I love this site, Great Information out here, I just want to help someone if I can.......
I know that many people out there purchase leads for MLM from companies such as Lead Power (simply an example), and I have used several lead companies including Lead Power that have provided leads I consider responsive.
HOWEVER, A Team Member of mine was introduced to a lead company that sent them a list of disconnected and invalid telephone numbers and e-mails.
LeadBakery.biz
You can not contact the company, the telephone number on the site is disconnected, the telephone number on the invoice is a pre recorded voice that tells you that the connection is bad over and over.
Just a heads up for those of you buying leads, don't stumble on this one!

An inside....I have a lot of luck with Lead Genie and Lead Overage, if you have not used them, it is worth checking them out!

I say don't purchase leads at all. You never know how old the leads are, no matter how "fresh" they say they are; you don't know how they go about getting the leads, so even though you are thinking you are doing the legitimate thing, you may get smacked with a spam charge. And even after all of that, people aren't that responsive when you purchase leads, so I wouldn't even go that route.

Your best bet is to create your own leads when starting a business through a lead capture page and advertising and marketing. This way, you know that people are actually interested in you and your business, no matter how remotely. Plus, since they signed up to your site, its no longer spam when you contact them.

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I've purchased leads from a company that were both inexpensive and of as good a quality as one can expect. The company I purchase them from is easy to contact by e-mail and phone (the owner answers) and they replace all bad leads you recieve at a ratio of 2 to 1.
Like anything else on line one has to be careful. There is good and bad out there.

The following article was written in 2005 by a disillusioned employee of a prominent lead generation company. It's a revealing insight into the realities behind all those "hot, fresh" leads so eagerly purchased by network marketers.

A lead generation company sells leads to network marketers. These leads can be for product sales or for an income opportunity.

Basics of how MOST (not all) find "hot prospects" for network marketers

An ad is placed on the internet.

Someone clicks on the ad -- advertisers tend to get paid "per click", so the ads must be as appealing as possible. If people don't click, the advertiser doesn't get paid.

They're taken to a landing page that offers product or opportunity information.

That page links them to a form to give their information. The form usually looks harmless and generic -- often a short survey.

The person completes the form, including contact details. Most require phone number and email. Some ask for a credit card number up front. Others don't, but ask leading questions like "have you ever purchased anything on the internet?" which tells the leads company that the prospect can be billed for online purchases.

The individual has to check a Terms and Conditions box (that few ever read -- do you?) in which they agree to accept "permission marketing". In other words, they are agreeing to be contacted about their survey answers.

That form's information is stored to be sold -- and resold, usually multiple times to different network marketers.

That information is sent to the lead generation company paying the advertiser to get traffic to the survey or form.

Network marketers sign up for a service that sells these leads -- there are hundred of lead generation companies -- and the "prospects" are usually sent in an email dump when the network marketer's credit card is hit each month.

There are lots of ways to legitimately collect information on the internet and then sell it as leads. In most cases, the network marketer has little or no control over what they get. Typically, the person who filled out the survey doesn't realize they're now a sales prospect.

There are almost limitless advertisers that lead generation companies use -- advertisers whose specific goals is to fill databases with the information of those who complete online forms... most of whom never suspect they are now "leads" for dozens of network marketers.

Some of the companies are very successful at it. I don't know, and therefore cannot comment, about the integrity of how they do what they do.

There's a LOT of you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours among the lead generation companies and the advertisers, from what I have seen. In my opinion, these are the people who make the real money. I've encountered so very many nice, sincere people who have bought into the hype -- and will (again, my opinion) spend far more than they can hope to earn, in spite of sincere efforts and a good attitude.

Most prospects who complete the online forms fall for the "request more free info" and end up being a target for sales. They don't realize that they are giving their permission for the phone to ring off the hook and their emails to be filled with "offers". In my experience, most leads are resold anywhere from 6 to 11 times in a six-to-eight-week time frame. The network marketers think they have "warm" prospects, when in reality they're just more cold calls.

One lead generation company I know of supplies all their prospects' information to 22 -- count 'em, 22 -- different MLM companies.

Howzat for "fresh"?!

John Counsel

I agree. These are not usually the best quality of leads. There are plenty of better and more effective ways to do it.

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Just a quick update on my situation. Although I did find the company I was purchasing leads form to be legitimate. I have found that I'm getting better results using different methods, such as free Internet advertising, blogs and flyers that I hang up on community bulletin boards in my local supermarket. I've also found these methods to be much more cost effective than pay for clicks on yahoo and google which though I haven't tried them on my latest endeavour, proved to be very expensive in the past.

Thanks for sharing Jeff! That is quite interesting.

Jamison

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Yep. PPC can be horrendously expensive if you don't know what you're doing. According to Adwords authority, Perry Marshall, 3% of Adwords users are getting something like 80% of the traffic.

It's the old, old story: those who don't know what they're doing get eaten alive by those who do.

John Counsel

This is true. Not that many people know how to use PPC effectively. There is opportunity everywhere for those that know how to take advantage of it. If you haven't been to any of Jamison's private coaching programs, you are really missing out. He doesn't promote himself on this site very much. Why is that Jamison?

One of the biggest problems as far as I can see with purchasing leads, even it the company is good, is that they are now targeted leads and so for the most part a waste of money. Definitely working on getting your own targeted leads, although more work is a better way to go.

michellejayes