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Has your cell phone or your landline rang many times in recent months, with you only to answer and there is a computerized extended car warranty recording?  I know I experienced this call many times to the point of annoyance.  Well, it appears that there are many other people, 4,000+ complaints to be exact according to DMNews, and now it seems the FTC (Fair Trade Commission) is involved.
There are potentially a lot of issues here with what this company is doing. First, there is the violation of the Do Not Call List and also potentially offering a phony product. The FTC is actively working on stopping this illegal marketing while the court case proceeds.
Working with all sorts of marketing methods, Leadpile Lead Exchange is very much concerned about who it works with and what those partners are doing to generate leads. We would certainly never condone this sort of illegal method of generating traffic/leads. With all these new technological ways to do marketing, the FTC is probably going to have it’s hands full in the years to come. Use the phone as a potential source of generating business, HOWEVER do it the legal way!

It seems Google is trying to make life a little easier for those utilizing their search engine. According to BizReport.com, “New search technology was showcased by Google at the latest Searchology event. One of the products, Rich Snippets, aims to prevent searchers clicking through multiple sites before finding exactly what they want. Google has researched the product with consumers and concluded that it would be useful.” Website owns might think that this is going to affect their visitor count, however Google explains that this new technology will allow the website owners to provide a brief summary in their “snippet” listing that will be more informative at a quick glance. This will then potentially provide even a more targeted customer to their website, because they have already read the detailed listing while doing their search. A more targeted customer to the website will potentially = more conversions/sales.
Once again, Google managing to strive to do better AND better! Heck if you dominate the world like they do, there is nothing else to do but to continue to try and improve your current product(s).  I look forward to seeing this roll out, to then see how helpful it makes searching for my favorite topic.  Great work!

The term “couch potato” was coined because people sit and watch television for hours and hours at a time. However, with the rise of the internet and video sites like Hula, the question is what is going to happen to our nation’s cable/satellite companies…and couch potatoes?
Hula is a site that allows you to view any television show, but on the internet.  You can catch up on any of the missed television shows that you could dream of…. and for FREE! Therefore, if this becomes the newest craze (which it is on it’s way to do that), what will our cable companies do? They can’t compete with sites like HULU who offer “television” for free? HULU is funded by advertisers, so there is no cost passed on to the consumers. Internetnews.com points out a very interesting point that years and years ago this sort of experience happened to our nation’s newspapers. Now look at some of them… they are closing their doors.
Lead generation and affiliate marketing companies may find this to be something of a positive nature, however one company’s happiness is another company’s sadness. Leadpile likes the idea of Americans decending from being a couch potato to an internet junkie.
 
 

Can business be TOO good for AT&T right now?  The exclusive deal AT&T has with Apple for its iPhone customers has brought many new consumers.  These customers now account for 7.5% of the AT&T subscriber base.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that these consumers use two to four times the data of other smart phone users, but are being charged the same ($30.00 monthly) as other users.  AT&T is in a difficult position, because they obviously want to hold onto as many customers as possible, but they need to add bandwidth to handle the added traffic.  Raising prices or limiting plans to the consumer does not seem an option, so the cost will be AT&T’s burden.  AT&T has some difficult decisions ahead, and the ending of their exclusive arrangement with Apple does not make things easier.

UPDATE:

AT&T angered more people this week when they announced that they would restrict the new SlingPlayer Mobile iPhone application to operating only on Wi-Fi.  The company said the app would take up too much bandwidth, but critics believe that restricting the app to Wi-Fi effectively diminishes the advantages and content of the application.  More challenges for AT&T brought on by the popularity of the iPhone and its applications.

Google dominates the search world, however others still want to play in the game.  Yahoo seems to have proven that by rolling out the upgraded version of their web analytics tool.  DMNews points out that Google may dominate the “game”, however Yahoo gets the “most improved” award.

Being successful with your online marketing campaigns you must be able to understand details such as demographics of your visitors. If you are reviewing a report and not fully understanding what you are reading, then that reporting lost it’s purpose. Yahoo seemed to understand that and now has updated their web analytics so it is not only good at providing a lot of data, but good at clearly analyzing that data so the average person can understand it. For instance, a successful lead generation campaign with one of Leadpile’s publishers will not work if they don’t understand what they are reading in the reporting. However, if they do understand what they are reading, that PPC campaign will be that much more successful for ALL parties involved. Great job Yahoo!

Paydaypundit.org pointed out VA is the next state to experience some payday loan criticism. It seems some politicians are trying to eliminate the short term loans, yet ignoring consumer needs to obtain money in this tight economy.  Many who do not oppose the short term loans, believe eliminating payday loans only forces consumer to resort to the more expensive methods of obtaining money.

Payday loans are certainly everyone has their opinion about, however don’t we think that the decision should be left up to the consumer and not the government. Leadpile wonders what would consumers do if they did not have this as an option in tough times.   

One of the most important days of the year is this Sunday.  Mother’s Day is a great way to celebrate our moms and how much we truly appreciate them.  In an effort to make your mom feel all warm and fuzzy, and enjoy a nice laugh, send them a custom Mother’s Day wish.

MomsRising.org has created a great custom greeting we can all send to our mothers.  The site allows you to tell your mom she is mother of the year. Take a look and send that message to your mom.
Leadpile wishes all the moms of the world a Happy Mother’s Day!

Don’t loose yourself in the “world of your Inbox”. Organize your work, set priorities, and delegate appropriately to get more done.

The more you can organize with Laser-like focus, the stronger your team will become. Know the individual strengths of each of your team member, and put them in the position to use their strengths for the overall good of the team.

Credit Cards

Liz Pulliam Weston really knocked it “out of the park” with her article entitled “The Truth about Credit card debt. This may be the best article written on Credit Card Debt and its statistical manipulation ever.

Nice job Liz! And thanks for making it available to me…

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/creditcardsmarts/P74808.asp

In a previous post, I pointed out the importance of the Long Tail concept. This concept was coined by Chris Anderson and it states niche products and services in low demand could be the big revenue generators.  Chris Anderson is also promoting businesses to embrace the “freemium” concept.

He believes that anything on the internet will be FREE, and companies will be competing with this idea unless they choose to offer FREE.  According to InternetNews.com, “There are a lot of ways to make money,” he said.  Give a basic version of a service or application away for free, but also offer more full-featured versions.” With a “freemium” type model, a product or service is offered free to a large number of customers hoping a minority will pay for a premium or added-value service.

How could this maybe relate to lead generation or the Leadpile Marketplace?
How about the idea of giving away leads for FREE knowing that down the road this is going to result in a long term satisfied client? How about offering potential great partners FREE web design assistance or custom banners and forms? People get to use the service and understand it’s value, then they want to commit based on their experience with already using the company.” This concept is really not anything new, but maybe in the lead generation business it is time networks look at not just each individual client as a way to make the most money, but look at offering something to clients for free, knowing that the long term benefit to their company is much greater.

Sounds like the idea …give a little, get a lot!

             Apple and Twitter marriage?

Who is next?

First it was Facebook, then it was Google, and now the latest rumor is Apple is interested in purchasing Twitter. Could this be true?  ”Twapple” news was all over the net yesterday and today that there could be a deal brewing for $700 million.  A lot of money for an “entity” that does not necessarily make any money.  The question you always hear is, How does Twitter make money? We all know Facebook used to have no advertising on it, and in recent months there are now advertisements.  However, Twitter has not yet ventured into any advertisements, yet everyone wants to buy the unprofitable site.    Appscout points out, “A deal could be done by June 8, the date of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference.”
Leadpile, once again will be keeping an eye on this potential marriage made in cyber heaven.