Other Recent Articles
Mortgage Lead Provider Popularity Contest
Most conversations about mortgage lead providers start with, “they all suck,” but that obviously isn’t true since lead generation is one of the fastest growing advertising segments.
So, if there are good ones out there how do I find them? Lead Critic has a creative way–run a popularity contest!
I lead with a little jest in this […]
Mortgage Marketing, Does Pay Per Lead Fit Your Mortgage Business?
The mortgage market has been one of the earliest adopters of pay per lead or performance marketing, but is it right for your business? Buying Internet leads is certainly an efficient and predictable way to grow your business, but it will probably only fit with some tailoring.The critical success factors to tailoring a mortgage business […]
5May2008 | Bill Rice | 0 comments | Continued
Top 5 Mortgage Lead Providers of the Week
We have been getting a lot of request from our Lead Buyer Readers to dig (Digg Us, that’s a good idea too) a little deeper into the Lead Provider’s listed in the Top 5 on Lead Marketwatch each week. So, here you go:
5. ZipSearch.com, is a consistent top 5 mortgage lead provider. They are a […]
5 Ways to Find the Best Lead Provider
If you are currently buying leads or thinking about starting the top of mind question is always, “Who has the best leads?” There are lots of ways to answer this question and most explanations start with stuff you don’t have (especially if you are a new lead buyer), like: best ROI, highest contact rates, […]
1May2008 | Bill Rice | 0 comments | Continued
Lawyers Sending Letters to Bloggers Always Ends Badly
You would think that the precedent of, “how lawyers sending letters to bloggers without grounds, spins crisis out of control,” would be mainline reading in law schools and professional journals these days. But, unfortunately for LendingTree they are retracing notoriously disastrous ground.
When I was tipped off about the LendingTree security breach and went to research […]
LendingTree Uncovers Breach of Lead Data
As reported on Twitter by an early tipster to the Lead Critic, and quickly confirmed by LendingTree in letters to customers and a website FAQ, LendingTree uncovered a breach of internal security that allowed some mortgage lenders unauthorized access to customer qualification forms. This is LendingTree’s description of the incident:
Recently, LendingTree learned that several former […]
Building a Lead Marketplace is Hard, as Zillow is Learning
Zillow has been at the lead marketplace building business for about two weeks, and I bet internally they are saying, “wow this is hard!” Early responders to the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace were easy to categorize, as I pointed out in my Zillow Gets Negative Reviews (from Non-Adopters), outside observers (non-adopters) were pointing out all of […]
18Apr2008 | Bill Rice | 2 comments | Continued
FREE Lead Management, It’s that important
If you were at LeadsCon you were probably waiting for this…
Today, Kaleidico launches in closed beta a free lead management system built on Twitter–SalesTwit! The premise is simple, built on the following observations:
Most sales occur outside of CRM or lead management systems
Typical CRM or lead management is laden with features and settings that distract us […]
Watching Mortgage Risk in Motion
Many have watched in amazement as the mortgage industry has dramatically imploded. It is tracked like a body count on websites like the The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter and each new melt down is a grand surprise.
However, I was just pointed to a tool yesterday that may take some of the surprise out who’s (at least […]
Lead Generation Industry, You Asked We Delivered
At LeadsCon 2008, there was a lot of interest in closing the loop between lead generation and lead management performance data–seen as a critical success factor for online originations.
As you may remember we had this discussion all the way back at Leads2007:
TODOs
These major themes drove this group to commit to three major initiatives:
Internet Leads Best […]
10Apr2008 | Bill Rice | 0 comments | Continued
RushmoreDrive.com Launched
Several weeks ago I got whiff of something new coming out of IAC, RushmoreDrive.com (Rushmore Drive is where the Ballatyne Offices of IAC/Interactive are located). Today it was revealed in an email to me:
A vertical search engine for the Black Community. Here is the description from the About Us page:
Launched in April 2008, RushmoreDrive is […]
Stop Using Cost Per Closing to Evaluate Lead Sources
Lead quality is increasingly front and center for new and existing online lead buyers, but that quickly begs a debate on how to measure quality.
One of the metrics that is often quoted by buyers and sellers is cost-per-closing, essentially ROI. Now, although I do not debate this metric in running your overall business, it is […]
LeadsCon: Internet Lead Market Up-close
I remember the first time I went to my Dad’s laboratory at the University of Kentucky and he showed me the magic of looking very closely at common everyday objects. You see, he had a scanning electron microscope and things you would think as simple as a common housefly’s eye are amazingly complex and interesting.
That […]
Zillow Mortgage Gets Negative Reviews (from Non-Adopters)
I have been following the Zillow Mortgage discussion with great interest. By reserving follow-up to my early commentary in BusinessWeek I have an opportunity to survey the discussion and distill a few important observations:
Zillow did something radical
The harshest criticisms are from non-participants
Smart folks are observing and participating with the intent to learn
This is an important […]
Reply.com Launches Blog and Lead Exchange
Reply.com just launched a new blog and revealed their new lead exchange. It appears the lead marketplace concept is about to get a bit more competitive, with Reply.com being one of two new entrants that I have heard whispers of emerging.
The concept of a lead exchange seems simple, but I think the challenge is in […]
I like the Lead Exchange model but how can a lead exchange make money to survive? The generator gets ...
Don't know salestwit will gonna make a impact or can replace the bulky hosted CRM's but anyway I like the ...
Those are some great tips on using the internet for leads! 
I have to laugh at someone putting an affiliate link to LMB here... Come on people... 
My pleasure Dan. Glad you enjoyed it. Bills.com is a pretty smart company. 
THat was a really nice write up, I read about this BillsIQ thing today online and when I searched then ...
Just to clarify - the highest bidder in your search above is a lead gen company! 
I'm seeing PPC costs go way up because of people cross-monetizing them; i.e. selling and upselling them using squeeze pages. ...