There is a huge opening in the UK for somebody to build a market leading finance blog and it’s just a matter of time before somebody decides to take the plunge.
Google likes to see diversity in the search results so to have a blog ranking for “loans”, “car insurance” and “mortgages” wouldn’t cause them any problems.
The key would be to hire expert writers from one of the leading finance publications as well as a PR company that was able to get the site into the mainstream media.
Top this off with minimal monetisation for the first year and an aggressive SEO strategy and for a modest initial investment you could have something worth £10 million in two to three years.
Who will be the first to do it?
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Leeds based digital & SEO agency Branded3. Patrick also runs Blogstorm.You can get our blog posts delivered for free by email every day - simply add your email address to the box below or alternatively grab the RSS feed.
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Patrick,
I thought about this after Johns Wu sold Bankaholic.com for a tidy sum last month.
What about sites like fool.co.uk – not necessarily a blog, but a huge finance site that ranks for some pretty good terms. Full of useful content and updated on a regular basis, this kind of site would be the main competition for someone who tries to build a market leading finance blog.
Oh, and moneysavingexpert.com does a pretty good job too.
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Have you looked at the backlinks to Bankaholic? A very aggressive SEO strategy was used for that site.
There are major sites doing well but they have no SEO strategy for getting to the top for the really big keywords.
More comments from Patrick AltoftYou’ll find that a load of the big finance portals like Money Expert, Fool etc. already have numerous blogs inside the site. Often written by industry experts and well known “gurus” within the industry. Likewise Martin Lewis has a blog within Money Saving Expert. So while you are right, there are no high profile stand-alone finance blogs there are plenty to be had within the finance portals.
Shhh… that was my plan. Except I’m lacking the quality writers, aggressive SEO strategy etc.
While we don’t have a blog, we do publish regular commentary for individual investors at Morningstar.co.uk
One site which I have come across in the UK which is similar to bankaholic is
http://www.thriftyscot.co.uk
I notice they are ranked at number 5 for the term mortgage and number 3 for the term loan
Come to think of it, you are right. There are no real finance blogs. This is an interesting situation and I think this is something that I would want to follow.
Its a surprise no one has really plunged into yet, the reason probably being that a finance blog would need to be accurate to the core.
Working in the vehicle finance market, a blog of this sort would be great to keep up to date and informed on the latest comment and news. Come on someone – get us something to use.
Could it be that everyone reads US Personal Finance blogs instead? So they don’t feel that there’s a need for a UK-specific PF blog?
Anyone seen http://www.rubii.co.uk? Only launched last month and already has a lot of quality posts. Mix of finance journos and industry experts it seems
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I wish i could do it. Have to spend real good time and money.
This is ours http://www.yellownoteassetfinance.blogspot.com/
Check my blog out for practical tips and advice on everything credit from my own personal experiences
Karen x
We could do with a couple of decent personal finance blogs in the UK but they seem to be lacking apart from the few examples mentioned above. Maybe it’s a cultural difference from the US and individuals (apart from guru’s and professionals) don’t like blowing their own trumpet about their finances on this side of the pond!
This is true that finance blog is United Kingdom will perform well. The competition may not be high at the beginning but entry at early stage would reap rich benefit.
This is what happened to payday advance market in the UK
King
More comments from kingbellHi everyone,
Did you know that there is a whole hosts of finance experts who would like to get involved in this for free. The reason they don’t ( Ican include myself in this catagory) is that they feel thay have more chance landing on the moon rather than create a back link.
Check out the people here:
http://www.unbiased.co.uk/bluebook/
I am on this list and am a pensions expert. I have a blog on my company website but only because I heard it might make Google find my site easier.
I am up for a collaboration here. I provide the in with the “finance experts”, you guys provide the rest. ie design, seo, build, crm and so on. Anyone interested in a time only investment in creating an awesome UK finance Blog. You never know, it might be that good that the US ditch thiers and read ours!
ps. just in case it helps my own site get visitors, http://www.simpsonfs.co.uk
More comments from rob simpson ifaFind me on Facebook | Twitter
I tried with my finance blog, http://www.ukifp.org and it did pretty well at first with a few comments and lot’s of large financial services firms wanting to advertise. I’m also quite well known in the mortgage and loan sector which helped but after 6 months I am finding it hard to be irreverent, humurous and topical, which are the 3 traits I would want from a blog. So, if anyone has any bright ideas…! Blogging is seriously hard work, especially if you want fresh, original content all the time.
More comments from markharrison04Like a previous poster stated there are quite a few large financial blogs, contained within financial sites. I think the main question has to be what type of information the blog would contain?
More comments from sizzlei created a finance blog loansbuzz.com
my site http://www.surf4finance.com has its own blog I have found it difficult in generating replies to be honest.
I suspect the key to doing this right is having a variety of writers committed to regular submissions – say one per 10 days. It ought to be possible to be relevant at least once every 10 days.
If a team of 30 people was working it, the blog would publish 90 new articles per month. I don’t see why 30 people can’t come together to do this.
I also think search engines will take not if a rate of 3 new finance-related articles were to appear every day for an extended period of time – say 6 months. That’s 540 articles, which will naturally create a focussed pool of keyword phrases. Especially if the blog categories are set up right.
I also think 30 authors could create an interesting set of comments on each other’s articles. A rich set of comments tells search engines the blog articles are interesting to other people, and is helpful in enhancing a search engine’s view of the blog. Along with inbound links from external sites (SEO), this builds a picture of a thriving community.
Those same 30 people can also create social media buzz around specific articles published by each other. Again, this has SEO benefits.
The more I think about it, 30 is a good number of people to pursue this idea.
i cant understand why anyone has done it either. It sounds like a good idea. unsecured loan blog would be ok
I didn’t realise blogs were worth this amount of money. If this is true then this is a huge develoment in websites. How does one achieve this?
This one is quite informative http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/news/blog/
as is the FT one http://ftalphaville.ft.com/
but you’re right, we need a UK leader really.
Barry
Come on then Patrick,
Lets have a collabrative partnership to see if we can build the No.1 Finance blog for the UK. There are a number of commentators here who I’m sure would give a little of their time on a regular basis.
Ideas for the site name here please!
Here is one http://individualfinanceadvice.blogspot.com/ but I don’t think his has a big following either.
The problem with trying to create a FS blog is it is too broad a topic to keep every subscribers interest, from what I see people stick to one area of interest, mortgages or loans etc.
Anotherfinance blog is here – we are trying to tackle some tricky topics in an informal way and fun. Not an easy thing to do…
I think for this to work the blog would have to be a lot more specific than just a “finance blog.” What about a banking site/blog like bankrate or bankaholic? Do you have a major player in that arena already?
Johns Wu managed to rank number one for “CD Rates” in the US, which is no easy feat. And I don’t know if a there is the same sort of opp in England. For example, do your banks offer federally insured time deposits like the states have? Are there literally thousands of banks and credit unions competing against each other for consumer deposits in the UK?? If so, then yes, it could be doable.
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