Leadpile’s Blog

Many of you may be thinking that I am crazy saying that there are benefits to the H1N1 virus. Getting the flu may not be fun, but if you are are in the business of household personal care items, you could not be happier. Brands such as Johnson & Johnson have been seeing a large increase in sales on many of their germ killing products. Purell hand sanitizer, Clorox, and cold medicine are just a few of their germ products that people are reaching to. Just looking around the office I can see all three of the above products with people using them constantly. With that being said, it comes to no surprise that in October along with Johnson & Johnson saw at 10.7% sales increase. That was the larger increase among all companies in this market.
People are going to do whatever it takes to not get sick, if that means buying a bottle of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes a week, they are going to do it (at least until the H1N1 virus subsides). If you are a marketing there is no reason why you should not be taking full advantage of this. Especially since we are still in a “recession”, having the biggest sale increase for that market is amazing. For all you green enthusiast who do not want to get sick and do not want to hurt the environment, there is a whole line of environmental friendly disinfectant products. Whatever the case may be, it definitely pays to work with what is out there and target what people are buzzing about.

95 percent of college students between the age of 18-24 use some form of social networking. That is defiantly not a surprising statistic. What is more surprising is that the students who are involved in using social networking tools, which includes texting and instant messaging, are more apt to learn. This is because many of the students are using the different social networking tools to network with their teachers/classmates for academic help. It makes for a quick and easy way to get the answers or information that a student needs. This could help increase the performance of the students because they have all their resources right at their fingertips.
I know when I was in college a few years ago, I found texting and social networking tools such as Facebook, to be a huge help. Not only with talking to my teachers on chat, but talking to other students as well. It was a great way to get informed on a class that I may have missed, so that I did not fall behind. It was also extremely helpful for online classes because you can get into chats and discuss as a group what is going on in the class and hear different perceptions on a single topic.
Online classes and community college is also a great way to advance yourself. Everyday LeadPile matches people who are interested in advancing their degree with the right college program. By taking online classes and using some forms of social media, being involved in your studies may be much more beneficial than you may have thought.

FDIC has rolled out some new programs for consumers. Some selected banks feel that low to moderate income consumers don’t have enough options. Therefore, some banks that are participating in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp programs are offering some “special” types of loans to consumers. These loans are for those that don’t necessarily have good credit (because their credit is not pulled) and are not able to get a standard type of short term loan. Wallstreet Journal Online is reporting this great news for some consumers that are not able to get quick cash and are considered “under-banked”.
Some statements that some might question are comments such as, “Fees and interest paid to payday lenders and banks for overdraft protection contribute to a larger problem for low-income individuals–those types of loans don’t help build credit scores.” Are even some banks now trying to come up with programs that compete with the payday loan, and are they really trying to find some alternative options for consumers? I guess we will never know, but the one great thing is we are seeing some alternatives being offered to our nation’s consumers that need short term cash. This is exciting for Leadpile to see, and hopes all other banks will follow.

Canada is no longer an out of the way market that U.S companies do not want to do business with. Many of the hot Canadian companies are all coming together to try to sell themselves. These agencies are going to be traveling around the United States to show marketers that cities like Montreal and Quebec are the ideal new hot spot for market testing. Why is this? According to adage.com, “its language barrier prevents much outside media from seeping in, and vice versa — makes it an ideal place for U.S.-based marketers to experiment with new ideas and approaches before rolling them out to wider audiences.”
Several larger companies such as MasterCard and Mazda are way ahead of the game and have been utilizing Canada as a test market for several years now, both with great success. By testing in a smaller market with a smaller budget, marketers are able to see what works and what does not with out throwing their whole budget out the door. This also allows companies to try a more “out of the box” method.
LeadPile is a head of the game when it comes to working in Canada. Currently we are generating Canadian payday leads in Ontario. We are finding great success generating leads in Ontario and have plans to expand to some of the other Canadian markets.

In recent news, there are new payday lending laws in British Coumbia Canada. With these new regulations there are caps on interest rates and rules prohibiting predatory lending.

B.C.’s Business Practices and Consumer Protection (Payday Loans) Amendment Act and the Payday Loans regulation prohibit lenders, including phone and Internet lenders, from:

· Practices that unreasonably increase the borrower’s debt load, including rollovers that require borrowers to pay significant extra fees for extending the time to pay a loan.

· Requesting an assignment of wages, or collecting from a borrower’s employer.

· Operating unless licensed by Consumer Protection B.C.

Leadpile Lead Exchange has recently started generating payday loan leads in Canada, and is very much concerned with any legislation that is going on there. Just like US payday loans, we know that payday loans can be a much needed loan for many consumers. We will continue to try and match these consumers that need these short term loans, with those that can provide it to the consumer.

Payday loans are something that we discuss a lot on this blog, and are happy to let our readers know that we are expanding our payday loan/cash advance market into Canada. There was a high enough demand to warrant Leadpile to venture into this fairly unsaturated market. We are proud to be able to help those in Canada get connected with those lenders that want to provide them with one of these short term loans. If you are already a Leadpile publisher, you can access this new offer in your seller account. If you are not currently a part of the Leadpile Marketplace, contact us immediately!!! We look forward to this great new market that we are now venturing into!

Payday loans get a bad name, but are a necessary option for many individuals. Recently there has been a lot of bad press about payday loans and the high interest rates that are associated with them, however not all is bad about these loans. Payday loans help many people in tough times, times when they have no other option or places to turn.

According to Online PR News , a recent study shows that people living in states that currently have banned payday loans, turn to more desperate measures having far worse long term effects on the individuals financial standing. Over drafting accounts and bouncing checks is not a better option.

The benefits that payday loans can bring are enormous, allowing people to get help in times of need. At LeadPile, we generate thousands of payday loan leads and match these leads up with payday loan companies able to help them get through what they are dealing with. Payday loans are an asset, and are necessary in today’s economy.

Payday loan providers know that this the big season is just around the corner for them and they are willing to put in a fight to make sure that no one interferes with that. Every state has their own rules and regulations when it comes to getting a payday loans. One thing that they all have in common is that they all have interest rate caps, all except for Wisconsin that is. Currently, “Wisconsin remains the only state in the nation that doesn’t regulate an industry that lends money for two weeks at a time, frequently extends balances for big fees, and winds up getting as much as 520 percent interest on its loans.”
Payday loans are meant to provide individuals with fast cash and it is expected to be paid back fast as well. They are not meant to be used time and time again, but rather as a one time quick fix. There only becomes an issue when the consumer takes out loan after loan that they know that they will not be able to pay back in a timely manner.
So would a interest cap rate hurt or help the payday loan industry of Wisconsin? In most cases it would probably stay neutral. Many lenders believe that it would create more bounced checks where in fact, if they were to just look at statistical data from other state lenders, they would see how there was not an increase in bounced checks.

OLA (Online Lenders Alliance) is an organization that has been around since 2005 representing the online lending industry. Leadpile is a proud sponsor at this year’s fall conference in Colorado Springs, CO. Attending and sponsoring such an event, allows us to be amongst others that are working on initiatives to help build the payday loan industry in a positive manner. This upcoming conference will be a great opportunity for Leadpile to meet with those that we are working with now, and those that we can potentially team up with in the near future. We look forward to meeting everyone at the conference!

There seems to be some momentum brewing in the auto industry. We all saw some positive response to the Cash For Clunkers program, and it appears there might be some light at the end of the tunnel with the auto finance industry. Leadpile has written about the increase in bankruptcies and the housing market still struggling, however there seems to be some little signs that people might be starting to look again for cars. This could be great news for consumers, dealerships, and and the lead generation industry who has seen some stagnant volume of leads coming in.

Recent conversations that I have been having with affiliates, indicates that there might be that demand again for the auto finance leads. This is potentially exciting news for Leadpile because now we can reach out to our publishers to bring in this lead type. Leadpile publishers can drive traffic to our auto finance offers, place a Microclick form on their website(s), use banners or do a host and post.
Let’s all cross our fingers that this is the beginning of the end of our struggling auto finance industry. If it is any indication by all the Ford commercials that are playing on our televisions, this industry it coming back!

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.