Last year, 57 million people hit the stores for Black Friday and even

more are expected to show up this year. The day following Thanksgiving has become one of the most popular times of the year for retailers to offer large discounts to customers, making about a third of retailer’s sales for the year. About 31 percent of households are predicted to shop on Black Friday.

Stores like Walmart will be selling high-definition TVs for under $200 and cameras for around $60 offering prices that are largely discounted compared to the rest of the year. The economy’s current state is also expected to make an impact on the number of people looking for lower prices.

As if banks and credit card companies aren’t charging enough these days Bank of America has decided to test new pricing models. BOFA expects to lose $4.3 billion in revenue as a result of the new federal restrictions on bank and credit cards.

How do they plan on recovering some of this loss? By charging its customers for not using their cards of course. Customers who do not use their cards a certain number of time a month, conduct all their banking electronically or do not maintain a minimum current balance will be charged more then other customers. For example, customers who want paper statements will be charge $8.95 per month.

It will be interesting over the next few months to see the estimated ½ dozen new pricing packages BOFA will roll out and which ones will remain permanent.

Are you a brand name buyer? Are there certain products that you buy generic or store brand? Comparing the pricing on these may shock you and really add up over time! Taking into consideration, the quality of the product – some things generic just may not add up.

A few products you are safe to save some cash and buy the generic version:

Breakfast Cereal – $2.99 for brand name, $0.99 for generic; the ingredients are typically exactly the same and they are just as tasty!

Prescription Drugs – Pricing on generics can be more than half of the cost of brand name. Pharmaceutical companies are required to use the same ingredients, so if it’s available – why not?

Cooking & Baking Ingredients – Flour, butter, sugar, salt & spices , these are all the same and can offer a huge savings!

Fruits & Veggies – Unless looking for a very specific or rare type of produce, locally grown or lesser-known brands of produce can be just as delicious as a brand name banana or apple. Try it out, if you don’t like it, switch back – but if you do, you could save some additional money!

According to msnbc.com , the average consumer can save $200-$1,500 per year by purchasing generic!

Gas prices should begin to decline, according to survey editor Trilby Lundberg. Lower prices of crude oil due to the recent oil disaster should reflect lower prices for gasoline. Just a couple weeks ago, an average barrel price was between $81-82.50 and has dropped between $75-78.

The current national average for regular, unleaded self-serve gas is $2.77. The highest gas prices are currently in San Francisco at $3.21 per gallon, and the lowest prices are in Jacksonville for $2.54. If the gas prices continue to coincide with oil prices, we could expect lower prices.

Cheaper gas prices can lead to more people going online for auto finance loans to get back into driving! Leadpile has a large demand for these lead types, and hopefully a price decline in gas will help those people in affording a car.

The idea of seeing home prices going up is something all of us continue to wish would come. The housing market appears it might have some positive momentum going on, and we will all need to cross our fingers that this is not too good to be true. There have been home value increase teasers in the past that did not stick, but maybe this is actually going to be the time when we see positive changes continue. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller national index, “Its 20-city index was up 1.4 percent in June compared with May, and up 0.5 percent in May over April – the first incidence of two consecutive monthly gains in more than three years. Eighteen of the 20 markets, including San Francisco, experienced monthly price gains.”
So do we know what is possibly fueling this housing price increase? I would guess that investors out there buying a lot of these homes, that were in foreclosure etc, has helped to create a bidding war on homes. Once you have a high demand and lower supply that creates pricing increase. This is great news for those in the neighborhoods that are hoping to see homes in their area selling for more. This will ultimately help them with their values. How about the government giving a tax credit for those purchasing a home? That has to help, however from what I heard about this program there are some stipulations on this program that eliminate some from getting the tax credit because they make too much. Is that fair? Time will only tell if these two things help to fuel the positive momentum we have going on with our housing market. I think a lot of us are hoping this is the beginning of the end of a struggling housing market. You never really realize how much an impact our housing market has on all sorts of industries, till going through it like we all have.

It is official, Yahoo has released it’s 2008 top 10 searches for various industries.  The searches that probably apply the most to Leadpile Lead Exchange and it’s affiliates, are the top 10 “economy” searches.

2008 TOP 10 “economy” SEARCHES  

IRS Stimulus Checks
Oil Prices
Gold Prices
Gas Prices
Dow Jones
Sallie Mae
Stock Market
AIG
Foreclosures
Debt Consolidation

This shows that there is a great opportunity for advertisers and publishers to optimize this by matching up the people needing help in these areas, with the companies that will provide the services they are looking for. Leadpile is the place for both of these parties to come together and truly help the consumers doing all these TOP 10 SEARCHES.

Bankrate.com just released the top 10 selling cars for 2008.  The hottest and most popular automobiles: 

• #10 – The Chevrolet Cobalt.  Listing price $14,217. Sold to date 114,250 vehicles.  Runs at about 25-30 mpg.  
• #9  -  Ford Focus. Listing price $15,363. Sold to date 123,449 cars. Average 28mpg
• #8  -  Chevrolet Impala. Listing price $21,348. Sold to date 138,952.  MPG depends on the cylinder of the vehicle.  Your looking at anywhere between 17-23mpg depending on the version
• #7 – Chevrolet Silverado (light duty). First truck on the top ten.. Listing price$25,921. Sold to date 148,046. They average 11-16mpg. 
• #6  - Nissan Altima.   Listing price $22,798. Sold to date 158,006.  Average 22-26mpg.  
• #5  - We are half way down the list . Introducing the Ford F Series (light duty). Nice to see another truck on the board.  Listing price $22,798.  Sold to date 164,828.  10-16mpg.  Wow, get ready to spend your money on gas with this type of mpg!
• #4  - Toyota Corolla.  Listing price $17,122.  Sold to date 169,868.  25-30mpg.  Nice!
• #3  - And now the top three!  Honda Civic! I’m not surprised to see this bad boy on the list.  Listing price $19,114.  Sold to date 204,961.  The MPG is great with whopping 28-42mpg. 
• #2  - Honda Accord.  Listing price $25,859. Sold to date 227,874.  Save some cash with this beauty 25-34mpg.
• Finally, what we have all been waiting for .  #1 best selling auto for 2008!  You ready?  Announcing the most popular car around, the TOYOTA CAMRY.  Listing price $22,859.  Sold an amazing 228,874 cars this year.  Take a vacation with the money you will save on gas with 23-34mpg.

Surprised to only see 2 trucks in the top ten?  I think not.  Overall car sales are down 10% this year compared to last year.  Leadpile Lead Exchange deals a lot with the Auto Finance vertical and the volume of leads coming through our system is slightly down also, however we are expecting it to turn around any day now!
There you have it, the top 10 autos for 2008!

General Motor Corp. is introducing the new Chevrolet Volt in 2010 and has a waiting list of over 33,000 prospective buyers for this new battery powered car.   Many buyers for this vehicle are from California, Texas, Illinois and Michigan.  Yes, many Americans are facing high gas pricing in these states.  

Its estimated to cost about $31,261 which is less than the $40,000 GM said would cost to generate the car equipped with a massive lithium-ion battery pack.  

The new Chevrolet Volt will be able to run 40 miles on lithium-ion  battery and can easily be recharged at a standard outlet. 

GM showed off a concept version of the Volt in January 2007 but has retooled the look of the vehicle significantly since then.  

What do you think of this new vehicle?   Are you on the waiting list as a potential buyer?  What other neat features do you anticipate this car having?  I wonder what the lifespan is for the battery? 

I love the style, what do you think! Hot Car? Or Two thumbs down?

Publishers are spending a lot of money on PPC campaigns through Google AdWords.  Have you ever researched the cost of producing a real time quality lead? Depending on the vertical, it can get really expensive, especially if you are looking for quality and genuine interest.

Capturing a name, number, email, address, best time to call, can get really expensive. If you want to target geographically, by zip or state, it will increase your price and lower the amount of traffic you are getting. A lead can be really inexpensive, if you are just capturing email address, and you incentivize it, but if you are looking to attract customers that are genuinely interested in your service, its not going to be .20 cents or .50 cents, it will be way more expensive. You can expect prices as these if you are looking for lists, but why would you do that when you have the Yellow Pages and costs you nothing. You can definitely get leads for such a price, but those will be leads that are generated from the yellow pages, or aged data (lists) of consumers that showed an interest in your service years ago.  So what is the price for a good, real time, exclusive leads? It depends, it can be very expensive, depending how competitive is your vertical.  You will get what you are paying for. In other words, you are going to be happy with the return on your investment (ROI).

Advertisers have to consider that publishers or lead exchanges are eating the cost of any leads that are invalid.  Paying anywhere between .25 to $1.50 per click, or even $15, does not guarantee a conversion. Even if we get a conversion, it will not necessarily mean that you, as a buyer, will accept the lead. If you are a Debt Settlement buyer, you might want only want $15,000 and above in Unsecured Debt, which will significantly increase the price to produce that lead. 

Lead exchanges welcome advertisers to join the marketplace to HOST their offers. Paying the right price for the lead, working with the lead exchange to optimize your campaign and filter the lead sources, will ensure a successful campaign for you, as a buyer, and for the Lead Exchange and its publishers. 

Think of it this way, lets say you need to travel to a different state.  Would you rather rent a bike or a car? By renting a bike, you will save money on gas and get in a better shape If you are concerned about the time you need to get to your destination, this will not work too well for you, and renting a car might be more suited for you. Time is money, and we all know it very well.

Make great choices and you will see more money coming into your business! Buy quality, real time exclusive leads, and you can be assured that Leadpile will be on your side from start to end! Pay the price that they are worth and you will get the satisfaction that you are searching for!

Leadpile’s Motto: “Good is the Enemy of Great!” – Jim Collins, Good to Great

I heard about this service called Ask Sunday on the radio and I was curious about it so I checked out the website.  It’s a personal assistant for those of us who can’t afford one like the stars or the truly wealthy have. NOW WE CAN! with Ask Sunday we can get the help of a personal assistant, someone who schedules appointments, makes general purchases like flowers and small gifts purchased online or over the phone, search for a plumber, electrician or a guy to re-roof your house for you. 

They can also work on those pesky projects we all lose time working on. Gathering information off of all those websites to put into 1 page of info for your boss, transcribe a meeting, or many other things that they have listed on the web site.  They also have full service travel agents who can help plan your next vacation. No matter what it is. Need help Fixing your computer. They can also help with that.

All this does come at a price though. They have packages that you can choose from depending on what your needs are.  Lite, Silver and Gold. Silver is the most popular at 30 days for 15 requests at $39.00 and 90 days for 45 requests at $89.00. Each additional task is only $1.75.

Here at Leadpile we can help you with all your lead buying and selling requests and it does not cost a thing. Just a phone call or an email and we will assist you the best way we know how. The Leadpile Way!

Tracking your Payday campaign could never be easier.  Let’s talk about the LeadPile lead exchange and some unique tools provided inside your campaign to better assist you.  

LeadPile, Payday/Cash Advance vertical has launch above expectations.  We are the Source for Payday/Cash Advance leads.  For uniqueness the placement in our marketplace is powerful.  You see inside your campaign you will see your current bid price, your rank, and the top bid.  Yes, our top payday buyer is currently paying $68.50.  Our quality can stand in front of our price.  

The rank is significant as it will elaborate how many more campaigns are currently active, funded and have priority to accept a lead first.  Our lead exchange is Market Driven.  Rank 1 will have the opportunity to purchase the lead first.  Be aware that you will be receiving higher quality.  Not so much due to the cost, but consider this, you are coming across new consumers that are in some serious need of a loan that might only fill out one application online, hence was our application.  

I always suggest to get a good placement in our PING tree.  If you are an aggregator and you are working with extended amount of buyers you want to take a good placement.  Offer them the best quality lead that they have not seen within the acceptable time frame.  

I provided this screen shot so that you can view and understand how it works.  At any time a buyer can go through the “main settings” inside there campaign and increase the price so that they can jump over a few affiliates.  That’s the nature of a lead exchange.  You have total control over your price and you are notified of your placement. This way you can make some logical financial evaluations and define where you need to be at that makes sense for your company.

With a Lead Exchange such as LeadPile we make it user friendly so that you can at all time have the information you need right in front of you!  No wonder, we are the Largest Online TOP Rank Lead Marketplace!

Last year first half of 2007, Toyota sold 4.5 million vehicles while General Motors came out winning selling 4.54 million vehicles.  Pretty close in sales.  

2008, first half the year, the numbers have arrived.  Toyota automaker sold 4.8 million vehicles for the first half.  That’s about a 2% increase from the same period of last year while GM sales drop 3% the first half.

With the gas price increase more consumers are staying away from the bigger trucks and SUV’s that GM is well known for.  The percentage difference on Toyota’s increase and GM’s drops are somewhat related.  My theory is that consumers are going after the gas saving cars that gives the more miles per gallon.  GM, being a leader in sales until this half of 2008, should  take different approaches to catch the consumers interest?  Maybe it’s time for the engineers to start developing more smaller cars to bring out, less expensive with more miles to the gallon.

All in all the economy is not doing that horrible as critics are proclaiming.  Look at the sales, they are pretty steady, meaning consumers are still spending and they are still buying new vehicles. 

Great time for Auto Groups to take advantage of leads in a lead exchange.  More cars to sell!