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Obama Names A National Cyber Security Chief

Mari Holt — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:05:47 +0000

After months and months of talking about naming someone to help with our nation’s cyber security, the White House has finally named someone to run this very important division. This past week, they named Howard A. Schmidt as the National Cyber Security Chief. Schmidt is bringing some attractive experience with him, with having worked for eBay and Microsoft.
So the question is what is someone like this going to do to help with cyber security? This sort of position is not something that any other president has appointed, so what will he be doing? The one thing we do know is that the computer systems of the US government need watching, but what about the watching over of the whole technology world that is currently exploding?
Either way, this gentlemen seems to have some history under his belt to help with the US government’s computer systems and hopefully any threats to the our nations cyber world. Time will tell exactly what this new role will be responsible for, however I am sure it is a position that will be constantly evolving with what is going on in Cyber world!

Wal-Mart Opens Walmart Marketplace

Mari Holt — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:25:32 +0000

We all know how successful Wal-Mart has been in retailing. No matter what is going on with the economy, Wal-Mart has found a way to be successful. Well, it now appears they are getting aggressive on the internet as well.

In the past, Wal-Mart has had many of their products for sale via their Web site. Today, they announced they have added almost one million new items from outside sellers to their Web site.

The Walmart Marketplace has many product categories, and the retailer chose companies based on their product assortment and customer service. Orders will be placed on walmart.com, and will be managed and supported by the chosen retailer. Wal-Mart will take care of the shipping, handling, and customer service.

Needless to say, Wal-Mart has had great success, and it is safe to say that companies like Amazon and eBay will pay close attention to Wal-Mart’s activities. Can Wal-Mart have the same impact on the internet as they have had on smaller retail stores? Stay tuned.

GM & eBay Team Up To Sell Some Cars!

Mari Holt — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:57:19 +0000

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.

Ask.com: Is Staying In The Search Game

Mari Holt — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:04:25 +0000

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!

Bye Bye Newspaper Classifieds…. Hello Ebay Local Classifieds

Mari Holt — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:23:46 +0000

Everyone knows eBay for it’s marketplace of buyers and sellers of all sorts of items. Leadpile Lead Exchange often times refers to itself as the “eBay” of leads. However, there is no affiliation to one another, yet many people know the concept of how eBay works and is considered a household name.

This household name is now expanding it’s portfolio of services it provides. Ebay Motors is a division of eBay that provides a directory of automobiles. According to DMNews, eBay Motors has now launched an online classified section. This will allow sellers of automobiles to be connected with the buyers locally. The article goes on to state, “The new listing option is designed to connect car buyers and sellers within a 100-mile radius of their local market, and is being offered free through an initial promotional period ending July 15.” Pre-internet consumers utilized local newspapers to find a car, however this new enhancement of eBay motors will mirror that old school classified section, but be on your computer. According to eBay, eBay Motors has 12 million monthly unique visitors, and they sell a car every minute. I guess this really means bye bye newspaper classifieds?

In addition to eBay Motors, eBay has a family of websites such as rent.com, half.com, kijiji.com, paypal.com, prostores.com and shopping.com.

Understanding Search Engine Traffic

Mari Holt — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:21:31 +0000

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.

Home Sells For $1.75 on Ebay!

Mari Holt — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:24:52 +0000

I could not believe my eyes when I saw this article on Yahoo. According to the Associated Press, a Michigan home sold to a women for $1.75 on Ebay. There were 8 others that had a bid on this home, however this Chicago women won out with her under $2.00 bid. It appears there is some work to be done on the home and some back taxes, however no matter how you look at it, it is a GREAT deal.
The sad thing in all this is that someone lived in this home and unfortunately lost their home. The women that purchased the home has not even seen the home, and has no intentions on living there. With what is happening in today’s economy, this is bound to be happening more. At one point or another hopefully Ebay will be more known for it’s bid environment on products, not homes. Time shall tell.
Leadpile Lead Exchange is also a bid environment where we match the buyers and sellers of leads. Fortunately, we will not be matching up someone who lost their home to a buyer for $1.75.

Jet Blue Auctions Flight Fares On Ebay

Mari Holt — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:37:36 +0000

Jet Blue Airlines has rolled out a new innovative way to try and sell some flight fares. According to Fox News, Jet Blue Airlines will be auctioning off 300 roundtrip tickets and 6 vacation packages on Ebay this weekend. The bids start as low as .05 cents, however they anticipate the ending price will be valued at 85%-90% of the actual value of the flight. Is this for real?

They are looking at promoting cheap flights, but looking at earning the actual value. What would happen if this goes sour? Can you imagine three dollar flights being sold? Jet Blue Airlines is pretty brave to initiate a marketing technique of this nature. The Marketing Director is probably getting a pat on the back for this one. Pretty impressive if all goes well!

I’m curious to see the end results. I’ll keep you updated!

Counterfeit products being sold on EBAY?

Mari Holt — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:52:33 +0000

There was a recent ruling in favor or Ebay regarding products that are being sold on it’s site. Tiffany & Co. and other retailers are having issues with counterfeit vendors. This brings up a very important point about the internet and the ability for really anyone to commit fraud. Places like Ebay have implemented procedure to catch those that are out to make a quick buck on “fake” products, however is there really any 100% way to keep out the bad guys?
Any online company is going to face this sort of fraud, but really is there is way to prevent it?
Do cases like the ones with Tiffany & Company and Louis Vuitton with Ebay open our eyes to online marketplaces bringing together clients? Is there any responsibility of the website owner in regards to who is occupying its marketplace?
According to the New York Times, “The verdict reaffirms that Internet companies do not have to actively filter their sites for trademarked material. Rather, they can rely on intellectual property holders to monitor their sites, as long as they promptly remove material when rights holders complain.” I would say this sort of scenario is something that will eventually need to be regulated to protect the consumers that are buying products, on these sort of websites. However, how can you really control it when the actual products are not going through the hands of the actual website owner? Buyers be aware!”
Companies like Leadpile Lead Exchange is a marketplace of buyers and sellers of leads, however we implement every little precautionary measure, to prevent any sort of fraud in our marketplace. However, nothing is 100% full proof. Companies and consumers need to be aware of who they are working with and where they are releasing their personal information to purchase items.

Newspapers becoming extinct?

Mari Holt — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:53:46 +0000

Is it possible that an age old tradition is going to go extinct? Looks like there might be some truth to this.
According to NBC Nightly News and MSNBC.com, the internet age is/has been taking over the print media world. Is that why there was a large reduction in staff at The Boston Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, and some other major newspaper recently? Yes, it is true, that our nation’s major newspapers are having to make some changes. These changes involve laying off staff, but also reorganizing the employees that still work there. For instance, reporters are now becoming online reporters and having to adjust how they report their stories, and how this story is presented online VS seeing it in print.
Believe it or not, this media change is also affecting the sports world and the real estate world for places like Chicago, IL. The Chicago Tribune has already put The Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field up for sale! Yep, America’s favorite pastime is also being affected by this internet craze. Maybe that means the next stadium is going to be called “Google Field”? So what really happened in newspaper world?
Some feel that when they will read something in a newspaper it is not “real-time”. Most Americans have a laptop or personal computer at their fingertips all day long. This makes it easy for someone to just do a search online to find out the latest news. Whereas the newspaper from this morning might have contained some HOT news, but it was HOT 8 hours ago.
Is that how everyone feels? Is everyone addicted to “googling” everything, and putting aside those daily newspapers that Fido chases from the newspaper boy? It appears there really is not much choice. News is keeping with the times, and getting more accessible to consumers is where it HAS to be.
Online media- what has it become? We all eat, drink and sleep the internet. Everything from our banking, purchasing products, searching directions, applying for loans, corresponding with peers at work, to rolling out of bed and opening up the laptop to see what the latest news is. Unfortunately, this brilliant world of the internet has caused some hardships in the newspaper world, however places like Ebay, Leadpile Lead Exchange, auto dealers, advertisers, Craigslist, and news websites have become a major part of the world’s new national pastime (and maybe Fido the dog can enjoy it with us too)!