Insurance Agent Forum

[STIBROKER@AUSTIN.RR.COM]

Just Got this PM......seems norvax wants to market you guys here....what do you think.....

From: delfinparis
To: STIBROKER@AUSTIN.RR.COM
Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:13 pm
Subject: Cross Promotion? Quote message
Hello,

Just wondering if we have the ability to purchase banners or set up an affiliate program on the site to promote our services. We have two facets to our business, one being the lead side (individual major medical health, group health, and life leads) and our technology arm which constructs websites and quoting engines (we're currently endorsed and working directly with 42 carriers) for health insurance agents.

We currently have over 3500 agents using our services, and are always looking to expand our client base.

Can we set up a banner ad system, or a referral program, or any other ideas you may have? We can also set up a system to better promote your site and forum. Thanks very much.

We also have a full marketing department that can provide educational material (articles, webinars, etc.) that are NOT product heavy, that your client base may find useful.

D.J. Paris

[cadylou]

If they start overtly advertising here, wouldn't that open the floodgates for every lead generation service, etc. to clutter this site? I'm not in favor of this.

Maybe if it generates some sort of fee for you guys to maintain the site, maybe it should be considered - but, other than that, it sounds like a terrible idea to me. One of the reasons this board has been so great is that it's all about the content & not about everyone 'selling' to agents on the board.

Anyone else feel the same way about this?

[pfsthib]

Let them do it. It will generate revenue for the forum.

[salpro22]

If Sam wants to increase revenue then I am all for it as he owns this site.

I think there should be one forum where people/companies can advertise. There is nothing more annoying to me then seeing a website with a plethora of links that looks the Vegas Mile.

That would be ideal and wouldn't negate the image and approach of this forum, which separates it from the majority of marketing forums on the net.

[healthagent]

In theory advertisers could have a say about what's posted. Could an internet lead advertisor who's paying money for ad space want a post pulled that bashes internet leads?

Also, an ad from Norvax implies that we recommend them. I think we should be more like Consumer Reports - no ads and we post the truth and how we feel despite how ugly it might be.

If this board is costing more than $100 a year I'd be surprised. I'd also be more than happy to contribute to keep this place ad free.

[Zydo]

Ditto John's post.

[cadylou]

Ditto again - hadn't thought about the perception that we'd be endorsing them . . . .

[aufan]

My opinios is keep this as independent of paid advertising as possible. I think that is the only way to keep the free expresssion of ideas "free".

My vote = NO

[Melmunch3]

Yeah, he contacted me as well. I looked through the forum, and I found 4 threads that mention Norvax, and all of them seem to be pretty positive about their websites, and negative about their leads. (They are affiliated with prospectzone)

In addition, I think that there are about 10 members that already have Norvax websites. In any case, I told him that we don't allow banners, but if he comes up with a special deal for forum members, we can consider stickying it to the top. That way, when there is a thread about something, then that affords people the opportunity to respond about how they feel about the product, both good and bad. We don't censor our views about various companies, and we will continue to not do so.

In the 4 months or so that we have been at this new location, I have spent just over $1,150 on the forum. Hosting and domain name were under $100, but I have paid a programmer several times to modify and add features that were wanted/unwanted. However, the biggest expense was in buying inbound links, so that the search engines would index the forum. http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=lin...nce-forums.net
Is a list of incoming links. Without incoming links, google would not be sending us 50 visitors a day, which is important, in getting more members and contributers. In addition to this, I have a programmer trying to extract some of the posts from the old forum and to migrate them here. If she succeeds, it will be pretty expensive, but I don't pay her unless she can do it!

In addition, I run pay per click ads on both google and yahoo, for insurance forums and insurance agent forums. (You can check them, but please don't click on the ads, as they cost me money) Thus far, the forum has made back $3.50 in total, from people subscribing to magazines!


As far as I am concerned, it has been worth every penny. whether from the help that John gives me on indy products, or the amusement from STI's spam pics, or the advanced crash courses that Bob gives me, or the good marketing and product knowledge that I get from everyone's posts, the forum pays back in spades!

[STIBROKER@AUSTIN.RR.COM]

Originally Posted by Melmunch3

As far as I am concerned, it has been worth every penny.

And should be a tax write off.......

[salpro22]

In addition to this, I have a programmer trying to extract some of the posts from the old forum and to migrate them here. If she succeeds, it will be pretty expensive, but I don't pay her unless she can do it!

This is a great idea. I hope everything work out. I joined to late in the game before I had the chance to download that website.

[arnguy]

I agree with John Petrowski 100%. However, as melmunch stated, a sticky may be feasible if it generates some income to this website.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by arnguy

I agree with John Petrowski 100%. However, as melmunch stated, a sticky may be feasible if it generates some income to this website.

Ditto

[midwestbroker]

I like the sticky idea.

Maybe the more agents praise the service, the sweeter deal they will offer. The worse the comments, the less likely they are ever to bother the board.

What about an additional area just for offers to agents? Would that work? If there was a way to keep it contained it may work.

Just throwing it on the board to see what sticks.

[Vailco]

Originally Posted by arnguy

I agree with John Petrowski 100%. However, as melmunch stated, a sticky may be feasible if it generates some income to this website.

Ditto. Keep the site how it is. Thanks for what you do melmunch- and everyone else. This site is such a valuable resource for me.

[James]

Advertising is the American Way, I vote YES. I would also recommend links for amazon also.

[delfinparis]

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts on my offer to advertise Norvax on this site. A lot of good questions were raised, so I’d like to shed light on our intentions.

John_petrowski brought up the good point that some advertisers expect a degree of control over content, just because they’ve invested money. We have no interest in censoring anyone… in fact, if anyone feels like sharing their opinions on our tools, we want to hear it ALL — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Honest feedback is pretty hard to come by, and every last bit of it helps us improve our products.

Also, Norvax has a strong commitment to strengthening the industry by educating agents on effective online marketing and use of technology. We currently have a CE-accredited course, a regular column in HIU, and a lot of exciting webinars and trainings in the works. So we’d like to support this community in more ways than just advertising.

I’d like to participate in the conversations here when I can… offer tips, info, and even some of our own online marketing results that might be useful for agents to learn from — all in a 100% non-sales-y way. I respect the strong community you’ve built. A lot of boards quickly get jammed up with ads and people peddling products, and I don’t want to add any “noise” that interrupts the flow of useful information. But I’d love to be a resource to you if I can.

Also Melmunch3 says one of his biggest expenses is buying inbound links, so we’d like to offer one to you for free. We’re in the process of updating the content on our website. When it’s done, we’ll have a section that’s a collection of links to helpful resources for agents. This board fits that bill, plus we have good rankings that would hopefully benefit this site.

I spoke to the editor of our monthly e-newsletter, and we’d also like to mention this forum in our next newsletter with a link, which may help as well.

Let me know what you think. And keep the feedback comin’. Thanks!

Delfin Joaquin Paris III
Norvax Team
Tel: 866.466.7829 X8239