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$$1.9 BILLION Affiliate Site Does IPO

Linda Buquet

New Member
affiliate
Affiliates often ask me here and at other forums to show them an example of a good affiliate site. I can't share affiliate sites I know because that info is private - but here's a PUBLIC story about an affiliate that just is ready to go public, to the tune of $1.9 BILLION. So check out the site below to see what they are doing right!

From the 5 Star Blog:

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Well not since the DotBomb era have there been so many stories of netpreneurs
and affiliate marketers making it BIG through mergers and public offerings.

<strong>Moneysupermarket.com is all set for their IPO and trading of the stock is expected to start July 31. The company reports public offering price range will be 170 pence to 210 pence (US$3.43 to US$4.23) per share, valuing the company at about 945 million pounds (US$1.9 billion).</strong>

<strong><a target="_new" href="http://www.moneysupermarket.com/">Moneysupermarket.com</a></strong> is an example of a GREAT affiliate site. They offer price comparisons for financial services such as insurance and mortgages, travel, and numerous retail products. They have reviews, articles and lots of user generated content through discussion forums and also offer RSS feeds. They reportedly attracted 64 million visitors last year.

But all affiliate sites have to start somewhere and MoneySuperMarket was not always the great looking site you see today. <strong>To watch the progression of an affiliate site go from a pretty darned UGLY site to a $$BILLION site <a target="_new" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030920151507/http://www.moneysupermarket.com/"> check out MoneySuperMarket 4 Years ago.</a></strong>

Forbes has the story: <a target="_new" href="http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/11/ap3902313.html">Moneysupermarket Set IPO Range</a>. Bloomberg has a good overview too: <a target="_new" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aRcpRRohgR4M">Moneysupermarket.com IPO to Raise Up to $868 Million</a>, but only mentions a value of 868 Million.

Hat tip to Catherine Lawson where I picked up the story.
"<strong><a target="_new" href="http://cathlawson.com/blog/?p=113">Affiliate Site to Float for $1 billion</a></strong> "Think there?s no money to be made in affiliate marketing? Moneysupermarket is about to prove you wrong. The site, which is monetised by affiliate programs including Doubleclick is set to float on the stockmarket for an estimated $1 billion dollars."
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So what lessons did you learn from this story if any?
Give you any new ideas???
Was this story inspring and motivating?
 
Wow, almost $2B valuation!? Now I would love to create something like that!

PS. Just a quick note that the company is floating 41% of the stock during IPO. I haven't had a chance to look and see who will hold the remaining 59% (management, vc, who knows?) but not everyone is cashing out, so that's got to be a good sign, no?
 
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