Posts Tagged ‘insurance’

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Your Business is Under Attack

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
Wow, affiliates, you can’t catch a break!

Hurricane Sandy isn’t the only storm to roll through these past few weeks and impact our industry.  You and your business are under attack from the forces of nature within the insurance industry.  This isn’t the first time it’s happened, and it won’t be the last.  Are you prepared to weather this most recent storm and come out stronger on the other side?

The Storm
In recent weeks a number of large buyers in our industry have been in the headlines, making changes that could severely impact your business if you aren’t ready for their next moves.  Keep reading to find out how and what you can do about it.

  • After months of downward trending results, high agent attrition, and carrier complaints BankRate announced they are launching quality initiatives – cutting more than 500,000 leads/month and promising change to their shareholders.
  • When presenting their most recent quarterly results, Quinstreet, parent company of SureHits and Insurance.com, announced that similar trends within the insurance space contributed to them falling short on their earnings expectations. They are expecting flat revenue and margin performance in auto insurance for Q2 2013 with limited visibility to when they will return to growth.
This ‘move for margin’ might be what Wall Street wants to hear - but what does it mean for you now, and what the hell should you do next?

What History Tells Us
Bankrate and Quinstreet have to deliver on 2 points:

  • Increase the quality of their traffic to retain thier agents and buyers
  • Deliver growth to their shareholders and revive stock price
History shows us that all too often companies resort to trying to control supply in order to accomplish these two initiatives.  The theory being they will have the ability to more closely monitor quality while simultaneously increasing their margin by eliminating the middleman.  Also, down stream they will ultimately be able to force better pricing from their buyers.

So, how does one gain control of supply?  By eliminating competition, reducing subsidization of the marketplace, and increasing direct to site traffic – it’s a strategy that is fundamental to business.  The history books tell us that buyers, especially when they are in a position of strength and market domination, look to this strategy. Often times at the expense of their partners.  Don’t believe me?

  • In 2009 Insurance.com made the decision to all but abandon their B2B and affiliate channel, instead focusing on building their brand and increasing their direct to site traffic.  Their first move was to increase payouts and sign exclusive deals with their top partners to clear competition.   The pay increase was short lived, soon after they cut partner payouts to increase their own margin and limit affiliate growth.  They thought affiliates were so dependent on them that you’d accept it, they were wrong.
  • In 2010, Quinstreet tried to increase its consumer presence by acquiring a number of premier websites including Insurance.com and Carinsurance.com. They have struggled significantly since adopting this strategy; their auto insurance vertical has posted year over year declines in revenue of 15% or more each year since.
  • Now, during the November 1, 2012 shareholder meeting, Bankrate stated, “As previously mentioned, the year over year margin increase is primarily a result of trimming the ratio of affiliate leads compared to traffic to our destination sites in insurance through direct, organic and marketing activity.” They go on to say “we are concentrated on driving consumer adoption directly to our sites.” If we’ve learned anything from history we know there will be fallout from this strategy and you need to protect yourself.
These are attempts to eliminate you, the affiliate!

Your Next Move
Be prepared!  What to expect in the market over the next few months:

  • Large buyers in the space will likely increase your payouts in the short term as they look to build your loyalty and dependence. Make      no mistake, the increased payouts are not sustainable.  It’s a short-term play to grab traffic, and they will soon cut payouts as they need to take more margin to re-coup earnings lost from cutting volume.
  • They may dangle the carrot of greater riches in return for exclusive rights to your traffic. This may seem like a good thing, and it could be.  Just make sure you negotiate a quick out if the relationship or pricing goes sideways, and the ability to send up to 25% of your traffic elsewhere for testing.  Don’t let your business become dependent on someone else, you need diversity.
  • If neither of the above work, there will be threats of losing their partnership altogether if you don’t give them what they want.
Don’t be fooled by these tactics, hold your ground – you have more power than you think. If they could, they would have already eliminated you altogether.  They rely on you.  Evaluate your business, determine your risks and look at new ways to diversify.  You may find that a solid, diversified foundation with maximized conversion and a lower return rate coupled with more feedback and guidance could put you in a better position to grow. Partner with people who are transparent and have your best interest in mind.  Play for the long term, don’t fold under pressure or agree to things that will limit your success.

Explore Your Solutions
Remember, you aren’t alone and you do have options.  Tell us what you need, we will help you diversify and solidify your business.

  • Do you need help fulfilling extra legs of a lead?
  • Are there buyer relationships you need help obtaining?
  • Is there a technology solution you need access to?
We believe in you and it has always been our philosophy to do whatever we can to help your business succeed.  Let us help you navigate this storm, call us today and tell us how we can help you. Don’t let anybody control your future but you!

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Iron Sharpens Iron

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

While I am not a religious person in a traditional sense, I do hope there is a higher calling for all of us.  I really do believe in people and that there are many deeper ways we can interact.  But of course, you don’t read this blog to understand my personal philosophies on life, so I‘ll talk about people and business interactions.

Perhaps you are aware of the Tim Tebow phenomenon that’s sweeping the nation.  For those who don’t know, Tim Tebow was an incredible college football player who recently went pro.  Supposedly his mechanics were not going to translate to professional football, despite how good he was in college…so Tebow sat on the bench.  Six weeks into this season, his team was losing — and losing badly. Out of desperation, the coaches put him in.  Since he started playing, his team has won 5 games and lost 1 – pretty impressive!

Now, Tebow is a deeply religious man.  But I don’t think his higher calling really cares whether or not the Denver Broncos win or lose every Sunday.

So, why is this guy winning?  It’s simple. He leads.

Tim Tebow inspires everyone on the team to play their best and this masks his flawed fundamentals enough to get victories.  Before his first game, he gave a motivational speech and the one thing in particular that stood out to me was his statement: “Iron sharpens Iron.”  That statement — at least as old as the King James Bible — really resonated with me about our industry today. You need to align yourself with iron if you are iron.

Our industry has a lot of dirt.  It wasn’t always that way – but it is now.  So how do we change that?  So often I hear people in our industry using the term ‘necessary evil’.  If you are working with a necessary evil are you sharpening iron?  Are you making changes for the better?  Are you helping the consumer?  Are you a catalyst for removing the dirt from our industry?  If enough of us hold ourselves accountable and quit taking the easy way out — we really can make a sustainable difference and start to get rid of the dirt.

This isn’t the easiest approach, and this may not be the most comfortable approach, but it is the right approach.  It’s the approach that in the long run will make you significantly more money.

I will say that I am guilty of taking the ‘easier’ path myself, I did it when choosing technology partners.  As a result, I treaded water for a year and a half and certainly didn’t sharpen my iron.  We made money, but we didn’t do the industry any favors.  We didn’t contribute.  We weren’t able to execute on our big ideas that would truly instigate the paradigm shifts that we believe are necessary for the sustainability of our industry.  So shame on me, and I offer my deepest apologies.

Those who know me know that I am not one to perpetuate my mistakes.  Since recognizing the error of my ways, I have gotten back to focusing on sharpening iron.  That said, the proof is in the pudding…

I am very excited for the next several months, and really, the foreseeable future.  We are launching several initiatives that even if mildly successful, will start to provide far more value to customers, affiliates, and lead buyers.

We will take our industry back and restore it to the glory days of $35-$40 a lead.

We will get the “shit” traffic into the silo it belongs in.

We will get proactive feedback loops in place.

We will deliver the consumer an experience they actually want.

We will sell more policies.

We will set better expectation.

We will put the control back into the supply and demand side where it belongs.

Hopefully, these changes will put our industry on notice, and others will further the mission.  I know there are several of you out there trying to do the right thing.  Your day is coming, and soon.

Friends, I implore you… look around.  If you are dealing with ‘necessary evils’ and not sharpening your iron, figure out how to get back to sharpening.  You will enjoy your job more and ultimately make more money.  Keep in mind that the opposite of sharpening your iron is becoming dull.  Don’t fall into that category.

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Preparing for 2012 – What Are You Trying to Achieve in the New Year?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

What are your goals for your business?  When we talk to affiliates, the number one response we hear is ‘to make money’.  But what does that really mean?  Do you want to make money at any cost, regardless of consumer experience or your control over the offer?  Is one dollar in profit enough or do you want to put your child through college?  Are you willing to work 100 hours a week or is this a secondary income source? Before you can start preparing for 2012, you first need to define what you are preparing for.

Therefore, this first newsletter in our ‘Preparing for 2012’ series focuses on helping you determine what you want to achieve in the New Year.  Even if you have set your goals, now is a good time to take a step back and consider whether they are still relevant and pointing you in the direction you’d like to head. In addition, do they follow the S.M.A.R.T formula – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted?

To help get you started, below are some key areas you will want to think about, as it applies to your business.

Volume vs. Margin
Are you solving for volume or for margin? Are you willing to sacrifice one for the other?  Knowing the answer to this question will help you determine what kind of offers and marketing efforts are right for you.

Understand Your Key Performance Metrics
Do you have a list of key performance metrics?  If so, do you monitor them regularly? Here are a few you might want to consider:

  • Revenue or Profit per Visitor
  • Conversion
  • Growth Rate

Do the Math
Don’t assume because the payout is higher or conversion is better, a program is better for your business.  Take the time to do the math.

Below is an example of how a $8.00 per lead offer can actually make you more money than an $11.00 per lead offer, based on 100 clicks to your site.

Offer A
Payout: $8.00/lead
Conversion: 35%
100 clicks X 35% = 35 leads
35 leads X $8.00 = $280
$280 / 100 clicks = EPC of $2.80

Offer B
Payout: $11.00/lead
Conversion: 20%
100 clicks X 20% = 20 leads
20 leads X $11.00 = $220
$220 / 100 = EPC of $2.20

As you can see, lead payout isn’t always the best measure of success.  Even though Offer B has a significantly higher payout, because conversion is lower it nets you a lower payout per click. Tie everything back to clicks or visitors, to ensure you are making an apple to apples comparison.

Defining Success
How do you determine success?  Do you have a growth goal?  A margin goal?  A volume goal?  Whether you’re talking about percentages or absolute numbers, know what you are trying to achieve.

Evaluate and Test
Evaluate if your current offers are in line with the goals you have defined. And ask what additional things you can be doing to further improve performance.

  • Have you A/B tested other offers to ensure you are earning the highest EPC?
  • Are you sourcing your traffic and measuring results on a granular level?
  • Are you making the most of your existing traffic through incremental revenue sources?

Talk to your Account Manager
Think you have your goals? Or are you still lost?  Either way, talk with your Account Manager.  Not only can we help you set a course for your business, but the more we know about your objectives, the more help we can be to you as new opportunities and offers become available.

Watch for our October newsletter, where we’ll help you determine if your current offers are best suited to meet your goals by discussing the pros and cons of different models such as click vs lead or revenue share vs flat fee payout.

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MAM Welcomes Harold Dahringer as CFO

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

I am very excited to be joining Moss Affiliate Marketing!  Paul has gathered an extremely talented and dedicated team, many of which I’ve been lucky enough to work with in the past.  My role at MAM is to develop and lead the financial and accounting functions for the company, as well as help out wherever I’m needed.  Luckily, my background is fairly diverse. I’ve worked for CPA firms, public companies, and fam-2privately-held companies in a variety of roles within the finance function.  I learned the affiliate marketing industry from the time I spent leading the accounting and finance department at Insurance.com.

I’m based out of the Cleveland area where I live with my wife and two children.  I may live in Ohio, but I am die-hard Pennsylvania sports fan (We Are…Penn State!). I look forward to meeting all of our partners, and I can be reached at hdahringer@mossaffiliatemarketing.com.

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Think Outside the Box and Challenge the Status Quo

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

If you read our Summer Series, then you know that MAM is working to shift the industry paradigm in an effort to increase lead pricing and help you earn what you deserve for quality leads.  And if you read the series, you know that helping us shift that paradigm may require some creative thinking on your part.  So, here are some tips to start thinking outside the box and challenge the current status quo in our industry, or even in other aspects of your life.

Often times, when faced with a difficult situation, many people default to what they know and think about problems through a traditional frame of mind.  While this approach can be helpful, you often exclude better alternatives.  The key is taking a step back and approaching the problem from different angles, ensuring you cover all possibilities and arrive at the best solution.

Take a fairly common situation in affiliate marketing, when the price of a keyword goes up the traditional line of thinking is to:

  • Figure out how to pay the new price– by taking less margin for example
  • Resort to cheaper and lower quality traffic sources

While these are both viable solutions, neither are in your best interest. Instead:

  • Think about new niches within your current marketing channel such as targeting more specific keywords or geographies.
  • Re-examine your backend process to improve throughput
  • Brainstorm new ways to generate revenue from your existing traffic.

The other aspect to successfully think outside the box is to challenge the status quo.  Often times, it is easy to fall into the trap of running an offer at face value and not challenging any of the assumptions.   Ask yourself what the assumptions are and why?  By doing this, you may find a way to be more effective.  In looking at an offer, here are some ideas to optimize and earn more:

  • Work to get your traffic right priced by talking to your advertiser about bifurcating your quality traffic from other’s junk
  • Segment your traffic by source in an effort to benefit from an increased payout on your highest quality sources
  • Consider redirecting to different offers based on certain criteria
  • Think about additional ways to generate revenue such as a catch page or cross sell opportunity
  • Improve efficiencies of the process by redesigning your marketing creative, your landing page or even your form

When approaching a problem, below are a couple steps to help you think outside the box.

  • Define the problem you are trying to solve
  • Understand what elements impact this problem and which of those elements you can control
  • Ask yourself what assumptions you are operating under and why. Which can you challenge?
  • Brainstorm different solutions
  • Understand the upsides to your solution or the potential issues
  • Decide on a course of action, implement and test

Thinking outside the box doesn’t have to happen in a vacuum and may take numerous iterations until you find a solution that works – but that is part of the fun.  Hold brainstorming sessions with your business partners, your Account Managers and even your family and friends.  The more people you have helping you critically think about the situation, the better the ultimate solution.

Not sure where to start?  Talk to your Account Manager today!  Whether looking to solve a problem or just improve the efficiency of your offers to maximize your revenue, your Account Manager can help.

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The Keys to Increase Pricing – Hold Your Provider, Yourself, and Your Consumer Accountable

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Life is pretty funny.  Starting this summer series I worried it would cause me to lose business or potentially isolate myself from others in the industry, but it has done the exact opposite.  People are coming out of the woodwork, agreeing with the need for change in our industry and willing to make some of the sacrifices necessary to right this ship. If you are one of those who feels there’s nothing wrong with the industry, you are dead wrong. Proof you ask? The most expensive keyword in Google is the term ‘insurance’ and it costs $55 per CLICK. There are pure organic and paid search affiliates getting less than $10 per LEAD. Do the math- let’s fix it.

This final segment discusses what you need to do to start increasing pricing – hold your provider, yourself, and your consumer accountable.

Let’s begin with your consumer, because some of you may be scratching your heads on that one.  One of your goals is probably to increase throughput of quality leads to your pay point, implement the below tips to help acheive that goal.

  • Market in a way that gets the millions and millions of legitimate insurance consumers through the front door.  Consumers fill out lead forms for two reasons, tailor your marketing message and value proposition to meet these needs:
    • To find a better insurance policy than the one they currently have
    • To validate that their existing policy is the best one
  • Give consumers the best opportunity to enter valid data.  To borrow a phrase from the courts, don’t lead the witness.  Carriers and agents know that not everyone is going to switch policies, but they want the chance to show the consumer their most accurate and competitive rate based on their underwriting.  To do that they need correct consumer information.
    • Be cautious of which form fields you default.  Many are important rating variables for the carriers and should not be defaulted.  Ask your Account Manager for information regarding specific fields.
    • Tighten up validation on key fields like contact information, address and zip code.  Don’t let customers knowingly or unknowingly cheat!!

Next let’s talk about holding yourself accountable.  This can be hard because it’s always easier to point the finger at someone else.  If you go to the business section of any bookstore you will find hundreds of books about empowering yourself.  Why?  Entrepreneurs don’t start a business to be a slave to someone else’s dictatorship.  You have to get back to being your own boss – diversifying, empowering, dictating to others, creating wins.  You have a social responsibility to play within ethical and honest parameters, but those should be your ONLY parameters.  Get away from playing the victim and take charge of your business.  No more handcuffs, extricate your foregone conclusion mindset.  America wouldn’t be one of the most advanced nations in the world if our leaders (you) accepted the status quo.  I am as guilty of this as anyone, and when I changed my philosophy to shift industry paradigms rather than be a victim of our current industry state – work became fun again!  Life is too damn short for work not to be fun (and profitable).

Personally, I feel the above paradigm is the hardest to shift, but many of you may feel this next one is your biggest challenge. The battle is as old as time.  How to get what you want without biting the hand that feeds you?  I mean, shit, at the end of the day that is the real issue here.  Based on the comments you have flooded me with, we all know something is broken.  But why are so few actually doing something about it?

So, to do that, and really the crux of this 4th segment: Quit using your quality traffic to subsidize the industry and make the people buying cheaper, shittier traffic rich. YOU NEED TO GET YOUR TRAFFIC BIFURCATED FROM THE JUNK.  Separating the good quality traffic from the junk will increase conversion and limit dilution.  With conversions up it means the customer is getting what they want, more money flows in, so everyone wins.

Right now our industry is so convoluted we would be embarrassed if we took our case study to a Business 101 class, because the answer is so transparent even they can see it.

We are currently packaging leads with an actual value of less than $1.00 and selling them for $8.00.  We are also packaging leads with an actual value of $16.00+ and selling them for $8.00.  Some might think “So we have median pricing, is that such a bad thing?”  THE ANSWER IS A RESOUNDING “YES”! Not just yes, “HELL YES”.  Because, so many companies are stripping their margin out of this pricing, so the $8.00 median falls to $6.00.  And guess what?  Marketing to consumers who have intent to buy a policy costs more than $6.00.  Then, as those poorer quality leads infiltrate the market, $6.00 goes down to $4.00.  So the downward spiral begins and the carriers/agents get increasingly crappier traffic.  Also, when lead buyers don’t have to pay a premium for quality leads, they get fewer conversions.  Then there is no hope of pulling out of the death spiral unless changes are made.

You need to get your provider to separate your traffic from the masses and get rewarded for your customer’s intent.  Get your traffic right priced, PLEASE.  It is a process and a paradigm shift, but it will get our industry back to the pride lands we so desire to get back to.

Get your provider on the phone, not email, and ask them explicitly to set goals so that you have something to drive to. Then, hold them accountable.  If you deliver and they don’t, it’s time to move on.

Enjoy the rest of your summer.  Please email me if you have any additional subjects you would like me to address, you know I am a straight shooter.  Also, I will be in NYC for LeadsCon and Affiliate Summit.  If you want to catch up email me at pmoss@mossaffiliatemarketing.com or psmoss76@yahoo.com.

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Social Media & Incentivized Traffic – What it Means to You

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

The comments, questions, and inquiries keep coming so I will keep writing…

First, I hope you had a fantastic holiday weekend and that you have time in your summer schedule to get away from your computer to spend with family and friends.

My summer has been pretty exciting.  I have been on a whirlwind tour, working with industry leaders to move the insurance vertical in the right direction.  Right now our industry parallels a rip current.  On the surface everything looks normal as waves are crashing on the beach.  Similarly, lead pricing continues to crash.  But, beneath the surface the rip current is moving the other direction, just like behind the scenes our efforts to improve quality and pricing are beginning to take hold. Paradigm shifts take time, and this one is gaining momentum.

So, let’s discuss social media and incentivized traffic.  Initially, social media didn’t have a great impact on our industry.  It didn’t convert well, and it was better suited for branding rather than the conversion our industry requires.  But it was a cheap way to subsidize more expensive traffic like search and email.  Some affiliates would do a blend, like 80% search and 20% social media.  This was an affordable way to increase volume levels while keeping their overall quality and conversion higher.

Over time, as lead pricing started to drop, search and other more expensive traffic sources became prohibitive to affiliates.  Concurrently, lead buyers began compensating affiliates based on agent coverage and lead demographics rather than consumer intent. The combination of these two events gave the affiliate very little incentive to pay top dollar for quality sources.

What happened next is really what hurt our industry.  There were affiliates, who were not held accountable, that began sending disproportionate blends of traffic.  The 80/20 started slipping to 50/50.  And then FarmVille and MafiaWars came along, and the rest you could say is history.

Consumers were being incented in droves to fill out insurance lead forms for “points”.  I’ve even heard that some advertisements told the consumer “if they informed the agent they were calling for points, they wouldn’t receive their points.”   Many companies explicitly forbid this type of marketing behavior, but others turned a blind eye.  Some weren’t able to source traffic and couldn’t police it even if they wanted to.  So, social and incentivized traffic became a much more prevalent source than anyone wanted.  I know this because unfortunately we are all feeling the repercussions now, whether or not you were an active participant.

The extreme rate at which this traffic infiltrated the industry caused high agent turn over, diminishing returns, lower conversion, and increased supply to decreased demand. Adam Smith would be slapping his forehead.  In this frenzy, folks lost sight of the fact that policy sales are what ultimately fund this industry.  Social and incent traffic is just a distracting noise that allows those with very little value to steal from the legitimate affiliates.

If it’s not obvious by now, I don’t believe social media or incentivized traffic to be sustainable sources.  At MAM we are in the game for the long haul rather than short term gains, and are working to extricate this traffic from reaching lead buyers. In the final Summer Series newsletter next week I will talk about how to manage your business against the trends of increasing social traffic. I will include what we are doing to ensure your quality traffic isn’t getting lumped in with other’s social traffic, allowing you to ultimately get paid what you deserve.

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How to Navigate the Waters of an Exclusive Deal

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Welcome back!  I was overwhelmed by the emails I received in response to last week’s post.  It definitely tells me that many of you are ready to do your part to help get our industry back on track towards appropriate lead pricing and generating more value for not only the customer but the lead buyers as well.  Keep those questions coming!

The topic of this post is one that several of you have asked me about in the past several weeks:  Exclusive Partnerships.  If you believe in the power of a free market, then exclusive is not the way to go.  However, when you are trying to make sure your kids can go to college, the stability of an exclusive deal can be very appealing.  Let’s walk through the landscape and at least get you ready for these conversations.

From an industry perspective, the click marketplace companies have certainly started to put the pressure on affiliates to sign exclusive deals.  And, from what I gather, the carrots being dangled are pretty big and juicy.  So, what do you do with it?

Before you start negotiating an exclusive deal, I want to warn you that I have never believed in exclusives.  It is counter-intuitive to driving better products to market, forcing more accountability from providers, and continually getting you the best pricing.  Also, given the extreme amount of flux in the current lead marketplace, I’d advise against any type of exclusive deal on a lead basis.

That said, the market has been riddled with fraud and quality issues.  Locking in exclusives helps the click providers to guarantee good quality revenue while flushing out the poorer quality.  That model could help rebound pricing by re-establishing carrier confidence, allowing them to start paying actual value for your click rather than current market value.  So the current situation is a bit of an anomaly.

The good news is the click providers need your quality clicks, so that puts you in the driver’s seat for negotiations.  Historically we had one true click fulfillment company.  Recently, several companies have put legitimate products into the marketplace and much of the quality has been diversified.
The click marketplace has done a good job of putting checks and balances on quality algorithms, so if they are approaching you, you are doing something right.  Here’s how you negotiate good pricing without betting the farm:

1. Make sure the exclusive you are signing is the best performer for your traffic.  Before entering into the deal, be sure to test your different options to make sure you are maximizing EPC for your traffic.  While the terms of the deal may be sweet, if the performance isn’t there on the back end, the terms won’t matter.  You need to know if conversion makes a 90% rev share on a $5 CPC a better deal for you than 80% on an $8 CPC.

2. Don’t get caught with your pants down.  There’s a lot of fluctuation in the market and if your exclusive provider has issues, you don’t want to scramble to find a new solution.  That will leave you dealing with unknown economics, and very little leverage in a short-notice negotiation.  Instead, negotiate the ability to diversify 5-25% of your traffic.  This will provide your partner with the volume guarantees they need, but the protection and diversification you need.  The best way to do this is to ask your click provider for their weaker states and send your traffic elsewhere in those states.

3. Make sure your partner is accountable to an ever-changing marketplace.  Keep your termination agreement/notification as short as possible, 90 days with written notification is typically a good duration.  It allows you and the provider ample time to prepare for changes, as well as extra time to negotiate a new deal that works with the dynamics of the market and your reality.

4. Be careful of what you are locking yourself into.  Sometimes these deals look like a bill in front of Congress, meaning the package is a little bit more extensive than what you have verbally agreed to.  Make sure that once the exclusive period is over, you have the right to work with any advertiser you want.  Definitely have your attorney review the agreement to make sure you aren’t getting more than you bargained for.  It can bite you later.

5. Make sure the contract allows for future negotiations and price matches.  For example, if another partner comes to you with a better deal you need to have the ability to:

  • Test the new offer to make sure it is accurate and sustainable
  • Give your exclusive partner the opportunity to match pricing or let you out of the agreement.

6. You don’t know what the future holds, things change every day.  Make sure you aren’t held to volume minimums, future monetization models, etc.  There’s a lot on the horizon that could revolutionize our industry, make sure you are allowed to get on that bus when the time comes.

7. Last, but not least, make sure the contract delivers what they have verbally promised.  I know it seems like common sense, but sometimes when reading contracts people only focus on major red flags and forget to read the basic language.

Remember, when you ask for these things, you are asking for the provider to give a little.  So you need to be ready to give a little back too.  Negotiations are give and take. The provisions above should allow the provider to achieve their goals, while giving you some safety and consistency without keeping all your eggs in one basket.

If you choose the exclusive path, good luck negotiating!  As always, let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them.  While I don’t believe that exclusives are a good solution, if that is the route you need to take at least you are armed with information to help protect your business.

P.S. – If you are looking for a click marketplace and aren’t interested in signing an exclusive, ask  us about testing our click product – Moss Marketplace.

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Don’t Let Your Provider Take Advantage of You

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Affiliates, it’s time to take action and get what is rightfully yours.

Ever since Insurance.com was demolished, the market hasn’t been near as accountable.  I am reminded of the movie ‘The Lion King’, when Mufasa dies and Scar takes over.  Scar doesn’t have the best intentions for the kingdom, and his selfishness virtually ruins all of the pride lands.  Because he has the power he hurts everyone, including himself, until a new king takes him out.

This is the state of our industry. The pride lands are ruined, we need a new regime to take over and bring back accountability.  But you need to do your part too.  Don’t cower to the destructive machine that is currently controlling the industry, by working with the current regimes you are only empowering them and hurting yourself in the long run.

This is Part I of our 4 part Summer Series discussing how we need to evolve and clean up the insurance lead industry.  If you do your part, your long term goals will be achieved.
Part 1: Don’t Let Your Provider Take Advantage of You
Part 2: Why an Exclusive Deal is NOT in Your Best Interest
Part 3: Social Media & Incentivized Traffic- What it Means to You
Part 4: Don’t Let Your Quality Traffic Get Mixed with the Junk

I get it- you want to get back to higher lead prices, so you go to the partner that you think will pay you the most. Let me know if any or all of these phases sound correct:


1. They bring you in and promise you the world, make you feel welcome and give you that warm and fuzzy feeling.

2. As the relationship goes on – customer service drops, payments are late on a regular basis with no explanation and you are totally in the dark,  they force you into solutions that work best for them (like the ‘race to the bottom’ ping post).  You question it and they say they are doing all they can to get you best pricing (which is a lie).  So, in order to keep getting what you think is best pricing, you oblige them.  You are doing your part to sustain the partnership, but they have asked for your help while giving you nothing in return.

3. They have treated you like shit and now they start dropping pricing, giving you ultimatums and asking you to sign an exclusive in order to preserve the payout you are receiving.  Their hope is to make you feel trapped and unless you flex your muscle, you are.

Unless you are with a select few partners in the industry, you are in one of the above situations.  The current companies leading our industry don’t believe in you the affiliate, or your ability to create and market ethically or sustainably.  In their strategy, they don’t have accountability to you, only to their investors or shareholders.  They believe that suppressing your abilities is what will get them their results.  They use you. Short term this may be best for your pricing, but long term it isn’t in your best interest. If you question that, you aren’t coming to terms with what two years of this type of behavior has done to the state of our industry.  We had an exceptionally healthy industry that is very, very sick right now.

There are a few companies out there who have the correct perspective when it comes to affiliates. Unfortunately, they are not the current market leaders.The right philosophy is to give you every resource and every dollar available to ensure your success in the marketplace. Our business is only successful if our affiliates are successful; we believe in a real reciprocal partnership.

Affiliates, your core competency is driving quality traffic to your website.  It is engaging the consumer to complete the process of shopping for insurance. It is the companies that you send your traffic to who have the core competency of monetization, relationships, and technology. Everyone has their function, but the industry leaders right now are bullying you with their position in the chain.

Most lead buyers out there believe the volume you come with is your full potential, and they will squeeze your prices because they don’t believe in your upside.  But they do more than just fail to recognize your potential, they acquire websites that are your direct competition and with their higher prices suppress your rankings.  And the crazy part is that you are funding these acquisitions that aim to kill your presence in the marketplace.

I would argue that given the current pricing and state of the market, you are not even close to your volume potentials. By ripple effect your quality isn’t near what it used to be either.  I believe if we get you more money and better feedback loops you will once again align yourself with higher volumes and quality as an immediate byproduct.

I challenge you next time you see a top executive in our industry, ask them how they feel about affiliates.  My guess is that even if their lip service gives you the answer you want to hear, their eyes will shift and they will be uncomfortable.  I know this because I have heard their philosophies first hand.  They rely on you to sustain and grow their business, but if they had their druthers they would squash you at first chance. You can also gauge how they feel about your relationship by how often your Account Manager picks up the phone to talk to you.

We are far from perfect, but I can promise you this; we will do everything in our power to encourage your growth and success, if there are roadblocks along the way we will always pick up the phone and work through them. We will continue the quest of increasing pricing by bringing on direct source buyers, strategically partnering with ethical leaders that have the proper philosophies, and weeding out the junk traffic to make your traffic more valuable. There are good guys out there, even if you don’t sign with us we will help you find the best solution for your business. Our mission is to turn this industry around and do right by the affiliates as well as the lead buyers.

Help us change the industry and take back the pride lands, by not letting your provider take advantage of you.  It’s like the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” from Twisted Sister.

We’ve Got The Right To Choose And – there Ain’t No Way We’ll Lose It -
This Is Our Life, This Is Our Song – we’ll Fight The Powers That Be Just -
Don’t Pick Our Destiny ’cause – you Don’t Know Us, You Don’t Belong -
Oh We’re Not Going to Take it Anymore.

Affiliates, whether you like this song or not you need to sing the message from every rooftop and make sure your provider is hearing it.

Watch for ‘Part 2: Why an Exclusive Deal is NOT in Your Best Interest’’ next week.

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Exciting News – JON KELLY JOINS THE MOSS AFFILIATE MARKETING ADVISORY BOARD

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Henderson, NV— April 28, 2011—Moss Affiliate Marketing, one of the nation’s leading insurance affiliate networks, announced that Jon Kelly has joined the company’s advisory board, effective today.
Jon Kelly is currently the CEO of This or That (thisorthat.com). This or That is a website that keeps users updated on the most controversial news topics and allows them to crowd-source decisions to their friends. Kelly has been an internet executive since the late 90’s.

“We are so honored and excited to have Jon join our advisory board. His forward thinking and strategic insights are going to push our rapidly growing company to the next level.” says Moss Affiliate Marketing CEO Paul Moss.

Previously, Kelly ran the Insurance division for internet media company QuinStreet, Inc (QNST) and was the President of SureHits, which was purchased by QuinStreet in April of 2008. Prior to SureHits, Kelly was a co-founder and Marketing VP for the venture-backed insurance startup eCoverage.

Kelly notes, “I am excited to be a part of this innovative team of top insurance experts. Moss has compiled an incredible team with deep industry experience. Look for this company to continue producing big wins with our partners.”

Kelly has also worked in strategic marketing at Oracle Corporation and as a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman). He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University.

About Moss Affiliate Marketing
Moss Affiliate Marketing (www.mossaffiliatemarketing.com) was founded by Paul Moss formerly of Insurance.com in 2008. Moss Affiliate Marketing is one of the leading affiliate networks in the insurance lead generation industry serving auto, home, health and life insurance verticals. Moss Affiliate Marketing is a company that believes in the power of the affiliate. Building on over 10 years of hands on experience driving many multi-million dollar affiliate programs, Paul Moss created Moss Affiliate Marketing with the concept of profitability and scalability. This occurs by focusing on setting the right expectation for the consumer, generating and delivering leads that convert to the lead buyers, and putting marketing dollars back into the hands of the affiliates.

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