Blog, Business, Marketing, Marketing Funnel, Search Engine Optimisation, Yabber

The Websites That Returned 684-Million in Mortgage Volume in 2022 are For Sale

What we'll introduce in this article is one of the proprietary 'secrets' we've maintained for around 20 years. As we've made more details of our Satellite success freely available, more and more are making attempts to get into the space we're about to describe, and since none of the typical leadgen crowd can compete with our results, we decided a short time ago to make much our methodology known, and two of our Satellite websites that have returned tremendous results are BSBnumbers.com and Police.com.au (just two of several hundred information-style websites we operate).

For as long as we've been in business, we've tried to advocate that our clients make their finance website an information-rich resource that manufactures funnels, creates dynamic pathways, and integrates seamlessly with their broader marketing and advertising experience. However, from an SEO perspective, it's often the websites on the periphery that stand alone in terms of features and functionality that will serve better organic results, and the two mentioned websites - both part of our much broader Satellite network - are very good examples. Trafficked by tens of thousands every day, the strategic advertising on these websites return a high click-through-rate, leading to what is generally very high conversions. Like all online enquires, we''ll often encounter dud leads, but given the nature of the site, the value of the information shared on the websites, and the type of audience it attracts, the quality of enquiry far exceeds that of platforms such as Facebook.

BSBnumbers.com

BSB Numbers started back in the early 2000s when I owned and operated my own award-winning brokerage. We required an internal API tool to validate numbers, so we created the site and made it public. The first of its kind in the country, it quickly garnished SEO authority and attracted a large audience. We later capitalised off this traffic by way of some advertising, and when I left the industry as a broker, I started to assign client ads on the platform. The website was once reserved for our former Platinum program - with ads split among participants in a round-robin, or assigned on the basis of resolved state - but we've since opened up the website to all our clients, and occasionally a single client on the basis of a fee.

New Clients: To incentivise new clients, we'll often render their ads on this and other websites. The volume returned quickly covers our fee and provides early encouragement to diversity marketing efforts. This offer continues to apply as long as the websites are under our control. This single offer in isolation makes subscribing to our service a no-brainer.

Police.com.au

The Police website has been a cornerstone of our service to the emergency sector since 2001. The website was used extensively when I operated my own brokerage, and the site was later leased as a managed service to a franchise operation. We decided not to renew that arrangement so we could allocate the business to our own clients, so after a two-year non-compete we took the traffic in different directions.

Operating '000 Home Loans' was an area where I positioned myself very easily. I worked in the NSW Fire Brigade, served as a police officer, and flew King Air aircraft for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, so I'd operated the trifecta of emergency services. I garnished immediate and effortless credibility when others would struggle to justify their expertise.

The website and domain name attracts high-value traffic and credibility for obvious reasons.

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BSBnumbers and Police returned 684-million in the last year that we know about - quite a staggering figure, but 'typical' of the projects we run on the side to support participating brokers. If this volume was delivered to a single brokerage it'd be one of the highest-performing organisations within most aggregator groups, but enquires were always filtered to around five participating brokerages at any one time. The success of these little websites point to the massive value that must be delivered by websites such as Finder, RateCity, Canstar, and others, and the converting traffic leans towards the value of the comparison website we'll soon provide to clients.

Given that we support brokers participating in Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other promoted advertising, we've been able to resolve the conversions to be around 20X higher than social marketing.

Until today, we'd provide clients with a standalone clone of the BSB website for their own use... but it was largely pointless (clients should see Yabber for information on the deprecated Satellite websites). The value of the site was degraded primarily because canonical URLs pointed to BSBnumbers, so it was difficult to attain any significant search authority. However, the BSB search engine is provided by default on our broker website, and the feature continues to be a very highly trafficked resource (only second to internal lender product pages). The complimentary BeliefMedia Finance plugin also includes a basic BSB search engine.

Police Home Loans: Our website framework does provide internal pages to support the military and emergency services (as well an the medical industry, legal professionals etc.). Using the Switch module, and assuming traffic is delivered to your website in a specific manner, the front page of your website can change shape and position itself to cater for a siloed market. An alternate method of delivering 'positioned' content is by way of conditional front page blocks. These modules are part of a much broader conditional framework. These modules permit you to position yourself in different ways to different audiences, thus amplifying the effects of your funnel, and returning more conversions.

We expected to use both BSBNumbers and Police to support a single brokerage that'd be the subject of a 'demonstration' billion-dollar year, but legal issues prevented that program coming to life. Instead - at least in the short term - we'll now use BSBnumbers as a means of displaying ads from select brokers, and Police will be managed by a Melbourne-based broker.

Compliance: Of the websites we operate, and with the exception of Police, none purport to provide a financial service (despite leadgen charlatans setting up fake brokerages, this is against the law). The Police website will be set up under an ACL-holding company, and the business originating from the website were filtered through this entity. Advertising compliance is managed with guidance supported by legislation dictating how 'Banner Advertising' is displayed (very different to platforms such as Facebook, where full disclaimer text is required).

We haven't operated the Police site in some time, but it'll be made live again next month.

Available for Purchase

BSBnumbers and Police are available as standalone assets for sale. As our efforts shift towards more focused AI, general marketing, and other digital product development, we simply don't have the time to assign time into services on the periphery. We considered the continuation of the program to clients, but as a complimentary service it places considerable demands on our time. Until the websites find a new home (which may take some time), we'll continue to provide complimentary access to clients, and if no expressions of interest are received we'll likely rethink our position and possibly charge a fee (of the 684-million the sites returned, we didn't make a single cent from our support).

The websites will be sold with ongoing support and full customisations to your liking.

There are likely well-funded businesses out there that see the value in diversifying their marketing efforts by way of turnkey leadgen tools, and both these websites will provide a quick and seriously significant return on investment.

Expressions of Interest

If you're interested in learning more, you should call 0400 777 300 for an initial discussion.

Featured Image: Founded in London on September 1, 1837, the Union Bank of Australia Ltd. opened in Launceston in 1838. The first branch was established in Launceston, Tasmania (then, of course, Van Diemen's Land) on May 1, 1838, when the Tamar Bank was taken over. A branch at Hobart Town followed in early course. The taking over of the Tamar Bank was due in the main to a temporary inconvenience experienced in 1837, or there abouts. A depositor who had a difference with the management of the Tamar Bank arrived with a wheel barrow demanding his money, on deposit with the bank, in dollars, which he got, thereby causing the bank to close its doors temporarily. An appeal was made, however, to the Bank of Australasla which assisted them to reopen, and at the same time persuaded the client to wheel back his dollars, which, it is said, he did. Shortly after this the director arrived from England with the company of the Union Bank of Australia fully arranged and ready to commence business in Launceston. The Tamar Bank then dissolved itself on April 30, 1838, and the branch of the Union Bank of Australia was opened on May 1, 1838 in the premises previously occupied by the Tamar Bank - thus commenced the history of the Union Bank of Australia. In 1858 the present site on the corner of St. John and Paterson streets was purchased, and the current building was erected in and occupied in 1866. It became the Union Bank of Australia Limited in 1880. The bank remained open throughout the economic crises of the 1890s. It acquired the Bank of South Australia in 1892. By its centenary in 1937, it had 267 branches and agencies through Australia and New Zealand. The Union Bank merged with the Bank of Australasia to form the Australia and New Zealand Bank Limited in 1951. Text sourced from the 'Launceston Examiner', Wednesday 1st September 1937 (Trove). [ View Image ]

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