Guest post from Alex Baydin. See below for bio

If the theme of the 2009 LeadsCon East was “Flight to Quality”, then I would say the theme of the 2010 NYC LeadsCon East was most definitely “Flight to Compliance.” The recent proposed amended regulations to the Higher Education Act of 1965 announced by the Dept of Education targets for-profit colleges and definitely shaped the discussions of this LeadsCon conference. In fact, the only other topic of discussion that came close to compliance in number of mentions was the presence of a new company in our space named Lead Beaver. Sorry readers, I won’t go there.

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The industry and all its players, no matter what team you are on, whether it be the lead buying team or the lead generating team have always dealt with fraud and the uncertainty of what happened or what will happen to a lead. As a buyer I was always concerned with how many times a lead was being sold, how it was produced and if it was sent to me in real time. Now that I am on the other side of the table I am still concerned with the same issues. Is there a buyer on my network reselling my leads? Is the data accurate and legitimate or is it fraudulent? The last questions I have answers/solutions for and have a number of different systems in place that decrease those risks. Until yesterday though there were no real solutions/answers that could insure a lead I generated was only being distributed to my customers and no other.

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Does anyone else find this ironic? (By no means scientific or authoritative, but ironic)

LowerMyBills’ Vendor Perspective:

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ — TARGUSinfo honored LowerMyBills.com, an Experian company, yesterday with the Best in Lead Quality Award at the Online Lead Quality Summit here at the Palms Hotel and Casino. The Summit, sponsored by TARGUSinfo, is dedicated to helping companies drive profits through successful online lead generation and improved lead quality.

LowerMyBills’ Client Perspective:

Does anyone know how i can get out of my contract for lowermybills

It is in my 3rd week with them and probably over 75% have been d/c numbers, they say I have to be with them for 31 days before I can cancel and also after 31 days I have to send a letter of cancelation [sic] that takes another 31 days.

Hmmm…At the very least it demonstrates that long term, "lock-in" contracts are not trust or performance-based. And I am sure, what I am guessing to be a small account, is not threatening to impact LowerMyBills’ strategic media buy forward contracts.

Recently there has been a large amount of buzz and news revolving around FHA products and guidelines. Many brokers are beginning to refocus their business and product mix with FHA products. The HUD continues to expand guidelines to be more flexible for borrowers. With all these developments happening many lead buyers are calling for lead providers to accommodate the FHA filters in their products and promote FHA products through their ads. Well it looks as though one company is answering the call.

QuinStreet will be introducing an FHA qualified lead beginning October 2^nd. This is exciting news for a few reasons. One, we have a lead company listening to the demands of their clients and two we have a company that is looking to help brokers put consumers in the best suitable product available.

For so long lead providers simply advertised the lowest possible rate and they still do, it will never go away and that’s okay. I get the feeling that QuinStreet is making the first step towards improving the consumer experience. You may ask, how are they doing that? Well they are simply offering or qualifying consumers and directing them to brokers that can best suit their needs, rather then sending the lead to a option arm cowboy that may put them in a product simply for the large payout.

I don’t have all the details regarding the leads, but you can easily give them a ring to find out more.

To find feed back on QuinStreet leads you can see my opinions and others in the LeadCritic forum. (you may have to register to see the private forum about lead providers) Although, I will tell you now that they are a recommended LeadCritic source and I am in no way compensated for making that statement. Just passing on the good news.

Kudos to QuinStreet.

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Inman News posted a video of Dave Wengal of TargusInfo. The video discusses scrub rates, the future of lead-gen and what questions you should ask a lead provider.

Dave states that 15% of leads distributed by typical tier one providers are fake or include false information. The is begs the question, is verifying leads through Targus or any other verification company worth the cost? Also, is it just me, but does 15% seem to be a fairly high estimate for leads with false information? I was thinking more along the lines of 10%, but Targus would have more information to base the estimate than I would.

Real Estate Video by – Real Estate Blogger
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