Thank you for visiting our Lead Exchange Blog! I hope you will find it useful. Good luck!

Are you using social media in your advantage? We may feel a certain level of discomfort at first, but as we push through we will be able to get a lot of valuable comments and ideas on how to better ourselves and the product we are offering. People are going to write whatever they want on your “wall”, but, often rewards await those who push through the discomfort of the unknown. Push through the discomfort and use everything in your advantage. Building trust with your customer base doesn’t come easy – each day is a step forward towards a successful product.

We are all trying to find ways to process all the projects fast and get them off the ground for 2011. Take each task one at a time and find ways to frame the right conversations with your team managers. Framing your conversation and keeping everyone on target and on the issue brought for discussions will help you in pushing projects through more successfully.

Sounds like there might be some talk in Mississippi to potentially try and make some changes to the payday loan process. As we all know these short term loans are a necessity for many individuals, however some states are trying to incorporate stricter laws for the lenders. This is what appears to be trying to happen in MS. The proposed amendment would allow all consumers at least 28 days to pay on loans of $201 to $500. On loans of $200 or less, the $21.95 fee would be reduced to $20, and consumers would have up to 21 days to pay. The positive thing that this particular house banking committee chairman said was they are trying to help the consumers, but not get to a point where they are trying to put a legitimate business out of business (the lender). This seems to be something that more states should focus on. How can we continue to make sure the consumers are protected, but also allow them to get these short term loans…. and not put the lenders out of business. We all know consumers need these loans and some never expect they will be one that is in dire need of a short term payday loan, but for those situations where needed these loans must remain available to consumers. In order for loans to remain available to the consumers, we must also protect the lenders that are extending these loans. Stay tuned to see what happens with this MS amendment.

According to Searchignite, the demand for paid searches went up in 2010. While only 17.4% of search ad spending was done through Bing and Yahoo, Google dominated with 82.6% of search ads. The market is up 18.5% from 2009 when search ad spending was beginning to decrease. Retailers had very impressive spending because of the busy holiday season. December by itself had a 44.8% increase. While some speculated that there would be a continued decrease, these numbers prove something different. Leadpile uses ad spending as an option just as many others are continuing to do.

Tax season is creeping up on us again.. and as we get closer, something to think about it how you would prepare for an audit.

According to WalletPop, the IRS is ramping up the number of audits in an attempt to close the gap between the taxes it believes it should have collected and what was actually collected. In 2001, the tax gap was $250 billion.

There are 2 types of audits, paper and people. A paper audit is most common – if the IRS thinks you made a mistake, they were notify you that they have recalculated your tax , they may also ask you to send additional documentation to back up claims you may have made. A audit in person is less common and are generally triggered by something very out of the ordinary on your return. Typically with an in person audit, the IRS will set up a time to meet with you and let you know ahead of time what documents they need to review.

A list of frequently asked tax audit questions can be found here: http://www.walletpop.com/2011/01/03/tax-audit-frequently-asked-questions/

New year, new reviews and your team expect a feedback and more money. You definitely want to incentivize the good performers to go further in their career and work harder in 2011. The ones you are promoting inside your organization or in the affiliate team tells a lot about your core culture. Look at different aspects of their performance and relationships within the organization – teamwork, performance, focus on the goals and revenue generated. The way we promote our affiliate managers, or any employee in your organization, will send signals to the entire company.

It was another great Affiliate Summit for the Leadpile team. We are now returning from ASW and are excited to move forward on all the great things we discussed with our partners. Unfortunately, we did not have time to meet with all those publishers and advertisers that we wanted to, however if we were unable to connect with you, please reach out to us to get something going!
Leadpile’s message this Affiliate Summit was for the excitement we have for 2011 and all the exciting new things we are going to be getting into. Leadpile is looking at getting into some new verticals such as insurance, senior care, and credit reports (which is already live). We are currently working in bankruptcy, auto finance and payday loan lead types, and we are looking for lots more traffic on all of these verticals. The sky is the limit in 2011, and if we are not already working with you, we definitely want to!

Starting February 10th, people will be able to purchase the iPhone from Verizon services instead of just AT&T. President of Verizon Wireless, Lowell McAdam, recently announced their plans to carry the highly-demanded phone. The prices will remain the same as AT&T’s price with a two-year contract. Although many people are already exciting about having the option to purchase an iPhone with Verizon, it will not offer the 4G network that AT&T does. The Verizon version of the iPhone is still running on the older 3G version, but Verizon claims the demand from consumers to immediately have access to the phones was so high that people should still be satisfied. Despite not having the 4G network, the Verizon iPhone does have the ability to connect to other devices. Customers who are already using AT&T will have to pay $325 to break their contract.

All Mac lovers now have an App store very similar to the App store available on the iPhone! Today, the App store went live with more than 1,000 Apps or programs. As with the set up of the iPhone App store, the App developers set the price for the apps and receive 70 percent of the revenue for sales with Apple taking the remaining 30 percent – purchases are made through the consumers iTunes accounts. The LeadPile team loves Mac products and can’t wait to see what fun Apps are waiting for us!

One of the biggest brands out there has to be Starbucks. Well they must think so themselves because they are now going to be giving their Starbucks logo a pretty big facelift by removing their name off the logo. The company is about to celebrate it’s 40 year anniversary, and it seems that they find the best way to do that is to make a logo change.
According to the Associated Press, “Starbucks leaders say the changes to the logo are in some ways a metaphor for the company dropping the boundaries of its own business and growing into new areas. Marketing experts agree.” Starbucks is looking at other big name companies who have successfully dropped their name from their logos. Hopefully this new facelift will be as successful for Starbucks as it was for companies like Nike and Apple. You can truly say you have made it as a company if you do not even need to show your name on your company logo or any other advertising. We hope it works Starbucks!

About one in four digital TVs are internet ready and Netflix has decided to continue their success with this market. Already having 16 million subscribers, Netflix will now have its own button on remote controls for  Blu-Ray players, TVs and other electronic appliances that are connected to the internet. Brands like Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and more will be on board with the new button. The button displaying the Netflix logo will give people instant access to stream movies as well as several popular TV shows from ABC that were added last month.

Start 2011 off right! Here are some financial tips to get your finances back in order.

1. Get your credit score and report: Knowing your credit score can help you check for inaccuracies on your credit report. A higher credit score will get you lower rates on loans and credit cards.
2. Get Organized: Knowing where all your bills and bank statements are can help you keep track of your spending and saving.
3. Track spending: Track all spending for 30 days. Evaluate and see where you can cut spend, such as eating out less.
4. Do an insurance checkup: Meet with your current provider and see if the converge you have is really what you need. Find our about loyalty discounts and good driving perks.

These simple tips can help you get your finances back in order!

Leadpile offers many great financial offers such as Credit Score and Bankruptcy. Contact us today for info on our affiliate programs and offers!