Hi Njideka,
You are so correct, one has to be very careful not only in purchasing leads, but also in who you're getting them from, and how you handle them.
Typically, these are untargeted except for the fact that they filled out a form and supplied their personal information, the only thing we are pretty sure of is they are looking for extra income.
As is often the case, they've been sold and traded and mailed to death if the capture date is anything more than two weeks old, so that type of lead has to be handled very differrently than if the lead was exclusive to you alone, but exclusive leads can be very expensive.
It's always a safer bet to double opt the person with something generic (like a free gift) before ever presenting what it is you have to offer.
All I can say about buying leads is that you have to be careful. The supplier should be reputable or referred to you by someone you know and trust (at least to tell the truth) or you should go for a smaller package and see what the ROI is
I like Key2Net primarily because they provide you with tools to double opt your leads, and the ROI for our businesses (My wife's and my own) comes out very good. For $20 a month you can get 60,000 leads about two weeks old. The upgrade packages are very good as well.
Key2Net has been around for at least a couple of years, so they're showing stable.
As I said..it's all in how you deal with the leads.
As for traffic exchanges, they have completely lost much of their effectiveness. I quit using them ages ago. More often than not any hits I got were from cross-marketers. The traffic is a sham, your visitors are simply trying to earn points to get their ads shown (marketers marketing to marketers)
From what I've learned, the only effective way to build from TE's is to change what you're offering. Give people a free offer of value, collect the email and work them as a lead through your autoresponder service or by old fashioned direct contact.
There is a ton of information that points to the importance of setting up your own lead generating system, but for many that proves very difficult and can take time.
I DO suggest following that recommendation, but for many $20 for 60,000 leads can provide the income needed to create that kind of system.
I should also state that I like Key2Net for another reason. They provide some residual income from referring others that can in effect get you the leads cheaper or even free. Showing your downlines how to generate more traffic and sales AND how to generate additional streams of income is always a good thing.
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