I’ve received some great feedback to my posts about some of the lead generation projects I’m working on so thought I’d share some of my latest discoveries. First let me start by emphasizing again that I am not a lead generation expert and I don’t make much money at all with lead generation, this is a new avenue of exploration for me and I’m learning new things every day. I know a few people who are very successful with lead generation and have been using their suggestions and advice to get started. Like anything in this business I don’t expect results overnight…but I do have big expectations.
As you may know one of the main niches that I focus on is debt settlement. What I like about this niche is that it is very consistent and has little seasonality and the payouts per lead can be incredible. Today I found-out about a new lead generation partner that pays $150 per lead for anyone that signs-up for their debt settlement program. In general I think it’s safe to assume that one in every one-hundred people that come to your site will fill-out a form. Of those maybe 10% will sign-up for the program but that might even be a bit high. This means that if your site only gets 100 visitors/month you might be waiting an entire year before you make a dime. Traffic is the key here and what makes lead generation such an exciting challenge for me is the heavy competition that exists within the search engines around these niches.
It definitely takes a lot longer to get on the first page of Google or Bing for debt settlement or car insurance than just about any other term in the world. Most of the sites on the first page are there because the owners have often spent tens of thousands of dollars in SEO. Other companies give-up, knowing they won’t rank and pay thousands a month to Adwords, since I’m and SEO guy I’m taking the harder road on this one.
I am yet to hit the first page of Google for any of the terms I’m targeting but have active link-building, article writing, etc. happening consistently. SEO in these highly competitive niches has to be looked at with a long term vision. If you want to win the battle in a month you will fail, thinking long-term and doing all the things your competitors are doing to rank well is the key to getting on the first page. It might take three months, it might take six months, but at some point with enough quality links, articles, etc. you will make it there. Like I said, I’m not there yet but I am definitely looking forward to the traffic explosion to come 🙂
The #1 question I get about lead generation is who I sell the leads to. I started with LeadPile but since have been focused on shareasale.com (affiliate link) which seems to have much higher pay-outs and many more competitive options. ShareASale also has a pay-per-call program that I’m going to be using on one of my sites very soon, I think this is very important with debt settlement in particular where people just want to call someone rather than fill-out a form.
So that’s the latest in my lead generation adventures, as usual I’ll keep you posted as I progress.
