With tough times even in the internet business world, businesses must find effective ways to generate new business. Companies need to see results from their money spent on advertising, so many choose to invest in lead generation.
Businesses could spend an infinite amount of money on PPC and not know what the result could be. Businesses could spend undefined amounts of money on hiring someone to do SEO.
Businesses could purchase “lists” and cross your fingers there will be a response rate that is acceptable.
OR
Businesses can look at lead generation (CPL), where each lead you purchase is a defined person who is interested in their product. There are various ways lead generation companies are generating leads. For example, leads can be generated from things such as surveys or incentives. However, these are not always going to be as targeted of leads, because consumers could be looking at it like what is in it for them? Unlike some other lead generation companies, Leadpile Lead Exchange is working with ONLY consumers who are opting in for a particular product of service. This end result means a lot more targeted consumer,  and a much bigger chance the lead will convert to an actual sale.  What should businesses choose?
Marketing dollars are down, so this requires a strict focus on making the most out of what you spend on marketing. Businesses can’t afford to pay for random non targeted ads, unopened e-mails or wasted clicks. CPL pricing models allow businesses to get returns on every advertising dollar they spend.  Tough times are not just affecting consumers, it is affecting businesses all over the world.  Businesses are fighting over every last potential sale because they are becoming far and few between!

First, I would like to say congratulations to our next president of the United States. No matter who everyone voted for, we are all keeping an eye on how the future of our struggling America pans out.  Secondly, there was something that America should really pay attention to, and that is an amazing effect the internet had on the election of our 44th president.
The internet AND social networking tools contributed to the Barack Obama being elected. According to businessstandard.com,“Obama, on his part, has refined the digital act further — a fact revealed during his presidential announcement speech in Springfield last October when he said: “Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age…” A few examples of this being implemented, was in the case where almost 300,000 people created accounts on the barackobama.com website, he became the first YouTube politician, got involved on Facebook, MySpace, text messaging and all other avenues of the internet for fund raising and party awareness.
Another interesting aspect in this presidential campaign was, “Obama has proposed the creation of the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure that the American government and all its agencies have the right infrastructure, policies and services for the 21st century. The CTO will have a specific focus on transparency, by ensuring that each arm of the federal government makes its records open and accessible as the e-government Act requires. The CTO will also ensure technological interoperability of key government functions”, according to Business Standard.
No matter who was elected, the excitement of the internet and the power it can have also excited Leadpile Lead Exchange. We are in it for the long hall on wherever this great internet craze LEADS us!

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Partnering up with Revupcard is going to make getting paid commissions that much easier for our Leadpile sellers!

Exchanges, marketplace, networks, lead providers, lead generators or all the above are places any advertiser/lead buyer can purchase leads.  How ever or where ever you get your leads, there are going to be variations in the conversions you have as a advertiser.  Why is this?  One large factor is the end user- the person/company that purchases the lead has a major affect on how well purchased leads convert.

A recent article on Lead Market Watch brought up some good points about lead buyers providing performance data to the lead provider. As a lead buyer, you want to get the most amount of leads at the least amount of cost to your company. Also, having the highest conversions to sales with the least amount of money invested in these leads is very important. Therefore, would you be cutting off your own feet if you provided how the leads are specifically performing to the company that provided them to you? When things aren’t going so well, the natural thing to do is always complain and express that. However, should you tell the lead company what the results of these leads was, in order to provide them with specific information on the lead providers bringing in the leads? Would providing this information eventually promote the exhange/network etc to increase the cost per lead if they are seeing the specific success you are having? These are a lot of tough questions that I am sure have a lot of different opinions on.
Here are Leadpile Lead Exhange we welcome lead buyers to provide conversions to us and also any potential issues with the leads. The more information we have on the leads the more we can help the next guy that is wanting to buy leads from us.
On a side note, each buyer of leads is going to have different ways of working leads they purchase. Knowing that, it is hard to actually compare apples to apples with leads. Knowing overall specifics of the leads and the companies buying them, will also help us to see any sort of consistancy on that lead type.
Some other questions lead providers might be curious to know are:
1. How long is your sales cycle?
2. How quickly do you call the leads you purchase?
3. How many times to you call the leads?
4. How many leads does it take for your company to get an application?
5. How many applications does it take for you to get a sale?
6. Approximately what kind of cost/fees does the customer absord for your service?
This information can be very helpful to any company that is providing leads, however there could be some information that is just not something that the lead buyers want to provide.

   Well it is that time again, Ad-tech New York is happening in a little over a week, and it will be represented by all the top advertisers in the country. This conference has been around for more than 10 years bringing together media, marketing and technical professions. According to ad-tech.com, “As the digitization of media continually redefines the business of marketing, it is ad:tech’s mission to provide brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers an unparalleled forum – one that supports the exchange of ideas, experiences, new practices, emerging models and expert opinion.”

Leadpile Lead Exchange will be attending the conference. This conference allows businesses to meet current partners and also look at setting up new partnerships. We look forward to seeing old faces and new faces. If you are planning on being there, we would love to see you! Let us know!
Leadpile would also like to say thanks to all the affiliates we are currently working with, and those that come on board with this Brilliant Lead Exchange!

We all know what is going on with the economy and how it is affecting the auto industry. However, yesterday MSNBC stated that Michigan (home of GM, Ford, and Chrysler) lawmakers are reaching out to the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and our nation’s treasury secretary to help loosen up the credit requirements. This is in hopes that something can be passed with regards to the 700 billion dollar bailout. Lawmakers are concerned the status of the economy is going to cripple our auto industry.

The sad part about this is the lawmakers are estimating at a reduction in car sales by almost 30%. They estimate this could drive car sales down to roughly 11 million vehicles sold per year, and this is lowest figure since 1983. At this point, having lawmakers step in might be a good idea to help to prevent a bad situation from becoming devastating to the auto industry.
This sort of drop in demand by consumers wanting a new car, is also affecting the lead volume in our marketplace. Our goal is to still capture those consumers that need and want a car in this tough economy.

Running an effective business you now have to have a website to help promote it worldwide. However, creating a good website is not enough, you have to have it promoted in the internet’s search engines. This is something easier said than done. Creating a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is very important on getting that desired traffic to your website. I thought this was a good basic article about some things to really pay attention to.

1. Most prospects to your website will be coming from search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask etc).
2. Well known search engines work the best.
3. Most prospects use phrases, not single words, to do a search on the search engines.
4. Track the prospects experience on your website.
5. Optimize using more than just one search engine.
6. Check and analyze the results of your tracking/reporting.
7. Use results from tracking to update your site where needed.
8. Prospects rarely go beyond the first or second page of in the search engine results. Work to get on those pages in order to benefit from your SEO strategy.
9. Keyword density is a major part of the ranking of your website.
10. Successful keyword placement.

Having our website, and our publisher’s websites, ranked high in the search engines is key to getting the traffic to get leads. Leadpile Lead Exchange believes quantity is not necessarily the key to success, but quality is.

Ford is stepping up and taking action to assist parents in controlling the speed when their teenager are behind the wheel. Teenagers account for a large percentage of car accidents, mainly due to speeding.  Ford has just introduced a new feature called “My Key”.  My Key will play a major role in decreasing potential car accidents caused by teenagers. 
Parents will be able to limit teen drivers to a speed of 80mph, using a computer chip on the key. Parents also have the option of controlling the stereo volume, which has been known to also distract teen drivers.  In addition, there is a programable chip that can be installed to set off a six second chime, if the driver is not wearing their seat-belt.  Parents can even instruct to set up an annoying chime that will keep going off if they go over 45, 55, or 65mph. Safety first!  
My Key will be rolled out in the summer of 2010 in both cars and trucks.  It will debut in the new 2010 Ford Focus, but also become a part of both Lincoln and Mercury models. 

Ford will get a lot of attention with the My Key.  I’m sure it will quickly spread across other recognized brands.  Smart move for Ford to lead the pack on targeting safety and teens. Teens of course are not thrilled, but overall it’s a great feature that Ford created to promote safety.
What do you think about this new My Key? Is it a thumbs up or thumbs down? 

In recent news, GMAC announced it would only offer auto loans to consumers with a credit score of 700+. According to Reuters.com, GMAC is only wanting to extend credit to those with good credit, and is also saying it will be doing more shorter term loans. This is in direct response to the economy and what is happening to the auto industry. GMAC expects these changes to remain in place until the economy stabilizes. In addition to these changes that are affecting consumers, GMAC says, “it has increased the rate it charges car dealers for providing standard auto financing by 75 basis points.” Therefore, this is not only affecting the consumer who is getting the car, but also those that are selling the cars.
Leadpile Lead Exchange works a lot with auto finance and car purchase leads. Situations like this, in the lending world, are going to affect the average “joe” who buys a car. This is where the auto finance lead type could become more demanded because generally you are talking about consumers that don’t have the perfect credit like GMAC is wanting. These consumers still need funding and there are still options out there for them, even though their credit is not “perfect”. Those dealers being affected by the GMAC decision should look at joining our lead exchange. We have the ability to connect you with consumers that are looking for a car and want it now.

In today’s world there are many things that have changed in a advertising sense. One of the largest changes that has happened is in the way in which advertisers advertise towards women. There are more women in the career role, running a business and buying high priced items for their home. I found this article on Phoenix Business Journal very interesting. For instance, they stated:

*Women business owners spend $1.5 trillion on business purchases.
*In today’s world, age is less important than life stage, e.g., 60-year-old women are dating, 50-year-olds are starting new careers and 40-year-olds are having children.
*Women purchase (or influence the purchase of) 85 percent of all consumer goods including automobiles, investments and computers, which were traditionally viewed as male-domain items.
*Advertising that makes a woman feel uncomfortable about her looks or health will have a hard time reaching an audience willing to purchase its product.

More businesses are realizing these facts and starting to adjust how they market their products online, through television, and print media. In previous years, selling your product or service was something you had to appeal to a man, however as we can see things are changing.
With the Leadpile Lead Exchange we deal with all sorts of lead types and all sorts of demographics of consumers and advertisers. The key for our marketplace to be effective is not only diversify what lead types we are working with, but also understand that publishers doing effective marketing to generate the leads is really important. To do effective lead generation, you must know details about the product and service you are generating leads for, AND you must understand who are the potential people you need to attract in this market.

Ever wonder what search engine terms are used the most? I know I do, and search terms also tell a little bit about what is going on in the world around us. According to dmconfidential, eBay gets the award for the top terms (eBay and eBay.com)in the month of August. People trying to find bargains, or sell items they have I would say is partially responsible for this. Home depot was the next highest term used, followed by mapquest. The shopping/office supplies category received 43.15% of all paid search traffic. The fortunate thing is that this is an 8% increase from July’s 39.81%. Maybe people are staying home and doing more of their shopping online to try and get the best deal, without driving store to store. Business telecommunications and pharmaceutical & medical traffic was slightly up. However, travel and business/legal traffic was down for the month of August.
Another interesting fact, yet not surprising, is that Google accounted for 71% of all US searches in the month of August. In a distant second place was Yahoo with 18.26% followed by MSN (5.32%) and Ask (3.45%).
To truly be effective with lead generation, knowing this kind of information and detailed information about the verticals you are promoting is key to being successful. For instance, someone who is doing PPC for payday loan will loose a lot of money if they are not first aware of everything there is to know about payday loans, and also if they do not understand search engines.
Here at Leadpile, I am going to do everything I can to help publishers know what buyers are maybe looking for in a particular lead type. This helps with how the traffic is driven to the website and ultimately helps with conversions and payouts. Communication with your affiliate manager or account manger is key to running a successful lead generation campaign.

With all the demand for autos to become more eco-friendly, high performance AND attractive looking, Tesla Motors feels like they have what people are maybe looking for. This high demanded car is the Tesla Roadster. The battery operated car is a 2 seater sports car that you can customize fully. Unfortunately, the price tag is not affordable to most consumers at $109,000. According to their website, there is a 12 month wait to get one built. Their goal is to roll out a 4 door sedan at around $60, 000, which is much higher then the GM’s sedan (Volt)they will be rolling out in 2010. GM is estimating the cost of their battery operated sedan to be around $40,000. I will say there is a very interesting fact about the chairman of Tesla Motors, and that is that he was the co-founder of Paypal. Time will tell if this Silicon Valley start-up can get the auto world headed in the right direction towards a more eco-friendly world.
Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a lot of auto finance leads. Unfortunately, I am not sure we are going to come across advertisers/dealers in our marketplace able to provide this new beauty…..yet. However, we do welcome any company able to generate auto finance leads!