Are there really any FREE leads?

We know about “free leads” and how there seem to be dozens of ways to acquire them.

You might have your links on your social profiles, blogs, email signatures, comments you leave on others’ blogs, and on forum signatures.

But this is a passive method that only goes so far (and usually not very)…..

So the obvious next step is to then become more active in all of the social networking platforms, blogging and forum communities.

But you know this is where it gets time consuming.

You may start to wonder how you can really get free leads unless you consider your time completely irrelevant and worth nothing.

What is your daily hourly investment in social media marketing, blogging and the other activities you do to attract your leads?

Can leads ever really be free leads if you spend anywhere from 2-10 hours per day collecting them?

And at the end of each day, how many leads are you getting?

A lead is someone whose contact information (email and possibly name and/or phone number) you’ve obtained.

This can of course have occurred offline, in social media or through your capture form.

But is your contact list growing, or is your phone at least ringing from people calling you?

If neither of these is occurring, then you might consider refining your strategy.

Because think of it like this…..

…. if you are getting 16 leads per day but working 8 hours to get them, then what is your time worth?

Consider that your time is as valuable as if you were earning 10k per month.

You ARE building toward that, right?

Isn’t the work you are doing right now, today, an investment for the long term residual income that will pay you for years to come?

So, back to the calculation at hand…..

…..if you are worth 10k per month, let’s at least be realistic and say that you’ll have to work at least 40 hours per week to get there, then you’re worth at least $60 per hour.

That means that those 8 hours you worked are worth $480, and your 16 leads then cost you $30 apiece ($480 / 16)!

This might make you at least think a bit more about your networking and marketing time daily, hour by hour, even minute by minute. Make good use of it!

Make real and meaningful connections if you are using social networking to get leads!

Now, how targeted and qualified are those ‘free leads’?

Conversing all day on Facebook is possibly leveraging your time only IF you are cultivating valuable relationships that can ultimately evolve into business partnerships or customer relationships.

Even using ‘safe lists’ or ‘traffic exchanges’ takes some time and due diligence (and putting blinders on unless you want to be distracted by the hundreds of other offers you have to look at!)

And likewise, blogging every day is only valuable if you are getting a minimum of a reasonable number of ‘free leads’ per day form your blog posts.

Do you have a call to action at the end of your blog?

Is there a visible capture form on your sidebar, above the fold?

How much traffic is coming to your blog each day?

Do you even track it for trends?

These are things to consider while you are working to get”free leads”.

‘Free Leads’ vs Paid Leads

When you actually do the math and figure out what you are truly spending per lead you might wonder whether buying leads is the way to go….

Shoot, even if you think you’re worth only $30 per hour , targeting $5000/month, you’re still spending $15 for each ‘free lead’!

But, buying leads is risky business.

Why?

First, even if they are supposedly qualified by phone interview to have money and be interested in a home business, you never know to how many others those leads have been sold to!

However, if you are paying $1, $2 or even $5 per ‘qualified lead’ then compared to $15 or $20 per lead maybe that’s a fair exchange!

After all, hopefully through your social networking or your email marketing, you’ve actually been able to build a relationship and know like and trust with your more expensive leads.

What About Tools to Generate Free Leads?

There are literally hundreds of free lead generation tools, and paid tools which will generate ‘free leads’.

For one, LeadSkimmer is a really slick lead generation tool, free, and well put together by an industry leader.

But no free lead tool is going to do the job all by itself.

After all, it’s about the marketing…….

If you have a great product, even if it is a free lead generation tool, you still have to do something to get people to opt in (of course, no one becomes a lead until they give you their information!)

How About Buying Traffic to Generate Leads?

Of course paying for traffic is another option, but then, be sure to factor the cost of that traffic, whether banner advertising, pay per click or solo ads, into the cost of your ‘free leads’!

… Then We Come to Lead Generating Systems

Many lead generating systems are out there.

Personally, I’ve tried and invested money in many (probably over 20 by now).

I’m always looking for one that has the best training and tools, yet won’t overwhelm someone who is a newbie, but gives a seasoned marketer a gratifying set of features as well as advanced training.

This can be a tall order!

But the appeal about these systems is that when your target market is other network or affiliate marketers (who may already be promoting a primary company or product) you will do well to have something to offer them that they’d possibly need.

And when you have spent some time learning marketing skills like copy writing AND have a great offer, then you end up with more leads for your efforts.

As for now, I’ve been impressed by many systems, but have a sinking feeling anymore that they are not the answer.

We have become marketers of systems and as a result we are not building our primary business!

Instead we’ve become affiliate marketers (nothing wrong with that ….

….but if you choose network marketing for the walk away residual income then it is imperative that you be spending your time on what will increase that residual paycheck, referring new customers and representatives into your team!

And when what this might take is a SOURCE of leads, we still don’t want to be pulling our hair out learning internet marketing instead of bringing in more income either!

The Solution

While these elusive ‘free leads’ are not so free online, there ARE many free leads if you know where to look.

Simply being active in prospecting on social networks such as Facebook for example can boost your recruitment rate (if done well and correctly).

And the paid leads I mentioned are certainly going to bring you a better ROI for your efforts, not only in the cost per lead but in the growth of your business immediately rather than after 6 to 12 months of study and implementation of various internet marketing methods!

In our team we provide guidance on all varieties of leads, and I even provide my own training courses for free should anyone in my team be determined to procure their own leads online. I’d rather them get right to it than waste their time marketing other marketing systems just to get leads, spending time and money with that rather than building their business!

To find out more about our incredible opportunity and leadership that also provides you a way to BUILD your business instead of following rabbits down a rabbit hole, check this out, it will be time well spent!

You’ll have only to learn the skills to TALK to people, no chasing your family and friends, and no blogging or SEO or social media marketing.

Then you WILL have the time to finally realize that residual walk away income and the elusive 4 hour work week rather than have four days per week trying to create leads and especially free leads!