A gap in the market for this type of site?

Hunterz1_2

I was thinking of starting a car accident community website where those who have been involved in a car accident could get advice r.e their claim/accident ect.

By looking online, I can't seem to find any website that soley concentrates on the above?

Good niche to go into?

A few people I spoke to said this.

Sounds a bit specific to me, how many people who have been in a car accident would want to sign up to a forum to ask a question that they can probably find the answer to elsewhere? Maybe there is a gap there tho, I don´t know much about this kind of thing tbh. Good luck if you do start one

A lot of these questions tend to get asked around on all sorts of different forums I frequent - they appear in the off-topic sections.

Seeing car crashes aren't that common for the average driver, and that insurance claims and the like is definitely non-specialist advice (lots of people know a thing or two about it - common sense really), I doubt many people would sign up to such a site if it were to exist.

Yes, they are existing websites out there that have forums were those who have been involved in accidents can get advice, such as MSE from fellow road motorists, but what better to have a dedicated site where you can get a ton of information from to help you with your accident as well as your questions.

I believe if this were to work, then I think I would need to attract a ton of posters who know exactly what they are talking about and can share their advice and expertise to fellow road motorists.

_Andy_

How would you intend to monetize the site?

claret_mike

What is the purpose of the site, purely to get help with their car accident?

Or are you looking to make it a commercial website at some point?

Your idea needs further work - have you looked on car forums rather than searching for accident/insurance forums. I googled Car forums- UK and it took 3 clicks to find the below..

http://www.rac.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?31-Motoring-Finance-and-Insurance

I think you have had some very honest feedback so far, which is good because a lot of people will tell you it's a great idea and let you waste a load of time on something that won't be successful.

Regardless of what you are looking to do, fail to plan then plan to fail is a saying I would echo.

- What is going to make your site different?
- How are you going to market it?
- Who will use it - be specific as you can.
- How much will it cost?
- Do you have the knowledge and skills required?
- Why will people come to your site?
- What is my competition and be honest - it may exist in off topic sections but by the fact that there are people in there using them shows that they are used.


Also have a think about what happens when an accident takes place - it's usually too late by the time they find your forum because they will have had the insurance co involved and will only normally want more info if they think their insurance co is in the wrong etc.

The real market is driver awareness of what to do if an accident happens and having some knowledge before hand as that can make the difference to the outcome of a claim etc.

How do I know? I was an investigator for a car insurance company and the amount of times claims were settled based on cost/one word against another/ another driver having people to "point them in the right direction to reduce blame etc"

You admittedly have very little knowledge in the area yourself - a big rule of business is that if you are not already in the know about what you want to do, the chances of success significantly decrease.

Rather than think what is needed - think about what you know/love/are knowledgable about and try and think of how you may be able to use that.

TamiBolton

All of the advice above is great but I would also consider looking into the search volume of the types of keywords you would use. Google keyword tool should do the job.

While the above post makes loads of sense, I have several niche sites that I am not an expert in. i am however a decent researcher and i know when and how to get expert opinions when I need them. Something like this could be very successful just with Google adsense. It would take a lot of work but to me the traffic and levels of competition for those keyword terms will give you a good idea as to whether it is worth it.

Adsense clicks would be very high but you could also use it to generate leads which you could sell on.