Auto Trader has become a household name since its advent in the mid 70s; for anyone looking to buy or sell a car, the standard approach would be to place an ad in the iconic magazine, or buy a copy and flick through the thousands of adverts in the hunt for your new motor. This popular publication was truly the lifeblood of the car industry, both for dealers and private sellers. However, as life moves evermore towards digital media, it’s with much sadness that we have learned of the imminent closure of the print version of this well-known and much-loved magazine.

Falling circulation and revenue

Many years ago, Auto Trader was a veritable tome, nearing phonebook proportions and jam packed full of new and used cars for sale. Its advertising revenue was immense, and it seemed that it was an institution that would always be there. However, since the launch of the Auto Trader website, circulation volumes of the print magazine have fallen rapidly, with the money generated through its ads almost halving in recent years. This led to a decision from its publisher, The Trader Media Group, to say goodbye to the hard-copy version and focus its efforts solely on the website.

While this may come as a surprise to many, we’ve done our own investigating – talking to various motor traders who would always have the latest copy of the magazine sat on their desks, we found that it was no longer part of the office furniture – making it little wonder that the publishing group have decided to call it a day.

Technology is the new trading space

As many businesses are finding, modern technology is changing the way consumers access the products they want to buy. With people surfing online via multiple devices, and with smartphones and tablets becoming more commonplace than ever before, it’s really no surprise that online visitors to the Auto Trader website have risen by 11% in just one year. During this time, the number of its visitors using a mobile device has grown from 1.1 million to 2.3 million – showing the influence that technology is having on purchasing habits.

If you had asked anybody 10 or 15 years ago whether they envisaged this giant of car advertising closing down, no one would have believed it possible. But the online version has eclipsed the value of the print edition, and this much more accessible and immediate version now boasts 11 million unique visitors per month. The website offers a much more intuitive search function and easy listing tools, adding to its appeal for those who want to buy or sell cars more efficiently.

So, while we’re sorry to see the print magazine come to an end, from a business perspective, we can see why it makes perfect sense. Farewell Auto Trader, thanks for the memories!

With its paid-for affiliate links and an uncompromising user policy, is the Money Saving Expert site at risk of denying its users the opportunity to get genuine, good advice from industry experts?

This post is somewhat off topic, but important nonetheless. James Saperia, Managing Director of Simply Registrations has recently been on the receiving end of what some may consider unfair treatment by the forum moderators at the well-known website Money Saving Expert (MSE).

James has been offering his expert opinion and advice for free to users of the Money Saving Expert forum since April 2011, providing help on a variety of different motoring subjects – including, of course, personalised number plates, under the username of ‘Happytohelp’.

However, following a post he made on the MSE forum last week, James logged into his account to find that, without warning,  he had had been given an outright ban and could no longer contribute to the website. The ban was imposed due to a thread James had started to advise forum users about the recent announcement that the Government may be changing the rules on purchasing car tax, to allow drivers to do so without providing evidence of a valid insurance policy. In order to provide a point of reference and further information, James linked to the article on his company’s website from his post on the MSE forum.

Now, as anybody familiar with the Simply Registrations website is aware, the business does not sell car tax or insurance products of any kind, nor are there any affiliate links from this company website – but the post was presumably deemed to be of a commercial nature and therefore subsequently led to James being banned indefinitely and his posting privileges removed.

Selective Linking Policies – Protecting users or Limiting Advice?

The Money Saving Expert site recently published a blog post by Martin Lewis, which talks about the injustice of forums such as MSE being ignored as potential social networks. He wrote that this may be because “they’re seen as closed communities” – but with such a rigid stance on allowable advice, perhaps the real reason is that they don’t offer the same freedom as other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

While it’s understandable that forums need to have rules in place, when these rules are ineffectively policed, users are potentially denied good advice in favour of the site owners’ over-protective stance. So the question is; if a site protects its own revenues by restricting relevant and helpful advice from industry experts, does that negate the site’s intended purpose to offer support and help to its users? Martin Lewis and the MSE site has done a lot to help its users, especially when you look at the PPI scandal and the amount of people who have been able to reclaim unfair payments made through mis-selling, however it would seem a shame if other support was hindered due to a poorly moderated policy.

‘Happytohelp’ is no longer able to Help – and it’s the Users that Lose Out

As a regular contributor to the Money Saving Expert forum, James has placed 86 posts and been thanked 49 times for the advice that he offered. This advice, just like the post that lead to his ban, has always been focused on helping other users to make better decisions. Quite often his advice has diverted people from making mistakes which could have led to financial penalties. An example of this can be seen here.

Ultimately, the posting policy on Money Saving Expert doesn’t seem to work. If you link to a commercial website that has not been approved as one of MSE’s revenue-generating affiliates, even if there’s no chance of making money from your post, it appears that you’re banned from further contributions and have to appeal – hoping your ban will be lifted so that you can rejoin the community. This means that while Money Saving Expert continues to make an income from approved commercial links, the users that make up the community and ultimately add to the site’s success could potentially lose out on relevant and important information. So now the Money Saving Expert community has lost its resident personalised registrations expert and, no doubt, other industry experts along the way.