Leadpile’s Blog

We are all used to typing in the URL of the domain that we want to go to, however there has been some recent changes to the “dot com” world. For many people writing an email in another language is common, but typing in a website name in another language was not anything that you could do. However, with the recent standard changes this could be a thing of the past. NPR reports that, “Over half of the 1.6 billion users of the Internet today are born in a language group that does not use Latin scripts.” By mid 2010, people will be able to have URLs in their native language, and not have to be in the standard Latin. This is exciting for many that are wanting to expand the URLs that are used, and create more opportunity for those that are not using the standard language in the URLs. We shall see how this change goes, considering the last change to domains was way back in 1996!

Ghosts and goblins are out, and kids are getting excited in anticipation for all the treats they are about to receive….. AND Leadpile Lead Marketplace is hoping everyone has a safe and exciting Halloween!

A little Halloween history from Wikipedia:
Halloween has origins in the ancient festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an), which is derived from Old Irish and means roughly “summer’s end”. This was a Gaelic festival celebrated mainly in Ireland and Scotland. However, similar festivals were held by other Celts – for example the festival of Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf) which was held by the ancient Britons.
Snap-Apple Night by Daniel Maclise showing a Halloween party in Blarney, Ireland, in 1832. The young children on the right bob for apples. A couple in the center play a variant, which involves retrieving an apple hanging from a string. The couples at left play divination games.

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”, and is sometimes regarded as the “Celtic New Year”.

The celebration has some elements of a festival of the dead. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

Fifteen years ago today the first banner advertisement was displayed on www.Hotwired.com. At the time there were only about two million internet uses in the United States and the only way of getting connected was through a slow dial up connection. When banners advertising was first introduced, many companies were very hesitant and weary about such advertisement. Some of the very first companies to sign on to this new way of advertising were MCI, Volvo, 1-800-Collect, and AT&T. The banner ads were a simple static image located at the top of a web page almost acting as the header. Some of the ads did not even have a call to action or show anywhere in the creative what the product being advertised was.
When it was discovered that an ad could be clicked on and have the consumer redirect to the page advertisers did not know what to think. Some loved it, and others not so much because they did not want to seem like they were being pushy. Volvo had their consumers who clicked on their ads be redirected to simple questionnaire about the Volvo they might be interested in.
Banner ads have come a great distance since 1994 when they first started to appear. No longer are they just static images with no call to action on the top of a web page. They now expand, float on the page, have movies/sound embedded, and even can have the user interact and play games within them. Whether the advertisers are just tracking impressions/CTR or are going the distance and tracking CPA/CPL, the ideas and possibilities seem endless for online advertising. I am sure that we are still at the tip of the iceburg with what we have seen so far. It will be very interesting to see what the next fifteen years will bring to online advertising. Leadpile will attempt to keep up with the innovative ideas of the online advertising world!

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.

Seeking services (lead generation) online, communicating with others (social networking), and reading the top news stories, is now all being conducted through everything EXCEPT our nation’s newspapers. In recent years, many newspapers realized this need for immediate information, therefore created an online version of their newspaper. Unfortunately, this scrambling did not prevent the potential elimination of alot of the newspapers. It’s a sad day in the newspaper world when NPR reports the fact that our nation’s newspaper circulation has dropped 10%, just in the past 6 months. Newspaper’s loss of revenue is largely caused by a decline in advertising dollars.
What does this mean to all of us? In many ways, it takes away an old tradition that many of our parents and grandparents have experienced their whole lives. More importantly, it takes away a source for all of us looking for reading material, jobs, coupons, store ads, obituaries, local and national news. The question is, where on the internet can we go to now for this sort of resource? This is something very difficult for one “website” to be able to provide, so I am not sure how we are all going to potentially survive without the irreplaceable newspaper?

Believe it or not, Apple iTunes might have some competition coming from some new/old players in town!
In recent news, rumors are rumbling about Google possibly getting into the music service business. Potentially, with search results there could be an opportunity to purchase music from your favorite artist. This is big for Google and possibly something Apple will need to worry about.
If it wasn’t enough having recent news about Google and music services, Facebook is now in the news for it’s interest in music sales too! This is no rumor because Facebook has already started selling music in it’s online gift store. This is great news with the idea of how innovative online companies are trying to be, however possibly a little nerve racking for the online music mogul- Apple iTunes. May the music race BEGIN!!!!

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!

It comes to no surprise that economist are saying that spending will be down this year for the holiday season and Halloween is no exception. Consumers are cutting their spending across the board this Halloween. From candy to costumes to decorations, it is predicted that consumers planning to celebrate the holiday this year will be down two percent. Even the pumpkin patches are taking a hit!
What is one market that thrives this holiday? The alcohol business, specifically Captain Morgan rum (number 2 in rum sales). Adults love Halloween just as much as the kids do and Captains realizes that. Their new slogan of, “Calling All Captains” is being pushed through several of the marketing verticals. They have made a huge push this season not only coming out with new television ads, but also three Halloween parties, and a photo content. According to Tom Herbst, Director of Marketing, “We feel like Captain Morgan sort of owns Halloween. No other brand markets as much as we do and sees the return from it…Halloween has always also had an adult component to it and when that adult component reached mainstream, we felt that this was an opportunity to jump on it and bring the unique Captain energy to it.”. This time of year is one of the busiest for the brand. With the captain always being in costume it makes sense that this is his time to shine. I am sure that there will even be many individuals who dress up as him for Halloween. So this Halloween when someone asks what you would like to drink, go for the Captain. Why you say? Because you and the Captain can make it happen.
It is amazing the effects a “captain” can have on a company’s marketing. Leadpile and all other companies I am sure wish we had a catchy mascot like the “captain” to spread our marketing message!

With Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn it is hard to keep up with the growing social media trends. Over the past couple of years there has been a steady incline in social media users that until recently did not appear to have any end in site.
According to Mashable “The Social Media Guide” Twitter and Facebook appear to be flattening while LinkedIn saw an increase in traffic of 5.68% for the month of September. LinkedIn also announced today that they have now reached over 50 million users. LinkedIn states that 50% of its user are currently based in the US, while 50% are international.
While Twitter and Facebook are expanding their focus and going off in many different directions to attract as many users as possible, LinkedIn has always had the same focus – to connect professionals to each other.
Personally, I have two Twitter accounts, a Facebook and a LinkedIn account…Each for a different purpose. For me, LinkedIn has become a way to stay in touch with former colleagues as well as connect with people who I would not necessarily want introduced into my personal life through pictures or comments on my Facebook or Twitter accounts.
It is all changing so quickly, and hard to keep up with! As soon as I grasp how to connect on one site, it seems like everyone has moved on to the next. Staying “trendy” with social media is a full time job, however Leadpile promises to keep up with the trends!

How many people actually back up any data they have on their cell phones or computers? The answer is probably not enough do. I don’t know about you, but if I even forget my cell phone at home I feel totally “naked” and can’t wait to have it in my possession once again. We have all become so dependent on our cell phones, and even our computers as a source for any and all information we need to function. Unfortunately, those that were carrying around a Sidekick phone, and had the Microsoft service (Specifically Danger Inc), had to deal with a horrible situation of having had all their data lost. This is something none of us want to experience. So how do we prevent this kind of thing from happening to us? Really there is not a 100% way to prevent this sort of thing from happening if your data is being stored elsewhere. I think the only thing any of us can really do is look into a service or specific software that can back up our data and everything else that we store on our phones. Let’s take a guess how many people that just lost their data on their Sidekicks, don’t learn from this hard lesson of backing up your data? Do we need to all go through some scary situation like this to learn the hard way? Hope not!!!