J
jane p
- Original Poster
- #1
id like to have a moneysaving/thrifty tips website but do you think there are too many around now?
T
TheseWordsAreMyOwN
- Original Poster
- #2
What would be different about your website that sets it apart from the rest? A quick search on Google etc shows that your main competition comes from http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ which seems pretty comprehensive.
Would your site be about how to save money in general or would it be more specific i.e. how to save money in a specific area such as food bills. I remember a couple of years ago a website giving tips on how to drive more fuel efficiently (therefore giving you more miles to the gallon) made the BBC local news.
With plenty of sites already like this in existence, a niche focusing on one particular aspect of saving money would be the way to go IMO.
Would your site be about how to save money in general or would it be more specific i.e. how to save money in a specific area such as food bills. I remember a couple of years ago a website giving tips on how to drive more fuel efficiently (therefore giving you more miles to the gallon) made the BBC local news.
With plenty of sites already like this in existence, a niche focusing on one particular aspect of saving money would be the way to go IMO.
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As the previous poster states it is in general a very saturated market. Nevertheless if you are capable of offering information on a very specific niche you could do very well indeed.
Here is an example. I was looking to find some bargains on running gear this evening. After an hour or so of searching I found some decent deals that I was unable to find on Moneysavingexpert, HotUKDeals etc.
Had there been a well indexed site available that could ringfence these deals into one place I would have been very interested in using it.
So what other niches can you think of?
Here is an example. I was looking to find some bargains on running gear this evening. After an hour or so of searching I found some decent deals that I was unable to find on Moneysavingexpert, HotUKDeals etc.
Had there been a well indexed site available that could ringfence these deals into one place I would have been very interested in using it.
So what other niches can you think of?
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The guy from moneysavingexpert is quite a celebrity, often on TV and radio - hard to directly compete with someone so established.
Just out of interest, why do you want to do this?
Just out of interest, why do you want to do this?
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Hi, before buying anything on the internet I google "Coupons" or "Codes". it always comes up with a load of sites but no actual codes or coupons. I often trawl the money saving sites but I think if you can tailor it to a specific market i.e new mums/dads who cant afford to stay off work with their kids or need to watch the pennies then you may have a niche market there. (parents in my classes are always on about saving money)
Hope this helps
Hope this helps
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He is indeed a bit of a celeb these days. He started out as a journalist, somewhat of a nobody, like most celebs in that respect
The key thing to remember however is that bargain hunters and those who offer tips on finding bargains have been around for centuries, nay millenia in one form or another. How this market is addressed has changed over time and technological advances, but the underlying principle remains the same - amalgamating lots of snippets of information into a unified source. If the OP were to try and replicate MSE directly it would likely be a flop without significant investment and advertising, but if the OP tries to think of a new way of dressing this eternal market then therein lies the opportunity.
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It would be hard to beat The Money Saving Expert. Martin Lewis is a household name - always on the radio, getting attention from members of parliament. I'd say that site is right up their with Netmums in terms of traffic and cultural influence.
You would have to do something different - focus on one area and do it better - in order to make it.
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all the previous comments are spot on, saturated market if you just try and go with general moneysaving so unless you have a huge marketing budget you will be seriously up against it. You will need to concentrate on an area and build a very specific website and build it very well to capitalise on certain search terms. That said, I am no expert on SEO etc so you need to speak to people who know the market far better than me. I have been discussing building a new site with a company that have really impressed me so far, they would happily discuss it with you and give you an honest opinion of whether they thought there is scope, all free of charge initially and they have been going 12 years so they have plenty of experience. Drop me a PM if you would like his contact details
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moneysavingexpert is great but it's not a total domination. Just did a poll around the office of who has heard of moneysavingexpert. 1 person put their hand up.
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There are huge variations in cost for this type of site depending on what functionality you want etc. Equally as important is how to generate traffic to the site and how to make money from it. I have a good contact with a firm that have lots of experience helping start ups like yourself. They would be able to give you some free advice on costs, likely success etc. PM your contact details and I can get them to give you a call to discuss if you want.
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Jane you are chasing a mouse you are unblikely to catch IMO.
If you did this on a local scale then maybe, but nationally forget it. It will cost you 20-40K to build staff and market a site like MSE then you have the ongoing costs of staff.
It is a glorified affiliate marketing site, no more, no less!
If you did this on a local scale then maybe, but nationally forget it. It will cost you 20-40K to build staff and market a site like MSE then you have the ongoing costs of staff.
It is a glorified affiliate marketing site, no more, no less!
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I think it is a valid point that you wont compete with MSE but I dont think that was the original intention. Local level could still be lucrative, dependant on your aspirations. It is an affiliate site in essence but that could still work if targetted the right way.
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No, she didn't. She said a website for money saving and everybody said "There's already an extremely well-known web site that is very comprehensive." So, in order to do something that makes her any money, she's going to have to check out MSE and see what she can offer that is different to that.
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They may not know to enter it into their browser, but if they Google just about anything related to the subject of saving money, MSE will likely pop up on top. Chances are, they've heard Martin Lewis on the radio and even seen the web site, just not remembered the name.
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J
JohnnyCash
- Original Poster
- #21
Moneysavingexert surpassed Netmums a long time ago - they get multiple times the traffics and probably earn as much as 1000 times what Netmums do.
It all depends what you want to do in that niche really. This is a decent blog - http://www.miss-thrifty.co.uk/, there would be nothing to stop you setting up one with no real costs at all, and start blogging today.
If you wanted to build a competitor to MSE, forget it unless you have deep into 6 figures (as an absolute minimum) - they are in too many broad and competitive niches that you won't be able to compete otherwise.
If you want to build a discount code site, you would need less money but I still wouldn't like to try it with less than £100k at this point. You would also need to bear in mind the time to keep it ticking over - 1000 man hours per month, and that is just for updating codes and finding new ones, that doesn't even start on actually promoting the site. It will get expensive, and quickly.
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That's a bit of an inaccurate generalisation of 'what everyone said'.
You should have included your own additional advice into the quotation marks that you used to represent 'everyone' elses opinion, because half a dozen of us have already advised her that trying to replicate MSE would be a dead end and that instead she would need to focus on a very specialised market.
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