Insurance Quote Web Sites

[jameshaley91]

Hi Everyone,

Since this is an Insurance agent and broker forum, I felt that you would know the answer to this question. Do insurance quote web sites send 'insurance quote requests' directly to insurance agents, or they send it to a network, and then the network communicates the requests to appropriate agents?

I have several web sites and a lot of traffic, and I want to utilize that traffic to send quote requests to agents. It seems to me somewhat a difficult job to have relation with insurance agents directly since I would need to have something like 5 agents in each states to send them different quote requests. I know there is surehits.com. I wanted to send quotes to agents, and get paid per quote request.

I'd appreciate any idea or insight that anyone might have regarding this issue.

Thanks,
James

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Hi Everyone,

Since this is an Insurance agent and broker forum, I felt that you would know the answer to this question. Do insurance quote web sites send 'insurance quote requests' directly to insurance agents, or they send it to a network, and then the network communicates the requests to appropriate agents?

I have several web sites and a lot of traffic, and I want to utilize that traffic to send quote requests to agents. It seems to me somewhat a difficult job to have relation with insurance agents directly since I would need to have something like 5 agents in each states to send them different quote requests. I know there is surehits.com. I wanted to send quotes to agents, and get paid per quote request.

I'd appreciate any idea or insight that anyone might have regarding this issue.

Trust me, you do NOT want to sell to agents. You're already onto the main reason why; it will be a full-time job just to find enough agents to buy them all. Not to mention customer service, refunds, etc.

If you're REALLY getting traffic (which I doubt because I'm cynical), you want to sell to lead vendors. They'll buy every lead, pay just as much (often more) than agents will and you'll only have to deal with 1-2 people.

 

[jameshaley91]

Trust me, you do NOT want to sell to agents. You're already onto the main reason why; it will be a full-time job just to find enough agents to buy them all. Not to mention customer service, refunds, etc.

If you're REALLY getting traffic (which I doubt because I'm cynical), you want to sell to lead vendors. They'll buy every lead, pay just as much (often more) than agents will and you'll only have to deal with 1-2 people.

Thanks for your reply. Can you mention a few of the 'lead vendors' that you think would be good to start with. Also do you have any idea how much I can sell each lead?

I want to sell each lead to only a single vendor since I want to avoid having too many agents competing over just one lead which is neither good for the agents, nor for my users. I know that eventually as many as 6-8 agents will contact the user, but at the least I want to keep the number as low as possible.

 

[Alston]

PM me if you still need help.

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Thanks for your reply. Can you mention a few of the 'lead vendors' that you think would be good to start with. Also do you have any idea how much I can sell each lead?

I want to sell each lead to only a single vendor since I want to avoid having too many agents competing over just one lead which is neither good for the agents, nor for my users. I know that eventually as many as 6-8 agents will contact the user, but at the least I want to keep the number as low as possible.

First, understand what you'll need to do to be an affiliate; you're basically going to be re-directing shoppers to the vendors' quote forms. Then, since you're a beginner, it's not a bad idea to start by joining an affiliate or CPA network. They'll give you access to the campaigns the major vendors are running.

From your post, though, an issue for you may be letting go of the "I want to keep the number as low as possible," approach. If you want to be an affiliate, you'll have to accept that you're selling traffic, and what your buyers do with it is none of your business. It's like trying to sell toilet paper to Walmart and expecting them to honor your wishes that it not be sold to mischievous children.

 

[M*R]

JamesHaley -

There are many ways to make this easy and profitable for you. Much of what determines this will be the quality of traffic and quote requests you are getting. If everyone requesting quotes has medical issues or an income of $40,000 or less, the leads are not worth much because the sales will be too small. However, if you are getting quality requests with healthy people earning nice incomes, you may want to consider teaming up with a licensed agent, instead of selling each lead. The idea would be to have the agent contact and try to sell each quote request. Since you are providing the prospect, the agent will likely be willing to pay you a higher fee for each lead that is sold, perhaps something like $250/lead, or even more instead of $15/quote request.

There are many things to consider in terms of legalities, but can easily be structured with the assistance of a good CPA. If you want to make money, this is likely your better option. Just be sure to team up with a licensed professional who is accustomed to internet and over-the-phone sales. It may sound easy, and any agent may think they can do it, but the fact is there are some who are better than others.

Good luck!

 

[jameshaley91]

However, if you are getting quality requests with healthy people earning nice incomes, you may want to consider teaming up with a licensed agent, instead of selling each lead. The idea would be to have the agent contact and try to sell each quote request. Since you are providing the prospect, the agent will likely be willing to pay you a higher fee for each lead that is sold, perhaps something like $250/lead, or even more instead of $15/quote request.
Good luck!

Thanks so much for all the valuable information. Just one question. Since I'll be getting requests from all states, I thought that I'll have to send the traffic from each state to an agent who resides in that state; in that case, teaming up with only one agent would not work out, and I would need at least 50 agents. So, my question is can one agent handle traffic from all states?

Thanks,
James
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

First, understand what you'll need to do to be an affiliate; you're basically going to be re-directing shoppers to the vendors' quote forms. Then, since you're a beginner, it's not a bad idea to start by joining an affiliate or CPA network. They'll give you access to the campaigns the major vendors are running.

From your post, though, an issue for you may be letting go of the "I want to keep the number as low as possible," approach. If you want to be an affiliate, you'll have to accept that you're selling traffic, and what your buyers do with it is none of your business. It's like trying to sell toilet paper to Walmart and expecting them to honor your wishes that it not be sold to mischievous children.

Thanks for your advice; you are absolutely correct.

I actually searched for affiliate programs which specialize in insurance, and I didn't find any except for surehits.com, but they pay per click rather than per quote or per performance. I appreciate it if you could name a few insurance affiliate networks that I could join.

Thanks,
James

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Thanks for your advice; you are absolutely correct.

I actually searched for affiliate programs which specialize in insurance, and I didn't find any except for surehits.com, but they pay per click rather than per quote or per performance. I appreciate it if you could name a few insurance affiliate networks that I could join.

Surehits isn't bad; every lead vendor displays them on their "thank you" page and makes big $ from it; that's why they want you to re-direct to their form rather than host it yourself and send them the completed forms.

Commission Junction is a decent place to start. If you're looking to go straight to a vendor, Insureme is fairly user-friendly, easy to get approved for and at least won't stiff you.

 

[jameshaley91]

Surehits isn't bad; every lead vendor displays them on their "thank you" page and makes big $ from it; that's why they want you to re-direct to their form rather than host it yourself and send them the completed forms.

Commission Junction is a decent place to start. If you're looking to go straight to a vendor, Insureme is fairly user-friendly, easy to get approved for and at least won't stiff you.

Thanks again. I decided to start with CJ, and take it from there.

 

[M*R]

How much does a site like commission junky pay per lead?