MoneySavingExpert.com isn't a typical website. It allows neither advertising (companies can't pay to appear on the site), nor subscription (no charge is ever made for using the site).
Yet it's a mammoth beast, with over 30 full time staff, servers dealing with 10 million users a month & complex MoneySaving tools to develop. This guide explains how a site set up for just £100 in 2003 does all that.
In this guide
Also see: About the site
Completely free to use
The most important thing to understand is that MoneySavingExpert.com doesn't allow advertising (companies can't pay to appear on the site) and is completely free to use. Anything that is on the site is here because we believe it is the best way to save money, based on independent, detailed and specialised journalistic research by members of the team. No one can pay to have anything put on this site.
When the site first started in 2003, it was a one man Martin Lewis band, there was no revenue generation, but within a year it had so many users that the running costs escalated substantially - and it needed to find a way to generate revenue.
These days MoneySavingExpert.com is a top 100 UK website, and the biggest money site in the country. While our focus on best information hasn't changed, the finances have; there's a large team, and expensive to operate, but thankfully the site is strongly in profit and donates to charity each year.
So how does it generate revenue?
Guides are written purely from a 'what's the best way to save money?' stance. Yet, once they're finished one of the team has the job to see if any 'affiliate links' to the top products can be found.
While these look and work in the same way as normal links, if someone clicks through the link is tracked and it may generate a payment to the site (the details vary; sometimes per click, per user, per application, per accepted application or any combination).
Doesn't this compromise the site?
We don't believe so. The MoneySaving articles are written then, totally separately, paid links are looked for. If no paying link is available, nothing in the article changes. If the best is the best and doesn't pay, it stays the best. The link used is simply 'non-affiliated' i.e. non-paying. Financial considerations do not impact inclusion in articles.
Yet just like best buys change all the time, so do the products with affiliate links available. We may use the weekly email and website navigation to remind you more often about deals or guides that generate more revenue for the website at that time, though crucially the info within will be exactly the same.
We will never change our stance or picks based on commercial considerations.
Where do the links come from?
They come from finance comparison sites like Moneysupermarket, Uswitch, Moneyexpert, Beatthatquote and Defaqto or affiliate sites such as Tradedoubler or Commission Junction. Their links are used and then if someone clicks through, this site gets a split of their revenue.
We usually try to avoid going directly to, or building a relationship with, financial product providers themselves, to reduce their opportunities to try to exert pressure (which we’d ignore anyway) - though occasionally links are direct, for example to comparison services, new cards or shopping as when, within the context of the guides, they're the best way to save money.
This is the reason why Moneysupermarket's very good loans comparison is included (which pays this site), but its less competitive life assurance comparison (which would pay the site generously) isn't, and instead a cheaper broker (that doesn't pay us) is the top pick.
It's also for this reason you don't ever see any credit card comparison services (with the exception of specific poor credit analysis ones; as we currently don't believe they're the best way to do things.
We want you to know when links are affiliated...
Unlike many sites that use affiliate links, from the very first time we used them we've always been deliberate about including a * after every one (and we're pleased to see a few other sites starting to adopt this).
This is so that you know which links contribute to the site and which don't, so you can make your own decision. We hope you will choose the ones that help pay for the huge resource this site offers.
Occasionally this means you'll go to one of the comparison services landing pages to get the product. However, the product itself will be the same - or possibly even better - and you shouldn't notice a difference in any other way.
In other words, if there's a link to Supertelephonecompany because it's the cheapest provider, if it has a * you'll go through directly and this site may get some money. If it doesn't have a * you'll go through directly and the site won't make money. That's the only difference.
And wherever there's a * link, at the bottom of the page there's a full explanation and an unaffiliated version of the same link is included, so you can check there's no difference.
Is this very different to other sites?
Yes, although following the success of the way MoneySavingExpert.com does things cleanly and successfully, some other sites are have started adopting similar rules.
In general there are two main models. Which? funds its magazines and website through a subscription model - and some paid-for services (e.g. legal support). We prefer to try and keep this site free, especially as a good number of users couldn't afford to pay.
The other is used by more commercial sites, which prioritise, or even limit inclusion only to, products which are paying them. For this reason we hope and believe this site's recommendations are the best.
Plus this site isn't just about 'finding the best product', instead it's 'finding the best product and using it in a way that works for you, not the company'.
This stretches far further and means that we will list vouchers, deals and tools that aren't on other sites or even published in newspapers and magazines - rather than solely focusing on deals we've arranged and pay money, as some other sites do.
And in the money world we can sometimes list niche products that need you to apply through a special website to get certain terms.
As there are no corporate paymasters, everything that is written is unbiased, objective and free from outside influence. There are scores of examples of this, but here's just one:
Our stance can mean we list deals others don't
WARNING: This is an example, the best accounts will change, do not rely on this for updated info instead please see the regularly updated Top Savings Article.
For example, at the time this guide was updated in October 2011, the following was the situation in the Top Savings guide, one of the most read on the site. The three top easy access savings accounts at that time didn't pay the site and thus weren't * links, but because they're the best - they're the top picks.
The other money sites out there don't include these accounts in their best buy tables. All their recommendations are ones which pay their sites and this is the core difference. Let me show you how the other companies work:
-
MoneySavingExpert.com top savings. No links paying the site (sadly)
Derbyshire BS 3.25% AER, incl. 2.25% bonus for 1 year
Nottingham BS 3.2% AER, incl. 1.45% bonus until August 2012
Newcastle BS 3% AER clean rate (no bonus) -
Standard comparison sites. All links paying the site
Nationwide BS 3.12% AER, incl 1.58% bonus for a year
Northern Rock 3.11% AER, incl. 1.5% bonus for a year
Santander 3.1% AER, inc. 2.6% bonus for a year
The reason for the difference is that the best accounts on the market aren't paying and, as this doesn't impact the MoneySavingExpert.com best buys, they are better. This is reflected across lots of different subjects at various times. Of course, sometimes the best do pay, in which case the best buy tables coincide.
What happens to the money?
Rather than any grand design to set up such a massive beast, the revenue concept behind the site grew organically, based on need to fund costs. We believe it's been done in such a way to make this a very successful project without compromising the information, or the campaigning agenda of the site.
As a private company, the site doesn't publish figures, but overall as the UK's biggest money website, the finances are strong. Like any entrepreneurial project this has enabled the site to grow, create employment, build more tools, service its users and reward the entrepreneur. Here are some examples of where the money goes.
-
A team of editorial and technical staff.
As at October 2011, there are thirty six highly qualified and skilled full time team members working in MoneySaving towers. Around half are editorial contributing to research, campaigns, guides, voucher hunting and more; they've backgrounds including former national newspaper journalists, Citizens' advice workers or maths bods.
The rest are a mix of developers building the tools to help people save money, forum administrators to help that giant beast function, a lawyer, server watchers, commercial, design and administrative staff ensuring that this huge website keeps running. - Servers and keeping the site running
With over 10 million unique users a month, mammoth processing power and technology are needed to keep the site up and running at speed. The site's servers are hosted in a former Ministry of Defence bunker to ensure security and minimise downtime.
The Forum alone is the seventh biggest social networking site in the UK, and takes huge resources because it's massive. In fact the company that provides the off-the-peg software for the Forum, Vbulletin, is now working with us as it's become one of the world's biggest and it allows them to tweak and test their software under huge stress.
It's not just the technology either, as with any large community there are rules and issues of 'policing it' to keep it a safe place for all. - Developing new tools
We're constantly striving to add more information and technology to aid the MoneySaving. Whether this is small calculators like the State Pension Booster, eligibility checkers like for Mortgage Arrears Help or full on major tools like the Premium Bond Calculator, Student Finance 2012 calculator, MegaShopbot. Budget Planner, Flight Checker and CallChecker.
These tend not to have any revenue generating facilities on them, one of the reasons they're all unique. - Legal Bills
You may be surprised that this isn't usually for the main site. Funnily enough things like bank charges or PPI reclaiming, while controversial and occasionally need legal consultancy, are still minor. The big bills come from defending consumer comment in the Forum, when companies whose reputations are rightly tarnished try to force it to be taken down.
We have to pick and choose our fights carefully, but it is important that MSE isn't cowed and can fight it's corner if it is necessary to. - Martin...
The site of course pays its owner and founder, Martin Lewis, both for working here and as the man behind it. As he says,
"The site is a very substantial part of my income; and I make a very good living. When I first set it up, little did I realise quite the mammoth beast it'd become. In the early days I funded it out of my journalist's income. Now, while I still consider myself a journalist and campaigner, what in hindsight I realise was entrepreneurship has paid off, especially as so far I've managed to grow the site without ever needing to raise funds from elsewhere.
"Of course, the financial strength is also important in enabling the site to thrive and continue to help so many people without ever charging them.
"The site's strong finances means I'm in the outrageously luxurious position that if I want to create a new tool I care about, such as the benefits check-up tool, I can do so, without having to consider the fact it won't generate any revenue. The same's true of the site's campaigning stance, such as the campaign for financial education in schools - where we paid £35,000 to fund the All Party Parliamentary Group on it.
"So I hope the site continues to make very decent money, like any business (see my social entrepreneur blog). In fact I'd be delighted if it made me a billionaire, providing it never compromises my ethics and recommendations." -
It's allowed over £500,000 to be donated to charity.
For years, the sites been donating to charities voted for by users. Then the charity fund got so big (running well in excess of £100,000 a year) there was enough cash to set up its own charity.
So now the money is split, with a third going to user-selected charities (see the MoneySavingExpert.com Charity Fund for details of all donations), and the other two-thirds goes to the MSE Charity. It provides grants to other charities and individuals to help educate people about debt and consumer issues.
Will the big freeze hit energy bills?
Benefit cap 'could hurt couples'
OFT launches investigation into gym contracts
House prices 'still falling slightly'
Amex ups credit card cashback to 5%
A warning to freelancers and the self-employed everywhere
A dragon in the Napoleonic wars
Student loans will be interest free for many 2012 starters
Why I confidently predict this recession won't be as 'severe' as the last
“MoneySavingExpert: a stronger brand than iTunes”
