Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis at NUJ Freelance meeting. Photo © Eugenie Absalom/NUJ
What can be more inspiring for a freelance journalist than to see and hear a fellow NUJ member, who happens to be in a multi-million category and have a chance to ask him questions?
Martin Lewis, founder and editor of MoneySavingExpert website and of ITV’s Martin Lewis Money Show, shared hints and tips of his skyrocketing career with freelancers at NUJ meeting in London. It took place at Friends House in Euston on 8 April.
At the meeting Martin Lewis described his progress from a small personal website and e-mailing his now famous “Martin’s Money Tips” to a database of 700 – 800 contacts in 2003 to becoming the owner and editor-in-chief of the biggest personal finance website in the UK with the audience of over 13 million monthly users and 7.65 million receiving his money tips e-mail.
Martin Lewis at the NUJ Freelance meeting at Friends House. Photo © Eugenie Absalom/NUJ
“No one can pay to be on my website,” – said Martin Lewis. The MoneySavingExpert website generates income through affiliate links. It is editorially independent, with a bigger Forum than Twitter. “We must always write what is best for our users,” – he added.
There is a great deal of personal research going into all the material, published on MoneySavingExpert.com. “If you go back to personal finance journalism when I started it was about stocks and shares, occasionally mortgages and gas and electricity ….that was a bit radical… And it was all about getting quotes from somebody in my industry.”
The key to his online success is unique content. “When I write, I always write in the first person. People want to see the whites of the eyes of the journalist who wrote it. I do not work off press releases. I do my own research. It’s called journalism, ” – concluded Martin Lewis.
In September 2012 he sold the website to the MoneySupermarket.com Group for £87 million, while he remains editor-in-chief of MoneySavingExpert.com.
Martin Lewis has his own prime-time ITV programme – The Martin Lewis Money Show. He is also resident expert on Daybreak, Lorraine, This Morning, Radio 5 Consumer Panel and Radio 2 Vine and more.
Visit DEMOTIX to view my photos of Martin Lewis at the NUJ Freelance meeting at Friends House.
News and photos by Eugenie Absalom
