A new competitor

So a few days ago, I discovered both my largest competitors and mentor. The site is called The Penny Hoarder and, according to SEMrush, it gets 1.4 million viewers through search engines. Crazier yet, according to SimilarWeb, its total monthly traffic is around 18.7 million people. Of which, almost 60% comes from social media.

I have never seen a highly successful company get at the majority of this traffic through social media. Most blogs that I see get 80 to 90% of its traffic through search engine. But with the site, only 20% or so comes from search engine. How crazy is that?

And so, the last few days I have been going through their site analyzing how they write their articles, what they write about, and the monetization strategies.

I was actually quite shocked that the majority of their traffic comes from only saving money, and making money. I told a friend that it was as if I was on Buzzfeed for personal finance. The articles all have catchy titles, and granted, the content it Is also pretty comprehensive.

However, I did not get the sense that they were challenging people to do better for themselves.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. The fact that they can get 19 million people visiting your site monthly just solely on those two main topics means that they have found something that resonates with people.

This is great for me as now I can use them as a litmus test to determine whether what I write about will resonate with the masses.

Before we go any further, it’s important to know that this company is actually a pretty big company. I searched them up on LinkedIn, and it shows that this company has 68 employees. How crazy is that? From what I can see, they’re only real source of revenue is through affiliate marketing.

After discovering this company, I have not even thought about the personal finance bloggers in Canada as competitors. Instead, I’ve solely focused on looking for ways to write articles that would pass being published on The Penny Hoarder.

These guys also go into Facebook advertising and I have found some of their most successful Facebook ads that have generated over 3000 likes. I am now analyzing these ads to see how I could write similar ads that can do equally as well over the course of time.

I have also looked at the way that they have written their post urls and know that they are attempting to work on seo. The nice thing about it is that they don’t seem to be updated on seo best case practices. I mean, I guess the little hard when the company 60 people so content is being written every single day.

This is a great opportunity for me to use this site as a case study for topics, tone, and research. Then I can simply take that research and translate it for a Canadian crowd while doing a little better with seo. No need to recreate the wheel.

Also, in the past, I knew I wanted to create a team, but I did not know if it was going to be possible when the only source of revenue was through affiliate marketing. However seeing that this company has 60+ employees has gotten me thinking. I guess the first thing I need to do is to at least come up with a breakeven Facebook campaign.

After that, I can continue to work on improving this campaign so that my ROI becomes positive enough for me to actually afford to take on more people.

However, this is also a struggle of mine but I have mention the past. Do I work on Facebook advertising, or, do I focus a writing more quality material.

I have noticed that I have drifted deep into the Facebook advertising side of things. For example, today’s 1000 words was originally going to before the website. However, as you can see, I ended up writing about this new company that I have found.

In fact, I spent all day yesterday writing a blog post for the website but, the sole intent behind writing that blog post was to create a Facebook ad around it to potentially create a Facebook campaign that will breakeven.

I’m definitely in a shiny object syndrome state of mind at the moment. I just hope that once the shiny object is not as shiny, I will go back to writing for the blog.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the blog posts I wrote is of value to the public. The blog post is about ways to make money they’re doing online surveys. This reminded me of a conversation I had last week with a fellow Financial literacy advocate. She was telling me how the people that she normally works with in person are not looking for ways to save rather, ways to make more money.

Most of these people are in some way, shape, or form unable to get more income to meet their basic needs. I’m sure that if they knew of the best ways to save money, they would have a few hundred dollars more each month. However, if I am to reach the masses, I will definitely need to address what they believe is their main problem.

And that problem is the question of how to make more money. Exactly where The Penny Hoarder excels in writing about.

Granted, the people that my friend is trying to help is not exactly the same type of people that I planned on helping right off the bat. The people I’m most interested in are the 20 something year olds. The majority of these people do not know all their financial options. At the same time, and they do have disposable income and dreams for society.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that they are higher in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which means that I can get them to think bigger faster.

As I may have mentioned in the past, personal finance is only the first stop and what I only want to do. My main goal of personal finances is to help create a financial base so that they can think about things bigger than everyday lif. And I want to be the guide down that journey.

However, now that I know that The Penny Hoarder has been able to successfully create a company solely on personal finance, I can see myself creating this as a separate business that is run by I team with their own CEO.

Of course, this is all thinking 3 to 5 years out. But now, it’s time to get back to reality.

PS: this whole piece was written, or should I say talked out loud. It’s actually pretty neat. I’ve spent about 30 to 40 minutes writing this. Or saying this I don’t know.

4,688 Comments

  6. EllMash
    EllMash on June 11, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    Propecia Hair Cost How To Buy Fluoxetine Levitra Savings Card cialis tablets for sale Priligy Tm Cipro For Sale Online Cialis 20mg Filmtabletten Einnahme

    Reply
  7. EllMash
    EllMash on June 19, 2019 at 3:01 pm

    Keflex Nursing Mother Keflex Effect On Staphlococcus Aurius Priligy Precio Farmacia cheapest cialis Wirkung Von Viagra Bei Gesunden Levitra Acquisto Sicuro Cialis 5 Mg Assuefazione

    Reply
  9. EllMash
    EllMash on July 11, 2019 at 4:57 pm

    Keflex 500 Mg Tabs 50 Mg Di Sildenafil Zithromax Rash Reaction achat viagra sur internet Vente Kamagra France Propecia Effectiveness Hair Loss

    Reply
  10. EllMash
    EllMash on July 20, 2019 at 4:53 pm

    Cabergoline Sales Can Amoxicillin Get You High Elimite (Acticin) 30gm п»їcialis Bentyl Medication Cialis Contrassegno Cipro And Amoxicillin In Lyme Disease

    Reply
  11. ETIAS
    ETIAS on September 6, 2019 at 12:34 pm

    You really make it appear really easy with your presentation but I in finding
    this matter to be actually something which I believe I would never understand.

    It sort of feels too complicated and very huge for me.
    I am looking forward on your next post, I’ll attempt to get the grasp of it!

    Reply
  12. Skin Revitalising
    Skin Revitalising on September 8, 2019 at 11:00 pm

    I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with
    the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
    Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.

    Reply
  13. sash window repair
    sash window repair on September 9, 2019 at 6:04 am

    I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?

    Plz respond as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to find out where u got
    this from. kudos

    Reply
  14. wholesale bath bombs
    wholesale bath bombs on September 11, 2019 at 2:13 am

    Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found
    that it is really informative. I am going to watch out for brussels.
    I will be grateful if you continue this in future.
    Numerous people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

    Reply
  71. Big Mountain Builders LLC AZ
    Big Mountain Builders LLC AZ on September 16, 2019 at 4:55 pm

    Hello there, You have done a fantastic job. I will certainly digg it and personally suggest to my friends.
    I’m sure they will be benefited from this web site.

    Reply
  94. ESTA Applicatiom
    ESTA Applicatiom on September 18, 2019 at 3:47 pm

    Having read this I believed it was really informative.

    I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this short article together.
    I once again find myself spending a significant amount
    of time both reading and leaving comments. But so what, it
    was still worth it!

    Reply
  105. ejaculating
    ejaculating on September 21, 2019 at 3:47 pm

    Having read this I believed it was extremely enlightening.
    I appreciate you finding the time and energy to put this informative article
    together. I once again find myself spending a significant amount of
    time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worthwhile!

    Reply
  106. nudity
    nudity on September 21, 2019 at 4:52 pm

    Hello colleagues, pleasant article and nice arguments commented here, I am
    genuinely enjoying by these.

    Reply
  107. custom gift boxes australia
    custom gift boxes australia on September 22, 2019 at 8:22 am

    After checking out a handful of the blog articles on your web page,
    I honestly appreciate your way of blogging.
    I saved it to myy bookmark site list and will be checking back soon. Please
    visit my web site as well and let me knkw how you feel.

    Reply
  109. viagra
    viagra on September 26, 2019 at 7:51 am

    you’re in reality a just right webmaster. The website loading pace is amazing.
    It kind of feels that you are doing any distinctive trick.
    Moreover, The contents are masterwork. you’ve done a excellent job in this subject!

    Reply
  116. viagra
    viagra on September 26, 2019 at 10:06 pm

    I’m really loving the theme/design of your blog. Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems?
    A small number of my blog visitors have complained about my website not operating correctly in Explorer
    but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any ideas to help fix this problem?

    Reply
  189. Bail Bonds in Tampa
    Bail Bonds in Tampa on September 27, 2019 at 9:24 pm

    This article is actually a pleasant one it
    assists new internet users, who are wishing in favor of blogging.

    Reply
  307. pest control for ants
    pest control for ants on September 29, 2019 at 10:15 am

    This is a topic which is close to my heart…

    Best wishes! Exactly where are your contact details though?

    Reply
  315. Whitfield Pest Control
    Whitfield Pest Control on September 29, 2019 at 12:01 pm

    Hello, for all time i used to check webpage posts here in the early hours in the morning, since
    i enjoy to gain knowledge of more and more.

    Reply
  421. pornhub videos
    pornhub videos on September 30, 2019 at 7:07 pm

    It’s very easy to find out any matter on web as compared to books, as I found this piece of
    writing at this web site.

    Reply
  427. porn download
    porn download on September 30, 2019 at 8:32 pm

    I think the admin of this web page is genuinely working hard in support of his website, for the reason that here every material is
    quality based stuff.

    Reply
  498. esta
    esta on October 1, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    This piece of writing is in fact a pleasant one it assists new internet
    people, who are wishing in favor of blogging.

    Reply
  650. agama yang paling benar
    agama yang paling benar on October 3, 2019 at 1:11 pm

    Hi there i am kavin, its my first occasion to commenting anywhere,
    when i read this post i thought i could also create comment due to this sensible post.

    Reply
  744. caureaums
    caureaums on October 4, 2019 at 4:51 pm

    nkt