White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel , said that voluntary agreements on controlling online piracy and counterfeiting are working.  Senate Judiciary Chariman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) says legislation is still needed.

The Senate anti-piracy bill and the White House’s Stop Online Piracy Act were shelved in January after persistent and loud protests from the tech community and others.  All voiced concerns over the harmful effects of both bills including impeding free speech as well as stifling creativity overall.

Espinel pointed to agreements with credit card processors MasterCard and PayPal to not provide payment services to sites that deal in pirated property and a pledge last week by three advertising groups not to place ads on sites offering pirated movies, music or other counterfeited goods.  She also pointed out the global aspects of the problem and hoped for greater international cooperation.  She said that the administration is reaching out to foreign law enforcement officials and asking them to crack down on piracy as well.

Leahy remains convinced of the need for legislation.  “Voluntary efforts are wonderful and I am hoping the voluntary efforts will give us some confidence for the legislation we need, because ultimately we still need legislation.”

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) also believes in the need for legislation, but feels the issue will not be brought up again this year.

In the meantime, the administration continues to broker deals with companies to voluntarily control online piracy.

The Federal Trade commission has hired an outside attorney to help in its investigation of Google.  This is just the third time in the last ten years that they have done so.

Both previous times were in 2008 and both resulted in further action being taken.  In one case they filed an administrative complaint that prevented an acquisition by Inova Health System Foundation and in the other it sued Cephalon Inc over deals that delayed the introduction of generic drugs.

The attorney hired for this case is Beth A. Wilkinson, who previously worked for the Justice department and is best known as the federal prosecutor who successfully convicted Timothy McVeigh.  She also served as general counsel at Fannie Mae.  She’s in private practice now.

Her hiring does not mean that the Feds have decided to take Google to court, but it does indicate that they are serious about reviewing the possibility.

Specifically, the FTC is researching whether Google manipulates its search formula to ensure that its own services rank at the top of search results.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz says he believes the agency has the authority to bring a “pure Section 5” case against a company.  The FTC would only have to show that a company engaged in “unfair methods of competition” and not necessarily prove that the behavior harms consumers.

This is key because most of Google’s services are free;  thus, it is hard to prove that consumers were “hurt.”

If the FTC follows through with the investigation it holds potentially disastrous consequences for Google.  Look at how an FTC investigation affected Microsoft in the last decade.  It drained them of financial resources and is credited with the loss of talent resources as well.

In a survey by abc News and The Washington Post, Google had the highest favorable opinions in the tech industry over competitors Facebook, Apple and Twitter.
82% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Google, with Apple at 74%.  Facebook came in at 58% and Twitter at 37%.  Twitter also has the unfortunate label of having the highest negative opinion at 36%.
When asked if they had a “strongly favorable” opinion of the companies, Google’s lead was greater with 53%, compared to Apple’s second place finish of 37%.

Generational differences are also clear especially when the topic is social media.  About a third of seniors view Facebook and Twitter negatively.  Google and Apple also fared better among highly educated and affluent Americans.

According to analysts of the survey the popularity of Google in large part has to do with the fact that for many people Google is the internet, because of the search engine services they provide.  Additionally, the privacy issues that Google is facing are non-existent to the average American.

Google can certainly take pride in these numbers, but not take them for granted.

Just weeks away from what is expected to be the biggest Internet IPO in history, Facebook announced plans to buy the very popular photo sharing program Instagram for $1 billion. 
Instagram is just 2 years old but already has 33 million users and growth that shows no signs of slowing.

The connection between Instagram and Facebook is obvious.  Since photo sharing is a big factor in Facebook’s success, you can see why purchasing the most popular photo enhancing program on the web makes sense. 
And, did we mention that they did this just before their IPO?

Instagram has been described as “twitter for mobile photos.”  Users edit  photos by applying filters, such as transforming a photo by “aging” it.  Then they post them allowing others to comment on them.

The company was started by two Stanford University graduates and now has 12 employees.  You read that right.  12 employees.

So why did Zukerberg pull the trigger and buy a company at a price that many say is twice as much as the company is valued?
 Instagram had developed mobile applications that facebook is still lacking.  This is the key selling point (or maybe buying point in this case) for facebook in their acquisition.
Zuckerberg stressed that Instagram would continue to operate independently.  We certainly hope that is true.

In the follow up to last weeks’ article we share with you the qualities and beliefs that made the 12 so successful.  Qualities that we may be able to adapt to our own situations.
1.    Steve Jobs: When asked how much research was done prior to introducing the iPad, Jobs said,”None.  It isn’t the consumers’ job to know what they want.  It’s hard for consumers to tell you what they want when they’ve never seen anything like it.”  Jobs knew emerging technologies, the marketplace and trusted his “gut.”  Very few have ever had this lethal combination.  It’s fair to say that if Jobs had relied on consumer focus groups, products from the iPad to the iPod would never have come into existence.
2.    Bill Gates:  First he built Microsoft, now he’s tackling world problems such as clean drinking water and illiteracy.  He uses the same guiding principle in both.  “You got to be very elitist when hiring smart people. “  He then likes to put people together in small groups to tackle their challenges.  He credits his choice of partners and employees as the key to his success.
3.    Fred Smith: We established that Smith’s inspiration for FedEx came from his time as a Marine during Vietnam.  He used some of the Marine’s philosophy at FedEx. 
"We tell our executives that the key to their success is to rely on their first-level managers [the company's counterparts to noncommissioned officers], to set an example themselves, and to praise in public when someone has done a good job. All those are standard operating procedure in the Marines."
4.     Jeff Bezos (Amazon):  He goes on solo retreats at the end of each quarter.  No phones or other office distractions; he concentrates on the picture of Amazon as it is, and how it could be.  These retreats resulted in Amazon’s fulfillment center for third party sellers for instance.  Time away is a very under used strategy for critical thinking about business direction.
5.    Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google): As they grew Google, employees were encouraged to apply the 70/20/10 rule. 
"About 70% try to work on the core efforts of the company," explains Brin, "about 20% goes to adjacent areas and expansion, and for the 10%, anything goes.  As we have expanded our breadth of offerings, it's actually harder and harder to find the 10% out there. But I think that's important -- to let people be really creative and think outside the box."
6.     Howard Schultz (Starbucks): He created a monster.  A monster envied by everyone.  He left and came back.  What did he do to save Starbucks (in 2008)?  He went back to basics.  He identified areas of waste, but beyond that he took the company back to basics, not just in economics, but in identity.  Who was Starbucks at its core and where had they migrated?  He answered that question and saved the company.
7.    Mark Zuckerberg:  Paranoia.  To those who know him, he has more than anyone else.  This has resulted in constant upgrading to Facebook’s product in an effort to stay ahead of the competition.  Some may call that paranoia.  Others may call it savvy.
8.    John Mackey (Whole Foods): He has changed food marketing.  He has done it by actually following the company’s mission statement.  Natural, organic and quality are not just advertising adjectives.  You know when you are in a Whole Foods store without even seeing the sign.  It is a consistent, constant vision that separates Whole Foods from everyone else.
9.    Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines):  His key to success?  In his own words, "Years ago, the business schools used to pose it as a conundrum. They would say, `Well, who comes first? Your employees, your shareholders, or your customers?' But it's not a conundrum. Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follow from that."
10.    Narayana Murthy (Infosys):  His challenges for making India a center of computer technology were far different than creating a coffee chain with three dollar coffees.  In fact, his mantra reads like a 1950’s American sitcom: "It is all about sacrifice today, fulfillment tomorrow."  We’re guessing a whole lot of business know-how did not hurt.
11.    Sam Walton: He brought efficiencies and discipline to the world of retail.  He changed the way retailers operated.  He cut out the middle man and worked directly with manufacturers.  “buy it low, stack it high and sell it cheap.” 
12.    Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank):  By devoting himself to people in poverty in Bangladesh, he created the concept “micro-banking.”  He went on to win the Nobel Prize in 2006 when he had loaned money to over seven million people in 73,000 villages.

It’s a fascinating list and worthy of deliberation.  What qualities would help you improve as an entrepreneur?

With the help of Rick Gardiner and MarketingLand here’s a ranking of the best and worst states to live in for affiliate marketers.
As Gardiner points out, “Affiliate Nexus Tax” laws were the determining factor as to where affiliates should live.  It seems that federal laws will be forthcoming and if nothing else should level the playing field a bit more.  But for most T3Leads affiliates you are selling a service, not a product, so sales tax is not a factor in the decision.

But there are other ways to rank the business-friendliness of states, including the “State Business Tax Climate Index.”  According to their website, the “State Business Tax Climate Index” enables business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare.”

Here are the top 5:
1. Wyoming
Business Tax Climate Index: 7.67
Corp. Tax Rank: 1st
Individual Income Tax Rank: 1st
Sales Tax Rank: 13th

2. South Dakota
Business Tax Climate Index: 7.54
Corp. Tax Rank: 1st
Individual Income Tax Rank: 1st
Sales Tax Rank: 34th

3. Nevada
Business Tax Climate Index: 7.45
Corp. Tax Rank: 1st
Individual Income Tax Rank: 1st
Sales Tax Rank: 42nd

 4. Alaska
Business Tax Climate Index: 7.36
Corp. Tax Rank: 27th
Individual Income Tax Rank: 1st
Sales Tax Rank: 5th

5. Florida
Business Tax Climate Index: 6.90
Corp. Tax Rank: 12th
Individual Income Tax Rank: 1st
Sales Tax Rank: 19th

And the bottom five:
46. Rhode Island
Business Tax Climate Index: 4.18
Corp. Tax Rank: 40th
Individual Income Tax Rank: 36th
Sales Tax Rank: 24th

47. Vermont
Business Tax Climate Index: 4.17
Corp. Tax Rank: 41st
Individual Income Tax Rank: 47th
Sales Tax Rank: 14th

48. California
Business Tax Climate Index: 3.71
Corp. Tax Rank: 43rd
Individual Income Tax Rank: 50th
Sales Tax Rank: 40th

49. New York
Business Tax Climate Index: 3.59
Corp. Tax Rank: 23rd
Individual Income Tax Rank: 49th
Sales Tax Rank: 37th

50. New Jersey
Business Tax Climate Index: 3.33
Corp. Tax Rank: 39th
Individual Income Tax Rank: 48th
Sales Tax Rank: 46th

Combine technology and the never-ending search for better targeted marketing and you end up with hidden cameras in your apartment.  Not really, but close.

1.     Facial Recognition: Smile, you’ll get free ice cream.  Unilever, the company who owns Lipton tea and Suave shampoo also owns an ice cream company.  They created a vending machine that gave free ice cream for smiling.  Then they designed a box so people could upload their smiling faces to facebook.  When the machine debuted in Lisbon in 2011, they vended 52,000 bars in two days with no advertising.  (I’m assuming this was more than one machine. :) ) 
Facial recognition is also used on digital signage.  A lot of installations can detect gender and age bracket and revise their ads to reflect that.  According to The Los Angeles Times, The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas is using facial recognition to tailor restaurant and entertainment ads for passersby and big brands like Adidas are installing and testing digital walls with facial recognition in a handful of stores to display age-appropriate shoes to customers.

2.     Hyper Targeting: The explosion of online shopping has created a footprint of consumer information that marketers are just learning how to tap into.  A company named CRUNCH uses predictive intelligence (Zappos also uses it to suggest shoes to customers) gathered from shoppers’ online habits.  When two “hyper-segments” have been identified, ads are targeted to them.  It is predictive based on actual shopping habits.

3.    Eavesdropping:   Companies are developing apps that would tell what radio station you are listening to or TV show you are watching.  This is fascinating to me as a marketer.  What this ultimately means for marketers is the opportunity to purchase commercials live.  No one is offering this is a possibility except me, but it’s the logical next step.  Think about it.
Who’s watching “Revenge” tonight?  Is it a good episode?  Is social media buzzing?  A couple clicks in the computer and I can have my commercial running in the next commercial break.  It not only could happen, I predict it will happen.  The ability to buy commercials in real time, live, might well be the savior of broadcast television.

We love to keep you posted on intriguing technologies and will continue to do so.  What would be on your technology wish list?
Thanks for the inspiration to Christina DesMarias and Inc. online magazine.

So who have been the movers and shakers that have changed our lives in modern times?  Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are two automatics to the list, but who else?  This week we’re going to examine the 12 influencers, and next week we’re going to examine the things we can learn from them.

As you go through the list, it’s amazing to think of the absolute cultural metamorphosis that some have set off.  Let the countdown begin.
1.    Steve Jobs:  The computerization of ad layout and design; iTunes, iPhone, iMac, MacAir, iPad.  The list goes on and on.  It’s inconceivable to think of current life without him and the company he designed and ran.
2.    Bill Gates: The popularity and success of the PC is due to Bill Gates.  You could say that the computer revolution, in terms of making them accessible to consumers began with Microsoft and Bill Gates.
3.    Fred Smith: The creator of FedEx.  Smith credits his two terms as a Marine in Vietnam as leading to the creation of FedEx.  He was inspired by the logistics of moving and setting up 500,000 men in a foreign country.  That led him to create a company that delivers a single letter to one overnight.
4.    Jeff Bezos:  A world without Amazon?  Can you imagine a world where you don’t go to your computer and order your vacuum cleaner bags?
5.    Larry Page and Sergey Brin: Google.  It’s both a noun and a verb.  That’s when you know you’ve made it big.
6.    Howard Schultz: Starbucks are everywhere.  Or at least, they were.  Yes, they still are, but in 2008 Schultz was brought back to save the company.  More on that next week, but safe to say that Starbucks is an integral part of American life.
7.    Mark Zuckerberg: Modern American life is dramatically different because of Facebook.  Old friends reconnect.  New alliances are formed.  Old friends stop being friends.  It’s a soap opera and we’re the stars.  How can you resist?  No one in the world can.
8.    John Mackey: Whole Foods has gone beyond a brand to a mantra for many people.  It is a store that utilizes capitalism in a way that many people wish everyone would. 
9.    Herb Kelleher:  The creator of Southwest Airlines.  He’s done what few corporations have done, much less an airline. They’ve been profitable for 39 consecutive years.  How they’ve done it we’ll look at next week.
10.  Narayana Murthy:  As creator of Infosys he proved that computer software development was not just a function of the west. 
11.  Sam Walton: Walmart.  Need we say more?  It’s more than a retail store.  It’s the development of a store creation model that is nearly unmatched.  Still.
12.  Muhammad Yunus: We did not know him either, but he started his empire by loaning $27 to destitute basket weavers in Bangladesh.  This led to him creating Grameen Bank.

A fascinating list.  Next look for their company mantras and more.

The opening weekend sales for the newest iPads were three million strong and we can probably conclude a few million more have been sold since then.  Online advertising network Chitika has tracked the U.S. states where the new iPads are being activated and they have released some interesting demographic information.

The answer is mostly coastal states.  According to the report the top five areas of activation were California, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Nevada and Washington state.  These states also rank high in income levels.  In fact, coastal states average income 10% higher than their inland neighbors.

The report basically uses the above average income to explain why the first-buyers come from these states.  They ignore the fact that all of those states are also tech centers.  Seattle > Washington state.  San Fran, L.A.> California.  Washington D.C. is well, D.C.  Hawaii and Nevada are also growing tech centers, or trying to be.

It’s fair to say that if you combine some extra cash with a little tech savvy, you’ll find a center that is strong for Apple.

Some members of Congress backed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in their call for legislation to protect consumer’s online privacy.

On Monday, March 26, 2012, the FTC released a report calling for Congress to enact legislation to regulate how Internet companies handle user’s information.  Specifically they said that “data brokers,” groups that buy and sell personal data, should be regulated and that all information collected on consumers should be readily accessible to consumers.

They also recommended that firms establish minimum security standards for handling security data and require those companies to inform consumers when there is a security breach.

Senators John Kerry (D) and John McCain (R) have jointly introduced a bill called the “Consumer Bill of Rights,” which Kerry urged Congress to visit in response to the FTC report.  Senator Patrick Leahy (D) has a bill called the “Personal Data Privacy and Security Act.”

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said they were working with web browsers and advertising agencies to implement a “Do Not Track” button.  He confirmed that this should be available by the end of the year. 
As the media is filled with stories about online security, one company has created has created a search engine that does not track users.  DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg, admits that they somewhat stumbled into their privacy policy.

As the search engine grew, (they’re over one million searches per day) Weinberg says he started talking to the online community and found that people were talking about privacy more and more.  They asked him what his policy was going to be.  He says he really didn’t think about it until that time, but this caused him to look around and decided that he wasn’t thrilled about the possibility of being subpoenaed to Washington D.C., as was happening to Google.  That’s when he stopped storing IP addresses.

In the American form of commerce, every problem presents an opportunity and online privacy is no exception.

The Wall Street Journal reported on March 16, 2012 that U.S. and E.U. regulators are investigating Google for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple’s Safari browser.  They also report that Google stopped the practice after being contacted by the Wall Street Journal. 

The WSJ first reported that Google was using special computer code to install tracking files, aka, cookies on computers, iPhones and iPads, even if the devices were set to set to block this practice.

The European investigation is being led by France and includes other pan-European countries.  The U.S. investigation includes some states, such as New York and Connecticut, as well as the Feds.  The FTC is specifically investigating whether the practice violates its agreement with Google that was reached last year.  The penalty for violating that agreement is $16,000 per violation.  Since this could potentially affect millions of users, the fine could reach large numbers quite quickly.

The reason for collecting the data by using “cookies” is about targeting audiences and selling them to advertisers who are willing to pay big money to reach highly targeted users.  It is the battle for these consumers, that fuels the Google vs. Facebook feud.  It is also the reason Google needs Google+ to flourish.

The investigation could take years or Google could settle relatively quickly to get past the events.  We’ll keep an eye out and keep you informed.

Canadians are considering doing something Americans only talk about every five years.  They are considering doing away with cash and going to a digital system.

In November of last year Canada introduced plastic bills and it recently said it was doing away with pennies.  Now they are introducing digital currency called the “MintChip.”

The system will have no database and thus not be connected to you in any way.  If you lose your chip, you lose the amount of cash value on the chip.  The same as if you lost a $20 bill.

The challenge will be to stop hacking.  On April 5th, the Royal Canadian Mint announced a contest for software developers to create new apps for the currency, including security.  The prize will be $50,000 in gold.

We’re learning that Google wants quality content.  Not so spam-y, not so sales-y; in short, quality content that educates and helps your website visitor.  This is terrific and it’s a goal worth pursuing.  But, we still have to convert.  We still have to persuade.  And we have to present an offer to our visitors that they can’t refuse.

You do this by providing something of value, making an offer and conducting a call to action.

We’ll use payday sites to illustrate.  What is the “thing of value” that these sites offer?  Yes, payday loans, but fast payday loans, ease of application, maybe percentage of those approved.  These points need to be communicated quickly and clearly to the first time visitor.

The offer.  “Payday loans with instant approval.”  A simple, concise message that highlights your best selling point.  How will the visitor’s life improve by buying your product or service?
What’s the best way to illustrate it? Sometimes, a simple headline with a photo or illustration will do the trick.  Other times video is a perfect way to illustrate your offer.

Show the consumer how your service will make their life easier.  “Hassles eliminated”; “The cash you need”; visuals with happy faces.  It’s imperative to brainstorm for the best ways to communicate your offer so the first time visitor will choose you over your competitors.

Your call to action.  For most payday affiliate marketers it’s as simple as the “apply here” box.  Never put your call to action too far away from the action.  It should be at the top and bottom of each page.

Good writing often comes down to planning.  Plan each page of your site, then brainstorm and test your ideas to see which ones give the highest conversion rates.

The Online Lender’s Alliance (OLA) applauded the actions of the Federal Trade commission (FTC), which closed a fraudulent debt collector and issued a temporary freeze of their assets. 
The Tracy, California based Kirit Patel and two companies that he controls were charged by a U.S. district court with violating the FTC act and the Fair Debt collection Practices Act.

The FTC, in a press release on their website, says that the firms would target and call consumers who may or may not have taken out payday loans and harass them.  The level of the alleged harassment varied from pretending to be law enforcement officers to one complaint from a woman saying that her children were threatened.  Many were threatened with arrest if they did not immediately provide checking account or credit card information.

Lisa McGreevy, President and CEO of OLA said in a press release, "We will continue to work with the FTC and other law enforcement agencies to protect our customers from these fraudulent predators who threaten consumers into paying debts they don't owe."

OLA has taken steps to assist consumers impacted by fraudulent debt collectors by establishing a system for consumers who think they have been victims of fraud which includes a website and consumer hotline: 1-866-299-7585.

When announced in February, the agreement between the federal government and five big banks (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial) looked to be historic in scope (it is a record settlement) and in breadth of aid. This is proving to not be the case.  The deal was meant to help the 11miliion homeowner’s who are currently underwater on their homes (they owe more than their homes are worth.)  In reality, a mere fraction will see relief.

Approximately one million homeowners will their loan balances reduced and another 750,000 will be able to refinance their mortgages with lower interest rates.  That’s not even 20% of the 11 million in trouble, and does nothing to address the 3.5 million people who have already lost their homes to foreclosure.

There’s more.  The mortgage reductions will only apply to loans held by the five big banks.  This will do nothing for homeowner’s whose home is financed by Freddie or Fannie Mac.
Homeowners are voicing their dissatisfaction.  Here are a few reasons:

Your issuing bank is Bank of America, but the loan is actually back by FHA.  This makes it an FHA loan and not a Bank of America loan, and thus it is not eligible for relief under terms of the agreement. You initially took your loan out with Wells Fargo, but they sold it to someone else and now Freddie Mac owns your mortgage.  If this is your scenario, then you would NOT be eligible for aid.  For anyone who has held a mortgage for a few years, you know that it can be sold at any time and the homeowner has no say in the transaction.

Since the number of people under water with their mortgages will remain at almost 10 million, even after the agreement goes into effect, look for this to be a step in the crisis healing process, not the final cure.

A recent article on Microsite Masters highlighted over 100 factors that deserve more, or in some cases, less attention when it comes to SEO. 
http://www.micrositemasters.com/blog/the-top-101-overlooked-or-overemphasized-factors-in-seo/
The article is fun, useful and entertaining.  Here are some highlights.
5. Aged domain names sometimes offer a path of less resistance when it comes to ranking. Additionally, these types of domains may have an existing link profile that can be taken advantage of. Start with Go Daddy Auctions to see what’s available on the aged domain market.
9: Using outbound links on your site? Don’t forget to add target=”_blank” to your link structures as needed. People have short attention spans online and if you’re not opening a link to a new tab you may lose or distract the user from your content. Be conscious of those links on your home page!
19: Anchor text does not have to be synonymous with the title of a link. Most people choose not to vary those elements by habit or personal preference. “Elaborating” on the title by incorporating related keywords may improve rankings and enhance click-through rates if done correctly.
20: Many people neglect to evaluate the competition of the top 10 SERP results for keywords they are targeting. Understanding how and why certain sites are ranking will give you a clear strategy as to what you need to do to remain competitive. Not sure how to evaluate the competition? Using SERP IQ to obtain that data should be your first move, regardless of your level of experience.
57: Yahoo! Site Explorer recently shutdown. This doesn’t mean you should stop analyzing backlink profiles. Check out Majestic SEO.
70: Intentionally including anchor text such as “click here”, “read more”, etc. within link building campaigns looks natural to search engines and may actually prompt click-throughs.
69: A lot of links will not make up for poor content. A lot of content will not make up for poor links.
78: Image optimization is often overlooked. Increase traffic from image searches by optimizing file names, text surrounding the image, outbound links attached, descriptions, and image ALT text.
86: Don’t take the advice you read on your favorite SEO blogs to heart. The methods that work today might be irrelevant tomorrow. Don’t be afraid to do something new that nobody else has tried yet.
87: Updating and reevaluating the on-page elements of sites and deep pages that were published in the past can give them a breath of fresh air in terms of ranking and traffic potential.
90: Don’t overlook or underestimate the power of internal linking. It’s an area of SEO that doesn’t get as much credit as it should. Just because it isn’t “sexy” doesn’t mean it should be overlooked.
95: Create meta descriptions with the same level of care put that would put into writing PPC ads. Not sure how you measure up? Check out what your top competitors are doing.

A recent study reveals that 20% of UK consumers have no left over cash after paying their bills.  In fact, consumers have about £10 a month less than they did last year, as their incomes have not kept up with the cost of living.  The study is the Lloyd’s TSB spending power report.

The report showed incomes were not keeping up with inflation.  Incomes fell in January by 1.5%.

People who are between the ages of 35 and 64 and residents in the North and Midlands responded more than others that they had no discretionary income.

There was more bad news. The percent of consumers who classified their “money as tight” increased from 40% to 43% between December 2011 and January 2012.

Recent gas and electricity price reductions have had no effect so far as spending rose 9.3% from a year ago.  Water bills are up an average of 13.6%.

The largest increases in bills came in Scotland with household rising by 5%.  London was lowest at 3%.

Jatin Patel, director of current accounts of Lloyds TSB, said: "It is worrying that a fifth of consumers currently say that they have no spending power, after they have covered all bills and essential spending.”

The UK-wide study questioned 2,553 consumers in January and includes research into Lloyds TSB current accounts.

The final rules for the state-based health insurance marketplaces or exchanges, were announced March 12, 2012.  The exchanges are part of the health care reform law.  The rules allow the states great flexibility with which to design their exchanges. 

Some states are well along in their process of designing the exchanges, while others are taking a wait and see attitude as elements of the health care reform law go before the Supreme Court in the coming months.

One of the key rules set forth requires that the exchanges have at least one voting consumer representative.  Consumer advocacy groups wanted more, but this at least guarantees a voice in the process for consumers, if not exactly as loud a voice as the advocacy groups wanted.

The exchanges are designed to be “one-stop shops” for individuals and small businesses looking to purchase health insurance.  They will also help determine individuals’ eligibility for Medicaid and federal subsidies to help them purchase insurance.  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 20 million people will purchase health insurance through the exchanges by 2016.

Obama administration officials said the new rules differ from the old ones in several key ways.  Previous rules required the exchanges to determine if an applicant was eligible for subsidies.  The new rule allows the states to pass this decision onto the Department of Health and Human Services to determine eligibility.  States can also determine eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan by choosing their own Medicaid agencies.

States also cannot allow insurance agencies to determine an applicant’s eligibility for subsidies or Medicare, which are government functions.  But agents can assist applicants in filtering their health plan options.

Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said her organization would be reviewing the rules and offering feedback.
“Exchanges will work best if they are true marketplaces that maximize choice and competition so that individuals, families, and small businesses can purchase plans that are right for them,” she said in a prepared statement. “Consumers will be best served if a state exchange adopts an efficient, cost-effective approach that leverages existing health-plan resources, utilizes federal resources or guidance where sensible, and relies on the exchange itself to administer key functions.”

The exchanges are to take effect January 1, 2014 and can start accepting applications on October 1, 2013.  States must have approval from the Department of Health and Human Services for their plans by January 1, 2013.  Because some states will not meet this deadline, conditional approval can be give by the HHS, if it looks like the exchange will be operational by October 2013. 

Five big banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Financial) have reached an agreement that may help up to one million borrowers.  The agreement is a record in total dollars.  It will deliver some relief to many homeowners but not much relief on an individual basis.

The deal which spans 3 years requires the banks to cut mortgage debt amounts and give $2,000 payments to borrowers who were foreclosed on.

The deal releases the banks from civil government claims in the future.  But the banks are not out of the woods yet.  They still face potential government action, as well as investor lawsuits regarding their packaging of home loans into securities, among a host of other issues.

The bottom line about this settlement is, it’s okay, it’s a step forward, it’s a step in the right direction. But let’s not kid ourselves, there’s a hell of a lot more that needs to be done,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

California, who has about 1/3 of all the country’s foreclosures will receive about 45% of the dollars.  And Bank of America, the bank with the most liability from the fallout of the housing crash, will pay the lion’s share of the settlement – $11.8 billion of it.

It is estimated that nearly 11 million Americans now owe more money on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

The deal breaks down like this:  about 750,000 borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011 will see a $2,000 cash payment.

The banks would give $17 billion in principal reduction and loan modifications for people facing foreclosure.  Also included is $3 billion to help borrowers who are current on their payments, but are unable to refinance because of the drop in home value.

Google unleashed another series of search engine updates at the end of March and many sites were affected (drop in ranking.)  So what’s all the fuss about?  Apparently, if you played the SEO game too well, according to Google, that is in fact, too well.  Let’s try and sort this out.

Neil Patel on Quicksprout provided seven reasons why your site may have dropped.
1.     You have too many exact anchor text links.  You should have variations of your keyword anchored in your site.  Think natural.  Does your site look and feel “natural”?  According to AudienceBloom.com exact-match anchor text links should be closer to 5-10%, rather than the prior goal of 40%.

2.    You don’t have enough semantic keyword anchor text links.   When searching, people will not always use the same keyword in the same way.  For help with finding semantic keywords for your keywords, go to Google AdWords.  You want to develop “latent semantic indexing” (LSI.)  This will help you to link to a variety of keyword usages, which is a positive for your site.

3.    You don’t have enough ‘junk anchors’:  Sounds bad, but isn’t.  Junk anchors are text links such as “click here,” “read more” and “buy now.”  The natural inclination is to have fewer of them, but Google feels they look “natural” and thus are good to have.  The feeling is that they are necessary in a call to action, so should be present.  Even if you are simply linking to a resource such as an article or website, a “click here” text link will help you in the rankings.

4.    You don’t have enough brand mention in your text links.  If you mention your company name in a blogpost, you should link back to your homepage.

5.    You don’t have enough social signals.  You need to increase your “shares” in social media.  It seems this update thinks (probably rightly so) that the more shares you have, the better the content.  So make sure your share buttons are in a conspicuous place; use a plugin such as “scrolling social sidebar” for ease of installation. 
Other ways to increase social engagement include asking readers to share content and connect with social influencers.  Check out “triberr.com” also for increases social shares.

6.    Don’t buy links.  You may get away with this practice for awhile, but probably not forever.  At the very least know what inbound links you bought, so they can be deleted easily.

7.    You use link exhanges.  All three major search engines frown upon this, but are beginning to pay more attention to it.  As in the example above, you may get away with it for awhile, but…

Overall, what Google seems to be saying with each Panda update is to create a website that is consumer friendly – easy to navigate and helpful – but do so in an organic way.  We’ll keep perusing the internet for helpfulinformation in an effort to aid you in your quest to become more successful affiliate marketers.

With the help of Susan Johnston and U.S. News and World Report, here are some tax time programs to help you go paperless this tax season.

Yes, the IRS will accept non-originals, but all information better be legible or the deduction will be voided.  Make sure you have the required information on the receipt, including the purpose (use) of receipt and the person(s) you dined with, etc.

Lemon.com:  Currently free apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows exist.  The program allows you keep track of expenses and assign expense categories.  Scanned receipts are converted into searchable, taggable data using OCR.  The site will be offering family plans and business plans in the new year for rates ranging from $3 to $9 per month.

Expensify.com: Also offers free mobile apps as well as paid services.  The program allows 10 scans per month with a fee charged for each additional.  Expensify also integrates with Quickbooks, as well as providing the ability to integrate bank account or credit card information so you can get a more detailed look at your financial picture.

Shoeboxed.com: This site is designed for larger firms.  In addition to receipts, the site also allows for organizing business cards.  Services are up to $50 a month and U.S. and Australia users can mail in documents for scanning and also receive disk back-ups for all work.

iXpenseIt:  For $5 a month users receive the full version of the program.  Users have to manually enter some receipt information, so it’s a little less convenient than the program above.  Its focus is analyzing monthly expenses and providing a series of reports to illustrate those.

The vast majority of U.S. Banks passed the stress test conducted by the Federal Reserve.  As required by the Dodd-Frank financial services law, the annual stress test examines whether a bank can withstand 13% unemployment, a 50% drop in stock prices and a 21% decline in housing prices.  Specifically do they have enough capital to withstand hits in those three areas?

The results showed that 15 of 19 banks had adequate capital reserves.  That group included Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial and BB&T. 
Four banks did fare as well.  CitiGroup, Ally Financial, Sun Trust and MetLife (the largest life insurer in the U.S.)

Among the banks that passed, several announced plans to boost dividends, including JP Morgan Chase, US Bancorp and BB&T.  JP Morgan chase also announced plans to buy back $15 billion worth of its stock through 2013.

Although this was predominantly good news, some warnings were issued: 
"American banks are healthier and have ample capital when compared with their European counterparts," said Stephen Wood, chief market strategist at Russell Investments. "They are in better conditions than where they were four years ago. The bigger issue is how insulated American banks are to the European situation.

A professor of finance and economics at Stanford University, Anat Admati, called the dividends and buyback “irresponsible.”  “Depleting capital can expose the wider economy to risks because it leaves banks more exposed to shocks.”

In addition, the tests do not examine the banks ability to borrow money in markets, which is important because it was one of the major challenges faced by banks during the crisis.

But, with all that said, the big question really, and one of the main purposes of the stress test is whether this will help to restore confidence in the banking system.  It will be a wait and see scenario with consumers, but the stock the market rewarded those who performed well with higher stock prices and left Citi and Ally with lower stock prices.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) wasn’t satisfied with Google’s answers after several hours of questioning regarding their new privacy policy. 
"At the end of the day, I don't think their answers to us were very forthcoming necessarily in what this really means for the safety of our families and our children," Bono Mack said.

When it is all said and done, we might take away something altogether different from the meeting- (This is your writer talking) Ms. Bono Mack is the chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade subcommittee.  This is the committee that Congress has decided should weigh in on privacy issues.  Does anyone else think that Congress might want to update the location and importance of internet-related issues?

But, moving on.

Google’s director of public policy, Pablo Chavez and Michael Yang, a Google senior counsel, fielded questions from Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Joe Barton (R-Texas), G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

The change in privacy policy allows Google to share information between its services.  The result being that words in private e-mails could influence search results on YouTube.  This is too much sharing for Congress’ taste.

"The concern of Congress is how much active participation a user has to do to protect their own privacy," Bono Mack said.

Butterfield emphasized he wants Google to provide a "one-stop" site where users can opt out of tracking across the company's platforms.
Google gave the Congress members a tour of how the privacy settings will work and said they believe it to be easier than the previous policy. 
Google did not explain whether users can delete personal data the company has collected and how long the company keeps the data.

Bono Mack did go on to say that she did not necessarily think Congress should act on this issue.  She also said that her committee will be holding further hearing on privacy issues and that could specifically include Google policy changes. 

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land calls it their “most radical transformation” ever.  Combine Google+ with Google Search and see the search results filtered to fit your profile.  Or as they call it the Google+ social graph.  Google+ circles, photos and posts will be more integrated into search results.  Google is calling this “your web.”

Google calls the search update “Search Across Your World.” Jack Menzel, product management director of search, explained that now Google+ members will be able to “search across information that is private and only shared to you, not just the public web.”

If you are signed into G+, profiles will be incorporated into the search as well.  Also included will be public profiles that you don’t necessarily have in circles or that you follow.

It’s important to note that twitter and facebook connections and posts are not included in the search results.  They are not being filtered out, but as Google puts it, we only have access to one open graph (G+) and we will not pull in anyone else’s graph.

For security issues, the user can turn off social controls at any time.

As if you needed any further prodding, it seems clear that if you don’t have a brand page you need to have one.  Especially if you are an affiliate marketer or in the field of insurance.  So let this be a not-so gentle reminder to open your Google+ brand page.  This move shows there is only more integration to come, not less.

Any bets as to how long it is until we see the facebook search product?

An update to the story above appeared January 11, 2012 on Marketing Land as follows:
http://marketingland.com/privacy-watchdog-ftc-needs-to-look-at-googles-search-plus-your-world-3199
“The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) may file a request asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate antitrust and privacy concerns surrounding Google’s latest update to its search results.
As the LA Times reports, EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg says his group will probably file a complaint with the FTC. “We believe this is something that the FTC needs to look at,” Rotenberg tells the Times. “Google is an entrenched player trying to fight off its challenger Facebook by using its market dominance in a separate sector. I think that should trouble people.”

Apple announced that iOS applications that collect user contact information are in violation of their privacy guidelines.  They further announced that a future software fix will target the problem.  They stated, “any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release."

The practice by some 3rd party developers became public when Path, a program designed for iOS and Android was found to be collecting user information without permission.  In the last couple of days other apps have copped to extracting and sharing this information.

All of this comes at a time when online privacy is a big political issue, with many different eyes on the topic.  Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing concern about whether iOS app developer policies are falling short when it comes to protecting consumer information.

Apple has faced privacy issues with its mobile operating system in the past and worked to eliminate the problems.  It is currently in Beta testing for iOS5.1 with developers.  It is unclear when their revisions to block app developer contact info grabs will be in place.

*Minutes after writing the above post – twitter announced that they collect contact information and use it for marketing purposes as well.  You can believe that this will only ramp up the noise about online privacy.   Twitter has since apologized.

We’ve known for a while that younger customers are the first to adopt new technologies, and mobile technology is no exception.  So when a study is released that confirms that fact we might say “ho-hum.”  But as affiliate marketers and lenders we need to keep an eye on the data to look for trends that might impact our industries.

The study was conducted by Auriemma Consulting in January.  It found that 45% of respondents under 45 had downloaded a mobile app from a financial institution within the last year, while only 22% of those over 45 had done so. 
Here’s how they used mobile:
    Check their balance (75%)
    Pay a bill (36%)
    Receive a bank notification (32%)
    Pay by phone and make a deposit (31%)
    Transfer funds (3%)
    Take no action (17%)
47% said they were very or somewhat comfortable making a purchase by phone, 34% were very or somewhat comfortable and 19% were unsure.  The numbers are consistent with the age breakdowns from above. 
The main reasons for mobile payment discomfort were security (58%), fear of identity theft (55%), followed by fear of losing sensitive data (52%).

In an Associated Press Interview, Consumer Financial Protection Board Director, Richard Cordray admitted that bank customers are not interested in disclosures from banks.  They feel they are too complicated and will not read.  What they are on the other hand concerned about, are disclosures involving bank cards, checking account and debit card fees.

The Federal Trade Commission first proposed a “Do Not Track” button in 2010.  FTC Chairman Jon Leobowitz urged web companies to voluntarily set up a system for users to opt out of online tracking, and threatened legislation if they failed to act.

Since then the Obama administration and industry leaders have reached an agreement to install such a button.   It was announced as the “Privacy Bill of Rights” by the White House and is comprised of a set of principles that companies agreed to handle users’ personal data.  All of the major web browsers agreed to the button, and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), a coalition of advertising trade groups, said that by the end of the year they would stop displaying ads to users who had chosen the the “Do Not Track” button.

But, Mike Zaneis, general counsel of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, who is a member of the DAA said that “Do not track” is a “complete misnomer.”  “Under no program will you have no tracking online.  The Internet requires some level of tracking.”

He went on to say that the feature is aimed at allowing consumers to curtail the data that third-parties can collect about them.  Websites such as Amazon, Facebook and millions of other sites that users interact with directly, would still be able track users’ activities.

The FTC seemed to agree.  Mostly.  Ed Felten, the FTC’s chief technologist said the goal of “Do Not Track” is to give consumers choice with online behavioral tracking.”  That seems to align with the industry take on the intent of the agreement.

Then he added, "An effective ‘Do Not Track’ system should go beyond simply opting consumers out of receiving targeted advertisements; it should opt them out of collection of behavioral data for all purposes other than those that would be consistent with the context of the interaction."

The Digital Advertising Alliance committed to a plan wherein users who opt for the “do not track” button, would not see targeted ads, but the companies can still “track” for “product development,” “system management” and some other purposes.

Zaneis said that the Advertising Bureau continues to work on plans for better targeted advertising and admitted that if a majority of customers opted for “Do Not Track” that this would have a very negative impact on the industry.  He says they are working on educating consumers, believing that to be the key for the digital advertising industry.

Awareness, Inc. collected some comments from social media pros and there is some useful information here.  Sometimes just hearing the enthusiasm in their voice (or in this case, their words) can act as a motivation for us to improve our social marketing efforts.

Jason Falls, Principal, Social Media Explorer:  Go into social with a plan.  Social channels are like other marketing channels – treat them with the same diligence.  Don’t just test the waters – commit to social.  It’s the way of the future.  Test and iterate.  Integrate social with your marketing and business initiatives – social marketing cannot exist in a vacuum.

David Berkowitz, Senior Director of Emerging Media and Innovation for 360i:  Don’t think of social only as a way to drive sales and leads.  Social; is about passion – Oreo has 21 million fans because the brand has given voice to the passion of its consumers.

Andrew Patterson, Director of New Media at MLB Advanced Media:  Start with understanding your goals with social.  Where and how you want to participate is a business decision.  Look at your industry and beyond for best practices.  Choose a social media platform that serves your specific needs.

Nathaniel Perez, Head of Social Experience at SapientNitro:  You need carefully integrated content, processes and governance in order to succeed.  Social is not media-centric, it is customer-centric.

Erik Qualman, Author of “Socialnomics: How social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business: The best companies understand that social touches every aspect of their business.  Start with answering why you want to run social programs and what success looks like.  Remember, only a portion of your social efforts can be tracked directly to sales.  Most of social is relationship based – it is a longer term investment in your brand.  Focus with your existing customers – they will spread the word for you.

Google has created a version of its Chrome web browser for the Android system.  It has synchronization features for sharing tabs and bookmarks across devices.  It’s available for Android phones running Ice Cream sandwich, but the majority of current Android phones run older versions of the software.

According to TechNewsWorld, making the browser a downloadable app means users don’t have to wait for the factory to install it on future phones.  But, they do have to wait for the ice cream sandwich updates.
The ability to cross platforms is an important one.  You can have a tab open on your desktop for instance and access that on your phone.  Other features worthy of mention include a dedication to privacy with a private browsing mode called “Incognito” and the ability to fine-tune options.

Everything was of course redesigned to fit on the smaller screen with tabs fitting on the small screen.  And in a major victory for shaky-hands persons, the problem of tapping links on a small screen has been improved with a feature that zooms on the links, thus making the choice of a link an easier task to complete.

The address bar remains as a search bar as well, as in the desktop version.  Mobile chrome also delivers video in html5.

ABI Research Analyst Michael Morgan makes a good observation, “They're using this browser to bridge the gaps between desktop, smartphone and tablet," he told LinuxInsider.

The Consumer Financial Protection Board has developed a platform with which to easily provide feedback regarding ways to streamline federal regulation of various finance-related industries.  http://www.consumerfinance.gov/regcomments/
The CFPB gathered hundreds of responses regarding the insurance industry and their report and recommended regulatory revisions are overdue, but expected to be released in March. 
So if you are in the payday loan, credit report or debt collection businesses in particular, you should gather your thoughts and send in to the CFPB. 
The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA)is also gathering thoughts and opinions, so if you want to submit your thoughts through them go here. 
If you decide to send input, here’s what you should be prepared to share:
o    Describe the specific change you want to make to the regulations
o    Explain why you think the recommended change is a good one
o    Explain how the change would affect your customers and how you think it will affect financial services providers.

This information will be published, minus e-mail and phone number.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed adding some debt collection and consumer reporting firms to its nonbank supervision program.  In a phone call with the Online Lender’s Alliance (OLA), Peggy Twohig, head of the CFPB’s non-bank supervision program, defined the term of the proposal.  Debt collectors with more than $10 million in annual receipts and credit bureaus with more than $7 million in annual receipts are affected.  Ms. Twohig said she believes this to include 175 debt collectors and 30 credit bureaus.  These numbers are based on figures from the latest federal business census.  

The CFPB estimates that these 30 companies account for about 94 percent of the annual receipts from consumer reporting.

This is the CFPB's first in a series of rulemakings to define larger participants. The CFPB chose annual receipts as the criterion for both debt collection and consumer reporting because it approximates market participation in these two markets. As the CFPB adds new markets, it will choose the best criteria and the appropriate thresholds for each market.

Ms. Twohig specifically mentioned "specialty" credit bureaus -- including "payday loan databases" and "check verification firms" -- as being worthy of supervision.
According to Peggy Twohig, this proposal is the "first in a series" of Larger Participant Rule proposals.  It is expected that other types of financial institutions, such as finance companies, prepaid card issuers, money transmitters and check cashers will be added to the nonbank list.

The proposed rule will also allow a company to challenge the CFPB’s determination that they are a “larger participant.”

Comments on the proposal will be due 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register (we estimate April 20).  As proposed, the rule would take effect 30 days after its publication in final form.  The CFPB has a deadline of July 21, 2012, to complete this initial rule, and Peggy Twohig said that she had every expectation that the CFPB would make that deadline and that examinations would begin in August or September of this year.

More information about the CFPB's Nonbank Supervision Program is available here:  http://www.consumerfinance.gov/pressrelease/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-launches-nonbank-supervision-program/

It began with a posted photograph from Mark Zuckerberg which appeared to have a facsimile of a Facebook page that maybe looked like it had a search bar on it. 
According to a BusinessWeek report from March 29, 2012, Facebook has about 24 engineers, including a former Google engineer named Lars Rasmussen working on a search engine for the social giant.   Their goal, they say, is to help users sift through material more efficiently.

24 people is certainly not a threat to Google and its thousands of search engineers and employees.  But, it represents a step in the search direction.  With Google moving from the search arena into the social arena with Google+, it isn’t a surprise that Facebook is at the very least investigating the search market.

From a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense for Facebook to go into search.  After all, search advertising is still the biggest piece of the online advertising pie.  And Facebook does not have a part of that.
It’s doubtful that Facebook will go into search the way Google has.  From a very practical standpoint they currently lack the talent to engineer a new search engine of the entire web, but they certainly might be able to create a search engine that exclusively searches the Facebook world.

For many people, that would be plenty.

This is a classic “Did You Hear” posting.  Beginning in 2012, some Ford Focus vehicles will contain recycled plastic bottles from the Detroit Auto Show and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 
The new Ford Focus Electric will use “Repreve” seating material, a blend of post-industrial and post-consumer waste.  Each vehicle will have the equivalent of 22 plastic bottles in its interior.   Overall, Ford estimates that the plan will eliminate 2 million plastic bottles from landfills.

It doesn’t seem like a lot, but Ford is undertaking other “green” initiatives.  Other Ford vehicles include soy foam seat cushions, castor oil foam in instrument panels and recycled resins for underbody systems. 
According to Ford, 90% of their vehicles are recyclable and they are working to make that 100%.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report on its first six months in existence reporting on the changes it has made, but more importantly what changes are to come.
They said they plan to release rules requiring a lender to verify a borrower’s ability to repay a mortgage loan.  This is obviously directly targeted at the practice of issuing bad loans, then “betting” they will fail.  This practice contributed in a big way to the near-financial collapse of 2007.

The Bureau also wants to streamline disclosures required by the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement procedures Act, as well as a host of new rules for the mortgage market. 
Of further importance to T3Leads affiliate marketers, they also plan to propose rules defining the scope of its nonbank program.

So far the Bureau has opened offices focusing on fair lending, older Americans, students, minorities and community affairs.  It has also established supervision programs of banks and nonbanks, which collect data and information about the industries from consumers and the industry itself.

The Bureau has hired 750 employees, including transferring 230 from other agencies.

The CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) released its first report on the nature of consumer complaints regarding credit card companies.  In the first four months of existence, the CFPB has received over 5,000 complaints.  Consumer confusion over disclosure of policies, objectionable advertising and marketing practices, high interest rates, privacy intrusions and unsolicited issuance of credit cards were some of the major subjects of complaints. 
There was good news in the report.  Of the 5,000 complaints, more than 3,100 were resolved, with 400 cases still disputing the responses.  It should also be pointed out that 5,000 complaints in four months for a business that has approximately 177 million customers, is a relatively low number.

To rectify the problem of confusing policies, it has been suggested that credit card companies submit their revised (plain English) policies to a group for approval.  It is believed that this will force credit card companies to drop the “legalese” that currently amounts to public disclosure.

The results of Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey are in and they show that average fixed mortgage rates are currently at or close to their all-time lows. That low, for 30-year fixed match the all-time low record of 3.94 percent. For 15-year fixed that low is at an all-time low and a 5-year ARM also reached a record low of 2.86 percent.

According to Frank Nothaft, vice president and chief economist for Freddie Mac, all indications are that the housing market is not improving quickly.

"Mortgage rates were at or near all-time record lows this week amid a rough environment for housing.  In its December 13th monetary policy announcement, the Federal Reserve reiterated the housing market remains depressed,” Nothaft said.

But, with rates this low, keep an eye on housing stats in the coming months.  For those of you in the insurance vertical, now is a good time to make a push in the “homeowner’s insurance” keyword category. 

We just had to share this.  In a study conducted by England-based insurer Ageas Ltd., in the U.K. more pets are covered than children when it comes to health coverage for serious injuries.  The study showed that 9% of British consumers or 4.5 million have critical illness insurance that covers their children.  12% or nearly 6 million have coverage for their pets.

About 9.5 million parents have no financial protection or even sick leave available if the need to care for a sick child occurred.

For this writer, the following numbers are even more disturbing.

The results said that less than half (42%) of those surveyed would be willing to buy critical illness insurance if the premium was £20 ($31) or less per month.
But the head of marketing for the Ageas Project had this to say:  “It’s clear that parents are willing to pay to protect themselves and their children for a reasonable monthly amount.”

I’m sorry, but are we reading the same numbers?   This article appeared on businessinsurance.com.

While the federal government debates reforms to the banking industry, overdraft fees on credit cards are likely to top $16 Billion in 2011.  Many banks automatically enrolled customers in overdraft protection plans, without their knowledge.  The Federal Reserve declared this practice illegal last year.  Customers must now be informed and agree to overdraft protection.  Typical charges are $35 to $40 per overdrawn item.

In addition to the fees consumers have complained about how they are collected.  Many consumers believe that when the ATM card is “swiped” and the transaction is approved that that means there is enough money in the account.  This is not true.  The approval means that the bank will cover the charge, not that there is necessarily enough money in the account to cover it.

Banks are also engaging in another practice the Feds are looking at:  re-ordering purchases.  By putting the highest ticket item first, they can apply the fee to numerous smaller transactions, thereby generating even higher fees.

Expect further debate and customer weariness towards the financial industry.

According to the Pew Research Center and American Life Project the number of US adults who own a tablet device rose from 10% on December 21, 2011 to a whopping 19% on January 15, 2012.  25 days!

The study goes on to tell us who the tablet users are, and to a great extent they are the more affluent.  36% of households making $75,000 or more now own a tablet.  31% of college graduates also own a tablet. 
More tablets in the hands of consumers is good news for marketers, according to a new study from Adobe. Tablet users spent 54 percent more per purchase in 2011 than visitors who use smartphones, the study said, with an average order total of $123 per purchase.

Tablet shoppers spend more than their smartphone counterparts for two reasons, according to Adobe: One, they are more affluent than smartphone users, a finding consistent with the Pew study. Adobe also speculated that tablets are simply more conducive to shopping.

Some other interesting takeaways: Pew found that the number of male and female adults in the U.S. who own a tablet computer leapt from 6% (males) and 4% (females) in November 2010 to 19% (for both genders) in mid-January 2012.

Reverand Jim Bryan, a retired United Methodist Church pastor, is speartheading a consumer ballot drive that would place restrictions on the payday loan industry in Missouri.

Bryan, as well as other religious and civic groups, are attempting to qualify the proposal for the 2012 ballot.
 
Rev. Bryan retired from the Missouri United Methodist Church in June, 2010. He is an officer in the Missourians for Responsible Lending organization.

The group's proposal would cap payday and car title loan annual percentage rates at 36 percent.

The newly launched Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is now open for business and has been busy trying to implement rules regarding the oversight of numerous financial services business categories.

One component of the CFPB that is in place is their website: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/the-bureau/

The CFPB site includes sections on:

* Information about the CFPB's mission and how it was formed
* How to submit credit card complaints
* How to check on the status of a complaint
* How to get help with financial services products
* How to get mortgage help
* Providing information on specific "stories." ("Tell My Story" is not intended to be a complaint section, but area where visitors can post details of their experiences they'd like to share.)
* There is also a jobs section on the site.

There are also several videos posted throughout the site with overviews of the CFPB's services.

The website describes the core services offered by the CFPB:

The consumer bureau is working to give consumers the information they need to understand the terms of their agreements with financial companies. We are working to make regulations and guidance as clear and streamlined as possible so providers of consumer financial products and services can follow the rules on their own.

Congress established the CFPB to protect consumers by carrying out Federal consumer financial laws. Among other things, we:

* Conduct rule-making, supervision, and enforcement for Federal consumer financial protection laws
* Restrict unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices
* Take consumer complaints
* Promote financial education
* Research consumer behavior
* Monitor financial markets for new risks to consumers
* Enforce laws that outlaw discrimination and other unfair treatment in consumer finance

Visit http://www.consumerfinance.gov/the-bureau/ to browse the website for yourself.

The controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) officially began operations in July, 2011. The agency that was mandated by passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act immediately enacted several rules, including:

* Notice provisions for state officials to notify the CFPB of certain matters;
* Procedures for investigations;
* Procedures for certain adjudications; and
* Freedom of Information Act procedures.

In addition, the CFPB is taking an active role with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. The agency will:

* interact with the public in effective and meaningful ways,
* encourage the wide sharing of consumer financial information and the strengthening of an online community of consumers, and
* ensure that critical information about the agency and key consumer finance issues is distributed.

If you're interested in checking out updated information on the Dodd-Frank Act, you may want to visit www.dodd-frank.com.

Talk about a popular product!  Records show that over one million UK residents take advantage of payday loan services each year.

According to reports by the advocacy group Consumer Focus, the number of payday loan customers in the UK has soared by over 400 percent since 1996.

The recent study by Consumer Focus indicated that 1.2 million UK consumers take out a payday loan, and they borrow a grand total of £1.2bn.

Clearly, the UK payday loan industry is thriving, despite critics who complain about the annual percentage rate. However, many Brits are turning to these short-term loans as a way to resolve their immediate money emergency.

When managed properly and repaid on time, payday loans are clearly not as risky as critics say. Borrowers must hold down a steady job or have a source of income in order to qualify for the cash advance. And, the loans are intended to be repaid by the next payday. When UK consumers adhere to these guidelines and take out only the amount of money they know can be paid off promptly, payday loans offer peace of mind to millions of UK residents.

How's this for solid evidence that consumers are in favor of payday loan operations?

According to an Associated Press (AP), stocks for services such as payday loan lenders, discount stores and pawnshops are on the rise -- even though stocks for many other industries are floundering.

The AP has reported stocks for payday loan firms such as Advance America and Cash Advance Centers has soared by over 100 percent over the past year; and another outfit, Cash America International, has improved by 64 percent.

The stock surge for payday lenders could very well be a reflection of an economy that continues to struggle, as consumers search for ways to pay for urgent expenses.

Other industries that tend to serve financially strapped consumers -- rental centers and pawn shops -- are seeing positive gains in the stock market, as well. Rent-A-Center, for example, is up over 57 percent from 12 months ago. Texas-based pawnshop chain Ezcorp Inc. has

With one out of seven Americans now below the poverty line and consumer confidence waning, this trend is likely to continue.

There has been a lot of news lately about payday loan firms that have sprung up throughout Native American tribal communities. Critics have alleged the payday loan stores are online entities who have opted to run their service through tribal communities in order to avoid state licensing regulations.

Now the Native American Fair Commerce Coalition (NAFCC) is taking offense to these critics. NAFCC is an advocacy group comprising "like-minded tribes and tribal members that are committed to protecting the sovereign rights of Native Americans to pursue business and economic opportunities for their tribes nationwide."

NAFCC issued a statement that responds to the Community Financial Services Association of America's (CFSAA) claims that Native American payday operations are "a group of Internet-based lenders who choose not to license themselves in the states in which they operate." NAFCC alleged the CFSAA's comments are discriminatory and they are "impeding Native Americans from lawfully exercising the rights of Native Americans to the same economic opportunities available to members companies of the CFSAA."

The NAFCC statement noted: "The CFSAA's admonition to its members to avoid Native American tribal involvement in online short-term lending is discriminatory and violates the cross-generational, hard-fought gains achieved by Native Americans to maintain tribal identity and culture and protect their economic development," NAFCC Executive Director Darold Stagner said in a statement provided to TheStreet. "The CFSAA, with its constant attacks on the expanding presence of Native Americans in online lending, is causing harm to all three areas of our mission."

The NAFCC defended short-term lenders, saying they "fill a need for consumers and provide revenue vital to the welfare of the tribes" and that profits from payday lending are used to fund "tribal law enforcement, poverty assistance, housing, nutrition, preschool, elder care programs, school supplies and scholarships."

"Native American sovereignty, recognized by the United States Congress, aims to protect those rights that Native American tribes never bargained away since before the inception of America," says Charles Moncooyea of the Otoe-Missouri Tribe in Red Rock, Okla. "This right is designed to provide the economic benefits and opportunities general society has that are simply not available to Native American tribes. Those seeking to further victimize our tribes by singling out Native American-owned businesses are on the wrong side of the issue and on the wrong side of history. Just as retail and service business sectors are migrating to the Internet, the continuing growth of online short-term lending is inevitable. Native Americans have a sovereign right to engage in online short-term lending in order to pursue economic opportunities and equality in commerce for the betterment of our tribes and our families."

Are you ready for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)?

The new CFPB is the government entity mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. One of the initial duties of the CFPB will be to develop new rules and regulations for numerous sectors of the various U.S. financial services industries. The mortgage community will most certain be impacted by these new rules.

One mortgage-related area in particular that the CFPB plans to tackle is concerning mortgage service firms and the consumer's ability to shop for competitive services. In fact, Congress has conducted hearings recently on how to make the mortgage service industry more consumer-friendly.

The CFPB is open for business as of July 21, 2011. Expect a steady flow of rule changes impacting the mortgage community and numerous other financial services firms.

If the last several years holds true, Britons will take three months to pay off their Christmas debt.  It comes as no surprise that it is younger people who are the majority of those collecting debt.  They are more likely to have children and generally speaking, people in their 50’s make more money than those in their 20’s.

The group Saga, an over-50 targeted information and service group, estimates that in 1999, Christmas debt took just 57 days to pay off.  Paul Green, a spokesman for Saga Group, said: “It is a shocking indictment of the nation’s economy that so many people are left struggling to cope with so much debt.”

The same report estimates that Britons, on average, will spend a total of £435 on presents.

This information may point to an increased need for payday loans.  Affiliate ads targeting younger consumers would definitely seem to be in order.

Google is clamping down on blog networks such as BuildMyRank in an effort to do away with unnatural backlink profiles.  In some cases they have sent notifications saying that a particular site has been penalized or de-indexed for having artificial or unnatural links. 

For affiliate marketers this is clearly a warning shot.  If you have artificial links you should begin the hard work of creating natural ones.  In the past Google has discouraged the practice of adding artificial links, but not taken actions near as strong as these.

We would not recommend dumping them all at one time, but to avoid a sudden drop off in the near future you should at the very least identify what links, you have if any, that are artificial and be prepared to eliminate them if necessary.

Too much of the news about payday loans is negative. That's why we want to pass along information about payday loans that paint this product in a positive light. After all, many consumers take advantage of payday loans -- and many of them are able to use these short-term loans to resolve financial problems.

For example ...

* A report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York noted payday loans should not be considererd "predatory" because they can improve the financial condition of one's household. The Fed report was titled, "Defining and Detecting Predatory Lending."

* Petru Stelian Stoianovici, a researcher with The Brattle Group; and Michael T. Maloney, professor at Clemson University, reported that there should be no link between payday lending and bankruptcies. The researchers found no empirical evidence that payday lending leads to more bankruptcy filings.

* A 2010 report found neighborhoods with the presence of payday lenders actually could boast lower property crime rates than areas with no payday loan facilities.

* In 2009 Professor Adair Morse with the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business found that in regions hit by natural disastgers, consumers fared better if there were payday loan stores present. Morse's study also found there were fewer people in areas served by payday lenders who were treated for drug and alcohol addiction than in areas with no payday lenders in the community.

Needless to say, consumers should be grateful for the presence of payday loan stores.

Talk about an interesting lawsuit!

Zurich American Insurance Co. has filed suit against a Sony Corp. division, claiming they do not have the duty to cover the cost of lawsuits and related expenses associated with the hacking of Sony's PlayStation Network.

The lawsuit was filed July 20 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. The suit states Zurich is not mandated to “defend and potentially indemnify” Sony from class action suits, other related claims and costs associated with legal investigations concerning the April hacking incidents.

The court documents state Zurich officials believe the insurer is not required to defend or indemnify Sony. Zurich says Sony’s primary commercial general liability and excess policies do not qualify for such coverage against these types of losses.

Zurich also claims Sony's other insurers should be liable for providing primary coverage for these losses. Those carriers include: Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. of America; National Union Fire Insurance Co.; and ACE American Insurance Co.

Sony’s PlayStation Network was hacked in April, 2011, exposing over 100 million customer accounts and their private information. The incident, which was reportedly the second-largest Internet breach in U.S. history with losses up to $2 billion, has resulted in a flurry of claims against Sony.

These days more and more consumers are taking advantage of short-term/payday loans to pay off urgent expenses. And, a growing percentage of these loans are being purchased online.

Two major reasons why online payday loans have become so popular are because of their speed (approved applicants typically have their money within one business day); and because there are no forms or documents that need to be faxed to the lender.

There are many reason why faxless payday loans have become so popular:

* Faxless payday loans help to speed up the process of obtaining money. All the forms are online and transmitted immediately to the prospective lender.

* Faxless payday loans are extremely secure. Online data is protected with the most up-to-date security software for personal information is never exposed to any unwanted party.

* Faxless payday loan applications are typically reviewed instantly by the lender. There is no need to wait for days until the lender gets to your application.

* One of the most convenient aspects of faxless payday loans is that the application process can take place anywhere you have Internet access. Uncomfortable discussing your personal information in front of other customers? Then look into a faxless short-term loan that you can apply for online from the comfort of your home.

According to research released by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), the additional weight of a hybrid engine is like an extra layer of safety, not found in lighter, no-hybrid cars.  This has resulted in passengers in hybrids being 25% less likely to be injured in an accident.

Candysse Miller, Executive Director of the “Insurance Information Network of California said, “choosing a car that saves gas, doesn’t necessarily mean compromising on safety.”

The research compared 25 hybrid cars and the gasoline-powered versions of those same vehicles.  The testing included the Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion and Honda Accord.

But there is some bad safety news regarding hybrids.  In a separate report the HLDI found that hybrids may be 20% more likely to be involved in pedestrian accidents, than their gasoline powered alternatives.  The quiet engines of a hybrid are suspected are the reason.  The National Highway Traffic safety Administration is looking into how manufacturers could equip their cars with sounds to alert pedestrians.

Passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act mandated a new rule -- "Regulation Z" -- also known as the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Now the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are proposing a rule amendment that would expand Regulation Z.

The Board is looking for public comments on their proposed rule amendments to Regulation Z. Currently, Regulation Z prohibits a creditor from making a higher-priced mortgage loan without regard to the consumer's ability to repay the loan. The proposed change would expand the scope of the Regulation's "ability-to-repay" requirement to cover any consumer credit transaction secured by a dwelling (excluding an open-end credit plan, timeshare plan, reverse mortgage, or temporary loan).

In addition, the proposal would:

* Establish standards for complying with the ability-to-repay requirement, including a "qualified mortgage'' standard.
 
* Implement limits on prepayment penalties.

* Require creditors to retain evidence of compliance with the rule for three years after a loan is consummated.

General rulemaking authority for TILA is scheduled to transfer to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on July 21, 2011.

Comments on the proposed rule must be received on or before July 22, 2011. All comment letters will be transferred to the CFPB.

Technology is advancing at the speed of light. Seems like every day there's a newer, cooler tech gadget. What was "in" a year ago may already be obsolete.

That's why several retail stores, including Best Buy, WalMart, RadioShack, Dell and Office Depot are offering "buyback insurance."

Consumers may purchase a buyback insurance plan. In return, the store will buy back an old device for as much as half of the original costs -- as long as the gadget is returned within a few years.

Los Angeles-based TechForward began selling buyback insurance plans in 2008. TechForward is the buyback insurance provider for many of the retailer listed above. Best Buy launched its own buyback insurance program in 2010, although they are involved in litigation with TechFoward over a trademark secrets dispute.

The concept is simple. A consumer may purchase a buyback plan on an HDTV, for example, for about $180. If the buyer brings back their TV in good shape witin two-four years (depending on the item), the store will provide the consumer with a percentage of the original price. The payout will vary depending on how long the consumer had the item.

How does the program benefit retailers? First off, the product is a good value-added service for customers. It is also a very profitable product. For example, Best Buy's buyback insurance and warranty products accounted for 6 percent of the company's approximate $11 billion in sales in the last quarter -- and 11 percent of the company's overall $2.8 billion profit.

Stop!

Make sure you determine the answers to these critical pre-purchase questions:

* How long the home been on the market? If the home has been out there for too long, it may be over-priced.

* Does it make more sense to rent or to own? Depending on yor financial situation and the market value of rental properties, it may actually make more sense to rent for some consumers.

* What is the true market value of the property I am attempting to purchase?

* This home looks great -- but what's wrong with it? Some buyers are so eager to purchase a home that they will over-look certain problems. For example, maybe the inspection uncovers some structural issues. You may love the home and the location, but the underlying problems may not be worth the long-term hassle.

* Will the seller help out with the closing costs? This is a big consideration. Some sellers will pitch in on the closing costs, which could be a huge factor for some buyers.

* Have there been foreclosures in the neighborhood? If so, you may be able to offer a lower price.

* How close is the home to a high risk flood plain? The area may look secure, but flash floods happen and you will probably want to make sure your home is in a secure location.

* Is the home a "short sale"? In some cases, the bank will not permit a home to be sold for less than the market value.

* Is the seller willing to negotiate on the asking price? If the seller is not flexible, and you go in with a low-ball offer, you may lose out on the house of your dreams.

The Court of Appeals for Washington D.C. upheld the controversial health care law, AKA “ObamaCare” as being constitutionally sound on November 8th.  It found that Congress did overstep its authority by requiring that citizens have health insurance of pay a fine, beginning in 2014.

This is the second court to uphold the law.  The Supreme Court could decide very soon whether to hear appeals of its own.

Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter said that opponents who say the individual mandate provision exceeded Congress' power "are simply wrong."  "People who make a decision to forego health insurance do not opt out of the health care market," she wrote. "Their action is not felt by themselves alone. Instead, when they become ill or injured and cannot pay their bills, their costs are shifted to others. Those costs - $43 billion in 2008 alone - are borne by doctors, hospitals, insured individuals, taxpayers and small businesses throughout the nation."

Over 48 million Americans do not have health insurance; in other terms more than 18%. 

The top 200 brands in the world are not doing an effective job optimizing their Facebook or Twitter pages for search engine rankings.

The SEO platform BrightEdge has analyzed the leading consumer brands. The firm has determined that these brands do have a social media presence, but they are not performing adequate SEO practices to optimize their social network pages on the major search engines.

BrightEdge has reported that nearly all of the top consumer brands are ranked at or near the top of the organic searches. And, 68 percent of these companies' Facebook or Twitter pages are in the top 20 search results. But the objective for online marketers is to be within the top 10 results in order to generate the best website traffic results.

BrightEdge found there is no direct connection between a company's social network friends list and its search engine ranking.

According to the study, the industries that are the weakest in effectively optimizing social media are the finance and insurance industries. Of the top 43 financial and insurance companies, only three firms have Facebook fan pages rank near the top.

One of the most frequent complaints about payday loans is that some borrowers do not pay their debt promptly and the consumer incurs hefty additional fees. Payday lenders are clear about the terms of their loans. Borrowers are required to repay the loan at the next payday (hence, the term "payday" loan). When the borrower requests extensions, then the fees can start mounting.

We want to offer some advice to those who may need assistance in paying off their payday loans.

* First and foremost -- do not borrow more money to pay off your existing loan. This could lead to what critics call a "cycle of debt" that can send consumers finances spiraling down the drain.

* You may want to communicate with your lender and explain your situation. Tell the lender you do not want to continue extending the payday loan. They may come up with a new payment plan that is more amenable to the borrower's financial situation.

If this doesn't work, you may want to consult a debt advisor who can come up with some other options.

Dollar Financial Corp. has announced plans to offer 5 million shares of common stock to help fund the purchase of a UK-based payday loan lender. Dollar Financial provides check-cashing and other financial services products.

The company has not yet indicated how money the common stock sale should generate. It expects to transfer the revenue to its subsidiary, Dollar Financial U.K. Limited, which recently bought the payday loan lender Purpose U.K. Holdings for $195 million, using revolving credit for the purchase. Revolving credit is sometimes used to provide liquidity for a company's day-to-day operations.

Dollar Financial operates approximately 1,200 stores, including 100 franchise locations, under various brand names such as Money Mart and American Payday Loans. The company operates in several nations, including the U.S., United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Poland and Canada.

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“People tend to underestimate the risk of flooding,” Jeanne M. Salvatore, senior vice president for the I.I.I. commented. “But, in fact, 90 percent of all natural disasters in this country involve flooding.”

The I.I.I. reported that less than 20 percent of U.S. homeowners have a flood insurance policy, and flood losses occur in over 80 percent of the natural disasters that stike the country.

Protection against flood damage caused by natural disasters such as hurricanes is typically excluded from a standard home insurance policy. Flood coverage can be obtained by homeowners through the National Flood Insurance Program to offer protection against such events.

There is a 30-day waiting period for a flood insurance policy to take effect after the policy is purchased. Therefore, it is important for homeowners to seek flood coverage far in advance of when hurricane or severe storm warnings hit.

Salvatore added that all homeowners should consider purchasing flood coverage, even if they do not live in a high risk flood zone. Salvatore noted that "low risk" does not equal "no risk."

Statistics show up to 30 percent of the National Flood Insurance Program’s paid losses were a result of damage caused in regions not noted as a high hazard area.

Scott Gerber in an article for mashable, offered his mobile app recommendations for entrepreneurs.  Let’s check them out. 
http://mashable.com/2012/01/24/entrepreneur-mobile-apps/
With each passing day, you can conduct more and more of your business from your phone.  Although most of us may still use a PC or laptop, don’t discount what some of these programs can do for you.

Thanks to Scott he did the research for us and here are the apps a group of successful young entrepreneurs say are their favorites.

- Thumb:  You ask questions and share opinions.  Upload a picture and within seconds people will comment and rate it.  The most exciting thing about this is to this writer is its potential.  What will this look like in six months?

- Instagram.  We’ve covered this before, but it’s very popular.  The app allows you to change photos with one of many filters.  Take a great picture and make it look better.  Make it great and see if it, and you, don’t go viral.

- Instapaper:  Your personal online newspaper.  If you’re like me, I constantly come across articles and blogposts that I want to read, but don’t have the time to at that moment.  Wave the article to Instagram and read it later.   A much improved system over bookmarking everything and having that mess.

- Dwolla.  The online version of cash.  People can exchange money online or through their phones with paying any fees.  Check their website for more information.

- OmniFocus:  A organizing app for Mac, iPhone and iPad.  Reminds me of an old style actual organizer.  You know, the real kind with tabs, a binder and all that.  You can organize tasks by device.  Make general to-do lists, etc. 
We hope you find some of these useful. 

The Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has released a report, "Payday Loans, Inc.: Short on Credit, Long on Debt," that shows many payday loan borrowers should be more responsible when it comes to repaying the loan on time.

The CRL tracked some 11,000 payday loan borrowers over a two-year span. The study found some borrowers remained indebted for as long as 24 months following their initial loan.

The report shows borrowers who repeatedly use payday loans tend to borrow increasingly larger amounts, which raises the risk of default. The CRL study also shows the average payday loan recipient takes about six months to repay the loan.

Payday loans are designed to be repaid within 15 days -- the length of time until the borrower's next payday.  

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The suit was lodged against Select Staffing Co. Inc. after a jury found the firm guilty of fraud. Santa Barbara-based Select Staffing was charged with avoiding workers' comp premiums through a "piggy-backing" scam where Select Staffing illegal used another (and now defunct) staffing firm's workers' comp policy. By doing so the temporary staffing agency was able to reduce its experience modification and pay much lower premiums.

Experience modifications are used to determine a business’s premium calculation. The lower the experience-modification, the lower the premiums. Select Staffing's ex mod was 300; and the other firm, Onvoi, had an ex mod of 70. The lower the experience modification figure, the lower the business' premiums.

The state of Massachusetts will receive nearly $10 million from a $125 million settlement resolving claims of unfair and discriminatory lending practices and Sand Canyon (formerly known as Option One) will have to modify thousands of Bay State homeowners’ loans, Attorney General Martha Coakley has announced.

The settlement requires the mortgage originator, a subsidiary of H&R Block, Inc., to pay the state $9.8 million and to direct American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., the current servicer of 5,500 Massachusetts loans, to enact an aggressive loan modification program that will provide an estimated $115 million in additional relief.

“Option One made loans that it knew were likely to fail and it discriminated against African-American and Latino borrowers,” Coakley said in a statement. “Its blatant disregard for prudent underwriting standards contributed to the economic downturn we still find ourselves in today. Like our other cases against mortgage lenders and their Wall Street facilitators, this case holds this corporation accountable and provides much needed relief to homeowners.”

Option One originated approximately 32,400 loans in Massachusetts between 2004 and 2007, at which point the subprime market collapsed and it ceased its lending operations nationwide.

The attorney general alleged that Option One’s discretionary pricing policies let mortgage brokers charge excessive and unjustified fees, causing black and Latino borrowers to pay more money, on average, for their loans. In 2008, when the lawsuit was filed, it was the first by a state attorney general’s office alleging civil rights claims against a subprime lender. Option One originated loans to approximately 4,400 black and Latino borrowers between 2004 and 2007.

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Credit is not permitted as an insurance rating factor for at least one line of insurance in California, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Maryland.

So -- how does the credit scoring game work for insurance carriers? The major vendors providing insurers with credit score information include TransUnion, LexisNexus and FICO. The vast majority of property and casualty insurers -- upwards of around 90 percent -- utilize credit scoring as part of their auto and homeowners insurance rating factors. In fact, according to LexisNexis, over 300 insurers take advantage of their credit scoring product.

Credit is clearly not the only rating factor insurers consider. Insurance companies will look closely at driving record, miles driven, make and model of the vehicle, the address of the policyholder and a number of other criteria when determining one's insurance rate.

Needless to say, it is important for a consumer to maintain a good credit score in order to qualify for lower interest rates. But, it is often equally important (depending on the state in which you reside) when it comes to insurance purchases, as well.

The British Consumer Finance Association (CFA) has implemented a "code of practice" geared toward short-term loan providers such as payday lenders.

Members of the CFA represent many of the largest payay loan lenders in the UK.

The code of practice is intended to serve as a guidelines for short-term loan providers.

Although there have been some critics to the cFA's code of practice, the group's CEO John Lamidey explained the code is designed to better educate consumers on the payday loan process; and to discourage consumers from borrowing more than they could afford.

Still, some liberal members of Parliament are warning that if the code of practice does not sufficiently regulate the industry to their liking, there could be a stronger push by the government for stricter regulations.

Currently, the UK short-term loan industry is mostly self-regulated.

The state insurance department websites in California, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and Utah do the best job of giving consumers access to critical insurance information, according to a review of state-run insurance websites across the country conducted by a subsidiary of Bankrate Insurance, which owns several online insurance lead generation vendors.

Each of these websites is easy to navigate and provides a way for consumers to perform such tasks such as comparing auto insurance premiums, filing a complaint against an insurance company or reporting insurance fraud.

On the other hand, dozens of state insurance department websites provide minimal or outdated information regarding complaints against insurers, make it difficult to file an online complaint or send consumers to a third-party website to report fraud. Furthermore, some of the worst websites don't let consumers do comparison shopping for auto, home or renter's insurance.

Robert Hunter, the Consumer Federation of America's director of insurance and a former Texas insurance commissioner, says his consumer advocacy group has been studying state insurance websites for 15 years. Hunter says the states' insurance sites are getting better, but overall they're still a work in progress.

As the housing market begins to show slight signs of climbing out from its three year slump, one move could potentially erase any gains and set the housing market back in the negative direction.

Of course, we are referring to the home mortgage deduction.

There have been rumors leaking out of D.C. that some lawmakers are considering the elimination of the mortgage deduction. An estimated 40 million families use the deduction, including 65 percent of those earning under $100,000 a year and 90 percent of families with income under $200,000.

Real estate groups such as the National Association of Realtors have gone on record stating the elimination of the home mortgage deduction would lead to a 15 percent reduction in home values.

Let's say the change takes effect only for higher value homes. Such a move would eventually impact all homes, as the value of the larger homes decline and the other home values follow soon after.

There appears to be no cause to panic just yet. House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy has commented that there is no way such a plan to eliminate the home mortgage deduction could get passed by Congress.

Members of the National Association of Professional Allstate Agents (NAPAA) voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), AFL-CIO.

Secret ballots were mailed to all 1,200 members of NAPAA and when the ballots were tallied, more than 94 percent had voted in favor of affiliating with OPEIU.  The vote was administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and was counted today at the AAA's New York office. 

"Our members have sent a message and we hear them loud and clear," said Jim Fish, NAPAA executive director. "Now we will work closely with OPEIU to finalize an affiliation agreement that establishes NAPAA as a guild."

The NAPAA Board of Directors is expected to meet in the near future to formally approve the affiliation. Once the agreement is approved, NAPAA members will be granted membership in OPEIU, the national AFL-CIO and all State Federations of Labor.

"Affiliating with OPEIU is the first step toward ensuring that Allstate agents are treated as true independent contractors instead of employees," said Fish. "Currently, agents are subjected to unachievable quotas, the specter of reduced compensation and an ever-present threat of contract termination. Many companies today are circumventing IRS precepts regarding employee status and are now classifying these same people as independent contractors.  This practice has to stop."

"This is a matter of defending the interests of ill-treated small business owners, and NAPAA members have recognized that OPEIU is the right organization to help them achieve the benefits and protections they deserve," said OPEIU International President Michael Goodwin.  "With the insurance industry being highly regulated at the state level, NAPAA will soon be able to offer legislative access and legal support to questionable compliance issues, faced by both agents and customers alike."

Professional employees in the areas of health care, education, aviation and sports umpiring have been attracted to OPEIU and sought representation in recent years.

The depressed U.S. housing market may be showing some signs of life.

Recent surveys have indicated prices for new and existing homes are rising a bit.

According to the Commerce Department, sales of new homes dropped in June, but prices grew -- possible a result of the limited number of homes on the market.

The Commerce Department data shows sales of new homes dropped 1 percent in June, 2011. The median price of a new home grew by 5.8 percent. The median new home price is now $235,200.

Another housing market study conducted by S&P Case Shiller has found home prices in the 20 major metropolitan areas jumped in May. It was the second consecutive month of growth in these areas, as the median price of an existing home grew 1 percent from April to May. Comparing year-over-year data, housing prices were down 4.5 percent from May 2010.

The nation's economic woes of the past couple years is leading to a major drop in people covered by workers' compensation insurance.

According to the National Academy of Social Insurance, the recession has resulted in a reduction of 124.9 million Americans covered by workers' comp insurance in 2009. That's a 4.4 percent decrease.

In addition, the organization has found:

* The most recent drop in those covered by workers' comp insurance is the largest decline in two decades, according to the group's report, “Workers’ Compensation: Benefits, Coverage and Costs, 2009.”

* Due to the drop-off in employed workers, employers’ total workers comp benefit costs fell by $73.9 billion -- a 7.6 percent decline. That's the biggest drop since 1987.

* Despite the major reduction in the number of workers covered by comp insurance, benefit pay-outs actually increased by 0.4 percent in 2009.

Michael Bloch of “Taming the Beast” gathered the following tips for proofreading your own writing.  As someone who has practiced this skill for more than two decades, it’s amazingly easy to mess up.  This article may in fact end up with a typo or two, despite my best efforts.

I’m going to assume that everyone is using spellcheck and grammar check.  It’s smart to double check the grammar check, as I have found errors in that automated system.

Double check all forms of communication – website, social media and phone numbers!

Don’t only look for typos.  Upon inspection, if you see a way to improve the prose, by all means do it.  Tighten your copy as well.  Write succinctly.

Editing from a written copy has always been helpful to me as well.  I don’t understand the why’s of it, but editing from a written copy vs. from the monitor/screen is more effective.

Know your writing weaknesses.  I have a tendency to write too conversationally.  In particular I find myself starting my sentences with “and” a lot.  It’s fine for certain types of fictional writing, but not for a blog or for article writing.  Learn your weaknesses if you don’t know already know them.

Write and proofread on different days if possible.  The errors will stand out the second day.

Doing all of the above in a quiet room with no distractions is a real key.  Losing your concentration is sure to cause problems.

And finally, this seems silly, but read each word.  We normally read in groups of words.  When proofing, do it one word at a time - see each word.  It takes longer, but it will result in a more effective proof. 

A study released by the British insolvency trade group R3 has found the debt level is growing for more Scottish residents than anywhere else in the UK.

R3's second quarter 2011 study found 13 percent of Scots had taken on additional debt through sources such as credit cards, loans and more overdraft sources. Thirteen percent of residents throughout the remainder of Great Britain have taken on more debt.

The news gets worse for the Scots. The survey indicated 43 percent of Scots are struggling to make ends meet. Believe it or not, that is better than in the rest of the UK, where 46 percent say they are having trouble making it to the next paycheck.

It makes sense that payday loans have become incredibly popular in Scotland. More than 200,000 Scots have obtained a payday loan in past year. Throughout all of the UK, about 2 million Brits have received a short-term loan in the last year.

Scientists have found a link between sleep apnea and dementia.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of California San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center have discovered sleep apnea may cause cognitive impairment, which may even lead to dementia.

Researchers looked at senior women who suffered from sleep apnea and other nighttime disorders. Those with sleep/breathing issues were found to have a much higher potential for developing cognitive impariment within a five year span than those without the sleep problems.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The extent of information has been limited before, because the studies were based on people with advanced dementia, who, surprise, surprise, had sleep problems," Dr. Kristine Yaffe, professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at UCSF commented. "It's been hard to tell what's the chicken and what's the egg. This study isn't proof-positive, but it's much stronger than earlier studies. What we're seeing is a nearly twofold increase of having cognitive problems five years later."

There are companies that will pay you to take old tech such as computers, blu-ray movies, mobile phones and other such items.  Here’s a list some:

Gazelle:  A reCommerce service that will take iPads, external hard drives, GPS devices, satellite radios, Blu-ray movies and other gadgets. If your item isn’t listed, you can contact them for a personalized quote. Payment can be made via Amazon gift card, checks, PayPal, or you can opt to have the funds donated to one of the charities they work with.

NextWorth:  Works with several retailers to make it easy for you to receive store credit or a gift card by trading in old electronics. You can also go to the website and receive a quote online, then get a check or gift card mailed to you. You can also receive payment via PayPal or e-gift card.

eBay:  As part of the Rethink Initiative program, eBay offers various tools and solutions to consumers looking to sell one or many electronic devices. If you choose not to sell your device on eBay yourself, there are a couple other options the company can provide you with.

BuyMyTronics.com buys your used cell phones, iPods, iPads and other Apple products, digital cameras, tablets, and other electronics. You'll receive a free quote, and if you agree with the offer, the company also offers free shipping. The gadget will then be processed and you'll get a check back, or payment via PayPal.

iOffer is another eCommerce site that offers "a negotiable marketplace." You can sell, trade or purchase just about anything, but there is a whole section devoted specifically to video games.

There are several big retailers that have programs for trade-ins of old tech and they include Best Buy, Walmart, Target and Radio Shack. 

In a recent article long time blogger Lee Odden, asked if small business blogging really works.  In it he makes some general observations about blogging.  This wasn’t necessarily his attention, but when you re-define blogging in your mind, you could very well achieve a new level of success.

Blogs are essentially easy to use “content management systems.”  Right on.  Their structure offers several inherent advantages:

•     Blogs are an easy to use platform in which to create “sharable, linkable content” that addresses current and potential customer concerns and interests.  In addition to current and potential customers, blogs can reach the media, including other bloggers and other marketing partners.
•     They serve as a “hub” of content marketing and promotion
•     They create a promotable SEO and social media asset – every post is a potential destination for a link and also acts as an entry point from search engines.
• His purpose was not to make us think differently about blogging, but he nonetheless succeeds.  Often times when we re-define an activity, the simple process of re-defining it will cause us to look at it in a different way.  This is quite healthy overall, as well as effective in re-aligning an activity in our minds so we look at it in a way that generates different and improved results in the long run.

RealtyTrac is reporting foreclosure filings during the first six months of 2011 dropped by 25 percent compared with the last half of 2010. The foreclosure filed during Q2 of 2011 was the lowest total in over three years. The drop may be more related to delays in the filing process that an improvement in the economy.

Insiders are saying the decline in foreclosure filings is helping to temporarily stabilize housing prices. The result is what has been called an 'artificial floor' in home prices, because prices would actually plummet if more foreclosures are processed at a quicker pace.

Nevada continues to see the highest foreclosure filing rate. One out of every 21 Silver State homes are receiving a foreclosure notice. Arizona is next, at one in 36 households; and California is third with one in 51.

Shopping for auto insurance?

We thought it may be useful to provide a list of auto insurance shopping tips. Check 'em out:

1. Use our website to locate a competitively priced policy that fits the needs of you and your family.

2. When obtaining quotes, make sure you are completely honest about all the information you provide: driving record, annual miles driven, number of years consecutively insured, etc. Some drivers may try to fudge a bit on their responses in order to find a lower rate. The problem with that tactic is the insurance company has resources to double-check the accuracy of the information. And, if the information is incorrect, it could lead to a higher rate or even an short-term cancellation.

3. One of the simplest ways to reduce your premium is to increase your decuctible. There may be a significant difference between a $500 and a $1,000 deductible, depending on the carrier. If you can afford to pay a little more out of pocket in the case of a loss, raising your deductible may be a good option.

4. Look for a company that offers numerous discounts: multi-policy, good driver, good student, mature driver, group and professional discounts, etc.

5. Utilize the services of independent agents. They can shop from among several insurance companies and find a policy that works best for our needs. Some carriers such as Geico, State Farm and Farmers only allow their agents to sell policies for their company.

A year after the sweeping Dodd-Frank Act was enacted, mandating additional federal oversight of the nation's financial institutions, pundits are examining whether the measure has helped the banking industry.

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., believes Dodd-Frank has led to too much oversight. “Regulators, I can assure you, are much tougher in every way and shape possible,” Dimon commented.

Bloomberg.com reports that since the 2008 collapse of the financial marketplace, a few large banks have dominated the industry, and their executives are reaping the benefits with higher salaries bonuses.
In addition, Bloomberg.com points out that 12 months after Dodd-Frank, many regulations mandated by the Act are not yet written, as interested parties continue to debate the potential new rules and Republicans continue to pursue legislative amendments to Dodd-Frank.

Roy C. Smith, an NYU finance professor disagrees with the contention that Dodd-Frank has not yet led to enough change. Smith says Dodd-Frank has influenced giant banks such as Citigroup Inc., which has sold off lines of business such as its consumer-lending unit.

The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was mandated by passage of Dodd-Frank,  officially opens its doors July 21. Bloomberg has reported that some banks are hiring internal consumer advocates to help police their internal policies to make sure they do not get an uncomfortable call from the CFPB.

Another impact of Dodd-Frank has been an increase in lobbying expenditures from financial instutitions. The 10 largest U.S. banks shelled out $11.2 million on lobbying during Q1 of 2011. In addition, five of the 10 largest firms have spent more on lobbying during the first quarter of 2011 than they spent in the fiscal quarter prior to passage of Dodd-Frank.

The international insurance firm ING Group may be in some serious hot water. ING is under investigation in the U.S. for violating United States sanctions against nations that support terrorism.

The U.S. has been imposing economic sanctions and strict exporting restrictions with Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. The U.S. sanctions limit the amount of business American companies may conduct with the nations that are perceived to be too friendly with terrorist operations.

The fines would be far from chump change. Sources have reported that depending on the results of the U.S. investigations, ING could face penalties for hundreds of millions of dollars.

ING noted in its 2010 annual report that talks with the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control, Department of Justice and the New York County District Attorney's Office could amount to a mega-million-dollar fine.

In 2010 the British bank Barclays P.L.C. was slapped with a $298 million fine over violations relating to the U.S. trade sanctions with  Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Myanmar.

In addition, Credit Suisse Group A.G. , Lloyds Banking Group P.L.C. and ABN AMRO have forked out massive U.S. settlements ranging from $350 million and $538 million as a result of similar violations.

Based in the Netherlands, ING provides financial services products including annuities, employee benefits, life insurance, mutual funds, retirement plans, rollovers & transfers and trusts.

One of the largest segments of the UK population taking advantage of short-term loan products such as payday loans is the salaried class of employees.

With the economy struggling, this portion of the UK society is in need of additional financial support. Oftentimes, workers are finding their salary just is not quite enough to cover all living expenses. Therefore, salaried employees from throughout the UK have been seeking out payday loan services in increasing numbers. And, in order to keep up with demand, there has been a surge in UK payday loan operations providing this financial service to Brits.

Salaried workers -- even those earning good, steady pay -- are finding it difficult just to cover their normal living costs. So, when emergencies hit -- illness, accidents, car repairs, etc. -- salaried employees simply do not have the finances to rememdy those urgent financial needs.

The speed and convenience offered by payday lenders -- especially online lenders -- makes these short-term loans even more appealing to UK residents who are short on cash. In many instances, approved borrowers can receive their money in their bank account within 24 hours.

Typical UK payday loan amounts range from about £100 to £1500. The online payday lenders usually provide a short form that is electronically transmitted and the approval process takes a matter of seconds. The payday loan terms require repayment within about two weeks (upon the next payday), but extensions may be provided to those unable to repay.

Another reason why salaried UK workers are flocking to payday loan products is because those who have had some credit score problems may still be eligible for these loans. As consumers wrestle with their finances, many credit scores have plummeted, as well.

Although data is showing that auto theft is on the decline nationwide, it is still a major problem.

We've compiled the following list of ways to help keep your vehicle from being stolen:

1. Never leave your keys in the car. Sounds obvious, but about 20 percent of all stolen vehicles had the keys inside.

2. Lock the car. Abot half of stolen vehicles were unlocked.

3. The "hide-a-key" is often an invite to steal your car. Theifs can usually find a "hidden" key in a few seconds.

4. If you have to park somewhere at night, make sure it is a well-lighted area or an attended lot. And if you park in a lot, make sure you leave only the ignition key. You do not want to give anyone access to important items in your glove compartment or trunk.

5. Many people leave their windows open when parked, especially when it is hot. But this gives theives easier access to your car.

6. Do not leave important items inside the car, within the view of anyone passing by.

7. When you park on the street, turn the wheels toward the curb. This makes it more difficult to tow your vehicle.

8. Apply your emergency brake when parking. This also makes the vehicle more difficult to tow away.

9. If you have a garage, use it. It does not make sense to keep you car in an open area at night when you can protect it by parking inside the garage.

10. Carry your vehicle registration and insurance card in your wallet or purse. Do not leave it in the car. Thieves can not only steal your car, but then they will have important personal information.

11. Look into an anti-theft device that includes a kill switch that freeezes the car without a pass key or code.

12. Use a sturdy, visible steering wheel lock. This is a deterrent for criminals.

13. When purchasing a vehicle from a private party, pay close attention to the title and registration. They should match the name and address of the seller. You do not want to buy a stolen vehicle.

14. Also, when buying from a private seller, make sure the VIN plate is clear and securely fastened to the car. Make sure the VIN plate matches the ID sticker that is usually located in the glove compartment.

15. There are special locking screws that can be used on the license plate. This makes it very difficult for a thief to remove the plate.

If you are the victim of a car theft, make sure your report it immediately to the police and to your insurance agent or company.

Good news for unemployed consumers having trouble making their mortgage payment.

The Obama Administration has announced it is increasing the amount of aid available to unemployed homeowners. The program allows unemployed homeowners to miss as much as a year's worth of mortgage payments and still avoid foreclosure.

Mortgage lenders who work with the Federal Housing Administration must extend their "forbearance" for 12 months. This is triple the current four-month forebearance requirement.

The Obama Administration has also made it easier for homeowners to qualify for the mortgage assistance program.

"The current unemployment forbearance programs have mandatory periods that are inadequate for the majority of unemployed borrowers,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan commented.  “Today, 60% of the unemployed have been out of work for more than three months and 45% have been out of work for more than six.  Providing the option for a year of forbearance will give struggling homeowners a substantially greater chance of finding employment before they lose their home.”

President Obama added has been working to find creative methods for forestalling foreclosures, as unemployment still hovers over 9 percent. "We’ve had to revamp our housing program several times to try to help people stay in their homes and try to start lifting home values up," Obama said in response to a question on Twitter. "But of all the things we’ve done, that’s probably been the area that’s been most stubborn to us trying to solve the problem."

There has been a bunch of interesting developments taking place throughout the U.S. in the world of auto insurance. Check out some highlights:

* The gecko wants more Golden State business. Geico has sliced auto insurance rates in California by 10.7 percent. The rate reduction takes effect Aug. 15 for the carrier's 700,000-plus policyholders in the state.

* Driving uninsured in Nevada is now a much bigger gamble. The Silver State has added teeth to its mandatory auto insurance law. Now if Nevada drivers are caught without insurance coverage they could face a 30-day license suspension and a $1,750 fine.

* Flo wants to know ... Progressive Insurance now allows consumers shopping through their mobile device to rate vehicle insurance expenses from 1 to 10. "VIN Capture" can be downloaded from Android and iPhone devices.

* MetLife has announced it is offering free insurance for a year on new GM vehicle sales in Oregon and Washington. The move sparked controversy and an outcry from MetLife's producers, who would have to forego their commission on the free policies.

* Volvo has always had a reputation for producing ultra-safe vehicles. Now a survey has revealed drivers with Volvo's "City Safe" system are involved in fewer rear-end collisions than drivers in cars without that function.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is proposing a change to its rule governing credit union applications for loans and assistance grants. The change is intended to credit greater transparency, clarity and flexibility.

The NCUA is asking for comments on their proposed rules changes to be submitted by July 25, 2011.

Check out the background info on the proposed changes:

The CDRLF was created by Congress in 1979 with an initial appropriation of $6 million and has been administered exclusively by NCUA since 1986. Through subsequent appropriations and earnings on Fund assets, the Fund has grown to over $19.7 million as of the end of the first quarter of 2011. The Fund serves as a source of financial support, in the form of both loans and technical assistance grants, for credit unions serving predominantly low-income members. It also serves as a source of funding to help low-income credit unions respond to emergencies arising in their communities. The NCUA Board has delegated to the Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives authority to make the determination of how to allocate the finite resources of the Fund among qualifying credit unions. Awards provided through the CDRLF Program have strengthened credit unions by enabling them to increase their capacity to support the communities in which they operate. This increased capacity has allowed credit unions to provide basic financial services to low-income residents of these communities, resulting in more opportunities for residents of the credit unions' communities to improve their financial circumstances.
   
The technical assistance grant portion of the CDRLF provides funds to low-income credit unions so that they may extend services to their
members and improve their operations. The source of awards includes appropriated funds, current year earnings, and a portion of prior
years' retained earnings.

Through the loan portion of the CDRLF, low-income credit unions may receive funds to support a variety of financial and related services
designed to meet the particular needs of members and the low-income communities served. In years where Congress has not appropriated funds
for loans, funding has come from scheduled loan repayments of prior loans.
 
Part 705 has been largely unchanged, in substantive terms, since 1993. In the years following, significant enhancements, including changes in technology, have altered the way in which NCUA retrieves and uses data from credit unions. The proposed changes in this rule, which
comprehensively revise part 705, reflect these changes and are designed to reduce the burden on credit unions. The proposed changes remove some of the detail in the current rule dealing with administrative aspects of the program to provide the agency with greater flexibility to make changes and variations to suit specific circumstances. Other changes add detail to the rule, for example, regarding how NCUA evaluates
applications, to provide greater transparency and better knowledge and information to prospective applicants. The changes also add a new
section addressing reporting to and monitoring by NCUA, which is designed to help the agency assure that an award from the Fund is used
in the manner and for the purposes represented by the credit unions receiving loans or grants. On balance, the rule is streamlined and the
burden imposed on credit unions seeking an award from the Fund is reduced.

You may submit comments by any one of the following methods:
* Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
* NCUA Web Site: http://www.ncua.gov/
RegulationsOpinionsLaws/proposed_regs/proposed_regs.html. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
* Email: Address to regcomments@ncua.gov. Include ``[Your name] Comments on Proposed Rule 705, CDRLF Amendments'' in the e-mail
subject line.
* Fax: (703) 518-6319. Use the subject line described above for e-mail.
* Mail: Address to Mary Rupp, Secretary of the Board, National Credit Union Administration, 1775 Duke Street, Alexandria,
Virginia 22314-3428.
* Hand Delivery/Courier: Same as mail address.

For more details visit: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NCUA-2011-0033-0001

Farmers Insurance, the largest auto insurance company in California and the third-largest personal lines insurer in the nation, has announced the carrier has entered into a partnership agreement with the LA Galaxy MLS soccer team, and The Home Depot Center, the largest soccer-exclusive stadium in the MLS. As part of the two-year agreement, both the LA Galaxy and The Home Depot Center will collaborate with Farmers Insurance to promote the Farmers brand both inside and around the stadium.

"We are extremely excited to have partnered with the LA Galaxy and The Home Depot Center, two well-known entities in the world of U.S. soccer," said Luisa Acosta-Franco, Vice President of Multicultural Marketing for Farmers Insurance. "This partnership allows for us to build on our commitment of teaching life lessons on and off the field through the sport of soccer."

To kick off their partnership with the LA Galaxy and The Home Depot Center, Farmers is hosting 4,000 fans from throughout Los Angeles tonight to enjoy a summer evening of soccer fun at The Home Depot Center. In addition, prior to the game on the field Farmers will present a $10,000 check to the Los Angeles Galaxy Foundation and The Home Depot Center Charitable Foundation for the "Camps for Kids" program.

This two-year partnership further validates Farmers' commitment to soccer, a sport that goes beyond a pastime; it can also serve to inspire and educate children both on and off the field. This year Farmers launched Juega y Aprende (Play & Learn), two-hour skill-building soccer clinics that teach kids the skills to succeed in soccer and in life. The campaign was created to serve as an educational tool for kids through their passion for soccer.

The LA Galaxy partnership includes the right to use "Official Partner of the LA Galaxy," as well as the status of "Official Insurance Partner of the LA Galaxy."

"We are very pleased to announce our partnership with Farmers Insurance, bringing together two of the leading brands in insurance and Major League Soccer respectively," said Tom Payne, President of the LA Galaxy. "We look forward to working closely with Farmers on their initiatives based around soccer and to their being a key member of the Galaxy family."

The Home Depot Center partnership gives Farmers the right to be named as "Official Founding Partner" of The Home Depot Center; and to be named as "Official Insurance Company" of The Home Depot Center.

"We are thrilled to welcome Farmers Insurance as a new founding partner of The Home Depot Center," said Katie Pandolfo, General Manager of The Home Depot Center. "We look forward to working with Farmers to provide them with exposure at our various national and international events as well as throughout our state-of-the art stadiums and facilities."

Over the course of the agreement, the companies will also collaborate together on soccer promotions and events during the LA Galaxy's regular season games at The Home Depot Center.

Maybe this bit of information will help to attract more employees to the insurance industry ...

Business Insurance Magazine has unveiled its list of the five highest-paid U.S. executives from insurance brokerage firms. Check out the whopping compensation packages from the top five broker execs:

5. J. Powell Brown, president and CEO, Brown & Brown Inc.: Total compensation -- $1,780,264
Salary -- $565,000; Non-equity incentive plan compensation -- $1,179,744; All other compensation -- $35,520

4. J. Patrick Gallagher, chairman and CEO, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.: Total compensation -- $3,813,372
Salary -- $1,000,000; Stock & option awards -- $1,013,566; Non-equity incentive plan compensation -- $1,000,000; Change in pension & nonqualified deferred comp -- $36,544; All other compensation -- $763,262

3. Joseph Plumeri, chairman and CEO, Willis Group Holdings P.L.C.: Total compensation -- $12,121,770
Salary -- $1,000,000; Share awards -- $8,106,213; Non-equity incentive plan compensation -- $2,031,250; Change in pension & nonqualified deferred comp -- -$21,461; All other compensation -- $974,584

2. Brian Duperrault, president & CEO, Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc.: $13,900,000
Salary -- $1,000,000; Bonus awards -- $4,650,000; Long-term incentive awards -- $8,250,000

1. Gregory C. Case, president & CEO, Aon Corp.: $20,783,301
Salary -- $1,500,000; Stock awards -- $17,280,702; Non-equity incentive plan compensation -- $1,950,000; All other compensation -- $52,599

As we approach the end of 2011 affiliate marketers the world over are looking for ways to improve in 2012.  We publish practical guides on a regular basis, but how often do we offer ideas from the personal attitude angle of success?  How about now?

Kimberly Palmer in an article for U.S. News & World Report, offered “50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2012.”  Here are some of those suggestions slightly home-spun for all the affiliate marketers out there.
-    Focus on the “why” of your goals, not the “how.”  Focus on the motivation behind your goal.  Achieving this goal will allow you to take a vacation for instance; it will give you more time to spend with your family, or it might allow you to buy a new car…finally.  The results of the goal can be a powerful motivator, rather than focusing on, “I have to generate 15 leads by noon tomorrow.”
-    Visualize Your Future Self:  We love this one.  When you have achieved your next five goals, what does your life look like?  What do you see when you look in the mirror?  Are you more confident?  Keep your eye on the prize – whatever you have determined that is.
-    Get Organized!
-    Get Famous.  Like this a lot too.  Become an expert in your field. Become quoted, sought after, etc in your field.  Write articles, improve links, etc.

In general, develop a positive attitude and take steps every day, even small ones, to improve the likelihood of your success.

The consumer advocate group the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has been cutting back considerably on their lobbying expenditures.

CRL spent $96,000 in the first quarter of 2011 on their federal legislative advocacy efforts. The group focuses on issues such as lending fees and other political issues. That figure is a major drop off -- by about $130,000 -- from what they allocated toward lobbying during Q1 of 2010; and it is $102,000 less than their lobbying expense for the fourth quarter of 2010.

CRL often lobbies against products such as payday loans, subprime credit cards and overdraft fees.

The organization is a major proponent for the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB will oversee numerous financial services sectors and products throughout the U.S.

The Ward Group has released its 2011 list of top 50 property and casualty and life and health insurers. Every year Ward analyzes the financial performance of over 3,000 property-casualty insurance companies and nearly 800 life-health insurance companies domiciled in the United States and identifies the top performers in each segment.

Each of the top 50 companies is awarded the Ward's 50® Seal. Their names are listed as the Ward's 50® Top Performers for the year. Each Ward's 50® company has passed all safety and consistency screens and achieved superior performance over the five years analyzed.

Companies are listed alphabetically. An important objective is to compare their performance as a group with the rest of the insurance industry. Comparisons based on benchmarks set by Ward's 50® companies are available in Ward's Results®, an insurance industry financial reference series. You can also order customized reports of select Ward's 50 Benchmark Group comparisons for individual companies. Learn more.

Ward Group has conducted the Ward's 50 analysis since 1991. It is a financial analysis of the insurance industry based on publicly available data and conducted independently of the Ward Group annual benchmarking programs.

For details on how Ward determines its rankings, visit: http://www.wardinc.com/wards50/methodology.php

Online payday loans are among the most convenient and fastest ways to resolve money problems. They help consumers to pay off bills, take care of urgent repairs, and settle numerous financial matters. But when the borrower is not able to repay the loan on time, they may incur mounting fees and interest that could present additional fiscal problems.

There are several ways to help consumers dig themselves out of a payday loan-related hole, such as:

* Communicate with your payday lender. The lender may be willing to make special arrangements for borrowers having a difficult time paying off their debt.

* Look for ways to make extra money. Do not automatically seek more loans in order to pay off other loans. Can you put in some overtime at work? Can you take a temporary part-time job? Can you fix cars on the side? Mow lawms? Get creative. Be willing to put in the extra hours.

* Try negotiating with your credit card companies to pay off your debt. They may accept a partial pay-off, which would be better than seeing you default on the total amount or filing for bankruptcy. (If you seek this option, please remember to speak with your tax advisor about possible tax ramifications

* You may want to chat with a debt relief expert. They may be able to negotiate partial payments on your credit card and other debts that could give you a lot more cushion with your monthly bills.

* As a last resort, you may want to talk with a bankruptcy attorney about the possible of filing chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy. No one wants to file bankruptcy. But, these laws are in place to help consumers get back on their feet when faced with seemingly insurmountable debt.

Specialty lines property/casualty insurance and risk-management holding company WRM America Holdings LLC said it will acquire the flood insurance business of title insurer Fidelity National Financial Inc. for $210 million.

WRM America Chief Executive Officer and Chairman William Fishlinger told BestWire the acquisition is the next step in its growth as a specialty lines property/casualty insurance and risk management holding company. The deal "will significantly add to our fee-for-service offering and continue to grow our platform," he said.

Fidelity National Financial's flood and excess flood business -- Fidelity National Indemnity Insurance Co. -- will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of WRM America. Patty Templeton-Jones and G. Michael Sloane will continue to lead the company and become members of the senior management team at WRM America.

Fidelity National Indemnity said its flood business is the largest U.S. provider of federal flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, capturing more than 17% of the total "Write Your Own" program market in 2010. Its flood business offers NFIP and excess flood insurance through its national network of independent agents and brokers, and has consistently achieved an industry-leading renewal rate through its customer-focused approach, the company said in a statement.

On July 12, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a five-year reauthorization of the federal flood insurance program. NFIP is scheduled to expire Sept. 30 and is nearly $18 billion in debt. The House bill, which passed 406-22, would set actuarially sound premiums, reduce current rate subsidies, improve flood area mapping, call for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to study incorporating private insurance and increase coverage for homes and commercial buildings. FEMA administers the program (BestWire, July 13, 2011).

The "Write Your Own" program, which operates as part of the NFIP, is a cooperative undertaking of the insurance industry and FEMA. It allows participating property/casualty insurers to write and service the Standard Flood Insurance Policy in their own names.

WRM America will acquire Fidelity National Indemnity and Fidelity National Insurance Services for $210 million, consisting of about $122.5 million in cash, $75 million in a seller note and approximately $12.5 million in an expected cash dividend. The company expects the transaction to close during the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.
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Central operations of the Fidelity National Indemnity flood business will continue to be based in St. Petersburg, Fla. The company said it plans to retain its 220 employees.

WRM America said it worked closely with its lead shareholder, global financial services private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners, to consummate the agreement.

Risk financing and insurance-management company Wright Risk Management, along with Aquiline Capital Partners, formed WRM America Holdings, based in Uniondale, N.Y., in 2008 to initially serve the specialized insurance needs of the education market and grow into the not-for-profit and municipal markets nationally.

In 2003, the Fidelity National Group acquired the flood business of Mutual of Omaha's subsidiary, Omaha Property and Casualty Insurance Co., and the Bankers Group of St. Petersburg, Fla., and purchased Bankers' subsidiary, First Community Insurance Co. The acquisitions expanded the group's penetration in the flood market, making it the single largest writer of "Write Your Own" flood insurance policies under the NFIP, according to BestLink, which provides online access to A.M. Best's database of insurance information. Fidelity National Property and Casualty, licensed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, principally writes flood business through participation in the NFIP "Write Your Own" program. It does not retain insurance risk on the program, as it cedes 100 percent to the NFIP.

Did someone mess with Mother Nature?

According to data released by Munich Re, 2011 has already set the mark for the most costly year on record for natural disaster losses throughout the planet.

Over the first half of 2011, catastrophes such as the Japan tsunami, New Zealand earthquake and tornadoes in the U.S. have caused a staggering $265 billion in economic losses. The prior record was set in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit and helped to generate some $220 billion in losses (that figure was adjusted for inflation).

Munich Re is an international re-insurance company that tracks these types of loss results.

The Japan earthquake and tsunami that devastated that nation in March resulted in some $210 billion in economic loss alone. New Zealand's earthquake in February cause $20 billion in losses; the outbreak of twisters in the U.S. caused $7.5 billion in losses; and Australia's floods this past winter caused $7.3 billion in losses.

Last October Jaime Brock was shot in the forehead by a thief at USA Pay Day Loans in Hanover Park. IL. Now on trial for the shooting, Mississippi native Admise Wilson apologized to his victim: “I didn’t mean for it to happen that way. I’m sorry for the pain I caused to you and your family,” said Wilson, bowing his head repeatedly as he fought back tears. “I’m glad you’re up and moving around. ... (I’m going to) be gone for a long time.”

Wilson also asked the judge permission to tell his mother that he loved her.

Brock told Wilson: “I don’t know the reason why you did what you did. I have a daughter who just had her eighth-grade graduation ... I have a (4-year-old) son with cerebral palsy. I was the breadwinner in my family. You don’t know at all what you could have caused me that day if I had died."    

According to prosecutors, on Oct. 5, 2010, Wilson came in twice to USA Payday Loans, where Brock worked. During his second visit he told Brock he’d return in five minutes so he could go to his bank. He came back with a 22-caliber handgun and walked up to Brock, put the gun to her forehead and pulled the shot her. Then Wilson stole $1,000 from the cash register. Before he left, he threw a paper shredder on top of Wilson, and aimed the gun at the back of her head. Wilson left without firing another shot.

Brock actually managed to get up and call 911, text the employees at a nearby restaurant and call home to tell her family she’d been shot. She remained conscious long enough to tell police and paramedics the name of the gunman -- Admise Wilson.

Wilson, 34, was later arrested and charged with several crimes, including attempted first-degree murder. When he was arrested, Wilson was found with the gun and $242. He confessed to the shooting while in police custody.

Brock has made an amazing recovery, but she still must see a neurosurgeon on a regular basis and she has not yet been able to return to work.

Judge Thomas Fecarotta sentence Wilson to 25 years in jail under a plea bargain approved by Brock.

Huge news from one of the nation's largest P&C insurance companies!

It has been reported that Allstate agents are in the process of unionizing. The National Association of Professional Allstate Agents Inc. (NAPAA) wants the giant insurer's agents to vote on whether they wish to form a guild. The group claims it needs to consolidate its forces to combat what it calls unfair business practices on the part of Allstate.

NAPAA wants Allstate agents to join the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) as a guild. OPEIU is an AFL-CIO affiliate.

The primary agent beef against Allstate is the company's decision to reduce commissions by some 20 percent.

Ballots will soon be mailed to Allstate agents. The results will be tabulated on August 17, 2011. The plan must be approved by more than half of the NAPAA membership in order to gain approval of the plan.

By becoming a union the group will gain collective clout that could have a greater impact on future carrier decisions.

A study released by Legal & General Mortgage Club and the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries shows two-thirds of consumer are concerned they will not be able to buy a home.

In addition, two-thirds of the survey respondents are concerned that they would not qualify for loans due to banks' strict lending criteria.

The survey indicated:

* Thirty percent of UK mortgage holders want to either move or refinance their home over the next year.

* One-third of those who plan to move or refinance are confident they will qualify for a new loan; 25 percent believe they will not qualify for the amount they need; and 20 percent do not believe they wil lbe able to come up with a large enough down-payment.

* Ten percent believe their credit problems will prevent them from obtaining a loan (3 percent said the had defaulted on non-secured debt; and 2 percent had recently fallen behind on the mortgage payments).

* Sixty percent of consumers seeking a mortgage have a deposit or equity stake of under 25 percent of their home's value.

The study polled 2,000 mortgage-holders.

A state judge in Los Angeles has approved a $10.5 million class action settlement in a wage-and-hour lawsuit involving Aon Corp. units in California that were accused of misclassifying more than 500 employees.

The litigation was filed in 2007 by Aon employee Francisco Hoyng, who was replaced as the lead plaintiff about a year later by Robert Zajac.
The class action accused the Aon units of misclassifying as exempt from overtime and meal and rest break requirements employees who held one of several titles: account specialist, senior account specialist, relationship specialist, account manager, client specialist, client services representative and/or customer service representative.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge approved the $10.5 million settlement of the suit involving the Chicago-based brokerage on Tuesday. The class action was certified last year, according to the settlement agreement.

The settlement applies to 534 class members, according to Agoura Hills-based law firm Martin & Saltzman L.L.P., which represented them.
As part of the settlement agreement, Aon denied any liability or wrongdoing, according to the settlement agreement. An Aon spokeswoman had no comment.

Wage-and-hour suits have become a significant problem for employers in recent years, resulting in numerous costly settlements every year. Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance also announced on July 7 a settlement with customer service reps over back wages.

Farmers Insurance will pay more than $1.5 million in overtime back wages to 3,459 employees for unpaid pre-shift work they performed.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reported Farmers has agreed to pay the back wages after its investigation uncovered “significant and systemic violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) overtime and record-keeping provisions.”

The violations reportedly took place at 11 customer-service call centers in Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas.
DOL investigators found the carrier did not account for time employees spent performing pre-shift work. Employees routinely performed an average of 30 minutes of unrecorded and uncompensated work, according to the DOL.

Pre-shift work included turning on work stations, logging into the company phone system and initiating certain software applications necessary to begin their call-center duties.

The employees are owed time and one-half of their regular rates exceeding 40 hours.

The DOL reported that Farmers has agreed to pay back wages and maintain future compliance with the FLSA by properly recording and compensating all hours worked by employees.

“Failing to properly compensate employees for pre- or post-shift work is a violation of federal law,” Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement. “The Labor Department is committed to ensuring that employers abide by the law so that workers are protected against exploitation and law-abiding employers are not placed at a competitive disadvantage.”

Under FLSA, covered employees are paid for pre-shift and post-shift job duties and for attending meetings. Employers must pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and maintain accurate time and payroll records.

A federal appeals court has ruled against a former employee who the court determined held his former company's website domain name hostage. As a result of the ruling the ex-employee has been slapped with a significant damages verdict.

Here are the details of the case:

The former employee worked for a men's clothing company. He registered the company's domain name in his name. The website helped to generate a decent amount of business for the clothing company. But, when the employee left to work for a competitor he took the domain name with him.

The ex-employee then proceeded to shut down the website and refused to hand over the domain name unless he was paid commissions he said were owed to him.

To prove the man violated the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), the clothing company had to prove the ex-worker had an intent to profit from his actions.  In the case, the court ruled he was attempting to gain from taking the domain name, and that the argument over owed commissions was a moot point in the case.

Consumers are getting smart when it comes to shopping for a variety of insurance products: auto, home, life, health, commercial lines, and much more.

Why are more and more consumers doing their insurance shopping online?

* Convenience: A good reason is the convenience factor is just not there and you may be conducting your business the old fashioned way by calling and talking to a service representative to make changes and mailing in your payments. One of the biggest reason is people are looking for lower rates. If you currently have insurance and have never taken the time to compare, you can get absolutely free auto insurance quotes online in a matter of seconds.

That is one of the best developments in internet technology today. Many insurance websites are sophisticated enough to take the questions you provide and match you with the best policies and lowest rates based on your automobile, your age, driving history, and a number of other factors. The beauty of this is the quotes are near instant, appearing on your computer screen in a matter of seconds.

Some insurance companies will not only instantly deliver free auto insurance quotes for their company, they will also supply you with one or two quotes from competitors making it much easier for your to compare prices and evaluate what is being offered. There is not better or faster way to get information and the coverage that you need using a method as fast as this.

The quotes that you receive are reliable. Unless you take a significant amount of time, like weeks to make up your mind, the rate typically will not change. When you have evaluated all of your quotes and have made a decision to buy in many cases you can make your purchase right on the insurance company website using convenient payment methods.

It is also fairly easy to set up an online account that will allow you to manage your policies and levels of coverage. For example, if you move to another state, once you put your new address in your online account and push the quote button, you have another quote based on the geographical area you are moving to.

The rate is electronically adjusted and you continue with your coverage without any interruption. You can also easily download any new identification cards with the changes as you need them instantly.

By using a matching service who can match you with insurance companies, you can get multiple free auto insurance quotes at one time to compare. Otherwise, you can visit individual websites to get all of the education and pricing that you need to get quick coverage.

The number of U.S. homeowners who are "underwater" on their mortgage appears to be dropping.

During the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of homeowners who were "underwater" fell slightly. The data showed that 10.9 million homes with a mortgage, or 22.7 percent of such properties, were underwater at the end of the first quarter. That was a slight decline from 11.1 million, or 23.1 percent, in the fourth quarter, according to data released by California-based CoreLogic.

A mortgage that is "underwater" means the borrower owes more on the mortgage than the property is worth. As home values have taken a nose-dive over the past few years, a higher percentage of homeowners have seen their value dip below the loan amount on their home.

The drop in underwater homes does not necessarily mean home prices are climbing. According to CoreLogic, the numbers are being bolstered by a rise in foreclosure sales, which often tend to remove underwater homes from the market.

The states with the weakest percentage of underwater homes include: Nevada (63 percent), Arizona (50 percent), Florida (46 percent), Michigan (36 percent) and California (31 percent).

President Obama has nominated former Kentucky Insurance Commissioner Roy Woodall to serve as the insurance rep on the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).

Insurance industry leaders have been pusing the President to fill the post. Several insurance insiders have commended the President's nominee..

Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) President/CEO David Sampson said, “We are pleased that the Department of Treasury has listened to the calls from the insurance sector and congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle to fill this critically important position. [Woodall] brings extensive experience in the insurance sector and an understanding of the state insurance regulatory system.”

Leigh Ann Pusey, president/CEO of the American Insurance Association, said, “Woodall also has an intimate working knowledge of our industry and will be a strong voice in helping inform the other FSOC members on the distinctions between the property and casualty business model and other, bank-centric financial services. This will be especially critical as the FSOC deliberates on which non-bank financial firms it will designate as systemically important."

Woodall was Kentucky insurance commissioner from 1966 to 1967. He recently retired as senior insurance policy analyst at the Treasury Department. Woodall served as president of the National Association of Life Companies (NALC), and he was also insurance consultant for the Congressional Research Service from 2001 to 2002.

National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies Senior VP of Federal and POlitical Affairs Jimi Grande commented, “As a former Treasury official and state insurance regulator, [Woodall] understands the role of insurance in the economy and is well aware that mutual [P&C] insurance companies did not contribute to the economic crisis or pose an ongoing risk to economic stability. With this knowledge, [Woodall] will help focus the designation process for systemically important financial institutions [SIFI] on those companies who, through their participation in high-risk activities, pose a true risk to the American economy.”

Woodall must be confirm by the Senate before taking the FSOC position.

Banks and credit unions are competing closely in nearly all loans with the exception of auto loans.

According to rate tracking firm Informa Research Services Inc. of Calabasas, Calif., credit unions had an average rate of 3.92% on five-year, new auto loans compared to banks at 5.39% as of June 14. With two-year to four-year, used auto loans, credit unions had an average rate 4.05% and banks’ average rate was 5.64%.

Meanwhile, the gaps are not as wide in other loans. On a 30-year, fixed conforming mortgage loan, credit unions had an average rate of 4.58% with banks close behind at 4.53%.  The same was true with 30-year fixed jumbo loans with credit unions at 5.03% and banks at 5.05%.

The average rate at credit unions on a four-year, $5,000, unsecured personal loan was 10.62% and 10.95% at banks.

Even in the indirect lending space, credit unions and banks are in close competition. The average rate on a five-year indirect tier A auto loan at credit unions was 4.81% and 4.92% at banks. On five-year indirect tier B auto loans, credit unions had an average rate of 6.65% while banks offered a rate of 6.60%. The pattern is also seen on five-year indirect tier C auto loans with credit unions at 8.65% and 8.60% at banks.

Borrowers are considered to have A credit if their score is between 680 and 719, B for scores between 650 and 679 an C if scores fall between 625 and 649, according to Informa.

Forbes has compiled a list of used cars they believe consumers should avoid.

The list was determined by reviewing data from the most recent J.D. Power & Associates U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, reliability surveys, resale values, safety ratings, as well as Forbes' road tests.

In addition, some 43,700 original owners of 2008 model-year vehicles responded to a Forbes study on problems experienced during the prior 12 months. The vehicles on the list below were rated “below average” in overall reliability, specifically powertrain performance; issues with the body and interior treatments; and failures with features and accessories.

The vehicles on the Forbes list include:

* Mitsubishi Eclipse: According to Forbes, the Eclipse's appeal "has suffered a steep decline in recent years ... the Eclipse not only gets poor marks from J.D. Power & Associates for reliability, Automotive Lease Guide says the Eclipse will retain as little as just 25% of its original value after five years of ownership..."

* Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon: The J.D. Power study says these vehicles "lack power, particularly when compared to the V-6 and V8-equipped competition."

* Land Rover Range Rover Sport: According to Forbes, "as a three-year-old model, gets slammed for its poor fuel economy, low resale value and dubious reliability ratings."

* Chevrolet Aveo: J.D. Power & Associates U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study of three-year-old models report that the "subcompact Chevrolet Aveo would still make our list for its utter lack of style and substance."

* Dodge Charger/Dodge Magnum: Forbes notes, "Though enthusiasts may prefer the cars' rear-wheel-drive configuration for its inherently crisper handling qualities, they tend to slip and slide on wet pavement and become stuck in the snow; those fitted with the optional all-wheel-drive system fare better in that regard."

* Land Rover Range Rover Sport: Forbes writes: "Expensive and reportedly repair-prone, with fuel economy at a thirsty 12 mpg in city driving, suffering high maintenance and repair costs and facing a steep and costly drop in resale value between the third and fifth years of ownership ... "

* Suzuki XL7: This 'crossover SUV" is available in five- and seven-passenger versions. Forbes notes that the seven-passenger model has "a cramped third-row seat that's virtually unusable. Despite its car-based underpinnings the XL7 drives more like a small truck with imprecise steering and intrusive road noise at highway speeds."

Over a five year span, there has been an 80 percent rise in the number of small claims filed in the Provo, Utah court system related to payday loans.

The report was produced by the Coalition of Religious Communities, a consumer advocacy group that focuses on poverty-related issues.

The group has reported that between Jan. 1, 2005, and June 30, 2010, nearly 80 percent of the 24,707 small claims cases in Provo's district court were payday loan cases. More than 70 percent of Provo's justice court cases were payday loan cases. Over 62 percent of all cases in Utah County were filed by payday lenders.

One lender, Utah County-based Check City, includes a provision in its lender contract that requires cases to be prosecuted in Provo. This could be one reason for the large percentage of payday-related court cases in Provo.

In addition, a 2010 policy change moved all small claims cases -- including payday loan cases -- out of the district court and into the justice court.

One of the world's most famous horse racing venues was in the path of a twister on June 22.

The tornado damaged at least nine of the 48 structures throughout the facility.

Some 200 horses raced from their barns as the twister hit their barns; and race track employees were forced to brave the storm and round up the scrambling horses. Officials are not yet certain when races may resume.

There were not reported injuries to any horses or workers at Churchill Downs.

In addition, some 100 people who were residing on the grounds have been forced to move to temporary shelter due to the tornado damage.

The track and the iconic twin spires that rise above the Churchill Downs clubhouse appeared to sustain little or no damage.

Mortgage interest rates are lower than they have been since the 1950s. So -- with home prices continuing to dip, why aren't we seeing a spike in home purchases? Many real estate insiders are speculating too many consumers are missing a golden opportunity.

Rates have been falling for several consecutive weeks -- but that has not yet lit a fire in the housing market. Median rates for 30-year loans are now around 4.49 percent; and rates for 15-year fixed mortgages have plummeted to 3.68 percent.

How low do rate have to go in order to entice consumers?

Realtors may have to dig deep in their bag of tricks in order to lure more buyers in the market. In the late 1970s and 80s, when interest rates were ballooning to 20 percent or more, it was common to see sellers offer a mortgage at no interest or under market rates. Of course, back then the price tag on a home was typically less than $100,000, so the high interest rates were not quite so difficult to swallow.

Needless to say, the real estate community may need to put on their collective thinking cap and devise some clever ways to spark greater interest in home sales.

The Orange County District Attorney's Office and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) have revealed the facts surrounding the indictment of a radiologist, a neurologist and two co-defendants in connection with a massive $17 million workers' compensation insurance overbilling scheme. The indictments against the four defendants were issued May 11, 2011, and the grand jury transcripts were unsealed today, June 13, 2011.

"We need to end these types of medical fraud mills - STAT. Let's end unethical doctors, unscrupulous dealings, and patients being treated like walking ATMs," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas commented. "We hope before people engage in these types of schemes, they ask themselves if this is worth 800 years in prison?"

"The magnitude of the fraud committed by these co-conspirators is reprehensible," Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said. "When medical providers conspire to defraud the California workers' compensation insurance system, everybody loses, including the injured workers and the businesses that employ them."

This case was investigated by CDI and the OCDA. Deputy District Attorney Shaddi Kamiabipour of the Workers' Compensation Fraud Unit is prosecuting this case.

The defendants are:

Dr. Sim Carlisle Hoffman, 59, Newport Beach, is a radiologist and owner of Advanced Professional Imaging (API), Advanced Management Services (AMS), and Better Sleeping Medical Center (BSMC) in Buena Park. He is charged with 592 felony counts of insurance fraud for BSMC, 291 felony counts of insurance fraud for API, and one felony count of aiding and abetting the unauthorized practice of medicine. If convicted, he faces a sentence ranging from two years up to 892 years and eight months in state prison. Hoffman is out of custody on $1.5 million bail. In 2001, Hoffman was disciplined by the Medical Board of California (Board) for excessive billing and subjecting a patient to radiology procedures that were not medically necessary.

Beverly Jane Mitchell, 60, Westlake Village, is the administrator in charge of insurance billing for all of Hoffman's businesses. She faces the same charges and maximum sentence as Hoffman. Mitchell is out of custody on $250,000 bail.

Dr. Thomas Michael Heric, 74, Malibu, is a neurologist who worked for Hoffman at BSMC. He is charged with 296 counts of insurance fraud and one felony count of aiding and abetting the unauthorized practice of medicine. If convicted, he faces a sentence ranging from two years up to 315 years and eight months in state prison. Heric is out of custody on $500,000 bail. His medical license was suspended by the Board for 60 days as a result of a 2008 felony federal medicare and medi-cal fraud conviction.

Louis Umberto Santillan, 44, Chino Hills, worked for Hoffman in billing collections for API. He is charged with 141 felony counts of insurance fraud and faces a sentence ranging from two years up to 150 years in state prison if convicted. Santillan is out of custody on $250,000 bail. Santillan has no college degree or certification.

Prior to posting bail, all four defendants were required by the court to prove their bail money was from a legal and legitimate source. All four defendants are scheduled for continued arraignment June 22, 2011, at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-5, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana. Hearing on the revocation of Hoffman and Heric's medical licenses as a condition of bail will also be heard at that time.

Background information:

In January 2008, two BSMC employees filed a complaint with the California Department of Health Services regarding unsanitary conditions and lack of proper patient care at the facility. This complaint was forwarded to Don Marshall, vice president of the National Anti-Fraud Program for Zenith Insurance Company.

Based on this complaint, Zenith began a fraud investigation into BSMC and API and contacted CDI in July 2008. Zenith forwarded evidence that BSMC was not conducting an appropriate medical business and was overbilling for procedures that had no medical value or necessity.

The CDI began investigating this case in July 2008 and turned over the case to the OCDA in June 2010. Following an extensive, lengthy joint investigation, the OCDA presented the case to the Orange County Grand Jury in May 2011. All four defendants were indicted May 11, 2011.

California employers are required by law to maintain workers' compensation insurance for employees to provide medical services and lost wage compensation in the event of an injury sustained at work. Unlike other medical industries, doctors and insurance companies are not required by law to communicate with the workers' compensation insurance recipient/injured worker regarding what medical procedures are being claimed for the purpose of billing. Consequently, there is no system in place to verify which services were provided during a medical appointment.

As a result, unscrupulous medical providers are able to exploit the workers' compensation system and injured worker by subjecting the injured worker to unnecessary medical diagnostic tests in order to generate higher insurance bills. These unethical medical providers are also able to bill the insurance companies for services never rendered.

Employees injured on the job are entitled to file workers' compensation claims to have their medical treatment covered by their employer's insurance.

In this case, the injured employees were primarily blue collar workers in industries such as manufacturing, construction, or other fields involving manual labor. The majority are Hispanic and many are Spanish-speaking. All of these workers in this case were referred by chiropractors or attorneys to API or BSMC.

In order to streamline the case, the OCDA chose to limit the charges to 600 patients and select time periods. In all of these cases (below), the injuries to the worker could have been treated and fully resolved for under $5,000. The defendants are accused of instead fraudulently billing over $15,000 per patient.

Hoffman is accused of opening API as a facility to perform Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In order to generate extra billing, he is accused of expanding to perform nerve testing called Electromyography (EMG), in which muscle cells are analyzed for neurological activity. This is a non-invasive, out-patient procedure that should be billed at approximately $35 per test.

Single Fiber EMG is an invasive, painful procedure that often requires hospitalization and can result in bleeding and infections if not performed properly. This test takes an hour to perform and involves sticking a massive needle into a single nerve to detect damage based on electricity conduction. This test is significantly more complex and costly that can be billed at $330 per procedure. Most neurologists are not qualified to perform this test based on the intense specialization and training required. Only two doctors in California are qualified.

Between June 2007 and March 2009, Hoffman is accused of conducting an EMG test on patients and overstating the nature of the test. Instead of billing for the performed EMG, he is accused of fraudulently billing insurance companies for Single Fiber EMGs.

Hoffman is accused of billing for Single Fiber EMGs as many as 20 times per patient, despite this test never being rendered by Hoffman or any physician employed at API on any patient. The defendant is accused of inflating insurance billings from what should legitimately have been under $2,000 to approximately $10,000 per patient.

After receiving payment from the insurance companies on the fraudulent bills, Hoffman is accused of re-submitting the same bill as a lien against the patient's workers' compensation insurance case in order to collect additional payment.

Hoffman is accused of fraudulently billing seven insurance companies including Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies, California State Compensation Insurance Fund, Commercial Property and Casualty Insurance, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, Liberty Mutual, Travelers Insurance and Zenith.

In all, he is accused of billing insurance companies over $9 million in Single Fiber EMGs alone in the API scheme.

Hoffman is accused of opening BSMC in 2007 and failing to hire a certified technician or a qualified physician to supervise the sleep center, as required by law. A "sleep center" is a medical facility that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of patients suffering from sleep disorders.

Between November 2007 and November 2008, Hoffman is accused of filing insurance claims for 1,247 patients. He is accused of billing for epilepsy and seizure testing for all 1,247 patients without ever conducting these tests on a single patient.

Hoffman is accused of paying Heric $100 per patient to write a report on the patient's condition (see below). Despite all of the 1,247 "reports" indicating that the patient needed medical treatment, none of the patients ever received medical treatment or care from BSMC.

In the course of the investigation it was determined that two of the patients who underwent "testing" suffered severe sleep disorders and were in dire need of medical attention. These disorders were neither diagnosed nor treated at BSMC. During the grand jury proceedings, medical experts opined that the service rendered to patients at BSMC was a "disgrace" and had "no medical value."

Hoffman is accused of operating this facility as a "medical mill" for the sole purpose of insurance billing and without providing any legitimate treatment to any of his patients. For all 1,247 patients, Hoffman is accused of billing exactly $6,728 to the insurance company.

Hoffman is accused of fraudulently billing the City of Los Angeles and 19 insurance companies including Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies, California State Compensation Insurance Fund, Chartis division of American International Group, Commercial Property and Casualty Insurance, Crum & Forster Holdings Corporation, Employers Insurance, FirstComp Insurance, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Liberty Mutual, Matrix Direct Insurance Services, Republic Indemnity Company of America, SeaBright Insurance Company, Sentry Insurance, Specialty Risk Services, Travelers Insurance, Southern California Risk Management Associates (now York Insurance Services Group - California), Zenith, and Zurich Financial Services Group.

By November 2008, he is accused of billing insurance companies over $8.4 million in the BSMC scheme.

As a result of Hoffman's 2001 Board discipline, he is accused of hiring Mitchell to manage all billing and administration for his businesses through AMS as part of his rehabilitation. Mitchell is accused of knowing that Hoffman had been disciplined by the Board and helping him to continue his fraudulent scheme. She is accused of directly supervising all fraudulent billing from API and BSMC to the insurance companies knowing that the procedures were overstated or never performed. Mitchell is also accused of "unbundling," or breaking up procedures and billing them separately instead of together with the intention of fraudulently collecting higher payments.

Heric is a neurologist and is associated with Hoffman from several years ago. He was convicted in 2008 of felony federal fraud, for which his medical license was suspended by the Board for 60 days. In exchange for $100 per patient, Heric is accused of writing "reports" on all 1,247 sleep center patients evaluating the data generated during their sleep study. He is accused of finding in his "reports" that all 1,247 patients were "disabled" by using a formula entirely of his own invention not recognized in the medical community to reach his conclusions. None of these patients ever received any treatment for their supposed disability. All of his reports on the 1,247 patients are almost identical. Heric's reports were used to lend legitimacy to the fraudulent insurance bills for each patient.

Santillan is accused of supervising the collections department for Hoffman's businesses and collecting payment on the medical bills knowing they were inflated and fraudulent. He is accused of receiving approximately $800,000 in commission on all of the fraudulent monies collected for Hoffman between 2006 and 2007.

A group of former Denver Bronco football players have been sued by St. Paul Fire and Marine for allegedly attempting to collect workers' compensation benefits from the insurer.

The players involved in the suit include: Floyd Little, Edwin Smith, John Rowser, Louie Wright, Godwin Turk, Barney Chavous, Mike Schnitker, Billy Van Heusen and Randy Gradishar.
 
The lawsuit contends the team is incorrectly trying to get St. Paul to pay the nine claims for the players. St. Paul is a subsidiary of Travelers Insurance.

The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Denver.

The bottom line problem is the long-running battle between the NFL Players Association and the league over coverage for post-career injuries. The debate is one reason why the NFL and its players are embattled in a contract dispute that could lead to the elimination of a portion of the 2011 season.

Many consumers conduct much of their banking business now online. Most major banking brands offer this convenient and efficient method for numerous bank-related transactions and information.

But the biggest concern for some consumers is security. With hackers and other online threats floating around the Internet, consumers want to make sure their information is as private and secure as possible.

Consumers should use common sense to help avoid Internet scams.

To protect yourself, consumers should:

* Make sure the bank is legitimate and that the deposits are federally insured.

* Read about the bank's history. It will usually include the firm's headquarters and information about its relationship with the FDIC.

* Scam artists may create fake websites that look like the real deal. They lure consumers into these sites to collect their account numbers and passwords. Most legit banks also have a site key system. If the website you are in does not show a site key in order to verify your account, you should be suspicious.

* A legitimate website will have an official FDIC logo. In addition, the FDIC website provides a service where you can search for banks covered by the FDIC.

* Whether you are on a bank website -- or any other site, for that matter -- be careful providing your social security number. Be 100 percent confident your data is secure and protected before offering that kind of personal information.

* Make sure your passwords are unique. And, try to avoid using the same password for everything. Avoid easy passwords such as your birthday, anniversary, etc.

Debbie Hemley wrote a Really Great blog for Social Media Examiner providing tips for writing great blog posts.  We’re going to review a few of the tips in the coming weeks in order to help us improve our blog posts.

What questions are searchers “Searching for?”  Check your web analytics for the type of questions people are typing into search engines.  Are there questions that would lend themselves to new blog posts?  What do these questions tell you about your customers and do they point to areas of your business you should address?

A well written blog that is well researched increases the likelihood of your post being shared.  Don’t be afraid to go to the library; yes really, the library.  Its benefits are that by getting out of the house which can often get the creative juices going.  It also helps because obviously there are a lot of resources in a library that can go beyond what you might find on the web.  It may be on the web, but you might not find it.  Access to new material not only helps your frame of mind it will make your article better.

But the web and the library are not the only places you can go for research and/or inspiration.  Would an interview help your story?  Would photos or illustrations help show your point?  Would a quote take your story from good to great?

If you’re conducting research on the web, mix up your search engine inquisitions.  Ask a question, add dates, and ask the same question in a different way – anything to mix it up in order to produce materials in your search.

See you with other great ideas next week.

A Coraopolis, PA woman who was accused of stealing about $900,000 through some 140 electronic bank transfers has pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering.

The woman, Elexa Manos-Becton, found a bank that mistakenly allowed her to use PayPal for electronic transfers that were worth significantly more than the amount she had in her account.

Manos-Becton used the funds to repay payday loans and make her car and house payments. The illegal transactions took place between Oct. 2007 and Dec., 2008.

Facing 21 counts, the woman and pleaded guilty to just two of the charges. She's looking at up to 500 years in prison, and/or a staggering $14.75 million fine.

Two Louisiana Department of Insurance fraud investigators have been shot and killed by an insurance agent during the course of their investigation against the agent.

On June 7, Rhett Jeansonne and Kim Sledge were shot and killed by insurance agent John Melvin Lavergne. The agent has a history of fraudulent activity and he had been ordered to cease his business.

Immediately after the murders, Lavergne barricaded himself inside his Ville Platte, La. agency, and he then turned the gun on himself.

In November, 2009, the Department of Insurance issued Lavergne a cease and desist order. The Department suspended his license for six months, and fined him $16,500. The actions came as a result of allegedly providing fraudulent proofs of insurance to the Lafayette Department of Motor Vehicles on several occasions.

Lavergne was issued a casualty, property and vehicle physical damage license for 24 years. Lavergne also had a life, accident and health license from 1973 to 2010.

First-quarter 2011 net income for Yahoo! sunk to $223 million, or 17 cents a share, from $310.2 million, or 22 cents per share. However, the search engine's sales exceeded estimates.

The Sunnyvale, CA-based company's revenue was $1.06 billion for the quarter, better than analysts' predictions of $1.05 billion.

Yahoo! is seeing a surge in display ad (banners and videos) revenue. And, the company's U.S. user base increased by 15 percent to 179.5 million in March over the same period in 2010.

The company projects sales will be between $1.08 billion and $1.13 billion in the second quarter of the year.

The drop-off in net income was attributed to some corporate consolidations. Yahoo! has been selling off some of its businesses and farming out its search operations. Yahoo!'s display ads have been particularly strong, with sales growing by 10 percent in the last quarter, to $471 million.

Yahoo! has been struggling to somewhat reinvent itself. The company has been trimming its workforce, and it has worked out an arrangement with Microsoft to use its search technology on Yahoo!’s sites.

Yahoo! is also reportedly considering unloading its stake in Yahoo! Japan, which it co-owns with Softbank Corp.

Six of 13 small cars recently evaluated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety earn the Top Safety Pick award, and none earns a poor rating in any of 4 tests. This is a turnaround from a few years ago when small cars struggled to earn top safety ratings. The new tests include hybrids and gasoline-only models that are among the most fuel-efficient vehicles available in the U.S. market.

The ratings are based on performance in front, side, rollover, and rear impact evaluations. Cars that earn the top rating of "good" in each test and have available electronic stability control (ESC) qualify for Top Safety Pick.

The IIHS winners are the 2012 Ford Focus and Honda Civic, along with the 2011 Hyundai Elantra, Lexus CT 200h hybrid, Nissan Juke and Toyota Prius hybrid. The Civic, CT 200h, Elantra, Focus and Prius have at least one version with a government fuel economy rating of at least 40 miles per gallon on the highway. The Dodge Caliber, Honda CR-Z and Insight hybrids, Nissan Sentra and Versa, Scion xD, and Suzuki SX4 also were rated but didn't earn Top Safety Pick.

"The list of cars with the best fuel economy now includes those with the highest crash test ratings in their class, too," says David Zuby, the Institute's chief research officer. "At a time of high gasoline prices, consumers have never had a bigger selection of small cars that earn Top Safety Pick."

More safety in smaller packages: The Institute began awarding Top Safety Pick for the 2006 model year with less stringent criteria than today. Then only 3 small cars earned the designation (Honda Civic, Saab 9-2X, and Subaru Impreza). Now 22 small models, including those the Institute tested previously, earn the award with tougher requirements including a roof strength test, an ESC requirement to help drivers avoid crashes, and a higher bar for rear impact protection.

Still, Zuby points out that small, lightweight cars "don't protect their occupants as well as bigger, heavier ones. Even though fuel prices sometimes defy gravity, the laws of physics always are in effect for cars. That's why it's important that the crashworthiness designs of smaller cars be as good as possible. The new ratings demonstrate that small cars are much safer than they used to be."

In the latest group, the Toyota Prius hybrid is a Top Safety Pick and also one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the market, with estimates of 51 miles per gallon in the city and 48 mpg on the highway. Altogether, 10 small and minicar models with government fuel economy ratings of at least 40 mpg on the highway also earn Top Safety Pick.

Are new cars safer than older models? Small cars used to have the least safety equipment. Now all have standard side airbags, and in this group all but the Caliber, SX4 and Versa have standard ESC for preventing many kinds of crashes. Auto manufacturers moved quickly to put ESC on cars and SUVs after research by the Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration demonstrated the effectiveness of this feature. An Institute study found that ESC reduces fatal single-vehicle crashes by up to 50 percent. The government will require standard ESC on all new vehicles, starting with 2012 models.

Small cars also are more crashworthy. In 1997, when the Institute first put small cars through its then-new 40 mph frontal offset test, none of the 11 small cars earned the top rating of good, and 3 were poor. The first results for small cars in the Institute's side test in 2005 were no more encouraging — none was good, and 14 of the 16 models evaluated earned the lowest rating of poor.

"Each time we've introduced a new test, automakers have stepped up and improved designs," Zuby says. "Now it's rare for any vehicle to earn less than a good rating in front, side, or rear tests, and automakers are working on rollover protection."

The Hyundai Elantra's results show how vehicle designs have improved. The 2001-03 Elantra was rated poor for frontal crash protection. A late-deploying airbag contributed to high forces on the driver dummy's head and neck. Forces on both lower legs indicated that fractured bones and a foot injury would be possible in a real-world crash of similar severity.

The 2001-06 Elantra also earned a poor side rating, even with standard side airbags. The structure of the older Elantra allowed a lot of intrusion into the occupant compartment, and driver dummy injury measures indicated that rib fractures, internal organ injuries, and a broken left leg would be possible in a real-world crash. ESC wasn't available on this version of the Elantra, even as an option.

"The Elantra has gone from one of our lowest rated small cars to a Top Safety Pick, and ESC is now a standard feature," says Zuby. "The big things the automakers have done to improve crashworthiness are designing better front crush zones to manage crash energy, stronger occupant compartments to limit intrusion, and stronger roofs to better protect people in rollovers."

Acceptable ratings in one or more evaluations kept 5 of the 13 small cars off the Top Safety Pick list. That was the case for the Honda CR-Z and Insight, Nissan Versa and Sentra, and Scion xD. The Suzuki SX4 is rated marginal for rollover and rear protection. The Dodge Caliber is rated marginal for side protection, while it is acceptable in the rollover test. None of the cars recently tested earn a poor rating in any evaluation.

How vehicles are evaluated: The Institute's frontal crashworthiness evaluation is based on results of a 40 mph frontal offset crash test. Each vehicle's overall evaluation is based on measurements of intrusion into the occupant compartment, injury measures recorded on a 50th percentile male Hybrid III dummy in the driver seat, and analysis of slow-motion film to assess how well the restraint system controlled dummy movement during the test.

The side evaluation is based on performance in a crash test in which the side of a vehicle is struck by a barrier moving at 31 mph. The barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV. Ratings reflect injury measures recorded on 2 instrumented SID-IIs dummies representing a 5th percentile woman, assessment of head protection countermeasures, and the vehicle's structural performance during the impact.

In the roof strength test, a metal plate is pushed against one side of a roof at a displacement rate of 0.2 inch per second. To earn a good rating for rollover protection, the roof must withstand a force of 4 times the vehicle's weight before reaching 5 inches of crush. This is called a strength-to-weight ratio.

Rear crash protection is rated according to a 2-step procedure. Starting points for the ratings are measurements of head restraint geometry — the height of a restraint and its horizontal distance behind the back of the head of an average-size man.

Seat/head restraints with good or acceptable geometry are tested dynamically using a dummy that measures forces on the neck. This test simulates a collision in which a stationary vehicle is struck in the rear at 20 mph. Seats without good or acceptable geometry are rated poor overall because they can't be positioned to protect many people.

Many consumers without standard bank accounts are turning to prepaid debit cards to conduct a wide variety of financial transactions.

For example, nearly two million people are participating in Visa's Americas group, a program that uses prepaid debit cards for unemployment benefits, disability insurance, and paid family leave programs. There is huge consumer demand for these types of programs. In 2010, prepaid debit cards were used for about $65 billion in transactions. That was an increase of some $17 billion over 2009.

This type of activity generates roughly $1 billion in transaction fees. Banks collect two types of fees from these types of transactions. They get receive swipe fees from payment networks when consumers use the cards to make a purchase. Banks also may charge users for instances such as multiple ATM withdrawals, using a non-network ATM or overdrafts.

Fees vary by state. California -- with its massive number of potential transactions -- was able to negotiate a program with almost no consumer fees. In other states, such as Michigan, prepaid cards for unemployment insurance include a charge of $1.50 for each denied transaction. U.S. Bancorp's charges Ohio residents $17 for each overdraft.

The cards may assist some 60 million Americans who do not utilize standard bank accounts.

It is expected that in the near future a bunch of prepaid card products will spring up on the market. By 2014, insiders predict there will be some 5.4 million prepaid cards provided by employers -- a 100 percent increase over current figures.

The federal government ran a pilot program to load tax refunds on prepaid cards. The test program worked well. Starting in May, 2011, new Social Security recipients must choose between direct deposit or prepaid cards from Comerica Bank (CMA), as paper check payments will be completely phased out.

Allstate Corp., has announced it is purchasing Esurance and Answer Financial for approximately $1 billion. Esurance and Answer were owned by White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd., which is part of Warren Buffett's Bershire Hathaway group. The move gives Allstate an entry into the direct sales/Internet marketing channels.

Allstate has been losing market share over the past several years to competitors with direct sales channels, such as Progressive and GEICO.

The company plans to fund the deal with available cash. The sale should be completed by the end of 2011.

Esurance and Answer Financial will reportedly keep their brand names.

Allstate’s auto insurance policy count fell by 0.7 percent from March, 2010, to March, 2011. By comparison, Progressive’s auto insurance policies grew by 5.8 percent during the same time span.

Allstate is expected to use its claims expertise to help Esurance control claim costs.

Bank of America Corp. has received preliminary court approval for a $410 million excessive overdraft fee settlement.

The agreement will impact some one million consumers with BofA accounts.

U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami today tentatively approved the accord between about 1 million account holders and the bank, according to minutes from a hearing posted on the court’s website. A final approval hearing is set for November. The judge will award plaintiff attorneys’ fees from the $410 million fund, said one of the lead lawyers for the consumers, Jeremy Alters.

Anne Pace, a spokeswoman for Charlotte, North Carolina- based Bank of America, said the bank already has made changes to its overdraft policies, including the elimination of overdraft fees for debit card transactions and reduced fees for customers who overdraw their accounts.

“We’re pleased to reach a fair resolution to this matter,’’ she said.

Institutions including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. were named in related lawsuits. Today’s settlement is only with Bank of America. Bank of America didn’t admit any liability in the cases, Alters said.

The case is In Re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, 09-02036, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami).

You've probably heard of the "Darwin Awards" -- the Internet list of the silliest human acts that led to a person's demise. This list is not related to the death of those involved, but it could be considered a sort of Darwin Awards for insurance claims.

Check out the list of some of the most unusual insurance claims:

* The flying Christmas tree

A man was driving home from Christmas shopping when, coming around a curve, approached a vehicle driving towards him that had a large Christmas tree tied loosely to the roof. The claim report noted, "He was driving too fast and I saw the tree lift off and it flew straight at me. The trunk made a great dent in my bonnet (car hood) and caused me to run off the road and into a hedge." The flying tree was left in the road, so the other driver made off with a free Christmas tree.

* Cigar-essted

An attorney insured his expensive collection of 24 rare cigars. He filed a claim, alleging the cigars were torched in a series of small fires. It turns out the small fires were just the attorney enjoying the cigars. The insurer paid the claim, but the company had the last laugh: they had the lawyer arrested on 24 counts of arson.

* The flying Chihuahua

George Kalomiris was taking his three-year-old Chihuahua, Chico, for a walk, when a Great Horned Owl swooped down and snatched the little dog in its talons.

Chico was still attached to his leash, so it became a tug-o-war between George and the powerful bird. The man fignally scared the owl enough and it flew off, but not before one of its talons became lodged in the dog's side. Fortuntely for Chico, he was wearing a winter jacket that acted as protection. The pooch only suffered minor wounds in the skirmish.

* They never rub you the wrong way?

A massage customer received an hour-long, full-body massage from an experience massage therapist. The customer thanked the masseuse and even complimented her skills. Two days later, the customer visited the emergency room, and was diagnosed with a detached supraspinatus muscle -- a small muscle in the upper arm.

A claim was filed against the masseuse for $150,000. Turns out it was determined to be a legitimate claim and the insurer made the payment.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) -- the new federal financial services watchdog group mandated by passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act -- is in the process of developing two mortgage disclosure forms aimed at unraveling the secrets to calculating one's true mortgage costs.

The agency is actually utilizing social networking to obtain consumer feedback on the proposed forms. The CFPB's effort has been dubbed, "Know Before You Owe."

The group cites several reasons why more clarity is needed:

• Buying a home is the most valuable asset for the majority of consumers; and buyers have a right to know how much their home truly will cost.

• One reason attributed to the recent real estate market crash is consumer ignorance due to poor disclosures.

Consumers Union, one of the most prominent advocate group in the U.S., is supporting the CFPB's efforts to enhance consumer mortgage cost disclosure. The organization points out that:

• Five years ago, just about the time the nation discovered Chicken Little wasn't crying "Wolf!" the AFL-CIO and BankRate.com issued studies that revealed mortgage consumers were confused, concerned and craving more regulatory protection.

The AFL-CIO found 73 percent of adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) holders, didn't have a clue how much their monthly mortgage payment will increase or decrease the next time their rate adjusts. Nearly half, 49 percent, said they weren't very informed about their mortgage's terms and conditions. One in five did not know their current interest rate.

Bankrate.com found more than one in three homeowners didn't even know what kind of mortgage they had, a fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) or an ARM.

• A November 2010, Consumer Reports (which is published by Consumers Union) national poll found 76 percent of respondents wanted the CFPB to make clearer mortgage and financial disclosures a priority. In addition, 84 percent who had applied for or received a loan or credit card in the past 12 months indicated difficulty with financial disclosures; and 31 percent said the disclosures were not clear.

• Early this year a MortgageMatch survey noted the mortgage application process was so excruciating, 21 percent said the ordeal was more stressful than waiting to hear if they got a job. Technical jargon was too much for 21.6 percent of those surveyed and 20.7 percent said it was a challenge to find a lender who was easy to work with. More than 32 percent of survey respondents ranked the application process more challenging than getting the mortgage itself (23 percent) or negotiating the sale price on the home (25.3 percent).

• A Zillow.com survey indicated 57 percent of prospective home buyers did not understand how ARMs work. Also, 45 percent believed they should always buy mortgage discount points. Some 34 percent did not realize lender fees vary by lender and are negotiable.

Overall search engine use dropped 7% in February 2012 vs. February 2011. Google use (Google and AOL) dropped to 66.8% of total searches from 70.8% in that same time period.  Bing powered searches (Bing & Yahoo) rose from 29.2% in February 2011 to 33.2% in Feb 2012.

Google also saw a drop from January when it captured 67.5% of all searches.

Overall search engine activity fell by 1.9% February 2011 to February 2012.  The drop from January to February was 6.9%.

It should be pointed out that 2012 is a leap year, so there were 29 days in February.  Therefore, the drops are somewhat worse than the numbers actually show when you compare 2012 to 2011.  But the 6.9% drop from January to February is not quite so bad since February had two fewer days.

There are still numbers here for Google to be concerned about; if not concerned exactly, then at least apprehensive.  A .7% drop from one month to another might be explained by one factor or another, but a 4.4% drop in use from one year to the next is no small amount.  If I were bing I would be shouting to the rooftops.

This writer has a tough time believing Google’s market share will go much lower, given the contracts that Google has making it the default search engine on numerous popular browsers.  But having said that, these are numbers that absolutely must be followed.

Source:  Compete Search Engine Market Share Report

What's more scary: knowing your teenager is now driving; or receiving your auto insurance rate increase after you add your teen to the policy?

Like it or not, teen drivers are higher risks for accidents and violations. And that always equates to higher premiums. But there are some ways to limit the rate increase.

Do some research: Insurance companies charge a wide variety of rates for youthful operators. Some insurers will add the teen to your policy when they get their learner's permit. Others will give you a break and wait until they are licensed. Before you make the purchase, contact your agent to compare insurance premiums on your potential purchase.

Good student discounts: Many insurers offer significant discounts if the young driver maintains a B average. The difference can be several hundred dollars a year, so encourage your teen drivers to hit the books and study hard.

Avoid the cool cars: Your teen may be urging you to look at high performance vehicles. Do not be tempted to cave into their demands. High performance cars will be much more costly to insure than safe, "boring" cars. Plus, the teens will be less eager to speed or show off for their friends. Your children may scoff initially, but if you are going to buy them a car, they will eventually be grateful for that durable, boring vehicle.

Say no to gas-guzzlers: While a gas-guzzler may not necessarily increase the insurance rates, they will certainly put a major dent in your wallet. 

Raise your deductible: One of the easiest ways to reduce your auto insurance premium (with or without a teen on the policy) is to increase your deductible.

The rip-off artists are operating in full swing these days.  It’s hard to read a newsletter or a website without seeing a warning from some government agency regarding a scam or online privacy issue of some kind.  As a result, we thought it would be helpful to update you on three issues facing our industry and our customers.

Telephone Collections Scams
The payday loan telephone collection scam folks are back again.  The callers pose as agents of the federal government using fake agency names, such as the Federal Legislative Department, as representatives of a law firm, and even as calling from the FBI.  They claim to be making collections for agencies that sound legit.  The problem is they are not.
The warning bulletin from the FBI says the callers “relentlessly call the victim’s home, cell phone, and place of employment in attempts to obtain payment and they refuse to provide information regarding the alleged payday loan or any documentation and become verbally abusive when questioned.”
The new scammers have amped up their efforts though.  There are instances highlighted by the FBI, that the scammer came to the victim’s home and/or office posing as a process server.  They have also demanded that “delinquent consumers” obtain a pre-paid card to pay off the debt. 
If you or someone you know is concerned that they are a victim of a scam or fraud, there are several courses of action:
-    Contact your local law enforcement agency
-    Contact your bank and credit companies
-    If you have taken out and repaid a loan or if you currently have one open, contact the lender to make sure no actions have been taken
-    File a complaint at www.IC3.gov

Mobile Banking ID Theft
Younger customers are warned to be more careful with their personal information.  As younger people are more likely to post personal information on social media, such as twitter and facebook, they tend to be lackadaisical about the information’s security; particularly on mobile devices.  And thus, they are the targets more of scammers.
A recent study by Javelin Strategy & Research sheds some light on the issue of identity fraud.  11.6 million adults were victims of fraud on 2011, compared to 10.2 in 2010.  But, the total fraud cost in 2011 was 18 billion, which is actually lower than in 2010.  The decrease in total dollars is attributed to better and faster security measures.  Consumers receive warnings from their financial institutions faster than ever before and consumers are better educated about the process.
The study issued strong warnings about the kind of information you post on social media.  70% of consumers posted birthdays with months, day and years.  More than 60% posted high school or college names and more than half posted their e-mail addresses.  All of this information can be used by hackers to steal your identity. 
Because 18 to 24yr olds have such a sense of security in using social media and mobile devices they have a false sense of security.  This leads to them being more likely to be victims.
But, a caution to all of us.  Do not post personal information that can be hacked and used to steal your identity.

White House Plan to Protect Online Privacy
On Thursday, February 23, 2012 the White House proposed a “consumer bill of rights” to protect their privacy while online. 
There are no immediate changes, but rather a set of guidelines to be considered by the Commerce Department, which is going to work with companies and “privacy advocates” to develop a coherent policy that will effectively protect consumer information while they are online.
There are seven basic tenets to the plan:  Consumers would control the type of information companies collect; companies must be transparent about data usage plans and be respectful of the context in which is provided; companies must ensure secure handling of the data; there would be limits to what personal data is collected and retained, plus be held accountable for strong privacy measures; consumers must have the ability to access to their own data
This comes at a time when it has been disclosed that Google, among other firms, has been collecting consumer data, even going so far as to bypassing other firms’ security measures.  All in an effort to build profiles and generate additional advertising revenue. 
It seems certain that some plan will be developed and from an online marketer’s standpoint, it’s imperative that consumers feel confident that their personal information is protected and used for reasons they deem appropriate.  After all, if consumers are not confident in online security systems, that affects all online businesses, doesn’t it?

Believe it or not, Massacuhusetts drivers have the most affordable auto insurance premiums in the nation for 2011, according to Internet insurance vendor InsWeb.  "Affordability" means the median auto insurance premiums, compared with the median household income. Therefore, the lowest average premium is not necessarily the most affordable.

This is the second straight year Massachusetts has topped the lost. The least affordable state is Louisiana. InsWeb rated the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.

2011 Auto Insurance Affordability Rankings

1. Massachusetts    
2. Hawaii
3. Minnesota
4. North Carolina    
5. Utah    
6. Wisconsin    
7. Iowa    
8. Idaho    
9. Ohio    
10. Vermont
11. Virginia
12. Maine    
13. New Hampshire    
14. Indiana    
15. Washington    
16. Alaska    
17. New Jersey    
18. Oregon    
19. Pennsylvania    
20. Illinois    
21. North Dakota    
22. Nebraska    
23. Michigan    
24. South Dakota    
25. Kansas    
26. Tennessee    
27. Colorado    
28. Delaware    
29. California    
30. Connecticut    
31. Texas    
32. South Carolina    
33. Georgia    
34. Alabama    
35. Maryland    
36. Montana    
37. Missouri    
38. Wyoming    
39. Arkansas    
40. New Mexico    
41. Nevada    
42. Florida    
43. New York    
44. Arizona    
45. Rhode Island    
46. Kentucky    
47. Mississippi    
48. Oklahoma    
49. West Virginia    
50. Washington D.C.
51. Louisiana
    

On May 25, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) narrowly voted in favor of adopting final regulations for implementing the “Securities Whistleblower Incentives and Protection” provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Despite arguments submitted by corporate America and the two dissenting Republican SEC commissioners (Kathleen L. Casey and Troy A. Paredes), the Commission refused to incorporate a requirement that employee whistleblowers report possible violations of the federal securities laws to their companies before contacting the SEC directly. The opponents argued the whistleblower rules would replace companies’ existing internal compliance programs, as mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Instead of implementing the recommendations, the SEC added a few more incentives to encourage internal reporting. The Commission also amended the definition of “whistleblower” and the anti-retaliation provisions within the regulations. The amendment are designed to help avoid frivolous claims.

For thorough details on the whistleblower rules, courtesy of Pepper Hamilton LLP, click on the link below:

http://www.pepperlaw.com/publications_update.aspx?ArticleKey=2117

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The FTC has ruled the inappropriate capturing of data is a violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC’s COPPA Rule. This was the first FTC case involving mobile applications.   

COPPA prohibits the unauthorized collection of personal information from children by operators of websites or online services. In particular, the rule mandates parental notice and consent prior to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information of children under the age of 13. COPPA requires website operators to post a clear, understandable and complete privacy notice. COPPA pertains to web services directed to children under 13 years old. The rule also bans the collection of personal information from children under 13.

The complaint alleged several of the apps offered from Apple, Inc.’s App Store by Broken Thumbs, and its president and owner, Justin Maples, were directed at children under the age of 13. The complaint also alleged Broken Thumbs collected personal information from children through the online operation of these apps.

As part of the settlement, Broken Thumbs has also agreed to not violate COPPA in the future and to delete all personal information obtained in violation of COPPA.

Japanese insurers have already shelled out a staggering $2.27 billion on some 125,000 dwelling claims as a result of last month's earthquake and tsunami, according to the General Insurance Association (GIA) of Japan.

The GIA reported that it expects the number of claims to grow as the restoration of the country progresses.

The loss adjusting process has been helped by technology. Insurers are using aerial and satellite photographs to scan“total loss areas.” These regions will not require loss adjusters to personally assess damage to dwellings.

Talk about a popular product! UK consumers are gobbling up payday loans like bears eat honey.

Thanks largely to the high cost of living, demand for payday loans in the UK shot up by 58 percent in April 2011, compared with April 2010 figures, according to short-term loan website moneysupermarket.com.

Payday loans are designed to help tide consumers over financially until their next paycheck.

Tim Moss, head of loans and debt at moneysupermarket.com, commented, "It's no surprise to see the demand for payday loans rise so sharply in the current climate, and particularly around bank holiday periods when people have been spending more. These products act as a barometer, giving a unique insight into the state of the nation's finances, and as people continue to feel the pinch, we can expect to see the popularity of these products continue to increase."

Moss added that, although payday loans comes with high annual percentage rates, consumers who need money quickly can utilize payday loan services more inexpensively than many other financial options, provided the loans are repaid promplty.

Moss concluded, "The golden rule for consumers is not to borrow money unless it is absolutely necessary. Consumers feeling the pinch need to sit down, go through their finances and try to work out where they can reduce their outgoings before considering any kind of loan..."

Everyone is Tweeting. Some of us are over-Tweeting (just ask Gilbert Gottfried and Courtney Love). There may soon be a way to help protect yourself from legal problems that may arise as a result of Twitter posts that may get you in hot water.

Once the Tweet is sent, there is no turning back. You may regret it later, but as soon as you click the button the entire world can see your witty remarks -- even those who may be offended.

The insurance industry to the rescue.

Canadian insurance brokers are apparently the first to recognize the need for added protection from Tweets that may cross the line and lead to defamation lawsuits.

The problem is not related solely to celebrities. Employees who post off-color comments about their boss or co-workers could potentially be a target of lawsuits or sanctions by their employer.

It's no secret the payday loan industry  in the UK is booming. The nation's economy is still suffering, and many Brits who are faced with financial woes need a place to turn for fast cash.

Many smart entrepreneurs are jumping into the UK payday loan corporations. This phenomenon is just not just restricted to the United Kingdom; UK payday loan retailers are appearing all through Australia, the USA, Canada, the Caribbean and Central America.

Payday loan businesses rank among the most lucrative enterprises in the UK, whether you are a merchant that provides the loan; or a website publisher who generates the leads. Consumers are cahrged between £15 and £25 for every £100 borrowed. The UK payday loan industry generates about £50 billion a year in total revenue.

In addition, affiliate marketing firms such as T3LEADS.COM offer extremely high payouts to online publishers who generate UK Payday leads.

Of course, launching a Payday Loan operation will take some resources and management skill. There are also rules and business practices that you should adhere to in order to run a smooth operation. If you lack this kind of experience, you are probably better off developing a Payday Loan lead generation program.

Either way, Payday Loans can be a successful business venture for many entrepreneurs in the UK.

U.S. property & casualty insurers’ aftertax net income rose dramatically in 2010.

P&C insurers' income jumped almost 21 percent in 2010 over 2009 figures, to $34.7 billion. In 2009, the industry posted $28.7 billion in aftertax net income, according to a report by the Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO) and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. The report is titled, “Investment Gains Propelled Improvement in P/C Insurers’ Overall Financial Results for 2010 as Underwriting Results Deteriorated."

P&C insurer net written premiums also rose in 2010, by 0.9 percent.

Not all news was positive. Combined loss ratio was 102.4 percent for the year, versus 101 percent in 2009.

Overall, earned investment income jumped to $47.2 billion in 2010; and P&C insurers are expected to report a 35.2 percent spike in net investments, or $52.9 billion.

An ISO spokesman commented that the strong showing in 2010 may be a reflection of growing investor expectations that the economy is improving.

Thanks in part to soaring utility bills, the average cost to manage a home in the UK is on the rise -- despite a slight dip in mortgage rates.

The rise has been felt most by Scotland residents, whose home-related expenses have risen dring the first quarter of 2011 by £116.

Economists report that mortgage payment have dropped, but the rising cost of energy bills and repairs has led to an overall increase of 1.4%; or £8,641 for the entire year.

In London, the results were promising. The cost of managing a London home dropped by 5.9%, thanks in large part to the dip in mortgage payments. Lower mortgage interest rates have fallen by 21% on average.

Utility bills -- electricity, gas, etc. -- are up 19% since 2008. That's an average of £259 per year.

Renters are impacted by the spike in utility costs, as well. Their expenses have risen over a three-year span by 10%.

Millennial Media has released its June Mobile Mix Report. According to the research, from Q1-Q2 2011, impressions on Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7, RIM and Symbian all grew by more than 10 percent. In particular, Windows Phone 7 impressions grew 31 percent quarter-over-quarter, while RIM grew 29 percent.

The connected device category (mobile devices such as the iPad, iPod Touch, Sony PSP, etc.) grew 13% in the last month, which made up 18% of all impressions on our network.

Here are a few additional highlights in the June report:

* The iPhone remained the top mobile phone on Millenial Media's network, with a 16 pecent impression share.
* iOS impressions (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) grew 18 percent quarter-over-quarter. In the same time period, Android impressions grew 11 percent.
* Android remained the leading OS on Millenial Media's network for the 7th consecutive month, with a 54 percent impression share; and 16 of the top 20 mobile phones were Android.
* Smartphones made up 65 percent of all impressions on Millenial Media's network, and all 20 of the top 20 phones were smartphones.
* Music and entertainment application impressions grew 13 percent quarter-over-quarter. Within the music/entertainment category, music and audio applications accounted for two-thirds of the impressions.

With the U.S. financial industry in upheaval, banks have been a lot more strict about shelling out long term loans. Therefore, many consumers are seeking assistance from non-bank institutions and various products such as short term loans.

There are pros and cons for both long term and short term loans. We've put together a list:

Long Term Loans - Pros:

* Of course, the most obvious advantage of the long term loan is the loan amount. If you qualify, long term bank loans are used to start a business, purchase a car, buy a home, consolidate debt and anything in between.

* Long term loans typically come with more competitive rates than short term loans. Banks are extremely competitive with each other and they often offer interest rates that are more appealing than what their competitors offer.

* Long term loans -- because they are spread out over a lengthy time period -- include relatively small monthly payments.

* Some banks will also offer balloon loans where there are little or no payments until the loan is due. At the due date the balloon payment is made. This is beneficial for a borrower who may be launching a business with a small amount of capital, but there is significant growth potential for the business or investment.

Short Term Loans - Pros:

* Simplicity. One of the major reasons why short term loans such as payday loans have become so popular is the ease in which a consumer can obtain the loan. This is especially true for online payday loans. There are an abundance of payday loan vendors online, and the application process and electronic transmission of the loans are extremely user-friendly.

* Speed. Short term loan applicants are typically informed immediately whether they qualify. And, as soon as the borrower agrees to the loan terms, the money is usually transmitted to the customer's bank account within 24 hours.

* Weak credit is OK. Oftentimes, customers who have been rejected for loans from a bank due to credit issues will have an easier time qualifying for a short term loan. With payday loans, for example, customers can qualify as long as they have a steady source of income and no other outstanding payday loans.

* Short term. As the name implies, the short term loan is designed to be repaid quickly -- usually within 8-24 days. When repaid promptly, the debt -- and the customer's financial problem -- are quickly resolved.

Long Term Loans - Cons:

* Be prepared to jump through many hoops. The application process is very cumbersome and time-consuming. There are numerous lengthy forms to complete and the financial institution will ask a lot of personal financial-related questions.

* Interest adds up. Although the payments are spread out over a long period of time, and the interest rate may seem low, the interest adds up and the total amount repaid may be almost double the loan amount or more, depending on the length of the loan, the interest rate and the amount borrowed.

* Risk.  If you have trouble paying off your loan, you risk losing your property: your car, your home, etc.

Short Term Loans - Cons:

* Short term = small loan. Borrowers can usually only take out up to around $1,500; and that figure is typically much smaller until the borrowers have established themselves as a good customer.  Therefore, short term loans can only be used to pay for minor expenses such as bills, car or home repairs, etc.

* Interest rates. One of the most common criticisms of short term loans is the annual interest rate (APR). Although state regulations usually prevent borrowers from rolling over short term loans for more than around two months, the APR (which is about 400 percent) scares off some consumers. 

It is important for consumers to understand the benefits and the pitfalls of all available loan options. In addition, borrowers must be very disciplined when it comes to their outstanding debt. Make sure you stay within your budget and do not get over-extended financially.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Wireless carriers may be in some trouble if the current trend regarding text usage.

The Journal notes that research conducted by the CTIA shows about 1 trillion U.S. text messages were fired off during the second half of 2010. That represents just an 8.7 percent increase over the first half of 2010, which is the slightest increase seen for SMS use.

Verizon is seeing only minimal increases in text usage; and AT&T has seen a 21 percent drop in text usage among its customers.

Why does the SMS text usage matter to the telecom carriers? The average mobilephone carrier makes an 80-cent profit for each dollar it generates from text-related revenue.

And, the situation could get worse. Products such as Apple's iMessage feature in the upcoming iOS 5, will utilize wi-fi and 3G messages for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, which are not part of the telecom vendors' texting system.

The Wall Street Journal also noted that Google will soon offer a messaging platform for Android-based devices. If this takes off it could take a massive bite out of the telecom carriers' texting revenue.

The news is not all bad for the mobile carriers. The largest segment of the texting market -- teens -- continues to be very strong. Studies have shows 33 percent of American teenagers send over 100 texts daily. And, some 75 percent of teens have cell phones, with 72 percent of them using the cell devices to send text messages.

Big news in the mobile technology world!

Annonymous sources at Hewlett-Packard Co. have divulged that the company plans to produce mobile devices that would give consumers the ability to make wireless purchases.

The HP phones and tablets would reportedly allow consumers to make purchases and obtain coupons directly at grocery store cash registers simply by touching their gadgets. The first NFC devices may be available by year-end, the person said.

The objective would be to utilize the Palm brand, which HP bought in 2010 for over $1 billion. HP clearly wants to carve a niche for the Palm brand in the smartphone marketplace, as Palm's percentage of that market has taken a nose-dive (2.6 percent as of April 2011).

It will be interesting to see how the project develops and to track consumer demand for it. 

It has been a growing trend in the U.S. for many years: the outsourcing of customer service and data processing jobs to India. But India has implemented some new restrictions regulating the transfer of data to the United States.

This year, India enacted new Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal Data or Information) Rules. The rules impact India companies that gather personal data.

The rules mandate that no India-based firm may send personal consumer information to a third party outside the country, unless the company receiving the data can provide the high level of data security required under the India IT Rules. The private information includes:  passwords, certain health conditions and medical records; and sexual orientation.

What does this mean for online retailers in the U.S.? American firms that obtain this kind of data from Indian companies must adhere to Indian privacy regulations if they want to continue receiving the data. The regulations also may apply when information is collected about non-Indian residents.

Needless to say, companies doing business with Indian customer service firms need to make sure they are in compliance with the nation's IT Data Rules.

The number of bankruptcies filed in the U.S. reached staggering proportions in 2010 (see chart below). But, even those who have been forced to file bankruptcy still need to purchase items such as cars from time to time. So, if one is still trying to repair their credit rating, is it possible to qualify for a car loan?

One positive aspect of having filed bankruptcy under chapter 7 is that the auto loan lenders realize the consumer cannot file bankruptcy again for another eight years. And, most car loans are less than eight years. Therefore, the lender knows the consumer cannot file bankruptcy to avoid paying off the loan.

Another way to increase your chances of obtaining a car loan after filing chapter 7 is to work on improving your credit score. Pay off bills promptly. Obtain a reliable credit score periodically so you know where you stand. The better your credit score, the better rate you will likely be offered.

There is a significant difference between a chapter 7 bankruptcy and a chapter 13 bankruptcy. A chapter 7 is going to impair the consumer's credit rating because the debts are erased. With a chapter 13 bankruptcy, debt payments are restructured, not eliminated as they are in a chapter 7. Those who file a chapter 13 bankruptcy will not have their credit rating impacted as dramatically as those who file chapter 7. This is a major consideration for those looking into bankruptcy, who may still want to maintain a decent credit rating.

If you are unable to obtain a bank loan for a new vehicle, another option to consider is an online auto loan. There are numerous online auto loan websites that may be more lenient than traditional lenders.

_________________________________________________
Business and Non-Business Filings
Years Ended September 30, 2006-2010

Year     Total             Non-Business    Business
2010     1,596,355     1,538,033        58,322
2009     1,402,816     1,344,095        58,721
2008     1,042,993     1,004,342        38,651
2007     801,269        775,344          25,925
2006     1,112,542     1,085,209        27,333

According to Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter, Google pays Apple $1 BILLION to be the default search engine in Safari.

In a note obtained or released March 9, 2012, Schachter voices the opinion that Apple seems to be shifting away from Google.  The basis of this opinion is Apple’s shift away from Google Maps.  We’re not sure that constitutes a trend, but let’s imagine a world where Google is dropped from Safari on Apple devices.

Jay Yarow in an article for Business Insider posits that this would not be a huge blow initially.  In the note Schachter believes that Google searches on Apple devices resulted in $1.3 billion in revenue.  So, Google makes about $300 million from the searches.  Schachter uses Google public records as a source for the numbers.

Yarow goes on to speculate that Google would be in trouble in time, if Apple abandoned them.  He bases that on the fact that it looks like iPad sales will surpass PC sales in the coming years.

There’s no doubt that in the long run, if Apple dropped Google it would be a major blow to Google.  Even if Google is a superior search engine to bing, or other search engines, being the default tool will ultimately account for the vast majority of searches conducted.  Whoever is in the default position will ultimately be the leading search engine.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has recently estimated the total U.S. consumer debt is a whopping $11.4 trillion. That means the average American household debt is an incredible $99,303.

Americans love to accumulate debt: mortgage payments, credit cards, payday/short-term loans, lines of credit, etc., etc. The question is, when a consumer's debt is piled sky-high, how can they eliminate their debt without filing bankruptcy?

Check out these suggestions:

* The first step a debt-riddled consumer should take is to create a strict budget -- and adhere to it. Start crossing off the unnecessary items from your expense list and look into ways to reduce the other expenses, as well. Do you really need the NFL TV package? Do your children need to play for that expensive club team?

* Look for a second job. Maybe you can find something that can done at home. Maybe there are services you can provide your friends and neighbors that can earn you some extra money.

* eBay! Tired of looking at those bookshelves stuffed with novels you've already read? Sell them on eBay. Or have a garage sale. You might be amazed how much money you can earn by selling off your old stuff.

* Trade down. Do you need that big gas-guzzler? Can you move to a smaller, more economical townhome or condo? These are major decisions that are impacted by the state of the real estate and auto market, but they are certainly considerations for those dealing with a mountain of debt.

* Pay off your credit cards as quickly as possible. Start with the cards that have the lowest balance. Once you pay off that card, then work off the next one ... and the next. Another option is to work out a settlement with your credit card company. Sometimes the company would prefer to work out a settlement rather than have the total debt wiped out by a bankruptcy. However, the IRS may consider these settlements income, so make sure you consult with a tax advisor if you go down this path.

If these steps are not effective, you may want to consult with a money manager, credit counselor or bankruptcy attorney.

Good luck!

Yahoo! Sports has uncovered a new trend among National Football League (NFL) players: a surge in players taking out short-term loans.

That's right -- with the NFL owners and players engaged in a nasty labor union battle and lockout, some players are resorting to short-term loans to make ends meet.

Yahoo! also found that some short-term loan lenders are requiring players to obtain an insurance policy to cover the loans, in case an injury ends or dispurts their career. The insurance policy can be quite pricey and could potentially increase the cost of taking out a short-term loan by several thousand dollars.

This is creating quite a "Catch-22" situation. The players need the loan to cover their expenses, but if the labor situation is not resolved they will not be able to earn a paycheck to repay the loan. That, of course, would reduce the risk of injury (and the need for an insurance policy), but a prolonged strike or lockout would lead to even more drastic financial problems for many players -- especially those who are not stars with multi-million-dollar contracts.

Google has reported that a major phising scheme has resulted in a sizeable breach of Gmail accounts.

The attack, which reportedly originated from China, has impacted hundreds of Gmail addresses, including accounts of some senior U.S. government officials.

It is suspected that malware was loaded on the targted email passwords when the victims replied to an email message that appeared as if it was coming from a known source. This sort of hacking is called phishing. Google said its security systems  were not compromised by the Gmail attack.

Additional Gmail targets included government representatives from South Korean and other Asian countries, as well as Chinese political activists, military officials and journalists.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented, "Google informed the State Department of this situation [on June 1] in advance of its public announcement." She added, "These allegations are very serious, we take them seriously, we're looking into them, and because this will be an ongoing investigation I would refer you to first Google for any details that they are able to share at this time, and to the FBI, which will be conducting the investigation."

About a year ago another Gmail cyber attack came from China. That phishing scheme targted human rights activists. That attack did impact Google's security systems. That incident led to Google's decision to remove its servers from China, and to censor some search results for the Chinese government.

The most recent Gmail cyber assault is reportedly larger than the one that took place last year. Thus far there appears to be no connection between the two incidents.

A Mississippi court has recently ruled that an article and consumer comments posted on a television news station's website about a former reporter of that station does not constitute "cyber libel."

Here's the background information in Miles v. Raycom Media, Inc.:

Toni Miles was a news anchor at a television station in Mississippi. On October 24, 2008, she was arrested during a drug raid at a home she was visiting. After the incident, the news director at the TV station informed Miles her contract would not be renewed.
   
Miles brought an action against the TV station for a variety of claims, including sex discrimination, defamation and false light. In a separate claim, Miles also said the television station allowed cyber libel" against her by running a news article on its webpage and "subsequently allow[ing] unfiltered online comments which contained false information."  She did not allege that the defendants wrote or revised the false comments.  Ms. Miles acknowledged that the comments were not filtered by defendants.
   
The defendants filed a motion to dismiss.

The court granted the TV station's motion to dismiss the case, claiming Miles failed to state a claim for false light or defamation. The court noted Miles did not contend any statement in the article was false.

The TV station argued they are immune from liability under the Communications Decency Act ("CDA"), Section 230(c)(1). This regulation states: "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

The court ruled the defendants are immune from liability under the CDA for the alleged defamatory third-party comments published on its website. The ruling pointed out that Miles had complained the "defendants merely allowed the comments, and there is no indication or allegation that the defendants encouraged defamatory comments on their website."

The bottom line: the Communications Decency Act protected the television station for its online article and the ensuing public comments. The key factor to the court ruling was that the plaintiff, Toni Miles, never claimed the article encouraged the public to post any defamatory comments.

There is good financial news coming in as 2011 comes to a close.  The question is, and no one knows the answer, will this continue through the New Year or will problems in Europe and elsewhere stall future growth?

Time Magazine online published the following numbers:  The number of people applying for unemployment benefits is way down.  366,000 applied the 2nd week of December 2011, down from 659,000 in March 2009.  In good times, the total ranges from 280,000 to 350,000.  Unemployment in November was 8.6%, down from 9.0% in October.

Spending is up.  In fact, retail sales in November were up for the 6th month in a row.  Consumers are spending more on clothes, cars, electronics and furniture.  Consumer confidence is going up with spending.

Gas prices are falling.  The national price for regular unleaded has fallen nationally from $3.98 per gallon to $3.21.  (Statistic courtesy of AAA Daily Fuel Guage.)

The housing market shows some signs of improvement.  Home construction rose 9% in November from October.  The largest part of the gain was apartment construction.  A major factor in this growth is the need for apartments.  Unfortunately, this is because many people lost/sold their homes.

The encouraging news in housing is that sales of previously owned homes rose 4% in November.  This not only shows confidence from the consumer, but may be an indication that banks are on the road to lending again.

Bernard Baumohl, chief economist with the Economic Outlook Group, takes a different view of the economy.  He says that stronger consumer spending "is absolutely unsustainable. .... Wages have not kept pace with inflation all year."  Wages have gone down 1.8% between November 2011 and Nov. 2010.

So as with the past two years, some good news, some bad.  The big questions are Europe and the coming election.  How will they impact the American economy?

The Federal Trade commission (FTC) will hold a public workshop on May 30, 2012.  The purpose of the forum is to consider new guidelines regarding online advertisers and disclosures.  In the FTC press release they say the workshop will cover, “revising the Dot Com Disclosures so they illustrate how to provide clear and conspicuous disclosures in the current online and mobile advertising environment. Any revisions will be consistent with the goals of the original guidelines and will continue to emphasize that consumer protection laws apply equally to online and mobile marketers, and to other media. The FTC began seeking input for revising the Dot Com Disclosures guidelines last year.”

Topics might include:
•    How can effective disclosures be made on new social media platforms and mobile devices given the limited space; both character length and physical size.
•    Can disclosures come in a separate e-mail for instance?  Further, is it okay to send the terms of agreement or privacy policy on a later communication to be printed or downloaded later?
•    How can disclosures that are made in the original advertisement be retained when the advertisement is aggregated (for example, on dashboards) or re-transmitted (through, for example, re-tweeting)?  
•    What are the disclosure opportunities and limitations of hyperlinks, hashtags, click-throughs, etc.
•    How does consumer use of mobile and social outlets affect the disclosures?  How does this behavior affect how consumers buy online?

The FTC invites written suggestions for topics of discussion or original research.  In particular, the Commission invites the submission of realistic examples and mock-ups that can be used for illustration and discussion at the workshop. Individuals and organizations may submit requests to participate as panelists and may recommend topics for inclusion on the agenda.  The requests and recommendations should be submitted electronically to dotcomdisclosuresworkshop@ftc.gov.

If you unable to attend the conference you may watch it live at FTC.gov.

Now when you visit your local 7-Eleven you can buy a Slurpee -- and pay your bills.

That's right -- Mountain View, CA-based PayNearMe is partnering with 7-Eleven and Ria Financial Services to set up bill payment centers in the convenience stores. Ria Financial will process the money transfers.

Statistics show that some 25 percent of Americans do not have credit or debit cards. In fact, in 2010 Americans used cash to pay for $1.2 trillion in purchases.

PayNearMe is a start-up operation that gives consumers the ability to pay bills through wired transfer. The company says its fees are lower than money orders and Western Union transfers.

When customers bring the bill to a 7-Eleven the cashier scans the barcode. The payment is automatically transmitted to the biller.

PayNearMe is already working with Amazon.com and Greyhound Lines to serve customers without credit cards. When orders are placed online from Amazon.com or Greyhound, customers can print out a PayNearMe receipt and take it to a 7-Eleven. They then pay 7-Eleven in cash and the receipt acts as the bus ticket.

PayNearMe's fee varies by product and by customer. In some cases the merchant will pick up the cost of the fee.

The company's primary competition is coming from Green Dot Netspend Holdings, which offers prepaid cards that are sold in supermarkets and convenience stores. But PayNearMe's marketing advantage is the bill-paying service. The company already has around 3,000 billers enrolled. Bills from those companies will include a 7-Eleven logo, a bar code and payment instructions.

Google has another privacy-related lawsuit on its hands.  This one is from the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and it claims that Google’s plan to consolidate its privacy policies violate an agreement already in place with the FCC.

CDD says the new policies violate the FCC-Google consent decree because Google will not have to get direct consent before sharing user information.

The complaint additionally alleges that the Google is misleading the public about the reasons for the consolidation.  The suit says Google is doing it for advertising marketing reasons and not for the ease of the customer experience as they are claiming.

That’s not all.  CDD says that Google is not being upfront with how data collection, profiling and targeting practices could ultimately violate their privacy.

“In particular, Google fails to inform its users that the new privacy regime is based on its own business imperatives: to address competition from Facebook' to grow its capacity to finely profile and target through audience buying; to collect, integrate, and utilize a user's information in order to expand its social media, social search, and mobile marketing activities ... and generally to expand its DoubleClick (advertising) operations," the complaint says.

The issue of privacy is everywhere in the news these days and will continue to be until further standards that everyone agrees to are in place.

We may be talking about privacy issue for a while.

Time spent on Google+ went down for the second month in a row.  It didn’t seem possible but according to ComScore the average time spent on Google+ went down in January after December’s numbers were lower than November’s.

Average monthly time spent on Google+ in January was 3.3 minutes.  It was 4.8 minutes in December and 5.1 minutes in November.  It was hoped that the increase in sign-ups to Google+ would help involvement, but so far that is not the case.  Google announced in January that they had reached 95 million users.

By way of comparison, facebook’s 845 million users spend an average of 7 ½ hours per month on their site.

Shares of Google stock fell about 1% after the announcement.  They have fallen 5.7% in 2012.  The company, which admittedly is a powerhouse, certainly has its share of challenges including, Google+, privacy lawsuits, additional governmental scrutiny, patent lawsuits….

We’ll keep an eye on Google+’s progress and its possible role in future affiliate marketing plans.

Gabriel Gervelis wrote the following article for SearchEngineJournal and it uncovers a trend that all affiliate marketers should follow.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/is-seo-really-seo-anymore-index-search-down-50-apps-and-social-search-exploding/40829/
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know the importance of incorporating social media into your SEO efforts.  No additional lecture required here.

But modern day search is more than that.  It is in fact changing before our very eyes.  According to Gervelis, traditional, index search is down 50%.  Search is growing on sites such as Wikipedia, StumbleUpon and other popular content sites.  They are searching app stores too.  To date, Apple reports over 25 billion downloads, with over 500,000 available.  Consumers have moved past sifting text links on page after page.

Further proof – the second largest search engine is YouTube.  Search is changing.  It is becoming more about engagement and less about lists.  Do you have an app that engages?  Do you have an app that takes into account the way a mobile user might be using your site, versus, how a desktop user might be suing it?

So what does all this mean?  Gervelis has this to say, “Will search engine optimization experts like myself continue to focus on the results listings of Google, Yahoo and Bing? Or will we adapt our talents to the changing needs of the consumers and the businesses that we represent? Where will our clients turn when they no longer need to be #1 on Google, rather, #1 on the app market.”
“And if we do, are we still “search engine optimization” experts? Or should we be ditching the “SE” in “SEO” and replacing it with something else?”

The ultimate question is, are you providing the necessary information to your consumer how they want it?

A new tool called Engagio released February 15th with the goal of becoming the dashboard of social media.  The idea was to make it like g-mail, but for social media.

It works like this:  Engagio links user’s accounts from twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Tumblr, as well as Foursquare and web forums.  It collects comments, replies, messages and updates and publishes them to a single box.  The user is able to post any responses back to these services as well.  Engagio is planning to add support for other social services, including Quora and additional forums on Stack Exchange.

It certainly would be beneficial to have communications from social media channels come to one, easy to manage location, as opposed to being bombarded via e-mail by each individually.  And I can easily see the time that could be saved with this tool as well.  No switching back and forth between the channels.  Log in to one place and peruse the board, respond and you’re done.  On first glance, this would certainly seem to be a convenient and time saving tool for the social media user.

To check it out yourself go to: http://www.engag.io/welcome

Is that stack of magazines in your restroom collecting dust? Are you taking your smartphone in the john to do a little mobile shopping?

It's no great secret that smartphones are typically glued to the owner's hand nearly every waking minute (some may even be sleeping with their smartphone in-hand). According to a new study conducted by Google and the market research firm Ipsos OTX, 39 percent of smartphone owners use their smartphone while doing their "business."  Even more eye-opeing -- about one-fifth of smartphone users would dump their cable TV over their smartphones, if given the choice.

The study also examined the most frequent uses of smartphones. The research found:

• 77 percent use it to search for websites
• 57 look for news
• 51 percent look for restaurants
• 49 percent seek entertainment
• 47 percent do some shopping on their smartphone
• 32 percent look for technology-related information
• 31 percent check out travel sites
• 26 percent seek finance-related info
• 17 percent look up auto-related sites

Additional findings include:

• More than half (53 percent) of smartphone users have made a purchase through their mobile device
• 95 percent have looked up local information
• 61 percent call a business from their device (you'd think that would be much higher, since it is still a phone, right?)
• 27 percent of smartphone purchases were made through a mobile website and 22 percent were made through apps
• Smartphone shoppers spent an average of $300 on purchases made through their device (entertainment, electronics and apparel are the most popular items purchased)
• 71 percent decided to search on their smartphones because of some sort of advertisement.

It has been announced by House of Representatives Majority Leader Eric Cantor R-(VA) that SOPA, H.R. 3261, has been tabled for now.

This comes after blog postings from the White House in which they said, “while we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic innovative global Internet.”
“Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses, large and small,” according to the blog.

The Senate bill known as the Protect I Act, also seems to be on hold, after the realization that it as well as the house bill are flawed.

The pressure from companies such as Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla and Yahoo! Had more than a little bit to do with the bills’ suspension as well.

The Internet blackout was still held on Wednesday, January 18, 2012.  Companies planning to participate include Wikipedia, reddit, MoveOn and Mozilla.

Your first order of business for 2012 is to get your site mobile-device ready.  Mobile browsing set a record in December 2011 – 7.7% of total browser usage originated from a mobile device.  That number may inch down a little bit in January and February, but overall expect usage to continue to rise.

There are definitely challenges to be faced in developing your site to be seen on various size screens.  If you are using T3leads products you will already be mobile friendly, but if not you have a lot of programming to be done.

The good news is, it will be worth it.  More and more mobile products are being sold.  Record numbers, in fact.   PC and notebook sales numbers are not rising at the same rate.  Mobile is indeed the future. 
In fact, NPD DisplaySearch released figures that showed almost 73 million tablets were shipped to stores worldwide in 2011, giving tablets a 25.5% share of the mobile PC market.  Interestingly, notebook shipments were up 12% from 2010 to 188 million units shipped.  The numbers also show that many users own both a notebook and a tablet.

What this means for search is clear – although notebooks are showing resilient sales figures, their overall usage may be falling.  This means fewer searches on the notebooks and more from tablets and other mobile.

In other numbers, Safari is still the number one mobile browser with 53% of the total usage.  Opera rose to 21.7% and Google’s Android browser stands at 15.9%.
In the desktop market, Internet Explorer stands at 52%, Firefox at 21.8% and Chrome 19.1%.

It’s that time of year.  It’s the “end of year, list-making season.”  The best of movies, TV shows, facebook postings, YouTube videos, etc.  There are also lists of predictions for the coming year in the field of technology.  After perusing the articles, we’ve collected some of the more intriguing tidbits predicted for 2012.

Erica Ogg of Giga OM collected these from British Digital Design Agency, Fjord. 
1.    The use of consumer devices in the workplace will become more commonplace.  Employees are already using personal tablets and laptops because they have the installed software that they prefer.  By using programs such as Dropbox, Evernote and Skype, the way they use them at home, employees are more efficient. 
2.    Wearable technology.  Fjord also thinks this will be a big trend.  They think as we do, that this will bring on a revolution in communication.  When you combine voice activation with digital jewelry, you begin to see a real “James Bond” experience on the way. 
3.    Which leads us to the next “James Bond” experience – hands free and gesture-controlled interfaces.   It’s already happening in game technology, so how hard is it to imagine the use in our phones or other devices?  Thanks to Siri, voice control is here and will only grow.  The next area of exploration is naturally gestures and facial expressions.  It is Fjords’ prediction and recommendation, that smart companies get on board with new interfaces and modes of communication.

Paul Sloan, in an article for Cnet News, sat down with Mark Andreeson, co-founder of Netscape and now partner in the Silicon Valley venture firm Andreeson-Horowitz.  They kicked around thoughts for 2012. 
Andreeson predicts that software will continue to rule the world.  Our words, not his.  His exact words were, “software is eating the world.”
“Software has chewed up music and publishing. It's eaten away at Madison Avenue. It's swallowed up retail outlets like Tower Records. The list goes on.”

4.    His next predictions go hand in hand, literally.  The use of smartphones will expand to a point where most people on the planet will own one.  This ultimately will lead to the downfall of retail as we know it.  But, first things first.  A smartphone is a collection of software that fits in the palm of your hand.  Cloud engineering makes it possible to do almost anything from the palm of your hand.  Now think of that power in hands of the world.  Andreeson says in three to five years, 6 billion people will have smartphones.  The opportunity that provides for a Google or an Amazon is mind boggling.  Not to mention all the companies that have not even been formed yet.  After all, who heard of Google ten years ago?
5.    He sees the rise of e-commerce continuing, and 2012 will be the year that traditional retail really feels the pressure.  He points out the example of Warby Parker, an online eyeglass e-tailer.  He calls it “software eats LensCrafters.”  Borders will not be the last big name in retail to go under. 
6.    The technology is not just changing retailing.  He gives another example:  Uber.  “Software eats taxis.”  It’s a smartphone application that brings town cars to you.  You watch the car on a map as it makes its way to you.

He also mentions Foursquare and how it is connecting people and businesses in a whole new way, that was totally impossible before smartphones.  He foresees people running not just their personal lives, but running businesses from smartphones. 

U.S. Senators Al Franken and Max Blumenthal have introduced a measure that would restrict the ability of mobile device developers to disclose the location of a cell phone and tablet users.

The bill was comes after recent news that mobile device providers and app developers were obtaining users' location data, sometimes without the user's consent.

The bill also addresses the use of geo-location data in cases of interstate domestic violence and stalking. It calls for a study on the use of location technology in domestic violence and stalking cases, provides that such crimes will be reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, and requests that the Attorney General develop a training curriculum regarding the investigation and prosecution of such crimes for law enforcement, courts and victims advocates.

The Franken-Blumenthal proposal would also provide for a private right of action for affected individuals and criminal sanctions for the development or dissemination of apps that knowingly and intentionally disclose geo-location information while knowing and intending that domestic violence or stalking will occur as a result of this disclosure and for the knowing and intentional aggregation and sale of the location data of children 10 years old and younger.

I wanted to avoid using the phrase “writer’s block” but let’s just get it over with.  Sometimes affiliate marketers have writer’s block.  We write so much it’s inevitable that one day or another we’re going to come up short of ideas.  Here are some suggestions for generating ideas that will generate links and leads.

1.    Find Your 10.  Go to your 10 favorite websites and find your 10 favorite articles and write a blogpost about them.  Tell us why they’re your favorite and specifically what you learned from them. 
2.    Ask friends and colleagues for ideas.  Ask them what they want to read about. 
3.    Ask your readers for column topics.  You’ll definitely get ideas.
4.    Do an interview.  It’s easy as can be when conducted over the phone.  Target a columnist you respect or look for a young upstart. 
5.    Ask for guest posts.  Not in an open forum, but via email.  As in #4 look for writers you admire and follow and ask them to write a guest column.  You should do this on a day when you have an idea, so that the column is ready to go on a day, when you’re fresh out of ideas.
6.    Write a review of a product you love.  There are so many great gadgets these days and sites that cover them.  Check c/net and TechCrunch for great gadget ideas.  You can write about services too.  I could write a 1,000 word love letter to my DVR.
7.    Tell us about a business success story and the story of a business failure.  Compare and contrast what you learned from each. 
8.    Make a list of your favorite blogposts that you have written and tell us why you like and even the inspiration for them.  You can give an update on how the articles look three years later.  Were you a soothsayer or just full of crap?
9.    I refer to sites such as StumbleUpon as free fall sites.  Type in some keywords and see where it takes you.  I always find inspiration here.
10.    And finally, here are some ways to cleanse your brain to help get it in the mood for writing.
a.    Go for a walk.  Honestly, it works.
b.     Experience an event or place with lots of stimulation.  The theater, Chinatown in SanFrancisco.  If you’re not in San Francisco, and admittedly most of us aren’t, go to a colorful part of the town where you live.  Soak up the food, the sounds, the people.  When you’re back in front of your computer you’ll be surprised how ideas you sparked.  
11.     Tell a story from your life; one that illustrates who you are.  Do you have a story that you think other people will get something from?  Readers may get inspiration from some challenge you’ve faced or learn about the kind of drive it takes to be an affiliate marketer.  If it’s honest and compelling, it will be shared with other people with the hope that your name and blog get additional exposure.
12.    One last trick.  When you do have ideas write an extra article or two that are not time-sensitive, and keep them for a day when ideas are not as prevalent.

We all get writer’s block.  The trick is to plan for it.  We hope this helps you do that.

A survey coducted by Harris Interactive for Greystripe (a ValueClick company) has revealed several business categories are experiencing success in branding themselves through smartphone advertising.

The study polled 2,090 U.S. residents over age 18. It indicated the top categories for smartphone advertising include: entertainment, technology, retail and gaming.

According to the research, more than 77 million Americans -- and 60 percent of smartphone users -- can recall a mobile phone ad.  And, among the smartphone users who can recall an ad, 67 percent (39 million) can rememebr the brand category.

The most recalled brand categories among smartphone users are:

* Entertainment - 39 percent
* Tech - 36 percent
* Retail - 32 percent
* Gaming - 29 percent
* Finance - 22 percent
* Auto – 22 percent
* Fast food restaurants - 19 percent
* Consumer packaged goods - 18 percent

As Google Plus is in the beta test phase, the buzz about the new social media product continues to build. Still, with over 20 million users in its test phase, should online SEO marketers begin to take advantage of Google Plus? Possibly.

One benefit Google Plus will offer that Facebook and Twitter do not is the ability to follow links with high page rankings. In other words, links shared on Facebook and Twitter will not count toward your website's overall page rank. But, since Google pretty much control the search engine world, the Google Plus links will help to enhance your page rank. Therefore, online marketers can certainly gain some value from marketing through Google Plus.

Clearly, Google Plus is still in its infancy stage. As the weeks and month pass by it will become more clear how marketers can take advantage of Google Plus; and how Google Plus will stack up compared with other social media sources as a tool for enhancing your website's search engine optimization.

Research firm Flurry estimates that 6.8 million android and iOS devices were activated Christmas Day and that 242 Million apps were downloaded.  It bears repeating – 242 million.  The first 20 days of December an average of 1.5 million devices were activated and Christmas Day of 2010 saw 2.8 million phone activations.

On Christmas day 2010, the number of downloads was 150 million.

Flurry said that they expect another 1 billion apps to be downloaded the week between Christmas and New Years.

In part two of “cell phone stuff that is cool to know,” Windows announced that 50,000 apps have been published in the Windows Phone Marketplace.  It has taken 14 months to reach this milestone.   By way of comparison, it took Android 19 months and iOS 12 months.

Not all of the apps are available in all areas. 

Most marketing professionals are always looking for tidbits of information that can assist them in their marketing efforts. Check out the following items related to mobile technology that could be very useful to e-commerce marketers:

* Search engines are the most visited websites on mobile devices. Some 77 percent of smartphone users visit search engines, followed by social networks, retail sites and video-sharing websites.

How does this assist e-commerce marketers? It points to the need for enhancing your website's search engine optimization when it comes to mobile phone searches. You may want to consider mobile search ads to help improve your organic search ranking.

* Over half of mobile phone users search for: news, dining and navigational information.

How does this assist e-commerce marketers? If your business does not fall into one of these categories, the clever marketer can still devise ways to capitalize. How so? Maybe you can create a "industry news" section. Maybe you can create a navigational guide to businesses within your category.

* Roughly 90 percent of smartphone searches result in a purchase, a visit to a business, or other sorts of activities. In addition, 24 percent of smartphone users recommended a brand or product thanks to their smartphone search.

How does this assist e-commerce marketers? Provide a way for the consumer to take action when they visit your website: make a purchase; drive to your store locations; provide the ability to forward pages or articles to friends and associates; etc.

* The more local the consumer, the more likely the are to take action on your site:   
    - 95 percent of smartphone users seek local information.
        - 88 percent take some sort of action the day they visit a site.
        - 77 percent have actually contacted a business.
    - 61 percent call a local business.
    - 59 percent visit the local business.

How does this assist e-commerce marketers? This points to the need to make sure your search engine optimization is localized; amd it is vital that consumers can easily contact your business.

The world of mobile technology is advancing at the speed of light. It is difficult to keep pace, and it is crucial you allocate resources toward this arena.

Internet privacy laws in the U.S. vary greatly depending on the segment of the online world. And, it's safe to say consumers should not assume their private information is completely secure on the Internet.

Facebook, for example, has stated its members' posts are public domain. It has been reported that Twitter tweets are recorded by the Library of Congress.

Although there are few U.S. laws aimed at regulating websites and their content, numerous law enforcement factions are working diligently to gain access to private Internet data. The WikiLeaks investigation and other big-time website breaches have given officials a reason to push for greater access to private data.

One example of this beefed up enforcement effort is coming out of the United States Department of Transportation. The DOT has developed the Next Generation 911 Project, which will provide consumers with numerous emergency contact services, such as text messages, email and photos.

The downside to the DOT proposal is that it may expose personal medical information to 911 responders. For example, the Google search engine saves the searches users make. This could be used to identify the searchers.

Social networks are loaded with a ton of personal user information. And, to date, social networks do not offer any do-not-track services. Therefore, users should assume all their personal data is being tracked.

You've probably noticed how frequently Internet banner ads are from companies you have either visited or shown an interest. A recent survey from Gallup and USA Today revealed 67 percent of those polled do not want advertisers to access their data in order to peddle their products to a targeted online market.

We are already beginning to see lawmakers pushing for restrictions on Internet vendors accessing online consumer data. Clearly, if more data breaches occur, there will be an even greater push from government officials to implement tighter Internet security.

It's no secret the growth of smartphones and tablets is astronomical. Some studies have shown the global smartphone market is expected to grow by nearly 50 percent in 2011. Last year, 303.4 million smartphones were sold, and in 2011 it's expected that  450 million will be sold.

Tablet sales are experiencing a similar explosion. One research firm anticipates a 224 percent growth in the tablet sales in 2011.

Does this mean the personal computer era is coming to an end? Not just yet.

Although it is clear that much of the technology and marketing dollars are being earmarked to the mobile and tablet arenas, studies are showing the PC market is still growing. One study shows a potential increase in PC sales of 6 percent in 2011. But, as more and more consumers are opting for tablets over traditional laptops, it is becoming obvious that the tablet market is gobbling up the laptop market. In fact, research shows tablets will eat into some 35 percent of the notebook sales totals for 2011.

So -- from a marketing standpoint, how can a marketing professional who has been focusing on PC-related Internet marketing make the leap to the mobile and tablet world?

Internet affiliate marketers - who are among the most tech-savvy marketing pros -- are typically on the cutting edge when it comes to forward-thinking marketing methods. Here are some ways in which these astute marketers are utilizing mobile and tablet marketing resources:

* Text it! The average SMS text message is opened within four minutes (unless you are a 15-year-old, where the average is probably four seconds). Therfore, an opt-in SMS text campaign is an excellent way to quickly reach your target audience.

* Think CPL. Until smartphones become more user-friendly for forms and applications, many astute marketers are focusing on mobile technology in order to capture leads, rather than sales. Once the marketer captures the customer's request for information, a follow-up email can be sent to actually generate the sales.

* Think small. Mobile devices are signficantly smaller than a PC or laptop screen. Therefore, every aspect of mobile marketing must be downsized: the text, the images, the forms, etc.

* Compatibility is key. The various mobile and tablet devices all have different capabilities. So, when developing your campaigns, make sure they are functional for the various services: Apple®, Android, BlackBerry®, etc.

* Don't forget about the old standards. While mobile and tablet marketing is the wave of the future, make sure you continue to earmark resources toward the areas that have worked in the past. This may include: email, social media, PPC, banner ads, and more.

The PC era is not completely over. As you begin to understand mobile and tablet marketing opportunities, it is equally important to carve out part of your marketing budget for the tactics that have been working for you.

The LA Times reported on Nov. 17, 2011 that Google+ has been facing decreasing site visits for virtually its entire history.  According to numbers provided by Hitwise, Google+ traffic has dropped in 11 of its 21 week history.  There has been an increase in visitors since the launch, but most of that came in the week following its opening to the public.  They have not help onto to that growth.  In that week, visits went from 1 million to 15 million.  More than half of those visitors did not return the next week.

There was another spike when it announced pages for businesses and groups.  We will keep an eye out for what happens after that dust settles.

One important note:  Hitwise does not measure traffic from mobile devices.  As you know this is becoming an increasingly important part of how people use the internet, and in particular Google.

The federal government could soon enact some strict regulations governing cyber activity.

The Obama Administration has been circulating a proposal aimed at clamping down on potential online data breaches. The administration's plan would mandate public disclosure of data breaches, regulate the nation's critical information infrastructure, and manadate rules for securing government computer systems. The plan would seriously affect firms involved with any online information gathering.

Recently, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and co-sponsor of the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act (S.413), applauded the Obama administration plan. On the other hand, Larry Clinton, president/CEO of the Internet Security Alliance, is not so thrilled. Clinton does not believe the plan would be an effective means to thwart cyber-threats. Clinton countered by proposing a cybersecurity insurance market to ward off cyber-threats.

The administration's cybersecurity plan would:

* Give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the primary authority to secure "covered critical infrastructure" from cyber threats.
* Direct the DHS secretary "to assist in national efforts to mitigate communications and information technology supply chain vulnerabilities to enhance the security and resiliency of federal systems and critical information infrastructure."
* Mandate a "special provision for federal contracts" in the title establishing DHS' regulatory framework for protection of critical infrastructure.
* Provide the DHS with resources to protect national systems.
* Authorize the DHS to operate "consolidated intrusion detection, prevention, or other protective capabilities and ... countermeasures ..." DHS would also be authorized "to acquire, intercept, retain, use, and disclose communications and other system traffic that are transiting to or from or stored on federal systems and to deploy countermeasures ..."
* Establish a federal reporting system for data breach incidents.
* Provide the Federal Trade Commission with authority to implement the reporting requirements.

The proposed regulations would impact businesses handling over 10,000 individuals' personal data during any 12-month period.

The business segments expected to be most impacted by such a program woulde include the defense industrial base indsutry and the telecommunications industry.

It is expected that Congress may act of the cybersecurity legislation in the fall of 2011.

Online games are exploding in popularity -- and probably no company has produced as popular and addictive games as Zynga.

Zynga is the force behind Facebook favorites Farmville and Mafia Wars. The company has recently rolled out its latest game craze -- CityVille. Believe it or not, there are some 300 million-plus users of their games. Altogether, Zynga has developed 13 different games that each boast more than 1 million players.

The core to the Zynga success is developing games with a reward-share system, has been present in many other games. And they clearly saw which parts worked best and which didn't.

Another component to Zynga's success is the fact that their games are free. So -- how does Zynga make money? Zynga partners with affiliate marketing programs and online advertisers to generate much of their revenue. Game players are encouraged to sign up for these programs and Zynga earns a portion of the revenue from converted affiliate sales.

But probably the biggest reason for Zynga's success is the company's ability to create addictive games. It is typical to see the highly addicted Zynga game-players spending several hours on FarmVille or CityVille or several other games.

Ever since Facebook exploded on the social networking scene a few years ago there have been few competitors challenging Mark Zuckerberg's "baby" for the premier spot in the social media world.

Now the Internet community is eager to see whether Google Plus will make a considerable dent in Facebook's marketshare.

Google has been slowly rolling out Google Plus to a limited test group since June 28. How will Google Plus differ from Facebook, and how will Google try to improve on the Facebook experience to lure in more users?

* Google Plus offers "Circles" - clusters of friends.

* Google Plus offers users applications such as Google Docs, a calendar that can be used with friend circles, a video chat room called‘Hangouts,’ the ability to watch Youtube videos with others in your circles, a group messaging feature called‘Huddle’ that can be used on Android OS and iPhones.

* Users may upload videos and pictures with one-touch button.

* Google Plus notifications and other settings can be customized by each user.

* What appears to be missing from Google Plus -- at least in the beginning -- are the popular game apps such as Farmville.

* Reports are indicating Goolge Plus apps may require a high speed connection.

* It's hard to believe, but the world's biggest search engine did not include a search feature in the first incarnation of Google Plus.

Although it is in limited distribution, Google Plus already has some 20 million users in the few weeks since its launch.

It will be very interesting to see if Facebook can hold on to its number-one social networking position as Google Plus grows its user base.

The Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit governing body in charge of Internet domains, are slated to meet in Singapore in June, 2011, to brainstorm over expansion of domain suffixes.

ICANN will determine if websites may be created with unique suffixes. If this transpires, a flood of registgered domain could be expected.

One benefit for major companies is that such a move could help to enhance their brand and strengthen their online presence.

Smaller businesses would be able to develop more targeted online marketing efforts.

If the ICANN plan is implemented, businesses could register a geo-targered domain name. For example, "dot-nyc" would represent domains targeting New York City consumers.
In addition, the domain suffixes could be better designed for specific industries, such as "dot-music" for websites representing the music industry.

Michele Jourdan, ICANN communications manager, predicted the change could lead to 300 to 1,000 new domain extensions.

In addition, companies may be able to purchase their own domain. This could dramatically help major companies to strengthen their brand.

Such custom suffixes may cost about $185,000. Custom extensions for smaller businesses would be priced considerably lower.

Google has announced it will add Google Webmaster Tools data to its Google Analytics.

The new feature is currently in a pilot stage, and will be available to everyone later this month.
Google will add a new section in "Traffic Sources" called "Search Engine Optimization." There will be sub-sections for Summary, Queries and Landing Pages.

“Webmasters have long been asking for better integration between Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics,” Google reported on one it its blogs.

The SEO reports also take advantage of Google Analytics’ filtering and visualization capabilities for deeper analysis.

How will this benefit webmasters? You may filter for queries that had, for instance, more than 100 clicks. A chart will appear illustrating the extent to which each query helped your overall clicks from top queries.
This will enable webmasters to better determine the more effective PPC campaigns.

In a previous article on the T3Leads site, https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#sopa-nearing-a-vote, we provided a quick review of the law, which no one seems to dispute will have a huge impact on the internet.  The question seems to be, what will the fallout be?

Congressional action on SOPA has been delayed, as Congress takes a holiday break.  At that time, an amendment review will resume.  At odds over the bill are the Hollywood brass (movie studios and music houses), who want to stop illegal video and music piracy, and Silicon Valley (Google and others) who says it will strangle the internet.

It is the scope of the bill that Silicon Valley objects to.  Google, Yahoo, ebay and others agree protecting content is a worthy goal, but that bill goes too far in allowing government intervention without due process.  The bill as it stands would make YouTube liable if someone uploads a pirated video, for instance.  It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that this essentially kills a great part of YouTube, not because the product is pirated, but the fear that it might be.

There is little doubt that a big part of Congress has no idea how all this works.  But a few might get it.  A bipartisan group of House members has drafted the “Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN.)  They have posted it and invited the web community to comment and revise the proposal. 

Now web community, seize the olive branch.

The court settlement between Google and numerous authors and publishers has been rejected by a U.S. federal judge

After a two-year battle, Justice Denny Chin has delayed Google's plan to implement a massive online library. It's one of the most prominent copyright-related court cases.   

In 2004, Google began a massive book scanning project for online publication searches. The objective was to allow people to view exceprts of books from Google's library. That sent the publishing community into a tizzy. In 2005 the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers hit Google with a class action suit for copyright infringement.

Google's defense? The giant search engine said section §107 of the US Copyright Act allows copying without permission from the rightful owner for limited and 'transformative' purposes (i.e., for commentary, criticism or parody).

In 2009, the parties came up with a settlement agreement that would authorize Google to continue to scan publications, sell subscriptions and online access to books. The agreement would also allow Google to sell advertising on book pages. Google would pay copyright holders 63 percent of revenue generated; and more than $45 million to those whose works had already been scanned.

In addition, Google would need prior approval to display books in print. There would be an opt-out clause for those whose books are out of print in order to remove the publication from the digital library.

So, why did Judge Chin object to the agreement? The judge agreed there was cultural, intellectual and educational benefits from the Google library. However, he ruled:

… the ASA would simply go too far. It would permit this class action ... to implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners. Indeed, the ASA would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case.

Judge Chin was more concerned with the opt-out clause, especially where the author cannot be identified ("orphan books").
The judge said the issue over orphan books would be more appropriately addressed by Congress.

Google has several options at this point, including attempting to revise the settlement.

The case points to the need for lawmakers to address Internet-related copyright matters.

Business social network LinkedIn is preparing for an IPO that could pull in an estimated $274 million. LinkedIn unveiled its IPO pricing on May 9. The company will offer 7.84 million shares at $32 to $35 per share.

Initially LinkedIn estimated its IPO would generate $175 million, but the company now says there is increased interest from the investment community. The company will trade under the symbol LNKD. LinkedIn hopes to debut in May, 2011 on the New York Stock Exchange.

LinkedIn generated $243.1 million in revenue in 2010, which was a whopping 102 percent gain over 2009. That growth trend is continuing in 2011. In the first quarter of the year, LinkedIn raked in $93.9 million, a 110 percent increase over the same period in 2010.

Most of LinkedIn's revenue comes from its hiring and marketing solutions and premium subscriptions. As of March 31, 2011, LinkedIn reported 102 million registered users.

It appears Google’s recent revamping of its search engine formula is accomplishing its objective: to penalize content farm websites.

The Google enhancement that was launched earlier in 2011, dubbed "Panda," was designed to block website publishers that cram unrelated content into their site in order to enhance their Google rankings for various search terms.

The Internet research firm Experian Hitwise has examined downstream traffic from Google (the next site visited after Google.com). Earlier this year, 0.57 percent of Internet visitors jumped from Google to a site operated by Demand Media, one of the alleged content farm sites. As of mid-April, around 0.34 percent of Google’s downstream visited Demand -- a significant 40 percent drop.

Answerbag, a Q&A website, is faring far worse than Demand. Answerbag's traffic has plummuted 80 percent; and eHow's traffic has fallen by 29 percent since Panda took effect.

Other sites feeling the pain of Google's algorithm change include Examiner.com (down 51 percent), Associate Content (down 61 percent) and Mahalo (down 78 percent).

In an effort to keep pace with some new search engine competitors and their unique features, Google has been playing with some design changes of its own.

The new page Google is testing includes more white space in an attempt to simplify the navigating process. There are also dotted lines that separate the search results.

One blog, TechCrunch, criticized the potential changes, commenting that the overall page looks too sparse and bland.

There's no indication that Google is losing much ground to its competitors. The search engine giant accounts for about two-thirds of all searches, according to ComScore.

Matt Petronzio gathered some thoughts on how to use Social Media to increase your visibility as a writer.  With each Google Panda update, improving content and your professional profile overall, (shares, viral articles, etc.) become more and more important. 
http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/social-media-writers/

I love Susan Orlean’s breakdown of the big social media networks:   “Twitter is a noisy cocktail party, with lots of chatting and quick interactions, a kind of casual free-for-all,” she says. “Facebook is a combination high school and college reunion and therapy group. Google+ I haven’t figured out yet.”  She goes onto recommend Twitter for writers because of its big RSS feed.

A number of writers illustrate the importance of embracing your communications with enthusiasm.  Don’t be afraid to share some personal notes (please no politics, religion or dating) about yourself.  Their thought is if you cultivate “enthusiastic” followers, they are more apt to seek you out and to share your posts.

It is suggested that you make connections with other writers and I couldn’t agree more.  In your field or out of it, in your discipline or out of it, multiple writer networks are a valuable source of knowledge, know-how and here it is again, enthusiasm.  They’re more likely to share your writing as well, because they understand the importance.

Orlean also sees social media as practice forums for young writers:  “Social media is an extension of your voice,” says Orlean. “For aspiring writers, it’s a chance to practice miniaturization — how to say something interesting in a very concise way — which is, in itself, a good writing exercise.”

There were a couple of other suggestions including not to obsess with your number of followers, but instead focus on quality.  Do not force your content either.  In other words, if you’re not sure about a post, chances are you should keep it in your pocket.

We hope this helps you to better define how social media can play a part in making you a writer people will want to follow.

This is no cheesy award.

Domino’s Pizza has delivered several prestigious UK media industry honors. The pizza delivery company's UK site, http://www.dominos.co.uk/, was recognized for its innovative online activity in the Revolution Awards. The honor notes that Domino's has consistently pushed the envelope with its Internet ingenuity.

The pizza giant's Facebook Superfans campaign was awarded "Best Use of Affiliate Marketing." Domino's Superfans page amassed some 32,000 followers in just four months.

Domino's also was lauded for its social affiliate ‘widget,’ which enables web publishers to download the widget and earn revenue for any pizza orders received through the widget. Over 6,500 web publishers have downloaded the widget to date.

The pizza chain's social networking initiatives were developed with the help of Domino’s digital agency, Arena Quantum.

Domino’s Pizza has 672 stores in the UK and Ireland.

Earlier this year we saw the results of an FTC investigation into Facebook, regarding privacy issues.  It resulted in some strong revisions to the way Facebook handles privacy issues, as well as some repentance on the part of fb.  So we know the FTC can have some teeth.

Two U.S. Senators, Herb Kohl (D-Wisc) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), both members of the Senate’s anti-trust committee are urging the FTC to investigate to determine if Google unfairly favors its properties in its search results.  They are urging “serious scrutiny” into whether Google is acting in a non-competitive manner when its own properties are positioned highly in search results.

The Senators’ request seems at least in part to be motivated by a September hearing where Google’s Eric Schmidt testified on the very subject.  The Senators cite concern as to whether Google is “seeking to leverage its dominance into adjacent markets, in a manner potentially contrary to anti-trust law.” 
Schmidt seemed not to help himself when he sent a written response to the committee after the hearing , where he said that Google doesn’t have separate products outside of it search service.  Uh oh, that doesn’t seem right or accurate does it?

As the FTC/Facebook experience shows us, they are not afraid of the big boys, so to speak.  Don’t be surprised if an investigation into Google practices doesn’t happen in 2012.  Additionally, don’t be surprised if some changes are announced by Google in the coming year as well.

Before we even published this story, some Google+ brand pages have begun showing up in primary search results.  Both BrightEdge and Search Engine Land have reported on this practice, which is likely to add fuel to the “investigate possible anti-trust laws now” fire.

This story may surprise you, but a loose coalition of traditional retail outlets sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee recommending they hold a hearing on a bill that would allow states to tax online purchases.  The surprise part is who signed the letter.  Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon all signed the letter.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the topic last year.  Under current law people who buy goods online are supposed to declare the purchases on their tax form.  I must admit, I did not know that, did you?

The letter said that an online sales tax would “level the playing field between traditional brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retail businesses."

The letter claimed that the bill would allow the states to collect an additional $23 billion in taxes.

Amazon signed the letter because they want a single national framework to follow rather than a patchwork collection of state laws.

e-bay did not sign the letter and is opposed to any legislation that requires sales taxes on purchases.

https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/technology.html#chrome-ready-android  This links you to a related article on the T3Leads site that relates the Chrome/Android story from the technology standpoint.

Google and privacy are in the news.  Big news in fact; federal lawsuit kind of big news.  They want to collect and possibly share user information across all of their services from search to YouTube to Google+.  With the release of Google Chrome for Android, another piece of the puzzle falls into place.

Google posted on their mobile blog that the new browser asks users to sign in with their Google account.  This synchronizes data across desktop and mobile.  Google says this allows users to, “take their personalized Web browsing experience with them wherever they go.”

One of the key issues with Google’s plans is how much information, and exactly what kind of information, they will be collecting.  Apparently plenty.

If you install Google Chrome on your Android you give them the ability to “read sensitive log data,” including personal information.  It also collects data on the URL’s you have visited, as well as your bookmarks.  They will then mix this up with your GPS location software and NFC (near field communication) data.

You can see why marketers would be hungry to get this information and that they’d be happy to fork up lots of dough to have access.  And as a result, this explains why Google is in such a hurry to make it a reality.

The U.S. District Court of Washington D.C. moved forward a lawsuit against Google’s announced privacy policy revisions.

The court agreed to a request by the plaintiff, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), to move the court hearing date.  The lawsuit is actually filed against the FTC (Federal Trade Commission.)  EPIC argues that the new policies will violate an agreement between the FTC and Google.

The court has ordered the FTC to respond to EPIC’s complaint by February 17.  EPIC will then have until February 21st, to reply.  Google’s new privacy policies are set to go into effect on March 1st.  Google has held firm on that date, even after they were asked by at least one European country to delay the policy revisions.  They refused to move the date of enactment.

This case places additional pressure on Google to delay the implementation.  If you’re curious why Google seems to be in such a hurry, it is because the information that Google wants to track will be used to build more complete user profiles and thus sell these connections to advertisers.  Delays will ultimately cost them billions; depending of course, on how long the delay is.

EPIC says the changes are not optional for the user; Google of course says they are.  They also say they have taken additional steps to inform users of the upcoming changes.

Google met with some House Members last week and the ranking member of that meeting Rep. Mary Bono Mack (CA), has sent Google a letter to which she has requested a response by February 21st.  She is most concerned by how Google will share personal information that it collects.

No matter how this case is decided, it’s a safe bet that the issue of privacy and the internet is just heating up; rather than the other way around.

What none of us have extra of, is time.  Hopefully these apps will do just that - create some extra time in your day.

1.     Bufferapp.com:  Buffer helps you share content on a time-released basis.  For example, the buffer icon easily adds an article to your buffer and releases it at times you have pre-determined.  There is a mobile version, so it works there too.  Buffer is perfect for twitter so you can spread out the time in which your re-tweets appear; and of course you have analytics for every post you send.  You decide the times you want the information shared.  Your followers will be thankful.

2.    Explain and Send Screenshots: Nothing like having a title that tells you what it does, right?  This app allows you to capture screenshots, make notes and then share it with a direct link to the frame.  Great tool for sharing ideas with others as well as for brainstorming.  This tool would guarantee that literally, everyone is on the same page.

3.    Stay Focused:  Perfect tool for the “overly social” writer.  This allows you to block specific pages for the times that you choose.  You can for example, block facebook for all but 15 minutes a day.  This keeps you from wasting time, yes, but it also acts as a scheduling device if you are one who is always putting off doing your due diligence with social media.

4 and 5.  SEOmoz Tool Bar: This allows you to check for SEO metrics easily without having to dig them up manually.  At a glance, see how many inbound links there are.  The tool works for Google search result pages as well.  Lots of other nifty features, so check it out.  For metrics that SEOmoz misses go to SEO for Chrome.  Great stuff.

Todd Wasserman in an article for Mashable gathered some web content creation suggestions from some pros in the industry.  Here are the highlights.
http://mashable.com/2012/01/30/digital-marketing-creativity-tips/#443431-Take-a-Break-From-the-Web

1.     Take a break from the web.  This could also be described as “permit yourself to take a break from things.”  Most of know intellectually that it’s a good idea to re-start now and then.  Your T3Leads team is hereby giving you permission to do so.  Return to the computer with a fresh mind, it will do wonders for your output.
2.    Meet new people.  The purpose of this is to stop what I unflatteringly call “the inbreeding of ideas.”  It is imperative that fresh ideas and new approaches are explored no matter what your job.  If the same 5 people from the same general place keep working on the same exact things, content is not going to vary much.  If you are a self-employed affiliate who is diligently cranking out business and working on making your website better every day, it’s hard to get away.  Here again we give you permission to go somewhere you’ve never been, even a coffee shop across town, and meet someone new.  New approaches.  They’re imperative.
3.    Avoid Brainstorming in large groups.  I love this idea.  As the former owner of an ad agency, I loathed the infamous large group (more than 4) brainstorming session.  An absolute waste of time.  The 2 “p”s, politics and politeness take over, and they’re a horrible combination for quality brainstorming.  The recommendation is to brainstorm in groups of two. 
4.    “Use the Jerry Seinfeld Trick.”  As the article describes, this is essentially persistence.  Successfully creative people are flat out more persistent than those who did not succeed.  Seinfeld’s rule is “don’t break the chain.”  Place an “X” on your calendar for every day you reach your creative goal…and don’t break the chain.  In other words, be persistent about writing and creating.  Schedule a time of day if you must and stick to it.
5.    They call the next tip the Hemingway rule, I’ve heard it from John Waters, but I really know it from myself as a writer (I didn’t know I was such a genius)…Do not leave yourself a blank sheet of paper.  In other words, know what you’re going to write, or at the least have a subject and a place to start, waiting for you at the start of each session.  As your last chore of one day’s writing, leave yourself a place to start the next day.

A superior batch of suggestions if you ask me.  Creating great content also means developing good habits as a writer.  By writing more you will become a better writer.  By being persistent, you will become a better affiliate marketer.

Clearly this is link-heavy story.  We apologize in advance.  But we want to be clear on sources and to connect you with the stories we have written on the topic previously.  The links below are to other T3Leads articles that have previously been posted about Google’s recent changes. 
https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#google-adds-google--to-search 
https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#ftc-to-investigate-google 
https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#search-and-adwords-aren---t-the-only-changes-in-google---s--and-our--future
To the surprise of no one, Google’s new privacy policy is creating a stir.  Essentially it says that information about users based on their movements and activity on all Google’s products will be shared.  This includes Google+, YouTube, Android phone usage and search.  The change says that the user has to control privacy on each site individually.  There is not one single opt-out switch. 
Betsy Masiello, Policy Manager, stresses that the user is still in control. “If you are logged in, you can still edit or turn off your Search history, switch Gmail chat to ‘off the record,’ control the way Google tailors ads to your interests, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer.”
    “We’re not collecting more data about you. Our new policy simply makes it clear that we use data to refine and improve your experience on Google — whichever products or services you use. This is something we have already been doing for a long time.”
   “ You can use as much or as little of Google as you want. For example, you can have a Google Account and choose to use Gmail, but not use Google+. Or you could keep your data separate with different accounts -- for example, one for YouTube and another for Gmail.”
Google says the changes are meant to enhance the user experience including the ability to better target ads to the user. 
As a result of the announcement 8 members of Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) sent a letter to Google requesting clarification on the changes. 
"While Google suggests that the purpose of this shift in policy is to make the consumer experience simpler, we want to make sure it does not make protecting consumer privacy more complicated," reads the letter. The lawmakers also noted that because of Google's global reach, the change "potentially touches billions of people worldwide."
Here’s the response to the Congressional members from Google.  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwxyRPFduTN2NTZhNDlkZDgtMmM3MC00Yjc0LTg4YTMtYTM3NDkxZTE2OWRi&hl=en_US
You should of course read all the information you can and make up your own mind.  But we want to share a very interesting observation reported in the CNN article made by Brent Rose of Gizmodo:  "The fact that you can't opt-out of shared search data, and that Google will know more about you than your wife? That's a little creepy."
Below are the links that comprised the source material of this article.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/27/tech/web/google-privacy-clarified/index.html?hpt=hp_bn6
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72197.html

http://www.google.com/policies/

Google has announced massive changes to its privacy policies, (saying they are combining 60 different ones into 1.)  So far so good, what does the policy say?  The exact wording can be found in the link above.

In short, it will give them the power to use your information, such as what you watch on YouTube to your gmail account to tailor ads to your personal tastes.  In their own words:
“Our new policy reflects our desire to create a simple product experience that does what you need, when you want it to. Whether reading an email that reminds you to schedule a family get-together or finding a favorite video that you want to share, we want to ensure you can move across Gmail, Calendar, Search, YouTube, or whatever your life calls for with ease.”

They reiterate that they will never sell personal information, which is as much as we know, true.  The changes are a little creepy, but are also not much different I’m guessing from what facebook does, and this writer for one is often thankful for the ads that appear on facebook.  I have a real interest in many of them.

This is certainly not a bad way to go for marketers, of course.  Exactly how marketers will be able to use the information and what it will cost is for another page, but as an ex-ad agency owner, the ability to target to this extent is very exciting.

As reported in the column below by Eric Eldon, ComScore has released its year-end report regarding social media. 
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/21/comscoresocial2011/
The report makes clear just how prevalent social media is, not just in the U.S., but across the globe.  Social media sites, including facebook and twitter now reach 82% of the world’s internet-using population.  1.2 billion people.  20% of all time spent online is spent on a social media site.

ComScore currently conducts web measurement in 43 countries.  Of those, 41 show social media penetration rates of over 85%.

Microblogging outside of twitter is growing.  LinkedIn now has almost 100 million subscribers; tumblr is up to 40 million.

Both facebook and twitter have the vast majority of their users outside the U.S.  In fact, over 80% of their users are now outside the U.S.

Women lead men in social media usage.  In North America and Europe they spend 2 hours a month more on the internet than men.  This gap becomes larger in older people, and the gap narrows with younger age groups.

E-mail usage is down with younger markets and shows no sign of making a comeback.

Mobile continues to show growth although not what you might expect.  The report shows that between 25% and 33% of users in Western markets reported accessing social media via a mobile device at least once a month.  This number, although less that we would have expected, will do nothing but increase.

ComScore’s methodology, considered by many to be the best in the measurement business, includes large-scale opt-in user sampling around the world and across desktop and mobile devices.

The report wasn’t all about fb and twitter though.  Two relatively new kids on the block, tumblr and Pinterest are gaining followers.  Tumblr gained 18% for the year; from 15.9 million unique users to 18.8.  Pinterest jumped 55% to 7.51 million from 4.85.

comScore makes the distinction between fb and twitter vs. Pinterest and tumblr.  Beyond sharing photos and a “what you’re doing now” format, the two newbies allow people to go a step further and share interests and hobbies in a new and easy to use format.  They’re new formats that allow users to engage in different ways and obviously people are enjoying what they’re offering. 

It’s a new year and you’re resolved to write quality content (and post video content) on a consistent basis.  So what do you write about?  We addressed that last week here:
https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#blogpost-ideas
Now that you’ve got some post ideas, it’s time to get organized with a social media editorial calendar.  With help from Lisa Buyer http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2136988/How-to-Create-a-Social-Media-Editorial-Calendar let’s get to work.

Editorial calendars were a mainstay of the publishing industry.  The actual written kind.  There’s no reason to toss away the practice just because we’ve changed delivery systems.  The creation of an editorial calendar has two major benefits:  first, you are more likely to do the task if you write it down, and second, you will help to alleviate the “what do I write about this week” syndrome.

Editorial calendars bridge together content and themes for social media and beyond:
    Blogs                Social media network messaging
    Events               Email campaigns
    Video                Web pages
    PPC
Looking at a blank year can be pretty daunting, so start with a month.  Decide how often you’ll be creating content and begin to plan it out.  Holidays and other seasonal factors will impact your editorial.  Are there trade-shows that might impact your writings?  What are your users doing in each month?  What are they concerned about?

Try themed months or weeks.  I recently did an “Auto” week for a different site, posting only articles that referenced auto insurance.  It’s informative for the consumer and you’d be surprised how the content flows out of you by the end of the week.  Don’t forget to update on twitter and fb with your topic as well.

Don’t be afraid to post your calendar.  You may get offers of re-posts and maybe even an author or two that wants to do a column swap with you.  All of which is good for business.
Here are some software applications that will help you get the job done. 
1.     Google Calendar
2.    WordPress Editorial Calendar
3.    Hoot Suite – Will help with social media
4.    21 Habit

Make 2012 the year that organization comes to your content editorial.

Using twitter to promote your website, improve its performance, etc. is smart business.  One of the keys to twitter success is to locate the influential users within your industry.  There are various directories that aid in that process, but the two most accurate and easiest to use are WeFollow.com and Klout.com.

WeFollow couldn’t be easier.  Type in your industry keywords into the search box and you will see the list of users that they consider to be the most influential.  You can also sort them by those with the most followers.  It’s a great way to see who’s doing what with Twitter in your field.  It should be noted that WeFollow only shows users who’ve added themselves to the directory, so some industries are more active than others.  Obviously add yourself to the directory.

You can take the names from WeFollow and test them on Klout.  Klout is a site that says they can measure influence on twitter; you make up your own mind, but their list of clients is impressive and they use your friends to help influence your choices.

You see, after you enter one of your influencer’s names, you will see who they are influenced by.   It’s quite fascinating actually.

It’s also practical.  Check out the names from both sites and a picture will begin to form as to whop the influential players are in your industry. 

Last week we ran the first set of online tools that can help make you a more successful online affiliate marketer.  But we’re not done; here are some more for your consideration.
https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#social-media-monitoring-tools
Seesmic:  If you’re looking to have ONE place to manage all your social media efforts, Seesmic is the place.  They have applications for desktop and web, including mobile.  They also have a range of third-party plug-ins to help you manage your social media efforts from one place, thus saving you time.

PostRank:  PostRank has recently been acquired by Google and describes themselves this way:  “The social web connects people where they share, critique and interact with content and each other. PostRank is the largest aggregator of social engagement data in the industry.
Our platform tracks where and how users engage, and what they pay attention to — in real-time. PostRank social engagement data measures actual user activity, the most accurate indicator of the relevance and influence of a site, story, or author.”
PostRank is the largest aggregator of social engagement data in the industry.

Socialseek: Get all the latest tweets, news, videos, photos, and more on any topic you want in one place. There’s a Socialseek site for everything and you can even make your own.

SocialPointer:  A real-time social media monitoring and marketing platform that enables the user to track, monitor and respond in real-time to relevant social mentions and conversations. 
Enables you to easily Track & Monitor Real-Time User Generated Content (UGC) about: brands, products, markets & competitors in the social media. Our unique social tracking algorithms cover more than 100+ social media properties and aggregate content from all over the social web. We constantly scan and cover: Blogs, Microblogs, News, Social bookmarks, Story submissions services, Photo & Video sharing services such as: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Google Blog search, Google news, Yahoo News and many more…in order to provide our users full social content coverage.

Alterian SM2:  Alterian empowers organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with their audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand. A leading international integrated marketing platform provider, Alterian’s unprecedented integration of analytics, content and execution through industry leading tools enables companies to build integrated communication strategies for a more personalized customer experience.

Tweetdeck:  Tweetdeck unifies Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace to give you a convenient way to use and monitor social media. What’s nice is that when your keywords are referenced, you have an easy way to quickly respond without having to leave the program.  It’s a well laid out approach to the major social media.

Lithium:  Helps you identify your biggest fans and engage them in your aid.  The goal is turn them into spokespersons’ of a type that will drive the conversation about your business.

It's easy to join an affiliate network. Click to see what it's all about.

In a post last week, we reviewed the Google+ impact on Google search.  The article also referenced the possibility of an FTC Investigation into Google’s practices. 
https://www.t3leads.com/en/faq-articles.html#google-merges-search-and-google--into-social-media-meteor

According to Bloomberg News’ Sara Forden and Brian Womack, as well as other sources, it’s not a possibility anymore.  The FTC announced that it’s expanding its antitrust investigation of Google, Inc., the world’s most popular search engine, to include scrutiny of including Google+ in the search metrics.

The question for the FTC is whether Google is favoring its own products in search results and whether that practice is a violation of antitrust laws.

Google spokesperson Adam Kovacevich has a different take on the investigation:  “The laws are designed to help consumers benefit from innovation, not to help competitors. We believe that our improvements to search will benefit consumers by better surfacing social content, and the great thing about the openness of the Internet is that if users don’t like our service, they can easily switch to another site.”

Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land, a website that reports on search engine marketing and optimization, joined the uproar over whether Google+ gives unfair precedence to its own service in a Jan. 11 blog post.
“Google’s job as a search engine is to direct searchers to the most relevant information on the Web, not just to information that Google may have an interest in,” Sullivan wrote.
“Google has faced a lot of accusations that it’s favoring its own services,” Sullivan said in an interview. “Most allegations haven’t held up. This is different. Google is suggesting to people that they may want to follow social media accounts -- but not all social media accounts, just Google’s.”

The original issues of the FTC investigation focuses on whether favors its own products and for increasing advertising rates for competitors.  The FTC is also examining whether the company is using its control of the Android mobile operating system to discourage smartphone makers from using rivals’ applications, the person said.

Google has made mistakes in the past.  Every business has.

But in the modern day world, there seems to be one big danger for big companies.  Arrogance.  Even the very hint of it.  This day in the beginning of January 2012, people are not talking about using Google products to get the job done.  They are talking about Google in China, in Canada (both mistakes) – and they are talking about Google messing with a service that consumers and users in general, love.
Sound familiar?  Can you say Netflix?  This is not the same thing, but it is a slippery slope – you can lose traction quickly.  It’s a dangerous thing to tempt users to try something different.  They might just like it. 
The other thing Google has done is add bing into the search conversation, where they were barely a blip prior to this.

Following Google’s addition of Google+ into search, two blogs have expressed their unhappiness.  Within the last 12 hours, Gizmodo has called Bing a better search engine than Google, and Dave Winer at Scripting News said he was sick of Google's clutter and would switch to Bing if Microsoft promised not to muck it up.

This could of course, be much ado about nothing, but a couple more “perceived miscues” from Google and they will need to examine their course.

Keep an eye on ComScore and Experian over the next few months to see if Google opens the door for the competition.  Even if it’s just a little bit.

By now you know the importance of writing not just solid, but superb headlines.    As long as there has been advertising they have been important, but with modern marketing they take on added importance because of SEO. 

You can apply the following tips to your website headlines as well as to article and blog postings.
1.     Always use active verbs.  Try to eliminate all uses of the verb “to be.” 
2.    Use emotional words.  This works particularly well as an enticement to your site.  If you evoke an image in the mind of your reader, you’re on your way to a sale.
3.    Test variations of the same headline.  Try turning the headline into a question.  The title of this article for instance could be “Are you writing great headlines?”  Will using percentages lead to a more compelling headline?
4.    On your website, test different fonts, as well as character attributes such as bold.  We do not recommend Italics, as enticing as that may seem at first glance.  You can even test the use of a different color, but go easy here.  Do not have too many colors on your site, and be consistent in their use.
5.    Can you shorten your headlines and make them better?
6.    Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
7.    Will the use of a quote add to your headline?
8.    Always remember who you’re writing for.
9.    Humor is always a good selling feature – as long as its related to what you’re talking about.

Yahoo has released Part 1 of “Mobile Internet – Delivering on the Promise of Mobile Advertising” report this week and it is full of stats and information regarding mobile usage now and even a prediction or two for the future.

Morgan Stanley analysts believe that by 2014 “more users globally will connect to the internet via mobile devices than with desktop PC’s.”   Numbers for 2011 are estimated to be 126 million mobile internet users or 47%.  In 2014 those numbers are expected to be 168 million and 59%.

It also doesn’t matter where the user is.  In-home mobile internet use is almost equal to out-of-home (89%to 93%.)

The categories of applications used is interesting.  Games leads with 61% of users having played a game with a mobile device in the last 30 days.  This study also shows that women are bigger games players than men. 

Weather comes in at 55%, maps and search at 50%, followed by social networking and music.

Interestingly, the study shows that iPad users are more receptive to interesting and interactive advertising.  They are more likely to look at your ads if they have video as well.  They are also more likely to interact with your ad. 

It’s almost as if they are aware of the need for marketing, and if you do it a compelling way, they’re on board with you.

Consumers use social media while watching big events such as the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards.  Immediately following these programs there is a spike in social media interaction as well.

In short, mobile technology is growing and becoming a larger part of our lives every day.

Recently, Aiden Hijleh wrote an article for Search Engine Journal addressing the possibility of social media saturation and how marketers should begin to pay attention to it.  What do you think?  Is it saturated?  He suggests that it is and offers a few tips in making it less so.

He first suggests that you need to understand your audience and how they use social media.  By knowing that your market spends most of its time on Facebook, for instance, over twitter or LinkedIn, you spend most of your time engaging them on Facebook, and eliminate other sites that users use less.

This seems true to an extent.  We also suggest you be aware of how your customer uses the various social media channels.  LinkedIn is a professional website.  It is expected to be used for that.  Facebook is more of a social website.  Yes, it is used by business, but in a clever fashion, generally speaking.  Do not overuse or abuse your “friends” or they will be certain to “unfriend”you.

The next suggestion is to mix up your marketing by using various outlets.  Absolutely true.  It is the rare business that can grow by using just one type of media outlet.  Mix it up with traditional advertising outlets, as well as digital ones including e-mail.  This not only makes your marketing efforts more successful, but will not annoy your social media audience by over doing it.

Engagement without being a pain in the butt.  Think of yourself as your in-laws.

The 60 second Marketer recently published a list of the 14 most powerful and effective words in marketing.

Affiliate marketers:  are you using some of the words below?   Where do successful marketing terms intersect with keywords?  Maybe the list will help you to mix it up when you write new AdWords ads. 
The original source of this list is “2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success.”

Without further ado, the 14 most powerful and effective words in marketing:

    Free                 Now
    You                  Save
    Money              Easy
    Guarantee        Health
    Results             New
    Love                Discovery
    Proven             Safety
Decades of testing have shown these words to be most persuasive at getting people to choose your product over another. 
So what do you do with this most important bit of information?  Test it.  Work with your paid search ads – re-write them, test them.  Chances are when you incorporate these into marketing plans, you will see improved results. 

In the words of Shane Snow in a column for Mashable, “It’s never been easier to become a publisher, but being a publisher ain’t easy."

His premise is that the scarce resource in online publishing (maybe publishing overall) is the audience.  So to get reader’s attention, what can you do?  There are some interesting tools to do that.  So, if you have a blog and are looking for ways to get your content out there, check out these suggestions and see if one or more might help you.

1.    Outbrain:  As a publisher you provide an RSS feed or submit links and Outbrain produces headlines at the bottom of pages in major media sites.  These include CNN, Fox, Hearst and others.  Your link would be labeled as “Sponsored” or “Related.”  You pay a relatively small amount of money per click.  Less than a dime in many cases.  Exposure on the NYTimes website for that amount of money?  Priceless. 
2.    Simple Reach:  Tries to increase social sharing with your most popular stories.  “In working on The Slide, SimpleReach realized that social signals were increasingly and overwhelmingly important in determining the content that drove the most traffic to publishers,” says Birsic. “Setting yourself up for success as a publisher must begin with a fierce focus on taking advantage of social channels.”
3.     Zemanta:  Link Distribution: A link distribution engine that helps you with writing and preparation of your news releases and posts.  It is estimated that 75,000 bloggers use Zemanta.  
4.    TubeMogul:  A Video Distribution Service.  You upload your video once, and TubeMogul distributes it to a wide swath of social and video networks.  Users then track their success using TubeMogul analytics. 
5.    StumbleUpon:  Paid distribution.  We are fans here of the “what’s coming up next?” format known as StumbleUpon.  For publishers, it’s CPC and it starts at pennies per click.  It’s a winner and a good way to entice your content to go viral.

Try these out.  You will probably find that distribution headaches become a thing of the past. 

An article appearing in dailyseotip.com ignited a question in our mind.  Do seasonal keywords play a role in affiliate marketing for payday loans or for online auto insurance? 
Let’s see what we can come up with.

Industries such as heating and air conditioning contractors are easy to illustrate.  In the late spring and summer the keywords of air conditioning contractors and a/c repairs, and various other combinations will be extremely important.  In the winter, look for furnace, heating system repair and combos in that family, to be ranked high.

Certainly in holiday shopping season, consumer electronics and the latest in children’s toys will rank high.

So what does this have to do with online payday loans?  Let’s take a look.  The holidays are over, but the bills are not.  Online payday loans are busier than ever in many areas this time of year.  So rather than the usual “payday loans online” do the keywords, “Christmas debt” or “Christmas loans” pop up?  Holiday debt?

Focusing on these will not make you rich but if you are a low ranking beginner, it might be wise to ‘search out’  lower ranking keywords and try to be at the top of those, rather than attempting to jump to the top of the most popular keywords.

Online insurance begs the same question.  Are their seasonal trends?  You betcha.  This will vary by region of the country, but certainly home sales have their slow and busy times.  Auto sales vary from month to month as well. 

Become aware of the seasonal ups and down of other lines as well.

In short, it would be wise to test rotating your keywords seasonally.  Don’t drop out of places where you have high rankings, but feel free to tweek a little. 

Quality article and blog writing becomes more important to a business’ success every day.  You know by now, that great post writing is more than writing a great post.  It involves planning and execution.

Take the time to discover the keywords and topics that fit your industry.  Write purposefully with those in mind.  Write to increase search engine rankings and to attract new users.

Optimize your titles.  Yes, with an “s.”  If you have a great one for your post to entice people to read the article, great, use it.  But in this case use your title tag (page title) to make the page more search engine friendly.

What does your URL slug look like?  Check it and if it’s a mess, change it.  If you use WordPress, change it by going into Settings -> Permalinks in your WP Admin, you’ll see the option to edit how your URLs appear when published.  

Keep in mind that users like shorter URL’s.

Page descriptions are really, really important.  They are often the deciding factor as to whether or not someone clicks on your search engine display.  Think about how you use search engines.  The page description makes a big difference, doesn’t it?

Optimize images in your posts.  Use a unique title and ALT text so search engines can find you.  This will give you better rankings in image searches.

Interlink with older posts.  This not only aids in getting new users familiar with your work before they met you, but it is also drives up your search rankings.

If you use WordPress they have an SEO plugin to help you.  Take advantage of it.  There is a whole lot to remember to writing good posts.  If you can find some free help along the way, take advantage of it.

According to Chitika Insights, who has covered Google+ since its launch, overall online activity increased 118% September to November.

Recent reports have ranged from rumor of Google+’s demise to them taking over the world (only slight exaggerations.)  It does seem that following the invitation-only launch and an initial burst when they opened to the public, that interest was weak.  But Google has clearly not given up.

Gabe Donnini for SEJ, Search Engine Journal, offers three key reasons for the growth.

Google is successfully integrating Google+ across its wide range of products, including android, Google Apps and in Search.

They are advertising on different online outlets and with television spots in an effort to draw in more users.

They are Google and they are committed to it.

Keep in mind that facebook has over 800 million users worldwide.  The latest numbers for Google+ say 65 million.  There is still no doubt that this is an uphill battle, but the market is too full of possibilities to expect Google to give up.  It’s another piece of their rather large puzzle and one with a huge possibility for profit.

New reports suggest there are an estimated 62 million users on the social network, and our traffic index indicates a clear rise in activity as well. However, because Google holds raw data proprietary, they will be the only source to tell us if the activity is based on active users or new user sign ups.

When choosing an affiliate network, it helps if you have a good feeling about what you’ll be selling.  You’re going to be immersed in it most of your days, so you need to have some positive engagement with the product.

When you go into business with an affiliate marketer, and make no mistake, for all intents and purposes, you are going into business with them; you need a strong personal relationship with them.  Like any other business, you need to have good working relationships with the employees at the affiliate network.  Can you get ahold of your manager when you need them?  Do they respond to e-mails?

Consider how easy it is to get into the network.  Do they want a track record of success?  If so, that’s not the place to start.  If you’re a beginner, look for a network that doesn’t have a verification process to accept their affiliates.

Do research on the affiliate networks you are considering.  Do they pay?  And do it on time?  See what other affiliates have to say about them.  Is their site appealing to you?  How long have they been around?  Is the staff knowledgeable and do they want to see you grow?

In short, look for a quality, honest firm that wants to do business with you.

Ricky Ahuja compiled this list for Digital Moses Confidential.

That’s the question in a nutshell, isn’t it?  A lawsuit has been brought by a company (PhoneDog) who says a former employee (Noah Kravitz)continued to use a twitter account after moving on to another job and caused harm by disclosing trade secrets and damaging the “company’s business, goodwill and reputation.”

Kravitz says that he set up the account and that he linked it to his personal account and maintained both while employed for 4 years by PhoneDog.  He adds, "it's this melding of personal and professional which is why I've gained a modest following," Kravitz said. "Because it's not just the dry headline and link to something."

Beyond this underlying skirmish is a bunch of “he said, they said. “

But, it brings up a valid discussion point.  As work and personal media continue to mix, how does that affect both employee and employer and who owns what?  This will only grow as an issue as more and more companies allow employees to use their personal tech (tablets, phones, etc) in the office setting.

If you have employees it is a topic you should discuss with your attorney and set up criteria that hopefully will avoid legal issues further down the road.

If the lawsuit is not settled, the case will be heard in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.

A pretty big change is coming to the Facebook experience next year in the form of sponsored stories (ads) in the user news feed.  They last placed ads there in 2008, so it’s a safe bet most people don’t remember them.

Their frequency at this point is low, with a user seeing no more than one story per day.  The stories will also have a connection to the user as facebook will only place stories about friends or pages that the user already likes.  There will no ability to opt out, although you can hit the “x” to remove individual ads.

Advertisers are of course salivating at the opportunity to have their material, which will look very much like organic material, in the news feed where users will be exposed to it in a very natural way.

So how do you think people will react?  This is at first glance nowhere near the overhaul that Netflix attempted and which rather infamously failed miserably, but do you think there will be backlash to this?  Or is the current level of one ad per day low enough to not infringe upon the current experience?  More questions than answers at this point, but it is most definitely a topic we will keep our eye on.

If you’re in a business that requires the use of the internet, and after all, who isn’t it?  Then you are probably aware of SOPA, the internet piracy/censorship bill in committee in the US House of Representatives.  But then again, you may not be.  And, therein lies part of the problem.  Most people are not familiar with the proposed law and certainly are not aware to the extent that if passed, it would change their lives.

A quick example – you post a video of your dog chasing its tail while a movie visibly plays in the background on your TV.  Under this new law, you could be committing fraud.  Before you say, “that would never happen,” you should know who’s behind the law.  The music labels and movie studios are the primary business entities pushing for its passing.

On Thursday, December 15, 2011, Google co-founder and persistent bill attacker, Sergey
Brin, made his strongest comments yet.  He posted a statement on google+ blasting censorship in China and Iran.  He followed that with, “thus, imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States.”

He called out two provisions of the bill; first, the government could censor search results “without so much as a proper court trial” and a second, that would provide the ability to “hijack” domain names.

To learn more, I’m quite sure if you “google” SOPA you will be awarded a bounty of links to the proposed law and its effects if passed. 

The Pew Research Center has released a new report that studied the media habits, both new and traditional, of consumers to see how they accessed local business information.  Overall, 60% of the respondents said that they look for information on local businesses, and of those, 47% said the internet is the source of choice; 30% said newspapers; 22% said word of mouth and just 8% said local TV, either on air, or via their websites.  We should point out that this part of the study did not include bars and nightclubs as a local business.

Interestingly, 36% of the searchers used search engines, but only 16% used speciality websites and a shockingly low 1% said they relied on social media.

A sketch of the type of people who are researching local businesses may provide some surprises.  Most are aged 30-65.  Most are white, 63%, Hispanic 56% and black 52%.  72% of the researchers had a household income over $75,000.  Not surprisingly, the more education they have completed, the more likely they are to conduct research.  48% have not graduated high school, while 73% of the respondents were college graduates. 
61% said they used their cell phone to access information, while 64% said they used a tablet.  If you were waiting for data to justify a mobile application, look no further.

Now that Foursquare has announced it now has 15 million users, maybe we should take  a minute to introduce ourselves, and see if they can help us.

Foursquare is one of a new sect of media, called geo-social.  Foursquare describes themselves as “a location-based mobile platform that makes cities easier to use and more interesting to explore.  By “checking in” via a smartphone app or SMS, users share their location with friends while collecting points and virtual badges.  Foursquare guides real-world experiences by allowing users to bookmark information about venues that they want to visit and surfacing relevant suggestions about nearby venues.  Merchants and brands leverage the foursquare platform by utilizing a wide set of tools to obtain, engage, and retain customers and audiences.”

Pages are free and very easy to create.  Your fans “follow” you much like they do on Twitter.   Many of the organizations offer “badges” which mark achievements that a person gets of performing real-life actions.  Foursquare approves the badges and they’re designed to “support a healthy lifestyle, increase cultural exposure, allow you to share your passions with your friends or add some humor to your daily life.”  There is a fee for the badges, but check the process out on the site and you may find that it will be beneficial to you.

Overall the site shows where members are geographically, both consumer and business.  It’s an interesting concept and one that is growing in popularity.  Facebook just bought “Gowalla” a smaller geo-social company, so the market is definitely there.  Check into it to see if it can benefit you.

There is so much talk of SEO because it is so important, and it’s constantly changing.  That’s why we try to help keep you updated and to present new ways to think about tackling one of the most important factors affecting the success of your online enterprise.

First is keyword research.  It’s a given and it’s constant.  Check all the tools available including Google adwords, of course, but also check customer communications as well to keep updated on new keyword combinations.

Link building is essential.  Back links to your own site from other credible sites will help your SEO rank.  Either you need to do it, or hire a consultant to help, but good link building will improve your rank.

Quality copywriting is the difference between bad link farms and a site rich with material that pople will want to seek out and share.  Learn what quality copywriting is and its benefits to your enterprise.  If you’re looking for writers place an ad on Craigslist.  Check out writing samples and get ready for the increased business.

And finally, web design.  From your choice of a technical platform to the flow of the pages, make sure your site is clean and easy to navigate.  Test it frequently and not just by you, but have others test it.  Flow problems are often easier to identify when someone else aids in the testing.

Retailers are happy because black Friday and Cyber Monday saw strong gains over 2010.  Online sales for Monday saw a 33% gain over the same day last year; online sales for black Friday saw gains over 29%.  These numbers were beyond the expectations of even the greatest optimist.  Black Friday saw $800 million in online spending.

Mobile purchases saw huge increases in Thanksgiving and black Friday.  17.04 percent of online consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailer's site, and 9.51 percent used their mobile device to make a purchase, IBM reported.  The purchases were led by the iPhone and iPad.

This is a great start, but how the rest of the season will play out is anybody’s guess.  Do consumers have any cash left?  Will retailers slash prices to draw customers?  We’ll know a month from now.

Reports indicate that the Federal Trade Commission and Facebook are near an agreement which would force Facebook to make some major changes relating to its privacy settings.  Essentially the social network would have to ask customer permission before making information public.

In 2009 Facebook made sweeping changes to its privacy settings, which in part did not allow people to make certain settings private, including profile pictures and city of residence.  This prompted a flurry of complaints to the FTC.

Recently the FTC has hammered out deals with Google and Twitter regarding the types of information they can gather, distribute, etc.

It’s safe to say that these discussions are a new part of life that are here to stay.

The results of InsightExpress’ 3rd quarter digital consumer portrait found that 32% of consumers plan to use their mobile devices to research products and 27% plan to use them to read reviews while in the store.  In November it is expected that 15% of the people who log onto a retailer’s site will use their mobile device. By way of comparison in October, 11% of retail store visits were done from a mobile device.

A clear demonstration of the way consumers shop is the fact that 77% of all retail site visits now originate from a tablet.  To think they didn’t even exist five years ago.

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Amazon.com has already contributed over $5 million toward the group calling itself More Jobs Not Taxes. Their objective is to qualify a ballot initiative for the June 2012 election. The initiative would repeal the state's new Internet sales tax law.

More Jobs Not Taxes needs to gather 504,760 valid signatures by Sept. 27, 2011 to qualify the measure for the June, 2012 election.

Thus far Amazon is the reportedly the only major financial contributor for the campaign.

In June, the state Legislature passed a law requiring out-of-state Internet retailers to collect sales tax from California customers if the retailers paid commissions to California-based affiliate marketing websites. As a result of the new law, Amazon pulled the plug on some 25,000 affiliate marketing relationships. The retailer believed that was more appealing move than collecting the sales tax from California affiliates.

The law also requires sales tax to be collected from online retailers with subsidiaries in California. This provision applies to businesses such as the one that developed the Amazon's Kindle, for example.

Amazon.com amassing about 20 percent of its business from online affiliate arrangements.

In 1992 the U.S. Supreme Court decided states may not tax businesses without a physical presence in that state. Based on that ruling, Amazon.com claims the new California sales tax law is unconstitutional.

Other states, including New York, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas and Connecticut have enacted similar sales tax laws. Amazon is involved in litigation with the state of New York over its law.

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Many marketing executives use the term brand incorrectly. They may often discuss their desire to create their firm's brand, when they are actually more interested in a lead generation marketing strategy. Lead generation is not brand-building. The two terms are not synonomous. A company may develop a brand identity over time after several years of aggressive lead generation advertising. Usually, these firms acquire a brand image of a low-price leader in their business category because they have spent years telling consumers how they can save money by switching to their company.

It takes a massive investment of money and resources to develop a brand. That is why start-up companies are foolish to think they can compete with the major brands in their category on a head-to-head brand-awareness ad campaign. Instead, smaller firms or start-ups should focus on other marketing tactics that will grow their business. These tactics may include:

    * Public relations
    * Community outreach
    * Internet marketing (PPC advertising, SEO strategies, blogging, etc.)
    * Joint marketing partnerships with other firms
    * ... and, lead-generation/direct response advertising

There is a formula for all lead generation advertising. If a marketer sticks to this formula then the chances for success improve considerably. That formula is called the "AIDA" theory:

    A -- Grab the consumer's attention (i.e., hard-hitting headline, catchy graphics or images)
    I -- Generate interest in your product or service (i.e., the benefits of your company)
    D -- Demonstrate why consumers should purchase your product or service (i.e., testimonials, price comparisons)
    A -- Give the consumer a visible call to action (i.e., phone number, website address, email address)

Adhering to the AIDA rule does not guarantee success. There are many other factors: budget, demographic, advertising message, targeted geographic region, ad media, etc., etc.

Eventually, if you stick with a long-term commitment to direct response advertising, your company may develop a brand and your company can begin launching branding ad strategies to reinforce that brand. But you need to be patient.

Good luck -- and happy selling!

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Beginning September 7, trademark holders will be able to block the use of their trademarks from being used as a .xxx domain name (i.e., “www.INSURANCE.xxx").

This new .xxx top-level Internet domain has been approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for use by the online adult entertainment industry.

To protect trademark owners who do not want their trademarks associated with the .xxx extension, ICM Registry LLC will maintain a list of trademarks that will be unavailable for use by the adult entertainment community and the general public.

To add your trademark to the protected list, a trademark owners must  place the reservation request and pay the associated fee before October 28, 2011.

The trademarks subject to successful reservation requests will be removed from the .xxx domain names available for registration for a minimum of 10 years.

If a brand registers for the unavailable list, and a consumer enters “www.INSURANCE.xxx, then they will be directed to a webpage explaining the domain name is not available for registration or use.   

From September 7 to October 28, adult entertainment websites will be able to submit applications to register their .xxx domain names. If any applications are submitted to register a .xxx domain name that impedes on another trademark, then the trademark owner will be notified.

The rightful trademark owner will be given priority for the .xxx domain. And, the adult entertainment site will be on notice of the trademark owner’s objections for purposes of any future dispute over the domain name.

In November, trademark owners outside the adult entertainment community will have an opportunity to register .xxx domain names, and starting in December, the general public will have the opportunity to register .xxx domain names.

Using this simple blocking procedure, at a minimum, puts an interested adult entertainment community member on notice of your trademark rights and, at best, prevents members of that community, other trademark owners and the general public from registering and using your trademark in an unauthorized domain name. This window of opportunity closes on October 28, 2011.

It's tough to tell how likely it is that an adult entertainment company may attempt to purchase an .xxx domain for non-adult web brands. But with so many domain variations out there, this may be something all brands should consider.

Online marketing professionals must be extremely cautious when it comes to personal data. From the marketers' perspective, they want to be able to crunch that data as much as possible in order to analyze every aspect of their online campaigns. But, due to privacy concerns associated with personal data obtain through online marketing, there are limits to how this information may be utilized.

Any online merchant must make the protection of personal data a top priority. Of course, this is vital from a legal standpoint -- but it is also important from an ethical and business standpoint, as well. After all, you want your customers to trust you .. you want them to refer others .. and you want repeat business. None of that will happen if the customer does not trust you will protect their personal information.

So -- what puts the customer at ease? It starts with the questions. Most consumers are OK providing basic information: name, age, interests, etc. When asking about age, use an age range. That is more acceptable to most consumers. It is also important to express your gratitude whenever a consumer submits any inquiry or order form. Show them you appreciate their business or their input.

If you are surveying consumers with the objective of determining what offers to make, it is important to ask the right questions. For example, if you are marketing vacation rental properties, the questions should be focused on the types of follow-up offers you will want to send: Do you prefer to vacation in the mountains or near the water? Do you prefer hotels or rental homes? Do you like to gamble? You get the idea. Most consumers will not mind responding to soft-sell questions.

Possibly the most important way to show your commitment to online data security is to display the logos and links of your website security vendors: TrustE, Verisign, McAfee, etc. This will go a long way toward assuring the consumer that you are taking every possible step to keep their information secure.

According to a report on the website wizbangblog.com, there's a mass exodus of businesses escaping from California. Why? Blame it on the "Amazon tax."

The article cites Big Government.com, which reports that over 70 Internet affiliate marketing firms that conduct business with online retailers such as Amazon.com have packed their bags and relocated out of the state.  The report notes that many other online affiliate marketers have simply discontinued their California operation.

As you are probably aware, California recently passed the “Amazon tax” law, which requires Internet retailers to pay sales tax on revenue generated by its California affiliates.  The law was intended to generate additional tax revenue for the cash-starved state. The end-result does not appear to be very positive thus far.

Many of those who supported the Amazon tax law believed the threats from online retailers who said they would have to leave the state or go out of business were idle threats. They called the retailers' bluff -- but it appears so far the retailers were not bluffing.

A survey conducted by IBM and Forbes has shown customers are evolving quickly and they are becoming more savvy, demanding instant transactions and engaging through multiple touch-points. How are marketing experts addressing the evolution of customer awareness?

The report covered questions such as:
* Why customer-centric marketing has become such a huge priority—and whether or not budgets are keeping up
* What's causing the increase in online spending, and where that money will be allocated to get the best results
* Why data will be driving decision-making, and how marketers will deal with the increased scrutiny
* How top marketers are using technology breakthroughs to understand the influence of every campaign—beyond basic acquisition and conversion

According to the study:

• Marketers’ priorities are customer-centric. More than half (52 percent) cited customer retention as their top current priority, followed by customer acquisition (38 percent), and customer profitability (29 percent). These will remain top priorities a year from now.

• Marketing budgets mirror these priorities. About four in ten executives (39 percent) are dedicating the largest chunk of their funds to customer retention; customer acquisition runs a close second (36 percent).

• Online tactics will see significant lifts in budgets. Over the next year, 56 percent will increase their online marketing spend, 54 percent will increase their social media spend, and 50 percent will increase their mobile marketing spend.

• Greater emphasis is being placed on data-based decisions. Nearly half of respondents are increasing their spending on business intelligence, and 78 percent say there is greater scrutiny placed on what works and what doesn’t than there was a year ago.

• Marketers are challenged to understand the influence of their campaigns beyond the basic metrics of acquisition and conversion. Top performers are using technology to get at these results and optimize their channels.

• Marketers are not always clear on what tools they need to meet their top challenges. Respondents admit being concerned about their ability to get a deeper understanding of customer interactions or obtain an integrated view of customer behavior. But there appears to be a disconnect in how they solve that issue, as the tools that could help—reconciling multiple online marketing applications and lack on an integrated marketing suite—are at the bottom of their list of concerns.

• Marketing is moving at light speed, but most marketers are not watching or adjusting their campaigns accordingly. Just 9 percent review their online marketing performance in real time, and only 9 percent adjust their campaigns in real time.

• Top performers are more proactive in tracking and adjusting their campaigns. Among companies that said their investment in marketing technology was “world class,” 27 percent track their performance in real time, and 39 percent adjust their campaign performance in real time.

• While nearly two thirds of respondents said they segment and target customers based on an integrated view of customer behavior, that view is not necessarily complete. Just 30 percent have a view of mobile behavior, and just 34 percent look at social media behavior.

For more information, visit: http://measure.coremetrics.com/corem/form/wpdownload

If your website is not optimized and functional enough to help your company make sales, then you are leaving a lot of potential revenue on the table.

Sure, traditional advertising media -- TV, radio, print, direct mail, billboards -- can still be used effectively to help grow your business. But Internet marketing should be a vital component to your overall marketing stragegy.

In order to turn your website into a major profit center, consider the following tactics:

* Create a professional-looking site that reflects your business and provides enough "sizzle" to keep your website visitors interested.

* Just like with all other forms of advertising, the consumer will decide instantly whether they will be interested in your message. Hit them hard as soon as they enter your website with something appealing and catchy.

* Direct response advertising (and, let's face it, websites are a form of DR advertising) requires that you provide a strong call to action. Make it easy for the consumer to contact you; and make the buying process as user-friendly as possible.

* Utilize tesmimonials and demonstrations as much as possible to convince website visitors that they should take advantage of your products and services.

* Offer something for free. "Free" is still one of the most effective words in marketing. Whether it is a free insurance quote, a free report, a free gift, etc., consider providing something for free to our customers.

* Maintain a good customer list. Offer a blog and keep the email addresses of those who post comments. Your customer records will be one of the most important assets of your business. Use your lists wisely to cross-sell, for referrals, etc.

Good luck -- and happy selling!

California's Board of Equalization has begin the process of figuring out how to enforce the new state "Amazon" tax.

The "Amazon" tax is the budget-relted mandate requiring online California retailers to fork out sales tax on purchases made by state residents.

As state officials prepare to implement the new tax law, opponents are gathering their resources in an attempt to overturn the tax law.

Paperwork has already been filed by those who want to torpedo ABX1 (the "Amazon" tax law). Their objective is to ask voters in the next statewide election to overturn the tax mandate.

If the ballot initiative is successful, the rug would be pulled out of the effort to generate more state revenue from online retailers.

Attention Internet marketers -- or any marketing professional, for that matter -- who use email as a lead-generation tool! It's time to conduct an email list check-up.
 
The quality of your email list may be the most important factor in the return on investment on your email marketing efforts. But, marketing managers do not cleanse and review their lists often enough.

MarketingSherpa has reported that about one-third of companies are experiencing a dip in the effectiveness of their email results. The primary reason for the decline is because the email list is aging. As consmers change jobs, physical addresses, etc., their primary email box often changes, as well. And, as many employees have lost their jobs, a higher percentage of email addresses have also changed.

There are several actions you may want to take to fortify your email list:

* When adding new addresses to your list, find a quality email list scrubbing company. These firms will make sure the data collected is accurate and was obtained legally.
* Make sure your list meets your prospective customer demographics. Otherwise, even if the consumer replies to your email blast, they may not be the type of customer you are seeking.
* Carefully track the results of your email campaigns. You may want to split your campaigns up into smaller segments to you can more accurately track the results of each campaign.* Do not automatically add a new email address to your list. Send a test email to the address to make sure it is not spam.
* Send a change of address update to your list, asking for more accurate email addresses. This is a good way to reintroduce your company or make new offers, as well.

Worldwide, 1.2 billion people watched 201.4 billion videos.  Do you think those the numbers for 2011 in total, or October 2011?  If you said October you would be right.  comScore released the very first global video viewing report and this is what they found.  Of those videos, over 40% were accessed via YouTube.  88 billion worth.  China-based Youku was the second largest with 4.6 videos viewed.

Dan Piech, product manager for comScore, credited the extension of broadband connectivity globally for the large numbers.  The numbers are staggering to contemplate and more than a little exciting for global companies.  The ability to reach across the globe with a viral video for instance at a relatively low cost; compared to buying traditional television media for instance, offers opportunities only hinted at in the past. 

Internet publishers who venture into the affiliate marketing arena should clearly understand the various forms of payout options available from affiliate networks such as T3LEADS.

Affiliate marketing has experienced massive growth over the past decade -- and there is no end in sight for the industry. Online merchants are finding affiliate marketing an excellent, cost-effective way to generate quality new business leads.

When deciding on an affiliate network to work with, one of the most imporant criteria is the payout methods. There are various ways in which affiliate marketers pay for leads, depending on the quality of the leads:

* Pay-per-click (PPC): This is a very common form of payouts for many affiliate programs. Its name basically describes the theory -- publishers are paid for each click-through to a merchant's site. Usually, PPC payouts are not very high, but affiliates are assured some sort of payment for any quality of lead generated, even if it does not result in a sale or even a legitimate customer.

* Pay-per-sale: The pay-per-sale concept may have originated with Amazon.com. It rewards affiliates that generate traffic, provided that traffic results in a sale. In essence, the payout is a commission paid to affiliates. Payouts are typically much higher on pay-per-sale arrangements than PPC. Another term for pay-per-sale is "performa." In other words, the payout is based on the performance of the leads.

* Pay-per-lead: Pay-per-lead payout amounts usually fall somewhere between PPC and pay-per-sale. These are slightly more valuable leads for merchants, since they are from consumers who have actually expressed an interest in their product or service.

Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate, you need to do your homeowner to determine the most cost-effective payout system for your businesss. Evaluate many areas, including what the competition offers, the potential return on investment, the up-front costs associated with generating various types of leads, etc.

Amazon.com has notified its 25,000 California affiliate marketing participants (Amazon Associates) of the company's intentions to  terminate their Amazon affiliate contracts. The giant online retailer is taking this action in response to the recently passed Golden State budget that was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. There is a provision in the budget that calls for online retailers to pay tax on revenue generated by affiliate-related sales.

Such a tax would clearly have a major impact on Amazon. When similar laws were enacted in Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas and Rhode Island, Amazon packed its bag in those states, as well.

The State of California hopes to generate about $200 million in additional sales tax revenue per year from the affiliate marketing sales tax. The state has been trying to mend a multi-billion-dollar shortfall in its budget.

New York has imposed a similar tax, but Amazon continues to run its Amazon Associates program in the Empire state. However, Amazon is is embroiled in a lawsuit against New York State.

Amazon’s California affiliate contracts will be terminated when the legislation takes effect.

Amazon's notice stated:

"We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

"As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective."

Does your marketing program include PURLS? If not, you may want to look into a PURL campaign.

What is a PURL? A PURL is a personalized web page. PURLS have become a very popular way to marketers to communicate directly with customers or prospects. The concept is that you create a personalized web page for your customers that can be used to promote products, add images, articles and videos, and much more.

A PURL is an excellent tool to help enhance direct mail response rates. It allows the marketer to create a custom page for every prospect on your mailing list. It eliminates the need to user names and passwords and provides a customized look for each customer or prospect. A sample PURL may look something like: www.amazingwebsite.com/janesmith

How exactly does an PURL direct mail campaign help to improve your return on investment?

Let's say your company has been running standard direct mailings, with a business reply card, website address and a toll-free number for prospects to respond to the mail piece. When you utilize PURLS, you are directly the prospect to a web page customized specifically for each prospect. The personalized URL is much more appealing because customers are drawn to the customized web page with their own name in the domain.

A personalized URL can also save marketers a ton of money.s are a great way to drive prospects to your web site to provide them with additional information. Rather than creating a gazillion page direct mail campaign and throwing everything imaginable at your prospect, you can mail a smaller package and send him to his own unique web page instead. Because the PURL uses basically the same techniques as variable data printing, each web page can be completely personalized for the individual.

A PURL campaign works well in conjunction with email marketing campaigns. Simply use personalized URLs in your email messages to entice your prospects to click for more information. The link will take them to their very own customized PURL. 

Give PURLs a shot. There are many vendors available to help develop your PURL campaign. They may help to greatly enhance your marketing efforts.

So -- you're just launching your web publishing and affiliate marketing enterprise, or you are operating on a shoe-string budget. You don't have a ton of cash to spend on a costly SEO specialist. What are some ways the beginning affiliate marketers can enhance their search optimization without breaking their budget?

Keyword Analysis: There are some excellent, free or inexpensive tools available online that can help you find potentially useful keywords and phrases. Google AdWords is the most popular of these tools. You may also want to visit your competitors' websites. Take a peek at the keywords that have on each page. sometimes the keywords are visible for anyone to see. Just right-click on each page to see the source and the HTML of the page. ctrl+F will then allow you to search the text on each page.

Another tool you may want to check out is Market Samurai. It's not free -- about $99 -- but it will help you track the level of competition for certain keywords and phrases.

Articles: Content -- articles, blogs, press releases, etc. -- is very important to winning the SEO game. Many publishers look to other sources for content. The price tag for these article could add up, and the content is may not be exactly what you want. You may not be a professional writer, but most publishers at least know what they want and can communicate fairly well in writing. Give article writing a shot. If you are uncomfortable doing it alone, ask an associate or someone you can trust to review your work. It could end up saving you a bundle on content-related expenses.

H1 Tags: H1 tags will improve your search engine rankings. An accurate H1 tag will help search engines to determine how the web page wil be viewed. Only one H1 tag per page, and make sure the content uses the correct markup for the tag. A free resource for markups W3Schools.

Link Building: While you have to be careful when adding links to make sure they are pertinent to your site (Google will penalize sites that practice "link farming"), adding back links and posting a link to your site from various blogs may be a helpful tool in enhancing your SEO.

Read, Read, Read: There is so much information on the Internet that can be useful to your SEO efforts. Take the time to conduct some valuable research online. Look for SEO blogs. Try to connect with experts in the field who may be willing to share their thoughts. This may be the most powerful tool of all the ones mentioned in this article.

Coming up with the perfect domain name is more difficult than it may appear.

What is the url that conveys your products and services; and also attracts the most website visitors? And, with millions and millions of domains already in use, how can make sure the perfect domain is even available?

Check out these pointers for determining the right domain for your website:

Do not ...
* ... use a trademarked name in your url. The brand name you are trying to utilize will eventually find out; and you will be in hot water.
* ... repeat letters too frequently (i.e., jimssledssvc.com). This appears confusing to the consumer. 
* ... create lengthy domains. The shorter the better.
* ... incorporate prepositions in your domain (and, or, between, etc.).
* ... use unnecesary words such as website, online, unless these words are part of the company name.

Do ...
* ... try to utilize the more common suffixes: .com, .org, .net. The .com suffix is best, if available. Although new suffixes will soon be unveiled, consumers are most familiar with these top-line extensions.
* ... search for domain auctions for names that may be perfect for your business. Existing domains may already be optimized, which could greatly help to enhance your visitor traffic.
* ... find domains that are loaded with the critical keywords for your online business.
* ... create a name that is unique and easy to remember.
* ... make the domain name brief and to the point.
* ... register the domains for several years, if you intend to be in business for the long-run.

Is it worthwhile to purchase numerous domain names for the same website? Yes. But make sure the use of numerous domains on the same site does not negatively impact your search rankings.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced it will be updating its advisory guide on how advertising laws pertain to Internet e-commerce. It's been over a decade (2000, to be precise) since the FTC came out with its “Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising.” Clearly, e-commerce has changed dramatically since 2000, and the FTC wants to address some of the more pertinent Internet sales and marketing topics impacting consumers.

The FTC is looking for public input on the legal and technical aspects of the Guide revisions. Comments must be provided by July 11, 2011.

Check out the information on the Dot Com Disclosure Guide, courtesy of the FTC:

The primary focus of the 2000 publication was to counsel marketers on how to provide clear and conspicuous disclosures of information that consumers needed in order to make informed decisions about goods and services being offered on the Internet.

Specifically, “Dot Com Disclosures” advised online advertisers that the same consumer protection laws that apply to commercial activities in other media apply online, and that any disclosures required to prevent an advertisement from being misleading must be clear and conspicuous. It focused on how required disclosures may be presented clearly and conspicuously in online advertisements, and provided key considerations for evaluating their effectiveness. The business guide discussed, in the context of online advertisements, the traditional factors used to evaluate whether disclosures are likely to be clear and conspicuous, including: the placement of the disclosure in an advertisement and its proximity to the relevant claim; the prominence of the disclosure; whether items in other parts of the advertisement distract attention from the disclosure; whether the advertisement is so lengthy that the disclosure needs to be repeated; whether disclosures in audio messages are presented in an adequate volume and cadence, and visual disclosures appear for a sufficient duration; and, whether the language of the disclosure is understandable to the intended audience. The document’s appendix contained mock advertisements that illustrated these particular factors.

The 2000 publication also addressed specific issues that arise from application of certain Commission rules and guides to Internet activities and the use of what were then new technologies to comply with those rules and guides. For example, some rules and guides use certain terms – such as “written,” “writing,” and “printed” – that connote words or information on paper. The document explained that those rules and guides that apply to written advertisements or printed materials also apply to visual text displayed on the Internet.

In addition, the FTC guide discussed the circumstances in which businesses may use email to comply with a Commission rule or guide requirement to provide or send required notices or documents to consumers.

The online world has changed dramatically since “Dot Com Disclosures” was first issued. Eleven years ago, mobile marketing was just a vision, there was not an “App” economy, the use of “pop-up blockers” was not widespread, and online social networking was nowhere as sophisticated or extensive as it is today.

Accordingly, the staff is considering updating and reissuing “Dot Com Disclosures” in order to provide guidance to businesses about how FTC law applies to current online activities.

Although the Commission has gained substantial experience over the past decade with how online advertisers make claims and disclosures, the staff welcomes all comments on the 2000 publication and the issues it addresses, and has also identified the following questions on which it has a particular interest in obtaining the public’s views:

1. What issues have been raised by online technologies or Internet activities or features that have emerged since the business guide was issued (e.g., mobile marketing, including screen size) that should be addressed in a revised guidance document?

2. What issues raised by new technologies or Internet activities or features on the horizon should be addressed in a revised business guide?

3. What issues raised by new laws or regulations should be addressed in a revised guidance document?

4. What research or other information regarding the online marketplace, online advertising techniques, or consumer online behavior should the staff consider in revising “Dot Com Disclosures”?

5. What research or other information regarding the effectiveness of disclosures – and, in particular, online disclosures – should the staff consider in revising “Dot Com Disclosures”?

6. What specific types of online disclosures, if any, raise unique issues that should be considered separately from general disclosure requirements?

7. What guidance in the original “Dot Com Disclosures” document is outdated or unnecessary?

8. What guidance in “Dot Com Disclosures” should be clarified, expanded, strengthened, or limited?

9. What issues relating to disclosures have arisen from such multi-party selling arrangements in Internet commerce as (1) established online sellers providing a platform for other firms to market and sell their products online, (2) website operators being compensated for referring consumers to other Internet sites that offer products and services, and (3) other affiliate marketing arrangements?

10. What additional issues or principles relating to online advertising should be addressed in the business guidance document?

11. What other changes, if any, should be made to “Dot Com Disclosures”?

You can file a comment addressing the guide and the above questions either online or on paper. For the Commission to consider your comment, it must be received on or before July 11, 2011. Write “Dot Com Disclosures, P114506” on your comment. Your comment – including your name and your state – will be placed on the public record of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable, on the public Commission website, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. There are several rules regarding the submission of comments, so make you you review them prior to your submission.

If H.R. 1528 is enacted, it would have a major impact on Internet marketers who collect personal information online.

H.R. 1528 has been dubbed the Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011, and was introduced on April 19. The law would apply to persons that collect, by any means, through any medium, sell or use personally identifiable information. That includes names, email addresses, telephone/mobile numbers.

The measure would impact any Internet marketer who collects data from more than 5,000 consumers during any consecutive 12-month time frame.

The Act does not apply to government agencies would be exempt from the law, as well as data processing outsourcing entities. That includes firms that provide information technology processing, web hosting or telecommunications services to another entity. Also exempted are providers of professional services.

The measure would mandate that organizations provide consumers with a privacy notice that is clear, conspicuous, prominently displayed and explicit. The privacy policy would have to contain statements as to the identity of the covered entity (or class of entity) that may collect or use the data, the types of information that may be collected or used, how it may be collected or used and the extent to which the data is sold or disclosed.

H.R. 1528 would stipulate that consumers must be provided with an opportunity to preclude the sale or disclosure of the their data to another covered entity.

The Federal Trade Commission may approve programs to allow self-regulation of the Act's provisions. Violations of the Act could result in a maximum penalty of $500,000 for all related incidents.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is targeting Jesse Willms for alleged illegal affiliate marketing practices that reportedly helped Willms to net a staggering $467 million.

Willms, who hails from Canada, started his affiliate marketing empire when he was a teen. Still only 24, Willms self-promotes himself as a philanthropist who donates gobs of money to causes such as the Canadian Red Cross, forest fire victims and various youth charities.

So, why is Willms in the FTC's cross hairs?

The FTC action is against Willms, as well as 10 companies he controls. The filing was made May 16, 2011, and it seeks to prevent any further alleged illegal marketing practices and to force Willms to repay customers.

The fraud allegations accuse Willms of deceptively attracting customers through free offers for products such as acai berry weightloss pills, teeth whitener, free credit reports, government grants and a home-based businesses.

Willms' companies are accused of sending spam emails and ads, promoting free trials that only required a minor shipping and handling fee. But, the FTC claims after the consumer's credit card information was obtained, they were often charged for the free trial, plus recurring monthly fees. These types of charges without customer consent are a violation of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.

In a statement on his website, Willms defended his marketing tactics: "Our companies give consumers the opportunity to buy a variety of products and services at significant savings. Our business is based on the loyalty and longevity of our customer relationships ... This loyalty, in part, is earned through compliant business practices and disclosures that are both clear and conspicuous."

A federal legislative measure has been introduced that would ban Internet companies from following the online actions of consumers who register for a "do-not-track" service.

Senator John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) is sponsoring the “Do-No-Track Online Act of 2011” (S 913), which would allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop regulations regarding the do-not-track registration service, including the registration method and the rules for companies that access consumer online data. State attorneys general and the FTC would enforce the regulations.

Senator Rockefeller commented, “Recent reports of privacy invasions have made it imperative that we do more to put consumers in the driver’s seat when it comes to their personal information.”

Senator Al Franken (D-MI) also chimed in: “Consumers have a fundamental right to know what data is being collected about them." He added, “And yet reports that the information on our mobile devices is not being protected in the way it should be.” Testifying in this hearing were, among others, the FTC, the Department of Justice, Google, Inc., and Apple, Inc. Copies of the witnesses written testimony is available online.

The U.S. Department of Transportation released a report showing that highway deaths fell to 32,885, the lowest level since 1949.  The figure represents a 2.9% drop from 2009. 
There are three main reasons given for the drop: Graduated license issuance for young drivers, hands-free cell phone laws and stiffer drunk driving penalties.  In fact, drunken driving related deaths dropped 4.9% in 2010 (to 10,228.)

The report shows that deaths of young drivers have dropped 39% over the last five years, compared to 23% for the population at large.

Americans drove approximately 3 trillion miles last year, about 46 billion miles more than in 2009.

Unfortunately, fatalities did not drop in all categories.  They rose for pedestrians, motorcycle drivers and large truck drivers. 
A new category of causality was introduced in this study, referred to as “distracted driving.”  This includes the activities of dialing a phone, sending a text or other such behavior.  The report attributes 3,092 deaths on this behavior.

Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research at AAA, had the following to say, “Distracted driving has become a much bigger issue in the last few years, (so) the (new) measure will be a better indicator of the true impact distractions have on traffic crashes.”

The average consumer will decide within five seconds whether they are interested in a particular website. So, if your e-commerce site does not have an immediate impact on the consumer, they will quickly move on to another site.

E-commerce sites must be both graphically attractive and highly functional and user-friendly. A professional website will enable even the smallest business to appear massive to its customers.

Here are some additional components to a quality e-commerce website:

* Make sure your product inventory is always up-to-date
* Include clear and concise product descriptions
* Include ample photos
* Offer competitive prices
* Maintain an accurate and up-to-date customer and prospective customer list, and conduct regular marketing campaigns to the lists
* Include customer testimonials and product reviews
* Provide a shipping price calculator, if applicable
* Add as much pertinent content as possible: blogs, articles, links, etc.
* Make sure site visitors can easily submit queries or phone calls; and respond immediately to all customer inquiries
* Take advantage of state-of-the-art communication technology such as live chats
* Lenient return/exchange policies

While it may cost less than a bricks-and-mortar store, an e-commerce website does come with its share of expenses. Make sure you allocate resources for:

* Design and programming
* Hosting services
* Search Engine Optimization
* Pay Per Click advertising
* Web analytics
* Social media marketing
* Email marketing

Good luck -- and happy selling!

 
With the numbers and percentage of Hispanic Americans skyrocketing, Internet businesses would be wise to develop targeted marketing efforts to attract this substantial segment of U.S. consumers.

The 2010 Census revealed the U.S. Hispanic population soared by 43 percent from 2000 to 2010. There are now 50.5 million Hispanics officially living in the U.S., compared with 35.3 million in 2000. Latinos now comprise 16 percent of the nation's total population of 308.7 million.

Following are several suggestions for Internet marketers to help them take advanage of the rise in the Hispanic consumer population:

1. Make sure phone operations provide Spanish-speaking options -- either through live operators or automated greetings.

2. Prepare bi-lingual marketing material and website text, and offer customers the choice. Some Spanish-speaking customers prefer to communicate in English, so do not assume they will want the Spanish text.

3. Advertise that your firm communicates in Spanish. Incorporate this simple message into all your websites, social networks, advertisements, storefront signage, etc.

4. Help educate non-Spanish-speaking employees in basic Spanish. Hispanic customers will appreciate the effort, even if the employee cannot conduct a full conversation in Spanish.

5. Run PPC ads in Spanish and English.

Want another compelling reason to market to the Hispanic marketplace? According to Jupiter Research, online Hispanic purchases are expected to hit the $21.6 billion mark in 2011. Don't miss out on this booming segment of the U.S. consumer population.

The vast majority of businesses have undergone numerous website changes and enhancements over the lifespan of their site. Think about how your website may be looked waaaay back in the mid-90s when the Internet boom exploded. Chances are your site is dramatically different -- and chances are good it will evolve many more times over the next decade. But one aspect of every website that should remain fairly consistent is the backlinks.

Too often, when a newly revised website is launched, the old backlinks are trashed. Unfortunately, it's highly possible that your old backlinks provided some value to your site; and therefore they should not be wiped clean when a new site is launched or when your old site is renovated.

Restoring your website's backlinks can be a time-consuming process. Thus, before you hastily discard your old site, remember to check out your Google Webmaster tool, which include a report the sites that link to your site.  If a site has been around for any number of years, there could potentially be hundreds of backlinks linked to your site that are helping to enhance your website's organic search results. Wipe out the backlinks, and your search status could seriously plummet.

Just beginning to dip your big toe into the deep waters of Internet marketing?  If you want to launch an affiliate marketing business or an online merchant operation, there is a lot to learn in order to compete with the millions of other Internet sites.

Internet marketing is still a relatively obscure science. The vast majority of consumers and businesses are still caught up in the world of traditional marketing: television, direct mail, newspapers, magazines, outdoor. More and more, firms are beginning to realize the old marketing tactics are simply not as effective anymore. They know they must venture into the world of the Internet, but many novice Internet marketers have a difficult time figuring out where to begin.

If you are faced with this challenge, here are a few pointers to help you get started:

* Read, read, read. Gather as much intelligence as possible about Internet marketing, your competitors and their tactics. Talk with experts. Read blogs. Look into social networking. Be a sponge.

* Be patient. Unless you are very fortunate, you will not stike gold immediately. Begin will small ad campaigns that will not cost an arm and a leg. You will make mistakes. Learn from them and make adjustments every step of the way.

* Stick with what works. There's an old advertising saying -- 'I know 50 percent of my advertising works -- I just don't know which 50 percent that is.' To be an effective marketing pro, you need to know how your money is being spent. Continue to invest in the areas that work; and get out the ones that do not.

* Test, test, test. An excellent way to determine the most effective tactics is to run concurrent tests. Make sure the results are easy to track.

* Two heads are better than one. Some business persons work better solo; others work well with partners. If you find another Internet marketer with similar goals and products, you may want to look into a potential partnership. Maybe you can pigy-back on the success of a competitor. Make sure you both bring equally important assets to the partnership. And, make sure the business venture is clearly spelled out to avoid any possible legal hassles. 

Americans continue to be more and more entranced with Internet searches.

comScore has recently reported that during March 2011, almost 19 billion search queries were entered by Americans. The study shows the number of searches performed by U.S. residents has grown steadily in 2011. The research is an indication that search engine research is not losing its luster, even with the meteoric rise of social media.

Google -- of course -- is by far the top search engine; with 64 percent of the U.S. search market. Over 12 billion Google searches were conducted in March, 2011. The marketshare of Yahoo! and Bing are both on the rise. Those two search engines comprise 26.4 percent of the American search volume, with 5 billion searches.

According to numbers supplied by Compete, the number one domain as a percent of total time online is facebook.  (Sept. 2011)  So what was the number one site in 2001?  The top sites in 2001 looked like this:  Yahoo and msn both had 11%, ebay 3% and sites such as goto.com, geocities.com, excite.com and neopets.com all had 1% of total time online.

September 2006 looked like this:  Myspace.com 12%, yahoo.com 9%, ebay and msn 4%,  google and aol 2%, pogo.com, facebook, craigslist and go.com all had 1%.

September 2011 tells a different story:  facebook 15%, youtube 6%, yahoo and google 4%, craigslist 2%, and ebay, live.com, msn, aol and pogo.com all with 1%.

Nielsen also ranks sites by recording unique visitors.  (Its data also shows that facebook is winning the time spent per person battle.)  In Sept. 2011, Google had over 170 million unique visitors, followed by facebook with 155 million, Yahoo! 145, MSN/Windows Live/bing 128, YouTube 123, Microsoft 93, AOL Media Network 87, Wikipedia 77, Amazon and Ask Search Network 71.

Google announced improvements to “provide greater transparency and choice regarding the ads you see on Google search and Gmail.”  According to their blog, Google says that soon you will be able to learn more about the ads by clinking on the “Why These Ads?” link next to the ads on your search results and Gmail.

Google says when you click the link you will be given information about why you’re seeing the ad and why it’s personalized for you. 
You will also be able to go to the “Ads Preferences Manager” to make changes to what you are seeing, such as blocking companies you have no interest in, or by blocking the personalization process entirely.

It has a vague feeling to it so far, but let’s see how it will play out and how fast changes are made.

Google has introduced Google+ Pages, a public page designed for any entity – from companies and clubs to rock bands and even the TV program, Anderson Cooper 360.

The “direct connect” feature allows people to go directly to the Google search engine site and type in +, followed by the page (entity) you’re looking for and it will take you directly there.

How exactly this will affect search results is unclear.  It’s not hard to envision that entities that set up a Google+ page will come out ahead in the SEO game.  Certainly that is not part of the equation at this point, but you may find that “getting-in early” will have its advantages.

This time of year is when many of us conduct much of our business.  Your website main page has to be understandable, organized and clear in its intent in order to be effective.  With all that said, this is a good time to review your website and make sure it’s working as hard for you as it should.

As compiled by Tim Ash, of ClickZ, here goes:
1.    Is what’s most important given the proper prominence?
2.    Be consistent in style.  Do not mix line art and photos.  Use high quality images, but make sure they are small enough to load quickly.
3.    Do not use horizontal lines or make abrupt color changes.  This will make your reader think something is finished and they will stop further engagement.
4.    Avoid animation and flash.  Slows things up, makes viewers leave site.
5.    Make sure the most important information is “above the fold.”  Don’t make the viewer have to scroll down to get to your most important information.
6.    Use color in a judicious manner, but please use it.  Choose colors carefully.  Don’t place reverse type in a box (white type in a red box for instance.)  It is too hard to read.
7.    Choose images that complement the content on the page.  Do not add images just for the sake of doing so.  Make sure the images have a reason for being there. 

Info  PR: ?  I: ?  L: ?  Cached: ?  I: ?  L: ?  LD: ?  I: ?  Rank: 11846  Age: ? IP: ?  whois source Robo: ? Sitemap: ?  Rank: ?  Price: ?  C: ? Links: 31|0 Density

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* Number of Facebook users: 695 million (or, just about the combined populations of the United States, Indonesia and Brazil -- the world's third, fourth and fifth most populous nations).

* Number of LinkedIn users: 148 million (or, more than the entire population of Russia).

* Number of Twitter tweets per day: 140 million (or, about one tweet for every dollar that Donald Trump is worth).

* Combined number of social media visitors per month for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook: 2.5 billion (or, a number equal to about 35 percent of the world's population)

* Total active Internet blogs: 164 million (or, slightly more than the current entire U.S. work force).

Who could have predicted this type of massive growth for the social networking phenomenon?

Info  PR: ?  I: ?  L: ?  Cached: ?  I: ?  L: ?  LD: ?  I: ?  Rank: 11846  Age: ? IP: ?  whois source Robo: ? Sitemap: ?  Rank: ?  Price: ?  C: ? Links: 31|0 Density

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What are some ideas online marketers should examine in order to enhance their SEO for Bing and Yahoo!? Check out the following suggestions:

Before you walk, you must crawl ... Your webiste's XML stamps need to be enabled in order for web crawlers to view your site content. If this is not happening, search engines will not be able to index your content. You may want to look into robots.txt files for some assistance.

Avoid the "website maze"...Your website should be functional and easy to meaeuver for website visitors. Make it simple for visitors to post comments, place orders and find the products and services you are marketing.

The "write" stuff...Effective SEO always involves constant, fresh, unique content. That means your site must incude a ton of articles, videos, links, images and text. Consistently update your content in order to continuously enhance your rankings.

You're only as strong as your weakest link...Your SEO strategy should include a link building program. It will help to insert targeted keywords into the link's text anchor. This will enhance the visibility of your links.

Of course, there are a ton of other ideas that will help to enhance your SEO efforts on all search engine. We encourage you to conduct more research n the topic and continuously try new methods for improving your search rankings. And remember, while Google rankings are important, you should also pay close attention to what is happening on Bing, Yahoo! and other search engines.

It seems new Internet-related buzz words pop up nearly every day. One of the latest Internet marketing terms is "mocial marketing."

Mocial marketing can be defined as the combination of mobile marketing and social network marketing. When someone uses their mobile phone to access Facebook or Twitter, they are mocial networking.

There are many ways in which marketers can utilize mocial networking to enhance your business growth. Check out some mocial marketing toughts:

* A Harris Interactive study indicated consumers who received some form of permission-based text marketing from a company, 34 percent of those who were sent a marketing text message have visited that website -- and, they are 27 percent more apt to buy from that company.

* Mocial marketing allows for more effective one-on-one communication. This has proven to be far more beneficial than mass-marketing.

* Mocial marketing provides merchants with the ability to contact consumers when they are most interested in their product or service. For example, the customer clicks on a link from Facebook and fills out a form requesting auto insurance information. As soon as the consumer clicks the submit button an agent receives a text message to contact the customer. An immediate connection is made precisely when the consumer is interested in making a purchase.

* Mocial marketing may be a more trusted form of advertising from the consumer's perspective. Mobile and social marketers employ strong privacy policies so that they are only communicating with those who are part of their networks. Therefore, the cumbersome "opt-in" process is often streamlined with mocial marketing.

* Mocial marketing can accomplish numerous marketing objectives: to gain customer loyalty ... to encourage users to spread the word about products and services to others in their network ... or simply to generate more sales.

* As with all tech-related advances, the time to act is now. Before you know it, your competition will be gaining an advantage over you because they have implemented an effective mocial marketing program.

YouTube is already planning to be a major player in the 2012 Presidential Election.  On Jan. 12 a Republican primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, will be steaming live on YouTube. It's all part of a larger scale effort to take advantage of the online video phenomenon.

Recently, YouTube unveiled Town Hall, a virtual debate platform intended to allow members of Congress to debate each other on various political issues. YouTube will allow users to recommend debate topics.

The initial Town Hall participants will include Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Udall (D-NM), Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Harry Reid (D-NV).

YouTube has become very popular among legislators. Data shows over 90 percent of Congress has a YouTube channel. In addition, the majority of the existing Presidential hopefuls will have a YouTube channel, as well.

Having a tough time bidding on the most popular keywords and search terms for your online business? Are the PPC costs getting too expensive for your budget?

You may want to consider more niche keywords.

Typically, the more generic the keyword, the more expensive it is. That makes sense, since you want to attract the consumers who are using the most obvious search terms. But if you are a small local insurance agent, for example, you are going to be bidding on the generic terms such as "auto insurance" or "insurance" against mammouth companies such as Geico, State Farm, Progressive, etc. It is nearly impossible to rank high when competing head-to-head with multi-billion-dollar companies.

But niched keywors may be far more efficient and can actually generate a better return on investment, depending on your service/product and strategy. After all, is it better to rank number 10 on a search that returns 200 potential websites; or number 1,000 on a search that returns 2,000 sites? Of course, it's far better to appear on page one, no matter what the search term.

Local businesses can very effectively utilize their region or city as a niche. For example, "Sacramento auto insurance" may generate 100 potential websites and the cost may only be a few dollars per click to appear on page one.

Another suggestion is to fine-tune your niche. Do you sell clothing/apparel? Maybe a targeted PPC campaign that focuses on your hottest sellers will drive a ton of traffic to your site.

Another benefit of niche-related PPC marketing is that it will likely help to improve your organic search results, as well. After all, if you are driving more traffic to your site, search engines will take note and usually improve your organic rankings.

In addition, targeted keyword campaigns may help to improve your closing ratio. How so? Consumers will have a better idea what to look for on your website. If you are marketing a generic term like "clothing," consumers may get lost in your site. But, if you are pitching your line of swimwear you will attract consumers looking for those specific products.

One way to avoid cyber risk is to have strong passwords.  SplashData, a password management application maker, compiled its list of the worst passwords for 2011.  Do any of yours appear here? 
1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Do you know your website's Alexa ranking? If not, you should become familiar with Alexa.

Alexa (http://www.alexa.com) computes traffic rankings by analyzing the web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from a variety of traffic data sources. The information is crunched through a sophisticated process and rankings are determined.

According to the Alexa website, the traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis. The main Alexa traffic rank is based on a value derived from these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users). The three-month change is determined by comparing the site's current rank with its rank from three months ago. For example, on July 1, the three-month change would show the difference between the rank based on traffic during the first quarter of the year and the rank based on traffic during the second quarter.

Traffic is computed for sites, which are typically defined at the domain level. For example, the Web hosts www.msn.com, carpoint.msn.com and slate.msn.com are all treated as part of the same site, because they all reside on the same domain, msn.com. An exception is blogs or personal home pages, which are treated separately if they can be automatically identified as such from the URLs in question. Also, sites which are found to be serving the same content (mirrors) are generally counted together as the same site.

Alexa measures a website's reach (i.e., the number of users). Reach is typically expressed as the percentage of all Internet users who visit a given site. So, for example, if a site like yahoo.com has a reach of 28 percent, this means that of all global Internet users measured by Alexa, 28 percent of them visit yahoo.com. Alexa's one-week and three-month average reach are measures of daily reach, averaged over the specified time period. The three-month change is determined by comparing a site's current reach with its values from three months ago.

Alexa also measures page views -- the number of pages viewed by site visitors. Multiple page views of the same page made by the same user on the same day are counted only once. The page views per user numbers are the average numbers of unique pages viewed per user per day by the visitors to the site. The three-month change is determined by comparing a site's current page view numbers with those from three months ago.

The trend graph shows the site's daily traffic rank, charted over time. The daily traffic rank reflects the traffic to the site based on data for a single day. In contrast, the main traffic rank shown in the Alexa Toolbar and elsewhere in the service is calculated from three months of aggregate traffic data.

Sites with relatively low traffic will not be accurately ranked by Alexa. Alexa's data comes from a large sample of several million Alexa Toolbar users and other traffic data sources; however, the size of the Web and concentration of users on the most popular sites make it difficult to accurately determine the ranking of sites with fewer than 1,000 monthly visitors. Generally, traffic rankings of 100,000 and above should be regarded as not reliable. Conversely, the closer a site gets to #1, the more reliable its traffic ranking becomes.

There are additional features offered by Alexa. It will benefit your site to obtain a high Alexa ranking, so it is important to understand the various aspects of Alexa.com.

eBay Inc. has announced the acquisition of Zong Ins. for $240 million.

Menlo Park, CA-based Zong provides social and virtual games such as Zynga Inc., IMVU Inc., Walt Disney Co.’s Playdom Inc., Stardoll AB, IAC/InterActiveCorp.’s Zwinky and Shanda Games Ltd.’s Mochi Media. Zong is also the firm that sell's Facebook's virtual currency.

The acquisition of Zong wil help to facilitate gamer-related mobile communication transactions for eBay’s PayPal system. As more gaming is taking place on mobile devices, the payment platforms for these transactions has become a vital component of the virtual gaming industry. PayPal is expected to process about $3 billion in mobile payments in 2011.

Zong works with some 250 mobile carriers, facilitating the purchase of items charged to the mobile device bill. These partnerships give Zong access to over 3 billion mobile users.

It is expected that Google and Intuit will become major competitors to eBay in the mobile payment arena, since both firms are in the process of developing their own mobile payment systems.

The eBay-Zong deal is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2011.

The search agency Rosetta has completed a survey of organic search traffic to their customers' sites in order to gauge the organic clicks generated through the major search engines -- Yahoo, Bing and Google. According to the research, Bing and Yahoo appear to major factors when it comes to financial services and retail searches.

The study was conducted from January through May, 2001. It measured the percentage of organic-referred visits coming to client sites, and divided it by industry vertical. 

The data indicated a significant shift from other studies from Experian Hitwise™ and comScore™. comScore’s “Explicit Core Search” report from May 2011 shows that of all search engine visits, 65% occurred at Google, with 14% and 16% happening at Bing and Yahoo sites, respectively.

The Rosetta study, however, shows that although all industries and verticals can benefit from Google searches, marketers should also focus on Bing and Yahoo as a valuable source of leads or conversions. The Rosetta "Organic Search Market Share Report" differs from Hitwise and comScore because Rosetta focused on the actual organic traffic delivered to client sites from each of the three major search engines; and Rosetta organized the data by industry vertical.

Summary of findings:

* Although Google led for all verticals, generating an average of 65 percent of the search traffic for verticals, some verticals such as pharmaceutical sites received as much as 75 percent of their actual traffic from Google.

* The biggest surprise came from the financial services vertical, which only received 54 percent of its traffic from Google. The financial services vertical had the highest percentage of traffic from Bing and Yahoo, with 18 percent coming from Bing and 22 percent from Yahoo.

* Rosetta's retail clients received nearly one-fourth of their non-Google search traffic from Bing-powered Yahoo results.hoo results.

The study examined over 10 million organic-referred search engine visits from January through May 2011. Rosetta says it expects to issue this report at least three times per year.

When conducting pay-per-click ad campaigns, is it wise to simply out-bid the competition on your key search terms?  Not always.

Google AdWords, for example, will base paid search rankings on additional criteria such as click-through rates. In other words, AdWords places a priority on sites that are more relevant for the search terms. If your site sells auto insurance, for example, and your PPC ad uses competitors' names, you wil not likely get many click-throughs because the PPC ad is not relevant to your site.

Therefore, your PPC strategy must be two-fold:

1) make sure your bids are high enough so that your ad appears among the top listings; and
2) make sure your PPC ads and search terms are relevant to your site so that you generate a high click-through rate.

Some PPC experts also recommend that you utilize unique search terms. This may be especially helpful if you are in a highly competitive business category where the bidding for the more popular terms is extremely high. Dig deep and spend some time trying to find those hidden gems that may help to elevate your positioning and your click-through rate.

Another strategy is to incorporate prices or potential savings in your PPC ad. This may be particularly effective for products such as auto insurance, where price savings is a major buying factor for consumers.

Online advertising is one segment of the economy that is definitely not suffereing.

Online ad spending grew considerably during the second quarter of 2011 across all channels, according to the digital ad firm IgnitionOne (formerly SearchIgnite).

IgnitionOne found increases in year-over-year spend across all three major online media channels, including paid search, display and Facebook.

Facebook ad spending is up 22% year-over-year on a same-client-basis, with impressions up 11%. Furthermore, Facebook advertising has experienced high rates of growth from new marketer adoption in the past year, contributing a 280% increase in spend across all clients and a 200% increase in impressions year-over-year.

That said, spending patterns within an advertiser's campaign life cycle on Facebook show marked growth declines after the first few months, suggesting that advertisers are still in a "test and learn" phase with the new and immature ad platform.

Google also saw strong gains during the quarter for its AdEx display platform. Google grew to an 80% share of all U.S. search advertising spend in the second quarter, compared with Yahoo/Bing at a 19% share. Google also saw dominating growth in other key search metrics, including impressions, clicks, CTR and eCPM. What's more, Google's AdEx now commands 51% share of U.S. RTB display spend, compared to Yahoo's Right Media at a 49% share. Year-over-year, "This marks a significant jump in Google's market share in display," IgnitionOne noted.

U.S. paid-search spending rose 12% year-over-year in the second quarter, while growth was flat quarter-over-year, according to IgnitionOne.

The quarter began strongly, but dipped sharply in June to nearly flat growth on a year-over-year basis.

IgnitionOne noted, "While this decline did not have a major impact on the quarter overall, it could be an indicator of future months' performance. Expectations for the third quarter of the year are now cautiously optimistic."

Nearly two-thirds of Twitter users admit they make purchases based on what they view on Twitter. Facebook is nearly as effective as a buying factor, with 56 percent of Facebook users surveyed noting the social network giant has an impact on their purchases.

The research firm Compete conducted the study. It found 56.2 percent of consumers visit a retailer’s Facebook page for info on sales and promotions. In addition:

* 29 percent click on Facebook pages to conduct research on retailers.
* 26.4 percent visit a retailer's FB page when it appears in a friend's news feed and they "liked" that page.
* 13.7 percent go to Facebook pages because they enjoy shopping from a certain retailer.
* 13.6 percent want to connect with others who like that retail store.

The study shows Twitter has a similar powerful impact on consumers:

* 58.7 percent read Twitter feeds to to learn about sales and promotions.
* 32.9 percent read about specific retailers.
* 24.1 percent read tweets because they like a certain retailer.
* 23.2 percent read certain tweets to  connect with other people who like the retailer.

Compete study shows that during the spring of 2011, 10 percent of respondents check out retailer Twitter feeds at least once a month. That's a slight drop from 11 percent in the spring of 2010.

Twelve percent of the survey respondants follow between 6 and 10 retailers or consumer products on Twitter; 5 percent follow between 11 and 30; and 6 percent follow more than 30 products or retailers.

The Compete research showed Facebook is an excellent cost-efficient marketing tool for providing consumer spending habits.

All top emarketers are eager to learn about new and innovative tools available to help generate more website traffic and improve their bottom line. You no doubt are utilizing social networking tools, Goodle AdWords, etc. But what about some other products that can be useful?

Below are a bunch of interesting new tools that may benefit your emarketing efforts:

1. Rank Tracker: A product of SEOmoz, this is a free tool that allows users to monitor websites rankings for specific keywords. This could be an excellent way to keep tabs on how these keywords are working.

2. Business Link Ecommerce Guide: An essential resource for online marketing best practices.

3. Spyfu: This tool gives you a glimpse into your competitors' paid search campaigns. It allows you to search by domain and displays Google AdWords campaigns, phrases that are being used and organic rankings.

4. Copyscape Plagiarism Checker: Are you buying articles from an outside source, or are you not certain about the originality of certain content? This tool gives users a way to assure themselves that the content is fresh.

5. SurveyMonkey: This allows you to survey your website visitors and customers on your site, products, services, etc. It's a very useful tool to help marketers understand how best to tweak their products and websites.

6. HootSuite: This tool allows users to track visitor and customer activity across a variety of social networks.

7. SEOmoz GeoTarget tool: Another free product that allows users to determine relevant search terms for geographic locations. It is an excellent tool for localizing your search marketing.

8. Hitwise: An online consumer analysis tool, Hitwise provides a variety of reports on about 165 industries. This kind of research can be extremely useful to any online marketer.

9. Nielsen: This company has been around for years, tracking several different media sources. Its marketing data tracks consumer activity in 52 different countries.

There are many more tools on the market, and more products are popping up on a consistent basis. Keep your eyes peeled for innovative new tools that can help your ecommerce business.

How can you get more prospects to open your email notices? How can you get them to respond to your email?

Email is still a relatively new method for communicating with prospective and existing customers. And, new tactics are being implemented all the time in order to improve email marketing results.

Check out some ideas below that may help you to enhance your ROI from your email campaigns:

* Allow email recipients to correct or change their email address. Consumers are constantly changing or added new addresses and you want to make sure you are reaching the addresses that are the most frequently opened.

* Give the recipient an option for how frequently they want you communicate with them. For example, if you have a daily newsletter, maybe you should also offer a weekly recap newsletter for those who do not want to receive as many notices.

* Allow the recipients to check off the areas that interest them the most. If you market insurance products, auto loans, stock tips, car alarms and GPS systems, maybe you can allow the prospect to only receive email notices for the ones that appeal to them. This will help to cut down on unwanted email, and the customer will appreciate your thoughtfulness.

* Always have a comment box -- and make sure you truly review the comments. They may offer some valuable ideas for your marketing efforts.

* An excellent way to obtain quality feedback on your products and services is to send a "sorry to see you go" email to those who opt-out. Ask for comments as to why they are opting out of your email notices. Again -- this feedback can be very helpful.

* Many email blasts now include images and graphics. Make sure the images are not increasing the size of the email to the point where it could slow down some servers. Consumers are not patient. If it takes too long to open an email they will frequently just delete the notice -- and they may ask to opt-out, as well.

* Take the time to produce different email text for specific offers. Avoid emails that attempt to blanket all products and services into one notification. Those all-in-one notices may be too cumbersome to review and you could be losing too many good prospects as a result. Short and simple is much better than long-winded and wordy.

Good luck -- and happy selling!

You have no doubt heard how inexpensive it is to get started in the world of affiliate marketing. Is this a true statement; or are there hidden costs that are not revealed to the start-up affilate marketer?

Check out this list of affiliate marketing start-up expenses, and decide for yourself:

1. Overhead: A home computer is basically the only hard cost you will need to get your online business off the ground.

There are some online businesses that may require some additional up-front overhead investment, especially if you are distributing products yourself and need to acquire an inventory to begin.

But, we will assume that since you are reading this article you already have a computer and an Internet connection. Therefore, the hard cost for equipment should be negligible.

* Membership Fees: This cost will depend on the affiliate marketing programs you want to join. Many of these programs are free to join. Some require a fee that may run from $10 to $30 or so. Others require some sort of production requirement.

* Domain Name/Hosting: You will definitely incur some expenses to purchase your domain names  and hosting package. Domains cost anywhere from $10 to $30 a year. Hosting packages cost up to about $25 per month. Shop around and read the fine print to make sure you buy a package that meets your needs.

* Advertising: It will cost money to market your business. You may opt for pay-per-click, social media marketing, call centers, etc. Any way you slice it, advertising will comprise a considerable chunk of your business expense. Expect to forkout a minimum of $100 per month to get your lead generation efforts off the ground.

* Autoresponder: This is the software that enables you to send email  blasts to customers and prospects directly from your website. It is a very useful tool that will streamline your marketing efforts, but it may run you around $20 a month.

You may incur miscellaneous other expenses. You may hire an SEO manager. You may need to upgrade your computer. But, altogether, the costs associated with launching an affiliate marketing business should be fairly manageable.

Good luck -- and happy selling!

Some marketing managers may still consider social media a gimmick that is best left to celebrities or old high school flames trying to reconnect. But if you are over-looking the value of social media then you are omitting a potentially powerful tool in your online marketing arsenal.

There are many ways in which social media may help enhance your online marketing efforts, including:

1. Search engine optimization: Website links from social media pages are an increasingly important factor to many search engines.

2. Most of today's customers expect to be able to find you on Facebook or Twitter. If you're not there, consumers may view your business as out-of-touch.

3. There are numerous tools available on social media sites that will enable online marketers to enhance their target marketing efforts. These tools include geograhic, age, gender, hobbies, interests, profession and other demographic details that are very helpful to most online marketers.

4. Social media is an excellent way to expand the visibility of your press releases and other public relations activities.

5. When you utilize social media sites on a consistent basis, you will signiicantly enhance your brand name. Consumers will begin to specifically look for your brand instead of stumbling on your site through a generic search.

Social media giant Facebook is set to become the largest seller on online display advertising in the nation.

eMarketer is reporting Facebook’s online U.S. display ad revenue will hit $2.2 billion in 2011, pushing the social network past Yahoo! as the top online display ad company in the country.

Facebook’s online display ad has experienced massive, consistent growth. In 2009 its display ad revenue soared by 164.1 percent; and in 2010 it grew again by 117.8 percent. This year Facebook's display ad revenue will increase by another 80.9 percent. According to eMarketer, the growth should flatten out a bit to 31.3 percent in 2012.

By the end of the year, Facebook should hold 17.7 percent of U.S. online display ad marketshare. eMarketer predicts Yahoo! will have a 13.1 percent marketshare at the conclusion of the year.

Affinity Express Inc., a provider of high-volume print and interactive advertising solutions, has released the results of its survey of small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers. The study measured SMB online advertising and marketing strategies; and found that online marketing is a growing component of SMB marketing tactics.

The survey results showed:

* Sixty-three percent of those surveyed have used online advertising or marketing for their business. Website and landing pages is the most commonly used tactic, used by 77 percent of respondents, with email marketing following closely (73 percent). Half of the respondents use social media marketing (50 percent); 31 percent use search engine optimization; 27 percent use online catalogs; 23 percent use display ads; 23 percent use blogging; 19 percent do search ads; 15 percent use mobile advertising.

* An interesting find is the low use of search engine optimization compared to the prevalence of websites and landing pages as a marketing tactic. This indicates SMBs are focusing on developing websites and landing pages, but not on optimizing those pages to get found in search results.

* Sales is the most important focus for a small business owner (36 percent voted it the most important objective of their online advertising or marketing activities), and drives her marketing strategy. However, 23 percent of the respondents indicated brand awareness was most important. Less important tactics include: lead generation (14 percent), lead nurturing (9 percent), customer service (9 percent), reputation management (5 percent) and customer lifetime value (5 percent).

* The focus on sales might be partly why SMB owners don’t rate online tactics as very effective. Only 12 percent consider online advertising and marketing very effective and 44% admit it is somewhat effective. Thirty-six percent rate online tactics somewhat ineffective for their businesses, while 8 percent consider it very ineffective.

* Even though search engine optimization isn’t used by a high percentage of SMBs, it emerged as the most effective tactic with 33 percent voting it very effective. Website and landing pages are at a distant second (16 percent), followed closely by email marketing (15 percent), online display ads (13 percent), search ads (13 percent), online catalogs (13 percent), and mobile (12 percent). Surprisingly, social media marketing (9 percent) and blogging (6 percent) are considered the least effective tactics, according to the study.

* The biggest challenge SMBs face with online marketing is the high cost of external resources (27 percent), followed closely by insufficient expertise (25 percent) and lack of measurable ROI (25 percent). Lack of in-house resources is the most significant issue for 20 percent of respondents and lack of buy-in from management is only an issue with 2 percent.

* fifty-seven percent of respondents have internal teams manage online advertising and marketing and 48 percent use online do-it-yourself services. Twenty-two percent use outsourcing providers, 4 percent use freelance providers.

* Despite the perceived low effectiveness of online marketing, 84 percent of respondents say they plan to use online marketing in 2011.

Almost all the survey respondents are owners or employees of a small business, with over half of the businesses employing 2-10 people and 26 percent employing only one person. Only 8 percent of the businesses have more than 500 employees. Five percent each have 11-100 and 101-500 employees respectively.

Approximately 70 SMBs responded to the Affinity Express study.

Yodle has announced the acquisition of ProfitFuel, Inc. Yodel is an Internet marketing company, headquartered in New York. Texas-based ProfitFuel is a major provider of local search engine optimization services to small businesses. ProfitFuel boasts over 11,000 small business clients. Outrank is the company's core product. It helps to generate inexpensive inbound phone calls and emails by helping to raise its clients' search engine rankings.

The acquisition of ProfitFuel allows Yodle to grow its sales force to service a broader set of clients with smaller marketing budgets. The ProfitFuel purchase will give Yodle a team of some 300 sales persons.

David Rubin, who has been serving as ProfitFuel CEO, will become Yodle's senior vice president of sales. Prior to serving for ProfitFuel, Rubin was the founder/CEO of HomeCity, an online real estate brokerage.

ProfitFuel was launched in 2000, and the company now has 220 employees.

Yodle was named #35 on the INC 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

Is Andrew Mason the new Mark Zuckerberg?

At 29 years old, Mason, the founder of online coupon giant Groupon, may become the next Internet billionaire.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1981, Mason founded Groupon in 2008. But his rise to prominence in the dot-com world was not quite as meteoric as Facebook chief Zuckerberg's.

Mason attended Northwestern University, where he studied -- believe it or not -- music. His interest in software development came later, as he saw friends and associates taking advantage of e-commerce opportunities.

In 2006, Mason began attending the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, but after only three months he dropped out of the school. Soon after Mason developed The Point, a web service for fundraising activities.

After the success of The Policy, Mason launched Groupon in '08. The premise of Groupon is to combine social networking with the growing need for consumers to save money.

According to Wikipedia, Groupon first targeted the Chicago market, followed by Boston, New York City and Toronto. As of October 2010, Groupon was serving over 150 markets in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America; and Groupon had amassed 35 million registered users by Oct., 2010.

In April 2010, Groupon was valued at $1.35 billion. According to a report in Forbes Magazine, Groupon was "on pace to make $1 billion in sales faster than any other business, ever."

Two of the men responsible for the largest online coupon site, Groupon, are entering the pawn shop business.

Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, who are no longer at Groupon and currently run the investment firm Lightbank, have launched Pawngo, an online pawnbroker.

Pawngos objective is to provide customers with a practical and affordable option to credit card loans and other alternative loan options. Customers can put up collateral such as gold, jewelry and other items to secure a short-term loan. Pawngo visitors may also sell their items online.

Pawngo provides loans based on an item's current market value for up to six months at rates of between 3 and 6 percent. Typical brick-and-mortar pawn shops charge about 20 percent interest per month.

Customers may obtain a loan through Pawngo from $250 to $100,000.

Pawngo.com visitors enter a description of their items, submit a digital photo and complete the contact information. No credit card information or Social Security number is required. Pawngo send a preliminary loan offer or buy estimate within a few hours. If the customer accepts the offer, Pawngo users can print an overnight, pre-paid FedEx shipping label to send the item directly to Pawngo's evaluation lab. Once the item has been received, a representative contacts the customer with an item evaluation and an offer. If accepted, the item is stored in Pawngo's vault, and the customer's money is transmitted to their bank account.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is stepping up its efforts to protect employees terminated due to issues related to postings on their Facebook page.

The NLRB has filed two lawsuits recently against employers for social media-related firings.

In one case, a non-profit organization called Hispanics United of Buffalo, is accused by the NLRB of unlawfully firing five workers following Facebook posts by the employees where they were critical of their work load and staffing-related situations.

According to the NLRB, a Hispanics United employee who posted a co-workers comments that the organization did not adequately help clients.

The posting occurred just prior to a management meeting where the agenda topic was regarding work conditions. Several other employees posted comments to the posting, where they defended their performance and were critical of their work environment.

Hispanics United promptly terminated the five employees who posted the comments. Hispanics United said the comments were a form of harassment against the employee who was mentioned in the initial posting.

The Hispanics United lawyers said the terminated workers were let go over the harassment of a co-worker, and the Facebook postings were not a factor.

In another case, the NLRB filed a complaint against Chicago car dealer for alleged NLRB violations.

The dealership, Karl Knauz Motors, Inc., is accused of terminating an employee for Facebook postings.

The complaint states that in June 2010 an employee, Patty Becker, made Facebook comments about a sales function put on by the car dealer. Becker was then fired soon after the comments.

Social media-related firings and subsequent NLRB lawsuits are still a new phenomenon, so it's unclear how courts may rule. It is safe to say, however, that human resources managers will have their hands full over the next couple years adjusting their personnel manuals to properly reflect any new laws or court rulings.

There have been a lot of articles and research on search engine optimization strategies that will help to improve your website's search rankings. But not enough has been published regarding SEO tactics that website publishers may want to avoid.

Copying your competition: There are tool available that help to determine which keywords and terms are being utilized by your competition.
Many SEO managers will review their competition's keywords as a matter of practice. But you should be careful not to automatically duplicate these keywords. After all, some of them may not be working well for the competitors, so you don't want to allocate your valuable resources toward bad keywords. Instead, monitor the competition's keywords over time. If there are terms used on a consistent basis, you can bet those are working well. The ones that come and go quickly are not performing, so they most likely won't perform well for your rankings, either.

Avoid mass reciprocal linking schemes: The "I'll scratch your back; you scratch mine" concept is not a bad strategy. Linking partners that have a business connection is a good way to enhance your search rankings and to enhance your site traffic. But you need to avoid the spam solicitations to do reciprocal linking. If you do not know the other entity, you should not be sharing links. Besides, search engine can usually spot unrelated links, so this practice will not help your rankings.

Spread the page links around properly: When linking your site to others, do not automatically link to your homepage. Make sure the links are directly to the appropriate page within your site that relates to the other blog, article or website.

Do not create useless website pages: It is not a good idea to add new pages that either have the same information as other pages within your site, useless information or maybe very little information at all. In fact, this strategy will probably backfire and search engines may penalize your site with lower rankings. Content is the key. Make sure your pages are loaded with rich, timely, updated, original content that pertains to the primary purposes of your website.

Avoid excessive websites: it is difficult enough developing an effective SEO program for one website, let alone multiple sites. Many publishers create various websites to promote a variety of products and services. But you may be better off focusing on fewer websites -- especially if the information is pretty much related. For example, if your core business is insurance sales, it will be easier to have one site with various pages for auto insurance, home, life, heatlh, etc. -- as opposed to multiple sites for each line of insurance.

Good luck -- and happy selling!

Every Internet marketer is looking for those little gems that can help enhance their search ranking in the hopes of enhancing their website traffic.

Long gone are the days when it took a programming genius to develop a functional website. Now, there are numerous tools available for any business to build a professional-looking site. This has led to a massive spike in the sheer quantity of websites that every business must compete against.

The ideas below are just a few tips that may help you gain an advantage over your competitors when it comes to search engine optimization that may help you to improve your results:

• Be patient -- especially if your site has beeen around for a number of years. If the site was built several years ago and you have never done much SEO work on it, you will have to dedicate some resources and time toward optimizing the site. Do not give up too soon. There will be a lot of trial-and-error involved.

• Always remember who you are targeting. Develop your SEO strategy as if you are the prospective customer. What are your hot buttons? What keywords would attract you to a particular website? What products and services would lure you to a site? It is very important that your visitors are interested in your offers. Make them as appealing as possible.

• Spend as much time as needed determining your keywords. Use the various tools that are at your disposal, such as Google AdWords, etc. Write out a lengthy list before you determine your choices. Revise the keywords frequently, based on performance and continued research.

• Your website design will play a role in your search engine rankings. Make sure the layout, graphics, images, etc. are appealing.

• Make sure your website includes features such as articles/blogs, an index and a comments section. These will help to enhance your search ranking.

• You need to constantly add new, fresh content to your site. Even if you are not a skilled writer, make sure your site is filled with pages of pertinent content that will be interesting to your site visitors and helpful for your search engine rankings.

These are just a handful of ideas that may help you to improve your SEO. We strongly encourage all website publishers to seek out this type of information on an ongoing basis. Internet marketing strategies are always evolving. You need to stay on top of the trends and the new techniques to keep your website relevent.

There are numerous Internet search-related terms that have become part of normal conversation and language. Most everyone is familiar with terms such as "keywords," "pay-per-click," "search engine optimization," "Google" and so on.  But there are numerous other terms that define key components of search engine marketing that may be more vague.

We thought it would be interesting to clarify several of the more interesting, yet obscure, search engine-related terms:

Search query:

A search query differs from keywords, yet they are often thought to be the same terms. A search query is the word or series of words entered into a search engine. They are usually a larger set of keywords which online marketers may examine to determine more effective targeted keywords. For example, if one notices that a search query consistently displays the same results, then that may be a good way to develop a new ad group for your search engine AdWords campaign.

Boolean connectives/Boolean operators:

Boolean operators are used to connect terms and specify terms in search queries. "AND," "OR," and "NOT" are the more common Boolean connectives. For example, a search for Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles may be enterred as "Los Angeles AND Japanese restaurants." Or, if someone wants to find a romantic restaurant in Los Angeles, but does not like Japanese food, they may enter "Los Angeles AND restaurants NOT Japanese."

Boolean operators are based on Boolean Logic. Its name is derived from 19th century mathematician George Boole. His theory breaks down everything into either true or false values. Internet searches use a similar logic, where queries are assigned with a value of "zero" or "one."

Web-bot (aka, web robot):

Any Internet program that pulls information from websites. Search engine web-bots (or search-bots) collect data from websites that correspond to the search query. 

(The "Web-Bot Project" is an Internet program that can supposedly predict future events by tracking the history of keywords. Created in 1997 by Clif High and George Ure, the Web-Bot Project" was initally invented to predict stocks. The algorithms used for the Web-Bot Project have yet to be revealed.)

Email harvester:

This is a common spam tactic, whereby web-bots are used to collect email addresses from web pages or newsgroups. These are then used by spammers who then spam the harvested email addresses.

Cloaking:

Cloaking is the hiding of page content. This is usually done to prevent web page thieves from stealing optimized pages.

False drop:

A web page obtained from a search engine that is not relevant to the search query. This usually occurs because the web page may include the search terms, but is not related to the context of the search; or because the search is an attempt to spam; or because there is a bug in the search engine program.

Image map:

This is a set of hyperlinks connected with an image. The image map needs to be included within a web page in order to accurately index the other pages within the site.

Log file:

A log file is where the details of all file accesses are stored. Log files contain a ton of information about a web site's visitors, including: referring sites and queries used to find the site.

What is "social video optimization" (SVO) and how can you use SVO to enhance your websites' performance?

Social video marketing has been defined by AdAge magazine as “the use of video as the central organizing element for social interaction and storytelling online."

Social Video Optimization has grown rapdily to become an important tool in Internet search marketing. Most of the major search engines include social media in their algorithm for organic searches. So, it makes sense that social videos can be utilized to effectively enhance one's search performance, as well, especially for those with e-commerce sites.

How can social media videos be used to enhance the e-commerce site?

1) Compelling videos will capture the attention of consumers, who will spread the word to their friends and associates.

2) Adding the videos to your social network pages are an excellent way to spread the message to your more loyal customers.

3) Many consumers learn better through visual communication than by reading text. Video provides an excellent alternative to articles, FAQ sections, product information, sales, contest, etc.

4) The video is a great way to enhance your brand. Strategically place your website address/logo in the corner of the video, scroll the website address across the bottom of the screen and mention your website name numerous times throughout the video. Even if the consumer does not purchase the products you are marketing right away, they often return to the site thanks in large part to the brand awareness you have created.

5) Videos are an excellent way to respond to common customer comments, questions and suggestions. And, when posted on your social media sites, it will likely drive more traffic to your website.

How's your CPA?

As an Internet marketer, your objective is to achieve the lowest possible cost per action for your ad campaigns. The lower your CPA, the higher your return on investment.

The CPA equals the cost of an ad campaign, divided by the number of lead conversions. The primary components in the CPA equation include advertising expenses (pay per click, email lists, etc.), and the revenue generated through conversions. You need to know this formula in order to determine the success rate of your campaigns.

If your CPA is not adequate, you may want to consider the following suggestions:

* Expand or modify your keywords:

Fine-tune the keywords by eliminating those that are not performing well. Create more groups and track the results from each group. Tweak the text in your search ads. Search engine keyword management is an ongoing process that should be monitored on a daily basis.

* Revise your offers:

Do you offer a free report for every order? Is your copy enticing enough for consumers? You may want to shake things up -- test different types of offers ... test new copy. See if the changes will result in a higher quantity and quality leads.

* Weigh quantity versus quality:

One offer may generate a ton of leads, but only a small percentage of conversions. If you are getting paid by conversions, this means you are wasting too many leads. In this case, maybe you need to try a new email list or target market. It may be OK to generate fewer leads, if the conversion rate is strong.

* Learn from your successful ads:

Closely analyze the most successful CPA ads. What is it about those ads that helps to generate a low CPA/high ROI? Is it the text? Is the text brief? Is it very descriptive? What keywords are you using? What landing pages are used? What offers are on those landing pages? What products are being marketed? Use this information wisely when creating other campaigns.

* Dump the bad/keep the good:

Do not hang on to high CPA campaigns for too long. If it is not working, either make changes or dump the campaign. You can use the money to help fund new advertisements; or you can re-allocate the money toward more successful campaigns.

You launched an Internet affiliate marketing business, expecting -- or at least hoping -- to earn a healthy six-figure income ... just like the claims in the testimonials.  There is no doubt there are many affiliate marketing publishers generating this kind of revenue. But there are also many publishers struggling to jump-start their revenue stream.

What separates the "haves" from the "have-nots" in the world of affiliate marketing?

The "haves" are successful because they:

* Generate traffic to their websites. After all, you can't conduct any Internet marketing unless you first lure prospects to your site. This may mean conducting PPC campaigns, email marketing, SEO, etc. You will have to allocate some resources to generate website traffic. There is really no way to avoid it.
* Find quality affiliate marketing programs (i.e., T3LEADS!). The top companies typically offer healthy commission potential, user-friendly tracking systems, website templates and superior customer support. Oh -- and most of the top programs are free to join.
* Seek products that interest you. If the products or services are not appealing to the publisher, then it may be challenging to market for them.
* Include content on the websites that relate to the affiliate programs. If your blog or web articles are all about sports, but the affiliate programs are financial service-related, then your visitors may not be interested in those types of products -- even if you are generating a ton of website traffic.
* Experiment..test...and keep testing. Play with your AdWords. Track which ones generate the best traffic and the most leads. Adjust your bids and your budget. Set up a spreadsheet and carefully monitor the return on investment for all your marketing efforts.
* Connect with other successful marketers. Glean ideas from others who have already tried, failed and eventually succeeded. Read their blogs, their articles and their books. Attend seminars.

There are many highly successful publishers who wandered aimlessly through the Internet marketing world for months or years before hitting on the right formula for their business. Do not give up after a few attempts. Learn from your mistakes. Eventually your hard work will pay off handsomely.

So -- you have a website and you want to start using it to generate e-commerce business or affiliate marketing leads and sales. You have done your research and you have a marketing plan. You want to use SEO tactics and PPC advertising.

Now the big question: how do you determine the best keywords that will drive the most traffic and potential business through your site.

Check out the following pointers to help in your keyword selection process:

1) Sign up with Google Adwords. If you are trying to conduct a PPC campaign without Google Adwords, you are omitting the most obvious tool in your arsenal. Adwords provides a very user-friendly menu of resources, including keyword suggestions, possible traffic totals, and much more.

2)  While in Adwords, go to Keyword Variations (under "Reporting and Tools") and then Site-Related Keywords. Enter a competitor's website URL that is potentially targeting the same demographics as your website. Then click on "Include other pages on my site linked from this URL" and then "Get Keywords." A list of keywords from the competitors' site will be displayed. This is a good way to gauge which keywords to possibly use for your site. Of course, you will not know how each keyword is performing, but it is a good place to start.

3) Check out Word Tracker, which is a user-friendly keyword research tool. The basic service is free, but you can upgrade to access additional features. Word Tracker will generate a list of related keywords to your site.

4) Another useful tool is Keyword Spy. The free service will help you to find pertinent keywords for your website and for articles, as well. Keyword Spy also provides statistics about PPC competitors.

5) WordStream is a database of over 1 billion highly rated keywords. You can review the list, as well as the research tools, to determine which words and terms will be the most useful.

Hopefully these suggestions help you get started on the road to Internet marketing riches.

Search engine marketers often wrestle with ways to determine the actual value of their marketing efforts. WordStream, a search marketing firm that helps Internet marketers maximize their PPC and SEO performance, has developed a white paper called, "Measuring the Long Term value of PPC." The paper is designed to help uncover the secrets behind determining pay-per-click return on investment.

According to WordStream, "The challenge is that while ad spend decisions are often made on a month-by-month basis, revenue from PPC ad campaigns often don’t come until weeks, months or sometimes years later." This white paper reviews the reasons why PPC return on investment figures are so difficult to gauge and offers tips to help enhance the long-term value of PPC campaigns.

The white paper includes advice, such as:

* Track and test landing pages: make sure there is a clear call to action; be able to determine the keywords that drove traffic to that page; etc.
* Set "negative keywords" to assure that Google and other search engines do not display your ad in inappropriate searches.
* Sort your keywords in concise, relevent groups.

The white paper concludes: "Today’s customer builds relationships with brands over time and across a number of different channels, experiences and touchpoints. The complexity of the modern customer lifecycle can obscure the true value of these channels and marketing campaigns, inflating some campaigns and undercounting the contributions of others. As customer behavior and channels have evolved, a handful of tools have emerged to measure and improve the long-term return on investment of marketing campaigns. By leveraging these tools and following best practices for keywords and landing pages, marketers can invest their budgets more strategically and get more for their investment over the long-term."

For more information, check out the complete report:
http://www.wordstream.com/download/docs/WordStream_Performable_Longterm_ROI_PPC.pdf

Marketing and PR experts have been nagging business owners for years about the virtues of a consistent public relations campaign. PR can be a form of free (or very inexpensive) advertising. But a lot of buisnesses shy away from it because it is difficult to gauge the return on investment from PR campaigns.

Nowadays PR can also be used to effectively enhance a website's search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and to grow the site's inbound links -- especially when distributing press releases through one of the online wire services. Most of the major PR services can help you connect with hundreds of backlinks with the distribution of each news release.

Check out some additional ways to enhance your PR/SEO efforts:

* Join the world of Twitter. Most of the top online marketers will post a link to their press release from their Twitter account. This will help to attract more Twitter followers and more hits to your website.
* Make use of your press release headline. Incorporate keywords into the headline, but do not make the headline too wordy.
* Include images and/or video links within your press releases. This will enhance your search results. Remember to name each image or video with brief, descriptive text that includes your keywords.

Some online press releases distribution services include:
* PRWeb
* PR
* BusinessWire
* PRNewswire
* MarketWire
* NewsWireToday

Many Internet advertisers and publishers utilize pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to their websites. But, placing your bids and setting your PPC budget is not enough to drive traffic to your site. The ad copy must effectively convey your message, as well.

You do not have to be a Nobel Prize-winning author to write effective PPC ad copy. You simply need to follow soem basic rules, such as:

* Before you write your ad copy, first figure out which keywords you want to include in the text. Make sure you include the keywords in your headline and ad copy.

* Write multiple ads for each website and track the performance of each ad. You may be surprised which ads work the best.

* Try asking questions. A question is often a good way to get the prospect involved. Test questions such as: Is your website getting enough traffic? or ... Want to know the secret for closing more sales?

* Solve the consumers' problem with your ad text. How do you do that? Here are some examples: Can find the right Mother's Day gift? We have the perfect gift ideas for your mom.

* Remember to also consider how the consumer will benefit from visiting your websites. Will your products and services help them to save money, make money, pay off urgent expenses, raise brilliant children, etc.? COnsumers do not care so much about the product or service as much as they care about how they will benefit their life.

Try these PPC ad copy ideas. You will likely see an improvement in your results. As you become more adept at your PPC campaigns you will no doubt come up with other copy writing ideas that work well.

On November 29, 2011, Facebook and the FTC came to an agreement regarding how FB uses customer information.  A T3Leads article from several weeks ago outlined the issues.
https://www.t3leads.com/en/affiliate-articles/internet-marketing.html#ftc-and-facebook-near-agreement

The agreement includes a promise to get express permission from users’ before overriding their privacy settings and to disclose what information is shared with third parties. 
In its 2009 changes, facebook made public information that users had previously set to private, without getting their approval.  There was more:  According to Elinor Mills in an article for cnet, “Facebook also represented that third-party apps would have access only to user information that the app needed to operate when in fact the apps could access nearly all of the users' personal data. Also, Facebook told users they could restrict data sharing to certain groups of people, such as "Friends Only," but then allowed the information to be shared with third-party apps friends used.”

The settlement is far reaching.  FB is required to get user approval before changing the ways it shares information and prevents anyone from accessing content on a user’s account after the account has been deleted. 
FB must obtain independent bi-annual audits of its privacy practices for the next 20 years.  They are also creating two new corporate officer rules:  chief privacy officer of policy and chief privacy officer of products.
Issues of facial recognition technology were not addressed in the agreement.

"Recently, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission established agreements with Google and Twitter that are helping to shape new privacy standards for our industry," Marc Zuckerberg noted in his blog post. "For Facebook, this means we're making a clear and formal long-term commitment to do the things we've always tried to do and planned to keep doing -- giving you tools to control who can see your information and then making sure only those people you intend can see it," he said.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Google announced that Google Maps will show some interiors in addition to the exteriors it’s known for. 
“When you’re inside an airport, shopping mall or retail store, a common way to figure out where you are is to look for a freestanding map directory or ask an employee for help,” Google said via its Lat Log Blog. “With the release of Google Maps 6.0 for Android, that directory is brought to the palm of your hands, helping you determine where you are, what floor you’re on and where to go indoors.”
Android smartphone and tablet users can now view floor plans when they zoom in on a building where the indoor map info is available.  The “Blue dot” icon shows your location and changes when you go to a different floor.

The program will work in places like the Mall of America, some Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s and many airports.  The latest mobile software update is available for download from the Android Market for Android OS 2.1+ devices.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, American shoppers spent over $52 billion according to the National Retail Foundation.  A number of surveys show however that up to 29% of the spending was done with credit cards.  In fact, the percentage of black Friday shoppers who used credit cards last year was 16%; this year that number is estimated to be 27%.

A study conducted by America’s Research Group, ARG/UBS indicated that a number of customers plan on using their tax refunds to pay for the holidays.  Other parts of the survey showed that more people admitted they would exceed their holiday budgets this year over last.  (14% compared to 10%.)  And since, the number of people who will overspend their budgets will actually exceed those who will admit to it, the number will be even higher.

This is good news for retailers certainly, but it hints at a possible increased demand for payday loans in the next few months as well.

On November 30, 2011, YouTube replaced Insight with YouTube Analytics.  It will give more details about the audience and how they are interacting with the video.  Among others, the Analytics includes several new features to follow:  The quick overview provides a list of important reports.  Beyond that users can now filter reports by content, geography or dates; plus an interactive map that shows geographic audience distribution. 
“Audience Retention” which as formerly known as “Hot Spots” in Insight, measures an video’s ability to keep an audience.  It will tell you how users interact with your video and compare it to similar length videos as well. 
The “Traffic Sources Report” replaces Discovery and tells you how viewers found a particular video.  Did they come from YouTube search, Facebook, twitter, or other source?

All of which will comprise a better set of analytics than was in practice with Insight.

According to Trendrr, here are the TV programs we facebook-ed and tweeted about, etc.  The ratings are a compilation of comments on facebook, twitter, GetGlue and Miso.

The top 10 in cable for the week of Nov 14, 2011 through Nov 20, 2011 is as follows:
1.     WWE Raw – Overall activity: 761,784
2.    WWE Survivor Series – 496,766
3.    The Walking Dead – 418,697
4.    SpongeBob Square Pants – 359,232
5.    Bad Girls Club – 286,615
6.    South Park – 232,430
7.    American Horror Story – 208,492
8.    Love & Hip-Hop – 204,996
9.    WWE Smackdown! – 169,591
10.    Dexter – 144,364

The top 10 in broadcast for the same week is as follows:
1.     American Music Awards – 3,620,582
2.    The X Factor – 1,019,522
3.    Glee – 571,997
4.    CBS News:  South Carolina Republican Debate – 436,704
5.    The Family guy – 335,4444
6.    The Big Bang Theory – 321,498
7.    The Simpsons – 289,050
8.    Community – 205,550
9.    Dancing with the Stars – 206,648
10.    How I Met Your Mother – 198,173

Permits, the leading indicator of future construction, increased 11% in October 2011, compared to September 2011.  This is their highest level since March 2010.  But permits for what?  Multi-family units such as apartments.

This presents a clear picture of life in America in 2011.  The demand is increasing for rental properties.  Home foreclosures have forced many to rent, and many who already rent are too nervous to buy a home at this moment.  This creates a need for rental properties and thus the spike in permits.

Google is adding 24/7 phone support for its Google Apps for business products.  This is seen as a giant step forward in their attempt to chase Microsoft in this field.  Up to now, customers have been limited to email communications, except in critical issues.  Now all organizations using the Apps can access phone service.

There is no doubt that Google has quite the mountain to climb in its attempt to reach Microsoft, but this change is certainly a step in that direction.

In other Google news, they reached agreement with Universal Music Group to sell downloads from the world’s largest music library.  It had already reached agreement with EMI, Sony and Merlin Network.  They are now licensed to sell about 80% of the music that is actually available for sale today.  Google is poised to introduce a download store similar to Apple’s iTunes and Amazons’ MP3 store.

According to Experian, for the four weeks ending Nov 12, 2011 these are the search items we looked for the most (from 1-10):  facebook, youtube, craigslist, facebook.com, facebook login, yahoo, ebay, www.facebook.com, you tube, and finally mapquest.

For the week ending Nov 12, here are the items we looked for on YouTube (from1-10):  marie curie, jerry Sandusky, penn state scandal, daft punk, joe paterno, wwe the hardy boys, penn state, heavy d dead, videos de toros, veterans day videos.

When preparing your year-end taxes, here is a deduction to take advantage of.  Small business owners may deduct the full amount of new, used or leased equipment, rather than depreciate the expense over the course of a few years.  This includes but is not limited to computers, phone systems, furniture and software.  You may deduct up to $500,000.  In 2012 the deduction lowers to $125,000.

Low income families are getting aid to help them in the digital divide.  The FCC and companies such as Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Cable and others have created a program that will allow low income families to get online.  If you have a child in the National School Lunch Program, you will be eligible for largely discounted computer hardware, as well as internet access.

The plans will vary from provider to provider, but Comcast will offer the following:  Internet access will be $10 per month and you can buy a refurbished computer for $150.  In the case of Comcast, the $10 per month rate will apply as long as there is a child in the household eligible.

The FCC reports that 100 million Americans do not have in-home broadband access.  This program will not cure that, but they hope it will make a significant dent.  The overall goal is to help put an end to computer illiteracy.

According to The Wall Street Journal, CEO Mark Pincus and other Zynga Executives are demanding that employees return stock options in which they are not vested, or “face termination.”

It has been common practice for tech start-ups who were short on cash to offer employees stock options in place of higher salaries.  This scenario created the “Google chef” who pocketed $20 million when Google went public.

So now that Zynga is about to go public, the brass wants to control as many shares as they can for themselves.

So far one employee has left, but hired an attorney and settled with the firm, while another has also hired an attorney and remains working there.

According to TransUnion, The 60-day rate of delinquencies among homeowners rose from 5.82% to 5.88% in the third quarter, 2011.  This is the first rise in two years.  The lowest rate belongs to North Dakota and the highest rate belongs to Florida (14.08%.)

Credit card delinquencies rose for the fourth straight month.

After much federal scrutiny over bank loan foreclosure procedures, the rate of the first stage foreclosure process increased 7%, according a Los Angeles report.  Foreclosure actions were filed on 230,678 U.S. homes in October. This count includes the steps required for a lender to take back a home: sending a notice of default, filing the alert that a bank auction has been scheduled and repossessing the house.

The foreclosure crisis accelerated last month in California, with 55,312 homes receiving some kind of foreclosure filing last month.

The Stockton area led the pack nationally, with 1 out of every 143 homes in that hard-hit Central Valley region receiving a foreclosure filing.  The California city took over the #1 sport from Las Vegas, which had led in nation in foreclosures for 22 consecutive months.

Broadcast and Cable TV programming may seem passé to some, but viewers sure do love to talk about it on social media.  Trendrr is a company that measures specific TV activity on Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue and Miso.  Here’s what shows people were typing about the week of Oct 31 thru Nov 6:

The top 10 Most “talked” about Cable TV Shows:
1.    The Walking Dead, AMC
2.    WWE Raw, USA
3.    Bad Girls Club, Oxygen
4.    The Graham Norton Show, BBC America
5.    American Horror Story, F/X
6.    South Park, comedy Central
7.    Black Girls Rock, BET
8.    WWE Smackdown, SyFy
9.    Ghost Hunters, SyFy
10.    Dexter, Showtime

The Top 10 Most “talked” about Broadcast TV Shows
1.    The X Factor, Fox
2.    Glee, Fox
3.    Family guy, Fox
4.    The Vampire Diaries, CW
5.    The Big Bang Theory, CBS
6.    The Simpsons, Fox
7.    Dancing with the Stars, abc
8.    How I Met Your Mother, CBS
9.    Two and a Half Men, CBS
10.    Bones, Fox

We accept your thanks for providing your newest dinner table conversation topic.

The CFPB is the federal regulatory agency mandated by passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which was enacted in the wake of the nation's near-financial collapse.

The Disclosure of Records and Information Rules stipulate the CFPB will not "ordinarily" provide private information to private attorneys or litigants, even if subpoenaed for the information.

However ... the Rules does not prevent the CFPB from sharing this type of information with a number of federal and state agencies. These agencies include state attorneys general, state bank regulatory agencies, the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. banking agencies.

Therefore, those who believe they are submitting confidential information should be aware that their whistle-blowing comments may not end up in the hands of lawyers -- yet they may very well be viewed by any number of regulatory officials.

The online marketing company ValueClick Inc. has announced it has purchased San Francisco-based Greystripe Inc. for about $70 million. Greystripe operates a mobile advertising network.

The California-based ValueClick plans to use the purchase to give it clout in the U.S. mobile advertising market. Mobile ad volume is expected to skyrocket over the next two years, growing to a $2 billion industry. Greystripe's platform serves over 30 million mobile device users.

ValueClick's services include display advertising, affiliate marketing, ad serving and other Internet-related technologies.

Greystripe's staff is expected to remain intact.

Valueclick also reported it has repurchased about 2.2 million shares during the first quarter of 2011.

The British economy continues to sputter, and UK consumers are more eager than ever to seek unique resolutions to their money woes.

According to a recent online survey of over 1,000 Brits, 28 percent have thought about taking out a short-term/payday loans over the past 12 months to help resolve their urgent financial problems.

Another popular source for quick cash in Britain are the cash-for-gold websites. Some 34 percent of those who were studied said they had considered utilizing a cash-for-gold service.

Those percentages may be partially sparked by rising credit card debt. Of those surveyed, 14 percent said they have at least five credit cards; and 73 percent have at least two.

The research was conducted by CouponCroc.co.uk.

The "throttling" of web traffic has the European Union's (EU) Internet czar fuming.

Neelie Kroes, the EU commissioner of the digial agenda, has threatened to crack the whip on companies that unfairly “block or throttling” web traffic.

The EU wants to stop practices such as: when mobile-phone operators block customers from using alternative voice-over Internet services to place calls; or when Internet providers purposely slow down the quality of content such as video streaming provided by rival providers.

The European Commission is requesting that Internet regulators begin “a rigorous fact-finding exercise” into these questionable practices.

Kroes commented, “If I am not satisfied, I will not hesitate to come up with more stringent measures.” The Dutch political veteran added, “If this proves to be insufficient, I am ready to prohibit the blocking of lawful services or applications.”

Beginning May 25, regulators in the EU's member nations will be mandated to promote the ability of Internet users “to access and distribute information or run applications and services of their choice.”

The EU expects to publish the results of the investigation by the end of this year.

Google and the other search engines are constantly fiddling with their criteria. It's a shell game for Internet advertisers trying to figure out the secret formula for high search rankings.

There are several basics that web marketers need to follow that should help to keep your site relevent for Google, Yahoo!, Bing and the other search engines.

* Keep your web content current, fresh and constantly updated with new articles, videos and other content. If your site has been static for several months, then you run the risk of becoming invisible to the search engines.

* A good way to keep a good flow of new content is to add a blog to your site. Posting new entries once or twice a month will not only increase your site's content, but it may also generate comments from web visitors.

* Contact popular, relative websites and request request reciprocal links on each others' sites.

* Post comments on various blogs and include a link to your site.

* Name each page within your web site, and make sure the page names include key search terms.

* Be thorough with your website tags (this is the descriptions of your site).

* Name the images on your site. Search engines pick up on all text within your site, even image tags and descriptions.

* Streamline your site. If it containts too many elements that may slow down the load time, then your search engine rankings may suffer. It's good to have a functional site, but avoid adding excessive bells and whistles, unless they are necessary and helpful to the visitors' experience.

Most of these tasks can be accomplished without too much technical expertise. If you are still not receiving your desired rankings, then you may want to enlist the help of an SEO specialist.

Every business is looking for new business leads. And every business wants to find the best bang for the buck when it comes to their lead sources. It's tough to find a more effective form of advertising than pay per lead.

Pay per lead programs (especially highly effective ones such as those offered by T3LEADS) have become a preferred marketing tools for Internet advertisers. The primary benefit is that money is not wasted on "clicks" that do not result in any activity.

With pay per lead advertising, the burden is on the advertiser to create enticing web offers. Since the advertiser only pays a fee when a prospective customer is converted to an actual lead, then the fault lies primarily with the advertiser if website visitors are not converted. Basically, with pay per lead advertising, you want to be shelling out money to the lead generation company. That is an indication that your site is effectively enticing customers to take action. This is where pay per lead differs from pay per click. Pay per click advertising will charge the advertiser for every click-through from the search engine to the website. There is no guarantee the visitor will take any action, but the advertiser still incurs a charge.

When the Internet was in its infancy, it was difficult for a business to allocate resources toward Internet marketing ventures because there simply were not enough viable advertising options and clear evidence of their effectiveness. Banner ads were among the initial web-based advertising vehicles, but they often proved ineffective as a lead generation tool. Pay per click emerged as the first Internet-based advertising solution to show positive, trackable results for many online advertisers. PPC, along with its analytics, helped Google to become the 800-pound Internet advertising gorilla. But with PPC's success also came a ton of competition, which forced web marketers to seek more cost effective options.  

Pay per lead advertising is currently one of the more effective solutions for marketers looking to maximize their return on investment and utilize tools that provide thorough back-end tracking.

What are some other benefits of pay per lead advertising?
* PPL makes it simple to control your advertising budget, especially when the lead generation vendor provides customized tools that allow their advertisers to set daily or monthly expense caps.
* PPL generates pre-qualified leads because the advertisers know they are only paying for prospects interested in their product or service.
* PPL leads usually close at a higher rate than with other advertising vehicles, since the leads are clearly interested in the advertiser's products and they have taken the time to complete a form.
* PPL advertising vendors usually provide various cost levels, depending on the quality of the lead or the potential revenue of the lead. This further helps the advertisers to control their costs.

No business will grow without new business leads. That's an obvious fact. And in today's technology-driven environment, any business not taking advantage of Internet-based opportunities such as PPL advertising is going to be left in the dust by their competition.

Only a decade ago the term "affiliate marketing" had little or no meaning in the business world. Today affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing business segments in the world.

Clearly, the shift toward more Internet-based marketing had already begun at the turn of the century. But with the exception of those truly in the inner circle of the Internet revolution, few could have predicted the meteoric explosion of the affiliate marketing world.

Tools like email marketing, Youtube, social networking and mobile communication that are commonplace today barely existed 10 years ago. Today those are just some of the resources that are at the disposal of affiliate marketers. The ability to instantly communicate with current and prospective clients is more robust now than anyone could have anticipated.

Another aspect of affiliate marketing that has skyrocketed over the past decade is the ability for web publishers to segment to more specific audiences. Web publishers often produce multiple websites and blogs that geo-target specific market segments. Extremely user-friendly web design tools such as WordPress and others have opened the door to even the most novice Internet marketer.

As long as one is willing to put in the time and educate themself on the technology and their products, the sky is the limit when it comes to affiliate marketing.

As the electronic tools have grown in popularity, traditional advertising sources have by and large suffered. While it is still an effective way to drive traffic to a website, the high cost of broadcast media makes it a tough choice for the affiliate marketer. Print advertising has probably suffered worse than any other ad medium.

The most dramatic impact has probably been felt by the Yellow Pages directories. For decades, Yellow Pages were the primary source of new business for numerous industries. Search engines have nearly killed the industry, which has never really been able to find a niche on the Internet.

It will be interesting to see how many new and exciting directions the technological changes will take us over the next 10 years.

Time are tough in the UK -- and payday loans are playing a more important role than ever in help Brits cover urgent expenses.

Consider these facts:

* A 1 percent increase in employee contributions to National Insurance;
* A three year freeze in child benefits;
* Another 45 different tax increases and benefit cuts;
* The VAT increase to 20%;
* Wage freezes;
* Increasing food and fuel prices.

The list goes on, and at the risk of sound too negative, we'll stop there. The bottom line is more and more UK families are searching for ways to make it the next paycheck. A new poll shows a growing number of families who have not previously taken advantage of payday loans now say they need to consider these short-term loans to simply help pay off some bills.

Payday loans companies want to make it easy for their customers to pay for urgent expenses. They pride themselves on quick turn-around of applications and transmission of funds into customers' bank accounts. The speed and convenience provided by the payday loan industry -- especially the online lenders -- have made these loans a critical financial tool for many struggling consumers.

Roughly 8 percent of American families either do not qualify for or they choose not to utilize the services of a traditional bank account, according to the FDIC. There's another significant group of Americans -- those labeled as "underbanked." These consumers may have a bank account, but they often need to seek financial services outside the standard banking offerings in order to make ends meet. Some estimates show about 21 million Americans fall into the "underbanked" category.

So -- where does the underbanked consumer turn when they need an immediate influx of cash? Many traditional banks have implemented tougher lending approval rules, so underbanked consumers must often look elsewhere for quick loans and other types of financial services.

A study by First Research has revealed about 7,000 U.S. companies offer personal loans to consumers. This industry, which includes payday loan lenders and check cashing services, has a total annual revenue of about $180 billion. With the growth of Internet marketing technology and the tightening of rules in many states that govern these types of lending operations, a large percentage of Americans now seek personal loans online.

Another market segment experiencing significant growth is the prepaid card industry. These cards are similar to credit or debit cards, but they are pre-loaded with money to protect consumers from an over-draft situation.

Companies marketing pre-paid cards charge an activation fees ranging from as low as a couple dollars, to as much as $35. In addition, pre-paid card companies usually charge a monthly service fee.

The Credit Union National Association estimates by 2014 about $164 billion will be loaded onto prepaid cards. About 16 percent of the nation's underbanked families use prepaid debit cards.

Online advertisers will need to be on their best behavior.

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) is launching its Internet-based Advertising Accountability Program, which tracks the online advertising world to spot potential violations.

The self-regulatory online advertising principles mandate that companies provide “enhanced notice” to consumers and post an icon for interest-based ads that notifies consumers the website may be collecting their data. Consumers may click on the icon (which is a lower-case “i” surrounded by a triangle) for more information about the advertiser’s practices. Consumers may also opt-out of future targeted advertising through the site.

The CBBB will be carefully reviewing non-compliance reports for advertisers, and the agency will report non-compliance incidents to the government.

Companies that conduct Internet behavioral advertising need to be prepared for the beefed up monitoring effort. The CBBB program is partially designed to ward off government intrusion into Internet security matters.

The price tag to implement the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that manadates reforms of the nation's financial companies could be a staggering $1 billion, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO).

The GAO also estimates more than 2,000 employees will be needed to oversee the various programs mandated by Dodd-Frank.

There are 11 agencies chaged with implementing Dodd-Frank, including the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. These agencies reported to the GAO they would collectively need some $973 million to oversee Dodd-Frank's rules. Most of the expenses would be recurring costs, most of which will likely be funded by taxpayers.

One of the more controversial provision of the Dodd-Frank Act was the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB alone may require $329 million in funds in fiscal 2012 and more than 883 new employees, according to the GAO.

Republican legislators have recently proposed several changes to Dodd-Frank, partially in an attempt to control expenses associated with the law.

Can your website handle a massive spike in visitors and orders? If you are not sure, then you will need to perform a web load performance test.

Website load testing determines how your system will perform under both normal and peak load conditions. You need to determine the highest possible capacity your system can handle before it becomes over-loaded.

There are several tools available to help test your website's load performance. For example, Web Performance Load Tester™ claims to be able to determine precise quantity of visitors your website can handle. This service allows users to generate a test load from outside or within your network to determine its optimum performance.

These services may be able to provide reports and features that analyze your load performance tests. The better progams will also be able to run numerous concurrent tests based on various configurations.

It may be wise to research the market to find the best load performance product for your website's needs. 

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) advisor Elizabeth Warren has said over half of the agency's budget will be earmarked for supervising and enforcing consumer protection rules.

The CFPB, which was mandated by passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act, will officially open for operation in July, 2011. The mission of the agency is to develop consumer protection safeguards against questionable practices from financial services companies. The CFPB will ovesee firms with over $10 billion in assets, as well as non-bank entities such as payday loan lenders, mortgage companies, student loans services, etc.

"We will build a strong enforcement arm that will -- for the first time ever -- put significant federal resources behind ensuring compliance by non-bank financial companies," Warren said. "That is why we anticipate more than half our budget will be committed to establishing supervision and meaningful enforcement. We need to make sure that the non-bank companies, and also the largest banks, follow the rules."

Warren added, "We are committed to ensuring that all providers--including community banks, credit unions, large banks, non-bank mortgage lenders, and payday lenders -- must follow the rules for offering consumer financial products."

The "underbanked" service industry should continue to grow over the next two years, according to a recently released study conducted hy the Center fo Financial Services Innovation (CFSI).

The CFSI study attempted to examine the various financial products and services targeted toward the underbanked population. The report, the "Underbanked Industry Scan," collected information about specific products, providers and consumer demographics.

The findings include:
* The demand for underbanked services should increase over the next two years, so providers should plan to enhance their products to meet this demand.
* For-profit companies are more optimistic about the potential for growth and demand for underbanked financial services market than nonprofits.
* Over half of those surveyed expect competition to increase.

Underbanked consumers are typically defined as those with limited access to mainstream financial services such as banks. Therefore, they rely on alternative financial services such as payday loans, cheque cashers and pawnshops.

CFSI received 171 responses to their survey. Financial providers included in the study were banks, payday loan lenders, credit unions, prepaid providers, nonprofit providers, retail financial services outlets, check cashers and other industries catering to the underbanked population.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation is a leading authority on financial services for underbanked consumers.

A new report published by Formstack has revealed some eye-opening news about small businesses and Internet marketing.

Formstack's report, “How Small Businesses Are Engaging in E-commerce,” reveals that fewer than half of small businesses even have a website.

Although statistics show e-commerce sales continue to rise dramatically, many small businesses are significantly behind the curve.

The report shows that in 2009 only 45 percent of small businesses had a website. Apparently, many of these business owners -- some 41 percent -- do not believe they need a website because they are not interested in e-commerce. Another 19 percent say they do not have the financial resources; and 16 percent say they do not have the time to produce a website.

The report shows:

* Only 30 percent of the small businesses with a website are set up for e-commerce;
* Some 45 percent provide customer service through their website;
* Only 15 percent can schedule appointments through their site;
* Just 35 percent are set up to generate leads through their website; and
* Only 13 percent of the sites include a blog.

The future does not look much more promising. The report indicated a mere 17 percent of small business owners expect to enhance their website budgets; and only 15 percent plan to increase their email marketing budget.

Small businesses are also behind the times with the social media explosion. Just 13 percent expect to focus more on social media marketing. About 19 percent of small- to medium-sized businesses have used Twitter to market their company. Facebook is more popular for small busineses, with 48 percent utilizing Facebook.

Online affiliate marketing retailers have lost the battle against sales tax in Illinois.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has signed into law a measure that requires Internet retailers in the state to pay sales tax on affiliate marketing business.

Illinois is not the first state to tax online retailers. Colorado, North Carolina and Rhode Island have also enacted affiliate marketing sales tax laws. As numerous states continue to struggle with their budgets, more and more are looking into affiliate retailers as a source for additional tax revenue.

The California Legislature has introduced a similar measure, but Amazon.com has told the Golden State Board of Equalization it will pull the plug on its California affiliates if any sales tax bill is passed.

It is expected that the Illinois law could lead to an exodus of online retailers from the state. This, of course, would completely defeat the purpose of the affiliate marketing sales tax law.

When consumers are strapped for cash, there are several options they may consider to help resolve their financial problem. Two of the more popular quick-fix financial solutions are payday loans and pawnshops.

Short-term/payday loans:

* Payday loan applicants must provide proof of employment and they must earn a minimum monthly income to qualify. The specific requirements will vary, depending on the lenders. The borrower must also have a bank account for the money transfer. There are many payday loan stores, as well as numerous online payday loan services.

* As some states have passed laws making it difficult for payday loan stores to earn a profit, online cash advance websites have grown in popularity. The online payday services are also convenient for borrowers who need the money immediately and may not have access to transportation.

* Another benefit of the online payday transaction is that the loan is typically transmitted to the borrower's bank account within 24 hours.

* The loan amount will be exactly what the borrower requests, plus the finance charge, provided the lender approves the application.

* Payday loan borrowers are not required to put up any collateral in order to secure the loan.

* For both online and "bricks-and-mortar" payday loan stores, the loan must be paid off on the borrower's next payday.

* If the borrower is not able to repay the loan by the next payday, they may receive an extension.

Pawnshops:

* Most consumers have heard of pawnshops, but many are not clear on how they operate. Pawnshops -- like payday services -- provide loans to help resolve an immediate financial need. Pawnshop borrowers must put up something of value as collateral to receive the loan.

* Pawnshop loans are typically good for up to four months. When the borrower repays the loan the pawnshop releases the merchandise back to the customer. If the borrower does not repay the loan the pawnshop puts the collateral up for sale. When the item is put up for sale by the pawnshop, the price tag will be considerably greater than the loan amount.

* The pawnshop usually does not require proof of employment as a prerequisite for the loan. The loan is typically a conservative amount based on the value of the collateral. This protects the pawnshop's interest in case the loan is not repaid.

* The amount of the loan will be based on what the pawnshop owner decides to provide, based on the perceived value of the collateral merchandise.

* Pawnshops may provide an extension if the borrower is unable to pay off the loan.

* Pawnshops will usually offer an option to a loan -- they may allow the customer to simply sell their merchandise to them. In this case, the pawnshop will typically provide a larger sum of money to the customer than if the customer takes out a loan.

Dollar Financial Corp. has announced its purchase of Purpose U.K. Holdings Ltd. has been given the green light by the British Office of Fair Trading.

The acquisition will cost Dollar Financial $195 million. Purpose U.K. Holdings operates the online lender PaydayUK. The deal was initially unveiled in December, 2010.

Dollar Financial says it will combine cash and its recently expanded $200 million revolving credit facility to fund the purchase.

PaydayUK was launched in 2003 and provides short-term loans to U.K. resdents through the Internet and by telephone.

Dollar Financial, has more than 350 U.K. stores in Britian that provide payday loans and pawn loans. The company also buys gold and offers a check cashing service.

A proposal designed to limit the number of payday loans a Utah resident may obtain has been torpedoed in the state Legislature.

House Bill 113 (Daw) was defeated in the House Business and Labor Committee by a 9-4 vote. The bill would have mandated the creation of a state database of those who have an outstanding payday loan and those in default on a payday loan. Those on the list would have been disqualified from receiving additional short-term loans.

A spokesperson for the state's payday loan industry successfully argued the majority of payday customers repay the loan promptly and avoid getting caught in a "debt spiral." It was also agrued Utah payday lenders allow customers to make long-term, interest-free payments to pay off their debt.

Utah law allows payday loans to be rolled over for a maximum of 10 weeks. At that time the payday lender must put a stop to the interest build-up. State residents may, however, continue to apply for additional loans.

Google is reportedly mixing things up in an attempt to thwart search engine optimization (SEO) "cheaters." The search engine giant is apparently fed up with low quality websites that have figured out ways to appear high on the search rankings. In response, Google has juggled its secret formula in order to throw these sites for a loop.

A low quality site is considered one that does not offer useful information or services for the visitor, as it relates to the search. Oftentimes these sites were appearing high in Google rankings because they will loaded with ads. Others suspect Google is clamping down on websites believed to employ content farming in order to stockpile articles from freelancers. Sites that have been accused of content farming include the Huffington Post, Demand Media and Newegg. These sites have been accused of loading a lot of unoriginal content for the purpose of enhancing the Google ranking.

SEO specialists have long been in search of the magic Google formula in hopes of assuring themselves the highest possible search ranking. Google has always been extremely protective of its secret formula, and has frequently changed the various algorithms in order to throw SEO pros off their scent.

The most recent Google changes are expected to impact 11.8 percent of its search results.

The data has been crunched, and the results have been tabulated. How does the payday borrower data break down for gender, age, income, ethnicity, education and Internet use?

The study, published by online-payday-loans.org, analyzed traffic and visitor demographics data from third-party providers.

Check out the results:

Gender distribution: Most payday loan website visitors were women -- 67% female and 33% male.

Age distribution: Most visitors were 18-34 years of age, followed by those 35-49. The age breakdown was: 43% 18-34, 29% 35-49, 18% 50+ years of age.

Household income: Most visitors to the payday loan site that was analyzed had a household income over $30,000 a year. The household income distribution was: 44% $30-60k, 30% $60-100k, 19% $0-$30k per year.

Ethnicity: The ethnic distribution was: 63% caucasian, 26% African American, 9% Hispanic, 2% Asian.

Education: The household education level was: 49% college education, 44% no college, 7% grad school.

Internet usage: The majority of visitors to the payday loan provider studied were:

* female
* 18-34 years of age
* household income of $30-60k
* college educated

These figures contradict many critics' claims that payday loans are primarily purchased by low-income consumers.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has signed into law a bill that amends the allowable fees that may be charged by payday lenders. The measure, House Bill 455, also affords the state's payday lenders a three year extension so they may continue to conduct business in Mississippi. HB 455 takes effect January 1, 2012.

The law allowing payday lenders to operate in the state would have sunset in 2012 without passage of the legislation. Payday loan critics had lobbied lawmakers to let the law sunset and essentially kill the Mississippi payday loan industry.

Payday industry supporters argued not only does the industry provide some 3,000 job to state residents, but it provides an important, viable option to consumers in need of quick cash to resolve their pressing financial needs.

Sen. Walter Michel (R-Jackson), who serves on the Mississippi Senate Business and Financial Institutions Committee, said, "...it was the will of the Legislature that the consumers get reduced fees. The bill that was passed will enable about 3,000 jobs to remain intact."

HB 455 mandates that consumers must be provided up to 30 days to repay loans. The law caps fees at $20 for loans of between $100 and $250. For $251 to $500 loans, the fee will be $21.95 per $100. HB 455 also mandates a state hotline for consumers to lodge complaints with the state banking commission or the attorney general's office.

It is estimated the new law may reduce payday lender revenue by around 10 percent, and it could force some smaller payday lenders out of business.

One of the 11th-hour amendments added to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform act was a cap on debit card fees banks may charge merchants. The amendment has sparked a flurry of lobbying activity from banks and credit card companies.

The provision mandates that debit card swipe fees be "resonable and proportional" to underlying costs. Retailers had been calling for limits on these fees, which generate billions in revenue each year for banks.

“It is one of the most active lobbying efforts I have ever seen,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) commented.

Opponents of the debit card fee provision recently won a small victory when a bipartisan group of senators led by Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced a measure calling for a study of the impact of the swipe fee regulation, The bill calls for a two-year delay in the provision.

The American Bankers Association, one of the most active lobbying groups opposing the swipe fee provision, has dispatched nearly a thousand bankers to jawbone legislators in D.C. on how swipe fees will harm smaller banks, and that consumers will not benefits from the savings.

The Electronic Payments Coalition, a  consortium of trade groups and credit card companies, has also launched a very organized lobbying effort against the swipe fee cap.

The effort to protect the cap fee provision appears to be equally as aggressive. The Merchants Payments Coalition, which includes the National Retail Federation, the National Grocers Association and the National Association of Convenience Stores, are arguing that the fee protects consumers.

Payday loan lenders have spent a great deal of resources over the past several years defending their right to remain in business. Now a new report shows payday lenders are beefing up their federal lobbying efforts to protect their livelihood.

The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has reported payday lender lobbying expenditures have spiked, especially in the wake of passage of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.

CREW's study shows payday lender campaign donations rose 80 percent from 2006 through the 2010 midterm election cycles.

One payday loan industry trade association, Financial Service Centers of America, has announced it will be relocating to D.C. to keep closer tabs on legeislative activity.

There's no hiding the fact that the payday loan industry has been taking a bit of a beating lately. Several states have implemented caps on allowable annual interest rates, which has forced many payday lenders in those states either out of business or out of the country. In addition, those spearheading the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), including Obama-appointee Elizabeth Warren, are going to be looking for targets to justify their position.

But don't count out the payday loan industry.

Short-term loan opponents such as Warren may be eager to blast payday lenders by exposing the APR of their products. But it should be noted the CFPB will not have the authority to limit interest rates. In addition, it is clear payday loans are probably the best option for consumers who need a quick influx of cash and do not have other viable sources of revenue at their disposal.

By far, the biggest misconception about payday loans is regarding the interest rates. The typical fee on a two-week, $100 loan is around $15. Because it is a two-week loan, the minor $15 fee equates to a 391 percent annual interest rate. However, payday loans are not allowed to be rolled over for an entire year. Most states have limits on the number of permissible roll-overs. So, if the borrower pays off their short-term loan within the prescribed two-week term, the fee is really quite minor.

The primary sticking point for payday loan critics is the APR. But, how does the typical payday loan APR stack up compared with other similar fees? Check out this comparison:

* $100 payday advance with $15 fee = 391 percent APR;
* $100 bounced check with $48 NSF/merchant fees = 1,251 percent APR;
* $100 credit card balance with $26 late fee = 678 percent APR;
* $100 utility bill with $50 late/reconnect fees = 1,304 percent APR.

Consumers are always the best gauge of the value of a particular product or service. Certainly, the success of a product such as payday loans is partially a reflection of the economy. In a weak economy, consumers are going to need more financial assistance than they will in a strong economy. Overall, however, if a product or service makes sense to consumers, they will continue to buy. If the product or service is a bad deal, consumers will eventually shy away.

A closer look at the payday loan industry shows there is still significant consumer demand. Retail payday loan volume (data does not include online lenders) fell slightly, from $35 billion in 2008 to $30 billion in 2009. That's actually impressive, considering approximately 1,700 payday loan shops were forced to pull the plug on their operation. In addition, several of the top-earning payday lenders continued to see a strong increase in business volume. (Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard and Poor's.)

As banks remain strict about their lending rules and the nation continues to scratch-and-claw its way out of the recession, consumers will continue to seek options when they are in need of fast cash. Payday loan lenders fill a necessary niche in the financial services marketplace.

Below is a summary of the payday loan laws that exist in each U.S. state, plus the United Kingdom. This information was obtained from various websites on Feb. 9-10, 2011. Although we believe the information to be up-to-date at the time, we cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. We encourage you to conduct additional research for more information on payday loan laws.

(Sources: http://paydayloanlegislation.com, http://www.paydayloanadvances.co.uk/Regulatory_Bodies.asp, http://www.kxlf.com/news/payday-lenders-feel-effects-of-i-164-rate-cap-law/)

* Alabama: The permitted fee is 17.5% of the amount advanced. The permitted time period is a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500.00. No more than one rollover is allowed.

* Alaska: The permitted fee is $15 per $100 advanced plus a maximum $5.00 non-refundable origination fee. The permitted time period is a minimum of 14 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500.00. No more than two rollovers are allowed.

* Arizona: Payday loan lending businesses are now prohibited from operating in the state.

* Arkansas: Arkansas has specific payday advance laws. The Arkansas Attorney General is enforcing the state's 17% constitutional limit.

* California: The permitted fee is 15 % of the face amount of the payday loan amount. The permitted time period is a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $300.00. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Colorado: Colorado allows rates up to 20% of the first $300.00; 7.5% on any amount greater than $300. Maximum amount of a cash advance is $500. The permitted time period is a maximum of 40 days. Rollovers are limited to one.

* Connecticut: Connecticut does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation.

* Delaware: The interest rate is determined by the parties to the loan. The term of a payday loan is 59 days. Maximum amount of a cash advance is $500. Rollovers are limited to four.

* District of Columbia: In May 2008, the Washington D.C. City Council passed a 24% interest rate cap on small consumer loans. The law forced numerous payday loan stores out of business.

* Florida: 10% of the face amount of the payday loan plus a maximum $5 verification fee. The permitted time period is a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the cash advance is $500. There are no rollovers allowed.

* Georgia: In May 2004 the Georgia state Legislature passed a statute imposing stiff penalties for payday loan lending by non-banks and in-state banks. It also capped small consumer loans at Georgia's small loan usury rate of 60%. Payday loan lenders pulled out of the state of Georgia shortly after. However, many Georgia payday loan consumers continue to get access to payday loans via the Internet and payday loan call centers based in other states and offshore.

* Hawaii: allows fees up to 15% of the face amount of the cash advance. Maximum time period is 32 days. Maximum amount of the loan is $600. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Idaho: The maximum term of a payday loan is 30 days. Maximum amount of a cash advance is $1000.

* Illinois: The new law caps loans under $4k to a 99% Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and over $4k at 36% APR. The Illinois payday loan law goes into effect April 21, 2011.

An alternative product is permitted under the PLRA (Illinois Payday Loan Reform Act). This product will allow a fee of $15 per $100 loaned. This Illinois payday loan product is partnered with the Veritec state database.

* Indiana: Allows rate of 13% on loan amounts greater than $250, up to and including $400; and 10% on amounts greater than $400, up to and including $500. The minimum term is 14 days. Maximum amount of payday loan is $500 but cannot exceed 15% of the monthly gross income, including fees. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Iowa: Allows rates up to 15% of the payday loan amount on the 1st $100; 10% on subsequent $100 increments. Maximum term of 31 days. Maximum cash advance amount allowable is $500. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Kansas: Allows rates up to 15% of the payday loan amount. Minimum term of 7 days and a maximum term of 30 days. Maximum cash advance amount allowable is $500. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Kentucky: Allows up to $15 per $100 on face amount of check. Minimum term of 14 days and a maximum term of 60 days. Maximum cash advance amount allowable is $500. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Louisiana: Allows up to $16.75% of the face amount of check. Maximum term of 30 days. Maximum cash advance amount allowable is $350. Rollovers are prohibited (but can accept partial payment of 25% + fees and enter into a new agreement).

* Maine: Allows a $5 fee when the amount loaned does not exceed $75; $15 when the loan amount exceeds $75 but is less than $250; $25 when the loan amount is greater than $250. Term of loan is determined by the parties.

* Maryland: Maryland does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. The best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* Massachusetts: Massachusetts does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* Michigan: Allows a 15% fee on the first $100; 14% on the second $100; 13% on the third $100; 12% on the fourth $100; 11% on the fifth and sixth $100. The maximum permitted term is 31 days. The maximum amount of the advance is $600. Payday loan rollovers are not permitted. There is no mandated cooling off period. Regarding extended repayment options, customers are eligible for a plan if unable to pay the eighth loan with any licensee in any 12 month period; the lender must advise the borrower of repayment option when it is available. A Michigan industry-wide data base is mandated.

* Minnesota: Requires a scale of fees (e.g., on a payday loan between $50-$100, 10% of the loan + $5 administration fee). The maximum term of a payday loan is 30 days. Maximum cash advance amount is $350. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Mississippi: Permits a fee of 18 % of the face amount of the payday loan amount. The permitted time period is a maximum of 30 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $400.00. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Missouri: Total fees, including rollovers, cannot exceed 75% of the initial loan amount. The permitted time period is a minimum of 14 days and a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500.00. Rollovers are limited to 6, but the borrower must reduce the principal by at least 5% with each rollover.

* Montana: Initiative 164 was a ballot measure approved by Montana voters in November and placed limits on what certain lenders can charge, capping the rate at 36% for short-term "payday" loans. The law is expected to force payday lenders in Montana out of business.

* Nebraska: The allowable fee is $15 per $100 on the face amount of the payday loan. The permitted time period is a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500.00. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Nevada: The loan rate and time period are determined by the parties. The loan cannot exceed 25% of the borrower's expected monthly gross income. Extensions are permitted.

* New Hampshire: The state effectively prohibited the offering of the cash advance product when it imposed a 36% annual percentage rate cap on payday loans, resulting in an effective ban of the industry there.

* New Jersey: New Jersey does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* New Mexico: The rate of the loan is determined by the parties. Law prohibits renewals and rollovers of payday loans, requires automatic 130-day payment plans for those who cannot repay their payday loan on time, imposes a 10-day cooling off period before individuals can request another loan after being in a payment plan, adds new consumer rights signage in payday loan locations and requires that information be provided in Spanish.

* New York: The state does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* North Carolina: Payday loan laws expired in North Carolina in August of 2001. Payday loan lenders were offered the option of either becoming a licensed consumer finance lender and abiding by North Carolina usury laws or closing operations. North Carolina does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* North Dakota: The allowable rate of the payday loan is 20% of the amount borrowed. The maximum term of the loan is 60 days. The payday loan cannot exceed $500. Rollovers are limited to one at least 15 days.

* Oklahoma: The permissible fee is $15 per $100 advanced up to the first $300. The cash advance fee is $10 per $100 advanced in excess of $300. The permitted time period is a minimum of 12 days and a maximum of 45 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500. Rollovers are prohibited. Additionally, Oklahoma uses a state database.

* Oregon: The Oregon State Legislature passed a new law in 2007 that placed a 36% Annual Percentage Rate on small consumer loans. Virtually all the Oregon payday loan brick-n-mortars closed their doors as a result.

* Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* Rhode Island: Rhode Island does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* South Carolina: The allowable fee is 15 % of the face amount of the payday loan amount. The permitted time period is a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan is $550. Rollovers are prohibited.

* South Dakota: The interest rate is determined by the parties to the loan. The term of a payday loan is determined by the parties. Maximum amount of a cash advance is $500. Rollovers are limited to four.

* Tennessee: The allowable fee is 15% of the face amount of the payday loan amount or $30, whichever is less. The permitted time period is a maximum of 31 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Texas: Texas does have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. Texas payday loan statutes refer to a scale of fees. The minimum term is 7 days and the maximum is 31 days. Rollovers are limited. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* Utah: The interest rate is determined by the parties to the payday loan. The term of a payday loan is determined by the parties, as well. Maximum amount of a cash advance is not specified. Rollovers are limited to 12 weeks after the initial loan is made.

* Vermont: Vermont does not have specific payday loan safe-harbor legislation. At this time, the best approach is to offer payday loans via the Internet.

* Virginia: The state allows a fee of 15 % of the face amount of the payday loan amount. The permitted time period is a minimum of 7 days. The maximum amount of the payday loan allowable is $500. Rollovers are prohibited.

* Washington: You may only borrow a total of $700 or 30% of your gross monthly income, whichever is less. Your information will be registered in a state-wide database, ensuring that all payday lenders have the most up-to-date loan information. You may only take 8 payday loans per 12-month period. If you are unable to repay your loan before your loan is due, you may request an installment plan with no additional fees. If you currently have an installment plan you may not receive another loan. Lenders may not harass or intimidate when collecting a loan.

* West Virginia: The state attorney general is very aggressive in trying to stamp out payday loan; including payday loan Internet operators.

* Wisconsin: The interest rate is determined by the parties to the loan. The term of a payday loan is determined by the parties to the loan. Maximum amount of a cash advance is N/A. Rollovers are not limited.

* Wyoming: The allowable fee is $30 or 20% per month, whichever is greater, on the principal balance of the face amount of the check. The term of a payday loan is one calander month. There is no statutory cap on the amount of the cash advance. Rollovers are prohibited.

* UK payday loan laws: Few regulations exist in relation to payday loans in the UK.

In the UK, a consumer credit licence is issued by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The license is required by a company before it is permitted to offer payday loans. Otherwise, few regulations exist in relation to payday loans.

Even though relatively few regulations apply explicitly to UK payday loan providers, these companies are still required to abide by the same rules that apply to the advertising of other financial products. Most advertismenets offering loans must display the Annual Percentage Rate (APR). The APR must be clearly shown in an advertisement if:

* the advertisement makes comparisons with other financial products;
* the advertisement offers incentives such as cash-back or free gifts;
* the advertisement mentions poor credit history, arrears or county court judgements (CCJ) in its advertising pitch.
* there is a high APR.

In addition, the APR must be displayed more prominently and in larger type than the information about comparisons or incentives.

An Internet affiliate marketing network's reputation is a primary factor for affiliates in considering with which marketing companies to partner.

AffiliateBenchmarks, the research division of NETexponent, has released the results of its 2010 affiliate marketing survey. The results provide valuable information to Internet entrepreneurs involved in the affiliate marketing industry.

According to the study, commission rates continue to be a major factor in which online marketing networks are selected by an affiliate, but the reputation of a particular affiliate network is now more important than ever in determining one's choices. The report reveals 40 percent of the affiliates polled consider reputation one of the top three most important factors when deciding which program to join.

In addition, the report has revealed:

* “Free Shipping” remains the most effective consumer offer in helping to generate sales.

* Some 75 percent of the affiliates studied optimize their websites for better organic search engine rankings.

The 2010 AffiliateBenchmarks survey was broken out into separate categories: advertisers, agencies and affiliates. With over 10,000 responses, AffilaiteBenchmarks claims this year’s report is the largest most comprehensive research study of the affiliate industry ever.

The survey collected information on firsthand experiences in the affiliate marketing arena and was designed to help develop and evaluate marketing best practices.

AffiliateBenchmarks designs and executes affiliate marketing research with the purpose of increasing industry education and providing useful data and statistics to the affiliate community.

NETexponent is a full-service online performance marketing agency based in New York City.

The full report, which costs $299, is available through www.affiliatebenchmarks.com.

U.S. consumers are equally divided over their car insurance shopping preference. A recently released study shows about one-third of Americans prefer to purchase their auto insurance from a local agent; one-third want to shop online; and the other third can go either way.

The survey results reveal vastly different insurance shopping habits, depending on certain consumer characteristics:

1. Youthful operators versus experience drivers: Younger drivers are far more likely to shop for car insurance online. Over half of those 18-25 opt for the online experience; 30 percent of those surveyed between 26-40 prefer to shop online for car insurance; 27 percent of those between 41-50 years old prefer to shop online; and for those 51-60, about 30 percent say they will do their car insurance shopping online.

2. Homeowners versus renters: About 35 percent of those surveyed who rent their home say they will shop online for car insurance. Only 25 percent of consumers who are homeowners say they prefer to shop online. These results vary by location, since there are typically more renters in a more highly poplated metropolitan area. Also, since more renters fall into a younger demographic, that has an impact on the results, as well.

3. Married versus single: When comparing families against single consumers, 45 percent of the family shoppers opt for the local agent, and 37 percent of single motorists prefer to buy from a local agent. Age has an impact on this demographic group, as well.

The survey was conducted between October 2010 and December 2010. The survey was only offered online, which may have had an impact on the results.

Although the rate of online scams is going down, Internet merchants need to be more aware than ever because the crooks are getting more devious.

According to a survey released by CyberSource Corp., a subsidiary of Visa, scam artists have come up with more ways in which to disguise their schemes. These may include making smaller purchases that are not as apparent as larger buys.

In addition, more fraudulent transactions are coming internationally. Over 2% of all overseas orders turn out to be fraudulent, according to the study. With a high percentage -- about one-fifth -- of U.S. Internet merchant sales coming from outside the country, cyber-merchants must be careful to closely monitor the transactions.

On the positive side, the survey shows the overall percentage of cyber fraud has dropped for the second year in a row. In 2010, 0.9% ($600 million) of Internet sales were fake. That's a 25% drop from 2009, where 1.2% were fraudulent.

The decline in fraudulent transactions is partially due to merchants being more diligent. The percentage of retailer disputes increased, and they are winning a higher percentage of the disputes. According to the survey, merchants questioned 55% of all fraud-coded chargebacks in 2010 -- up from 53% in 2009. Merchants are winning some 41% of those disputes. The larger the merchant, the better their success rate in challenging potentially fraudulent orders. Merchants that sell between $5 million and $25 million in revenue boast a 79% success rate when disputing orders.

One of the challenges merchants face is that the fake orders are "cleaner" than they were in the past. According to the study, 52% of the merchants polled say it's tougher to spot fraudulent purchases because the perpetrators are hiding them better.

It is also difficult to weed out the fraud transactions from legitimate orders that were simply placed erroneously. The survey indicates these honest purchasing errors are also on the rise.

Research shows U.S. and Canadian merchants turned away 2.7% of their orders in 2010 due to suspicious activity -- a slight increase over 2009 rejections.

There seem to be no secret formulas for cracking down on fraudulent orders. Automated screening is simply not as effective as the more cumbersome manual reviews.

CyberSource conducted the study last fall by polling 334 online merchants.

One of the more amusing descriptions of affiliate marketing is that it is akin to having a sales force on steroids.

Many traditional advertisers and marketers invest mega-millions over many years in order to build their brand name and top-of-mind awarenss. Nowadays, if you are a skilled affiliate marketing network (i.e., T3LEADS.COM), you may be able to surpass your growth goals -- and bypass the multi-million-dollar investment it used to take for companies to become a major player in their industry.

If you are active in the affiliate marketing arena you know how it works: Affiliates are website publishers who enroll in a lead generation or customer acquisition program. The affiliate marketer adds a sign-up form to their website, and, through a variety of marketing tactics, generates interest in those products or services. Affiliate marketers can earn handsome royalties for generating these leads.

The most successful affiliate marketing networks not only entice thousands of publishers to market their products, but they find the most popular niches that are in high demand. For example, the struggling economy has created a sizeable market for products geared toward consumers looking to resolve their financial problems. Payday loans, for example, have exploded in popularity, as have the online payday loan affiliate networks.

In addition to the sheer volume of leads that can be generated by a solid affiliate network, this type of marketing offers entrepreneurs:

* the ability to utilize the affiliate network to help expand your brand name;
* greater exposure thanks to affiliate-run advertising campaigns such as pay-per-click and email marketing;
* an extensive network of online experts that can offer quality feedback and a flow of ideas that could greatly enhance your business;
* the ability to grow your business much quicker than you would using traditional marketing methods;and
* the ability to grow your business much more economically than you would using traditional marketing methods.

It's your choice -- would you prefer to grow your business by hiring a national sales force that you would have to pay a salary, benefits and commission; and spend considerable time hiring and training? Or, would you prefer to develop an affiliate marketing network that offers you a sizeable sales force at minimal time, resources and expense?

Payday loan lenders based in Montana may soon become extinct.

On Jan. 1, 2011, a new state law took effect after passage of Initiative-164 last November. The ballot measure mandates limits on what certain lenders can charge, capping the rate at 36% for short-term loans.

Several payday loan lenders in Montana have reported that I-164 spells doom for their business. Some payday lenders are simply collecting outstanding loans, but are not marketing for new customers. Reports also indicate that cash-strapped consumers are turning to other methods for finding quick cash, such as pawn shops or possibly online payday loan businesses.
 
Some proponents of I-164 believed the law would lead to an increase in business for payday lenders, because more consumers would be attracted to the lower interest rates. Those with that opinion did not take into account the cost of doing business for the payday lenders.

Needless to say, there will be many employees who worked for Montana payday loan firms who will be scrambling to find work in the near future.

Any Internet-related entrepreneur (publisher, blogger, merchant, etc.) relies heavily on their website(s) in order to effectively conduct business. If the website doesn't work properly, neither does your business.

That is why it is crucial for all Internet-based business persons to perform regular health checks on their websites.

First off, make sure you optimize your site for the highest possible performance. What does this entail? Site optimization encompasses your page layout and the way in which visitors may navigate through the site. If you have a lot of bells and whistles on your site, this may create problems for some potential customers. Even if your graphics and flash animation are compatible for all browsers, your visitors become frustrated if they have to wait for a photo or video to load.

You may want to weed out, combine or move your site codes to different domains. This could speed up the loading speed of each page. Look through your codes and see which ones may be adjusted for better performance.

How's your website's search function? Your website must be easily searched, especially if you have a content-rich site with numerous pages. If your visitors cannot find the page they are seeking, they will leave your site in a hurry. Plus, your organic search results will improve if more consumers are visiting multiple pages within your sites.

You should perform regular compression of all files on your sites. This will help to enhance your sites' performance.

Mobile technology is expanding seemingly every day. You should conduct frequent tests across various devices to make sure your site is operating properly on those devices. You may want to consult a savvy IT expert who is up-to-speed on all the latest mobile technology in order to assure compatibility with your website.

The House Financial Services Committee is distributing a 20-page document that details the committee's desire to “identify and remedy” the unintended consequences of the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul.

Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) is seeking comments on the document, which specifically targets the Volcker rule. This provision of Dodd-Frank limits proprietary trading by banks. The committee also plans to look into whether federal regulators will enforce margin and capital requirements on non-financial firms that use derivative contracts.

Nearly all House Republicans turned thumbs-down on Dodd-Frank. However, Republicans would have an almost unwinable battle if they push for legislative amendments to the Act, since Democrats still control the Senate, and President Obama is not likely to sign off on any significant changes to the law.

Bachus and his colleagues have been busy firing off letters to the federal agencies charged with implementing Dodd-Frank. The letters have expressed concern over proposed rules, they have requested documentation detailing the costs of contracts, staff and technology and they have questioned the authority of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was created by Dodd-Frank.

The Volcker rule, one of the primary targets of the Committee, is designed to limit the potential for banks to use their own capital for investments that may place their federally insured deposits at risk. Bachus wrote that the Volcker rule “may spark a mass exodus of clients from U.S. banks to banks based abroad."

In a Jan. 28, 2011 letter, Bachus and Representative Randy Neugebauer asked the regulators responsible for implementing Dodd-Frank, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, to provide a full account of their spending, hiring and contracting.

Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts (the "Frank" of the Dodd-Frank Act), who is the senior Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, has said Republicans are trying to “cripple regulation by failing to fund it.”

The committee's letter notes that it would like to review the appropriate role, if any, the federal government may have in the secondary mortgage market.

Some of the nation's largest retailers are beginning to delve heavily into the world of non-bank financial services.

Best Buy, Wal-Mart and K-Mart have begun tapping into this massive market. K-Mart is now testing the waters by offering check cashing, money transfer and pre-paid card services in its California, Illinois and Puerto Rico stores. It expects to expand these programs nationally later in the year. Best Buy now has in-store kiosks that provide a way for consumers without a checking account to pay their utility, cable and phone bills. Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart now has some 1,500 MoneyCenters handling about five million financial transactions a week.

These major retail operations are recognizing the opportunity to tap into the $320 billion non-banking financial services marketplace.

Studies show that some 30 million U.S. families do not have a bank account that they access on a regular basis. The vast majority of these consumers earn under $30,000 a year. Many of these consumers have relied on unsophisticated means to manage their finances. And, since about one-fifth of all Wal-Mart customers fall into that category, the giant retailer realized the potential for non-bank services.

Best Buy opened its bill-paying service in 2010 to cater to customers who are leery of banks. Many of these consumers still have services such as cell phones and utility bills that may now be paid through the Best Buy in-store kiosk.

K-Mart's check-cashing and pre-paid card services began as an off-shoot of its layaway program. Its customers could use the check-cashing service to transfer money to a pre-paid card. That card could then be used to pay for bills or other expenses.

Like the payday loan industry -- another non-bank financial service -- some consumer groups have criticized these types of products being offered by the giant retailers. The groups have expressed concern over potentially high fees. However, the average check-cashing fee is about 2-4 percent of the the check's value. And, that price appears to be going down, since a company the size of Wal-Mart is able to charge as little as $3 for its check-cashing or pre-paid card service.

The Dodd-Frank Act, the law that established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, partially to oversee the activities of non-bank financial companies, exempts retailers from regulatory oversight unless they are "large" players in the financial services market. It has yet to be determined what constitutes a "large" player.

All online publishers and merchants must stay abreast of rules and regulations impacting their business. These days the government is taking a more hands-on approach to Internet sales practices, so it is crucial for online vendors to maintain the highest degree of integrity.

Remember, there are still some consumers who do not have 100% trust when it comes to an online transaction. As an Internet merchant or publisher, you must work to gain the trust of your customers. That means following the highest level of ethical business principals.

Internet marketing experts recommend that all online advertisers and publishers:

* Seek legal advice when it comes to websites agreements, including sales contracts and agreements with other Internet vendors;
* Seek out organizations that will help you to stay up-to-date on the latest rule changes and laws impacting your online enterprise.

All Internet advertisers and publishers must include the following items on their website in order to illustrate their compliance with certain rules:

* Disclosures to consumers regarding their privacy, and the collection, sharing and storage of data;
* Disclusres to advertisers regarding the offer requirements and obligations;
* Disclosures detailing promotional site usage.

Information that must be included in a publisher's lead generation offer should include:

* If the consumer is going to receive lead generation offers from third party advertisers, inform the consumers that if they select offers of interest, they are free to complete the forms, provide additional personal information and agree to share their personal information with these parties. In exchange, let the consumers know they will receive additional information or services from these advertisers.

* What should be included in your privacy policy? It should detail your method of collecting, using and storing data. Make sure this information is easy to find on the registration page and written in consumer-friendly language. And if you make any changes to your privacy policy you need to promptly notify your customers. If the privacy policy is not on the form, there must be an easy-to-find link to open the privacy policy.

What should your data collection disclosure state?

* First off, any information that is shared with another advertiser or pre-populated in another form must be clearly explained. The consumer should be allowed to easily review and edit the data, and opt out of any offers  with any advertiser. The laws are strict now regarding the sharing of data with other publishers without the consumer's consent. You need to make your customers aware if you share their data with a third party. And, make sure your policy explains that you will not sell data the consumer has provided to other companies without the consumer’s knowledge or consent.

Email marketing agreements:

* Many publishers and advertisers use a third party vendor to manage and distribute their email list. Make sure you obtain a formal data licensing agreement from the email vendor(s). Make sure the vendors provide a mechanism for email recipients to easily remove these users from your lists.

Pre-selected offers:

* Some publishers may determine pre-selected offers to consumers, based on products or services already requested by the customer. Consumers must always be given an easy opt-out or "skip" choice for pre-selected offers. These pre-selected offers should be soft-sell advertisements. Consumers should never feel they are forced to select a certain offer in order to complete their requested application.

As we mentioned, all Internet advertisers and publishers should seek the advice of legal counsel when developing their privacy policy, the placement of the privacy statements on their site and the overall data sharing strategies.

President Barack Obama has signed into law the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA). The new law restricts "post-transaction third-party marketing," where a shopper's online purchasing information is passed from one merchant to another, who then uses that data to enroll the consumer in their programs, oftentimes without the consumer’s knowledge or consent.

The Act makes it unlawful for any Internet merchant to pass personal financial data -- credit card, debit card, bank account, financial account numbers or any other billing information -- to third party merchants for use in an Internet-based sale of goods or services from the post- transaction third party seller.

ROSCA was developed as a result of an investigation conducted by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Committee found hundreds of honest online retailers were sharing their billing, credit card and debit card information with third party sellers through the data pass process. Some third party sellers then offered consumers “memberships” which were cleverly disguised as part of the consumer’s initial purchase. The consumers were given a “negative option” where they could decline the membership after an initial trial period.  Following the free trial period consumers who did not cancel the membership were charged recurring fees.

The new law deems this practice to be a misleading sales tactic. According to the Act, “It shall be unlawful for any post-transaction third party seller to charge or attempt to charge any consumer’s credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account for any good or service sold in a transaction effected on the Internet, unless:

(1) before obtaining the consumer’s billing information, the post-transaction third party seller has clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the consumer all material terms of the transaction, including:

(A) a description of the goods or services being offered;
(B) the fact that the post-transaction third party seller is not affiliated with the initial merchant, which may include disclosure of the name of the post-transaction third party in a manner that clearly differentiates the post- transaction third party seller from the initial merchant; and
(C) the cost of such goods or services; and

(2) the post-transaction third party seller has received the express informed consent for the charge from the consumer whose credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account will be charged by:

(A) obtaining from the consumer—
(i) the full account number of the account to be charged; and
(ii) the consumer’s name and address and a means to contact the consumer; and
(B) requiring the consumer to perform an additional affirmative action, such as clicking on a confirmation button or checking a box that indicates the consumer’s consent to be charged the amount disclosed."

In addition, ROSCA makes it unlawful for any Internet merchant to pass personal financial data -- credit card, debit card, bank account, financial account numbers or any other billing information -- to third party merchants for use in an Internet-based sale of goods or services from the post- transaction third party seller.

The Act prohibits the practice of negative option marketing, unless the merchant:

(1) provides text that clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction before obtaining the consumer’s billing information;
(2) obtains a consumer’s express informed consent before charging the consumer for the transaction; and
(3) provides simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop any recurring charges.

Violations of ROSCA shall be treated as a violation of a rule under section 18 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 57a) regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices.

Regulators in Washington state have shut down the gift card program for payday loan giant Checkmate. Officials claim the program violates state consumer-protection laws.

The state enacted a new lending law in 2010 that permits major retailers such as Wall-Mart to sell $100 gift cards, which carry an annual percentage rate of 391%. Consumers have 15-45 days to pay back those loans.

The Checkmate gift card program began after the gift card law was passed. However, the state said the Checkmate gift card program is an attempt to find a loophole in the law limiting the sale of payday loans to eight per year, per person. Washington law also prevents a lender from giving a loan to anyone who owes more than $700 or 30% of their monthly income in payday debt.

Checkmate was accused of marketing the cards to customers who had reached their loan limit.

A deal is closer to reality between banks and the states over mortgage abuses.  According to reports the deal which could reach $25 billion, would give banks broader legal immunity from state lawsuits in exchange for re-financing “underwater loans,” those loans where more is owed than the value of the home.

 
The deal could finally provide some relief to the aching U.S. housing market.  The delay in getting this deal done was the banks’ unwillingness to settle without expanded legal immunity.  Now that that has been agreed to, the banks will refinance those persons who are current on their loans, but owe more than the home value.

This plan could bolster the efforts of the Obama administration to help those whose loans are owned by Freddie and Fannie Mac.

 
It is unclear at this time exactly how many homeowners could qualify under the proposed plan.

We are witnessing the near-death of certain occupations such as postal sorters and computer operators thanks to the explosion in automation and electronic communication. However, there is clearly no end in sight for the growth of e-commerce and many of its related industries.

What does the future hold in store for the Internet affiliate marketing industry?

As e-commerce expands, so will the opportunities for entrepreneurs who take the time to understand and invest wisely in affiliate marketing endeavors. However, as more and more publishers see success with their affiliate marketing programs, expect to see competition within each segment of the marketplace become more intense, as well. This is why it is incumbent for the affiliate marketer to take the profession seriously and to really know their craft.

On the flip side, more and more merchants are taking advantage of affiliate marketing in order to drive business to their websites. Many companies that once relied on the old bricks-and-mortar retail shop are testing the affiliate marketing waters, some with excellent results. Again, it will take more than just a half-hearted effort for merchants to make serious inroads in the affiliate marketing arena.

Affiliate marketing has exploded onto the business scene over the past few years. Thousands of merchants rely on affiliate marketing to drive their businesses. As online affiliate marketing continues to grow, consumers may begin to yearn for some of the old touchy-feely service they once received from the face-to-face salesperson. It may become vital for merchants to devise more service-oriented wrinkles in order to woo these consumers.

The government has thus far taken a fairly hands-off approach to the Internet, allowing web-based business to thrive without the fear of over-reglation. But there are factions within the government that would prefer to see greater control with regard to segments of the Internet world, such as unregulated financial services. Passage of the Restore Online Confidence Act, which cracks the whip on third-party vendors who enroll consumers in programs without their knowledge, is a sign that Internet marketers must be honest and reputable with their sales strategies -- or the entire industry will suffer the consequences.

How will affiliate marketing entrepreneurs be able to find the right niches? They should pay close attention to the economic trends impacting the nation. For example, the recession and the resulting financial strain felt by many Americans has led to a major spike in online products such as payday loans. A greater percentage of consumers simply need a quick fix to resolve their financial problems. Other trends worth watching include the topsy-turvy healthcare landscape, insurance shopping, the ever-changing telecommunications industry, etc.

Another factor that has led to the rise in affiliate marketers is the desire for many employees to work from home. The ability to set your own schedule, avoid rush hour traffic and become more involved in family activities are among the many appealing reasons why this industry is booming -- and will continue to grow. And, as smartphones and other forms of communication become even more immediate and user-friendly, it will just become more efficient for one to operate a home-based business such as an affiliate marketing enterprise.

And finally, here's possibly the most compelling reason why affiliate marketing will continue to explode: Internet marketing vendors are learning their craft and are providing value-added benefits that make easier than ever to succeed as an affiliate marketer. The trick is to find the highly successful vendors (i.e., T3LEADS!). Many of these companies have developed simple turn-key programs for affiliates and merchants -- and they continue to devise services designed to enhance the affiliate marketer's experience.

It may be a reflection on the weak economy...maybe it is due to word of mouth and successful marketing...but the UK payday loan industry is soaring.

The number of consumers receiving UK payday loans has skyrocketed by 241% during the last four years. In 2006 1.2 million Brits took out payday loans; in 2010 that number is expected to hit 4.1 million.

Research shows UK payday loan recipients are typically repeat customers. Each customer typically takes out 3.5 loans a year. The average size of a payday loan in 2010 was approximately £294.

Experts have seen a particularly noticeable jump in UK payday loans over the last half of 2010, and they speculate the industry growth is in large part a result of the down economy.

One of the primary goals for every Internet marketer is to conquer the search engine optimization game. As we enter 2011, one thing we do know is that the world of SEO is constantly changing, and major players such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., seem to be adjusting and re-adjusting their business plans on a consistent basis. Therefore, how can you be assured your site will land on page one?

Here are the several SEO tips for elevating your search engine status.

1. Determine objectives:
What are your business needs? Do you need to attract gobs of customers, or just a couple major clients? What product(s) are your top sales priorities? Do you have a loss-leader you want to push? What action(s) do you want your site visitors to take? All these questions will help to determine your SEO plan.

2. Analytics:
You will want to add Google Analytics or other analytic tools to each page within your site. This way you will be able to determine the keywords that are driving visitors to your site, as well as other valuable data.

3. Research Keywords:
There are numerous tools to help you find the most effective keywords for the SEO of your site. Of course, the most common is Google AdWords, which will reveal how frequently keywords are searched and the level of competition for each keyword. Adwords will also provide suggestions on related keywords that may not have occurred to you. Although Google offers the free tool to sell pay-per-click advertising, it is a helpful way to determine organic keywords, as well.

You need to be somewhat selective with your keywords. Search engines may ignore your site if they determine you've gone overboard with your keywords (i.e., using one page solely to list a scroll of keywords). Check out some additional keyword suggestions:
   
* Include keywords in each page's HTML title tag. This is a high priority for search engines in determining a page's relevancy to a specific search.
* Use your keywords early and often throughout your site's text.
* Add links between your site pages, and name the links. Do not simply write "click here."
* Include keywords in to your site's URLs.
* Don't pay much attention to HTML meta tags. Some search engines, including Google, do not rank according to  meta tags in web search ranking.
* Do not duplicate your content on multiple pages; and do not point multiple URLs to the same page. This may hurt your SEO rankings.

4. Seek out endorsements:
Contact popular bloggers and request a review or endorsement of your site. Many top bloggers will offer paid reviews, and will include a link to your site from their blog. The more current, edgy and informative your site, the more eager bloggers will be to write about it.

5. Utilize social networks:
Post comments and information on your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages. This will generate more site visits and will enhance your SEO rankings.

6. Press releases:
Another way to enhance your visibility to the search engines is by distributing press releases regarding your products and services. The topics can range from new products, enhancements to products, personnel changes, conferences and conventions you are attending, speeches you are presenting, articles you have written, etc.  There are several press release websites that will distribute your information and provide analytics about each release.

7. Links to other sites:
Locate other sites that are compatible with yours and post links to those sites. Contact those sites and ask them to post a link to your site, as well. This is an excellent way to improve your SEO rankings.

8. Ease up on the flash animation:
Search engines still have a difficult time indexing non-text content such as Flash animation. If you rely too heavily on these types of graphics, you may want to scale back and incorporate more pure text into your site.

9. Take advantage of text browsers:
You may feel like a dinosaur, but text browsers such as Lynx and SEO Browser will enable you to see how search engines view your site. This might help you to make adjustments to your site and improve your SEO rankings.

10. XML sitemaps:
If you send an XML sitemap to various search engines, it will help them to determine the bots you want them to index.

11. Constant analysis:
Remember, you are likely competing with numerous companies in the same business category, who may all be very diligent with their SEO progam. Search engine optimization is an ongoing process that will require frequent monitoring and adjustments. Stay informed on the latest news, techniques and opportunities that will help you to achieve your goals.

Is article marketing being pushed aside by online marketers utilizing video tools such as YouTube.com?

Professionally produced videos with plenty of backlinks and tags are becoming an excellent way for Internet marketers to generate website traffic. Certainly, an entertaining or enlightening video will help to capture the attention of website visitors -- probably as much are moreso than any article, no matter how well written, timely or hard-hitting the blog.

But videos and articles should be used to complement each other -- not replace one another. For every informative article written, marketers should be contemplating how to produce a video that will complement the article. Article writers and bloggers continue to generate massive website traffic and they are a major source of leads for affiliate marketers. And, when articles are linked to social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, publishers can signficantly enhance their readership.

There is no doubt Internet marketing trends continue to evolve at warp speed. Google and other search engines are forever amending their algorithms and philosophy, making it a consistent challenge for Internet marketers to keep pace. But for the time being, and at least the near future, there are several article marketing techniques that will likely help to elevate the effectiveness of your articles, blogs and newsletters.

1. As we mentioned, producing a video or podcast will help to draw attention to your articles. Post the videos on YouTube and/or your website, with backlinks to your articles on the same subject matter.

2. Become an affiliate marketer. Depending on your subject matter, there are scores of potential Internet affiliate marketing companies (i.e., T3leads.com) that may welcome you as one of their affiliates. Your blog readers can not only become informed on various products and services related to your blog topics, but your readers may become valuable leads for affiliate marketing companies.

3. Utilize Internet press release services to expand the reach of your articles.

4. Blog every day. If you can't find the time to write every day, then blog at least several times per week.

5. Post your blogs/articles on social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.).

6. Conduct surveys. Polling your readers will encourage more comments and interaction, thus generating more visitors.

7. Write educational programs. Develop a series of informative seminars that you can extend over several weeks or months. Select course material with which you are most familiar (after all, you want to show you are the expert on the subject matter, right?).

8. Turn your expertise into an online e-zine. E-zines do not have to be too extensive. You can email your e-zine to a targeted list, and include links to your blog/online articles.

9. Create a directory of products and services related to your blog's subject matter. Many publishers will collect fees to write reviews for products or services, or to include a link or banner ad on the blog page.

Article marketing continues to be an excellent way for online entrepreneurs to generate income. But, it continues to evolve and bloggers must incorporate additional online marketing tactics in order to remain successful.

Affiliate marketers are under attack in some states.

New York is one state that has been aggressively pursuing tax revenue from affiliate marketers with a physical presence in that state.

Marketing organizations include the Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA) are waging battle on behalf of the online retailers. PMA is opposed to state tax collection based on affiliate marketer location. PIA recently announced its support for a pending New York Supreme Court lawsuit filed by Amazon.com and Overstock.com. The suit challenges the Empire State's requirement for online retailers to pay taxes if they have marketing affiliates in New York.

In May, 2008, New York enacted a state law affecting third-party sites that run retail offers. The case was first heard in a New York trial court, where the law was upheld.

Other states, including Rhode Island and most recently North Carolina, have followed New York's lead and have enacted "copy-cat" laws. Other states that could follow include Hawaii, California and Maine.

According to the state laws, they are mandating sales tax on affiliate marketers when they have a physical presence in the state. An affiliate is any party earning a commission or a referral fee for the sale of products or services.

Based on 2008 national online sales estimates of $204 billion, some $3 billion in sales tax revenue is at stake, according to Forrester Research. Since New York and Rhode Island implemented their affiliate sales tax laws many online retailers have cut or dropped their affiliate marketing programs.

Some 200 New York merchants have reportedly eliminated their affiliate programs, potentially impacting approximately 15,000 affiliate marketers in the state.

Overstock.com estimates only about 3% to 5% of their business is generated by affiliates. But the company is waging battle on behalf of the entire industry. A company spokesman commented that should all states implement a New York-type tax law, the result could wipe out the affiliate marketing community in the U.S. and drive those businesses to other countries.

There are numerous reasons why a potential borrower may be turned down for their loan request. Obviously, weak credit is often one of the primary factors, but we've compiled the following list that could help borrowers understand how they can qualify for a loan.

As banks' debt problems have grown, they have become more choosy about which borrowers to approve. The UK's largest credit card company, Barclaycard, has reported its bad debts have recently risen by a third.

1. You haven't borrowed any money: Many lenders prefer borrower with some sort of history in repaying debts promplty. Consumers can build a credit rating by purchasing a minor item on credit -- maybe a laptop or a small television -- and paying it off on time.

2. You're not in the lender's target market: Sometimes a lender may target a specific age, gender, geographic or sociographic group. For example, some lenders may seek younger customers. Others may be looking for more women. Therefore, the loan rejection may have little to do with the actual credit score.

3. Credit report searches: If a consumer's credit score is frequently run for any number of reasons, a lender may believe the prospective borrower is accumulating too much debt over a short time frame.

4. Black marks on your financial record: If the customer incurred several late payments...if there has been a court judgment against the borrower...if there are bankruptcies on their record...These are all potentially damaging items hampering the chances of obtaining a loan. One way to possibly overcome these blemishes is through strong credit references. They may be able to provide solid explanations for a temporary credit problem.

5. Are you in the electoral register? Some lenders will check the electoral register to verify an applicant's address and other information. If the customer is not registered, that may lead to a loan rejection. This is easily fixed. Simply register as soon as possible.

So -- you've heard that blogging has become an effective revenue-generating concept for many tech-savvy, entrepreneurial individuals. There are many successful bloggers who work with T3leads.com, writing about topics such as payday loans.

You want to jump on the bandwagon. Obviously, not every blogger is making a fortune. And, there are thousands and thousands of blogs throughout the Internet universe. How can you make your blog stand out from the crowd?

1. Content is king. First and foremost, you must be a decent writer -- and you must love to write. Many highly successful bloggers have the resources to outsource the writing duties. But when you are just getting started you will have to sharpen your pencil (metaphorically, of course) and churn out the articles yourself.

2. Be specific -- but not too specific. Come up with subject matter that is fairly specific but not too minute that it will not interest enough readers. For example, blogs on politics, sports, entertainment and technology are good generic yet specific topics that attract many, many bloggers. But a blog on teen idol Miley Cyrus may be popular now, but it could be too specific and may be out-dated in two years.

3. Keep it fresh. No one wants to read old articles. That 2007 political opinion piece on George Bush's Middle East policies should not be the most recent blog posting. The more current and topical the blog postings, the more likely you will spark comments and feedback.

4. Can you do it every day? If you are too busy to update your blog on a daily basis, then you will not be able to keep pace with the successful bloggers. You will encourage more repeat visitors if they see you are posting on a consistent, frequent basis.

5. Keep the reader amused. Incorporate as many graphics and visual elements as possible. Post images relative to your content. Enhance the blogs with video links. In other words, entertain your readers.

Of course, there is a lot more to successful blogging than just these five pointers. Read up as much as you can to make yourself an expert on blogging and on your particular area of expertise.

Supporters of payday loans -- including the many affiliates and merchants participating in T3leads' lead generation programs -- tout the service as an important tool needed by millions of consumers in need of quick cash for life's emergencies. But these businesses sometimes must overcome negative press regarding the value of payday loans.

Myth #1: Payday loans are expensive and have high annual interest rates.

In reality: Payday loans are two-week loans. They are not intended to be annual loans. Industry critics quote payday loans' high annual percentage rate, but this misrepresents the truth about payday loans. A typical fee charged by payday lenders is approximately 15 percent for a two-week loan. Interest rates will only approach the highest potential levels if the two-week loan is rolled over for a full year. This would mean the loan is rolled over 26 times. This is extremely rare, as many states restrict the number of permissible rollovers.

Myth #2: Payday loans lead to a “cycle of debt."

In reality: Thanks to restrictions on the number of permitted rollovers in many states, most loans cannot be outstanding for longer than eight weeks.

Myth #3: Payday lenders take advantage of poor consumers, senior citizens and minorities.

In reality: The average payday advance customers are typically hard working, middle-class adults who simply do not have enough savings or access to quick cash when they are hit with unexpected emergencies.

According to the Credit Research Center at Georgetown University:
* Most payday advance customers earn between $25,000 and $50,000 a year;
* Sixty-eight percent of payday customers are under 45 years old, and only four percent are over 65;
* Ninety-four percent of payday advance customers have a high school diploma or better, and 56 percent have at least some college education;
* Forty-two percent own a own home;
* Most payday loan customers are married, and 64 percent have children in the home;
* One hundred percent are required to have a steady income and an active checking account in order to qualify for the payday advance loan.

Myth #4: High payday loan fees lead to massive profits for lenders.

In reality: Short-term, low dollar loans are very expensive to administer, which is why most banks no longer offer them. In addition, payday lenders incur the costs of running a business, such as salaries, benefits and other overhead.

Myth #5: Payday lenders want to avoid regulations.

In reality: The payday loan industry is currently regulated in 34 states, and the Community Financial Services Association (CFSA) is pushing for industry regulations in all 50 states. Payday lenders do not want to be over-regulated to the point where they cannot stay in business, but the industry has always supported fair regulations that protect both consumers and lenders.

Myth #6: Many payday loan customers cannot afford to pay back their loan in a timely manner.

In reality: The vast majority of payday lenders have underwriting criteria, and all lenders require customers to have a steady income stream and a checking account. The fact is, over 90 percent of payday loans are repaid when due.

Myth #7: The payday lending industry has exploded due to aggressive marketing tactics.

In reality: No product or service would grow without consumer demand. As more consumers must seek remedies to their urgent financial matters, products such as payday advances have become an appealing option.

Myth #8: Payday lending fees are misleading.

In reality: The Truth in Lending Act mandates that the terms of the loan are clearly outlined in the lending agreement. Payday loans charge single, flat fees, with no hidden charges, balloon payments or accrued interest. A recent poll revealed 96 percent of payday loan customers said they understood the finance charge agreement.

Myth #9: Consumers are better off without the option of acquiring payday loans.

In reality: Supply-and-demand economics dictates that when consumers demand products companies will create a supply for that product. In other words, if consumers don’t want to take out payday loans, the demand for the product will slow. However, the opposite is true. Demand for payday loan advances continues to rise.

The bottom line -- payday loans are an important product offered to a vast array of consumers from all walks of life in order to help them overcome short-term financial problems.

Ever since the recession hit the U.S. economy in 2008, many consumers have been forced to cut corners and to come up with creative ways to deal with financial problems. Not only is unemployment hovering at a high rate, but many consumers have been forced to accept lower-paying jobs, while others have simply given up on their job search.

Of course, just because many Americans are earning less, this doesn't mean unexpected expenses stop occurring. The car breaks down. The washing machine hose bursts. The dog is bit by a rattlesnake. Your child is injured. Stuff happens, whether or not your income is substantial enough to cover the expense of life's little surprises.

These are the reasons for the surge in popularity of payday loans. Oftentimes consumers need cash fast. They don't have time to go through the lengthy bank loan process. They may not be able to rely on family members or close friends for a quick loan. No one wants to be in a situation where they are forced to borrow money. But when cash is needed immediately, payday loans can be one of the best ways to relieve a stressful situation.

One of the top advantages of payday loans is their speed. Once approved, money can be instantly transferred to your bank account. Online payday loan providers can offer even greater speed, since the loan process is all electronic and they often do not require faxing or credit checks. So if your credit card has reached its limit; your checking account is depleted; and your payday is still several days away...faxless payday loans may be the best option to take care of your pressing money needs.

Not every U.S. industry is hurting from the recession. The U.S. Internet advertising industry has shattered its record for revenue generated in one quarter, as it hit the $6.4 billion mark in the third quarter of 2010. That represents a 17% increase over the same period in 2009.

The ad revenue figures were released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC U.S.

The IAB sponsors the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by the New Media Group of PwC. The results are considered among the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues because the data is compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The sales data includes online advertising revenues from web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers and all other companies selling online advertising. The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters.

How does the Internet compare with other advetising media? Experts had predicted that national newspapers' ad revenue will decline between 10.7 and 11.2 percent in 2010. Newspaper ad revenue fell 26 percent in 2009.

This year national TV ad revenue was expected to grow 6.2 percent, to $35.3 billion. In 2009, TV ad revenue fell 3.6 percent from 2008, but Olympic ad revenue in '08 gave the TV ad industry a sizeable sales injection.

PwC firms provide industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 460 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States.

President Obama wants to clamp down on Internet privacy violations by creating a new government oversight department, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ is also reporting the White House has asked the Commerce Department to develop suggestions for new laws that would tighten Internet data security. The Commerce Department recommendations are reportedly in draft form right now. The final report is due some time near the beginning of the year.

The President has appointed a task force charged with implementing the Commerce Department recommendations. The task force is spearheaded by Cameron Kerry, brother of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. A new federal position would be created to run the Internet privacy protection unit.

It was announced recently that the European Union is also looking to implement greater controls over how personal information is protected on the Internet.

Web-based businesses will likely fight such regulatory restrictions. According to the WSJ article, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) believes the onlne industry is already doing an adequate job policing privacy-related matters.

Congress has been looking into Internet privacy matters, dating as far back as 1999. Several measures have been introduced that would crack the whip on how online data is collected and protected. Those proposals have been opposed by privacy groups for not being tough enough; and by the IAB and other Internet organizations for being unnecessary or too broad.

The Federal Trade Commission has been developing its own recommendations concerning the potential regulation of Internet businesses. Once finalized, the report will be presented to Congress.

The new Illinois payday loan law has taken effect as of March 1, 2011. The law mandates a cap on the allowable interest lenders may charge for payday loans.

The Illinois law states lenders offering loans with terms of six months or less may not charge rates greater than $15.50 per $100 borrowed every two weeks. In addition, the law mandates borrowers must be completely paid off within 180 days; and balloon payments are outlawed, as well.

There's more. Lenders must restrict loan repayments to a maximum of 25% of a borrowers gross monthly income. Post-default interest is prohibited, as are fees for attorney's fees and other court costs associated with recovering outstanding payday loans.

The number of auto loan customers with questionable credit is on the rise, according to Experian Automotive.

Experian's fourth quarter 2010 review of the auto finance industry also showed 30- and 60-day auto loan delinquencies had dropped significantly.

The number of auto loans that were delinquent by 30 days or more fell from 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 2.98 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Auto loans that were late by 60 days or more dropped from 0.94 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 0.79 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Borrowers with weak credit found more lenders willing to appove their auto loan in the fourth quarter of 2010. Loans for car buyers with poor credit scores rose from 36.42 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 38.42 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. In the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008, approximately 42 percent of the car buyers with weak credit were approved for a loan.

The average acceptable credit score for a new car loan in the fourth quarter dropped from 775 to 767, compared with the fourth quarter of the prior year. In the fourth quarter, the average new vehicle auto loan was $25,789, and $16,992 for a used vehicle.

The nation's economy may still be in the dumps, but there is at least one position that is experiencing a significant spike in its average annual income. We're referring to search engine optimization (SEO) specialists.

The personnel recruiting firm Crandall Associates is reporting the starting salary for SEO managers has risen by 17.5 percent in the past year.

The report shows the base salary for an SEO specialist is now $59,000 a year. Just last year a new SEO specialist earned an average of $50,300 a year. The average salary for an SEO specialist is now $75,000 -- a $1,500 per year increase over 2010 figures. The high-end salary for this position is $87,300, a jump of $1,800 over 2010.

The job description for an SEO specialist:  one who is responsible for improving the company's web sites rankings, using a variety of strategies and techniques.

Crandall's "Online Marketing Salary Guide" includes average salary ranges for 21 Internet-related positions. The salary jump for SEO specialists topped the list, but several other positions are seeing a rise in the average annual income, as well:

Avg. annual salary/2010/2011/Year-over-year change (%)

VP, e-commerce  $155,700  $155,900  0.1%
Director, Internet marketing  $100,500  $101,200  0.7%
Director, interactive creative  $99,600  $100,300  0.7%
Manager, Web marketing  $79,100  $80,300  1.5%
Manager, Internet marketing  $78,700  $79,700  1.3%
Web analytics manager  $76,100  $78,200  2.8%
Digital media buyer  $76,300  $76,400  0.1%
SEO specialist  $74,900  $75,000  0.1%
Manager, e-mail marketing  $73,500  $73,800  0.4%
Interactive copywriter  $70,600  $72,400  2.5%
SEM analyst  $67,100  $67,800  1.0%
SEO analyst  $66,500  $66,900  0.6%
Affiliate manager, online marketing  $66,200  $66,500  0.5%
Digital media planner  $64,300  $64,500  0.3%
Director, interactive art  $63,300  $63,500  0.3%

A Florida woman has been arrested and charged with swiping almost $26,000 from a payday loan store in Ocala. The woman was charged with grand theft on March 1.

Police believe the woman, Bonita Wilhelm, stole cash from Fast Payday Loans on numerous occasions between June 2010 and January 2011. Wilhelm, an employee of the store, allegedly took customers' money but failed to document the payment.

Store managers caught the discrepancy during an audit.

Wilhelm denies stealing the money.

There is another "British invasion" taking place -- but this time the invasion is coming from the U.S., to the UK -- and the invasion has nothing to do with pop music.
 
As several U.S. states have clamped down on payday loan lenders, implementing legislation that makes it nearly impossible to for the businesses to stay afloat, more and more payday loan lenders are crossing the Atlantic and setting up shop in the United Kingdom.

It has been reported that some U.S. payday lenders are planning a major expansion of their operation in the UK. The British payday loan industry is largely unregulated, and with the British economy still reeling from a recession, many UK residents are seeking payday loans as a solution to some of their short-term financial problems.

In recent years UK payday lenders have filled a significant gap in the marketplace, as banks have typically denied overdraft protection to those with questionable credit ratings.

Some 15 U.S. states have either banned payday loan operations, or they have enacted severe restriction that make it nearly impossible for these firms to remain in business. As more states investigate similar legislation, we can expect the British invasion of U.S. payday lenders to continue.

New research shows web brands are doing a much better job keeping consumers engaged in their website, thanks to improvements in web videos. Studies by Tubemogul and Brightcove indicated web brands are significantly enhancing the quality of their content and interactive features in order to keep consumers involved.

For example, in the fourth quarter of 2010, website brands saw a huge increase in the average time spent viewing web videos, from 1:03 minutes per viewer to 2:03 minutes, compared with the fourth quarter of 2009.

The categories that saw the more dramatic improvements were broadcasters, followed by newspapers and online media. Magazine websites did not fare as well in keeping their visitors engaged.

In addition, the completion rate of website videos viewed from start to finish skyrocketed. For the first time ever, the data shows more than half of the viewed web videos were seen from beginning to end during Q4.

It is interesting to note that in the fourth quarter of 2010 Facebook leaped over Yahoo as the No. 2 referral source of video traffic to web brands. Google continued to be the dominant referral source, with over 60 percent of referred traffic. Facebook now refers 11.8 percent of all website video visitors.

comScore reports over 171 million unique U.S. viewers watched online video content in January, 2011. Of these consumers, the average total web video viewing time was 14.5 hours. The average duration of each online video was about five minutes in January. The average online video advertisement was about 24-seconds, according to comScore.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, American Indian tribes are venturing into the payday loan marketplace. The move may frustrate some who have been trying to implement restrictions on payday lenders.

Under their U.S. treaties, American Indian sovereign nations are free from state interest rate caps or regulations that apply to other payday loan lenders. In fact, payday loans may even be offered on American Indian reservations in the 12 U.S. states that have outlawed payday loans.

According to the article, the actual tribes are not necessarily the ones selling the payday loans. The WSJ report notes that some lenders are relocating to Indian reservations and they are sharing their revenue with the tribes.

The article reported that about 35 of the roughly 300 online payday loan lenders are now owned by American Indian tribes.

So...now it appears if someone has lost their money at the Indian casinos, they could potentially take out a payday loan to pay for their trip back home.

Several lobbying groups, including those representing the payday loan industry, have been busy lately attempting to shield themselves from the potential over-regulation that might result from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

The CFPB, which was mandated by passage of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform act, is still in the formation process, but it's lengthy regulatory "tentacles" are expected to reach a wide array of financial-related industries, from major banking giants, to pawn shops -- and many firms in between.

The CFPB, currently being pieced together by Obama-appointee Elizabeth Warren, is slated to officially begin operating July 21, 2011. In the months and weeks leading up to that date we can expect the flurry of activity to become frantic, especially from organizations seeking some sort of exemption from the CFPB's authority.

Financial pundits are predicting the industries expected to be working the hardest to avoid CFPB scrutiny include payday loan lenders and "smaller" banks with less than $10 billion in assets. They may be seeking exemptions similar to those Congress has afforded auto dealers.

It is widely believed the primary cause of the nation's 2008 financial meltdown was the lax lending practices of mortgage lenders. Although the Federal Reserve had the authority to crack down on such practices, regulators turned the other cheek, allowing mortgage lenders to provide loans to risky borrowers who frequently should not have qualified. Many of these same federal regulators will likely be enforcing some of the rules implemented by the CFPB.

Payday lenders were unable to convince Congress to exempt them from the Dodd-Frank Act. Now the industry's representatives have turned their attention to the CFPB. Payday loan advocates are attempting to convey the fact that  payday lending advertising is already regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, and therefore CFPB oversight would be redundant and unnecessary.

Payday loan lenders in Kentucky can breathe a sigh of relief.

On Feb. 16, a Kentucky legislative committee narrowly voted down a proposal to cap interest rates that may be charged by payday lenders.

The House Banking and Insurance Committee struck down House Bill 136 (Owens) that called for a 36 percent limit on the annual rates payday lenders may charge consumers. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have implement a similar mandatory cap on payday loans.

The vote was 13-10 against HB 136.

This was the third year Rep. Darryl Owens (D-Louisville) has introduced the payday legislation, but this was the first time the bill has made it to a committee vote.

The measure was opposed by the Kentucky Deferred Deposit Association and the Community Financial Service Association of America. The groups testified that HB 136 would destroy thousands of jobs in the state. The payday lending industry reportedly provides jobs to more than 2,000 Kentuckians and has a total payroll of $35 million. The bill's opponents added that a 36 percent cap on payday loans would kill the industry.

Several committee members who opposed the measure noted that payday lending provides a service to needy people and they called for more information from the state database.

The bill was supported by some church groups and the AARP.

Check out this interesting data...

Some 61 percent of the online retail banking-related searches in the United Kingdom are for loans and mortgages. There are approximately two million Internet searches conducted each day in the UK for banking-related products. The data is courtesty of Greenlight, a search marketing specialist.

The most popular search is for the keyword "loan," which accounted for 33 percent of all retail banking searches. The term "mortgages" was the second most popular search, accounting for 28 percent of the searches. Next up were the terms "bank accounts" (24 percent) and "credit cards" (16 percent).

Greenlight examined data in October 2010 to categorize 750 of the most common terms used to locate websites for loans, bank accounts, credit/debit cards and mortgages.

There were 660,000 loan-related searches in October 2010. The most common loan-related search term was "loans" (11 percent), followed closely by "pay day loans" (9 percent).

Among the mortgage-related searches, "mortgage calculator" was searched 135,000 times in October, accounting for 24 percent of those searches.

There were 475,000 bank account searches. The terms "ISA" (6 percent), "savings accounts" (5 percent) and "online banking" (4 percent) were most popular.

As for credit and debit card-related searches, the terms "credit cards" and "credit card" each accounted for 26 percent of those searches.

One of the more controversial provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act is the bounty offered to those who provide original information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that leads to SEC fines in excess of $1 million. These whistle-blowers could earn a 10%-30% "commission" of any SEC fine related to the information.

In light of the whistle-blower incentive, experts are urging insurance agents, carriers and public companies to review their directors & officers policy.

There is little doubt the Dodd-Frank Act will spawn a spike in whistle-blowing activities. The SEC is in the process of developing regulations concerning the Dodd-Frank rule in order to maintain some semblance of control. Clearly, such a provision has the potential for turning personnel disputes into a flood of whistle-blowing complaints that may not be truly warranted.

How does the whistle-blower provision of Dodd-Frank impact a company's D&O coverage? First off, legal pundits are advising companies to review and possibly amend their internal policies to encourage employees to report inappropriate behavior. Companies should also be reviewing their D&O policies to determine if it includes an "insured-versus-insured" exclusion. These exclusions are designed to prevent insured parties from conspiring together just to collect a claim from the insurance carrier.

As you may know, some exclusions will deny coverage for these types of regulatory investigations. Since there will likely be a major increase in whistle-blowing, companies need to make sure expenses related to such activities -- litigation, fines, etc. -- are covered.

In addition, experts recommend that public companies look to possibly expand their D&O coverage to protect from Dodd-Frank whistle-blower claims. They may be looking for their insurer to:

* Cover employees for securities claims. Many public companies will want to make sure their coverage is expanded to include Dodd-Frank whistle-blower incidents.
* Make sure their whistle-blower definition is not too narrow. Public companies may ask the carrier to expand the definition of "whistle-blower" appropriately, and to possibly include officers and directors in the insured-versus-insured exclusion.
* Provide renewal coverage with a more policyholder-friendly "entity-versus-insured" exclusion, which would still provide coverage for a D&O claim against the company that would be initiated when the company itself is bringing a claim against an insured under the policy. In 2010 some insurers, led by Chartis, have moved toward the entity-versus-insured exclusion.
* Assure that a "Side A" D&O policy does not have an insured-versus-insured exclusion. These policies only cover directors and officers; not the company.

Needless to say, commercial insurers should expect that public companies will attempt to negotiate these enhancements to their coverage with little or no premium increase.

From the insurance carrier's perspective, they will be looking to see if the public company has implemented its own internal procedures to eliminate the potential for whistle-blowing incidents.

It will be interesting to see how this provision of Dodd-Frank plays out over time; and whether it leads to a massive spike in whistle-blower incidents and related insurance claims.

Whether you are selling payday loans or widgets, there are certain basic rules you need to follow that will help you and your sales team to close more Internet leads.

As you have probably already discovered, closing an Internet lead is not always like plucking the proverbial low-hanging fruit. There are certain elements of an Internet lead that you will have to learn in order to increase your closing ratio:

1. Speed is critical. Even if you are buying exclusive leads, it is possible your prospects may be shopping elsewhere for your product/service. You need to pounce on your prospects immediately. Never use snail mail to communicate with your prospects -- unless you have exhausted all other communication options. Internet shoppers transmit their information to you electronically -- so they often expect the same form of communication from you. However, while email replies may be somewhat effective, they will not be as effective as a phone call. Have you considered building an online purchasing system that allows your customers to complete the entire transaction online? Still, you may realize a higher closing ratio with telephone communication, simply because you will be able to answer questions and resolve concerns more effectively and efficiently.

2. Immediately identify yourself. Many consumers become irritated by telemarketing calls. Therefore, you will need to tell the prospect who you are and that you are responding to their Internet request. Of course, as we stated in number-one, the quicker you can communicate with the customer, the better. That way their inquiry will be fresh in their mind.

3. Sell your benefits. How does your customer benefit from what you are selling? You need to make a list of these benefits and know them like the back of your hand. No one will purchase any item unless they believe it will benefit their needs. In addition, give some serious thought to how your particular company stands out from the competition. What makes you unique? Why should the prospect buy from you, versus the numerous other companies that sell the same product?

4. Take advantage of technology. We mentioned this a bit in number-one. Can you incorporate an online chat to resolve customer questions? Can you install an electronic signature program to complete the entire transaction online? Do you send email newsletters to customers after the sale to cross-sell or promote new and improved products and services? Conduct some research and determine what is available, what you can afford and how to best utilize those features.

5. Be persistent. It is often difficult to contact your prospects on the first try. Remember, Internet selling is often an "active" sales process. In other words, the sales team must take the initiative to close the sale. When the phone rings and you take an order, that is considered a "passive" sales process, and that requires less salesmanship and persistency to close the lead.

6. Maintain records of leads that do not close. Even if you do not make the sale, do not totally abandon the prospect. Ask them if you may contact them in the future to discuss new or improved products/services. After all, you already have their contact information; and they have already expressed an interest in your company. You allocated your hard-earned resources to acquire that data, so why not use it in the future, if necessary?

There is no quarantee when it comes to sales, but following these rules may help to bolster your closing ratio by up to 10% or 15% -- or more. Good luck, and happy selling!

Thomas Hoenig, critic of the bank bail-out and former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, will be nominated by the President to be the next Vice Chairman of the FDIC.  This nomination is of interest for several reasons.  First, Mr. Hoenig is a conservative whose views would seem to be in conflict with President Obama’s.  But some of his views seem to favor the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.

Hoenig has called the large banks, known as "systemically important financial institutions," or SIFI, as “fundamentally inconsistent with capitalism.” 

"They are inherently destabilizing to global markets and detrimental to world growth," he said. "So long as the concept of a SIFI exists, and there are institutions so powerful and considered so important that they require special support and different rules, the future of capitalism is at risk and our market economy is in peril."

His conservative side exposed itself when he was the sole dissenting vote against last year’s decision to purchase as additional $600 billion in treasuries in an effort to bolster the economy. 

From the President’s point of view, one might draw a couple of references.  Hoenig is generally considered a conservative worth supporting, thus Senate Republicans will have a tough time voting him down.  Additionally, Mr. Hoenig’s views seem to be polar opposite of Timothy Geitner’s, the current Treasury Secretary.  Could this mean the President is looking for additional views on economic policy?  Only time will tell. 

Traditional media is dead.

Or is it?

Unless you are a dating service, car company, auto insurer, politician running for election (or a handful of other advertising categories), it seems traditional media -- broadcast, print, direct mail, outdoor -- has been eviscertated by the Internet and the online marketing opportunities available in cyber-space.  

There is little doubt that as Internet marketing evolves and highly sophisticated tools are at an advertiser's disposal, it simply makes more sense for a marketer to invest a higher percentage of the company's resources in viral advertising campaigns. Savvy Internet lead generation companies such as T3leads.com have perfected affiliate marketing techniques for lead generation programs such as payday loans. T3leads.com's payday loan lead program is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools available on the Internet.

The benefits of Internet marketing -- search engine optimization, pay-per-lead, pay-per-click, affiliate marketing, blogging, etc. -- are clear: it is relatively inexpensive (especially compared with many traditional media options); the ROI is easy to gauge, thanks to the capture of electronic data; and as Internet use becomes more global, consumers are leaning more toward the Internet for nearly all their research and shopping needs. The Internet is basicaly a one-stop shop for...anything. Conversely, broadcast advertising, which was for decades the king of all advertsing media, is basically a source for entertainment and news. And, unless an advertiser runs a small, local campaign, traditional media is a sizeable expense, when you combine production costs and media buys.

So -- why would an advertiser who has had success with Internet marketing want to use traditional marketing methods? The answer can be summed up with one word: branding.

When a business establishes a brand identity, it generates loyalty among its customers, more repeat business, more referral business and greater top-of-mind awareness for their product or service. How does that help an advertiser who is already realizing significant returns from their online marketing efforts? An advertiser may be receiving a healthy dose of website visitors, but those visitors are probably reaching the website through generic searches. Once a company begins to establish a brand identity, consumers will start to specifically seek out that company. This is a much more valuable lead than one with no prior opinion or awareness of the company.

Traditional advertising is still an effective way for a company to generate the reach and frequency it desires. Of course, the accuracy of reach and frequency data is nowhere near as precise as online marketing, with its electronic data-capturing capabilities. However, the Internet is so expansive that it is still challenging to find consumers within one's target market. Although the volume of television advertising opportunities has multiplied considerably over the past couple decades, it is still fairly simple to geo-target, based on the viewer profile for a particular program. Print advertising (newspapers and magazines) is just as effective for geo-targeting, based on the readership of the publication and the location of the subscribers. Direct mail (aka, snail or junk mail) is still a monster industry, thanks to its geo-targeting capabilities. Even outdoor advertising can be an effective geo-targeting marketing tool, depending on the location of the outdoor ads.

These days many advertisers will launch their marketing efforts through a mix of electronic advertising tactics. And, once the flow of business is viable, then traditional media is incorporated into the marketing mix as a way to build top-of-mind brand awareness and to improve the quality of the leads.

Is traditional advertising media dead? Not yet. But, as soon as Internet marketers figure out how to better use that medium to enhance a company's brand identity, then it may be time to call in the mortician.

In a previous article appearing on this site,

https://www.t3leads.com/faq-articles.html#amazon-tax-ca,

it was disclosed that Amazon was backing a California ballot question that would have repealed a newly enacted state law that would have required online retailers to collect sales taxes on some sales.  They had in fact put up $5 million in the effort.

The deal between California and Amazon goes like this.  Sales tax collection will be put off until September 2012, and in return Amazon will drop the referendum.  There was also an informal agreement to open two distribution warehouses in California, employing up to 10,000 workers.

So, what’s in it for Amazon?  It appears they are playing the delay game.  They are hoping by putting off the sales tax collection date that Congress will act and pass something in their favor. 

An agreement between the FCC and Wireless service providers will now warn customers when they are nearing their monthly limit for phone, text or data services.  The providers have fought all such interference into how they communicate with their customers, but the millions of irate customers and their complaints are creating the kind of bad will that wireless company can no longer ignore. 

The wireless companies will send alerts to customers as they near any of their limits.  It will also send alerts when customers travel overseas warning of them of possible additional charges.The new agreement covers virtually all of the 300 million plus wireless accounts in the U.S. because it binds all members of the industry’s largest trade group to it.

Clearly this is a major victory for consumers, but it does help the wireless companies as well.  The FCC has been investigating these over limit charges for 18 months and was very near to issuing some very strict regulations as to what could and could not be charged to the consumer.  This agreement essentially shelves those regulations.

And for the cynics among you please know that these messages will be free to the consumer.

For the week ending October 22, 2011 what were the top 10 most visited real estate sites?  From 1 to 10, here goes…Zillow (6.87%), Realtor.com (6.73%), Trulia (5.99%), Yahoo! Real Estate (5.23%), Homes.com (2.87%), MSN Real Estate (2.45%), AOL Real Estate (1.74%), Rent.com (1.58%), Zip Realty (1.37%) and My New Place (1.37%). 

And for computer software who’s garnering the most clicks?  Apple at 5.7%, Adobe is next with 5.15%, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo! Pulse, Apple iPod & iTunes, Big Fish Games, ilivid Download Manager, Google chrome, Frontline Placement Industries, and Symantec comes in at 1.67%. 

Hello average.  According to the National Retail Federation’s 2011 Survey, the average American will spend $704.18 on holiday shopping.  This is down from the figure of $718.98 of 2010, but will still represent an overall increase in spending of 2.8%.

The study also revealed that 46.7% will look for retailers’ deals on the internet and purchase merchandise online, which is up from last year’s figure of 43.9%.  The age cell most likely to purchase online is adults aged 25-34.

Additional food for thought…70.5% of tablet owners will research and shop this season.  E-bay additionally found that tablet users spend 50% more than PC users.  
15% of “Black Friday” searches will come from mobile devices.

So payday loan site operators out there – here’s an idea for holiday marketing  - the “$750 holiday payday loan.  The sprinkles on your holiday cookies.”  Or  “The ornament on top of your tree” or…well, you get the idea.

Google, owners of YouTube, announced plans to produce original programming exclusively for its YouTube site.  So far, they have signed deals with InterActiveCorp’s Electus, News Corp and CSI”S Anthony Zuiker to create content.  It was also reported that skateboarder Tony Hawk was signed to a deal as well.

There is such a sense of irony to this story.  Could it be that the site that was created to showcase video from the lives of ordinary people have decided that we have gotten boring?  Probably not.  It seems more like natural evolution from here.  It almost makes you wonder what took so long.

No, this is not a new movie, and no, it not April Fool’s Day.  The site will be called WireDoo and is currently in pre-data test mode.  Before you dismiss him you should know that he has experience on the internet having launched dancejam.com.  WireDoo will feature “deep search”:

If you are searching for a new model car, it will provide you car insurance plans, safety ratings and local dealerships that carry the car.  It will provide links to related items that may be helpful in the information gathering process. 

We can’t wait to see what will happen when you search for 1980’s clothing trends.

Hewlett Packard decided to keep its PC Division after a thorough review showed the separation would have a one-time expense of $1.5 billion.The world’s leading tech company in revenue (surprised?) has struggled mightily in PC sales, mostly due to the invasion of pad computing have hurt sales. 

The decision was announced by Meg Whitman, who many may remember most recently ran for Governor against Jerry Brown in California.  She lost that election.  No odds were announced on her improving the condition of HP.

In a follow up to an article we published last week, more details about original programming on YouTube have been announced.  If you’re thinking they might test the water first, see how things go, you are dead wrong.  YouTube is preparing to debut 100 TV channels in partnership with numerous high profile production companies, as well as celebrities such as Madonna, Ashton Kutcher and Jay-Z.

Topics include family and health issues, sports and dance.  I’m guessing, and this is just me knowing a little bit about America and celebrity, that a Hollywood themed show is probably in the works as well.  
Some of the channels will debut as early as this fall.  About 25 hours of original programming is expected to air initially.

Streaming images does present challenges for the internet, when compared to broadcast or cable TV, especially when large numbers of people are viewing at the same time.  But as with all things, this is expected to improve.

Do you think the networks will want one of the YouTube channels as another distribution source for their programming?  Or do you think YouTube jumps to cable with their own network?  Or both?

Drumroll, please.  The 2000 Honda Civic.  And second?  A 1996 Honda Accord.  Really?  Yes, really.  The reasons are quite practical when you think about them.  First, they are easier to steal.  Theft prevention devices do make it harder for car thieves to steal later model cars.  The second reason is that cars are not stolen for a robbery getaway, or some other TV-inspired activity.  They are stolen for parts. 
So how do you protect your car no matter what you drive?  Here are a few hints.
•    Lock your car, take your keys and park in a well-lit area
•    Get an alarm to ward off would be thieves.  On the cheaper side, “the club” still works.
•    Have smart keys that will not start your car without a matching chip
More detailed hints for preventing car theft can be found here in one of our earlier columns.
https://www.t3leads.com/faq-articles.html#car-theft-prevention

The legal battle over patent rights between Apple and Samsung is near epic proportion, but not enough to keep Apple from buying the A6 processor from them.  It is clear that Apple understands that Samsung is a key partner in their quest for world dominance…just kidding, just making sure you’re still paying attention.  Safe to say Apple feels strongly that Samsung is important to the quality of their products.  
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) was the next in line, but may not be quite ready.  The Korea Times reports that Apple has been hesitant to give TSMC too much business for fear that their manufacturing facilities are not ready.
The A6 chips are also being developed for use in the new model of the iPad.

Groupon was going to be the next facebook.  The next Google.  The next BIG thing.  Some folks may be back pedalling on that prediction given recent disclosures.  No, the company is not going under, (as far we can tell; we do not have a crystal ball.) but it has been substantially devalued.  Some parts of it read like a soap opera.  
The company which at one time was valued at $20 to $25 billion is now valued between $5 and $10 billion.  

Its growth was meteoric.  Revenues in early 2009 were $3.3 million. The end of the first quarter, 2011, revenue jumped to $644.7 million.  The subscriber base had grown from 152,000 in June 2009 to 83 million by March 2011.  Companies such as Goldman-Sachs and Morgan Stanley were lining up to take part in the company’s first IPO.

Enter the SEC.  It has uncovered an accounting technique employed by Groupon wherein they reported gross revenue before deducting major expenses.  Groupon has now stopped doing that, but the result is lower operating capital and less cash on hand.

Groupon executives have not suffered though.  The next Google COO will be its third this year.  They walked away with tens of millions in severance.  Co-founder, Eric Lefkosky and his wife took home over $300 million of the $900 million raised so far this year.

But all is not bad.  This is a concept that the public eats up (literally in some cases) and competitors are trying to play catch up with the Groupon network.  If Groupon is valued somewhere near $10 billion in its initial IPO, that’s still a company of interest for many.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is conducting the 2011 Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS).  The survey covers employee firms with establishments in the U.S. and classified as being in the “wholesale trade sector.” 

The census bureau will collect data covering annual sales, e-commerce sales, purchases, total operating expenses, year-end inventories held both in the U.S. and outside, commissions, total operating revenue and more.

Firms were selected using a stratified random sample based on industry groupings and annual sales size.  It is expected that approximately 60-70% of the companies that are asked to report will be doing so for the first time, and consequently, 60-70% of the old sample will no longer be asked to report.

The data collected is used to provide a sound statistical basis for the formation of policy by various government agencies.  Results will be made public.

Every now and then it’s fun to look at the search engine numbers of various industries.  Released by Experian Hitwise, the following numbers represent the number of visits for the week ending October 15th. 

The number one travel website was Google Maps which had a 15.55% share of all visits, next was MapQuest at 6.91%, followed by Southwest Airlines at 2.81%.  Rounding out the top 10 were Expedia, priceline.com, Trip Advisor, Yahoo! Travel, Bing Maps, Yahoo! Maps and Delta Airlines at 1.54%.

The number one most visited Sports website was Yahoo! Sports-NFL at 7.54%, Yahoo! Sports at 6.24% and ESPN at 5.98%.  Yahoo! Sports-Fantasy Football, Fox Sports on MSN, ESPN Fantasy Football, Rivals.com, National Football League, ESPN Fantasy Games and finally Foxsports NFL round out the top 10.  Foxsports garnered 2.12% of the clicks.
Were your favorites listed?  Among the other things that these numbers show, it certainly proves that NFL Football and NFL Fantasy Football are extremely popular hobbies of the American public.

Facebook is.  But you probably knew that.  But, their share of the market shrunk a little in July 2011, compared to June, 2011.  According to Hitwise, as ranked by number of visits, Facebook had a 50.14% share, down from 53.72 in June 2011, and down from 54.99 in July 2010.  The two sites benefitting are YouTube who had 22.54% of the market in July, compared to 17.1% in July 2010., and  Twitter who had a 3.49% share in July 2011 compared to 2.22% in July 2010.

Other social sites rounding out the top 10 were Yahoo! Answers, Gumtree, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Moshi Monsters, Moneysavingexpert and MySpace coming in at number 10.

T

The number of existing home sales fell 3% in September, compared to 2010.  Foreclosures, weak demand and falling home prices continue to plaque the housing market.  The numbers overall rival 2010, which was the worst in 13 years.

All of these factors combine to create a stagnant market.  Buyers who would qualify for conventional financing are staying out of the market due to uncertainty.  Even the lowest interest rates in history have not spurred a recovery.  Although, they are more than likely helping to make sure the slump does not get worse.
Unfortunately not many analysts are optimistic about the market turning positive until 2012.  

First time buyers made up 32% of all sales, the same as August.  They are important because they allow existing home owners to move up.

New research conducted by “Buddy Media Platform” shows that shorter Facebook (FB) posts result in higher engagement rates.  80 characters or less:  27% higher engagement rates. 
When is longer better?  For URL’s.  Full length URL’s result in engagement rates that are three times higher than shortened ones.  People are savvy regarding them.  They’ve gone down enough bad roads and won’t waste the time.  The study recommends using a brand specific URL to shorten it, yet still communicate to users that they are going somewhere.
Some other highlights…brands that posted OUTside of business hours had a 20% HIGHER engagement rate.  Make sure you keep in mind when your followers are checking FB.  Engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursday and Friday than any other days of the week.

Certain days of the week result in higher engagement rates in certain industries.
o    Automotive:  Sunday
o    Business and Finance:  Wednesday and Thursday
o    Sports:  Sunday
o    Travel and Hospitality:  Thursday and Friday

A survey of likely voters has revealed almost one-third believe they will be in worse financial shape come Election Day.
Only a quarter of those polled expect to be in a better financial position. The study was conducted by The Hill.

While 39 percent of those surveyed believe their economic status will be roughly the same, 65 percent said the nation is going in the wrong direction.

Liberals -- those who will are more likely to support the policies of President Omaba -- have a more positive outlook. Of the liberals who responded to the study, 41 percent say their financial condition will improve by November. Just 15 percent of conservatives feel positively about their financial situation, and 25 percent of moderates are confident their finances will improve.

A whopping 85 percent of conservatives believe the country is headed in the wrong direction; and 54 percent of moderates believe the nation is taking the wrong fiscal path.

Forty-one percent of liberals who responded to the poll say the nation is going in the right direction.

Who gets the blame for the fiscal woes in the U.S.? Seventy percent of Republicans place the blame with President Obama. Seventy-five percent of Democrats still blame former President Bush.
Independents blame Bush slightly more than Obama, 47 to 40 percent.

Sadly, 36 percent of respondents have less pride in America than they did four years ago.

This case seems oddly familiar to the plot of the movie "The Social Network."

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos has ruled the lawsuit may proceed in the case against The Huffington Post founders for allegedly stealing the concept for their website.

Two Democratic consultants, Peter Daou and James Boyce, are alleging The Huffington Post founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer had promised to include them in the development of the site.

Lawyers for Huffington and Lerer had asked for a dismissal of the case, but their request was denied. 

Judge Charles Ramos has decided to allow the misappropriation and breach of contract counts to stand, and discovery may commence. He did not rule on the six other claims.

In February, 2011, AOL announced the purchase of The Huffington Post for $315 million.

Daou and Boyce said back in 2004 they participated in numerous meetings, conversations and emails regarding to formation of the online news organization. They claims they were then excluded from the project, and they never received andy credit or compensation for their contributions.

Huffington's attorneys counter by saying the parties never agreed to a deal with the defendants.

There may be some subtle signs that the economy is beginning to recover, but the majority of Americans are stil skeptical about their long-term financial future.

A recent survey released by the Country Financial Security Index shows the percentage of Americans who are confident about their financial future has actually fallen thus far in 2011.

The survey indicates the percentage of respondents with an “excellent” feeling about their financial security fell from 10.7 percent in February, 2011, to 8.6 percent in April.  Less than one-fifth (19.5 percent) feel “very likely” they will be able to sock away enough retirement money to live comfortably. When the survey was conducted in February, 2011, 21.2 percent thought they would be able to retire comfortably.

Among the African-Americans polled, just 6.6 percent said they have an “excellent” comfort level about their long-term security; and 27 percent rated their long-term financial confidence as “good.” Nine percent of Caucasians polled rated their long-term confidence level as “excellent”; and 30.7 percent rated it “good.”

According to Moody's, U.S. banks wrote off less consumer debt in March, 2011. The investor service reported that banks wrote off 7.35 percent of their credit card debt in March. In February, banks wrote off 7.56 percent of their customers' credit card debt.

Moody’s officials believe the trend will continue throughout the next few months.

There is some more good news. The early stage delinquency rate -- consumers who are delinquent on one credit card payment -- fell under the 1 percent mark in March. That's the lowest early stage delinquency rate in over 10 years. And, the percentage of those who are over 30 days past due on their payments has now fallen for 17 consecutive months.

A staggering $19 billion is expected to be spent on search engine advertising in 2011, according to Econsultancy's "State of Search Marketing Report 2011."

The report indicates search engine spending will skyrocket by 16% at some point during the year, and will reach a projected $19.3 billion.

What are the factors impacting this surge in search engine spending? The biggest factor is the meteoric rise in mobile Internet as a major player in the industry. According to the study, 79 percent of Internet marketers say mobile technology is now a significant factor for their company.

Another factor in search engine spending is social networks. Some 84 percent of Internet marketers now utilize Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, compared with 73 percent in 2010.

Google continues to be the "800-pound gorilla" when it comes to search engine advertising. Econsultancy's study shows 95 percent of companies that conduct online marketing campaigns advertise with Google AdWords.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is attempting to nail a group of Internet affiliate marketing companies for numerous alleged false advertising allegations.

The FTC filed claims in six different federal courts against 10 affiliate marketing operations. The allegations state the affiliates used fake news websites to promote the Açaí Berry weght loss program. The FTC is asking the courts to freeze the affiliates’ assets.

The FTC believes the affiliate marketers falsely claimed the Açaí Berry supplements will lead to major weight loss. In addition, the agency alleges false news reports and testimonials were created in order to pull the wool over consumers' eyes. The federal agency claims the affiliates did not spell out the relationship with the Açaí merchants who were actually producing the weight loss program.

Charles Harwood, deputy director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the defendants' websites are designed to look like news-gathering organizations, but instead they are deceptive advertisements. The websites in question include: “News 6 News Alerts,” “Health News Health Alerts” or “Health 5 Beat Health News.”  The websites include articles that indicate typical Açaí customers are losing 25 pounds per month.

The FTC claims the defendants' sites display the names of major media sources, including ABC, Fox News, CBS, CNN, USA Today, and Consumer Reports, and the sites erroneously say their news reports had appeared on the websites for the news networks.

The defendants are accused of directing web traffic to their sites by running ads on popular websites with such headlines as: “Açaí Berry EXPOSED— Health Reporter Discovers the Shocking Truth.”  Consumers could then click on a link from the defendants' websites to the merchant's site in order to purchase the Açaí products.

The FTC and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office also alleges the weight-loss claims purported in the ads are not reliable. The agency is is seeking refunds for consumers who purchased the Açaí products. It is estimated over $10 million worth of Açaí products have been sold through the affiliates' websites.

Many Internet publishers utilize article services in order to add relative content to their websites. If writing is not your strength, article services may be an invaluable tool.

What are the pros and cons of these services?
 
Plusses:
* Article writing can take up a great deal of time. Article services could be a huge time-saver if you are able to find a service that provides the type of content you desire for your websites. Some services will automatically submit your articles, and others will manually submit them for you.
* Some services offer an article "spinning" feature. This will rearrange the text of an article to make it unique for your site.
* Purchasing articles is not very costly. Some articles may be purchased for as low as $5 a piece.
* With this type of time savings and cost efficiency, publishers can use article services to add a considerable amount of content to their sites. This will help to improve your search engine rankings.
* There are also article services where you actually hire someone to write for you personally. This may cost a little more, but you will have more control over the content and the style.

Negatives:
* When you purchase articles, you lose some control over the content. It may be a little challenging finding the exact type of subject matter you desire.
* Publishers may have their own unique writing style that does not mesh well with the articles available from a service.
* Sometimes the article spinning feature will scramble your text more than you'd like. You have to be careful to review the articles to make sure words aren't jumbled.

Internet marketers in Britain are climbing aboard the mobile technology bandwagon.

According to a study conducted by Linkshare, almost half of Internet marketers -- 45 percent -- expect mobile marketing and its related apps to be a major growth area in this year.

What other Internet-related arenas will see significant growth this year? Of those surveyed, 33 percent expect to allocate resources toward affiliate marketing. The survey indicated 31 percent of marketers will be conducting personal social network advertising.

Additional investments will take place in online video advertising (30%) and sponsored search engine links (30%).

Adequate representation of insurance regulators on the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) is key to financial stability, Missouri Insurance Director John Huff told Congress today. Speaking on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Huff testified before the House Committee on Financial Services'Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

"Our regulatory system requires regulators to work collaboratively and share information with one another in confidential settings. Yet to date, I have been restricted from consulting with my fellow insurance regulators on matters before FSOC," testified Huff. "Quite simply, FSOC should want - and the US taxpayers should demand - the resources and expertise that their regulators can provide to the FSOC's work in protecting the US financial system."

Huff was asked to testify before the Subcommittee along with other financial regulators on the Council. Also appearing before the Subcommittee were: Gary Gensler, Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Jeffrey A. Goldstein, Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, Department of the Treasury; J. Nellie Liang, Director, Office of Financial Stability Policy and Research, Federal Reserve; Robert W. Cook, Director, Division of Trading and Markets, Securities Exchange Commission; Arthur J. Murton, Director, Division of Insurance and Research, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and Tim Long, Chief National Bank Examiner and Senior Deputy Comptroller for Regulatory Policy, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

"The Council's aggressive timetable and ambitious scope of work can be better achieved through full engagement of state regulators," said Susan E. Voss, NAIC President and Iowa Insurance Commissioner. "Limiting Director Huff's ability to collaborate and consult with fellow state regulators would be a disservice to the Council and its important role."

Formed in 1871, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is a voluntary organization of the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. The NAIC serves the needs of consumers and the industry> Its objective is to support state insurance regulators as they protect consumers and maintain the financial stability of the insurance marketplace.

For more information, visit www.naic.org.

Many Internet marketers utilize email to drive a good chunk of their website traffic. Communicating with prospective and current customers is critical -- and email is one of the most effective tactics, when done properly.

How can email marketing help your online business?

* Email marketing is an excellent way to target a specific group of potential or existing customers.
* Recipients can forward the email to other potential customers who may be interested in your product or service.
* Email is an excellent way to enhance the client relationship. Send a birthday greeting or a request for referrals. Keep your website name in front of the customer as frequently as possible.
* Email blasts and newsletters are an excellent way to cross-sell customers on additional products and services.
* The more frequently you communicate with your audience, the stronger your brand will become. You have to be careful not to overwhelm your recipients; or they will start tuning out your messages. But, a consistent flow of email notices will certainly build strong brand awareness.
* Of course, the primary purpose of your email marketing is to drive more sales, leads or whatever your goal is for your website marketing efforts. Email could be a major tool used to generate more sales; and potentially one of the most efficient tools in your arsenal.

One of the most important elements to your email marketing efforts is list-building. There are a lot of sources that sell email lists, but those often produce low click rates and your emails often end up in the suspect email bin.

What are some more effective ways to grow your email list?
1. Post a contact section on each page within your website to collect email addresses. Make sure it is clearly explained that by providing the information they may receive emails from you on your products and services.
2. Of course, whenever a purchase is made, include a check-box to indicate it is OK for you to communicate with the customer about additional products.
3. Post a blog on your site and whenever visitors write blog comments inform the visitors that you would like to send them email updates.
4. Every time to receive a phone call from a prospect or customer, make sure you ask for their email address.
5. Attend industry events and collect business cards. Send an email to each one asking to include them on your mailing list.
6. Make sure you provide a clear opt-out option. You want the recipients to expect to receive your notices.
7. Promotions, contests and surveys are a good way to keep your email list recipients involved, without always selling them something.

It is important you select an emailing service that meets your needs. Microsoft Outlook may work find for many marketers, but it does not offer customized templates, newsletter designs, opt-out and tracking systems needed to effectively manage your email marketing efforts. There are many email management programs (Constant Contact, etc.) that are very user-friendly and offer design and back-end tracking services.

One final piece of advice -- do some additional research on your own. The information above is a good start, but there is a lot of information available that will help you to enhance your email marketing efforts.

As smartphone sales skyrocket, which companies are primed to best take advantage of this growth?

According to Gartner Inc., smartphone sales will hit the 468 million mark this year. That's a whopping 57.7 percent increase from 2010. And Gartner's research has found that by the end of 2011, Android will take over as the premier operating system for smartphones.

Gartner's study has revealed Android will amass a 49.2 percent smartphone marketshare by 2012.

Altogether, 26 percent of all mobile device sales in 2011 will be smartphones; and by 2015 it's expected that 1 billion smartphones will be sold, with 47 percent of the market owning those devices.

The UK-based research firm has also estimated the cost of smartphones will drop to an average of $300 or less by 2015.

Check out the table below which illustrates the expected trend for smartphone sales and marketshare (#s in thousands of units):

                           2010        2011      2012      2015

Symbian            111,577    89,930    32,666    661

Marketshare (%) 37.6         19.2       5.2         0.1

Android             67,225      179,873  310,088  539,318

Marketshare        22.7        38.5       49.2        48.8

Research In Motion 47,452  62,600    79,335    122,864

Marketshare         16.0       13.4       12.6        11.1

iOS                    46,598     90,560    118,848   189,924

Marketshare        15.7        19.4       18.9         17.2

Microsoft            12,378     26,346     68,156    215,998

Marketshare        4.2         5.6          10.8        19.5

The number of Americans who watch videos on their mobile device is exploding. According to The Nielsen Company, 24.7 million U.S. mobile phone users viewed videos on their device during the last quater of 2010. That's a whopping 40 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2009. And, that's an increase of 1.8 million viewers from just the prior three month span.

There's more. The total time spent per user watching mobile phone videos is on the rise, as well. The average U.S. consumer spent 4 hours and 20 minutes per month watching mobile device videos in Q4 of 2010; compared with 3 hours and 37 minutes in the fourth quarter of 2009.

By far, the age group that watches the most mobile devices videos is the 12-17 year old segment, which watches 7 hours and 13 minutes of mobile phone videos per month. The 18-24 year old segment watches 6 hours and 30 minutes per month; and the 25-34 year old group views 4 hours and 20 minutes of mobile device videos per month.

How has Youtube become one of the most effective tools for driving traffic to websites? Statistics show that if Youtube was a search engine, it would be responsible for 12% of all Internet searches. That's a pretty staggering number for a site that was once used primarily for events such as garage band videos and clips of kids' sports activities. Clearly, the Youtube phenomenon has spread throughout the entire Internet world; and many online marketers are taking advantage.

How can you use Youtube to enhance your website's effectiveness?

1. Article writing and blogging is huge on the Internet. Any website with even a fair Alexa ranking is filled with tons of related written content. But only a small percentage of websites go the next step and post video blogs, podcasts, etc. Creating Youtube videos that are linked to your site and posted on your site will almost certainly enhance your website's ranking.

2. Search engines usually include Youtube hits in their listings. In addition, search engines will recognize backlinks if the links are included in the video title.

3. Post links to your videos on social networks. This is an excellent way to drive more traffic to your site.

4. Produce several videos on a variety of topics. Some videos may be soft-sales clips, peddling your product or service. Others may be an interview with an industry leader. Other videos may be customer testimonials. Or, combine several of these tactics into a video. Be creative.

5. Make sure the videos are decent quality. Poor lighting and sound are the biggest turn-offs for viewers, so if you have a small budget and you're filming a head-shot in your office, at least make sure the lighting and voice are clear and professional.

6. Create a watermark on your videos with your website address. Make sure the website appears throughout the video -- not just at the conclusion. This will help to engrain your URL in the viewer's mind. Besides, many viewers will not sit through the entire clip, so if you only display your web address at the end, you are missing out on an opportunity to brand your website.

Many people are leaving their office job and launching a home-based business. The trend has grown over the past few years, as the economy started to sag and many people have had trouble finding employment. There are many benefits to a home-based business: flexible work hours, low overhead, spending more time with family, etc. But, there are also dangers: home-based entreprenuers must be more dedicated and focused; they often must educate themselves on new-age technology; they are responsible for the success or failure of the business; and ... they may be the target of scams.

Below are several suggestions for home-based entrepreneurs to help you avoid getting burned:

1. Do not pay for work. There are many ploys being marketed through email spam or other online marketing methods that sound great. They promise potential wealth if you follow their rules. But if they ask for an investment in order to take advantage of their "system," then it is probably something to avoid.

Think of it this way: A prospective employer will not charge you a fee in order to interview for the job, right? The same should be true for onlne marketing pitches. If they want you to sell their products or services, you should not have to fork out an investment for the opportunity.

2. Use a credit card for any online purchase. If you make payments by check, then your money is gone as soon as the vendor deposits the payment. But if you find the vendor to be bogus, you can dispute a credit card charge and you may be able to receive a credit.

3. Get references. If you are contemplating a purchase from a company with whom you are unfamiliar, try to obtain references from other clients.

4. Anything that sounds too good to be true, probably is. When the video presentation shows clients who have become fabulously wealthy by using the product or service, take it with a large dose of salt. Even if the claim is true, it is probably a rare example of what the vast majority of clients earn.

5. Sophistication does not equal honesty. What does this mean? There are some very talented scam artists out there. They have the ability to produce highly professional websites; set up call centers; produce quality videos; etc. Just because it looks reputable does not mean it is.

6. Do your own research. Decide for yourself which types of products or services you want to market; and thoroughly research that industry. Who are your competitors? How do they market themselves? How can you reach your target market? What kind of online services can assist you? In other words -- you need to be the one contacting prospective vendors and clients ... not the other way around. When you control the process, you will likely have better luck finding honest business partners.

A federal court in Washington has turned thumbs-down on a proposed class action settlement against Classmates.com. The social network is accused of online privacy violations.

Here's the background info in the case:

In April 2010, the court approved a preliminary class settlement over Classmates’ marketing and electronic privacy practices. The lawsuit alleges Classmates.com solicited unpaid users by sending e-mail notices suggesting they upgrade to a paid membership status.

The emails would inform the recipient that other users viewed their Classmates profile. Only by upgrading to a paid membership could a user identify who has shown an interest in them. The suit claims the email notices were often false and that no one of interest had tried to contact them.

In addition, Classmates is accused of embedded cookies in its e-mails so users could bypass the secure login to their account. That posed a problem when the a user would forward the e-mail, which inadvertently gave the new e-mail recipient access to the sender’s account.

The class action plaintiffs wanted the settlement offer to provide either a $2 Classmates membership coupon; or a $3 cash payment. The court denied the settlement because the judges believed many coupons would not be used. The court also stated the settlement would not stop Classmates.com's questionable marketing activities, and they did not believe many class action members would be offered the $3 cash payment.   

A newly released survey conducted by User Centric has revealed most search engine visitors barely notice the sponsored ad listings.

User Centric researched two of the major search engines, Bing and Google, evaluating how many users noticed the paid ads. The study found organic search results were viewed 100% of the time, but merely around one-fourth noticed the sponsored ad listings.

Just 21 percent of Bing users and 28 percent of Google users checked out the paid ads. And, when they do look at the sponsored ads, they spend very little time glacing at them, averaging around 1 second, compared 14.7 seconds for Google's organic listings and 10.7 seconds for Bing's organic listings.

"The results of this study suggest that advertisers should place their ads above the organic search results, where the hit rate was more than three times higher and gaze time more than five times longer than on the sponsored links on the right," concludes User Centric.

Prior studies have shown paid search engine ads are among the most ignored advertisments throughout all media channels.

A federal judge has ruled National Football League team owners cannot apply a certain offset against workers' compensation benefits paid to former players injured while playing.

What does the ruling mean for players and teams? The ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, states the contract language does not allow the team owners to apply a “dollar-for-dollar” calculation to offset other benefits the players received.

The NFL commented the ruling only pertains to the proper calculation of workers' compensation benefits for players who also receive injury protection payments.

The NFL Players Assn., which is embroiled in a bitter lock-out situation with the league owners, said in a statement that it brought litigation because “workers' compensation is a significant benefit for former players who suffered severe injuries during their playing days.”

According to a report issued by Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd., natural catastrophes and man-made disasters cost insurers over $43 billion in 2010. That’s a spike of over 60% from 2009’s $27 billion in insured damages.

Swiss Re also estimated 2010's catastrophes led to a total of about $218 billion in economic damage. That's over a 300 percent surge in cat-related losses over the $68 billion in disaster-related losses in 2009.

Earthquakes were to blame for approximately one-third of the 2010 catastrophe losses. The February 2010 earthquake in Chile causing an estimated $8 billion in insured loss. The September earthquake in New Zealand caused about $4.4 billion in insured losses.

Eight other catastrophes caused at least $1 billion in insured damage during 2010.

It seems the search engine optimization game just keeps getting nastier and more complicated. As Google continues to adjust its formulas to keep SEO cheaters from gaining an unfair advantage, other web marketers are looking for additonal loopholes in order to beat the system.

One new trend involves web marketers who file complaint reports against competitors, in the hopes that Google will ban the competitor's site from its search rankings. Some of the complaints may be legitimate; others may not be honest. The problem gets even worse when web marketers purposely place inappropriate links to certain websites in order to set them up as an SEO cheater.

How can you prevent your site from a nasty "reverse SEO attack" or a false complaint report? Here are a couple suggestions:

1. Google Alerts: Set up Google Alerts for your company and website name. This way you will be notified any time an article or news report is posted that includes your company name and/or website. This may alert you if your site has received a complaint report or if there are other entities posting links or articles about your site. And, if someone is trying to lodge a false complaint, you may have a chance to refute their claims.

2. Obtain a link monitoring service account: Services such as Service Uptime, Majestic SEO or other programs will help to crawl though the web and discover new links that may help you to keep your website clean.

Good luck protecting your site from unscrupulous competitors.

The giant search engines -- Yahoo, Bing and Google -- now have a little more competition. Check out these new sites trying to grab a piece of the search engine pie.

Qyo (qyo.co)

What makes Qyo unique? First off, one must actually register in order to utilize Qyo. Qyo will then prompt users to invite Facebook friends to join, as well. All Qyo searches are then visible to those in your network, unless the privacy option is selected. This allows users to make comments on their friends' searches.

Qyo also focuses on joining various interest groups and it encourages users to invite their FB friends to the groups.

Currently, Qyo has a fairly unimpressive Alexa ranking, but if you are into the social networking experience, you may want to give Qyo a look.

DuckDuckGo (duckduckgo.com)

One of the unique features of DuckDuckGo is that it tries to determine the best match for a particular search. DuckDuckGo highlights the featured result in a box at the top of the listings.

DuckDuckGo has a "bang" feature, where certain sites will be displayed with an exclamation point to indicate that the site has its own search feature.

Blekko (blekko.com)

Blekko's claim to fame are its "slashtags." These are search results that are sort of bookmarked by the user.

Maybe the most innovative feature of Blekko is the spam blocker, which enables the user to remove spam from the results. Blecko is also valuable for those who want to view a website's SEO data. The SEO link is located under the results listing.

If you get a chance, you may want to check out these new search engines to see if they appeal to you.

How cool is this?

Google, Citigroup and Mastercard are joining forces to develop mobile phone technology that will give consumers with Android cell phones the ability to buy merchandise simply by waving the phone over a scanner at the checkout counter.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the "electronic wallet" application is still in the formative stages, but when it is fully developed it will give Google the ability to compile a plethora of data about consumers that could be useful to retailers.

The initial version of the app will allow Citigroup-issued debit and credit card holders with one of the current Android phone models to use the device to make payments. Down the road the companies expect the app to be available on many more Android phones.

If you are working on improving your website's search engine optimization (SEO), you may have run across the terms "onsite" and "offsite" SEO. What are these terms, and why is it important for you to understand them?

Onsite SEO encompasses any tactic that may be used within your site to help make it more relevant to your targeted keywords, terms and phrases. Some onsite SEO strategies are:

* Title tags
* Content (articles, blogs, etc.)
* Keyword density
* Using keywords in alt tags
* Metatags

Offsite SEO is the use of strategies outside your website designed to draw attention to your site. These tactics primarily center on posting links to your site through various methods such as:

* Writing articles for other sites
* Recipirocal/two-way links between yours and other websites willing to share
* Blog comments
* Social networks
* Tile/banner ads

Which strategy is more critical for enhancing your website search rankings? Probably offsite SEO. However, both onsite and offsite SEO tactics are important aspects of your overall SEO strategy.

One of the major benefits of email marketing or direct mail marketing is that it affords the marketer the ability to conduct numerous tests to determine the most effective tactics. However, a recently released study from Econsultancy and sponsored by Adestra has revealed less than one-third of e-mail marketers test their mailings. And, the study has shown a staggering 88 percent are not even clear about the percentage of addresses that cannot be delivered.

The “Email Marketing Industry Census 2011” polled some 900 digital marketers. The research also determined the biggest concerns for e-marketers include rapid automation growth and the relevance of social media to their company.

“Overall, the message is clear – while some aspects of email marketing are improving, others aren’t (and some are even getting worse),” Adestra notes. “It seems marketers need to adopt a ‘back to basics’ approach – to avoid some key areas dropping off your radar, ensure you are consistently covering all the basics.”

The study found:

* 32 percent of survey respondents conduct consistent testing for their email marketing campaigns.

* 30 percent occasionally test their email campaigns.

* 25 percent infrequently test their email efforts.

* 13 percent never test their email marketing endeavors.

* 72 percent are most likely to test subject lines.

* 62 percent are likely to conduct pre-send spam testing.

* 53 percent are likely to test the time and day of the week.

* 53 percent are likely to test name/address.

* 12 percent of respondents say they know how much of their email budget has been wasted because of undelivered mail (that's down from 17 percent in 2010 and 18 percent in 2009).

* 72 percent of those who responded to the study say they receive a “good” or an “excellent” ROI.

* 57 percent do not integrate social media and email.

* 45 percent of respondents see social media and email as different marketing channels.

* 52 percent don’t view social media as a source new e-mail subscribers.

According to Econsultancy, “Landing pages are a key part of the conversion process, yet just 32% of client side respondents are carrying out such tests. Also, just 32% are testing for frequency of emails, something which can be a key factor in keeping customers engaged and reducing spam reports.”

Looking for answers to your questions about search engine optimization (SEO)? We've compiled a lengthy Q&A list. Hopefully these will help to resolve your SEO-related questions.

* What is SEO?
Google and other search engines are constantly changing their strategy, and they are very protective of their secret formula, so the art of SEO is and will always be somewhat of a guessing game where advertisers are aiming at a moving target. So, to give a generic answer to this question, we might define SEO as any marketing tactic used to gain a higher position in search engine rankings that does not include pay-per-click or other paid search services.

* Why has my search ranking dropped?
This may be caused by a number of factors. Maybe your competitors are beefing up their SEO efforts. Maybe the search engines have altered their search ranking formula. Maybe you have not diligently updated your content. If you have dropped in the rankings, it's time to get to work. Don't give up. As we mentioned, SEO is constant. If you have fallen too far down or your efforts to rebound are not working, you may want to consult with and SEO specialist.

* How do title tags work, and should they match my web page headlines?
Title tags and page headlines serve different purposes. The title tags should be more concise and specific. Some content management systems will automatically create a title tag.

* Will my URL impact my search rankings?
Your URLs will help your search ranking if they clearly define your product or service and they include effective keywords. However, you may want to stick with your current URLs if you are receiving strong website traffic and you don't want to confuse your regular visitors.

* Will a blog enhance my SEO?
Definitely. You can either create a stand-alone blog site, or make the blog part of your website. Either way, a blog is an excellent want to add content, links, generate comments and post reviews. You can also sell ads on your blog page that will generate revenue and possibly enhance your search engine rankings.

* Are blog comments an effective SEO tool?
When done properly and honestly, then yes, blog comments can be very helpful. Just make sure the comments are pertinent and that you make your intentions clear, especially if you are posting a link to your site.

* How come the search results vary, depending on who is performing the search?
If someone has enabled personalized search on their computer, then search results will appear more customized to that user's specific interests and location. Also, different search engines employ different methods for ranking sites. As we stated, those formulas are constantly changing.

* How long will it take to see an improvement in our SEO results?
This will depend on many factors. How competitive is your business category? How dedicated are you to enriching your site's content with articles, podcasts, etc.? How active are you in posting blog comments? How thorough are you with your backlinks? These are all factors that will impact your results and your website traffic. Even if you are very thorough, it could take a year of consistent work to see the desired results. It could take a few weeks. And, once you reach page one, your work is not done. You need to continue to perform the same tasks in order to maintain your ranking.

* What does a strong SEO program cost?
This will vary quite a bit, depending on numerous factors. You can hire an SEO specialist for a minimum of 50K a year. You can purchase articles for $5 a piece. Or, you can do it all yourself. If you are incorporating podcasts, videos, etc. into your site, that could jack up your costs. The do-it-yourselfer obviously can save him/herself a lot of money. Most SEO programs are started on a shoestring budget. If your online business takes off, then maybe you will consider hiring an SEO specialist.  

* How long will Google take to index my site?
If your site is optimized properly, Google may index it immediately. If the site does not have much pertinent content, links, etc., it may never get indexed. Sorry for the vague answer.

* Are metatags important?
Metatags are not really important for search engine rankings. They may, however, help the consumer to decide if they want to click on your site. So -- don't totally turn your back on metatags.

* I hear pros and cons about linkbait. What is it and should I utilize this SEO tactic?
Linkbait is a method for attractive visitors to a website that they may not have intended to visit. Linkbait uses links, content, etc., that may not be directly related to your web business. One may believe it is a clever marketing tool; someone else may think it is deceptive.

* What makes a good SEO consultant/specialist?
A quality SEO specialist will give you honest feedback as far as their knowledge, the effectiveness of various tools and techniques and their specific skills. Your SEO specialist should know how to determine the most effective keywords and terms for your business category. He/she should be skilled in setting up an SEO-optimized website, even if they have little programming know-how. The more skilled SEO specialist will cost more, but if you can afford it the expense will pay major dividends.

* I have a WordPress site. Does this offer enough to enhance my SEO?
Maybe, depending on your product/service and the competitiveness of your business category. Many CMS and blog software packages do include SEO tools. But to truly rise up the search rankings you will probably have to employ more SEO tactics.

* Why is Google always changing its formula and making it so challenging for website marketers to gain top position in their rankings?
Google is smart. They sell their own SEO tools, so it behooves them to arrange the rankings in their favor. Also, remember that Google sells a ton of PPC advertising and they want the PPC advertisers to succeed. Therefore, it does not benefit Google to allow SEO specialists to figure out their system.

* Will the size of my site impact its search engine rankings?
The quick answer to this question is ... maybe. Total volume of content can certainly be helpful. But the content must be pertinent to the site. Articifically inflating the size of your site with poor quality content could actually harm your rankings.

* What is an Alexa ranking, and how does that relate to my SEO program?
Alexa is a subsidiary of Amazon that calculates the traffic ranking of your site. It analyzes the web usage of millions of sites, as well as several traffic data sources. The information is crunched and sorted and a ranking is computed. An Alexa ranking of under 100,000 usually reflects a highly optimized site with high traffic.

One of the primary methods for gaining a top position in organic search engine rankings is through backlinks. If you are an Internet affiliate marketer and you have not optimized your website with backlinks, then you are probably not getting the search results you desire.

As you are probably aware, backlinks are links that direct the web visitor to a different site. Backlinks with sites that have a high page ranking will likely help to enhance your page ranking, as well.

There are several ways to get quality backlinks onto your site. Many webmasters who are strong writers will often post comments on blogs related to their site. Many blogs will allow you to include a link to your site. Other ways to accumulate backlinks include:

* Add your website to Internet directories.

* Take advantage of social bookmarking sites, where users sign up and create a personal profile. The users can bookmark their favorite websites, which can be saved to a private or public list.

Effective backlinking can greatly help a website's rankings, and it could save the webmaster a lot of money they don't have to spend on Internet advertising. The process of backlink research, posting blog comments, etc., can also be an interesting journey that helps you to find out more about related sites and other web marketing strategies.