Do you have any experience with lead generation or know someone that is in this line of work?

I was recently reading about how AI has helped this sector a lot. It is not something I ever was into or interested in but for someone looking for a business niche, it might be a good fit.

Here is an explanation of what it is:

"Lead Generation business models are those where a website is used to attract traffic and convert users into leads for a sellable service (e.g. car insurance). Typically the site owner creates a website of relevant content for the lead-type and then employs an internet marketing strategy to attract traffic to the site. User information is collected (usually through a customer form) and then the lead data is sold to companies interested in marketing to or selling to those collected leads. The quality of the lead (contact information, conversion rate) will correlate heavily with the price paid."

Someone in my family did lead work for years via telemarketing. She worked from home and would call companies for a business in order to get contracts. This is the only form of it I am aware of or have knowledge on.

I did this many moons ago. It takes a long time to get to where you are earning decent from it and most people end up giving up because like many other things, you have to invest a lot of time before you see profit. I think it is still useful but I do wonder with AI advancing, if this sort of thing will even be around in the future.

On 9/30/2026 at 10:29 AM, Cozmic said:

I did this many moons ago. It takes a long time to get to where you are earning decent from it and most people end up giving up because like many other things, you have to invest a lot of time before you see profit. I think it is still useful but I do wonder with AI advancing, if this sort of thing will even be around in the future.

AI will likely take over most sectors like this. Companies would rather use a tool than pay someone else to do something for them. AI will save companies a lot of money but I still think it is important to have some people being a part of these things for error protection. AI is far from perfect.

I didn't know lead generation was still a thing in 2026. I haven't heard or seen people discuss it in many moons.

I know on a local level for smaller businesses, it makes sense but it is just wild to see it being talked about.

On 9/29/2026 at 9:20 AM, amberb94 said:

Someone in my family did lead work for years via telemarketing.

When I was growing up both my mother and my grandmother did this kind of work. It was a good way to earn from home for both of them. My mom would go in her bedroom (she had a desk with a computer in there) and usually work 3 or 4 hours a day. At one point she was making more than my father doing it but she came to find out the man paying her was ripping off companies. I think he may have ended up in prison lol

Lead generation still matters even though data collection on social sites and through shopping do a lot of the heavy lifting these days. It doesn't always work out for certain niches so this king of work is still needed.

On 10/10/2026 at 10:52 AM, HNDean said:

Lead generation still matters even though data collection on social sites and through shopping do a lot of the heavy lifting these days. It doesn't always work out for certain niches so this king of work is still needed.

Yeah I tend to agree with this. There is still a lot of value with it and AI can't do everything, at least not yet.

I am still seeing job lists for this kind of work too. Not everyone wants to rely on AI either.

On 10/6/2026 at 11:24 AM, xJamesQ said:

When I was growing up both my mother and my grandmother did this kind of work. It was a good way to earn from home for both of them. My mom would go in her bedroom (she had a desk with a computer in there) and usually work 3 or 4 hours a day. At one point she was making more than my father doing it but she came to find out the man paying her was ripping off companies. I think he may have ended up in prison lol

Oh wow, that is nuts! I have heard of stories like this but never knew anyone personally that was in on one of them. I think one of my friend's parents did this for a bit when I was a kid. I am not sure what she was doing but I know she was calling people for an hourly pay. She just did it a few times a week. This was back in the '90s. It could have just been one of those make-up pyramid schemes like Mary Kay.

On 10/12/2026 at 10:16 AM, dougchimes said:

I am still seeing job lists for this kind of work too. Not everyone wants to rely on AI either.

You have to keep in mind though that any AI hesitancy we are seeing right now will become less and less over time. I am already seeing companies and businesses adopt AI that would have not been caught dead doing so just 2 or 3 years ago.

On 10/30/2026 at 10:43 AM, HNDean said:

You have to keep in mind though that any AI hesitancy we are seeing right now will become less and less over time. I am already seeing companies and businesses adopt AI that would have not been caught dead doing so just 2 or 3 years ago.

Yeah, this is probably true and you are probably correct. The more time that goes on, new advancements with anything seem less scary. Self-driving cars is a good example. There are still plenty of people that don't trust them but it is much different now than it was just 10 years ago.