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Starting a Lead Generation Business? Your thoughts?

by biznics
40 replies
Hi,

A quick question:

I have couple of domains (law related services) and I want to set them for a lead generation business. I know what Lead Generation is, but the problem is, I have no good idea of how I can execute my plans?

Like:
1. what should be the initial size of my website (number of pages)
2. what sort of content should I add in my websites (full promotional / sales copy type content OR a professionally written website copy?)
2. how should I manage leads? (which lead is qualified and which is junk)
3. how to find buyers for my leads?

From what I've read in few reputable IM forums, lead generation business is so saturated these days. So I was wondering what strategy should I adopt to enter this biz without risking and wasting too much of anything.

Thanks for your time and looking forward for some experienced responses.

Good day,
#business #generation #lead #starting #thoughts
  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Here's what I do:

    1. I get a local client on board who will pay me commissions for new business (not leads, but sales).

    2. I build the sites to target 1 town and one service. Add plenty of decently optimized content including images, videos, etc. Note, in order to get your first client on board, consider building the site first and get targeted traffic to it. It's easier to make the sale this way. See below.

    3. I hired a call center to intercept calls and provide me a toll free tel. #. The call center records names of callers and patches calls through to my client.

    4. I obviously track all contact form inquiries.

    5. My sites are built to appear as my clients' real site with their logo, images, etc. This way I earn on telephone inquiries and contact form inquiries. I don't have to try and get the email address. The lion's share of my commissions are from people who call so the investment in a call center is well worth it (costs me $200 to $300 per month).

    6. Sites are geared to get visitors to call my clients to book a consultation.

    7. At the end of the month, I forward to my clients spreadsheets with all names of callers and contact form inquiries.

    8. Client sends me a check.

    If I were you, I'd rank a site and get traffic. This way you have something you can easily sell to potential clients. It's easier to call up a law firm partner and say I own XYZ.com that receives 20 visitors a day for "Tampa bay divorce lawyers". What I propose is you pay me for leads/sales.

    If they're interested, negotiate a lead fee or commission (or both).

    Law firm commissions will range, depending on the type of file. Personal injury will net huge fees while a will or simple divorce will net you much less. That said, more people get divorced and get a will than hire personal injury lawyers. Plus, the online competition for injury lawyers is fierce.

    I landed my first choice local client because I had a site targeting their location and one of their services. The sales lunch was not about "are you interested" and instead the discussion was how much I'd get paid for commissions (we negotiated a long time because I knew the value was high and held out ... although I caved a little but still do alright).

    If your commissions/leads are big enough, you can easily profit from PPC.

    I much prefer building sites to appear as the actual client's site because it's sells better. People aren't going to call some anonymous referral service or fill in some form. I have images of my clients, they're building ... it appears as their website. I've built tons of sites for this client targeting one town and one service for each site. They're in multiple towns with satellite offices and offer several services.

    Once you have one successful campaign and one happy client, you can scale by going to other towns. You could probably sell the deal without a spec site based on your current success. The key is to get a successful and happy client who will sing your praises. Just be sure if you expand, it's no within your current clients' area(s).
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    • Profile picture of the author RimaNaj2011
      I just started one. That seems like a good idea but for now mine is a "referral service" like 1800dentist. I'd rather get the leads and sell to whoever I want first. If that doesn't work, I would contact an owner and put their info and images on the subpage...but I'm hoping the first way works better
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      • Profile picture of the author COACHMARK
        Originally Posted by RimaNaj2011 View Post

        I just started one. That seems like a good idea but for now mine is a "referral service" like 1800dentist. I'd rather get the leads and sell to whoever I want first. If that doesn't work, I would contact an owner and put their info and images on the subpage...but I'm hoping the first way works better

        how is your referral service going - do you have any tips - i want to do something for health or weight loss
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    • Profile picture of the author biznics
      @jgant;7839379]Here's what I do:

      Wow. This is a fantastic response I have ever read on WF. Many thanks for that jgant.

      Please be more generous enough to clear few things:

      In S.No.1, you mentioned you go for commission per sale (not lead); and you track leads by telephone calls. But let me know if I am missing something, how do you track sales, as your client makes the deal on his own (over phone calls / personal visit of the customer)?

      So before I start with my site (S.No.2,) I should first find a client to make a site based on his theme (logos, pictures & etc.)? OR should I first design a proper site and then find a client and THEN change it after client is happy with site stats, traffic and performance?

      In S.No.3, just wondering if I skip the call center part and rent a toll free number directly from 800*.com; and set it to my client's phone. Would that be effective? OR do I have to go with the call center option for smooth operation? (Not trying to minimize the cost, just asking if I could skip the Call Center part)

      Very good idea in S.No.5. But again, how do you track conversions?

      Again, many thanks for such a detailed response. (In fact, you just gave me a BluePrint for my lead generation biz...lol)


      Good day,
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      • Profile picture of the author jgant
        Originally Posted by biznics View Post

        @jgant;7839379]Here's what I do:

        Wow. This is a fantastic response I have ever read on WF. Many thanks for that jgant.

        Please be more generous enough to clear few things:

        In S.No.1, you mentioned you go for commission per sale (not lead); and you track leads by telephone calls. But let me know if I am missing something, how do you track sales, as your client makes the deal on his own (over phone calls / personal visit of the customer)?

        So before I start with my site (S.No.2,) I should first find a client to make a site based on his theme (logos, pictures & etc.)? OR should I first design a proper site and then find a client and THEN change it after client is happy with site stats, traffic and performance?

        In S.No.3, just wondering if I skip the call center part and rent a toll free number directly from 800*.com; and set it to my client's phone. Would that be effective? OR do I have to go with the call center option for smooth operation? (Not trying to minimize the cost, just asking if I could skip the Call Center part)

        Very good idea in S.No.5. But again, how do you track conversions?

        Again, many thanks for such a detailed response. (In fact, you just gave me a BluePrint for my lead generation biz...lol)


        Good day,
        Thanks for your kind words. Sorry for the tardy response.

        Phone tracking: The advantage to pay per lead is you simply tally the phone call volume. A toll free # service that tracks volume will do. However, for tracking sales, you must get the names of all callers. I spoke with 4 toll free # services to find out if they could get names of callers via caller ID technology without live reception. They said it couldn't be done to 100% accuracy. Plus cell phones aren't tracked.

        Therefore, if you go the sales commission route and you offer a phone number (I make way more sales via phone calls than email sign up and form inquiries), you must hire a call center to take names and forward the calls. This costs me $200 to $300 per month and it's totally worth it.

        Site or Client First: I started with a site that had targeted traffic. Once I made the deal, I added my client's logo, images, etc. to the site (took less than a day). I think it's MUCH easier to land a client with a site that has targeted traffic. Put yourself in the business owners' shoes. If some marketer called you and said I have a site that attracts 25 visitors looking for X service in Y town every day and I'm prepared to promote your business exclusively on this site ... and you only pay me when you make a sale, would you be interested? You bet you would be.

        You're telling the business owner that you can generate sales tomorrow AND they only pay when they get paid. There's no risk on the business owner. It sells itself.

        Yes, you must invest money and time in a site up front, but without the site, you'll spend far more time cold calling hoping to get someone interested.

        Seriously, start in a smaller town and get a site ranked #1 in Google and get traffic. Then make the sale. Once you have a deal, you can use PPC, video, Craigslist, offline, etc.
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        • Profile picture of the author JayBay
          Originally Posted by jgant View Post

          Therefore, if you go the sales commission route and you offer a phone number (I make way more sales via phone calls than email sign up and form inquiries), you must hire a call center to take names and forward the calls. This costs me $200 to $300 per month and it's totally worth it.
          I'd also like to dial in and ask so after you have the name of the callers and the business owner you paired up with are paying you on the backend for sales made do you do a follow up audit to the customer to ensure everything is as it should be? Or do you have another means to track the sale after finalization that I'm missing? Hopefully this helps someone else as well.
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          • Profile picture of the author jgant
            Originally Posted by JayBay View Post

            I'd also like to dial in and ask so after you have the name of the callers and the business owner you paired up with are paying you on the backend for sales made do you do a follow up audit to the customer to ensure everything is as it should be? Or do you have another means to track the sale after finalization that I'm missing? Hopefully this helps someone else as well.
            I never call customers. The reason for this is that nobody knows I'm involved. The sites I build appear as my clients' sites. This helps conversions tremendously. Visitors believe they are on my clients' sites. Therefore, it would be strange and could tick customers off if I called out of the blue.

            The issue here is trust. I trust my clients to credit me with the spreadsheet of names I send them. If you don't trust your clients, it won't work.

            That said, in my contract, I included a provision that gives me authority to hire a 3rd party auditor to go into my clients' businesses and audit their files to look for missed referrals. The contract stipulates I pay for the audit. I've never come close to considering actually doing this, but it's a good provision to have in the contract because it gives me teeth in the case I lose faith.

            Honestly, if I believed my client was not crediting me, I'd switch clients.
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        • Profile picture of the author biznics
          @jgant

          Got your points.

          I've finally made my mind for 3 things as of now:

          1. to go for sales + leads commissions
          2. to get a Toll Free Number (once & when I get a client; lol).
          3. call center (once things starts rolling in)

          By the way, (about. S.No.1), is it O.K. to go for both options; Sales+leads commission? I hope client' won't feel irritated?

          You said:
          The issue here is trust. I trust my clients to credit me with the spreadsheet of names I send them. If you don't trust your clients, it won't work.

          So your client treats your spreadsheet as HIS "sales" referred by you, OR he take it as both (leads + sales commission)?

          Still (other than trust factor) I'm not sure how I can track 'sales/conversions' as only my client would know this section. For leads, it's easy to track names/numbers but for sales tracking, a bit confusing.

          Anyways, I think I should pick the easy route first; the lead commission way. And once things work smooth, I'll switch to sales commissions. What do you think? Of course, I'll be bothering you all for guidance when needed.

          Good day,
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          • Profile picture of the author jgant
            Originally Posted by biznics View Post

            @jgant

            By the way, (about. S.No.1), is it O.K. to go for both options; Sales+leads commission? I hope client' won't feel irritated?

            You said:
            The issue here is trust. I trust my clients to credit me with the spreadsheet of names I send them. If you don't trust your clients, it won't work.

            So your client treats your spreadsheet as HIS "sales" referred by you, OR he take it as both (leads + sales commission)?

            Still (other than trust factor) I'm not sure how I can track 'sales/conversions' as only my client would know this section. For leads, it's easy to track names/numbers but for sales tracking, a bit confusing.

            Anyways, I think I should pick the easy route first; the lead commission way. And once things work smooth, I'll switch to sales commissions. What do you think? Of course, I'll be bothering you all for guidance when needed.

            Good day,
            Both leads and commissions?

            Leads + commissions? Yes, absolutely, if you can get a client to agree. In hindsight, with one client I should have done this. My client, for one service, charges for the initial consultation. I should have tacked on a fee for the consult in addition to the full hire. I guess this is more commission than lead, but it was a rookie mistake on my part. I still average $400 commissions every 3 to 4 days, so it's still a good deal ... all pretty much on autopilot.

            I don't do leads because most business owners don't want to pay for questionable leads (questionable in their mind). They want a sure thing, which is paying commissions for sales. I just had a realtor want to hire me. He wasn't interested in paying for leads because he was burned before. But, he made me a good offer after a 20 minute chat for commissions. The commission structure sells itself because there's no risk to the business owner.

            You could charge a nominal amount per lead with a large commission on a sale. If you can make that deal, that's great.

            My spreadsheet

            My spreadsheet is a list of all leads. My client goes through it and credits me sales materializing from those leads and sends me a check.

            Yes, with pay-for-lead, you don't have to trust your client. However, you might end up in a squabble about lead quality. If you send tons of leads that don't result in sales, your client will fire you. Since I invest time and money in a campaign, I make sure it will sell so I don't mind going for commissions. Again, I trust my clients and to date they're very diligent in crediting me sales.

            Recurring commissions

            You could certainly ask for lifetime commissions from referrals if it's a business that has repeat customers. My industry doesn't operate with repeat customers, but many industries do ... and this could be a really great set up.

            For example, if you promote a realtor, chances are a realtor's clients will buy/sell again the future. You could negotiate a commission on all revenue generated for the lifetime of that referral. That would be really sweet. In fact, I had a blog reader ask me about this, which is something I never considered. Since a local realtor wants to hire me (I'm considering it because this model requires up front investment so I'm selective), I will propose lifetime commissions.
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    • Profile picture of the author asiriusthoth
      That is actually really good advice. Very close to something I did for Realtors back in 2010. Good read =)

      Originally Posted by jgant View Post

      Here's what I do:

      1. I get a local client on board who will pay me commissions for new business (not leads, but sales).

      2. I build the sites to target 1 town and one service. Add plenty of decently optimized content including images, videos, etc. Note, in order to get your first client on board, consider building the site first and get targeted traffic to it. It's easier to make the sale this way. See below.

      3. I hired a call center to intercept calls and provide me a toll free tel. #. The call center records names of callers and patches calls through to my client.

      etc....
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      • Profile picture of the author jgant
        Originally Posted by asiriusthoth View Post

        That is actually really good advice. Very close to something I did for Realtors back in 2010. Good read =)
        This business model would work great for realtors because the commissions are huge and most realtors need more business. I'm not in the real estate industry, but it could work well.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
    No offense, but it sounds like you've never done this before and jumping into the law niche is not for newbies. People bid 10$+ per click on big legal keywords. Do you think you could handle that kind of competition?

    Start with something less competitive. You're a fish right now trying to swim with sharks. It's not going to end well...
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    • Profile picture of the author biznics
      Originally Posted by TheSalesBooster View Post

      No offense, but it sounds like you've never done this before and jumping into the law niche is not for newbies. People bid 10$+ per click on big legal keywords. Do you think you could handle that kind of competition?

      Start with something less competitive. You're a fish right now trying to swim with sharks. It's not going to end well...
      Thanks for your post. Really appreciate for pointing this out.

      You are so right about the competition part. I do have a little idea of how tough law niche is as I have been working as a SEO for quite some time. I do have other options to start like: dentist, limo service and etc.?
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  • Profile picture of the author bsummers
    Hi biznics,

    The tips that jgant laid here are all true and effective. Build your website first and everything else will follow and don't forget to put a contact us form that will serve as your channel where interested people can easily contact you. Follow all the steps given by jgant and I'm sure you will get it right. Don't forget to share your success here.
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    • Profile picture of the author Magic Mike IM
      Obviously, you must get your site ranked, findable and able to convert visitors to leads and/or to place the call to the business.

      Instead of a call center, you could simply use a service like callfire, which is a call tracking service where you are even able to record the calls that the business receives. You might want to send a business a couple of leads first before you approach them... they will probably be more receptive to your sales call if they are already getting calls generated from your efforts.

      Also, you might want to look into a live chat for the website, or ever a service like apexchat where their job is to get website visitors to leave a number where they can receive a callback from the business... an excellent lead.

      Lead generation is a great model, but it takes planning, persistence and ranking ability.
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      • Profile picture of the author biznics
        Thanks for your valuable thoughts mate.

        Exactly. Website ranking is essential as, when there's no traffic, businesses won't be interested in blank websites.

        Regarding CallFire, do I have to get a Toll Free Number and then get this service (Call Fire)? As I don't have any business number I can use for this lead generation biz at the moment?



        Originally Posted by IM Guerillas View Post

        Obviously, you must get your site ranked, findable and able to convert visitors to leads and/or to place the call to the business.

        Instead of a call center, you could simply use a service like callfire, which is a call tracking service where you are even able to record the calls that the business receives. You might want to send a business a couple of leads first before you approach them... they will probably be more receptive to your sales call if they are already getting calls generated from your efforts.

        Also, you might want to look into a live chat for the website, or ever a service like apexchat where their job is to get website visitors to leave a number where they can receive a callback from the business... an excellent lead.

        Lead generation is a great model, but it takes planning, persistence and ranking ability.
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        • Profile picture of the author Magic Mike IM
          Yes, you would have to get the number through them... I think their base price is $6 for 3 months... there are also other private label options as well, but callfire if a good place to start to see if your business takes off.
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      • Profile picture of the author jgant
        Originally Posted by IM Guerillas View Post

        Instead of a call center, you could simply use a service like callfire, which is a call tracking service where you are even able to record the calls that the business receives. You might want to send a business a couple of leads first before you approach them... they will probably be more receptive to your sales call if they are already getting calls generated from your efforts.

        Also, you might want to look into a live chat for the website, or ever a service like apexchat where their job is to get website visitors to leave a number where they can receive a callback from the business... an excellent lead.

        Lead generation is a great model, but it takes planning, persistence and ranking ability.
        Callfire sounds interesting and could save you money. I've never heard of them. I think it would be a hassle listening to the calls to get the names, but if you're seriously short on money, then you have to invest time.

        Interestingly I tried live chat on my client sites and didn't have a single person use it. I dumped it because I hated having to remember to turn it on and off and my clients weren't interested in operating it. Besides, I prefer earning without any involvement and didn't want to get bogged down in being a live sales person.

        In my experience, live telephone reception sells the best. Callers want to speak with their target business immediately. That's what I offer and it's worth the investment.
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  • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
    The way i do it is as follows

    First i research my niche... lets say plumber, when i do my research i find that most plumbers have all kinds of services, like sewer blockage/repair, bathroom installation , rook leakages, gutter installment and stuff like that...

    Then i go to Google and research each of these services for their keywords.

    When i have my keywords i will take a closer look at the city i want to target, i go to Google maps and note every suburb and village in a 10km radius

    Now i am going to setup my site and write content for all the services using my keywords, then i am going to spin the content and create a set of content for every suburb and village... If you're wondering of there is a problem with dup content i can tell that there is not a dup content problem when it comes to local SEO... I have many sites ranking with spun content, make sure all your content is grammatically correct and readable after you spun it. People are going to read that and you want them to call don't you?

    Now i create the categories, these will be the suburbs and villages i have chosen and i create a set of 5/6 pages per suburbs /villages, these will rank pretty fast especially if you use aged domains

    Now i build my theme, for that i use the free weaver theme and create my content, i add some pictures and like jgant sad try to get pictures from your clients site (when you have one) to make the look like a real plumber site (in this example)

    After i have build my site i will go out and promote it, i will submit it to all the business directories out there, I also use every social media there is out there (every site gets his own accounts) and i'll create a blogwheel of free blogs, as my sites are Dutch i can't use a lot of the regular web 2.0 properties so i have to do with only blogs.

    But that's ok because i have about 10/15 blogs pointing to my site that are vaguely talking about the niche i am in, in the case of the plumber you could have blogs about remodeling your home, about roofing, about the plumbing in your greenhouse...

    And those blogs get hit hard with backlinks from fiverr and scrapebox

    Now we have the site up and running, now it is time to ad a phone-number to it, i use twilio for that, because they have some awesome features, like the whisper-mode and such...

    I will setup a email box but only on a contact page, in my test i found that my clienst confert leads much better when they are directly on the phone with them, instead of the prospect sending them an email, when you sell leads to businesses that deliver a service (like a plumber) speed of the lead is of the essence, the faster the prospect talks to the businessowner the better it is... here is a good read about this subject (got it from someone here but i don't remember his/her name sorry)

    Selling the leads is easy peasy, (I sell just the leads as that is less of a hassle for me, but working on a per sale basis is more profitable) just call the businesses and offer them 5 free potential jobs, mind the word potential, the first time i went out selling lead i forgot the Dutch equivalent of potential in my salespitch and i ended up giving hem leads until he had 5 jobs...

    This company is now a client for more then a year lol

    That is in a nutshell how i do it

    Goodluck

    Dave
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    • Profile picture of the author jgant
      Originally Posted by YellowGreenMedia View Post


      Now i am going to setup my site and write content for all the services using my keywords, then i am going to spin the content and create a set of content for every suburb and village... If you're wondering of there is a problem with dup content i can tell that there is not a dup content problem when it comes to local SEO... I have many sites ranking with spun content, make sure all your content is grammatically correct and readable after you spun it. People are going to read that and you want them to call don't you?

      Now i create the categories, these will be the suburbs and villages i have chosen and i create a set of 5/6 pages per suburbs /villages, these will rank pretty fast especially if you use aged domains
      So you create one monster site for multiple towns, neighborhoods and plumbing-related services?

      I contemplated 1 site, but feared dupe content issues. That's why I use 9 servers with many smaller sites. It's costly, but the commissions make it worth it. As my network builds across multiple servers, I create linking opps ... although it's so easy to rank (I'm not in the major cities) I'm not sure I would risk linking within my own network.
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      • Profile picture of the author biznics
        @YellowGreenMedia
        Thanks for your valued response. Good to hear about your tips and success with client. I really liked the GoogleMap idea you shared.

        Few questions:

        1. So initially, how many pages do you add when starting a site? And how many pages you gradually add once you're ranking improves (weekly, twice per week or 3-times a wekk)?

        2. 10/15 blogs pointing to your site: Are these your blog (on free platforms like WordPress, BlogSpot, etc.)? Or do you guest post in niche blogs?


        Thanks again for such a helpful post.
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        • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
          Originally Posted by biznics View Post

          @YellowGreenMedia
          Thanks for your valued response. Good to hear about your tips and success with client. I really liked the GoogleMap idea you shared.

          Few questions:

          1. So initially, how many pages do you add when starting a site? And how many pages you gradually add once you're ranking improves (weekly, twice per week or 3-times a wekk)?

          2. 10/15 blogs pointing to your site: Are these your blog (on free platforms like WordPress, BlogSpot, etc.)? Or do you guest post in niche blogs?


          Thanks again for such a helpful post.
          1 I create the entire site, i do not dripfeed content into the site.... I have never done that even when i build the monster sites of 15K pages lol (they still make me money with adsense) so i don't see hwy i should complicate things.. i like to keep it as simple as possible..

          2 the blogs are indeed all on free hostings like wordpress, blogger, weebly and such... but the difference between my blog wheels and the average link-wheel is that mine aren't spammy... I punt in a lot of work creating these networks as i will have a lot of benefit later down the road.

          Not only in link-juice but also in traffic, if you make the networks from the same city as your targeting you will get prospects that way...

          I understand that it is a lot of work setting it all up, but you have a advantage i don't have, you can outsource all your content creation, i still have to find the first cheap writer that knows Dutch
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          • Profile picture of the author biznics
            Great. So I can start simply by 20 pages website and can gradually increase it on weekly basis; covering the regions / areas I want to optimize my site for?

            Regarding free blogs, aren't they of less quality? Why not go for main domain links (network sites with .com, .net) on multiple IPs? That would pass more link juice and authority (of main TLDs). What you think?


            Originally Posted by YellowGreenMedia View Post

            1 I create the entire site, i do not dripfeed content into the site.... I have never done that even when i build the monster sites of 15K pages lol (they still make me money with adsense) so i don't see hwy i should complicate things.. i like to keep it as simple as possible..

            2 the blogs are indeed all on free hostings like wordpress, blogger, weebly and such... but the difference between my blog wheels and the average link-wheel is that mine aren't spammy... I punt in a lot of work creating these networks as i will have a lot of benefit later down the road.

            Not only in link-juice but also in traffic, if you make the networks from the same city as your targeting you will get prospects that way...

            I understand that it is a lot of work setting it all up, but you have a advantage i don't have, you can outsource all your content creation, i still have to find the first cheap writer that knows Dutch
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      • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
        Originally Posted by jgant View Post

        So you create one monster site for multiple towns, neighborhoods and plumbing-related services?

        I contemplated 1 site, but feared dupe content issues. That's why I use 9 servers with many smaller sites. It's costly, but the commissions make it worth it. As my network builds across multiple servers, I create linking opps ... although it's so easy to rank (I'm not in the major cities) I'm not sure I would risk linking within my own network.
        Well there not that big, the biggest site i have includes 10 suburbs and villages and had about 150/175 pages.... most of the traffic comes from the tags anyways...

        I have done the monstersites (up to a 150 cities per site), the problem isn't the dup content, the problem is that you you will need to but a hell of lot of phone numbers to direct the prospect that looks for a plumber in Rotterdam gets connected with a plumber in Rotterdam and not in Amsterdam

        That is why i chose smaller sites with suburbs, because that is much easier to organize...
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  • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
    1 I would build my site without drip feeding so you have every region ready when you start to promote your site,

    2 I use free blog networks in a mix with my own network of blogs that are build on aged domains, but if you just start out it is better just to do free host services first to learn the roped, also a lot of free hosted services like wordpress, blogger, Squidoo Hubpages will give you good link juice because they are trusted by Google..

    And how high the quality is depends on you really, if you create linkwheels with low quality content than yeah it is low quality, but of you make sure that the web 2.0 properties are worth to look at, you will get and link juice and traffic from it.

    Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Originally Posted by Jeniffermaben View Post

    A Live Chat option is quite a handy tool in online-lead generation as it allows you to instantly communicate with your existing customers or new visitors. Even, you can show them little demo about your products/services and can also assist the interested prospects to complete the sales process with ease. Now every business is aggressively adopting live chat solution in their lead generation strategy because this cost-effective tool has the capability to turn any prospects to a new lead. If you want to review Live Chat software that fits your budget and business needs, here is what you should check
    Live Chat Software
    I tried live chat on one of my client's sites. First, no visitors used it (not a tech-familiar industry). Second, it was a royal pain being stuck to the computer and remembering to turn it on and off.

    If people actually do contact via live chat, it's worth hiring someone and that was my plan ... but I found the non-tech consumer base never clicked live chat.

    It's worth testing, but dump it if it's not used because it's costly, especially if you hire operators.
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  • Profile picture of the author mani4024
    anyone suggest me possible ways for Lead Generation Program for a "WEBSITE BUILDER" Site...
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  • Profile picture of the author mert
    I think you're taking things way ahead... a highly competitive niche requires a lot of expertise and I think you should consider the BIGGER questions here:

    1. Are you a lawyer or are well verse in this niche - you'll not just deal with the SEO and web developing stuff, marketing your service is one tough shell to break and it requires advance knowledge no your chosen niche.

    2. Do you have the initial potential clients that you will start with - if not, then I'd suggest not taking the risk. I mean you can, but it's 1 in a hundred chance you'll get one, considering the high competition.

    3. What is your budget range - there is no minimalist approach for this kind of niche and there's no way you'll dodge the risks a long the way. Not unless you have an established offline business already.
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  • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
    @Mert why? what is the difference between selling leads to a lawyer or a plumber, the system is the same, get your sites ranked, get leads, sell the leads.... Every niche is competitive when you're using SEO... i see no difference to be honest
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    • Profile picture of the author mert
      Originally Posted by YellowGreenMedia View Post

      @Mert why? what is the difference between selling leads to a lawyer or a plumber, the system is the same, get your sites ranked, get leads, sell the leads.... Every niche is competitive when you're using SEO... i see no difference to be honest
      Good question!

      But practically speaking, what you're saying is too good to be true, coz if is true then anyone with a decent skill level in lead generation can play with any niche. Make sense?

      Let's decimate your statements further:

      The system is the same- yes, the process of ranking the site is the same. But the process of selling your product is totally different. Call centers would not market their product exactly like McDonalds would do it. Of course like I said, SEO and web developing is a given.

      Get leads, sell the leads - Again, the question is the same. Would you approach a plumbing client the same way with a divorce client? I don't think so. Yes you can get to top 1 (but this will also take a lot of investment to do especially with this niche) but can you close deals in the same manner? I'm kinda repeating the thought already.Smiley

      Bottom line - SEO is not Marketing, but Marketing is SEO!
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      • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
        Originally Posted by mert View Post

        Good question!

        But practically speaking, what you're saying is too good to be true, coz if is true then anyone with a decent skill level in lead generation can play with any niche. Make sense?

        Let's decimate your statements further:

        The system is the same- yes, the process of ranking the site is the same. But the process of selling your product is totally different. Call centers would not market their product exactly like McDonalds would do it. Of course like I said, SEO and web developing is a given.

        Get leads, sell the leads - Again, the question is the same. Would you approach a plumbing client the same way with a divorce client? I don't think so. Yes you can get to top 1 (but this will also take a lot of investment to do especially with this niche) but can you close deals in the same manner? I'm kinda repeating the thought already.Smiley

        Bottom line - SEO is not Marketing, but Marketing is SEO!
        I do agree with you. It seems like you have good experience in SEO fighting
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      • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
        Originally Posted by mert View Post

        Good question!

        But practically speaking, what you're saying is too good to be true, coz if is true then anyone with a decent skill level in lead generation can play with any niche. Make sense?
        Sorry i don't agree with that, The systems are the same and with a avarage SEO skill you can sell leads, it really isn't rocket science

        The system is the same- yes, the process of ranking the site is the same. But the process of selling your product is totally different. Call centers would not market their product exactly like McDonalds would do it. Of course like I said, SEO and web developing is a given.

        Get leads, sell the leads - Again, the question is the same. Would you approach a plumbing client the same way with a divorce client? I don't think so. Yes you can get to top 1 (but this will also take a lot of investment to do especially with this niche) but can you close deals in the same manner? I'm kinda repeating the thought already.Smiley

        Bottom line - SEO is not Marketing, but Marketing is SEO!
        Yes my salesprocces for selling leads is the same, it doesn't matter if it is a lawyer or a plumber or an accountant, if you have the leads, and your leads convert... selling the leads is the easy part...

        My process is like this (nothing groundbreaking, i am sure)

        Lets say my niche is plumbers and lawyers
        • First i select a city and suburbs
        • Then i create the site and do all the seo
        • When the site ranks and the leads come in i'll wait for about a month to six weeks to see how much leads i on a average get per week.
        • Then i call the laywer/plumber with the question if they need work and iof they would like to have 10 exclusive leads for free.
        • I let the quality of my leads to the rest.
        • 8 out 10 but my leads and are happy costumers.

        You see, it is easy peasy and it doesn't matter if you target lawyers, plumbers, accountants, carpenters etc etc, my process is always the same...

        There is really no need to over-complicate the selling of the leads, when i started i used to do all kinds of gimmicks and salesletters and postcards... when i found out that calling businesses and offering them 10 free leads is the most easiest way to do it.

        If your leads are solid, they will stay with you for ever, no matter what your skill-set is.
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        • Profile picture of the author jhess56
          Are you a licensed agent yourself? If not, how did you guys arrange anything based on commission w/o breaking state/federal laws respa etc?
          Originally Posted by jgant View Post

          I don't do leads because most business owners don't want to pay for questionable leads (questionable in their mind). They want a sure thing, which is paying commissions for sales. I just had a realtor want to hire me. He wasn't interested in paying for leads because he was burned before. But, he made me a good offer after a 20 minute chat for commissions. The commission structure sells itself because there's no risk to the business owner.
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        • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
          Originally Posted by YellowGreenMedia View Post

          , plumbers, accountants, carpenters etc etc, my process is always the same...

          There is really no need to over-complicate the selling of the leads,
          If thats true, you might as well target insurance keywords and compete with Allstate and Geico.

          Saying "the process is always the same", is misleading. Its not. You know its not. Niche selection is probably one of the most important things he can take into mind. Even though the processes are similiar, for traffic/sales, the work required is not.

          One niche may take a few months to rank, while in another niche he's competing with companies who have endless overhead. Or bidding on keywords he can't exactly afford to test.

          I would just love someone to rank a site over geico for "auto insurance" and tell me the process is the "same" for "kitchen remodeling ny". There is obviously a major difference.

          Not to mention, some of the best lead gen companies focus on a specific set of subniches. They brand for those niches. Look at service magic aka home advisor. Or clean energy experts. These companies don't brand themselves as a "jack-of-all-niches". They focus on their respected fields of home improvement/repair or solar/weatherization.

          I think if the OP disregards the profound value of niche selection, he is setting himself up for failure. UNLESS he is already well experienced in lead gen, in which case he wouldn't need to make a thread in the first place.

          So my advice aligns with thesalesbooster.

          If you lack experience, you have 2 choices.

          1) Start by targeting all the less competitive lawyer keywords, and stay away from mesothelioma type keywords.

          2) Or, find a different niche. Which is my advice.

          Lawyer niches are saturated. Just pay attention to threads on WF. This is like the #1 default niche that all newbies go after. Then you never see them again. Probably because they got chewed out by the "sharks". There are actually other niches that are way more profitable, and have far less competition. So you're not exactly missing out by doing some more niche research.

          -Red
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          • Profile picture of the author biznics
            Thanks for your thoughts mate.

            I am sure YellowGreenMedia said about the similarity of the marketing process and you are right, strategy is obviously different for all niches. And I can relate as I am doing SEO for quite a while now and in SEO, the process is same, but the strategy for each website is mostly different.

            Regarding my lead gen experience, I am totally a newbie. Other than reading lead gen articles on this forum and others, I have no practical experience of implementing anything; yet. So yes, I'll be focusing on low competitive keywords in the start and then will gradually go to mid competitive keywords.

            Wondering why you mentioned to stay away from Mesothelioma niche? Is it too saturated, competitive or boring?


            Good day,

            Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

            If thats true, you might as well target insurance keywords and compete with Allstate and Geico.

            Saying "the process is always the same", is misleading. Its not. You know its not. Niche selection is probably one of the most important things he can take into mind. Even though the processes are similiar, for traffic/sales, the work required is not.

            One niche may take a few months to rank, while in another niche he's competing with companies who have endless overhead. Or bidding on keywords he can't exactly afford to test.

            I would just love someone to rank a site over geico for "auto insurance" and tell me the process is the "same" for "kitchen remodeling ny". There is obviously a major difference.

            Not to mention, some of the best lead gen companies focus on a specific set of subniches. They brand for those niches. Look at service magic aka home advisor. Or clean energy experts. These companies don't brand themselves as a "jack-of-all-niches". They focus on their respected fields of home improvement/repair or solar/weatherization.

            I think if the OP disregards the profound value of niche selection, he is setting himself up for failure. UNLESS he is already well experienced in lead gen, in which case he wouldn't need to make a thread in the first place.

            So my advice aligns with thesalesbooster.

            If you lack experience, you have 2 choices.

            1) Start by targeting all the less competitive lawyer keywords, and stay away from mesothelioma type keywords.

            2) Or, find a different niche. Which is my advice.

            Lawyer niches are saturated. Just pay attention to threads on WF. This is like the #1 default niche that all newbies go after. Then you never see them again. Probably because they got chewed out by the "sharks". There are actually other niches that are way more profitable, and have far less competition. So you're not exactly missing out by doing some more niche research.

            -Red
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  • Profile picture of the author Henri Lind
    Chris Winters is the go-to guy if you want to start lead generation business.
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  • Profile picture of the author winsoar
    This is a very old thread, but if it helps anyone several of my clients use my software the Email Marketing Robot to generate leads for businesses and sell them on at a profit.
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    • Profile picture of the author Regional Warrior
      Originally Posted by winsoar View Post

      This is a very old thread, but if it helps anyone several of my clients use my software the Email Marketing Robot to generate leads for businesses and sell them on at a profit.
      Way to go spammer typical POM does not read the rules no self promotion
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  • Profile picture of the author austria
    Banned
    you are doing a very hard and long work for just one client, for just one town.

    it is obvious that you are good at your work, and you are working hard,
    so why not sell your own products instead?

    this way you do not depend on the moods and possible mind changings of
    some local company that you didn't have prior business with for a long
    period of years so you can know it is fully trustable
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  • Profile picture of the author jessegilbert
    Banned
    I had a lead generation biz that made $200 to $300 per day autopilot in it's prime.

    It was a directory site, 1 page for each state and then separate profile pages for businesses (as it evolved)...business listings with address and info and then a lead form at the top of the page.

    To find buyers I spent maybe 3 hours looking around online and low and behold found a company that already had nationwide buyers and paid $10 per lead...so putting the form up and directing the leads to them was a few hour coding at most.

    The reason it worked is because I already had traffic and links from edu and gov and it was highly SEO optimized.

    I sold it but I think lead gen can be the best market...

    The hardest part now is finding the best markets...

    If I had to do lead gen again I would probably go Wordpress + Thrive Themes and do a bunch of landing pages or lightbox scripts for the lead captures.


    Originally Posted by biznics View Post

    Hi,

    A quick question:

    I have couple of domains (law related services) and I want to set them for a lead generation business. I know what Lead Generation is, but the problem is, I have no good idea of how I can execute my plans?

    Like:
    1. what should be the initial size of my website (number of pages)
    2. what sort of content should I add in my websites (full promotional / sales copy type content OR a professionally written website copy?)
    2. how should I manage leads? (which lead is qualified and which is junk)
    3. how to find buyers for my leads?

    From what I've read in few reputable IM forums, lead generation business is so saturated these days. So I was wondering what strategy should I adopt to enter this biz without risking and wasting too much of anything.

    Thanks for your time and looking forward for some experienced responses.

    Good day,
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