Leadpile’s Blog

Recently, Kiesha McFadden and myself participated in a holiday shopping spree with some that are less fortunate. Headed by John Murray and some children from The Salvation Army, we helped some AWESOME children pick out some holiday gifts for themselves and their families.

Kiesha and Lianna taking a break for a picture!

Leadpile believes giving back is so important, and something you can’t do enough of. Thanks kids for a great time! From our families to yours, Leadpile Lead Exchange wishes everyone Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year! 2009 here we come!

Interest rates have gone down, and now many are wondering if it is really that time to refinance their home. The answer is YES. Not all situations are ideal to do a refinance, however there are things to look at with regards to entertaining the idea of refinancing your home right now.

According to ABC news, here are some common questions consumers might want to know before trying to refinance their home.

1. How much will a refinance cost?
2. Will a refinance save you money?
3. What kinds of loans are out there?
4. What are some common pitfalls?
5. What is the difference between a loan modification and a refinance?
6. If I have a prepayment penalty, should I still refinance?
7. If everyone wants to refinance, is the lending industry able to handle this rush?

Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a large volume of refinance (homeowner), loan modification, debt and home purchase leads. These are all consumers that are in this process of trying to determine what their best option is. No matter what the decision is, asking questions is key to knowing what is the best option for you and YOUR situation.

  In light of the bailouts going on with different industries, I had to point out a very funny YouTube video I found while reading over the paydaypundit. Our nation’s auto industry, banks and mortgage lenders are wanting to get money to help bail themselves out of a financial hardship they are going through. NOW Santa needs some help too!
Leadpile Lead Exchange would like to offer any help we can to Santa, but I don’t think Santa really needs any help with delivering Christmas gifts. If he is looking for some leads, we can certainly help him out with that! 

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

I was not aware there was such a thing as a recession proof car, but there is! Take a look at some of the cars that Business Week defines as recession proof cars.

1. Honda Fit
2. Honda CR-V
3. Mini Cooper
4. Toyota Prius
5. Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetech
6. Lexus LS460
7. Toyota Sienna
8. BMW 328I

Business Week describes a recession proof car as a car that no matter what gas prices are these are all good cars to have. For instance, when the gas prices were peaking at $4.00/gallon, these cars would still be good cars to have because of their good gas mileage. These are all cars that are in high demand now, and most likely going to continue to be in high demand down the road. The other big factor that has determined this list, is none of these auto makers are in “big ” economic trouble right now.
Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a lot of car purchase leads and auto finance leads. These are all people looking for a car. Maybe these cars listed above will be the next hottest models people are running out to get. We will see…..

Leadpile Lead Exchange is partnering up with Youtube to roll out some great new videos. Where else can you capture the attention of the online community? Take a look!

YouTube video 1

YouTube video 2

YouTube video 3

Leadpile welcomes any affiliates out there that has traffic or needs more traffic! Leadpile Lead Exchange gives you the ability to customize your campaigns to purchase leads JUST how you want them, or drive traffic to landing sites we can provide to you. It’s quick, easy and made simple for you to get started immediately. Check out some of the lead types we are working with:

Payday loan
Personal loan
Cash for gold
Auto finance
Car purchase
Car warranty
Home purchase
Home improvement
Security systems
Foreclosure
Homeowner refinance
Loan modification
Credit repair
Debt consolidation
Debt settlement
Tax debt relief
Bankruptcy
Student loan consolidation
Student loan
Insurance (home, auto, life, and health)
Home based business
Business loans
Business cash advance
Credit card processing
Equipment leasing
Internet marketing services
Web design
Web developers
Web hosting
Outsourcing
IT consultant
VOIP
Billboard advertising

Take a look at the videos, and if you are not already working with us…… we want to hear from you!

Have you ever tried to find a unique book in a store, and for one reason or another it was just not available? You then go online and that is where you end up finding that “treasure”.  Going online has become a very popular place for shoppers to find items that are far and few between.  

According to Wikipedia, Chris Anderson coined the phrase “long tail” because products in low demand or which have low overall sales, could be the big revenue generator for online stores. “Internet to consumers has revolved around lower prices, consumer benefit (a.k.a. consumer surplus) from access to increased product variety in online book stores is ten times larger than their benefit from access to lower prices online. Thus, the primary value of the internet to consumers comes from releasing new sources of value by providing access to products in the long tail, according to Wikipedia.”

Leadpile Lead Exchange feels we are the outlet for new lead types that you can’t necessarily get anywhere else.  The LeadPile Lead Exchange, while having its “hits”, also has a long tail developing. LeadPile, The World’s Largest Online Exclusive Lead Exchange has handled the buying and selling of 37 different lead types in the past 90 days.

The Leadpile Marketplace allows the actual originators of leads, and the lead buyers themselves, to decide what price they are each willing to sell, and buy, their leads at, and the way in which the lead delivery will take place.  

The holidays are here and more and more of us are getting more and more in debt trying to prepare.  The unfortunate thing is many consumers were already in a bad situation with their debt, and now the holidays are going to add to the mess.  There are various options out there to help consumers with their debt situation. Debt consolidation, debt settlement and credit repair are a few services that help consumers with resolving their debt situation.

Debt Consolidation:  Working with a company that helps you consolidate all your credit cards into one payment.  A lot of companies can even work with the creditors to pause any future late charges or excess fees from being added to the current balance.

Debt Settlement: Working with a company that works with the creditors to get balance settlements.  A certain percentage of the total debt amount is paid, versus the whole amount and the balances continuing to get larger.

Credit Repair: Working with a company to help educate and direct you in the right direction regarding your credit.  There is a lot of information to know about your credit report and how to really optimize getting the most of your credit report.

According to Consumers Affairs, here are some things that determine if you need help with your debt:

After going back and forth with congress, the auto bailout has been denied. According to Business Week , a major factor in this bailout not passing was the United Auto Workers (UAW) refusal to budge with regards to lowering pay and benefits.  UAW and congress could not come to an agreement with regards to this touchy subject matter.
According to Business Week, “The bill called for $14 billion to be divided between GM and Chrysler, both of which are at the financial breaking point as the recession and consumer credit crunch have crippled their finances. The companies, anticipating failure in the Senate, have hired bankruptcy law firms. Ford (F) has said it doesn’t need federal assistance now but has asked for a $9 billion line of credit in case sales deteriorate below the current level.”  Let’s see how this affects the stock market today.

Leadpile Lead Exchange is keeping a close eye on this situation.  Not only does the auto bailout situation affect us directly with our auto finance leads, but it also affects other financial related lead types that we are generating.  A bailout not passing is going to affect lots of Americans potentially who are some how linked to this industry.  What is going to happen to their financial situation and their jobs?  So is bankruptcy the next answer to this denied auto industry bailout??? We will see…… 

Everyone is still scrambling to get their shopping done, and Black Friday/Cyber Monday is officially over. These days, more and more people are looking to shop online to find the best deals, save time and energy.  To help with this cause, I researched some top retail websites listed by Hitwise.  This information is based on total internet usage through the end of last month. Maybe these are where the deals are at and we should ALL take a look.

1.  www.amazon.com

2.  www.walmart.com

3.  www.target.com

4.  www.bestbuy.com

5.  www.circuitcity.com

6.  www.jcpenny.com

7.  www.toysrus.com

8.  www.kmart.com

9.  www.khols.com

10. www.overstock.com

According to Hitwise, there is a lot of traffic being driven to these popular retail sites through email marketing.  Searching for the best deals is becoming a lot more convenient for customers because you don’t have to go physically store to store buying each store’s best deals.  While looking at these various sites myself, I will say that it looks like all of them have major deals going on and FREE shipping. My prediction is Cyber Monday is going to eventually become more and more popular than Black Friday.
I am sure companies that also work with Leadpile Lead Exchange, are currently working with online retailers to capitalize on this demand for increased traffic. This is a perfect example of how beneficial affiliate marketing can be to online companies!

Here is the latest news on what is going on with the struggling auto industry.  Automakers are trying to get congress to approve a bailout for them, yet FORD has announced it does not need any help.  However, congress wants to add a stipluation in with this potential “deal”… that is a “car czar”.  This car czar would potentially be there to monitor every aspect of the money, evaluate the business relationships they have, and oversee everything else related to the industry.

So, what is a car czar and what is congress wanting this “person” to do?  According to NPR news, a few traits that is recommended is someone who knows industrial companies and can follow the money. Another person states the car czar must have financial smarts who is going to make decisions that are going to benefit Americans. However, is this something one person can truely take on? How about a committee that governs these future decisions that are made?
Leadpile Lead Exchange is definitely interested in this industry because we work a lot with the auto finance lead type. What happens in the automakers “world” affects our marketplace. We will be keeping an eye on what happens with the automakers and if they really decide to hire a car czar.

There was a recent report by Channel 15, that brought up a study done by Vanderbilt University. In this study it pointed out, “Payday loan customers who are approved on their first application are more likely to file for bankruptcy than those whose initial applications are denied, according to a study out of Vanderbilt Law School. ” I am not sure I understand where this is going as far as trying to point out a bankruptcy filing rate with those that took out a payday loan. The people that could not get a payday loan probably did not qualify for the loans because of some sort of income issue or other specific requirement the payday lenders require. I would think this sort of individual had more potential of falling behind and contemplate bankruptcy, don’t you think?
Leadpile Lead Exchange has been generating payday loan leads for some time now. Blaming or relating  bankruptcy filing rates to those that have taken out a payday loan, and not those that have been approved for one, just does not make sense to me. Does this also mean that someone who took out a new auto finance loan is more likely to file bankruptcy, versus someone that applied for an auto finance loan and was denied? There are people that have a lot of outstanding past due debt that I would say is more of a correlation to filing bankruptcy, versus someone who took out a payday loan.  Those that did not manage their debts properly, had an expected loss of job, or those that had a major financial change in their life are more of a cause of someone filing bankruptcy. Payday loan = bankruptcy?  Payday loan = what else?

Microsoft to take over Yahoo’s Search – Microsoft want to close the deal sooner than later! The search side of Yahoo is one of the most profitable component of their business, and MSN will have a huge advantage with this addition. 

From the advertising perspective, Yahoo and MSN are significantly less expensive than Google Adwords, and even their algorithms are different, which, for some Advertisers, makes the advertising more inexpensive.