LOL - I'm female too. Nice to see another tough woman here. In my experience, guys who talk about it the most, do it the least. Though I would say if BYA ever quits affiliate marketing, he could get a job writing erotic fiction!
:female: Maybe we need to put these by our nicknames.
Anyway, I also work with financial services leads (not mortgages), and it is another of those niches that everybody says is too competitive. The advantage I had - is I was actually licensed to work in that area before I decided I was happier generating leads to sell to other people to work.
I started out (as BYA suggests) generating leads to work myself. However, when I woke up one morning and decided I was just going to generate leads to sell - I began to make more money. It also expanded the area I could generate leads for - ie. not just my local area. So I concentrated on the gazillion things you have to do to generate leads, and let somebody else worry about closing the deal.
Anyay, as BYA says - I would try to find a niche, problem, tender spot...etc. and work on that. Put yourself in a surfer's shoes and ask why somebody would go online to look for a mortgage. Do they have a problem getting a loan, or is the old loan too expensive, etc? Lurking around forums is a good way to pick brains.
I already started with some free search traffic because I had business websites, so that gave me some advantages of free conversions and keyword tips from my logs.
Then I just obsessed over my paid campaigns until I got keyords to work (plus read advice on ppc), adjusted landing pages until they converted, did seo work....etc.... and I still do that every day. I cannot tell you how to make a million dollar because I don't know that. I can tell you I keep the lights on.
LOL - now maybe will get some more erotic fiction.
