Midyear-2008 Lead Company Update

[Guest]

Give your name a Google search and see what pops up. I found out that an affiliate of Hometown Quotes or Hometown Quotes themselves were using my name to market their leads. When you clicked these links, it ghost linked you to their lead form. If you find this happening to you as well, please let me know asap!!

Okay, I thought I was nuts for a second but when I put up my Qalias link, and searched for Rob Liano, Ehealth had Rob Liano Insurance at the top of the page, I only saw it once but was soooooo pissed!! I looked again and nothing.

 

[Lancealot]

Give your name a Google search and see what pops up. I found out that an affiliate of Hometown Quotes or Hometown Quotes themselves were using my name to market their leads. When you clicked these links, it ghost linked you to their lead form. If you find this happening to you as well, please let me know asap!!

HometownQuotes and most of the others on this list (not the smaller, insignificant ones) would never do that. They are too big for that garbage. It is an affiliate and I know for a fact that both InsureMe and HTQ will get rid of that affiliate. The same thing happened when they had affiliates bidding on our company name.

Send an email to [email protected] and their affiliate director will help you.

If it happens with InsureMe, send an email to April Hartmeister. I dont know her email. The HTQ email is public on the site.

You would have to be crazy to think they tolerate this sort of thing.

 

[MattMcWilliams]

Please email me at matt [at] hometownquotes.com if you ever discover an affiliate doing something like this. We monitor our affiliates very closely. We are the only company that has a full time staff of Quality Control experts.
As you would expect we have people from other companies on board and that is something they are just blown away by.
99% of our affiliates are good at what they do and produce great leads. In fact, our affiliate credit percentage (leads credited to agents) has been lower than our Google marketing over the last 2 months.
So anyone who tells you that they don't use affiliates and only do search marketing...well, I go by the facts: the numbers speak for themselves.
Good affiliates produce good leads, just as a good marketing team produces good leads. No affiliates means one thing and one thing only...low volume and eventually going out of business. It's the reality of our business. It does NOT mean better quality at all.
Some affiliates quite frankly are better at this marketing thing than we are and it is not in their best interest to get leads reversed, or not get paid for bogus leads, or to get sued by us for sending us bogus leads (trust me this happens every now and then)
Long story short...we are aggressive in pursuing bad affiliates. We don't like them anymore than you do. We were founded by agents who knew there was a better way to do this thing than the "churn and burn" model of agent retention that others do. That is surely why our agent retention is nearly 5X higher than our main competitors.
Again, feel free to email me at matt [at] hometownquotes.com if you ever find a bad affiliate of ours violating your name, trademark, etc. They won't be with us long after that I PROMISE!
Blessings,
Matt McWilliams
COO/Affiliate Manager
HometownQuotes

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

"You would have to be crazy to think they tolerate this sort of thing"

Well...I must be a little bit crazy. And, I'm not alone.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I personally don't think some of these lead companies care at all - as long as the leads keep flowing in and they don't get caught.

When they get caught it becomes "ooops - bad affiliate" and they brush it away.

While there are indeed some lead companies that value their clients (agents) there are also a few who seem to view them as marks.

 

[Expat]

"You would have to be crazy to think they tolerate this sort of thing"

Well...I must be a little bit crazy. And, I'm not alone.

I think "encourage" would be a better word to use.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Well, the lead companies aren't gonna piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. I know some leads affiliates. In many cases it's "don't ask don't tell."

 

[Invain15]

Well, the lead companies aren't gonna piss on my leg and tell me it's raining. I know some leads affiliates. In many cases it's "don't ask don't tell."

And "if" someone complains they're sure to weasel there way out of it.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

If ONE agent complains it's "ehh....whatever." Although that's over-stated since the lead companies do indeed try to keep their agents happy, if they lose one account it's neither here nor there.

However...when agents get together there's power in numbers and complaints are dealt with in a different manner.

 

[bjordan]

IHAA,
I cannot believe that your opinion about the Leadpod has change so much. If I did not know better, I would think you were a flopper. Are you running for office or selling your membership. On the 3/8/07 and 3/16/07 of last year, you responded to my inquiry saying that Leadpod was a joke. Know, a year later it has changed your life. I guess the NEWBIE knew what he was talking about when I made the post. I would normally never respond to the post I read on this site. However, you come across as a Flopper that I just need to expose. I know about all your service you pitch to new agents and why you do it. Come on Sir, I been in this business lonh enough that if it walks and talk like a duck, then it must be one. I like other members of this site enjoy the ideas shared on this site. What I don't like is the people who pretend to be about the agent when in fact you a just a wolf.