Gas prices should begin to decline, according to survey editor Trilby Lundberg. Lower prices of crude oil due to the recent oil disaster should reflect lower prices for gasoline. Just a couple weeks ago, an average barrel price was between $81-82.50 and has dropped between $75-78.

The current national average for regular, unleaded self-serve gas is $2.77. The highest gas prices are currently in San Francisco at $3.21 per gallon, and the lowest prices are in Jacksonville for $2.54. If the gas prices continue to coincide with oil prices, we could expect lower prices.

Cheaper gas prices can lead to more people going online for auto finance loans to get back into driving! Leadpile has a large demand for these lead types, and hopefully a price decline in gas will help those people in affording a car.

Numbers released this morning show China surpassing Japan as the second largest economy. China’s weighed in at $1.33 trillion in Q2 with Japan slightly lower at $1.28 trillion, a .0.4 percent growth. If China’s growth remains steady, they are reported to surpass the United States as early as 2030.

While China has roughly the same land mass as the United States, it also makes up a fifth of the worlds population. But China’s medium annual income is a mere $3,600, compared to the United States whose is $46,000.

With China’s huge appetite for oil, coal, iron and other natural resources, it will be interesting in the coming years to see China flourish as a major driver of global growth.

This is a topic very near and dear to the Leadpile families’ heart.  Starbucks.  We as a company could probably support a single Starbucks on our own.  Combine the rich coffee blend with the free Wi-Fi they started providing in July, we could setup offices there.

Starbucks also recently announced the launch of its digital network later this fall.  The new, in-store digital network will offer localized content, entertainment and news.  A splash page will be presented to customers when they log on to the internet in Starbucks stores that they can choose to explore or navigate away from to continue to their desired destination.

The popular Zagat review will lookup local restaurants; runners, bikers and hikers can plan routes through Rodale using geo-targeted maps and Patch will offer local neighborhood events.

Revenue sharing opportunities will be available to marketing partners for customers that purchase downloads or subscribe to partner services.

With the struggling economy, many people are facing unemployment and hard times. Gen Y, known to be possibly one of the better educated generations is struggling to float, many not having enough experience to obtain or hold jobs in the state of the economy. Moving back in with their parents or family being the best option for many having challenges financially while fighting to get careers launched.

According to msnbc.com , “the Millennials” defined as those born in the 1980-90’s are the first generation of American work forces since World War II who have cloudier prospects than the generations that preceded them. Currently unemployment is at the highest it has been in decades for 18-29 year olds.

The average student debt as stated by College Board is $23,000 – facing these large debt amounts and the high unemployment rate among young Millennials can affect them financially and psychologically.

With the way the economy is going right now, any resource to be able to get money is potentially what all Americans are looking utilizing at some point. One resource for quick cash is the payday loan, and Leadpile works a lot with this industry and understands that there are a lot of consumers out there that truly have no other resources to get a short-term loan. Therefore, they turn to short-term loans like payday loans. Some criticize this sort of “temporary loan” as not the best option, however each person is different and each situation is different. This means that the solution to getting out of a “tough situation” could be different for each person. Some have chosen to not seek out a payday loan or have previously utilized them unsuccessfully and now are turning to pawn shops.
Pawn shops are seeing increased traffic in their stores because of consumers that are looking for that “other” option. The other contributor to more people visiting their local pawn shops is the History Channel’s television show Pawn Stars. Some see this option as more attractive than something like an auto title loan because they do not have to forfeit the rights of any collateral. No matter what your circumstances are financially, making sure to look at all your available options is key. Everyone should weigh the pros and cons of each solution.

Companies and products have been buying people to “like” their pages on Facebook hoping to bring in as many customers as possible. The ability for people to “like” something was replaced by the previous “fan” option. One of the companies topping off the list of “liked” Facebook pages for their company is Starbucks with 11.8 million “likes”. They even offer a way for the customers to keep track of their spending as an incentive. Other companies/products with an abundance of “likes” are Coca-Cola with 9.6 million, Oreos with 7.9 million, and Skittles with 7.8 million.

While some companies are going out of their way to accumulate as many “likes” as possible, others are only interested in quality customers. Mike Corrales, Vice President of BillMyParents says,

“I would rather have 2,500 real, authentic people than have 250,000 fake ones”.

There are so many different social media outlets today, making the potential for new customers easier to reach. On the same note, quality traffic is something that is more difficult to come across. Leadpile focuses on the best quality traffic for consumers.

August 6th, 2010 marks the 65th anniversary of the 1st atomic bomb, which was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Follow by the 2nd bomb nicknamed “Fat Man” which was in transit to Kokura on August 9th, but because of inclimate weather was rerouted to Nagasaki. At 11:02 am the bomb was dropped, killing 70,000 people and destroying half of the city.

A moment of silence was observed today at 11:02 am.

On August 15th, Japan announced its surrender, officialy ending World War II on September 2nd 1945.

Do you know what others in the affiliate marketing world are doing? If not, you might want to pay attention to all those in your industry so you can keep abreast of what is going on. Knowing what others are doing is a great tool for you to be fully informed of your industry for your publishers, but it is also great to know if there is maybe something you or your company are not doing and needs to possibly look at doing. Knowledge is power when keeping up with this industry. Don’t be the one left in the dust……

Who will be holding the “control button” for short-term loan companies like payday lenders and auto title loan companies? Payday lenders are keeping an eye on particular states that have implemented payday loan regulations, however many thought the recent financial regulatory bill would supersede the states decisions. This is better news for the states that want to have control over the lending practices that their state payday lenders conduct. What will be the future of individual state lending practices? Will states continue to fight to be able to control what their residents do? Many are keeping an eye on this, and we will be keeping an eye on things ourselves. Leadpile works a lot with payday loan lenders and hopes that any changes that happen will result in positive things for both the lenders AND many consumers that need payday loans. Stay tuned……..

The sales of four main brands of General Motors vehicles are up 24.6%. Cadillac is leading the pack with sales up 142% since August of 2008. Models like the Escalade, CTS, and DTS are just some to name a few. Buick is close behind raising their sales 137%. Chevrolet is performing well also, mainly selling their lines of trucks such as the Silverado.

Overall sales for General Motors are up 5.4%. Vice President of sales Don Johnson attributes this to the current economy,

“…those people who have put off replacing their worn-out vehicles are now slowly starting to come back into the market”.

Now that people are finally beginning to feel  more comfortable in making auto purchases, this could be a trend we continue to see with other major auto companies as well. Leadpile is currently working with auto finance, and the strong demand proves this to be valid!

Email marketing can be tricky and tedious, following the 6 steps below can help you build your lifetime customer base.

Delivered: Once upon a time a valid email address was a sign of success. Fast forward to reality and just having an email address means squat. There are many more variables such as knowing what the consumer likes, when they shop and what offers they respond to so you can target the right message at the right time of day.

Opened: Open rates used to be used to simply optimize subject lines, now advertisers are learning more from this statistic. The consumer trusted your brand to open the email, you reached them at a convenient time and your message was of interest. One must also keep in mind that consumers may just be opening your email to unsubscribe.

Credible: Measuring the read rate of your message is a more accurate indicator of user engagement. A message should remain open for longer then 5 seconds to indicate the user has read the message and not simply clicked your unsubscribe link.

Relevant: Advertisers must use all data such as purchase history, RFM metrics and clickstream reports to build a successful targeted email campaign.

Interactive: All advertisers want their customers to share their positive experiences. The more relevant your ads are to the consumer the more likely they are to blog, tweet or refer new customers to your products.

Engaged: An engaged user is one that continues to respond to your marketing efforts, it’s great to have a consumer purchase once but if a user is targeted correctly by the 5 steps above they will become a lifetime customer.