Are Paid Leads Useful?

Paid leads wont help you any more then cold calling if you don't know how to sell.

As far as "are paid leads worth it"? ...

That completely depends on who you buy them from, how they were generated,
the age of the leed, if they are exclusive and a few other variables.

Paid leads is a waste of time, try to generate the leads originally by promoting the website using facebook ads, twitter etc

Create your own affiliate program, or offer a JV to people. Develop white papers, videos, etc on common mistakes, how to do "x", and other informational items. Offer a few free jobs if you do not have a lot of case studies/testimonials.

Treat yourself as a business, and get in all the top business directories. Many have sections where businesses are asking questions, get in and answer them. And they can rank very well, very fast if you set them up correctly.

Linkedin has $2/click and you can really target the industry & position you want to be seen for.

But no, most the time leads suck. Just so much fraud, so many bots, so many incentive programs, and tire kickers.

See guys, many doesn't understand that lead generation is really a skill. And you need to learn that skill. I absolutely believe that buying leads is a waste of money and time. It never worked for me and never worked to many people that I know been struggling growing their business because of lack of quality leads. You can generate free leads... free targeted leads. You just have to know how to do it.

I always recommend to bring values and share your knowledge to people... as what Zig Ziglar had taught the many successful entrepreneurs, he said "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." This concept is really very important to understand.

Goodluck.

If you do buy leads they have to be targeted. For example if you are a network marketer then your target should be other network marketers...Opportunity seekers and your friends and family type leads for the most part, are a waste of time.

You need targeted leads. You can buy leads all you want, but they need to be of real people who are already targeted.

Secondly, you need to know how to sell to these people. It can be tough to call these people and waste a potential client if you aren't great at selling what you are trying to sell.

If the leads are geared directly towards your market they can be very effective with the right outbound strategy.

so here is my take. Since Jan I have been working with a member of the church I attend. He builds custom made kitchen cabinets. I get paid commission at 10% for any sales I make. His entire marketing plan for the past many years is a classified ad in the local daily paper that cost him $110 per month.

I placed the same ad in the weekly classified ad paper at at cost of $45 for 2 months with my phone number. I built a wp site and have been posting on craig'slist off and on. For a few months we were both getting calls from the classified ads, then all of a sudden the phones stopped ringing. The owner said this is what happens we get alot of call and then no one calls for up to a month.

Well I could not go a month without some sales. I have been studding lead gen and i could not get it going. So I signed up with HomeAdvisor.com I paid $90 for a 3 month membership. and told them the type of leads to send me.

The results since the start of may
i got 14 leads costing me $328.02 ( this is after receiving credit for 3 bad contact info leads)

thus far I have sold
a $550 Pantry cabinet and got a commission of $60 which cost me $34.50
a $6,500 granite counter top and 2 bathrooms with granite commission $550.00 wich cost me $52.46

of the remaining leads I have only given 2 quotes and spoke with 2 others. the remaining leads i have not been able to speak with them. They do not answer their phones and do not return emails.

Homeadvisors.com informed me that this was accounted for in their pricing and that many of them will contact and do business with me in the future.

Total Cost $418.02
commissions $610
money left $191.98

I have turned off the leads for now, increased my craigslist postings and I have gotten 2 quotes in less than a week.

At this point I am creating a mail piece that I will send to the remaining leads, but without a couple more sales out of what I have, I do not think I will be turning the leads back on.

I will continue to try to learn lead gen but I get frustrated and ADHD myself on to something else. In the mean time we are classified ads and craigslist

Hello there,

Let me tell you something.

You can buy the most targeted leads in the world, by country, language, niche/interests, they can be pre-sold, whatever you want, but if you don't convert them, it's like flushing money through the W.C. So before considering buying leads, you must have a sales strategy.

Regards,

- Juan

I have been using Craigslist and have seen moderate success. It helps when you are selling to people who are already interested as opposed to calling strangers out of the blue. My only problem is consistency with generating leads. One week my phone will ring often; the next week nothing. I am only posting in one section in one city and I know that that has a lot to do with it. I have some sales experience but not much. I'm moving away from selling to small business in favor of medium sized businesses and non-profits. Cold calling becomes much more difficult when targeting these types of businesses.