Insurance Comparison Sites

[NinjaStory]

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I've been having a poke around numerous insurance comparison sites, namely the likes of confused.com, comparethemarket, gocompare etc. It seems to me that these are just affiliate sites, however the advantage they have is that they are able to compare prices at various insurance companies.

Technically speaking, creating a system that does the same shouldn't be difficult, however you would of course need access to whatever data or API allows the system to work. Is such a thing readily available to any old affiliate, or would it require upfront investment etc.?

Does anyone have any experience in creating a site like this?

Thanks.

[Stuart]

I am not 100% sure but I think what these comparison sites do is:
Collect the consumers data via a pre-designed form, they somehow then send this to each insurance companies web site, the collected data is added to the insurance companies form, this then brings back the individual quote that are then displayed to the user

Airline/travel searches work in the same way, how it is tracked I am not sure, cant use feeds as every quote is different depending on the user requirements and past history etc.

Anyone else have more info?

Br
Stuart

[Reddy]

I'm sured you would need to be authorised by the FSA as well.

David

[icompared]

we looked at this and approached the company the handle this for moneysupermarket, confused, gocompare etc. They are based in Stockport
Costs are around £100K upfront with maintenance costs of around £80K per year, pere comparison engine so one for car, one for home etc. You also need to handle the insurance companies yourselves which you would need a team of staff for.
It is very complicated and expensive. Hence GoCompares initial budget for launch including advertising was something like £6 Million
Mike

[jezaff]

Im a techy at such a company (naming no names!). We have dedicated teams for each area. Some is automated some is not but we have 100+ members of staff and a multi million pound budget. Dedicated business owners, SEO teams, sales, our own affiliate network, a development team and biiiig pockets!

Although I guess I have an interest I dont wish to put anyone off (im a techy IT chap not a member of the marketing team!) but Id have to say that I really find it hard to see how a beginner can compete. The size of the adwords budget would make you cry! We have a full time team managing the bidding!

I guess the way to trial at low cost is to piggy back off one of the big player's affiliate schemes. Of course your cut will be smaller but you get to use their expertise and calculator engines etc.

I have no doubt that start ups can launch and get in there, but you need to be a serious player imo. Employ staff, get backing, etc. No reason you cant do that, but this isnt one for the hobbiest (imo!).

GL