Leadpile’s Blog

While there are a number of topics that I could touch on today, I do not believe any of them have the impact that Randy Pausch had or continues to have. You may have heard that Randy Pausch passed away today after battling pancreatic cancer. You also may not have heard, because he was a professor at a small college most people have never heard of. I could offer my opinions and thoughts, but do yourself a favor and listen to one of his messages. He was a great man with a great message. Rest in peace, Randy.

Randy’s Messages: http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture

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On a previous post I spoke about Lower My Bills (LMB) and some changes they were going through. However, I think I am seeing some changes going on again. Looking around on the net I saw some of those “dancing” people, yet the advertisement were about AUTO INSURANCE? Yeah, auto insurance! The ad was a LMB advertisement about lowering your auto insurance rates. So, is LMB RE-focusing on other industries besides JUST refinance? If you take a look at their website it talks about all sorts of lead types, however I guess we usually all know them for mortgage, NOT insurance. Maybe something new is in the works?

According to RUMORY.com, some companies could be experiencing some potential changes to adjust with the declining economy. Tough times right now for just about any industry. I will say Leadpile Lead Exchange is fortunately thriving while others are going through some tough times.
Will all the major online lead generation companies survive, and if they do what will their main focus for lead gen be in?

Tracking your Payday campaign could never be easier.  Let’s talk about the LeadPile lead exchange and some unique tools provided inside your campaign to better assist you.  

LeadPile, Payday/Cash Advance vertical has launch above expectations.  We are the Source for Payday/Cash Advance leads.  For uniqueness the placement in our marketplace is powerful.  You see inside your campaign you will see your current bid price, your rank, and the top bid.  Yes, our top payday buyer is currently paying $68.50.  Our quality can stand in front of our price.  

The rank is significant as it will elaborate how many more campaigns are currently active, funded and have priority to accept a lead first.  Our lead exchange is Market Driven.  Rank 1 will have the opportunity to purchase the lead first.  Be aware that you will be receiving higher quality.  Not so much due to the cost, but consider this, you are coming across new consumers that are in some serious need of a loan that might only fill out one application online, hence was our application.  

I always suggest to get a good placement in our PING tree.  If you are an aggregator and you are working with extended amount of buyers you want to take a good placement.  Offer them the best quality lead that they have not seen within the acceptable time frame.  

I provided this screen shot so that you can view and understand how it works.  At any time a buyer can go through the “main settings” inside there campaign and increase the price so that they can jump over a few affiliates.  That’s the nature of a lead exchange.  You have total control over your price and you are notified of your placement. This way you can make some logical financial evaluations and define where you need to be at that makes sense for your company.

With a Lead Exchange such as LeadPile we make it user friendly so that you can at all time have the information you need right in front of you!  No wonder, we are the Largest Online TOP Rank Lead Marketplace!

Watch LeadPile Specialty Finance TV Commercial Here!

According to TNS Media Intelligence (as reported by Emarketer), Automotive advertising spending in the US dropped to $1.99 billion in Q1 2008. That was down more than 14% compared with Q1 2007.

This does not surprise me that much as we predicted in 2005 that more and more Automotive Advertising would be spent online in the years to come. While the overall automotive advertising spending decreased, Internet spending was up 57.9% last year, to $441.6 million.

What does this mean to our Automotive Lead Exchange Participants? Simply put, being in the middle of the online auto lead space is not a bad place to be at all. Carpe Diem!

If 85% to 95% of all emails being handled by the ISPs represent spam which mostly are unwanted messages abusively and indiscriminately sent by unscrupulous marketers or scam artists, and the costs associated with the necessary bandwidth and network maintenance are supported by the ISPs, which in turn get paid by everyone that’s using the internet one way or another, then spammers are really picking our pockets.

Someone has to pay for creating and supporting the infrastructure required by 100 BILLION SPAM emails PER DAY!!! And that’s not cheap: the estimated costs were about $100 BILLION in 2007. So with 1,412,489,652 internet users worldwide (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) and $100 billion in money spent/lost in connection with the spam, it comes to about $70.79 per person using the internet per year.

Incredibly, about 80% of all spam is sent by fewer than 200 spammers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam), which would mean that each spammer steals nearly $500 MILLION per year from everybody else. Now is that grand theft or what? If a bank had HALF A BILLION stolen by 200 different people in a year I would tend to believe these people would be caught pretty fast.

LeadGen companies and Publishers that specialize in internet marketing do need to have an ethical conduct and refrain from spamming. LeadPile has built its reputation as a lead marketplace / exchange that strictly prohibits the practice of spam or any other abusive or deceptive marketing methods. All marketplace participants have to abide by strict rules which ensure that consumers are protected, and the lead exchange continues to grow based on the benefits it brings to consumers, lead buyers (advertisers) and lead sellers (publishers). All accounts have a dedicated account manager who is in constant communication with lead sellers and our quality control division is closely monitoring the leads production. Confidence in using the LeadPile Lead Exchange is critical to its success and the marketplace proved to be incredibly successful at attracting both quality lead sellers and lead buyers (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS215372+06-May-2008+MW20080506).

What would you do if you came across your primary care physician on Facebook? How about if you came across a surgeon that was going to be performing some surgery for you in the coming weeks? Would what you see and read about that person affect your decision to trust them and their abilities?

This is something many need to be concerned about when it comes to blog posts, social media sites and other networking groups the public has access to. Too much information could be a bad thing. Too many negative blog posts could put a negative light on some and affect how the outside world perceives them.
According to a recent article on MSNBC, some researchers looked up more than 800 medical students and residents by name on Facebook.com, one of the most popular social-networking sites with about 80 million users worldwide. Everyone can limit who has access to their pages to just friends, however this information could be sometimes accessed.
The study, published recently in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, “found that nearly half the medical students had Facebook pages, with only 37 percent limiting viewership to their friends.” More than half of those whose pages were open for review provided lifestyle information, including sexual orientation, personal relationships and political views and sometimes opinions, according to MSNBC.
Erick W. Black, one of the researchers, said he found pictures with some students grabbing each others private parts, posing with weird objects, and multiple photos of medical students drinking heavily. Does this represent the image that we all have on those that are potentially taking care of us, such as our doctors?
I have to admit Leadpile Lead Exchange has this blog to posts our thoughts and industry news, however I would still be a little hesitant on posting something that I would some day regret or not want another person to see.

I just finished reading that The House is expected to pass a $300 billion housing rescue bill aimed at aiding homeowners in trouble and help them avoid foreclosure and supporting mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

If the Senate passes the bill and Bush signs it, thousands of borrowers will be able to refinance their unaffordable old mortgages into new, low-cost fixed-rate loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.  

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 400,000 borrowers with $68 billion in loans may benefit from the program. The bill will only allow as many as 1 through 2 million borrowers to participate in the program.

Some of the qualifications for these loans are as followed:

• Prior loan issued during Jan 2005 – Jun 2007
• Have an up to date mortgage or in default
• Once loan is reissued you will not be able to take home equity from your home for 5 years unless used to pay for up keeps on home.

This will definitely help the mortgage industry.  More loans officers will start focusing on purchasing mortgage leads from lead exchanges as they will now be able to help the consumer. 
 

Last year first half of 2007, Toyota sold 4.5 million vehicles while General Motors came out winning selling 4.54 million vehicles.  Pretty close in sales.  

2008, first half the year, the numbers have arrived.  Toyota automaker sold 4.8 million vehicles for the first half.  That’s about a 2% increase from the same period of last year while GM sales drop 3% the first half.

With the gas price increase more consumers are staying away from the bigger trucks and SUV’s that GM is well known for.  The percentage difference on Toyota’s increase and GM’s drops are somewhat related.  My theory is that consumers are going after the gas saving cars that gives the more miles per gallon.  GM, being a leader in sales until this half of 2008, should  take different approaches to catch the consumers interest?  Maybe it’s time for the engineers to start developing more smaller cars to bring out, less expensive with more miles to the gallon.

All in all the economy is not doing that horrible as critics are proclaiming.  Look at the sales, they are pretty steady, meaning consumers are still spending and they are still buying new vehicles. 

Great time for Auto Groups to take advantage of leads in a lead exchange.  More cars to sell!

I wanted to see if I could find some true results of what some Americans want with regards to the payday loan industry. So much negative publicity gets published on this industry, however there really is a need for these short term loans for many people.
According to a previous poll done by zogby.com, less than 1% of all those polled, thought that lawmakers should focus on the personal loan industry. A majority support the individual’s right to choose their financing options, and want that freedom of choice in payday loans.
Zogby results showed that a majority (84%) of Ohio state’s consumers were in favor of making their own credit decisions without government interference. Additionally, most wanted the federal or state governments to allow adults to get a payday loan, if that is something they choose to do.
Another part of this particular survey stated 72% of the consumers mentioned that traditional financial institutions like banks and credit unions didn’t offer short-term personal loans. Many consumers see payday loans as something convenient, and fast to get some needed cash between paydays. These payday loans are popular with loan borrowers for the main reason of convenience and quick access to cash without any credit checks.
Paydays loans are a necessity for so many people today. Is this something that should be controlled by legislation? I agree there should be some regulation so consumers are not taken advantage of, however 100% eliminating loans, that no other banks or lenders can provide, is not necessarily the best option for the consumers needing them. Where else can Americans get a short term loan not secured by collateral? Getting quick, fast money is very hard to find without having your credit pulled.
Leadpile Lead Exchange embraces payday leads because there is some belief that this is something that is needed by the consumers. We bring together those that can generate the leads of consumers that are looking for these short term loans, with the lenders that can provide this to them.

Is the Exit Traffic considered a good or bad approach when it comes to Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing? Well, that it all depends on how it’s used.

Just so we are all on the same page, exit traffic IT IS NOT a baby on a bike , but it represents a way to capture the visitor when they close the browser, or the first visited site. The way to do it, is by providing a popup window with a different offer. It can be a related service, or can be totally a different offer, but targeted to the consumer’s profile. The key of converting traffic is to offer something relevant to the visitors  you have. Learn about their needs and learn about your traffic. That will give you an advantage against your competition. 

After spending thousands of dollars on PPC (pay per click), each visitor represent a great deal to you, and by using the exit traffic in your advantage will help you increase your spent and not reduce it. Of course, Google Adwords division will be really happy about this!

There are many popup blockers out there, but there is still a good percentage of visitors that don’t use them. Learn about your traffic, create targeted pop-up and you will succeed in a market where many struggle. 

Everything is possible with the right mind set! 

I just love a recent article from eMarketer. They say that  an online survey by Ipsos Reidfound that Internet users in Canada ages 12 to 17 spent an average of 13 hours per week online in early 2008 (compared with 19 hours for adults). That number has not increased since Ipsos began measuring online teen behavior in 2004.

Emarketer says that “Several factors may account for the relatively little time teens spent online. One is the significant number of daytime hours devoted to school during most of the year. Another is the influence of parents—54% of online teens surveyed said their parents placed time limits on their Web use”.

Isn’t it a great time to be involved in Internet Marketing and a lead Exchange when people say that  Internet users in Canada ages 12 to 17 spending an average of 13 hours per week online is a “relatively little amount of time!”

Love it!

A quite a bit has been written about Generation X (29-42 year olds) and some has also been written about Generation Y (18-28 year olds). If you are wondering how these two groups are embracing technology, Forrester Research has surveyed these two groups and the findings are interesting.

First of all, Gen Y is a much smaller generation…38 million adults vs. 63 million adults. As you can probably guess, Gen Y uses text messaging more than Gen X… 72% vs. 61%. Gen Y also spends more time online for leisure or work than watching TV. Gen Xers lead all generations in online shopping (69%) and online banking(65%). Gen X is ramping up their use of the internet, and yes, they are reading blogs more!! 21% of Gen Xers read a blog monthly vs. 15% last year. (Welcome new blog readers!!)

Companies are trying to grasp the differences between these two generations. The research shows that Generation X uses technology when it supports a lifestyle need, and technology is deeply embedded into everything Generation Y does. Generation Y is becoming our first native online population.

UPDATE:  What about those baby boomers??  Well, there is some new information about them as well.  First of all, this generation is huge (78 million Americans) and powerful (currently controlling more than 83% of consumer spending).  Boomer spending is expected to surpass $4.6 Trillion by 2015.  This group is embracing technology, but at a slower pace than their younger counterparts.  They love email (96%), but not social networking sites (22%).  They also have “little or no interest” in writing blogs (67%) or playing games (62%).  They will often visit a website after they have read about it in print (93%).

Depending on your product or service, research like this can only help you reach your target market. Leadpile can also help you reach your market with our great array of services, and we can help you navigate the generations.