Leadpile’s Blog

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know all about what has been going on in the U.S housing market. With houses being foreclosed left and right, it has put house values at an all time low. Most believe that this was due to large mortgage companies writing bad home loans and giving loans to individuals who clearly could not afford to own a home (or at least the one that they wanted to purchase).
Now until March the U.K government will be offering “A No Money Down Mortgage”. It basically is exactly what it says it is. People who normally could not afford to buy a house because of the down payment, now can. There has been a very split reaction on whether this is going to help or hurt the U.K economy. People are going to be buying houses, putting house sales and values on the rise, and the housing market will be booming. But what happens when the home owners realize that they are in over their heads and can not pay the payments? First they miss one payment, then two, until before they know it their house is being foreclosed.
It almost seems that somehow people do not listen to the world news over there. The same effect that happened to the U.S is going to happen to the U.K. You think that they would have learned from our mistakes. What is almost more shocking is that people think that the government is actually trying to help them. According to Alastair Stewart “Every scheme in history the government has tried to implement in the housing market has gone completely toes up,”. I don’t know why people think that this is going to be any different. All I know is that I hope the U.K does not come to us asking for money when they are in our position two years from now.

The internet is one of, if not the most, powerful media sources out there. Knowing this, companies look to bloggers, celebrities and others to help endorse their products and services through the internet. The FTC (Fair Trade Commission), is now looking to crack down on some of the behaviors of these bloggers and personalities who are endorsing products, to make sure they define the relationships with the advertisers, so consumers know they are being “paid” to say what they are saying. Knowing there are some “paid” relationships like this, consumers need to understand some reviews they read are possibly not objective. Consumers also need to be aware that on certain websites, the reviews you are reading could be the work of the employees at that company.
Leadpile has some testimonials on their website, however these are all submitted by current and past partners that have worked with at Leadpile. The bottom line with all of this is, really do some research in plenty of places to get a true idea of the product you are looking to buy or the company you are looking to work with. Don’t always believe what you read!

There are some great new changes that have been added to the Leadpile seller account interface.
LeadPile has not only changed the visual appearance of our seller interface, but we have also added several convenient new features:
*Earnings Trends – simple overview of your account statistics
*Top Performing Offers – current LeadPile offers that are in high demand
*Today’s Activity Summary – overview of what happened today
*Easy to Use Navigation Bar- organized tabs to navigate efficiently
With the new interface being more intuitive and better organized, we hope that you find the new layout and design more user friendly, more appealing to the eye, and best of all more functional!

Many banks are following in the footsteps of Bank of America, by offering free services that will not only help consumers save money, but learn to manage and understand their finances. When Bank of America first rolled out their “Keep The Change” program, it was a huge hit. It not only helped consumers save money effortlessly, but it also brought new customers into the bank. Banks such as Citi Bank offered incentive programs such as a referral bonus, and TD Bank now lets consumers deposit checks from home just by scanning it.
It is great that banks are offering several incentives to their customers, but is that enough? Customers do not just want incentives, they want to know their finances. Banks are well aware that many customers are much more involved in their finances now then a few years ago. With interests rates and fees skyrocketing, it makes sense the people want to micro manage their accounts to avoid penalties. Many banks are also offering better customer services and are making sure the customer knows exactly what they are signing (for example, Bank of America came out with the one pager “Clarity Commitment” form). It is great that banks are doing everything that they can to keep their customers and not hide any information from them. Banks know that their customers are much more knowledgeable about their finance today and instead of trying to make more hidden terms, they are embracing it and accommodating to their needs. This is great news for the future of the customers and the trust they have with where their money is being help. Hopefully other financial institutions begin to follow this trend!

Till the season to be jolly….. Payday loan season has arrived. Networks, lenders and all those that are in the payday loan industry are fast approaching the busiest period of the year. The need for a payday loan becomes more and more in demand during the holidays, because people need to take out a quick short term loan to get things such as Christmas gifts.


Leadpile is proactively trying to keep up with the demand of the payday loan lead buyers/lenders, and the publishers that are requesting more resources to generate these leads. We are happy to introduce some pre pop sites (www.1500check.com AND www.uscashapproval.com) which makes the user experience much better when it comes to filling out the required information, and some new Microclick iForms for publishers to place on their websites. These are a great addition to the Microclick forms, ads, banners and landing sites we have available for our publishers.
Till the season to be jolly! Let’s talk payday loans!!!!

The generation gap between the boomers and younger generations is becoming more apparent and widening the gap even more with the effects of the recession. Dropping home prices and stock values give employed people in their younger years an opportunity to invest and purchase in ways that would not have been possible to them without the drastic decline in value from the recession. On the opposite end of this scale, the aging generations such as the boomers are taking a large hit, watching their homes and 401(k) accounts drop by huge percentages in value.
First-time home buyers being offered $8,000 tax credits, and the stock market at all time lows adds extra benefits for generation X’ers looking to get a head start. People in their 20’s or 30’s have plenty of time to get in now and watch their investments grow, giving them a huge advantage to someone in their 50’s or 60’s looking to retire.
According to msnbc.com the Consumer Price Index has recorded a rare drop over the past 12 months, 1.5 percent. The decline for many goods and services has been much greater, allowing young people to put even more money into stocks and housing.
For those who are fortunate enough to have remained employed and have the opportunity to invest have a great advantage….For those who have been working all of their lives to retire and now are faced with hard decisions and losses, it feels as though they are being taken advantage of. It’s scary to think that even the best layed out plans could turn bad.
Recently there has been enormous amounts of discussion surrounding Payday loans, and the push by some to get rid of this option. With the economy in the state that it is, and people’s budgets and financial futures in question Payday loans are the stepping stone to help people get from point A to point B. They may not be the perfect solution to the problem, however at the time, they may be the only.

It is not a surprise to anyone in the online advertising business that the CTR (click through rate) of your campaign does not always determine how strong or well your campaign is doing. If you are like most people you will just ignore the banner ads, or even more the annoying pop up ads while you are serving the net. Maybe only clicking on one, by accident when you are trying to close out of the page, won’t hurt.
So why do advertisers even bother with display advertising? Even though CTR may not be the best way to measure your success rate (but sure seems to be one one of the easiest) it still drives traffic to the advertisers site. According to adage.com, “Consumers exposed to a display ad were 65% more likely to visit the advertiser’s site than users who never saw the ad.” Personally, I think that advertisers should be focusing more on conversions rather than CTR. Having a high CTR is great, but you need a low CPA (cost per action), and high ROI (return on investment) to maintain/increase revenue.
Even with display advertising becoming more advanced over the past few years with expandable, floaters, and even interstitial, it still does not seem to cut it. Display advertising is great if you are just trying to get your name out there, but if you are looking increase and revenue there are defiantly many other better options to look into.

Going a day or two without hearing something on the news about our unemployment rate or consumers buried in credit, has not really happened lately. So it really was not a surprise for me to see MSNBC.com reporting that, in the month of September, there were almost 125,000 bankruptcy filings. This is one of the highest months ever, since the bankruptcy laws had changed back in 2005. We are all waiting to see if the housing market is really starting to become more stable, and this then could help us to see this bankruptcy filing statistic go down, not up. It’s like a domino effect, once the housing market truly becomes stable, more people will hopefully be keeping their jobs because our nation’s consumers will begin to feel okay to spend money to keep our businesses open.
Leadpile will continue to monitor the legal industry, and will continue to try and connect some of these consumers needing legal help. Sometimes it is not a matter of filing bankruptcy, but just a case where someone needs to be connected with someone that can give them some much needed advice. Leadpile is generating bankruptcy leads, and will continue to do this as long as there is a need for these consumers to get help online.

This week Google launched a test for the ‘Wave”, a new interface for communication that allows group discussions, email, instant messaging, picture and video editing and posting, blogging… there really is not much that this new communication tool does not do! A selected 100,000 people were invited by Google to use this new tool during it’s testing phase, and then to supply feedback and suggestions.
The Wave is set up in a real time format allowing conversations to transition from email to live conversation such as instant messaging. According to wave.google.com, the definition of a Wave is as follows:

• A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
• A Wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
• A Wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a Wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

If the Wave is able to combine all of the forms of conversation that are currently available, how will this change an industry such as Lead Generation? Will this replace the need for topic specific forums, and blogs? If a demand for lead types is posted, and instantly a supplier is able to respond and make a connection and discuss in an open format for others to see, it could be a huge thing for brand recognition! Being able to edit content and rewind to see where posts are coming from, could be an asset when the need for “damage control” arises.
I have signed up to be on the list of hopefuls in the next rounds of invitations sent out, I can’t wait to get on this wave!

We all know there has been legislation going on with the payday loan industry, however it still does not take away the fact that consumers still need short term loans. If consumers still need a short term loan, like a payday loan or installment loan, then what are they supposed to do if these types of loans are banned in their states? WTAM.com is reporting that in the state of OH they are still struggling with consumers needing loans, but the loans are facing tough scrutiny.
Leadpile Lead Exchange recognizes that there are some state restrictions going on with this industry, but if there is going to be tough regulations, then shouldn’t there be some other type of short term loan that the consumers can look at taking out? If there is one door closing on the consumers, then there needs to be some other options available. What should be the available option to them? Ohio sounds like it might have a challenge on it’s hand to try and figure that out.