Mostchoice....as In Mostspam...

It's as simple at this everyone - a few years ago is was relatively cheap to do pay-per-click. Back in late '03 most internet lead companies were on the 1st page of Google and almost all leads were keyword driven and high in quality.

Since then the demand for leads has skyrocketed and the price per click has gone way up. It it far cheaper to email spam and banner ads to generate leads and MOST leads you buy are email spam driven. Your lead company disagrees? Google "health insurance quotes" and see if they're one of the 1st 10 links. If not they are bold face lying to you.

Where you're all getting ripped off is the lead companies costs have gone way down using affiliates and spam, they are selling leads to more agents and behind you back to other companies are "warehousing" sites yet charging you more.

If you just want to mosey along and put in the occasional deal then shared leads are for you. If you actually want to make what I consider to be great money it will NEVER happen on shared leads unless you want to start selling plans with "right" or "saver" in it.
 
I've always liked InsureMe. What you'll find is if you sign on with internet leads companies that are truly keyword driven you can't get the volume you need. A friend of mine signed up with InsureMe and took the entire state of MD two weeks ago. He's received just over 15 leads so far. Hey...another 5 and he might write a deal.
 
MostChoice - Had a discussion with their CEO earlier in the week, turns out they "pre-populate" most of their leads to EHEALTHINSURANCE (our #1 competitor). They do not populate customer name, contact information - but as you can imagine a lot of clients buy from EHEALTH - I find this to be completely unacceptable at all levels. The response I received from MC was "our agents prefer this setup since the customer is more knowledgeable... etc., et.c,"

I call it what it is - unethical and double dipping.

People on EHEALTH buy cheap plans, plans they don't even remotely qualify for or qualify without rate adjustment and or plan modification.

EHEALTH is basically - "...apply and see what happens..." not a real useful "broker" and their rates are constantly wrong I am sick of hearing "EHEALTH beat your rate..."

I was very disappointed to discover this is how MC operates - they did not tell me this I found out on my own. I am a major buyer of leads (5 figures+ per month) and find this to be unacceptable.
 
I've always liked InsureMe. What you'll find is if you sign on with internet leads companies that are truly keyword driven you can't get the volume you need. A friend of mine signed up with InsureMe and took the entire state of MD two weeks ago. He's received just over 15 leads so far. Hey...another 5 and he might write a deal.

Do I sense sarcasm??

Honestly, I learned a long time ago that a lead is a lead is a lead. Meaning, if there is a name/phone # attached, especially one that actually might WANT YOUR PRODUCT, I'll take it! I can't tell you how many people call/email me because they claim the other ones who contacted them were "too pushy", "annoying", "rude", etc.

Differentiate yourself amongst your competitors and you'll sell plenty. I think overall InsureMe is pretty decent and I have such an easy time competing against the schmos at HBD InsureMe sells to, who literally make the customers sick.
 
The issue is if they are selling "real" leads or "affiliate" leads and if they are going to cut you any slack on returns.

I received about 40 Netquote leads today at $10 each and over 60% are either: too old, medically uninsurable, bad #, morbid obese, or refuse ANY contact even after we twist their arm to at least give us a fighting chance.

Netquote takes hardly any returns and fights you on every credit. I spent $400 TODAY and we did ONE deal for $101/mo with a condition that is sure to be waived (since the med is over the premium amount) can't wait to see the stick rate on this deal I paid $400 to acquire in advertising alone.

We take leads from NQ a little away from our immediate office (near our office little English is spoken) and do not do face to face. Agents might have better success near their office or driving around - I can only speak for Internet.

It is extremely difficult to be profitable with close rates in the 2 to 8% range, issue rates in the 60 to 90% rate depending on your operation, low premiums, and high cancel rates. Internet Individual is a tough game trust me it is my life - I do a lot of volume but it doesn't come cheap.

Once you start spending $20k, $30k, $50k /mo on leads you start getting irate with lead companies and their ethics.
 
If you're paying $8 or so and it's an affiliate-generated lead you are getting ripped off sooooo hard you can't even imagine! Their profit on those leads are just insane.
 
People on EHEALTH buy cheap plans, plans they don't even remotely qualify for or qualify without rate adjustment and or plan modification.

EHEALTH is basically - "...apply and see what happens..."

This kind of buyer does not meet my criteria as a client, so I really don't care about them. Seems they get what they deserve.

The issue is if they are selling "real" leads or "affiliate" leads and if they are going to cut you any slack on returns.

Affiliate leads can have a more liberal credit policy. If they give out too many credits on a lead the affiliate will not get paid for the lead.

It is extremely difficult to be profitable with close rates in the 2 to 8% range

My close rate is around 5% on gross leads . . . maybe 8% or so on net leads after credit.

I could be off on those figures but a few folks have asked me lately so I decided to "eyeball" it.

What I do watch is how much I spend on leads each month vs. how much commission is generated. When my return dips below 5:1 I need to re-evaluate what I am doing.
 
As I previously posted...I dropped NetQuote last month. I had been with them for about 10 years. They have no control over their affiliate program and I got tired of people going on "freelaptop.com" and requesting a health insurance quote from Netquote.

I showed them proof what was going on and they always said they will "look into it."
 
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