Leadpile’s Blog

The auto makers have been in the news lately with the Toyota recall, and now some positive news from Ford. A couple negative years of profits seems to have come to an end with Ford Motor Company. MSNBC is reporting that Ford actually had a profit of 2.9billion dollars for 2009. That’s HUGE for an industry that has had so many struggles. Ford avoided bankruptcy, unlike it’s US competitors, so how did they squeeze out a profit for 2009? It seems that the Ford Credit division helped the overall bottom line.
One thing I hope continues to move in the right direction, and that is people continue to still look to purchase cars… and more importantly they go online!

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!

Sad news in the auto finance industry today….. Cash For Clunkers will end today. This program has fueled great success in our nation’s dealerships, however that is ending today. I am curious to see the reported end results of this short lived program and see if this is something that be continued on in the future. Ask the dealerships and they say that this brought people into their dealerships that would never have come. Ask consumers and they say this was great because they earned more money for their cars, than they ever would without the program. Ask the government and they say???????
This program we know has brought more traffic to the online auto finance industry, and Leadpile loves the idea of this. Can we all say “let’s keep Cash for Clunkers” going?

In an effort to boost some new car sales, GM has teamed up with the online shopping marketplace eBay. Previously, eBay was a place you could purchase a car, however purchasing a brand new car was not necessarily available. The NY Times is reporting, “The venture will involve about 225 dealerships in California at first, but G.M. hopes to expand it nationally as soon as September.” Hopefully, in combination with the Cash For Clunkers program and this sort of exposure, GM will see some positive things happening. Many reports are showing that the Cash For Clunkers program has allowed more auto finance traffic to start coming in to lead generators. If that is the case, hopefully we will see a high acceptance of this lead type by our buyers.

We all have been hearing a lot in the news about a new government bill (CARS) that allows us to turn in our low mileage “clunkers” for cash. The unfortunate thing is is that there are a lot of “unofficial” websites that have come out to try and mirror this program.
The official website where you can obtain more information about this program is at: http://www.cars.gov/.
The specifics about the program are:
Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date
Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify
Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)
Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in
You don’t need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase
Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle, and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.

So be aware of other websites or programs that are not the official government program.

It’s been a really bad year for many industries, however the auto finance industry has got to be one of the worst hit. GM has been hit really hard this year with a bankruptcy, and was forced to become a recipient of government bailout money. However, this second half of the year might prove to be a little happier for GM with the roll out of the new Camaro. What little boy (or girl) did not have aspirations of having one of these cars, but never could?
NPR news is reporting that there has been 15,000 of these beauties already sold and 13,000 on back order, but is carefully manufacturing these cars in a timely manner so there does not become a higher supply than demand. So maybe all this buzz will ignite some other auto sales so we can get this auto finance industry going in the right direction! Good luck GM!

Lately it seems to be a dog-eat-dog world with all our search engines trying to get the biggest piece of the search engine “puzzle”. Yesterday I spoke about search engines and the need to bring new things to the table in order to stay competitive with other search engines. Ask.com is one of those search engines that is offering a unique service that other search engines are not offering. For instance, Ask.com is great for longer questions you want answered versus entering them in a standard Google search, and having to filter through all the results. Comscore reports that Ask.com’s ranking rose from 10th place to now 6th place, compared to other properties such as eBay and Facebook (in May based on unique users). This explains why a lot of Leadpile publishers are using this search engine to generate traffic to their payday loan, debt, auto finance, online education and other websites. Just like search engines trying to do something different to attract users, affiliate marketing and lead generators have to think of unique ways to generate traffic to their properties. Ask.com seems to be a good option to consider. It appears that others think so too, and that’s why their rankings seem to be headed in the right direction. Another GREAT alternative to the Google BEAST!

Is there really a good time to capture email addresses and other secure information from consumers that are visiting your website(s)? Bizreport.com thinks there is an optimal time to get the consumer to provide their email addresses, when doing their online shopping (or other online activities). So, when is an ideal time to capture this sort of information from the consumer?? The report says, “At the highest engagement level, and most times this is at the point of purchase or while consumers are beginning to shop your site. .” Why is this? Capturing this sort of information creates more customer loyalty. If you want the customers to come back to your site, or eventually react to future emails you send them, they have to trust you and the site. The report also found that since mobile marketing (SMS marketing)is so popular right now, capturing their email addresses to send them mobile updates is something a lot of consumers are open to.
These sort of rules also apply to other online experiences, such as lead generation. For instance, Leadpile captures email addresses on all it’s leads, however there are some lead types such as payday loan and auto finance where additional secure information is captured. Capturing this information at the right time is certainly key to the trust factor with the consumer submitting online requests for things such as loans.

Most people can remember their first car. The big question now is how to afford one? The answer is quite simple: An Auto Loan. An auto loan, also known as auto finance, is the way most Americans buy a new car.

As far as auto loans are concerned, LeadPile’s Auto Loan Leads have been the standard for years. Auto Loans come in may shapes and sizes including shorter term loans (these have higher monthly payments, but in the end, one has actually paid less because they will not have accrued as much interest) and longer term loans (these have lower monthly payments normally repayable in a period of up to 5 years or more.

The Internet is one sure way many people secure an auto loan. In some cases auto loans can be given to people with less than perfect credit. Like any other loans, car loans have variable interest rates depending on a number of factors. It is best to compare rates with various auto finance companies so that you can compare wisely.

Since the Internet is used so much by people seeking an auto loan, LeadPile has become the place for auto finance companies and dealerships to buy auto loan leads.

We all know payday loans don’t exactly have the best image, however there are a need for them in certain situations. I came across this article on personalmoneystore.com, discussing a very interesting type of loan. This “automobile down payment loan” is said to be a loan that no credit check is performed, and there is no collateral securing this loan. However, after reading more about this, I thought this reminded me of a payday loan, but with a different name.

We all know lending requirements have gotten a lot more strict, however consumers still need to pay close attention to the specifics of any money they are getting. Don’t get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing that consumers should not look at. However, maybe the key to getting a more positive image on the payday loan industry is to put different “names” on the loans. Leadpile will keep an eye out for any other names we identify as a payday loan.

Hyundai started the trend and now GM and Ford are jumping on the bandwagon. These automakers have rolled out new “job loss” protection plans for those looking to purchase a car. According to The Washington Post, “U.S. automobile sales are barely running above an annualized pace of 9 million this year. By comparison, car companies in recent years have sold 16 million to 17 million vehicles. Analysts say the sharp drop suggests that Americans have grown so reluctant to buy new cars that they are even holding back on replacing vehicles that have been in accidents or no longer run.” GM’s job loss plan would cover up to nine car payments of $500 each for customers who lose their jobs, and Ford is offering payments of up to $700 for 12 months.
I am not sure of the specific details of these plans and what sort of “criteria” they set, however this is a positive for those that were a little reluctant on buying a new car. With a little (or lot) of government help, and these sorts of plans being rolled out, maybe there is some chance the auto industry can get back on it’s feet????? Leadpile Lead Exchange is excited about the possibility that there might be some light at the end of this very loooooooong tunnel.

Having so much negativeness about the auto finance industry, I thought I would shed some light on it.  In recent news, there was a car manufactured by Ratan Tata, which costs $2000!  Tata Motors is the largest automaker in India, and has finally rolled out the much anticipated Nano.
Business Week states that Tata Motors is going to be doing a lottery to determine who will be able to buy the first Nano cars. Experts are keeping an eye on Tata Motors (parent company is Tata Group) and if this is really going to be bringing in some additional revenue for the company. Because of the low low price, experts don’t plan on this initial roll out to produce high profits for the auto maker. Tata Motors recently payed just over $2.3 billion for Jaguar and Land Rover. Let’s see if this car price and size sparks an interest with the US auto makers, who seem to already have an eye on creating their own version.
The auto finance industry is an industry Leadpile Lead Exchange is always keeping an eye on, and possibly something like this can spark some interest in consumers going out to purchase cars again… that is if you think you can fit in a little car like this? ummmmmmmm?