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Update News for November 2010    


Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:

These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this bulletin.


Lead Marketing For Canadian Subscribers

We would like our Canadian subscribers, who use our on-line web quote system, and who participate in our public web site www.term4sale.ca, to pay very close attention to this part of the bulletin. We think that we have come up with a great way for you to increase your potential sales in conjunction with the Internet.

Canadian subscribers will recall that when we first announced our QuinStreet deal for U.S. subscribers, we advised that QuinStreet does not buy leads in Canada. We asked for input from anyone with an alternative. While no one came up with an alternative, we have come up with an idea that we think may be even better than the Quinstreet deal in the U.S. We need to hear from you - is this something you like?

The new idea is a combination of the QuinStreet concept and the new "Buy Now" button that we will be adding to the Term4Sale web site comparison results page. If you don't know what we are referring to, the Quinstreet deal (for Americans) is in the next article in this bulletin, and a complete review of the Term4Sale improvements, including the Buy Now button, follows that.

The new deal for Canadian subscribers will be called the "Term4Sale Referral Program". The referral program is an OPTION in which you do not have to participate. If you activate the option, consumers who visit YOUR site, from provinces that you do not sell in, and who request a quote from a province you do not sell in, will be referred to agents listed at www.term4sale.ca who sell in that province. Your compensation for each automatic referral will be an additional free postal code listing on www.term4sale.ca, for the balance of the current calendar year, and for the full calendar year that follows. That's a $12 to $23 value; keep reading!

In order to enable the option we will need to modify the control panels of Canadian online quote option subscribers. First, you will have check box (defaulted to no) that will indicate if you want the Term4Sale Referral Program enabled. Second, we will provide you with a list of provinces and you will check off those provinces in which you are licensed to sell life insurance.

If a visitor to your web site attempts to run a quote in a province checked off in your control panel, the quotes will run exactly as they do now. If a visitor to your web site attempts to run a quote from a site that is NOT checked off in your control panel, then a new form/page will appear when they press the "Compare Now" button. The page will say:

The above information, complete with the information that was originally entered into the client entry page, will be emailed to each of the Compulife subscribers in that postal code. A copy of the email will also be sent to Compulife with another copy to the referring site/agent. Each email request will generate a free "postal code" credit for the referring agent, and those credit(s) can be used at the beginning of the month which follows, to the end of the current calendar year plus one more full calendar year (a $12 to $23 value).

So each referral gets you another postal code listing at www.term4sale.ca, with the potential of more requests for insurance in a province in which you sell. If other agents in other provinces participate, it means more actual consumers requests for those listings. If you contemplate the program, you will appreciate that it could easily snowball with participants increasing the volume of business as a result.

So once again, what do you think? Don't be shy, email your thoughts and comments to:

service@compulife.com


QuinStreet Lead Marketing Opportunity

The following article is in reference to the referral program available to Compulife's U.S. subscriber. It is included here to better help you understand the new program Compulife is proposing for Canada.

Work on the QuinStreet interface has gone quite well and we are in the final stage of completing the job. The new feature will be available to anyone who has Compulife's $99 per year on-line quote option.

Once everything is ready, we will modify everyone's control panel. Once the control panels have been updated, we will send everyone with the Compulife web quote option an email with a link to the control panel.

IMPORTANT: This marketing concept is an OPTION for Compulife subscribers and nothing compels any subscriber to participate.

For this reason the default for everyone's web site will be to have the QuinStreet option turned off. If you do nothing, your website will work as it does now. If you wish to enable the option, you will need to take the following steps:

For those who have not read about this before. Here is the background on the new option:

The QuinStreet referral program is an optional way for YOUR web site to generate revenue from leads that you obtain as a result of your use of Compulife quotes on your web site, leads that would otherwise be of no use to you.

As background, QuinStreet is a lead generation company that will pay you for qualified leads automatically generated by your web site - leads which you do not want. They will sell the lead to either a direct carrier, broker, or agency in the specified location. NOTE: QuinStreet only sells leads to high volume corporate buyers.

The company initially approached us about buying leads from www.term4sale.com but we have assured QuinStreet that we did not want to change the term4sale model, which directs consumers to contact life agents who subscribe to Compulife. Therefore, what we are proposing does not involve www.term4sale.com.

However, during our discussions about www.term4sale.com, we suggested that QuinStreet consider offering our subscribers a program to buy leads from our subscriber websites which sometimes receive application requests for insurance from consumers who are in states where the subscriber is not licensed.

We advised QuinStreet that Compulife can automate this process and make it very easy to activate the option for subscribers who wanted to participate. Quinstreet was keen on the idea.

EXAMPLE:

Let's say that you are currently licensed to sell in CA, NV and AZ and that you have enabled the QuinStreet option for your Compulife on-line quotes. Someone visits your web site which is using the Compulife online quote system, such as appears here:

www.termsampler.com

If your site visitor selects any of the states that you are licensed in (CA, NV or AZ) the site will work exactly as it does now - NO CHANGE.

Now assume the site visitor is from IL. That consumer visits your site and fills in the client page selecting IL. When that visitor clicks the "Compare Now" button, instead of getting a comparison for IL a new QuinStreet page will appear.

Here is a sample of the page that will appear:

https://www.financerequests.com/life/w1a/

IMPORTANT: The actual link/page that QuinStreet prepares for you will unique to you.

Once the user completes and submits the page QuinStreet will then pay you for that lead. Quinstreet will pay you a flat $15 per lead. Therefore, if your site generates 20 leads during the year, you will generate enough money (20 X $15) that the referrals will pay for your subscription to Compulife including the web quote option.

To summarize, the new QuinStreet marketing program will be an OPTION that you can enable on your administration panel. If you do not want the option, you will do nothing. If you enable the option, you will identify which states you are licensed in. For all other states QuinStreet will receive the lead and pay you $15 for the lead. Quinstreet will pay you monthly on net 45 payment terms.

About Quinstreet - Founded in 1999, QuinStreet delivers “customer leads on-demand” to high volume corporate and agency clients across multiple verticals. In February 2010 Quinstreet went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:QNST. To learn more about the company please visit their website at www.quinstreet.com.


Coming Improvements To Term4Sale Listings

The following is a repeat of what appeared in the October bulletin. We will be moving forward with that project as discussed. If you did not get a chance to read it, we encourage you to consider it here.

Following the work on Quinstreet, we will add a new feature to a list of improvements that we are going to make to the www.term4sale.com web site. The new feature will allow consumers to contact subscribers by email, through the agent listings page at www.term4sale.com.

Currently, if you visit www.term4sale.com, enter a zip code and do a quote, the "Find An Agent" button appears numerous times throughout the quote. If you click on that button, a list of 3 agents names appears, with their name, phone number, listing city and the optional "web page" link.

NOTE: Agents who have web sites with links to www.term4sale.com, can have the web page links for free.

With the changes that we are making, a new button will be added to the list, and will appear between the name and phone number. The button will be called "Contact" and will appear under the title "Email".

If the consumer clicks the contact button next to the agent name, an email form will appear much as it does if you push the "Application Request" that now appears next to individual products in the $99 online quote option. If you do not know what we are referring to, go to:

www.termsampler.com

From that page, enter in client data and click the "Compare Now" button. On the results page, next to each product, is a "Request Application" button. If you click on that, fill it in, we will receive that request because this is our SAMPLE site. Providing that you give us your email address, we will forward back to you the email request that we receive from you. That will let you see what it looks like.

NOTE: When the online quotes are added to your web site, "Request Application" emails do not qo to Compulife, they go to you. That is one of the things you can amend on the control panel for your site. The control panel is set up for you at the same time you obtain the online quoting option.

We are now planning to add that same type of capability to the "Find An Agent" button. Once again, when this new change is completed, the consumer will be given a list of agents and in that list will be a new column between the agent name and phone number. The new column will be titled "Email" and there will be a "Contact" button next to each agent name.

If the consumer clicks on the "Contact" button, an email form will come up and say:

Below that paragraph the form will then ask for the consumer's name, phone number, email address, best time to be contacted and a note should they wish to pass along any information to you. Following that will appear the "Submit Contact Form" button. When the consumer pushes the button an email with the above information will be sent to the agent at the email address specified in the agent's account with Compulife. We will also provide the agent with the information that the client originally entered into the client entry form - birthdate, sex, face amount, insurance category, etc.

NOTE: We realize that that email address that you use for your Compulife subscription may end up being different than the one that you want these requests to go to and so we will offer you the option of specifying a different email for that purpose. Initially, and unless advised differently, we will use the default email for your subscription.


The New "Buy Now" Button

A further change will also be made to the www.term4sale.com results page. Currently, next to each individual product in the display you will see the same "Find Agent" button which does exactly what the "Find Agent" button at the top of the screen does. This button will be replaced with a new button called "Buy Now". "Buy Now" will take the consumer to a new web page which will be a modified version of the agent listing page. It will state, the following:


Improving Consumer Traffic and Contacts

The objective of these changes is to make it easier for consumers who use www.term4sale.com to connect with subscribers to Compulife. From time to time we hear from subscribers who are very pleased with the business that they have done as a result of www.term4sale.com. We also hear from time to time from subscribers who are unhappy because they believe that they are not doing enough business from their listing.

We believe the new email/contact functions will result in more contacts for agents. Unlike phone calls, we think there will be less consumer resistance to making a contact by email. Where it may be stressful to pick up the phone and call an agent, it is much easier for the consumer to send their name and phone number and have the agent call them. This way the agent breaks the ice.

Further, you will know that it was your listing at term4sale that produced the contact because the consumer's contact will come by an email generated by www.term4sale.com, whereas a consumer may call you about life insurance and never mention that they got your name from the web site.

Compulife will also be tracking these initial email requests and using the information to determine what volume of calls are being produced by given zip code listings and email lead generated for individual agents by the site.

Earlier in the year we told you of other planned improvements where we would be modifying our zip code search system to create a nearest physical location search instead of a nearest numeric zip code search. We also told you there will be a panel that you can visit where you can see where you are listed, and what other listings are available in that state, and how many agents are listed around you. That work will also be completed at the same time as we are offering the new email contact options.

We had also indicated earlier that we would begin to offer a system of evaluating zip codes based upon zip code populations. That methodology will now be amended. The value of a zip code (for 2012) with will be based upon actual email contacts that are generated by that zip code listing.

Further, by tracking the "contact" hits on zip codes, we will be able to also provide you with that information later in 2011 - as part of the panel that lets you review zip code listing. Of course zip codes producing more hits than average will cost more to renew for 2012.

All of this additional work will be going on at the same time as the email contact changes are being made.


NEW LOWER PRICE - Domains For Sale

Three months ago we told you about the slate of domain names that we pre-registered, and that we are offering for sale to our subscribers. A number of the best one's have been picked through and purchased.

The new price is $99 $79 $69 $39 - down $30 from last month. Will we drop the price again? Yes, we suspect that by winter the price for the remaining domain names will drop again. We will probably cut the price dramatically by Christmas and will be practically giving them away. The point is that we will keep dropping prices until our current inventory is sold out.

The problem is that if you wait you may lose a great domain name to someone else. More than one of the sold domain names were requested by another subscriber after they had just been sold to another subscriber who beat the second person to the punch. You snooze, you lose.

And if the latest price cut doesn't suit you, and instead of waiting around for another domain name price drop, feel free to MAKE US AN OFFER on any remaining domain name(s) that you want. If it is a reasonable offer we are likely to take it.

For more information about the domain names that we have for sale, and the web sites that are ready to go, click on:

www.compulife.com/domain


What's Next?

Once our work on the web engines and Mobile Quotation software is complete, we will be turning our attention to some important maintenance work that is needed to the data entry systems. Those programs have not been updated for quite some time, and some need to be converted to take advantage of the newer programming compilers that we have been using for the Windows software that we already distribute to you. Our goal is to make it easier to program future software, which will ensure that we can roll out changes and improvements more efficiently.

Further, having reviewed where we are heading over the next few years, and the changes that we would like to be able to make in the future, we have decided to stop and do a much more extensive overhaul than simply changing our data entry software. We have determine that we would also like to implement a better data storage structure that will make maintenance easier on both a data entry basis, as well as a programming basis.

To achieve our goals in this regard, we will be spending a fair bit of time reviewing our new data storage needs, and then building conversion software that will convert our existing data files into our new data file structure. Once we have done that, we will then introducing new comparison software that does exactly what it does now, but which derives its results from the new data structure. In other words, you will end up with a new program that does exactly what the old program did/does.

Once this first stage is completed, we will have both old program and old data, with new program and new data. Moving forward we will use the old data entry systems to maintain the old version, then converting old data to the new data forms for general distribution.

The next stage is to create the new data entry systems that talk to the new data format. Once we are satisfied that the new data entry system give us everything that we have now, we will then switch to the new data structure alone. We will only do this once we have thoroughly tested the new software to ensure it gives us no problems in maintaining the date. This may take several months. As far as the part you use, by the time we make that transition, you will have been using the new software for several months.

The point of sharing this with you is that the process will be quite lengthy and so from this spring throughout most of 2010, you will not be seeing many changes and improvements to the software that you use, even though the underlying foundation will be going through a massive change. Once the foundation has been reconstructed, and all the tools to work on the foundation have been built, the program will be in a position to make some substantial moves forward.

Think of it as transplant surgery, where you need to keep the patient alive and well, at the same time as you are swapping out the organs.