Commission Junction - Cj.com

[joshuapaccione]

I am a life and health agent in Indiana, and recently I have been doing some research into affiliate marketing. After doing some research for a project I am working on to increase sales. I found CJ - Your Performance Marketing Partner. On this site you can become a affiliate with thousands of companies such as ehealthinsurance.com which pays $75.00 for every successful application sent! I was amased when I saw $75.00. How they can afford to do this is crazy.

Anyways back to my point. I offer only life and health, and have been wanting to offer P&C products to my customers on my site without having to get another license, as I do not have the time to learn another part of the insurance industry at this time. What I have found is on CJ.com I was able to become a affiliate with several top carriers for home, auto, and renters insurance. My customers get coverage and I get paid for every lead sent to them around $13.00 a lead.

My question: Has anyone had any experience in doing something of this nature? Also has anyone created a affiliate program for their agency and if so has it been worth it?

 

[AgentProvocateur]

I'm trying to make a go of generating income through advertising & affiliate marketing with my website.

I tried Commission Junction when I first started out, and only a few companies would agree to work with me -- Liberty Mutual & Electric Insurance. Unlike other companies I was using, they did not make money for me. But I think it was unique to my situation at the time, and may not be representative of what your experience will be.

It can't hurt for you to try it out, as long as you avoid representing lead companies competing with the same products you sell, or slamming the prospect with telemarketing calls every 3 months, making people regret visiting your website.

I looked at your website, and if I were you, I would put affiliate links under a separate tab labelled auto/home insurance.

The key to making money is getting significant traffic. If you don't have a lot of traffic, you may make very little or no money. How many visitors does your website get a month?

Try it out, but I would not take a lot of time away from your primary business to do it.

Doing SEO for affiliate marketing of other lines of insurance as a sideline business is too time consuming to do yourself, and not worth the expense to outsource.
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I think having an agency affiliate program is a great way to market online, but I don't know if it's practical or cost effective.

Have any agents tried their own affiliate program?

 

[joshuapaccione]

I am according to Google Analytics averaging about 65 new visitors a month. Most of my traffic is from Facebook Ads, Facebook page, and WordPress.

My goal is to use affiliate marketing for auto, home and renters insurance on my site. I am also tossing around the idea of building a affiliate program through CJ.com

Example would be Progressive, they are a ehealthinsurance affiliate. http://www.progressive.com/health-insurance/health.aspx

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

Are you targetting P & C traffic/KW's? I personally only use CJ for their pay per call programs and commissions on hosting programs. I didn't care for working their pay per leads programs.

 

[joshuapaccione]

Are you targetting P & C traffic/KW's? I personally only use CJ for their pay per call programs and commissions on hosting programs. I didn't care for working their pay per leads programs.

No I am not, but have been getting calls from my clients looking for it. I guess it is one of those things where they feel I have done good with them and are wanting to see if they can get more. Normally I would jump on this and get appointed to write them business however it would be not in their interest. It has only been 8 months since I became a agent I am still working things out and finding my feet. Allstate has accepted me into the program paying me $13.00 a lead. Since being accepted at 1pm today I have made $91.00. I do plan to become a P&C agent just not at this time. I am just looking for a way to help my clients with their needs outside of life and health while getting a little something for my time. So far today seems I found what I was looking for.

Must be because its Friday the 13th lol

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

well if these r ur clients, I would find a couple agencies (P/C) that you can work out a deal for, vs sending them to ur site to fill out a lead form for a CJ advertiser, do they know they are going to get spammed 2 death with ph calls/emails? they prob think ur going to send the info to 1 or 2 agents.

 

[AgentProvocateur]

well if these r ur clients, I would find a couple agencies (P/C) that you can work out a deal for, vs sending them to ur site to fill out a lead form for a CJ advertiser, do they know they are going to get spammed 2 death with ph calls/emails? they prob think ur going to send the info to 1 or 2 agents.

If he is using Allstate, and not a lead generation company, his clients won't get spammed or hounded by calls.

Joshua, I assume as soon as you were approved by Allstate, you e-mailed the affiliate link to your clients? That is the only way I can think you'd be able to make $91 bucks today. I don't see the link on your website yet.

Check your agreement with Allstate, if you are e-mailing links, because it may be a prohibited way of marketing. It may be okay for people with whom you have a relationship.

At 65 visitors a month, you are not likely to make money off web traffic. You may do better if you can incorporate affiliate marketing into your sales process.

Congratulations on your successful start!

 

[Josh]

If he is using Allstate, and not a lead generation company, his clients won't get spammed or hounded by calls.

Joshua, I assume as soon as you were approved by Allstate, you e-mailed the affiliate link to your clients? That is the only way I can think you'd be able to make $91 bucks today. I don't see the link on your website yet.

Check your agreement with Allstate, if you are e-mailing links, because it may be a prohibited way of marketing. It may be okay for people with whom you have a relationship.

At 65 visitors a month, you are not likely to make money off web traffic. You may do better if you can incorporate affiliate marketing into your sales process.

Congratulations on your successful start!

Good call. I was wondering how his conversion rate was so high.

 

[joshuapaccione]

Yes was emailed, I am in process of a overhaul to my site so have not put link up. The life of a business owner... no sleep and work work work.

Thanks for all your comments. Does anyone have any comments about creating a affiliate program for my company to create more sales?

 

[Josh]

Yes was emailed, I am in process of a overhaul to my site so have not put link up. The life of a business owner... no sleep and work work work.

Not to beat on the point too much, but generally that is now allowed. Advertisers almost always expect it to be organic search traffic or paid traffic vs emailing your friends.

Thanks for all your comments. Does anyone have any comments about creating a affiliate program for my company to create more sales?

Sure do. I think you're going to find that most folks generating leads online aren't going to find your proposition horribly attractive because it's so specific. I am setup as an affiliate with some companies because they'll take traffic anywhere in the country. I can't necessarily pinpoint traffic in one back yard (although I can certainly focus on specific areas), so why would I limit myself to generating leads for one agency with a very specific territory? I wouldn't, I'd follow the path of least resistance and work with someone that can pay me on leads wherever they come in from. I may be a bad example because I don't earn my living off affiliate programs (just use it as a way to get paid to try different SEO techniques) but that would be my take on it.

If you want to try something out that is really outside of the box you could try working with paid traffic. That would let you target geography and it's so cheap you can afford to play with it quite a bit. I've had good luck with DirectCPV, but there are quite a few others.