tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67459728625807188862008-07-24T13:13:59.884-04:00Lead Storm Media RyanRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-21881817589376727102008-07-24T12:10:00.002-04:002008-07-24T13:13:59.902-04:00I Have a Great Idea for a Website - Part 3, ImplementationAt this point the business plan for your website dream has been planned out. It's time to begin to lay out the design and functionality of your website so that it gives you the best chance to reach your goals, with the least amount of cost associated.<br /><br />The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 50% of businesses fail in the first year and 95% fail within five years, so the odds are you will lose your money on whatever it is you are planning with your site. Therefore, it's always best to keep your venture cheap without cutting the corners on that essential elements of on-line business success.<br /><br />Here are some things that are going to be essential to the implementation of your website. Dont cut corners on these things:<br /><br />Logo - Get yourself a professionally designed logo. Nothing will drive visitors away like an unprofessional look. Ultimately, your aim is to build credibility among your visitors and that all begins with your logo. So let a professional do it, it will cost about $100.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.e-moxie.com/">Professional Development</a> - Depending on the site functionality, a professional developer may be needed (ie a social networking site, database driven site etc.). However if you are starting up an information based or a lead generation site, you may not need this at fisrt. What you can do instead is download an appropriate open-source Content Management System (CMS). It wont cost you anything, it will give you a ton of function and it will allow you easier scalability in case your site does blow up. If your idea isn't going to require many pages at all (at first anyways) you could always have a static driven site, although that's kind of old school.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.e-moxie.com/">Professional Site Designer</a> - Doesn't need to be too expensive, but needs to be done by a professional. You need to have a design firm that knows how to design a site consdiering all aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). They MUST design your site for SEO and they must also tie in your CMS properly so that search engines have an easy time finding the content on your site and reading what each page is about.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ephricon.com/">SEO your site</a> - period, dont cut corners. Get steady and consistent SEO. If this is your largest fixed cost per month, then you are making the right decision.<br /><br />Hosting - Just make sure you use a reputable company so that your site doesn't have too much downtime.<br /><br />Money Collection - PayPal if applicable at first. It's easy as heck and most people will know how to pay you by using it. Depending on your monitization structure, you may not even need PayPal. You may just receive checks.<br /><br />Now keep in mind these things are general and that I couldn't possibly cover everything. Each different website idea is going to have it's own unique needs. This is more of an outline than anything else.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-83334742523456008042008-07-08T16:03:00.002-04:002008-07-08T16:18:14.484-04:00Legal Lead GenerationSo, super-premier lead generation company (and my company coincidentally) <a href="http://www.leadstormmedia.com">Lead Storm Media</a> has begun operation in a new lead vertical - <a href="http://www.local-attorneys.com">Lawyers / Legal</a>. We have decided to create a website that allows users to search for a lawyer by region and by legal category. The website will start with larger regions like the Baltimore - Washington, DC area, New York Metro area, Los Angeles and Chicago and will within time cover much of the country. The legal categories that it will serve will be numerous, but include Accident and Injury, DUI, Criminal, Real Estate and more.<br /><br />The legal lead generation vertical is relatively still untapped. Although there are some major players and a handful of other companies competing for legal leads, we think that the entry point we are giving ourselves will allow us to have a fairly strong site right off the bat (or perhaps after just a little bit of work). In fact, <a href="http://www.local-attorneys.com">local-attorneys.com</a> is anything but new. It's been around since 2004, but we are just now taking it over. So watch for Lead Storm Media to take a little slice of the legal lead gen pie in the very near future.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-70261111065404872662008-06-19T06:50:00.004-04:002008-06-19T09:06:31.530-04:00I Have a Great Idea for a Website - Part 2, PlanningTo carry further into what was discussed in the previous post I'd like to go into what needs to be done to properly plan your website idea. What core steps need to be considered before you jump into what could be, an expensive and risky online business venture.<br /><br />Websites normally grow in the same stages that any traditional business usually does. Therefore, what I am discussing in this post are the steps to take in getting your website off the ground to support its infancy or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_company">startup growth phase</a>. Each phase of growth for a website translates into new challenges and new things to plan for and consider. Since making it out of the website startup phase is the toughest part of any new online venture, thats what we will stick to here. <br /><br />Planning<br /><br />1) The Partnership - In the case that this online venture involves more than just you, planning expectations in the partnership is going to be crucial. Some essential elements before beginning are knowing and outlining each persons expectations, responsibilities and commitments. Some things to map out for each person may include; how much time per week is spent working on this, who handles what core tasks (sales, accounting, marketing, etc.), abilities and skills of each person, who is putting up what money for what initial and ongoing expenses, future responsibilities etc. The partnership needs to have a workload that is distributed fairly evenly and each party should carry just about the same amount of weight. It's also a good idea at this point to plan out the profit distribution, but thats always the easiest part...<br /><br />2) Growth - How will your website grow? <br />Where are your getting your traffic? How will you increase your levels of traffic? Does either of you have experience getting traffic to a site like this or marketing a site like this? Do you know that without traffic you have nothing? How long will it take for you to hit certain traffic volumes? Can you survive for "X" amount of time without any traffic or revenue?<br /><br />Traffic is the most important thing in a new online business venture (besides the bigger picture of know how and execution, but we are talking about for an amateur). Without it you have nothing at all. Nothing else matters quite as much as your traffic. So be sure to plan out a strong strategy on how you will acquire this traffic.<br /><br />Many times it's probably best to start your site very locally or <a href="http://www.roofing-directory.com/">with a niche</a>. By focusing on your home turf you can increase the chances of getting a decent traffic base. Your word of mouth is stronger on your home turf, your content (keywords) can start out having a local focus, you can probably get more local links (friends, local businesses that you know or that you frequently patronize), the traffic will be more likely to converge and work together in your favor and you can target all of your online and offline marketing on this local area. So naturally all these things will contribute to traffic and also the local links and local content (and maybe a local internet buzz) will lead to strong search engine rankings in search terms for your local area. So all in all, a local focus or a niche category, although in theory much smaller potential, increases your chances for success. Once you have success, you can plan and adjust for growth on a wider scale. Case and point, <a href="http://sfbay.craigslist.org/">Craigslist.com in the San Francisco area</a>.<br /><br />Oh, and dont forget to <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">track the heck out of your traffic</a>. From day one. It's essential.<br /><br />3) Making Money - So while you develop your plan for getting a good amount of traffic to your site, you need to identify how you plan to make money with that traffic. I have seen a handful of friends fail miserably with website ventures. Most of the time it's because they simply didn't have a plan for monitizing the site. Great idea, beautiful site, <a href="http://e-moxie.com/">excellent developers</a>, no plan to make money. Now, generally if you do really darn well with the traffic side of the plan, the money has a chance of figuring itself out.<br /><br />So, how will you monitize your website? Are you selling advertising, are you selling a product, a service, a membership? Is this going to fit well with the type of traffic that you are bringing? Monitizing your website is something that in most cases can be done in a couple / few ways. The key is to identify who will be visiting your website and how that visitor can be turned into dollars. Sometimes, transitioning the visitor into dollars requires a little bit of development scewing to create the right <a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/exterior/decks/ca/losangeles/">conversion tool</a>, so initially with your site you want to identify what type of visitor is the most common on your site. Turn that visitor into money by targeting them and converting them (<a href="http://www.leadstormmediaryan.com/2008/05/converting-leads-by-being-credible.html">see previous post on converting leads</a>). After you begin to make money off of this demographic, then you can go back to your developers and have them build in the capability to convert the other types of traffic into money. But the initial build out should include a seemless mechanism for converting your core visitor into dollars.<br /><br />But, maybe you just sell advertising, in which case you can post ads on the side of your main content, piece of cake, but you better have had your tracking setup and you better have a bundle of fairly targeted traffic...<br /><br />The point is, monitize the largest and easiest group of visitors first within your initial plan.<br /><br />4) Cost - How much is all of this going to cost you? Initial costs and ongoing costs, variable and fixed. Identify it all and determine if you are willing to risk that amount of money because there is a great chance that you will never recover it.<br /><br />Next time we will discuss the implementation process of all this.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-60109019117035926542008-06-12T07:28:00.004-04:002008-06-19T06:50:31.134-04:00I Have a Great Idea for a Website!! Let's Do It!"My buddy and I have a great idea for a website and my buddy has design experience, so we are going to start an amazing website that will blow up to become the next MySpace." <br /><br />OK, so you have the money and your buddy has Flash and Dreamweaver experience and even knows some HTML. So he's the internet wizard who will make you both rich by perfect site idea design execution and your the Warren Buffet with business savvy. That sounds like a plan, done and done, right?<br /><br />Not so much. Many people have a great idea for a website and too many of those people believe what in the past may have been a little more possible to the web; buy the domain, slap the site up and let the money pour in.<br /><br />Today, things dont quite go that way and even more now than ever before, the <a href="http://www.myspace.com">MySpace</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com">YouTube's</a> are fewer and farther between and the dream of selling a site for millions of dollars because of its potential has all but gone away as well. (Note; unlike much of the cause of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble">dotcom bubble in the 90's</a> , MySpace sold predominantly for it's tangible statistics that would make people advertising money - registered users, traffic stats, growth rate, internet buzz, public buzz etc.) However, people see the internet dream as still being the same way it was back then. I've known, first hand, people who; saw the low over head (still possible), had hardly anything but an idea (not possible), had no business plan (not possible) and much worse than almost all that combined, didn't have any idea where the revenue was going to come from (GASP!!). Even MySpace was started with a proper <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan">growth and business structure</a>. Developing a classic business structure and applying to a web property is the right way to do things. An internet business now has (almost) the same requirements as a pizza restaurant or widget distribution company.<br /><br />So over the next couple / few posts I would like to explore the "I have a great idea for a website, now what?" theme.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-58218502819561588272008-05-30T15:18:00.002-04:002008-05-30T15:51:46.057-04:00Growing Web Properties - Time and EffortMy company, <a href="http://www.leadstormmedia.com/">Lead Storm Media</a>, is pretty cool, or at least I like to think it is. The reason that I think my company is cool is because we have an ability that a handful of people / companies in America have, but we also have the capability to apply that ability.<br /><br />Still with me?<br /><br />That ability I speak of is the ability to organically grow a website at a steady pace that varies depending on the budget allowed. We have grown more than a couple of websites from almost no starter capital, into sites that created their own working capital and then with that self generated working capital, they turned into very strong revenue generating sites. <br /><br />Starting out we skimmped to get by. Wrote our own unique content, creeated our own in-bound links the old fashion way of going out and getting them and wrote and syndicated our own <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?id=1157417">articles</a> and <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=858828&sourceType=1">press releases</a>. It worked slowly, but very surely at first. As time went on, our budget went up and we were able to make things happen faster and more efficiently. Then the exponential growth took off.<br /><br /><br />The reason I say we have the capability is because we dont have any red-tape or bureaucracy. I know for a fact that many big web firms and <a href="http://www.newscorp.com/">media conglomorates</a> have employees who are equally as talented as those in my company, but they do have to deal with red tape. There are usually people with different ideas, many of which are great ideas that would probably take off, but too many people have to approve the idea. The time it would take for the approval, and the policies that can restrict certain aspects of the idea are the factors that ultimately limit these large companies from having websites that bust out with major growth. It happens, but not as frequently as it could / should. They have time, money and all the resources they need, but too much red tape.<br /><br />The moral of the story is that people dont often realize that it takes almost nothing (overstatement, but you know what I mean) to really grow a website to a respectiable size. As long as you have a decent idea with a large enough audience (ie. Saskatoon, Wisconsin Ant Farming Community Spot - not a big enough idea) and you have the right conepts, time and effort, you can do it.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-59152542870159658532008-05-13T08:05:00.003-04:002008-05-13T09:22:11.096-04:00Converting Leads by Being CredibleSimilar to the fashion of gaining organic search traffic comes the concept of converting that search traffic through good 'ol fashioned credibility. <br /><br />Many great sales people will testify that one of the first, and most important, steps in the sales process is to establish rapport. In fact, back in my early days when I worked for <a href="http://www.adp.com/">ADP</a>, I went through their sales training program (a very good one at that) and of course the first step in "the process" they were teaching was building rapport. To some, this comes really easy, but to those that dont have that amazing level of charm and charisma (that I have :)) there actually are fairly tried and true techniques you can use to win someone over and establish credibility thus building your rapport with the person.<br /><br />Well in generating a top quality lead we MUST do the same thing. Now back to the top quality lead reference, <a href="http://www.leadstormmediaryan.com/2008/03/my-kinda-lead-search-based-volume-1.html">we have discussed that before</a>. To me, the top quality lead is someone who has actively searched for something that your site has and they have either clicked on a ppc add or on your organic search result.<br /><br />Search Result Credibility:<br /><br />I believe that by having someone click on your organic search result you have established the best first level credibility available. IMO a ppc ad is the second. The organic result tends to lend the notion that this has already been prescreened by the search engine as being something that really strongly relates to my query. Good, level one rapport granted. They hit your site because they feel something or someone else has deemed your site worthy of being here.<br /><br />A paid search result is probably on the little lesser side of the credibility spectrum (although that probably is not the case in some industries). A good amount of internet users now know that the ppc ads are in fact advertisements. So sometimes, as with any ad, some people are reluctant to act on something that they feel they are being sold on. Its definitely more of a sales pitch and therefore only 20% of internet users click the paid results. Even when they do, they tend to have a little more hesitation on the site, again because they can feel like its a sales pitch. The organic result wins the credibility battle here. I'm not even going to touch the content network banner ad stuff because it isnt even close to the two sources we have discussed, so I wont even bother. Its great for volume but not for quality.<br /><br />Advantage; organic search result. Your level one credibility has been obtained.<br /><br />Content Credibility:<br /><br />So you have the user on your site, congratulations. Now you have 3 to 30 seconds to conquer their next level of credibility.<br /><br />The first question they ask; Is the website what they thought it was when they clicked and does it contain the type of info they were hoping to see? If not, its over, see you later unique visitor. If a brief visual scan tells them it does contain the info they were hoping to see, do you have enough of the right content to win their credibility and make them convert? <br /><br />Some sites take the approach of just being there to convert the actionable traffic. Little info, all about targeting traffic that is searching for their specific service. <a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/">Take a look at this site</a>. It gets strong organic traffic and a vast majority of the organic traffic comes from long tail search phrases like "kitchen remodelers monterey county". It's a little more likely that the visitor is looking for some source to get in touch with kitchen remodeling companies in monterey county, probably so they can request an estimate. Now since the <a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/remodeling/kitchen/ca/monterey/">landing page</a> on this site for this query is all about telling the visitor that they can request an estimate from a prescreened contractor in that specific topic and that specific region, converting the lead is fairly likely because the visitor can read a sentence or two, or view the title tag or view a heading on the page and realize that they are in the right place. Its also pretty likely the quality of lead will be very strong because that person's intention was to find kitchen remodelers in monterey county. Now, that being said, so many variables get thrown in to that equation that you just wont convert 100% of the visitors that go through that process. But the ones that you do convert, credibility across the board and your chances of having a good lead are very high.<br /><br />Some sites can be a resource and win trust through strong content that makes them look like an expert that is dedicated to the industry. <a href="http://www.fixthehome.com/">Take a look at this home improvment resource site</a>. This site tries to win the credibility of the person searching for more broad terms like <a href="http://www.fixthehome.com/cat/remodeling/topics/kitchen/cabinetreface/">cabinet refacing</a> or <a href="http://www.fixthehome.com/cat/remodeling/topics/bathroom/tubreplace/">shower replacement</a>. It does so by offering commentary, tips and narrative on what is involved in cabinet refacing (or whatever). As opposed to the site above where the credibility comes from targeting the actionable search result, here the credibility derives from the pool of information that makes the user feel like this site indeed is a cabinet refacing resource. Then the site calls the user to action by offering the prescreened contractor to service this need. Its definitely a less direct approach with a softer appeal for conversion. In fact, in this case the request an estimate form takes on the look of a post-it note. Attempting to connect with the user's at home responsibility and experience. It's less of an estimate engine and more of a category resource site built for the user. This site also takes into account that the info must be brief enough to convert the lead, you can definitely lose traffic that could convery if you dont offer several, subtle but present calls to action.<br /><br /><br />Call to Action / Closing / Converting:<br /><br />We have spent the last thirty seconds building the visitors credibility through 1) showing up in an organic search result as a credible source and 2) providing what they need by either targeting their actionable request or by being an expert in the field of their request. Now lets convert the darn lead.<br /><br />Always Be Closing. Always make sure you have your call to action present, easy to spot and easy to act upon. The bold call to <a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/remodeling/kitchen/ca/monterey/">request an estimate form </a>as the focal point of the page is probably your best bet for the page that targets the more actionable search queries like "home improvement estimates". The soft and subtle offering of asking the visitor to "<a href="http://www.fixthehome.com/cat/remodeling/">let me be your resource in finding a prescreened remodeling contractor</a>" is probably the more effective approach in more topic or category searches.<br /><br />Know what type of traffic you get to your site, play to any and every factor that will lend pure and targeted credibility and rapport and Always Be Closing.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-8615711822311318012008-04-28T15:49:00.004-04:002008-04-28T16:40:52.533-04:00Going Green and Getting LeadsSo all the buzz these days is about going green and no doubt for good reason, it's helpful in prolonging humankind. I'm all for this of course and just so we are on the same page, I am more of a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_green_environmentalism">Bright Green</a>" than anything else (not as bright green as Amy Winehouse after a weekend sharade, but I'm getting there).<br /><br />There are many resources out there that give you a solution on how to make something or do something the "green way". You can look up how to green your home, how to green your office and even <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/how-to-green-your-sex-life.php">how to green your sex life</a>, and thats great, who wouldn't want to green their... wait, what? Yes, that's correct. There's a green way to do everything. I know what your thinking, "(low pitch, raspy voice) but I'm already a natural when it comes to..." Well dream on pal, we can all get a little more eco-friendly.<br /><br />With that being said, the lead-gen people out there are starting to realize that there are leads to be converted here. And I think I'm on to the notion of having one green resource for creating leads the green way, of people trying to buy something the green way, from companies who do things the green way so that they can do something the green way.<br /><br /> - dizzi - head spinning - pause - pause - recovering - and <br /><br />Now that only looks and sounds silly because of the redundant theme. Realistically thats the way we want to be, right? <br /><br />We have seen environmentalism and eco-friendliness be a part of our culture for quite some time. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmentalism">Dark Greens</a> used to be the only people out there who knew how to be environmentally friendly and often times their message was suffocated by their aggresive protest. Now we are all learning more and doing more to help the environment. It's not only acceptable to talk about evironmentalism and eco-culture, but it's been converted to cool now. <br /><br />I think that the <a href="http://www.leadstormmedia.com">lead-gen people</a> who take part in this "green lead gen vertical" are doing something for the greater good. Maybe not as good as those who we hold so high in our society: The Paparazzi, but lets keep building on-line resources <a href="http://www.hybridcars.com/">like this</a> and lets keep blogging the green message. We can actually feel pretty good about ourselves for this one.<br /><br />Being both a "Bright-Green" kinda guy and a nut-job for the customer acquisition market naturally I had to get my source for converting the green leads. <a href="http://www.ecohomesite.com">Its a going green home improvement website for tips, articles and of course, free estimates.</a> Oh, and you can check this out for <a href="http://www.fixthehome.com/cat/solar/">prescreened local solar contractors</a>.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-23632577592536627162008-04-18T16:21:00.002-04:002008-04-18T16:49:48.567-04:00IT Support Lead Gen SiteSo as I have mentioned before on this blog, I serve as a lead buyer from other lead gen companies in the IT education vertical. I run across many small IT business owners quite frequently.<br /><br />I have been talking about the need for a major lead gen website in this vertical for a while. It just doesn't seem to be out there.<br /><br />Small and Medium sized local IT business owners are generally tech savvy enough to find out the fundamentals of SEO so that they can generate at least a decent pull of organic traffic in their area. A good example is a talented IT technician that I have worked with for quite some time. He recently (a couple years ago) started up a <a href="http://www.nashtechsolutions.com">Tech Support company that focuses on systems and network management</a> (mainly a Microsoft guy). He does some great work and stays current on all the latest IT trends like RFID, Security, Virtualization etc. So, basically he is quite tech savvy, enough to the point that he has the know-how to do some basic SEO build out for his sites and his client's sites. If he wanted to go beyond that he would need to switch careers.<br /><br />My point is that he has the ability to make <a href="http://www.kgfence.com">local sites rank well</a> with general longer tail search phrases in their site's local region. However, if he wanted to grow his company into a medium sized business or larger, he would need a <a href="http://www.ephricon.com">SEO company</a> to do it for him.<br /><br />So where is the lead buying experience that can allow him to take a monthly lead buying budget and turn that into true prospects? Why hasn't a major lead gen firm taken up that vertical yet?<br /><br />Many smaller businesses today have the ability to basically support themselves by paying reasonable prices for on-line leads, as we leadn gen guys all darn well know. Its way overdue in this vertical.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-18559987718251209472008-04-08T08:34:00.005-04:002008-04-18T13:33:52.898-04:00IT Service Industry LeadsSo all of us in the on-line industry, and basically anyone who has ever wanted to own a website, is full of ideas for the next myspace.<br /><br />However, a couple of friends of mine recently brought to light a seemingly obvious idea that really doesn't appear to have a major industry / vertical strongholder - IT Service Leads. My friends thought of this because they are owners of local, small business sized IT / Networking companies - <a href="http://www.newpathcom.com/">http://www.newpathcom.com/</a> - They are more telecom / networking based and then <a href="http://www.nighttimecomputers.com">Kent Island Maryland based computer and tech support company</a> and actually they dont seem to know of a source for steady leads on the web. In fact, one of them wanted to start something like this. Of course, two things always seem to get in the way, time and money.<br /><br />Why haven't the major national lead gen firms like <a href="http://www.quinstreet.com">Quinstreet</a> and such taken the steps to break this vertical open. It seems like it's something that could generate a great price per lead. And I have to imagine that there are enough people searching for IT services - both businesses and personal.<br /><br />I wonder what the deal is there? What's funny too is that (I deal with IT companies both large and small on a daily basis) most IT firms have NO IDEA about anything related to driving traffic to a website or even the principal of lead generation. Oh sure, they could write the code or build the database for any site all day long, but obviously so much more of it is marketing, and marketing and IT are polar opposites.<br /><br />So who makes this move to give this vertical a try? Not me, not now anyways, time and money...<br /><br />But it is a good idea, right?Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-46191952927307512022008-03-28T15:01:00.005-04:002008-05-22T16:38:51.202-04:00My Kinda Lead - Search BasedMy company generates search driven leads (mostly organic). Plain and simple: Joe Homeowner searches for a <a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/remodeling/kitchen/md/montgomery/">kitchen remodeling contractor in Montgomery county Maryland</a> and finds one of my sites - try it, it works :) - and lands on the Montgomery county MD kitchen remodeling page and then is lead to request an estimate. Again, this is a better product (IMO) and since I also serve as a lead buyer, I have years worth of reports from multiple lead gen companies that show me this.<br /><br />On that same note, I have bought leads from both PPC based lead firms as well as mainly organic search based lead firms and I dont find much of a difference between those two. EXCEPT in the case that the company is using a ppc campaign that pulls traffic from something other than the search engine company's search network. In those kind of situations I have seen a decline in lead quality - a substantial one compared to the actual search based lead.<br /><br />Again, I create leads that are generated by organic searc traffic <a href="http://leadgenseo.com">(not surprising since my partner is definitely an SEO expert</a>). So organic search based traffic is without a doubt our lead acquisition channel of choice, for all of our sites.<br /><br />I believe that search based leads are the hardest type of leads to generate; it takes the longest amount of time (long term white hat SEO), it produces the lowest volume in many cases etc. Currently, producing these leads pays only slightly higher than leads from other sources. However, the cost to create the leads gets lower with each day that passes. Generally, you front load your SEO campaign spend and with time and a steady approach, you are rewarded with growing lead volume through a growing organic traffic pull. So your cost diminishes.<br /><br />Just like the volume, the payouts on search driven leads take time to grow as well. Some time, I'll talk more about that...<br /><a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/remodeling/kitchen/md/montgomery/"></a><a href="http://www.leadgenseo.com"></a>Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-84604887004811722702008-03-28T10:23:00.003-04:002008-03-28T15:00:36.616-04:00The Most Common Lead - Incentive DrivenThe most common lead you will find across the internet is the incentive driven lead. This type of lead is the main one that fuels the great affiliate marketing industry, for the most part. The incentive driven lead is the result of the meeting point between a publisher, an advertiser and a visitor. The advertiser has the offer and the publisher posts the offer and generates the web traffic which then converts into leads. Basically brain surgery... :)<br /><br />The publisher, is the website that houses the advertisement which is attempting to catch the attention of the person (visitor - I'm assuming its a person I guess, could be a dog if they are using the internet nowadays, which I suppose is... Dumb, nevermind) that they hope converts into a lead. The advertiser's offer has to be something catchy; like a dancing pink monkey holding up a sign that says "Lower Your Interest Rate" (this is just a made up example of course, I've seen blue monkeys, but no pink ones). The site visitor thinks that the monkey is cute, or the offer is attractive, either one, and then they click and get directed to another site which houses a form or they fill out a form on that site.<br /><br />I am partial to my company's type of lead generation, search based. However, the incentive driven lead has been a staple to this industry and ultimately is the reason for this industry being as large as it is today.<br /><br />The incentive driven lead has too many downfalls (IMO-obviously), mainly, the close rates are much lower than they would be if a person was searching actively for a product or service. The incentive lead wasn't necessarily created by someone who had the intention of using the web to find a specific product, service or company on that specific day or moment. The incentive lead most often is generated by that visitor's instantaneous curiousity. Sometimes you catch someone at the right time, perhaps they were looking to specifically lower their interest rate or refinance their mortgage and they stumpled upon this ad. Hey, sometimes you may catch the person who had the notion to refinance but may have been putting it off for a little while. The majority, however, are not those people. The majority saw the dancing monkey and thought, "Huh, I've seen this dancing monkey before. Maybe I should see what the monkey leads to, and maybe I could just kinda check out what interest rates are currently..." This is why I view this type of lead as inferior.<br /><br />I have much experience buying the incentive driven lead. I find that in the vertical I compete in as a buyer, this type of lead closes at about 1/5 the rate of a search based lead.<br /><br />Again, the incentive driven lead rules the lead generation industry. It's arguably the easiest lead to create, at least volume tells us that it is.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-37007749074975138342008-03-25T17:34:00.002-04:002008-03-25T17:46:29.326-04:00Different Lead Generation MethodsI'd like to begin to discuss the different types of leads that are generated. I am both a lead generation company owner as well as a person who purchases on-line leads from multiple sources (in two different verticals).<br /><br />Over the next few weeks I will be discussing some of the different lead types, how I rate their effectiveness and where they are in today's on-line lead purchasing market.<br /><br />Just so we are all clear my company creates leads through (predominantly) organic search results.Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-52051030588666460582008-03-24T10:28:00.005-04:002008-04-08T11:52:39.145-04:00Who / What is Lead Storm MediaI probably owe a decent intro to who and what Lead Storm Media, LLC. actually is.<br /><br />Pure and simple, <a href="http://www.leadstormmedia.com">Lead Storm Media is an online lead generation company</a>.<br /><br />We focus our lead generation around what we feel is the most superior method in lead gen (and most difficult), search traffic. We own and acquire websites and we use white hat SEO techniques and quality content development on those sites to generate organic search traffic. We currently serve the home improvement lead gen vertical, but in 2008 we will be branching out into other industries like Education, Insurance, Legal, Regional and others.<br /><br />Our second main area of business for Lead Storm is after developing websites to a point of strong organic traffic and lead conversion, we then sell the site to a firm in that industry that might be able to better service the leads than our firm.<br /><br />As <a href="http://www.ephricon.com/about/jon/">Jon</a> (another Lead Storm partner) put it: "...We like to start new projects more than we like to manage existing ones."<br /><br />We do love this stuff. We really enjoy starting these sites up and watching them grow. We have also found that we are quite good at it. It's a fairly simple recipe though, usually with the main ingredients being persistence (content and links) and time.<br /><a href="http://www.ephricon.com/about/jon/"></a>Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-59143107941430236372008-03-20T13:11:00.005-04:002008-03-24T10:28:01.814-04:00Dont you love people who ignore emails? - Not related to lead genI belong to a group that does things like fantasy football, March Madness etc. together. We have one person in that group who is an "email ignorer". They conveniently select emails to "miss" every now and then, and as it turns out, these are the important emails. Emails like - "Hey will your girlfriend let you go out without her this weekend?", or "Will you make it to the next golf trip?" or the best "Hey, you haven't paid your fantasy football entry fee and the season ended a month ago..."<br /><br />This person has no problem responding when he wants to zing others for their foul-ups and when he wants to rag on you or whatever.<br /><br />So here is the email that glorified how sick of it we all got. Random, but funny, because this guy has shown an "air headedness" at times, so this is completely realistic. XXXX = The culprit. This is from yesterday:<br /><br /><br />Guys,<br /><br />You do realize that XXXX is only pretending not to get our email.<br /><br />XXXX - "No, didn't see it. What about March Madness? "<br /><br />Friend Jeff - " XXXX, if you didn't see it, how did you know it was about March Madness?"<br /><br />XXXX - "Wait, what?...(incongruent stare, long pause)...March whuddy? I had a hamburger too."<br /><br />Friend Jeff - "Donkey."Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6745972862580718886.post-80821540684047219792008-03-20T10:31:00.001-04:002008-03-20T14:57:20.728-04:00Bloggin it real...OK, so I have started my on-line lead generation blog. Here we go. I'll be back soon with something related to whatever the heck I want it to be related to.<br /><br />My company is Lead Storm Media, LLC<br /><br /><a href="http://www.leadstormmedia.com/">http://www.leadstormmedia.com</a><br /><br />Also check out:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.allaroundthehome.com/">http://www.allaroundthehome.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.fixthehome.com/">http://www.fixthehome.com</a><br /><a href="http://www.roofing-directory.com/">http://www.roofing-directory.com</a><br /><br />and<br /><br /><a href="http://www.trainace.com/">http://www.trainace.com</a>Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12994039930655960102noreply@blogger.com