Today I had a good conversation with a successful internet entrepreneur and Founder of Big Leads.com out of San Francisco named Sam Osborn. Interestingly enough, Sam started out managing projects at Military.com pre-Monster.com buyout. He was also on the ground floor of ehealth.com and esurance.com as they laid the foundation for these multi-million dollar a year companies. Its pretty crazy because I feel as though I am taking a similar path as Sam, albeit a decade late. This may put me a few steps behind but with all hope the hindsight I have will allow to me run even faster, or at least I hope.

What I really set out to learn was just how these historically paper and fax industries came to accept an automated online model of business from a group of internet marketing entrepreneurs with no real insight into the industry at hand. From what I gathered it was both a stroke of luck matched with hard work and a big pocketbook didn’t hurt things either.

Something interesting I took away is that he is completely agnostic as to what industry he pursues. All it takes is a good domain, a need, and a good search marketing campaign and you could understand how he comes up with an insurance site, a payday loan site, and a flower delivery site. Much like Sam I too feel the same way. However while these sites are built with lead generation and affiliate networking in mind I look for overall big business potential.

I didn’t learn as much as I had hoped about the insurance side of things but not all is lost. I feel that Sam can shed a lot of light on successful affiliate networking which I think is one of my weak spots and definitely one of his strong points. Affiliate networking is also something that I see as a crucial part to clearing revenue hurdles that we will undoubtedly face in the coming years.

With that said I am still unclear as to the path of SuretyBonds.com. Is it viable as a completely online model? If not, is there enough profit potential to work leads in house for a commission? If that doesn’t give, is the market big enough to sell online generated leads? How much are companies willing to pay?

All of this still remains unknown. I am expecting to chat with Jean-Bernard Duler next week.

In 1998 Duler founded Esurance, a direct automobile insurance company. Duler secured a reinsurance partnership with General Reinsurance with a 85% quota share treaty. Duler served as Chairman & CEO until he sold Esurance to a large insurance group, and remained a director until January 2002. In 2007 Esurance will achieve revenues of $1 Billion at a 75% loss ratio. Source: http://www.dulerusa.com/about/founder.php

I am excited about this as I think he could really shed a lot of light on the insurance side of things and exactly what it will take and who i should be talking to.