Another guru question: Consolidating leads in your own form: allowed?

[andrewrab]

Hi all... sent another question and had some very helpful responses...

This time, here's the question...

Regarding affiliate sites, let's say for example, home loans... I see a lot of cases where it appears that affiliates are using their own forms to gether the information... and, obviously, sending it off the company with whom they are the affiliate -- or, perhaps, sending it to multiple companies.

I've also spoken to an associate who knows this industry a bit, and she had originally suggested doing that.

HOWEVER, when I look through affiliate programs (e.g. sites themselves, CJ, BeFree, etc.) they don't seem to make this available and, it would appear, don't even allow it.

Can someone clear this up? Can I create a 'home loan' form (for example) and consolidating affiliate programs from multiple companies and then send the form results to them all -- and, obviously, get paid 5x or 10x as opposed to just once?

If this is possible, can someone point me in the right direction for who I can do this with (for anything)... we have the technology to do all this (no biggy) but can't find anyone who allows it -- or at least explicitly states they allow it.

Is this, in fact, against the rules?

Thanks!

[hobbnet]

I think you can do some of what you stated but not everything.

If you harvest all the necessary info I'm sure there are home loan companies that would be happy to buy the info from you, as long as its a qualified lead.

But, on the other hand I don't think you will be able to sell the same leads more than once. You probably could at first but once the loan companies get complaints from prospective customers saying "I got 50 calls from different companies soliciting me!" The loan companies will be pissed at the lead generation companies for supplying them with low quality leads. And in turn, the lead companies will be pissed off at you, the one who supplied leads.

If you can I think it is a good idea to sell leads on your own. By doing this you can cut out an extra middle man like CJ.

[Michael Anthony]

I do just what you suggest, but with a slight twist. My site collects data and then I sell the lead to one affiliate through a network, not hundreds. Then I sell the leads as "used leads" to another affiliate, who take them at a lower rate on the basis that they are getting the second shot at the client. I have toyed with selling them a third and fourth time but the last post is valid.

In my view as long as the customer is aware that their enquiry is going to "selected sepcialists" and not given the impression that they are applying once to one company, and the buyer of the "used" lead is aware of the facts, you should have the moral high ground.