I’m not much of a frequent air traveler however, when I do travel – I don’t want to spend an extra $240 for bag fees on a roundtrip ticket.  Let me put it this way, I booked a ticket with a reputable, “I hope we won’t crash” airline to fly from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale 3 months ago.   I’ll tell you, I walked up to the counter to check in with my fiancé, handed out tickets to ticket agent, she started typing away and processing our tickets.  We’re so excited to get on the plane and jet to paradise (no, not Fort Lauderdale… The Bahamas) to check out our where we’re getting married in February and meet out wedding planner and all the fun stuff that comes along with that.

Back to the counter, the agent asked “will you be checking any bags today?”  Yes, we have 4 bags…  She then got a huge smile on her face, rubbed hands together and said,  “How would you like to pay for your bag fees, credit card or…?  (I swear she stared drooling out of the side of her mouth like she just got back from the dentist getting a cavity filled)  I cut her off and said, “what bag fees”?  Sir, to check your bags on this flight its $120, how would you like to pay for that?

I had a heart attack fell on the floor, starting convulsing… After I recovered from said heart attack, I calmed myself down, talked it out with my fiancé a bit, sucked it up and put the $120 on my credit card.

Now, we’re on the plane, I’ve started drinking already, granted it was only 10AM, but I needed something to help with the pain..

Our trip was great, had a fabulous time on the beach, relaxing for 6 days, enjoying the sunshine and each others company..

…Now the trip is over. Not yet ready to get back to reality, but will be nice to be home however.

We’re all set, packed up, called a cab to get us from the hotel..  Got to the airport, walked up to the ticket counter gave the very nice lady our tickets, she asked us, “Will you be checking any bags with us today?”  Yes, we will be checking 4 bags today.

The next words out of her mouth were the most unexpected words I would hear,  “That will be $120 or your bag fees, how would you like to pay for those today?”

Holy $*@#$% I feel another heart attack coming on…  I said to the lady behind the counter, I already paid for those in Phoenix. No Sir, I’m sorry, you only paid your bag fees for one way.  WHAT!!!!!  Are you kidding me??  I have to pay another $120 for bag fees??

Yes, that’s correct sir, how would you like to pay for that today?

At this point, I’m so frustrated I stared laughing in fear that I was going to do something stupid at the airport and end up in jail.

I gave her my credit card, ONCE AGAIN!!!  She ran the card and said, “thank you sir, I hope you have a wonderful flight”.  YEAH, WHATEVER LADY!!!

So after all of this, we were sitting on the plane, I said to my fiancé you know what, “we just paid $900 for roundtrip tickets that should have only cost us $650.

Again, I started drinking again, to ease the pain…

I have two words for every airline out there that charges bag fees… CON ARTIST!!

You may have to take out a PayDay Loan to pay your bag fees….

If you have a choice in choosing an airline that flies to your destination, I would recommend Southwest Airlines for your travels…

I hope you enjoyed this story. I still haven’t recovered from this completely. If anyone has recommendations on how to get through this, feel free to respond.

Safe travels everyone…

According to research conducted by ZenithOptimedia in 2010 over $64 Billion was spent in 2010 on online advertising. Over 64% of this revenue went to only five companies; Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Facebook, and AOL. You can see the graph below for the full breakdown showing the percentage that each controls.

With such a large percentage of the market being cornered by a small number of businesses where should smaller businesses be putting their online advertising budget? Marketing via social media seems to be a popular choice as businesses are starting to allocate more of their marketing budget in to this portion of online advertising. Facebook is already #4 on this list, how much and how quickly will they be taking over market share in online ad spending?

Gas prices have dropped nearly a cent daily for the past 4 weeks according to a recent survey. Some states coming in at $3.00 per gallon, while California is still hovering the $4.00 mark. A major factor in gas prices are state tax. California and New York have tax rates of nearly $.50 per gallon which keep overall prices inflated.

Two other factors in gas prices are proximity of refineries and how much people can afford to pay.

Hopefully with gas prices lowering consumers will be more likely to purchase new vehicles! Leadpile has high demand for Auto Finance leads with high payouts. Contact your account rep or support@leadpile.net today for details.

Sam Valenzuela, President of LeadPile

The demand to generate quality leads is a constant challenge for marketers. While 74% of marketers see generating high quality leads as their number one business challenge, LeadPile offers their customers just that–the highest quality leads. LeadPile is the premier online exclusive lead generation marketplace, and their commitment to quality and trust has earned them the title of one of the fastest growing companies in America.

LeadPile was created after recognizing a number of unfulfilled lead gen needs in the B2B sector, including the challenge of generating quality leads. By building their marketplace around balancing the needs of both lead buyers and sellers, LeadPile has grown into the largest online exclusive lead marketplace in the industry. Inc. Magazine has now ranked LeadPile as one of the fastest growing companies for a third consecutive year.

Currently lead gen is a top priority for 60% of marketers, which makes finding quality leads increasingly important. “Providing quality leads for our customers sits at the core of our vision,” said Sam Valenzuela, President of LeadPile. “A key ongoing objective is to develop processes that strengthen the quality of leads to bring real economic value to our clients.”

The future of lead quality lies within increasingly sophisticated segmentation, targeting and conversions.  LeadPile stands at the forefront of the lead gen industry by adapting marketplace features to meet changing market demands. Ultimately, it is the forward thinking approach to lead gen challenges that will continue to advance LeadPile as a leader in the industry.

ABOUT LEADPILE

LeadPile is the premier online lead marketplace for the B2B sector. LeadPile offers quality leads to buyers and sellers on a secure and centralized platform. Since 2009, Inc. Magazine has ranked LeadPile as one of the fastest growing companies in America. For more information about LeadPile, please visit LeadPile.com.

A new website has been created for Lending Season with new features and is targeted towards consumers with good credit, offering personal loans up to $35,000. In the current economy there are a lot of people in need of financing, and this includes people with high and low credit scores. Lending Season has created an option for consumers with good credit and giving them access to larger amounts of funding. These personal loans may be needed for home improvement projects, funding a small business, or a variety of other reasons that someone would need financing during these hard economic times. While Lending Season is targeting consumers with higher credit scores, it is understood that people with all types of financial backgrounds may be in need of extra financing. Lending Season also has options available for people with lower credit scores who would qualify for a short term cash advance. With the upgrades to the new website publishers are seeing much better results and higher EPCs  as we are seeing higher converting traffic from the site.

Your future business is determined by your current actions. The only thing we can control is what we do today. By taking care of your clients and their business when they need you most, you will have an open door for future opportunities. Never forget – clients come first. They are the reason for your success.

It is expected that Apple will announce today a new service called iCloud. The service is expected to allow consumers to store music online while transferring the data to their home PCs without connecting.

Apple has signed cloud-music licensing agreements with several music label recently that would allow consumers to stream music online while also downloading songs on iTunes.

The announcement is expected at 1pm set today at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Both Google and Amazon have launched similar services recently.

In efforts to further improve the iPhones, maufacurers are putting together a metallic glass to replace the current models. The metallic part would prevent the phone from cracking or breaking as easily, while the glass components still maintain the strength.
This used to be a very expensive process for manufacturers, making it difficult to produce high volume of these products. Thanks to recent technological advances, they have found a process that costs about the same as it does to produce plastic. Although there are no finalized plans yet, the idea is being entertained and may be a feature of the phone in the future making it much more durable and  without ridiculous prices.

By the end of the year San Francisco will be installing free electric vehicle charging stations at publicly owned garages and even at San Francisco International Airport. These 90 stations will be free of charge until 2013. By installing these stations San Fran hopes it will encourage residents to purchase more eco friendly cars and hopefully drive more people into the city. Owners of these vehicles can drop their cars off while they work or shop and return later to a fully charged car. These cars come with a high price tag, starting at $33,000, be prepared to pay even higher for a battery that hold a charge for longer then 100 miles.

Check out Leadpile’s Auto Finance offer today! Email support@leadpile.com.

Today marks a day in history 50 years ago when the first man , Yuri Gagarin went into space. He spent 108 minutes inside a small capsule orbiting over the earth before again landing back on Soviet land. Gagarin’s launch into space was the start of space exploration globally, leading the path for landing on the moon years later.

Short on cash? Check out these 5 ways to see if you have some forgotten money lying around.

1. Check the federal government’s savings bond database: Apparently there is more then $17 billion worth of Series E savings bonds that have never been redeemed. Check out the Treasury Department’s savings bonds website to see if you have any unclaimed savings bonds you might have received between 1941-1980.

2. Check the Banks: There’s a possibility you might have an old checking or savings account that you simply forgot about or thought you closed. You can check with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

3. Check with the FDIC: The FDIC protects your savings when a bank is in danger. If you can prove you had an account they will gladly return your assets.

4. Check with the IRS: Go online to the IRS website and click “Where’s My Refund” and you can check the status of any outstanding refunds after entering some basic personal information.

5. Check for unused gift cards: Many gift certificates don’t expire until 5 years from the purchase date. Take a look through your wallet or junk drawers and see what you come up with.

Leadpile is looking for additional Canada payday lenders and also publishers that can help us generate additional US and Canada payday loan traffic. If you are working in this industry, please reach out to us and we can get you up and going ASAP! Some of the main specifics we are looking for in the Canada payday loan leads are:
1. Customers that are employed
2. Customers that have a checking account
3. Customers that have direct deposit
4. Preferably customers that live in the providences of British Columbia, Alberta or Ontario