Author: Kevin Wallach

Ok so I’ll admit the title was a blatant act of sensationalism.  Sorry about that.  But when I read about Amazon’s entry into the tablet market, the Kindle Fire, I had sudden visions of the chess club champion sucker punching the quarterback of the football team.  Is Google the quarterback in that analogy?  Of course it is.

For months now Google and Facebook have fired shots across each others’ bow.  Countless industry experts and amateur enthusiasts have speculated on whether Google + will take down Facebook in the end.  All the talk really amounts to little though if Amazon succeeds in making their tablet name eponymous with the most frequent and essential social, commercial, and search aspects of Internet usage.  Someday you may say “I Fired it” rather than “I Googled it” or “Check out our Fire page.”

How could a simple tablet unseat an Internet audience powerhouse such as Google or Facebook?  It’s simple the way I see it.  When you look at it in the most elemental way, people use the Internet each day just as they do most other repetitive things, habitually.  If you look at the habits behind using Google and Facebook they are no less anchored than the toothbrush you use or the car you drive.  Temporary and flimsy consumer loyalty is what I’m getting at.  So what does this all have to do with Amazon’s tablet?  If Amazon is really going to sell it for $199 then you can begin with price.  Look no further than cell phone companies to find evidence of how audiences can be built on the back of a free or discounted piece of hardware.  Of course it doesn’t end there.  A comparison of the features of the Kindle Fire beside the Apple iPad and others in the tablet marketplace will reveal that Amazon has serious intentions to compete with Apple’s tablet.  Affiliates may be wondering what any of this has to do with performance marketing.  Patience, I’m getting there.

Here’s where this gets complicated for current-day 800 lb gorillas Google and Facebook.  Behind the Kindle Fire is Amazon’s cloud computing powerhouse that will do a lot in the way of revealing user preferences, buying habits, etc.  And when you couple all the data storage and inherent targeting capabilities Amazon will have with the social aspects of many users on a common mobile Internet device you start to see that it would be simple for Amazon to make it easier for users of their tablets to also use their social, search, and commerce applications.  Control the entry point to the Internet and control the user experience.  Google has tried to do the same thing without much success and Facebook seems to be moving in the same direction.  But the Internet is a very unforgiving place oftentimes when you are the 2nd or 3rd company to adapt to an opportunity to grab a large chunk of an available audience away from the reining champion.  Remember MSN, Yahoo, and MySpace?

Now if you’re still wondering what this has to do with your daily media buy or other aspects of your life as an Internet marketing wizard consider this last question.  What will a company that has already shown a relative lack of concern for performance marketing partners such as affiliates in California do when it has even more power over the Internet users that you are attempting to get your advertisements in front of?  I’ll give you a hint.  You are the quarterback and the chess club champ is behind you with a big grin on his face.

All the fuss over Netflix yesterday started me thinking about what a great day it is to be an affiliate marketer with a nice opt in email list of people who may be (or until recently were) Netflix customers.  In case you are making the universal monkey face that signals confusion I’ll explain.

Netflix apparently decided that one big blunder in 2011 was less than it could aspire to and ambitiously set out to anger its shrinking customer population a second time yesterday.

Netflix made news this summer with a price hike than was not received well by its subscribers to put it euphemistically.  The company justified the relatively large increase in monthly costs for subscribers by pointing out its own rising costs in securing content rights.  The hike in price from $9.99 to $15.98 came without much consolation from Netflix though customers were also offered the option of paying $7.99 for one or the other of the two services depending on their preference for streaming video or DVD rentals.  I’m guessing like many companies seeing growth in their acquisition of new customers Netflix thought that customers would grumble a bit and then accept the new cost of enjoying commercial free streaming content and reasonably easy access to the DVDs they want via mail.  Shocking as it probably was to the leadership at Netflix, customers responded much differently and current projections have the net customer loss at around 1 million.  This comes not long after Starz announcement that it will not renew its contract that expires this year to supply content to Netflix.  In accordance with the law of threes Netflix is also getting a fair lashing in the stock market just when it claims it needs to raise more cash.

Now if you were in charge at Netflix you might build a bunker in your office and demand silence of everyone in your organization until the dust settles.  Netflix instead issued yet another change in its service yesterday, this one very likely to rattle even the most loyal among their customers.  DVD rentals will now be made available under an entirely separate, new brand called Qwikster while streaming video will remain under the Netflix badge.  So the customers willing to shell out more money each month to keep their options of streaming video and DVD rentals will be forced to accept the requirement to manage separate log ins and billing accounts for the two services.  Oh but the CEO of Netflix did pad the news this time with a personal “oops, my bad” regarding the way the first change was made public.  Apparently it’s not the changes that were a bad idea but the way they were announced.  If you do much reading around social circles online you will likely find few who agree with that by the way.

All of this flaunting of power and halfway apologizing will likely cost Netflix big time and anytime there’s a mass exodus of customers from one company there’s a close competitor waiting to catch the landslide of new business.  Though analysts don’t point to a clear benefactor in those terms you can bet that someone is gearing up to send out a lot of emails today.  Will it be you or your company that guides these customers to a friendlier (and more tuned-in) DVD and streaming video provider or providers?  This is certainly the sort of thing that qualifies as an event and no doubt affiliate marketers will want to act on it while there are still customers walking out of Netflix.

Let’s play some word association.  Ready?

Amazon.com

Now, please tell me the first thing in your mind was the name “Benedict Arnold”.  No?  Well hold that thought for a moment and I’ll ask you again in a minute.

If you work anywhere near affiliate marketing and have been conscious during the last few months then you should know about California’s Affiliate Nexus Tax.  The law is touted by its proponents as a legitimate correction of what brick and mortar merchants decry as an unfair advantage held by online merchants such as Amazon.com.  To affiliate marketers the tax is more a legalized shake-down.  Rumor has it that some among our industry have already begun moving their operations out of the state in reaction to it.  Amazon.com itself notified California affiliates with lightning speed about their regrets, parting best wishes, etc..  The ink in
Governor Jerry Brown’s signature was hardly even dry.  There was no confusion in the minds of any of the parties involved about the impact of the law on affiliate marketing.

California is not alone in seeking to remove the protective shield for Internet-based retailers that the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld.  It has certainly made the most noise with its new law though.  Initially that noise seemed to be a positive thing for our industry because of the way it galvanized affiliate marketers and others aligned with them in performance marketing to fight back.  In recent weeks strong efforts by the Performance Marketing Association and others have resulted in a wider awareness and a movement to push a petition started by Amazon that would allow California voters a ballot on the Nexus Tax law.  Despite what could be perceived as small victories coming out of those efforts Amazon has left our camp in the night and run to the other side according to the L.A. Times article published online September 7th.   Apparently the efforts of all involved failed to comfort those at Amazon’s helm because a deal has been all but struck now and it’s a deal that leaves the affiliates out in the cold unless you look at it with the rosiest of rose-colored glasses.  If Amazon has its deal blessed by Governor Brown then not only does the referendum ballot go away but a crude legislative barrier will be erected to ensure that no more such nuisances get in the way of California finalizing their blatant act of extortion against affiliate marketers.

Some will say that Amazon is simply buying time.  Some will say that inevitably the Feds will be involved and California’s hand, like other states, will be forced in one direction or another.  But this article isn’t about speculation really or even detailed analysis of the law and the misguided support it seems to have gained from people unfamiliar with what it entails aside from just sales tax for California’s empty coffers.  This article is about a big company that was built on the backs of affiliates and now is bending them over in a different way.

Now about that word association game from earlier…

Email marketers will likely feel a bit of déjà vu here but at the risk of sounding like an echo I’m going to say it.

The Wild West days are nearing an end for SMS marketers.

In particular I’m referring to rules, best practices, etc. that exist and are evolving due to the increasingly popular practice of using SMS as a marketing medium.

For those who are not already utilizing SMS messages for marketing purposes I’ll start at the beginning. 

There are many ways that SMS might fit into your marketing strategies.  One way that is gaining momentum is to use it for list management.  Owners of databases of consumer or business opt-ins know what I’m referring to but if you’re not familiar with list management it simply means that through some activity, either purchasing lists or building them via interaction with consumers or businesses, a marketer has the permission to contact those in the list with advertisements.  Email and postal mail traditionally have dominated this part of our industry but with its amazing ability to reach people in real time SMS has all the makings of a new king of the hill.  It is important to note though that buying mobile phone number opt-in lists is not permitted since permission contained within the opt in cannot be transferred one from party to another.  For list management that involves multiple parties sending advertisements to the opt-in list it’s necessary to do your homework ahead of time to ensure that each party will be messaging compliantly.  A good rule to follow is what works for email does not necessarily work for SMS in terms of compliant uses of an opt-in database.

Once you have a compliant opt-in list of mobile phone recipients, other popular uses for SMS in marketing include sending one time messages, subscriber content, or alerts.   Recurring messages sent  to subscribers may be based either on a paid subscription or a free subscription.  The differences between these marketing practices and those of the list management sector of SMS are numerous and important in terms of the relationship each has with the current best practices, specific carrier restrictions, and laws.  The point at which disclosures are made to the mobile phone owner and the manner in which opt out policies are shared are the same in most cases but other specific requirements vary too much to cover here.

In order to gain better insight into the laws and best practices already being applied to commercial uses of SMS I spoke with Richard Newman of the law practice Hinch Newman LLP, an Internet attorney with a great deal of experience in privacy law and Michael Becker, Managing Director, North America at the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).  Of course it’s understood that these conversations were a courtesy and no professional advice is being offered by either Richard or Michael.  Now that that’s out of the way let’s move right along.

For anyone not familiar with the MMA, their goal is to help foster growth in mobile marketing while informing marketers of every manner of important aspects of the space including best practices for SMS marketing.  I asked Michael the obvious question first, that being which approach is best to opt a mobile phone number in to a list of SMS message recipients.  His response was clear and concise.  Whether the opt in is initiated by phone or on the Internet you must have a text message from the mobile phone confirming consent.  This affirmation from the mobile phone owner is a requirement, not an option if you wish to be compliant with best practices.  Michael went on to tell me that all of the mobile carriers are auditing SMS programs regularly so abuses will not likely go unnoticed for long.  He also pointed out that opt ins for SMS are covered by more than just the MMA’s best practices.  Prior permission to contact a mobile phone is also effectively covered by CAN-SPAM.

Finally I asked him to summarize the MMA’s position.  “It’s very important that the marketer get an opt-in from the mobile device and respect the consumer’s personal space.  The MMA has put in place best practices to assist marketers in doing just that.  Many brand marketers who are doing this and have a clear strategy are seeing great success with their opt-in rates.  One thing we need to realize is that mobile is different than other mediums in that it’s potentially comprised of eight different engagement media the phone user may consume and is a big part of the decision making process for consumers.  What is needed for future growth and sustainability of the channel is education.”

Please click on the link if you are interested in learning about the upcoming MMA Fundamentals Workshop. 

Though some of the material presented might apply more for marketers who are running branded SMS campaigns you never know what the list management crowd could pick up from it.

In tackling more of the legal aspects of opting mobile phone numbers into text messaging databases Richard Newman was extremely helpful.  Here’s what Richard had to say:

Regulatory agencies are actively monitoring the mobile marketing environment and there are numerous, seemingly fragmented, industry standards (MMA, DMA, CTIA, etc.).  Various state and federal statutes/regulations apply to mobile marketing including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and Do Not Call List, and CAN-SPAM.  Focusing on the TCPA, it is an opt-in only regime and prohibits marketers from utilizing automated telephone dialers to make calls and/or send messages to wireless devices unless prior express consent is obtained.  A text message is considered a call under the TCPA.  Opt-in consent is obtained by providing clear and conspicuous disclosures about how to consent and that by consenting, the recipient agrees to receive text messages from the sender.  Disclosure that the recipient may be charged by his carrier for receiving messages is also necessary, as is disclosure of additional charges or fees.  Consent may not be obtained via negative option.  Recent court opinions regarding the TCPA have included that the TCPA applies whether a text is sent to internet-to-phone or phone-to-phone, and that a consumer need not incur data charges in order to maintain a claim.  In 2008, Timberland and GSI Commerce settled TCPA class action claims for $7 million, based upon unsolicited wireless text messages.  SMS advertising is not regulated by any specific state law.  However, general false advertising and unfair and deceptive trade practice statutes do apply.

The costs of violating the TCPA are significant and the Florida AG has been very active in enforcing the proper disclosure of material terms, including settlements with Verizon and Sprint.

What all of this appears to boil down to is that SMS marketing from a legal and best practices standpoint is pretty defined already.  But from my perspective, having been an SMS list manager, the real challenge for marketers new to the space is in understanding precisely what is OK in terms of the marketing practices used after the opt-in and what is permitted in terms of the identity of the text message sender or senders.  It’s most cloudy when you look at it from the perspective of a list manager since there are subtle elements to consider such as who actually can exercise the rights contained under the permission from the mobile phone owner.  If your company is serious about entering this growing space or maintaining a presence in it then it’s absolutely necessary that you seek guidance on a regular basis from those who are at the forefront of defining best practices and also those professionals engaged in defending companies whose rights to market via text messaging have been challenged in court.

If you should wish to contact Richard Newman for this type of advice you may contact him via the Hinch Newman LLP website.  You can also reach Michael Becker at the MMA via email at Michael.becker@mmaglobal.com.

My two year old son loves my smart phone.  I would go so far as to say he is much fonder of it than I am.  It was only because of his affection for the phone and its capacity to amuse that I made a discovery that led to me writing this.

Recently I went looking for applications or “apps” as they’re called.  I can understand the need to abbreviate, application being such a long and cumbersome word.  What I can’t understand though is the prevailing disregard among “app” designers for U.S. copyright laws.  In less than a minute I spotted half a dozen apps that misused copyright protected media of all kinds including text, sounds, music, etc. and did so blatantly.

I’m guessing if you want to enforce copyrights they “have an app for that” too but you’d never know it by the free-for-all atmosphere of the marketplace I was browsing in.

For years now logos and copyright protected materials, registered names, and trademarks have been exploited on the Internet so I should probably be immune to the practice of plagiarism and misuse.  But for some reason I thought that the app marketplace was fairly regulated by the cellular carriers or at least monitored.  But as I looked over the available soundboards full of ripped off clips from movies and TV I realized that the app market was something of a mall of misappropriated property for sale (or in many cases free of charge) to anyone with access to it.

So who is in charge there?  Where are the Mall Cops?

Apparently Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and their other competitors are all busy with trying to buy or obliterate each other and can’t be bothered with enforcing copyright adherence among apps available for download by their mobile phone customers.  So how long until this hits home with those who are being advertised on these apps that violate U.S. copyrights and trademarks?  Eventually the abuses are bound to result in more than just C&D letters and once it passes that point how far will the blame be passed along?

One question that occurred to me was how much liability can be transferred from the affiliate or publisher to the advertiser when trademarks or copyrights are violated?  I wish I could shed light on this but I’m neither an attorney nor an informed follower of copyright infringement suits.  One interesting thing I found though, this article covers a suit involving alleged infringement on a search engine.  Though branded keywords don’t seem to be getting the same level of protection that other instances of brands and copyrighted materials receive this article by Chip Cooper on SiteProNews.com titled “Web Marketers – Are You Liable For Your Affiliates’ Trademark Infringement With Keyword Ads?” was interesting to me because of the defense that was used to shield the advertiser from blame.  In the end it was the opaque nature of the affiliate network that saved the advertiser it seems.  If this defense were successfully applied in instances outside of search engine marketing then it might be worth considering in this context too.

What can marketers and advertisers who are seeking to leverage the impressive audience grabbing powers that apps possess do to distance themselves from app publishers who are breaking copyright laws?

The only answer to that question that seems plausible to me is to not allow run-of-network ads for your campaigns on mobile networks.  Only with your most trusted mobile publishers and networks can you really be sure that your ad won’t wind up on an app that uses illegal methods to build an audience but even then extra monitoring of your ad placements is a great idea.  I suppose what I’m getting at is it’s important to know what’s going on in this new publishing medium so you don’t assume that it’s any less prone to abuses than the online media you may be more accustomed to using.

I’ll close with this.  A friend of mine who has a great deal of experience working in affiliate marketing described it pretty concisely.  He said something to the effect that everything you do successfully with affiliates is based on having stellar relationships.  You may not be able to count on Verizon to watch your back but if you have solid relationships with your networks and direct affiliates maybe you can count on them to.

Home warranty, one of my recent topics, generated quite a few questions from readers.  I would like to address some of them here for the benefit of others who might be curious.

If you missed the first article on home warranty leads you can click here to see an example of the type of lead generation campaign I referred to.  You can also read the original piece here.

Here are some common questions that might help you better understand home warranty as a marketing and sales opportunity.

 What is the difference between home warranty and home owner’s insurance?

While many home owners are required to have home owner’s insurance nobody is ever required to have a home warranty.  For this reason there is less awareness of the product and what protection it may provide to a home owner financially.

Typically home warranty is a term that generally refers to any extended warranty or service contract that covers major appliances and/or large systems in the home such as air conditioning.  The limits on what is covered vary from one home warranty company to another and often include dollar amount limits on how much coverage exists per covered item, per year, or per contract lifetime.

Unlike home owner’s insurance a home warranty covers normal wear and tear in most cases and in some cases may even cover manufacturer’s defects or owner’s lack of proper maintenance.

As an Internet performance marketer what do I need to consider?

I’ve been marketing home warranty almost exclusively for two years now and can say that the best way to decide whether to market home warranty or not is to consider these few points:

–  Do you already come in contact with home owners in your existing campaigns?

– Is targeting geographically something you and/or your affiliates are comfortable with doing?

– Does your typical campaign model consist of selling leads exclusively?  If not are you flexible enough to make a new campaign successful if selling the lead multiple times is not an option?

If you answered yes to at least two of these questions then it’s likely that home warranty, no matter how niche it may be, could be a good fit for your company’s marketing campaigns.  Targeting is very important in some cases though so it’s important to consider the limitations of your lead buyers before you choose to move forward.  Many home warranty companies you may work with will only be offering warranty coverage to home owners in a handful of states and some will even have numerous zip codes they exclude from their coverage.  This is typically due to lack of licensed and approved contractors to meet the need for service calls but may also be due to licensing requirements in certain states.

What is the competitive space like right now both from a lead buyer’s standpoint and from a lead producer’s point of view?

For marketers using affiliate traffic the competitive landscape currently is somewhat challenging.  If you are competing with other companies for email or search traffic from affiliates you should pay careful attention to what you can afford to spend per lead.  Conversations with affiliates and simple searches on sites such as OFFERVAULT.com should prove helpful.  You may find that what your lead buyers are willing to pay is not sufficient to support a competitive affiliate payout.  There are many other good strategies for producing leads though and depending on the volume demands of your lead buyers you may not need to strain your margins on lead sales in order to compete with larger advertisers who can afford to pay more for affiliate traffic.

From a lead buyer’s standpoint there are more sources of home warranty leads today than two years ago so it’s certainly a buyer’s market relatively speaking.  With so many lead producers using PPC search traffic you may find that duplicate rates on leads are too high to make the leads worth what you must pay for them.  For this reason it’s critical as a lead buyer that you question the production methods of your lead producers.  Search traffic is not a bad thing but if you have a small budget per customer acquisition then duplicate leads are a risk you must manage pretty conservatively.  As an alternative to paid search I personally rely mostly on organic search publishers but even this produces a fair number of duplicate leads.  Ultimately you are going to compete heavily with other home warranty companies and sales companies if you go anywhere near search traffic so be prepared to make your call center or your client’s call center as efficient as possible regarding the speed of follow up calls.

Is home warranty a one-call sale?

A one-call sale for home warranty can be tricky because so many consumers have existed without any home warranty coverage for so long.

If your price is low enough and your brand well-known then there’s a good chance based on my indirect experience with call centers.  Be prepared for a need for follow up though and also be prepared to pass the gate keeper.  By this I am referring to a tendency I saw in call center recordings where the initial call is just a fact-finding mission and the decision is made afterward.

As a marketer why would you help to educate other marketers on this topic?  Aren’t you just creating more competition for your company?

My reason is simple.  Though it’s true that competition might come out of this information I’m sharing I believe that there is a need for more high quality marketing for home warranty.  The more home owners become aware of the service that is available to them the more the industry will grow and that in itself creates more business for me.  If my company loses traction against other marketers who enter the competitive space it won’t necessarily be because I wrote some tips and made them available for free.  It will more likely be because I did not do a good enough job of taking care of my clients.

I’m happy to help anybody who wants to produce high quality home warranty leads.  If you have questions I have not answered please let me know by visiting www.paradoxm.com.

Craig Swerdloff and his company LeadSpend want to help email marketers clean up their acts.  That is to say they’d like to help marketers avoid databases full of bogus email addresses and other undesirable elements that could hamper an otherwise smooth-running email marketing operation.  With the average email inbox becoming increasingly more challenging for even legitimate marketers to reach the expense of validation can often pale in comparison to the costs of not validating an email list regularly.

I talked with Craig about his company and how it can help validate email addresses.

Craig, please tell me a bit about your company, your background in the online world, and of course the validation service your company offers.
LeadSpend is a data hygiene company using the latest innovations in social media and email marketing to validate contact data in real-time. We process data in the cloud, and do not keep any contact information in a database, ensuring maximum security and accuracy.  My career in online media started in 1996.  I have done time in email, lead gen, display, and SEM.  I am proud to have lead the IAB’s Email Committee when we drafted the “Lead Quality Best Practices” and “Email Data Management Best Practices” documents.
With the advances in fraud detection and data validation technology do you feel legitimate business is closing in on fraudulent ones or do you think we’re just catching on to their latest techniques?
The tools for identifying and managing fraud, and other less nefarious data issues exist.  Whether people choose to use them or not is the question.  For some, these tools may be too expensive given the value of their data.  Still others choose to ignore the issues and focus on short-term profits.  I am speaking on a panel at LeadsCon called “The Other Part of Compliance: Managing and Preventing Fraud” which will cover this at length.  I am not going to hold any punches, and I hope my panel mates wont either.
Many companies are trying to do as much as possible in house these days for a number of reasons including control over the time it takes to integrate new ideas into their software. From the perspective of a third party system provider what do you think companies like yours can offer to clients considering turning inward for their validation solutions?
There is actually a lot that companies can do internally to manage contact data validation.  For example, they can check that an email address is properly formed, and that a DNS record exists for the domain.  They can check that the zip code matches the city and state provided.   However, there are a lot of data validation techniques that cannot be done in-house, or at least do not make sense economically. Examples include using SMTP connect to validate an email address, or subscribing to USPS postal data.
The applications of your service are pretty obvious to online marketers, particularly ones who re-market to their in house email opt in lists. Are there any applications you feel are not as obvious that you could share?
There are two other important applications of our real-time email validation:  The first is focused on increasing revenue.  It occurs during the data collection process, whether that is online on a registration form, or via a call center.  If a prospect provides, or a call center employee mistakenly types in an invalid email address, you have an immediate opportunity to correct that by asking again politely.  If scripted well, usually with a bit of humor and reinforcement of your value proposition, it enhances the relationship.  At the very least you now have a deliverable email address to communicate with.  The second application is more of an insurance policy.  It occurs after the data has been collected from prospects, but before you have sent any email to them.  Identifying invalid addresses, spam traps, fraud, role accounts, temporary accounts, or other nefarious types of email addresses before you send mail to them saves your sender reputation, and enhances your ability to get mail through to the inbox.

From a cost and features standpoint can you tell me about your service as it relates to other data hygiene services?
Specific to email validation, we believe our service is faster and more accurate than any of our competitors.  We offer a number of integration options, and our API is extremely intuitive.  Our pricing is competitive, and we are the only company to offer a Pay Per Invalid model which benefits marketers with very clean data.

What’s the best way for someone to reach you in order to learn more about your company and its services?
Email of course! cswerdloff@leadspend.com

Quick, name a film starring Daniel Baldwin!  Time’s up.  Can’t do it?  Don’t worry, neither can most people.  Truth is, though he’s still more famous than the average lead generation guy he’s still “that” Baldwin brother.

Every family has the underdog I guess.  For the family of warranty and extended service plans I’d say home warranty is the Daniel Baldwin.  If you know what home warranty covers or can name some of the bigger companies in the industry then pat yourself on the back.  Many Americans haven’t a clue what a home warranty is for or where to get one.

In the world of lead generation home warranty is a niche lead type but it has gained much more attention over the last two years than in previous ones.  One obvious driver for an increase in interest in niche lead types would be the relative lack of competition for leads.  From the consumer side interest might be growing due to an increase in home owners sitting on homes longer than they’d originally planned as well as other economic factors.

If your business is affiliate marketing or lead generation and you’ve never worked on a home warranty campaign then I can help you with some quick facts.

1.  Home warranty covers many different things inside and outside a home and the coverage varies from company to company.  Plans may cost as little as pennies per day or as much as several dollars per day depending on the plan provider and the depth of the list of covered items.

2.  The heavy hitter in home warranty is American Home Shield.  Over 40% of the consumers in the U.S. using home warranty are signed up with AHS.

3.  Depending on your traffic sources, lead quality, volume of leads, return policy, and available list of fields you could expect to sell your leads for well into the $35 range.  But keep in mind payouts are based on the lead buyer’s desired cost per acquisition and those tend to be all over the place.  Some lead buyers won’t go near the top price.

4.  Here’s a good example of the list of fields that are typical for home warranty lead generation offers.

If you have questions about this niche lead generation market I’ll be happy to help.  I think there is still a great deal of growth potential in home warranty leads and there are too few high quality lead producers and affiliates.  Since this is a product with fairly universal appeal (you only really need to be a home owner to qualify) it can work with many different types of email opt-in lists or other traffic channels.

I recently read about an incident during the American Revolution involving a British Captain, Patrick Ferguson and our most revered General and first President, George Washington.

Ferguson, the inventor of the breech loading rifle, had in his sights General Washington, alone except for one other horseman, but chose not to fire on him when he was spotted and Washington turned to ride off.  The ripple effects of that instant are no doubt alive and at work even now, over two hundred years later.  Though Ferguson did not know whom he had a chance to kill that day I doubt that his decision not to fire would have changed had he known.  History tells that the Captain could not bring himself to shoot an unarmed enemy in the back.  The ethics of the man dictated his decision even when the cloudy morals of war would almost certainly have made him a hero to his nation and his king.

History can teach us so much.  This story is an example of just how great an impact one person can have on the future of so many others, even with just a simple choice between two courses of action.  I doubt that many will have the impact that Captain Ferguson had on future centuries but even small ripples and their potential effects should give us all pause at times.  We live in such complex times and have so many opportunities to choose to do things which are by modern interpretation acceptable.  These accepted things often result in consequences that the instigator never sees.  It’s those unseen effects though that should oftentimes be given greater consideration.

This may all seem a bit preachy and of course it is but maybe these days we could all use some preaching.  The so-called grey areas in our world are expanding every day.  Right and wrong are being made more malleable and being bent and contorted to suit all of our wants and whims.  Business and personal ethics may be perceived quite differently in terms of their complexities but only when we go back to the simplest approaches to making ethical decisions can we hope to make the right ones for the greater good in my opinion.