I currently monetize my sites using affiliate programs like ClickBank, Commission Junction, Amazon, Azoogle Ads and Google Adsense. In 2009 I began my big shift away from PPC and into affiliate products and the results have been fantastic! However I always want to get as much money as I can back from my investments so I’m always looking for even better revenue-generating opportunities for my sites.
Dominate the market with the best b2b lead generation to connect with decision makers in your industry.
Lead Generation, for those who don’t know, is a very simple concept – you provide a sales/client lead to a business and in return they pay you a flat fee for the lead. Just think – if you get $.25/click through your current PPC program you would need 80 clicks to make $20 – with lead generation a single form submission could bring-in $25 or more! Of course I quickly learned that Lead Generation is really only useful in several specific areas. This makes sense since high-payout leads are in niches where the company buying the lead can make a considerable about of money from each client that comes onboard.
The best niches for lead generation are in the credit/debt, law, and insurance along with some diet/fitness-related topics. I was inspired to get more involved in Lead Generation after speaking with a successful Domainer at our last Southern California Domainer Meet Up who built-up a very nice lead generation business for himself. I thought – well right now I use affiliate ads and PPC to make money for my sites – why not add in that third layer! I have contact forms on most of my sites and they get plenty of submission every week…what if those submissions could be instantly converted to revenue?
I picked LeadPile as the first company I would begin generating leads for after some good recommendations. The interface could not be easier – they actually generate the HTML code for the form – all you have to do is copy and paste and viola! you have just added another layer of monetization to your site! Below is a screenshot of the interface for selecting which market niche your form will be collecting leads for. This also gives you a good idea of really what category or target market your site should be.
I can either select to have my user fill-out a form on my own site which is then submitted directly to Lead Pile OR I can use a banner ad that will take the visitor to a website with a form where the information will be collected. Personally I think that having the form on your own website would draw far more leads since they aren’t clicking on an advertisement and being directed to a different site. Even still I’m trying both approaches across a number of my sites.
An example of a site where I am doing some lead generation is PayOffDebt.me a credit/debt-related site I recently created. If you click on “Contact Debt Specialist” you will be taken to a page with a contact form generated using Lead Pile. I am still LEARNING when it comes to lead generation so I will continue to share my experiences and, hopefully, success along the way! At the end of the day for me it’s all about generating revenue from my domains – I’m always looking for new techniques or services I can use to improve my passive income stream…and I’m thinking Lead Generation is going to be a GREAT initiative for me in 2010!
Do you use Lead Generation to monetize your sites? Comment and share your experience!
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Morgan,
Great topic.
The link you provide for PayOffDebt.me doesn’t resolve
because of a typo.
It’s actually going to PayOfDebt.me.
Your success now and going forward is well deserved
…and earned.
I’ve always heard lead gen has great potential but implementation seems to be a bit complex. Keep us informed on your experience – what worked, adjustments you had to made and how conversion rates compare to Adsense / affiliate programs.
“If you click on “Contact Debt Specialist” you will be taken to a page with a contact form… ”
Morgan,
I see one potential problem with this page and that is it’s not secure.
A form like that which asks for personal, private info should be secure and start with https://.
I know not everyone is aware of that but you could be losing some
referrals.
Anyway I just wanted to share that.
Great job on the site.
Thanks for catching that error @TheOtherPatrick – just fixed the link
Thanks @Leonard – I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences!
Thanks for LeadPile.com Morgan! Hadn’t seen that one before. Like all their lead buyer categories.
You can indeed make a lot of money with lead gen, either in a marketplace bidding program like LeadPile.com, selling leads direct to lead buyers, or utilizing leads for your own deals.
I like what you are doing here Morgan. If you do this right you will make much more money on your investments than domaining can ever provide. May i suggest you look in to doing this locally. MUCH MUCH more money on the local level than you think. Just strike up a deal with a local business, I.E. local fitness place or even possibly a car dealership, and go advertise on Facebook or Myspace. Target your ads for the city you want and literally pay pennies per click.
That’s fantastic Morgan! You continually catch my interest with your posts. More power and success to you!
I have been trying affiliate marketing myself but have had very little success. I wondering if you could do a tutorial or something about how to get quality traffic to your sites.
Because the only problem one faces after setting up the websites etc is bringing in the traffic. So, please give us some tips on how to get real traffic.
Lead generation is a very good part of trying to get your names sold. What/whom do you use to MANAGE your portfolio? Are there programs out there that can help manage all of these domains AND leads?
Hey Morgan,
Thanks for the heads-up about LeadPile, but I wasn’t overly impressed. The interface was empty for too many choices in different inventories, and too few inventories to sell leads to. It looks like a site that is just getting started.
Yes, I did sign up.
I was wondering if anyone out there would recommend alternative pay-per-lead sites?
@Leonard Britt – Lead generation is challenging if you are trying to do the entire lead gen loop, meaning acquiring advertisers and leads at the same time. If you are only genning leads for someone else, then it has similiar dynamics to affliate marketing programs.
Most problems with lead gen (and we ran LeadPile’s same program 10 years ago – so I know the challenges) is that lead gen gets buried on a site causing lackluster performance.
If you look at one of our sites http://www.portraitphotographers.com, most of the site is dedicated to generating leads. The lead gen banner and request a quote button leading to our lead gen form is integrated deeply into the content.
That is the key to lead gen success. Deep integration with your content.
I’ve used Leadpile for a short while and with a small text link on a few real estate related sites already generated a couple of payday leads, about $16 each. Not bad for low traffic sites, needless to say I’ve put links on more of my sites and am thinking of ways to expand this. Payday, credit repair, and debt consolidation are generic enough that you can probably place a small text link or banner on any site and get some clicks. Like you said, it takes a whole lot of PPC clicks to add up to what one lead can pay.
Thanks for all the great comments everyone! Appreciate everyone sharing their own experiences as well – great to learn from each other!!
Interesting Information…
Anyone know if LeadPile
can be used on the same site
(or same page) as Google Adsense ??
~Patricia – DomainBELL
Patricia, you can run Lead gen forms and ad sense on the same page, even the same page. When I ran Respond.com, we would include AdSense at the bottom of the forms to get residual income from people who didn’t want to fill out the form. We never had a problem with Google, even when we bought traffic from Google thru AdWords and sent it right back to them thru AdSense clicks (for those who didn’t fill out the form)
Dude! Where’s the love?
@Braden – you are the lead gen guru and I’ll definitely be talking more about you in future posts
Geprge — thanks for the info…
Braden — are you on Twitter / Facebook ??
Add me:
Twitter.com/DomainBELL
Facebook.com/Patricia.Kaehler
Anyone going to Chef Patricks
DNCruise ??
~Patricia – DomainBELL
Patricia–We’re already connected on FB.
I’m considering DNcruise as I think Patrick has some great plans. (on the fence about TRAFFIC, however)
Patrick sent me a personalized video to invite me. As a marketer, I appreciate his creativity.
Does someone have LeadPile on a site I can see ??
Braden — I agree Chef Patrick is super creative…
I hope his cruise will be an annual event going to different
locations…
~Patricia Kaehler – DomainBELL
For second there I thought this post was written 5 years ago, but nonetheless there is no question money can be made in lead gen. In fact lead gen is probably the fastest growing sector online.
One thing to note, however you should move that lead form to the front page or highlight the link the form page better. I had to actually search around for it, and that is obviously not good. You will generate a lot more leads if you get that form on the from page.
Have fun!
Thanks for the comment @Mike – when it comes to lead generation I’m definitely five years behind or more!
Great advice on the form – I’ll move it to the front page
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