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I’m off to pastures new, so here are 7 things I’ve learnt in the past 6 years as The Mirror’s online money editor - or had re-emphasised to me
Money isn’t a niche topic - it’s almost universally interesting if handled properly. In fact, I can’t think of a less niche specialism. Maybe food?
Money stories work on Facebook - we get more traffic from social than Google. See above point. Yes. Even pensions stuff. Everyone is on Facebook now, if you’re not getting traffic there it’s the fault of the story/sell, not the medium
Focus on personal impact for readers. Save £12 each is more interesting than “cost the industry £400m”. Weird, and exact, numbers intrigue people too. £5.67 you say? £31,726? Better than “a fiver” or “£32k”
“How I” beats “how to” into a cocked hat - expert tips are great, but a personal story with a picture of the case study will outperform it almost every time. You can add the tips in at the bottom
Pictures really, really matter. Online people see two things before deciding to click or scroll, the headline and the picture. And the picture takes up more space on the screen. Piggy banks are a sign you've given up, what about that will grab attention or motivate a click?
Don't assume people won't care about pensions/technical insuance rule changes/VAT regs. Some of the most read pieces on The Mirror homepage have been about these
Benfits are a source of income for more people than the stock market or buy to let - treat them as a personal finance topic. Explain options, rules, penalties and more. It's criminal how long it took for people to start doing this in pf sections (myself included)
And one that is as true now as ever - Wherever possible follow it to the end of the line. It's not a 5% energy price hike, it's 1,000 more mums choosing between heating and eating, 12 more pensioners dying of hypothermia. If you can, always show the human reality of a change
Massive aside, but just remembered the row I had with a company when it reported "increased profits from hospital division" and my headline was "cashes in on the sick and their families"
