Another way to make great money online, that isn’t affiilate marketing, CPA or Adsense, is online lead generation. I’ve been looking into this for a while now and will be launching a site in the next few months, once I’ve done some more research and planning.
In this post I’m about to explain what online lead generation is, why it is an appealing revenue generating method and a few other things I’ve learned about it recently.
What is Online Lead Generation?
For those of you who don’t know, online lead generation is where you collect leads, using an opt in form, where the persons details are stored in a database and automatically emailed to the company who wants to buy them off you!
Having been on holiday for the past month, I’ve had a lot more time to read, and one book that I enjoyed was “The Bathrobe Millionaire” (not an aff link;). This book is written by a guy called Jason Yelowitz, and explains how lead generation made him 9 million dollars in three years, collecting and selling leads in the real estate market. I bet you want to see the site that made him the millions right, well here it is: ehousehunting.com
The site itself is nothing too fancy, although it is quite detailed in the way it captures leads, but once up and running all you need is traffic to a site like this and you can see how it would be a cash cow, if you have the right traffic ofcourse.
Kinds of Lead Generation
The real estate market is just one of many industries that are willing to buy leads. Essentially all businesses need leads, but not all will be ready and willing to buy them. The higher priced the item/service the company sell, they better for lead generation in most cases.
PPC prices have gone up over the last few years, making it more and more expensive for business owners to get leads, and this is why many business owners will be quite open to striking up a deal to buy qualified leads from internet marketers. You should also look at the Google Traffic Estimator to assess the CPC for the main keywords for an industry, to give you an idea of what industries have to pay a lot for clicks, as these will most likely be good ones to target for lea generation.
The other thing to look at is the length of time a customer stays with a company, and the repeat sales the company can earn from the leads you send that they convert into customers. For example, Insurance, the customers here usually stay with the same company for a long time, so they are most likely more willing to spend more up front on leads from marketers like you and I, because they know they can make the money back in the longer term from repeat sales.
Who’s This Best For?
For those of you who are new to the world of online marketing, and still developing your traffic generation skills etc…then this is not something you would want to do, best to stick to 
a more simple model, such as affiliate marketing, however I can’t only write posts for newbies, as I have a mixed bag of subscribers to this blog.
If you’re good at getting traffic to your sites, and have got a few successful affiliates sites, then this may well be something that you should consider. The site template would need to be designed by a coder, and Joomla or WordPress would work fine and this is something that can easily be outsourced.
The next thing is to look for industries, preferably locally, so you can get in contact with them easily, but not essential, and the work out mutualy beneficial deal that works for both parties.
I think now is a good time to learn how to do this, as more business owners are looking to the internet for marketing purposes, yet a vast majority haven’t got a clue about SEO, and therefore they NEED people like you and I to help them get traffic and leads to drive their business.
Hopefully this sparked some creative thoughts for you all!
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This is a great concept, but quite the opposite of lead generation in AM, where privacy is key, and selling opt-in email lists is shunned.
Matt Carter Reply:
July 26th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Hi Ken
thanks for your comment. With these sites you make it clear that their details will be passed on to a third party, so the customer should expect that, so yeah this is different than IM list building.
Cheers
Matt
I’m already doing this for a local real estate (renting) company and it works rather well. Once you know what you’re doing it’s so easy to do and can make you tonnes of money – the only hard part is selling the leads to businesses, most of them don’t have a clue about the value they’re getting and don’t understand lead generation as a means of profit.
Matt Carter Reply:
July 26th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Good stuff Nick, glad you’ve got it working for ya!
Real estate seems to be a winner.
Regards
Matt
I just learned that “insurance” has the highest CPC and I’m sure there are tons for CPA program for this, which makes this niche good for lead generation.
Matt Carter Reply:
July 26th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Hi Bernard,
Yes insurance does have huge CPC’s!!
Good stuff
Matt
It all sounds very interesting but I don’t think I am at that level yet, however I will definitely pay attention and see what I can achieve in the future.
Matt Carter Reply:
July 26th, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Hi Jeff
Yeah this is slightly more advanced, but I think if you nail affiliate marketing and your SEO, then you can progress to this after that.
Regards
Matt
Hi Matt
Great idea, I took a look at the site that you linked to, the design is simple and very easy to replicate something like this.
Just from the info you have given here i think the way to do this is to make the site and than one would need to find reliable good people in the ins trusty you are trying to promote
The only thing I could not figure out is, how do you monetise this, do you just make a deal with the service providers and sell the lead to them, or only get paid if the deal goes through.
Do you have some kind of a responsibility to the client.
Matt Carter Reply:
July 26th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Hi Yehuda
You can do it either way, charge per lead, which is best or you can charge when the sale goes through. Ideally though I think a better and more fair deal for the marketer selling the lead is to get paid per lead, as its the merchants job to close sales, not ours. With that said the leads need to be legit ones, and not bogus details, so you would have to work that out with the company.
Cheers
Matt
Hey Matt,
Thanks again for another timely and insightful post : – )
Your Rapid Profits course is a good training course that can be used to help learn the traffic generation skills needed to make this work and this is another good way to diversify your online income streams.
I guess generating online leads and then turning into cash cow by selling it to third parties has its risk as some of those whom sign up as your leads may not be aware of the fact that you may forward their contact to third parties.
Thus, it is advisable that you make it known and disclose clearly to those who intend to sign up as your list that their information may be forwarded and share with third parties.
I suspect that this would work well if you first approach a local company (such as an estate agent/ real estate broker) about bringing them leads from the web and agreeing terms before you start. I would show them some proof of ability of ranking sites in Google and some traffic stats to win them over.
Then offer them a discount on what they are used to paying for leads generated from print media for example. Try and keep a serious facial expression as you do this part.
Matt,
I thought about trying to do this about 3 or 4 months ago but I chickened out, lol. Once I complete unstoppable affiliate and get grounded with affiliate marketing, I will definitely consider doing this.
My guess it that within the real estate niche, the foreclosure/short sale niche would be HUGE with the economy still being what it is.
Please keep us up to date on your progress and if you come out with a course on this type of stuff, I am first in line, lol.
Thanks!
Jamal
Hi Matt
Great idea.Another Business Model For The Future.
Thanks For The Info.
Regards
Winchel
Thanks. Wasn’t even aware that you could sell lists. Duh!
Hey Matt: The link you posted is dead (page not found). Did you put the right link up? I would love to see an example of this.
Michael
Matt Carter Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 1:46 am
Hi Michael
I fixed the link now, sorry about that
Matt
More great information. I do not know where you get all these ideas. Keep them coming. Due to information overload it is not possible to be good at everything. About 3 months ago I set up my first blog. I am now getting close to 100 comments a day,most of them favourable. The comments leave e-mail addresses.
Very interesting Matt!
As a side line project I have a few local sites for a number of industries that I’m working on getting to the top then leasing them out. The alternative would be to use the sites to generate leads then sell the leads to the local companies, which I guess would be more of a money maker if you had good leads and had a number of eager buyers to trade off.
Nice one Matt. More food for thought.
Cheers
Richard
Matt Carter Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 1:46 am
Cool Richard, hope that works for ya!
Matt
Thanks for the providing another stream of income option Matt. It might take a while to build up the lead capture skills to succeed in this arena but it should definitely remain a part of the overall business plan.
One question for you. Do you know if you have to demonstrate the number of leads or quality type leads you can generate before you are accepted by one of these companies?
Best regards,
Derek
Hi Matt,
Just a quick note of thanks, for the great insights you sent my way. Your guidance and sincerity is appreciated. I still have a lot to learn.
Best Regards,
Pete
Online Lead Gen is seriously big business. Anything in the financial services niche is ultra competitive, getting an aged domain in some some niches is like finding a needle in a haystack. Unless you have thousands to spend on a domain.
I do lead gen (SEO) in one particuliar financial services niche, there are networks set-up specifically for this and your leads are bought in real-time.
Getting onto page 1 of Google is almost impossible, but possible. You need to look at it long term and be prepared to see no ROI for quite a while. If you’re happy with this, then go for it. If you prefer shorter gains, I suggest finding some other niche other than financial services. If you have LOTS of cash to splash on PPC, you will make a fortune, if you know what you’re doing.
Hi Matt,
As always, you get the little grey cells working. As kind of a newbie, I still appreciate these more advanced techniques. Keep ’em coming.
Thanks,
Donna 🙂
Thanks for the heads up Matt. I bought an expensive product about lead generation that I never used. I shall look into using it now. Cheers, Ed
I’ll be interested to know how it goes Matt, the good bits and the bad! Sure you’ll make it happen though.
Hey Matt,
Your content is always excellent and this is a business we willl look into as well.
Thanks, HDIW
Yup-great idea and relatively easy to implement. Been doing it for a bit now and encourage others to do so as well. If you think about it, the market is wide open for this technique. Thanks Matt.
Exciting!!!
Very interesting post. I was just looking at some companies that were paying for lead generation, but they were for affiliates.
If you could provide lead generation directly to clients and could rank for the right keywords I imagine that the rewards would be significant.
Matt,
This is a good idea, especially, if you like to work with local businesses. They are the ones that are mostly in need of these leads.
Of course, this concept is not different from CPA, except that you are your own “CPA network”. These networks pay you for a lead. I would check the payouts of CPA networks to get an idea of what a lead is worth.
A few years ago, we purchased MLM leads from a company that made a huge business out of selling these type of leads. The mostly came from online sources. So there’s certainly money there.
I recommend for anyone who tries to get into this, to understand that they will have to sell the leads they create. I feel that many people in affiliate marketing do not like “selling” and personally dealing with customers (the buyers of your leads).
Thanks,
Kurt
I am sure capturing leads for sale is a lucrative enterprise. Not some thing I would go for at this time – still working on getting my site working.
Thank you for the info though.
Hi Matt,
It looks interesting.
I checked the site you posted and I wonder how could guy with alexa rank over 3M earn millions of dollars in 3 years? He has no visitors for this, am I right?
Anyway, thank you for your great posts, I have never thanked before.
Matt Carter Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 10:19 am
If you read the book the site stopped making money in 2007 when the real estate bubble in the states crashed, he made 9 million in three years leading up to that, then the companies stopped buying his leads. Also his PPC techniques wouldn;t work today, as he got in before things got too competitiive for paif traffic, but SEO is still a good option.
Matt
I am not sure if I understand this correctly! Isn’t this going to lead to mistrust by your customers? Selling their info to Companies? I mean, on all our sites we promise to not to sell or give customer info to a third party or, is this accepted by certain customers? Thanks for your info. I like
Matt Carter Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 10:16 am
Hi Peet
Yes it is expected with this type of site, as long as you tell them that you want abuse their email and sell it to other parties that they have not shown interest in.
Thanks
Matt
Hi Matt!
I hope all is well with you and your family….and your business!
I recently purchased your program (I’ve been following you and going to your webinars, free lessons, etc. for about 6 months) When we got our tax money I bought your software – ‘rapid profit formula’.
There were bonuses with it and I thought the ‘rapid re-writer’ was a bonus that came with what I purchased. However, I cannot find it. Can you help me with this? I want to start writing articles for my blogs and web pages, but am stuck because I wanted to us the ‘re-writer’ to help me with this part.
Thanks for whatever info you can give me.
Thanks for all that you do, for people like me…..the ones with little to no money. I advertise you all of the time, on my web page, on twitter and facebook, etc., and will continue to do so in all that I post online!
God be with you and yours!
Sincerely,
Linda (Sileena) Swearingen
I am doing something similar to this but instead of selling the leads I am just charging a monthly fee to get the business’ phone to ring.
I like the monthly fee because instead of having to haggle over the quality of the leads and having to be more hands-on, the monthly fee automates this and makes it more autopilot (although there is more money in selling each individual lead it’s just more work).
I’m working on getting my first client (junk car buyer) but he’s a little resistant to the monthly fee I want to charge even though I’ve already provided him a few free leads to prove I can do what I say.
And what I can do is generate 1-2 calls per day for him :). And with that number of calls I’m sure he can get about 5 or more deals per month.
Thanks for another great post Matt. I actually have a good friend that collects leads for his real estate business, though he hasn’t quite figured out the best strategies to sell them.
I’m definitely going to send him that book that you just read. It’s right up his alley. Thanks!
Thanks for another informative post Matt. I guess lead generation is just another way to make a buck online.
Definitely worth looking into, especially if you already have a list/lists then you can capitalise on it. Regards…
Grant
Hi Matt,
Great article Matt but I’m not sure whether I could emulate the website ehousehunting.com it looks rather too complicated for myself. I had my flower shops designed but love the idea of lead generation.
I’m still in the stage of trying to find what is the best internet business model whether online or offline, although leaning to offline.
Building passive/residual income now that would be nice.
Same Day Flowers Reply:
July 27th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Hi Matt,
More avenues to explore.
I have a niche portal site, relating to travel to and in a foreign country that gets good traffic, this would be a good additional revenue earner – any suggestions/recommendations for ‘online lead generation middle men’?
Thanks
Rachel
Oops, sorry John, didn’t mean to add that as a reply.
Hi Matt,
More avenues to explore.
I have a niche portal site, relating to travel to and in a foreign country that gets good traffic, this would be a good additional revenue earner – any suggestions/recommendations for ‘online lead generation middle men’?
Thanks
Rachel
Hi Matt
Great Post!
How does it compare to those who use a squeeze page to capture leads before sending them to a CPA offer?Does that mean local biz payouts are higher?
Thanks!
Hi Matt,
Thanks for this post, I’m always looking for ways to diversify my business and I think this would be a great way to accomplish this!
Matt,
Yes this has sparked some creative juices! PPC is expensive, so this may be a good avenue in the future. Food for thought.
Thanks
Regards
Catherine
Hi Matt –
Although I will not be ready for this business model as of yet, I appreciate the range of topics on the advance side as well. If anything, it certainly keeps the wheel turning in my nogg’n..
Thanks man
Rich
Hi Matt,
This is something that should not be overlooked. I believe there are lots of money to be made with lead generation. I will take a closer look into this. Thanks for enlighten me.
/Chris
Interesting idea for monetizing a site for experienced affiliates. I’ll sure be interested in whatever product it is that you’re developing.
You said that you should tell those that are opting-in that their email may be shared with others…I didn’t notice this bit of info on the link that you provided us. Did I miss it? Or, is this site not doing that?
Jhoe
Thanks for the interesting money making ideas. Has anyone thought of just contacting web sites that look good but rank low to help their site rank higher? You could charge ‘x’ amount for each rank upwards. When you think about it, there are many ways to make money online.
Thank you for the profound explanation of yours, yeah maybe it will take a little longer for me to fully understand and used this method of marketing, As of now, maybe focusing on affiliate marketing first. One at time process for a perfect success.
coin counters
http://www.betterbusinesselectronics.com/Coin-Counters-c26/
Hello Matt,
When will you have a lead generating site up and running? I put one together but haven’t really put much thought into yet.
http://paydaycheckcash.com/
Thanks,