Are Lead Gen Sites Worth It?

Skynet1

Skynet1

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I'm thinking about creating a lead generation site, but I'm not sure for what type of industry (lawyer, plumber, roofing, etc.) and I'm not sure if it's worth my time.

I would of course be purchasing an expired domain that is generic but niche specific that has some good stats.
 
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It's extremely hard nowadays. Some "gurus" were promoting this in the last years and now I've read in private conversations that they have currently ditched this because it was too hard for the return.
Some already established people are still profiting though. But with the complexity of Google Maps with the distance thing and all that, it can be a real pain in the ass.

If I were you I will look for alternatives, this is extremely hard. But if you are still really interested because you have a great motivation in this in particular, then go for it.
 
SirLouen said:
It's extremely hard nowadays. Some "gurus" were promoting this in the last years and now I've read in private conversations that they have currently ditched this because it was too hard for the return.
Some already established people are still profiting though. But with the complexity of Google Maps with the distance thing and all that, it can be a real pain in the ass.

If I were you I will look for alternatives, this is extremely hard. But if you are still really interested because you have a great motivation in this in particular, then go for it.
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I was looking at going more the Facebook ads route with a landing page, rather than doing SEO since that takes a lot of time and it's a pain finding an address for the GMB.

Have you heard anything about people doing this with Facebook ads?
 
Skynet1 said:
I was looking at going more the Facebook ads route with a landing page, rather than doing SEO since that takes a lot of time and it's a pain finding an address for the GMB.

Have you heard anything about people doing this with Facebook ads?
Click to expand...

Any paid advertising result will allow for much more immediate results (FB & Google PPC). The key is finding the right structure and funnel that will not bleed your wallet while your trying to get clients onboard. If you can find a low comp niche and set up the SEO and run paid ads concurrently to get it moving that would be the best option if you have the budget to do so.
 
Can you plz explain how does this business model work?
 
qualityservice said:
Can you plz explain how does this business model work?
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  • Choose a niche that would be prevalent amongst smaller local businesses that has poor SEO competetion (Example: roofing)
  • Create and rank a website that pulls in leads for these businesses (or use paid advertising / hybrid model)
  • Sell leads to businesses in the area
  • Profit
 
Skynet1 said:
Have you heard anything about people doing this with Facebook ads?
Click to expand...

Can definitely work, I took a course some months ago, but it smelt a little bit like scam all the way though
I would try the CPA route instead of lead gen... unless, as I said, you have the motivation, and moreover the contacts willing to pay for those leads. In some countries is just not worth, but maybe in others is a huge opportunity (like any other CPA).
 
Yes, this can be profitable. It's how sites like Zillow and Realtor.com stay alive. Real estate agents pay small fortunes for the (mostly from what I've heard) low-quality tire-kicker leads that these sites often generate. I know of others that paid yelp for similar leads. I know people pay Homewyse type sites for leads too.

I don't know the path to profitability for these sites, but I've seen them used in several industries. You might have a hard time competing for mind share with the established sites and I know in my vertical (real estate) there are a lot of people who ask for other's experiences with a variety of sites. Seems we see 1-2 new ones a month promising leads.

Wish you all the best and would love to read the journey if you do this.
 
BHSEONewb said:
Yes, this can be profitable. It's how sites like Zillow and Realtor.com stay alive. Real estate agents pay small fortunes for the (mostly from what I've heard) low-quality tire-kicker leads that these sites often generate. I know of others that paid yelp for similar leads. I know people pay Homewyse type sites for leads too.

I don't know the path to profitability for these sites, but I've seen them used in several industries. You might have a hard time competing for mind share with the established sites and I know in my vertical (real estate) there are a lot of people who ask for other's experiences with a variety of sites. Seems we see 1-2 new ones a month promising leads.

Wish you all the best and would love to read the journey if you do this.
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The worst lead generation industry you can get into (next to Dentistry) is Real Estate.

A few years ago someone started creating lead generation pages for Real Estate agents that would give an estimate on what your home is worth after you entered your contact information. What happened was people came to their website just to find out what their home was worth, not because they were interested in selling there home. Almost all the leads had fake information, and the ones that didn't were simply just trying to find out what their home was worth but not interested in selling.

As someone who used to do Real Estate marketing, one month without a solid lead, which is extremely common due to the sheer amount of competition, will be enough to stop your client from continuing with you as agents simply do not make enough money to support these types of investments.
 
Honestly it never worked for me.

Keeping track of the leads and invoicing clients was a real pain.

Fixed setup fee + monthly retainer works much better for me.
 
BlackGrumps said:
  • Choose a niche that would be prevalent amongst smaller local businesses that has poor SEO competetion (Example: roofing)
  • Create and rank a website that pulls in leads for these businesses (or use paid advertising / hybrid model)
  • Sell leads to businesses in the area
  • Profit
Click to expand...

So what is understood is:

Say, I want to send leads to plumbing businesses.

1. I will first contact Plumbing business owners and tell them that I can give you quality leads.
2. If they agree, then I will make a plumbing related website and run PPC ads(or SEO)
3. I get emails from interested people, asking for more info or like they are interested in taking plumbing services.
4. I then forward each lead to the business owner and they pay in return for each lead

Am I correct?
 
There are many variables that come into play with Lead Gen sites.

First of all, you need to be confident that you can rank your sites. Local SEO, especially in the USA, isn't as easy as everybody says as there are plenty of agencies operating for each state.

Even if you rank the site, it doesn't really mean that you will promise leads. There are more ads in local search terms than for any other term + you have GMB which takes the most of the clicks.

The third case scenario is, even if you rank the site and you get a good amount of leads, getting a client to sell the leads can really be a pain in the ass.

I saw a guy on Reddit doing lead gen sites a few months ago, and what he first did was to make sure that he can sell the leads to a client for a price, rather than just ranking the sites first without knowing if you can sell which is pretty smart IMHO.

So if you don't really have a budget that you can play with, I wouldn't go for it as there other ways that you can make money online by ranking the sites. But ask around, do your own diligence and then decide. It can be a gold-mine if you get good at it. It all depends on you.

Best of luck.
 
There are 8 figure businesses doing lead gen but there are a lot of different factors at play here. Yes it’s still a viable model but, like most things, it’s not as easy as it used to be. Markets can be competitive and it can be a headache getting paid for the leads even if you get them.
 
If you pick a niche that is specific enough with low competition, there is still golden opportunity for lead gen.
 
I also planning now to get into this business, but my approach is going to be a bit different. You need to add value to it. Everyone can get a cheap site with Form7 to get inqueries and run Fb ads or Adwords. I just dont see added value here other than paying once for this setup. So recuring customers dont recure for too long or they understand that they can do it themselves.
IMHO there must be technology involved in order to make it attractive to a customer. Something, that average Joe cannot get easy. Some “know how”. Either you know something that no one knows or you scale it that no one cans.
All other ways are just short term quarter coin chasing on the New York sidewalks :))) Just my two cents.

p.s. If there are someone wanting to discuss (exchange, not only taking, but also giving) lead generation business, pleqse feel free to DM me. Cheers!
 
Paid advertising modes like FB ads definitely helps lead gen sites.
 
Unless you are going to PAY for traffic (ie., adwords) OR targeting less saturated/less competitive service niches OR targeting less saturated locations, building a lead gen site is a nonstarter, OP

EXAMPLE: A friend of mine works with someone with someone who buys up ALL search inventory for LEGAL SERVICES in the PHX, AZ metro area. He's banking by selling the leads but he spends 5 to 6 figures monthly for all that traffic.
 
Skynet1 said:
I'm thinking about creating a lead generation site, but I'm not sure for what type of industry (lawyer, plumber, roofing, etc.) and I'm not sure if it's worth my time.

I would of course be purchasing an expired domain that is generic but niche specific that has some good stats.
Click to expand...

Yes it still works and it still works well, did you notice that all the nay-sayers in the thread are just basing their opinion on what they have heard what others do, ignore them they don't know shit. I and the other hand have leadgen sites since 2004.

Is it easy? No!
It has become harder but the way i do it is whit a page-generator and a cloaker where i redirect my traffic to my landingpages, local SEO hasn't changed that much in the last 10 years, not as much as all these know it all, wannabee local SEO gurus like to tell you, i still rank website with .xyz domains for lots of local keywords with just a view citations, PBN links and web 2.0 links.

Is the traffic huge? No!
But if you build a site with a lot of keywords + city pages you will get a lot of traffic after a while, the state of Ohio has about a 100 cities (wiki) if you go do your research on, lets say, plumbers you will find that there are a lot of services dan sub-services that you can target, you can build a website with a 1000, 1500 pages targeting all these phrases + cities and redirect your traffic to a landing page and then all of the sudden you have, in worse case scenario, a couple of 100 visitors per month that are activity seeking a service they need right now, in other words HOT LEADS.

Can you find leads with (paid) SMS traffic? Of course you can!
But if you wanna target services like plumbers you need to learn how to target and how to warm them up, i have my ways with messenger bots and texts that i am not going to reveal but i can tell you as i like that method and it is making me bank after two years of trying and testing. I can tell you that i am not paying Google prices (stay away from Adwords their prices are insane) for my leads when it comes to social traffic but it does need some marketing work. (psssttt FB-groups ;) )

I have leads nobody is buying!
There are at least 5 companies that will buy them from you like: ring revenue, marketcall and others that will buy your leads, of course for less then you can sell them yourself to business owners, but you will have no hustles like getting clients and qualifying leads, you just get paid.

I hope this will give you some more informed info then what people say about what they heard people did

TL;RD
Yes, it is possible, you can make a very good living (10K profit per month is very common) , it will take you at least 6/9 months to see ROI, stop listening to people who never done it, get to work.
 
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I have to agree with fc-dh. Local lead gen can be a great source of residual income and I recommend you give it a shot. Personally, I enjoy the rank and rent model as I can continue to polish my web dev and marketing skills at the same time learning about a variety of niches.

Choosing the right niche is important, so be sure to take the appropriate time and look into say 10 potential niches. Compile search volume, ad spend, how many businesses operating in the city, look at the GMBs in that niche (if poorly optimized/reviewed GMBs are in top position), what shows on 1st page of G for organic (if Yelp, or other local directories show up, then it's usually fairly easy to rank with quality local content, citations, backlinks and time).

You'll most likely find a few potential niches that are ripe. Choose one and go! The worst that can happen is you learn alot about local services.
 
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