Howdy,
Have you ever heard of lead generation?
Plenty of you haven’t I’m sure so I’ll sum it up for you.
Lead generation is when you somehow gather or group up people who have expressed interest, desire, or need for a certain product or service and then find a business owner who provides that product or service and sell these people (leads) to them.
Sounds pretty simple, eh?
For example, I could build a website about weight loss and then, when I have enough traffic, I could sell the leads that are coming through to some business owner who sells stuff related to weight loss.
This is waaaay oversimplified and wouldn’t be a good idea at all because it’s so broad but it should get your mind moving in the right direction.
I’m more inclined to think that local lead generation would have a better chance at being fruitful than something vague like weight loss.
Say something like dentists.
What if I put up a site that targeted searches done in Grand Rapids and surrounding areas regarding dentists. That would seem to me a whole lot easier to rank for on google than something broad like weight loss or even something dental related but not geographically specific.
It seems to me that dentists are probably more consumed with being the best dentist they can be than they are on marketing and getting new people into their office.
Maybe if I put up a nice little site with a few informative articles and some sort of call to action, like a phone # or a downloadable guide of some sort and I start getting a bit of traffic, I might be able to start filtering these people (leads) to a dentist, for free for a period of time.
And maybe once the dentist realizes that these really are valuable people in need of dental care who are from the local area, he/she would be willing to pay me for them.
This could work for really any local small business. Tree trimmer, landscaper, plumber, chiropractor, remodeling contractor, etc…
It all sounds good in theory. These small businesses are in business to get customers off of whom they can provide their service and make a profit.
The reason I have doubts is that I’ve never personally met or heard of someone who does this successfully.
You?
Maybe nobody ever tries it for that very reason. If it were possible, wouldn’t everyone be doing it?
Anyways, if it does work, what a dandy little biz that would be. Set up a site that you get to rank, get the traffic rolling in, find a local biz who values that traffic and sell it to em.
So that’s the next project on my list to prove one way or another. Pick a business niche, get a site put up, get some keyword focused articles written (by either a hired writer or ChatGPT) and see if I can get the thing to rank.
If I can, then see if I can find a local small biz willing to take the leads for free for a week or two and then see if they value said leads enough to pay me for em.
What do ya think of that, my dear reader?
Waste of time? Great idea?
I’ll find out soon enough and let you know.
Here’s to maybe wasting time but also maybe not.
C-ya
Kurt Bouma – Lead generation explorer
