn't know about that, perhaps you're right the keyword was just very low competition. Thanks for the advice, will hard focus on growth now trying to find other channels!

My advice was actually the opposite. It's harder to take a new channel from 0-1 than it is to take an existing channel from 1-2. so in my experience it's better to double down on what's working. only branch out to new channels when you have the resources, or you've maxed out your existing channels. FWIW I don't think your channel is just SEO, it's also content marketing like this HN post. Keep it up!

Thanks! I do really wonder though if content marketing like this post, or other posts on reddit actually bring any Paid users, which is what I'm trying to focus on. Because I see my viewership skyrocket when i do posts on reddit yet I get the same amount of Paid users in these days as the days I did 0 posts for like 2 weeks straight...