Online lead generation is changing the world. Never before has there been more opportunity for business owners to procure fresh, targeted, blazing hot leads delivered directly to their (e)mailbox through a variety of methods. On Google, the keyword “leads” is searched for over a million times a month, and derivations of it, such as “sales leads” and “mortgage leads” add up to several million more searches monthly. So the secret is out- online lead generation is here to stay. But are all online lead generation methods equal? I would say definitely not. The reason that all online lead generation methods are not created equal has to do with two related topics- freshness and exclusivity. When a lead broker pays for a lead, whether it’s through their own in-house opt-in site or even if they buy the lead wholesale from a lead wholesaler (yes, there are lead wholesalers!), there is an inherent problem. If a particular lead is worth say, $5.00, to a particular company, there is nothing stopping the lead broker from selling that same lead again and again and thus generating $50.00 or $100.00 or $1000.00 in revenue. I am not saying that all lead brokers do this. On the contrary, many lead brokers are honest and fair in their pricing models. The problem is that when you buy leads from an online lead broker, there is no way to tell if that lead has been sold before. If the prospect tells you they are being called a lot the lead broker can always say that it’s because they signed up for multiple opt-in sites. So what’s a marketer to do? Well, the only way a business can guarantee that their leads are both fresh and exclusive is to actually set up their own lead collection system. This way, the business owner knows that the leads are targeted directly to their business, that they are only minutes old and that although others may have the same prospect, the opportunity to close the prospect right now while they are in front of their computer, is exclusive to you. Setting up your own landing page and accompanying opt-in systems and pay per click campaign is the only way to get the hottest, freshest leads. On top of this, campaigns should be continuously tested to achieve the best opt-in rates and the best click thru rates and quality scores. This way, your online lead generation system will be as efficient as possible.