Michelle, Lauren, Sarah and Sam from team Chiconomise.
Chiconomise started life as a newsletter that contains offers and promotions aimed at women looking for value for money in these current credit crunchy times. However, this week saw the launch of the full web portal to support the newsletter. Michelle and her team seek out the best discounts, deals and special offers from the fashion, beauty, living, travel, lifestyle and food sectors - aimed fairly and squarely at the chic female market.
I had a chat with Michelle today about why she launched Chiconomise and the thinking behind it and this is what she had to say:
"Chiconomise.com is a combination of a money saving and women's lifestyle portal. I started it because I was fed up with trawling the web looking for deals on one site, sales on another and then content on a third. We have had a fantastic response to launch and I intend to grow it and for it to become the number of destination for everything to do with women's money saving, lifestyle and finance."
Part of the site is monetised via affiliate offers, so anyone looking to feature on Michelle's site should drop the team a line at deals@chiconomise.com. You can also follow Chiconomise on Twitter @chiconomise. Good luck to Michelle and the Chiconomise team! What I'm listening to right now: Prince - Take Me With U
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
Nice stuff indeed!
And the reason for this shameless and rather pointless plug for someone with quite a lot of privelege jumping very late onto the discount code bandwagon is?
Its enough that I have to see her plugs for her business on the various BBC stations throughout the apprentice series..
Expected better here.
The reason for this blog post is…
1) I think it’s really good and positive that someone with a reasonably high profile like Michelle is getting involved in affiliate marketing. As I’ve said a million times before, anything that raises the profile of our industry is great and I will promote it where I can.
2) I like the Chiconomise concept. Yes it’s an offers/discount code site but I like the approach they have taken with the “living stylishly for less” and the specifc market they are targetting. I did a similar blog post earlier in the week for Apps and Hats, I like to write about sites that interest me and offer something a little different.
3) It’s my blog and I can write about what I like.
No offence Kieron but I kind of agree with Luke. With regards to reason 1 – say this in the post otherwise it will come across as a shameless plug!!
Reason 2 – seen it before. Market = flooded with “beat the recession” products / concepts. Yawn.
I’m with Kieron here, I think that any publicity for AM is good publicity, especially with someone with a public profile like Michelle’s, and surely we’re all swimming in the same pond here, so why not help each other out?
Kieron has made no attempt to hide the fact that he is a fan of the Apprentice (and perhaps Michelle Dewberry too
), and I would guess that at least a proportion of his readership are fans too, so it would make sense for him to write about it.
The market may be flooded with ‘beat the recession’ concepts, but they work, simple fact. The car market is flooded with lots of different manufacturers, so why did we ever need more than a couple? Because choice is good for the consumer – it drives innovation as each site has to try and offer something different to stay ahead of the game.
Granted the discussion wouldn’t have even started had it had been some kid on a PC from DC who had created the site but if it’s Michelle from the Apprentice it becomes a point of interest!
I just emailed the site asking if they would like to promote our De Vere hotels programme on a CPA (starting at 5%)!
Andy
Brilliant Affiliates
I wish Michelle the best of luck in her new venture. If her new website offers discount code vouchers, then thsi gives another opportunity for affiliates to get involved.
If Michelle tries as hard in selling her new conecpt as she does here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=MFGAReKRUiA, she’s onto a winner!
I like the site, it’s nice site and i agree keiron can blog about what ever he wants, and yes it is good that someone high profile is entering the affiliate arena, the down side however is: look how behind the times the site is! Aside from the publicity, there are loads of sites out there offering the exact same proposition, so it isn’t anything new, but no doubt the media will see this as the next bast thing since slice bread, which is kind of ironic as i believe affiliate marketing is beginning to mature, the fact that big high street companies have affiliate programs indicates that we are at the renaissance of affiliate marketing.
Good luck to you Michelle, in difficult times like these, everyone is looking for a bargain and if you can create a brand with a significant following, offering savings in the high street then go for it.
Success or failure will depend on the tone of the site – too patronising, pretentious or too serious and they’ll blow it. Wish them luck though.
Struggled with the name a bit – really does sound like something from the Apprentice, but then maybe that’s intentional..
Chiconomise sounds like a great business venture! Very useful for women to create value for money in these tough economic times. All the very best to Michelle Dewberry and the team.
It is gratifying to see Michelle isn’t resting on her laurels, but is putting that entrepreneurial spirit and flair to good use. Showing people how to save money, especially in tough times, definitely will have good value. The woman’s touch will make this something special. You go girls!
entrepreneurial spirit and flair – its a flipping blog. god knows how many of my female friends have money saving blogs aimed at the female market. yikes.
That’s quite a success, I gotta admit. Getting from a newsletter to full-blown portal is amazing. Good for them.
Exactly. The Apprentice is great and I really enjoyed hearing about Dewberry’s further achievements – it’s always nice to see peope you were rooting for make something of themselves.
blimey engendered quite a stream of comments… I’m always interested to hear what apprenticwe types are up to. It’s like the fastest track mba in the world!
They may have a good idea here. After all there’s not enough goo woman’s portals. Sure there are all the cosmo-likes but there’s nothing more serious. This could work.
Nice site. Good to see that women can also do something good and make some money of it. This has chances to succeed. I would like to see this site growing.
I’ve always considered the people on the apprentice to be determined to work for ‘the man’ still, this just proves they do have the drive and ability to succeed on their own.
Don’t won’t to sound bitter or twisted but what is she doing now? She’s tried many things.