Wow! What a website...

[scottmccloud]

Just been reading about Ling Valentine (well known for her PR and guerilla marketing) here and I clicked on the link to her website and... just.... wow.

http://www.lingscars.com/

100,000 unique visitors a month apparently and a multi-million pound business. Just goes to show what can be done by not following the crowd.

 

[dazc]

I got a car from her about 10 years ago.
She's quite a character.

 

[xdnet]

She was on UK's Dragon Den too... very interesting.

They also did a thing where they went back and saw how she was getting on (after turning down the dragons).

Profit wise it's razor thin margins, so high revenue != high profits. But she makes a reasonable amount from scale from what I recall..

 

[martin-s]

There was some PR this week about her hiring a community worker to make up for the service her council wasn't providing.

She's definitely a bit crazy, but it seems to work.

 

[AssetDomains]

Sites crazy as ever I see. she's actually registered here

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/general-board/30844-lings-cars.html

 

[Murray]

100,000 unique visitors a month apparently and a multi-million pound business. Just goes to show what can be done by not following the crowd.

If there really are 100,000 uv a month, it's people showing it to their friends saying "look at this sh1t website" and then them looking, saying "yes lol that is sh!t" then clicking off

Hurt my brain being on it for 2 seconds :-(

Why not have a functional website and that site on /classic if people want to look and link to how awful it is, or do they have another site somewhere?

 

[philiporchard]

If there really are 100,000 uv a month, it's people showing it to their friends saying "look at this sh1t website" and then them looking, saying "yes lol that is sh!t" then clicking off

Hurt my brain being on it for 2 seconds :-(

Why not have a functional website and that site on /classic if people want to look and link to how awful it is, or do they have another site somewhere?

Certainly not boring though is it!

 

[scottmccloud]

If there really are 100,000 uv a month, it's people showing it to their friends saying "look at this sh1t website" and then them looking, saying "yes lol that is sh!t" then clicking off

Hurt my brain being on it for 2 seconds :-(

Why not have a functional website and that site on /classic if people want to look and link to how awful it is, or do they have another site somewhere?

I think it's all about her 'brand'. You either buy into it or you don't.

Just had a quick look at her company figures and I don't think she's doing too bad as an affiliate so it's obviously working.

 

[TinkyWinky]

You can take the Nissan Juke (new shape) abroad to any normal destination (usually excluding dodgy places like Albania, etc)

Ha ha that made me laugh - good job as the headache kicking in... took about 5 mins to work out how to stop her singing!

Good luck to her if it works though - as others have said at least it's not boring... which car leasing is!

 

[mally]

Here's her community work website, see the resemblance!

http://www.grangevilla.com/

 

[foz]

My eyes hurt

So bad, it's good.

 

[Ferenc]

One way or another this draws attention to her business. Fair play to her.

 

[newguy]

The site's a bit of a mess to look at, but so quirky and unique.

 

[accelerator]

Wow, it was seven years ago that we were first discussing Ling's website. The website is quite brilliant for what it is. However, had I never seen her on Dragon's Den, I would just think it has a comedy website. I can imagine how Dragon's Den must have been a huge boost for her business. National advertising at no cost, amazing. Good luck to her I say.

 

[martin-s]

And all these inbound links from people discussing the website too