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 to users).
Yet it's a mammoth beast, with 30 full time staff, servers dealing with millions of 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 solely because it's the very 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, it was a one man Martin Lewis band, there was no revenue generation, but within a year it had so many users, the running costs escalated substantially. Now the site's finances are strong and it's healthily in profit, and a sizeable amount is donated 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 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?
No. 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 a 'non-affiliated' i.e. non-paying, link. Financial considerations do not impact articles.
Best buys change all the time, as 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, 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, Moneyextra, Beatthatquote, Find 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.
Quite deliberately, where possible we try to avoid going directly or building a relationship with financial product providers themselves, so they don't try to exert any pressure. Occasionally links are direct, normally to comparison services, e.g. for loans, energy, new cards or shopping 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 the site), but its non-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 won't ever see any credit card comparison services (with the exception of specific poor credit analysis services); as we don't believe they're ever the best way to do things.
We want you to know when links are affiliated...
Unlike many sites that use affiliate links, we're very deliberate about including a * after every one of them. 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.
Yet in every other way you shouldn't notice any difference, except occasionally you'll go to one of the comparison services landing pages to get the product. However,the product itself (unless it's better) will be the same.
In other words, if there's a link to the Supertelephone company 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, there's a full explanation at the bottom of the page where an unaffiliated version of the same link is included, so you can check there's no difference.
How does this differ to other sites?
There tend to be two main models. The consumers' association Which? funds its magazines and website through a subscription model. We prefer to try and keep this site free, especially as a good number of users couldn't afford to pay.
Then there are the more commercial sites, which tend to 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 rather than simple comparison links, the 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'.
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:
It pays to be unpaid
WARNING: This is an example, the best cards will change, do not rely on this for updated info instead please see the regularly updated 'Best Balance Transfers' Article.
For example, at the time this guide was first written in 2006, the following was the situation in the 'Best Balance Transfers' guide, one of the most read on the site. The top 0% balance transfer cards are three credit cards which don't pay the site and thus aren't * links, but because they're the best - they're the top picks.
The other money sites out there don't include these cards 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:
The aim is to find the longest 0% card which doesn't have a fee for balance transferring.
MoneySavingExpert.com top 0% cards. No links paying the site (sadly)
Barclaycard 0% for 10 months no fee
Lloyds TSB 0% for 9 months no fee
NatWest and RBS 0% for 9 months no feeMotley Fool. All links paying the site
Virgin 0% for 9 months with a fee
Amazon 0% for 6 months no fee
Morgan Stanley 0% for 6 months no feeMoneySupermarket. All links paying the site
MBNA Platinum 0% 9 months with a fee
Co-op Travel 0% for 6 months no fee
Marbles 0% for 6 months no fee
The reason for the difference is that the best cards 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 the needs 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 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 and service its users. Here are some examples of where the money goes.
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A team of editorial and technical staff.
As at mid 2011, there are thirty 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 just maths bods. The rest are a mix of developers, server watchers, commercial, design and administrative ensuring that this huge website keeps running. - Servers and keeping the site running
With over 7 million unique users a month, mammoth processing power and technology is 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, 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 is a 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 income as a journalist. Now, while I'm most proud of some of the campaigns we've run and money we've saved people, what in hindsight I realise was entrepreneurship has paid off, especially as 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. 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.
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LINKS THAT HELP THIS SITE (all have a * in above article)
(this has no impact on product or pick - see explanation below)
N/a
Explanation (of * links)
LINKS THAT DON'T HELP THIS SITE
(please only use if necessary)
No * Link Available: N/a
Duplicate links of the * links above for the sake of transparency, but this version doesn't help MoneySavingExpert.com:
N/a
