Progress Thread: FinancialBin.com

[TheFinBin]

Hey Everybody,

I believe I am overdue for an update as to how my website, Financial Bin is doing at the moment. Things have really taken off (at least from my POV) since I started posting here about using website creators like Wix.com back in Dec. 2010.

Since the re-launch in May 2011, the site has had 73,697 Unique Visitors stop by and account for just under 90,000 Page Views. Might not seem like a lot to the seasoned veterans here, but, to me, it's simply amazing.

To refresh your memory or if you haven't been to the site, it is a news aggregation site that focuses on financial, business, economic, tech, personal finance, and entrepreneurship news.

Additionally, I have various people write in from time to time about entrepreneurship -- basically how they started their business, etc. Some really interesting articles have been posted by these people under the "Main Street BEAT" section of the site.

Something else that has happened since I last gave an update is I have started to better focus my business goals. I have a much better idea of what I want the FinancialBin.com to look like. I want to build an online media company.

This revelation came about during a quick meeting with a VC during Philly Tech Week. I met with a managing partner from First Round Capital during their "Office Hours." During our conversation (as I was going on about a project I wanted to incorporate with FinancialBin.com), he just stopped me and said, "Why can't this just be a media company?"

It's something I had thought about, but sometimes you get these grandiose ideas that you think will take over the world -- and it's far from it. I just needed the go-ahead from a guy who has "been there" to pull the wool from my eyes and help me focus my efforts better.

In the end, it was the best 10 minute conversation I ever had. No, FRC wouldn't be writing me a $10 million check to FinancialBin.com. Haha. But, it set me on a course that has seen thousands of people come to my site.

I really have taken the media company concept to heart. I want to grow my core group of writers. I also want to write e-books, have radio and tv shows, and grow our following through the use of social media. I will also expand into other sites and other areas of news. I want this to be a completely online effort and possibly even spread it out into the "OnDemand" realm.

Would love to hear what everyone thinks.

Thanks,

Dave

[Mike McAleer]

I think this is great.

Good luck on it!

Mike

[365]

Looks good, congratulations on your progress!

Watch out for those sidebars, they take up a ton of space and there's a 'secondary sidebar' widget activated but it just shows the template/dummy page.

I'd also work on focus/user experience. You cover everything from stocks through macro/economy to marketing and entrepreneurship. But what's really the reason why people should pay your site a daily visit? Where's the real value (ie. your own articles). I'd drop that earnings ticker which takes up a lot of space and will be irrelevant to 99% of your users (possibly 100%..).

[TheFinBin]

I think this is great.

Good luck on it!

Mike

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it. Come by as often as you like!

[TheFinBin]

Watch out for those sidebars, they take up a ton of space and there's a 'secondary sidebar' widget activated but it just shows the template/dummy page.

I fixed this issue. Shouldn't cause a problem going forward.

I'd also work on focus/user experience. You cover everything from stocks through macro/economy to marketing and entrepreneurship. But what's really the reason why people should pay your site a daily visit? Where's the real value (ie. your own articles).

I'm still working on all of this. What I've attempted to do is aggregate content from multiple sources on a variety of topics to gain an initial following. As I grow my user base, my primary focus will be on adding original content. This will mean more articles -- but also video, radio, podcasts, etc.

For now, I want to cover a broad range of topics under the financial umbrella. From there, I am considering branching out and making a few "sister" sites about the same topics -- so I would have FinancialBin.com as the base and then make a site just for Personal Finance, Tech, Entrepreneurship, etc. That's the plan for now. However, I am open to a pivot down the road should the user base dictate one.