There is a strange similarity between transparency and love.

I find it a little humorous quite frankly, but let me try and explain. I don’t claim be a industry veteran by any means, but for the last 6 years or so I have continued to hear the topic of transparency. Everyone has a different definition of what transparency is, though. I have heard people claim it is only a scapegoat for lack of quality. I have heard buyers claim they don’t get enough of it from their lead sources and vice-versa. In all reality a certain level of transparency is needed for a successful partnership (Partnership = High Quality Leads = Positive Results) to be created.

What is transparency and does it mean different things to different people? Here is what I think buyers and sellers thing transparency means?

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There are some interesting things shaping up in the booming for-profit edu space. If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know this is not the first time I have said the EDU space is facing troubled times. Even though this may be the case it doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t make sense for lead gen companies to continue their pursuits of market share. It does mean you should be diversified in the space and probably should be looking at partnering with traditional schools as well as for-profit establishments. Okay, aside from my opinions, I came across a great article by Anne Ryman at AZCentral.com that did a great job of encapsulating a number of the issues that the EDU space faces. If you want a quick read on what is going on with the space regarding student loan default rates, possible new marketing regulations and the high costs, the article is a must read.

The traditional schools should be looking at the online space and quickly figuring out how they can take away market share from these schools. It is quite possible for state schools to offer online classes and service more students at lower cost. It won’t be long until enter the market and begin building downward pressure on the enrollment costs of the higher priced for-profit schools.

Here is the article

Defaults on student loans rising

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There were a number of take-aways from LeadsCon 2010.

Here are a few funny ones. These were included in a sponsored workshop put on by Leads360 and I thought, if you missed the session, you may find the numerous too.

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Last week at LeadsCon Tree announced their new plans for the Tree.com website. Doug Lebda, CEO of Tree took 15 minutes and briefly described the revamped site.

The goal is to provide quality content to the consumer regardless of what service they are interested in. No longer will Tree only focus on just a few large categories, but rather a whole host categories ranging from Attorneys to travel.  Tree aims to gain market share by taking a bite out of the “web 2.0″ strategy book. By allowing businesses and consumers to create their own pages and also allowing them to manage and create their own content Tree hopes to build a highly organic web presence. This strategy is nothing new for most companies and whether or not Tree will be able to pull it off will remain to be unseen, and likely for a while. This organic strategy takes time, a lot of time.

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Yesterday, Feb 24th, Targusinfo announced that they have made hug investment towards updating their lead validation service. For the last few years users of TargusInfo’s lead validation service have been seeing an increasing number of cell phone numbers pass through their lead gen forms. In the past these numbers would be extremely difficult to validate, but more recently this has changed for TargusInfo.

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Aside from a great LeadsCon event the 2nd Annual Poker Tournament @ LeadsCon was equally as great. Granted, I did not win the event or even finish in the money, but we had a group of 100 lead gen players from CEO’s, CMO’s and company founders had a chance to mingle and argue over all-in-calls and bad-beats. Everyone was hooked up with a cool marketing shirt and had a chance to win $500.00 from Leads360.

Below you will find the results of the tournament. The winnings were broken out differently at the end of the tournament, however this was the original breakdown of winnings. So without further adieu I will leave you with the results.

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New for LeadsCon Las Vegas. The Launch Spotlight is a chance for the selected company to leverage the platform of LeadsCon to announce a major release, new venture, major shift in direction, or other newsworthy development. The company’s release should impact not just how they operate their business but have a broader impact for online lead generation and customer acquisition.

Launcher: Tree.com, Doug Lebda, Chairman of the Board & CEO

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One of the major themes for 2010 is disruption. Its impacts can be both good and bad, an enabler for many and the end of business as they know it for others. Of the many disruptive forces impacting the world of online lead generation, none compares to Google’s decision to sell not just clicks but now leads to certain clients, a 180 from their decade old business model. What does Google’s Comparison Ads mean for the existing buyers and sellers of leads? Is it death to the short form as we know it or a catalyst for overall growth?

Moderator: James Cham, Vice President, Bessemer Venture Partners
Panelists: Marc Diana, Founder & CEO, LeadPoint
David Thacker, Associate Partner, Greylock Partners
Owen Raun, RMC Vangaurd.

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I am going to give a shot at live blogging LeadsCon. I am not sure how this is going to turn out or if it will be at understandable, but lets give it a shot. Please accuse the spelling and grammar.

First Session:

What’s in Store for 2010 – Industry Leaders

Despite the lackluster economy, the online lead generation space had no shortages of successes in 2009. From companies going public, to already public companies deciding to shake up the world of online lead generation. To help us look into what the future holds, we have gathered a group of industry leaders, those who have been through good time and bad, to help us all read the lead gen tea leaves.

Moderator: Bruce Eatroff, Partner, Halyard Capital
Panelists: Matt Coffin, Investor, Coffin Capital
Thomas Evans, President & CEO, Bankrate, Inc.
Ronald Pruett, Jr., Chief Executive Officer, MercuryMedia
Ty Taylor, Group President, Experian Interactive

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It was released to that Reply.com as filed with the SEC to register for a $60 million IPO. This registration is in light of a meager QuinStreet IPO. Now, Reply.com does have a different business model, but it is my thought that they will have similar results as QS, which in all honesty could be just fine. Regardless of my uneducated speculations, this is good news for Reply.com and I wish them the best of luck!

Here is the press release via their website:

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The time has come and I am looking forward to hopping on a plane Monday night to Las Vegas for LeadsCon.

The event has really shaped up to be THE event for the lead generation industry and this year is expected to see over 1700 lead gen peers and over 600 companies. Additionally, the 2nd Annual Poker Tournament @ LeadsCon is also shaping up to better then last year. Currently we have just over 80 confirmed players and expect to be sold out at the time of the event. We will be allowing people to sign up and pay at the door. The event will start at 9pm, but we will be allowing people to buy in up until 9:30pm. So, if you have dinner meetings this should give you plenty of time chow down your steak at Morton’s and head back to the poker room.

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Quinstreets IPO, with all the industry hype, as fallen slightly from its initial public offering down to $14.59 today.

Many in the finance world have made comments that the IPO market is flat overall and QS could is simply feeling the affects of the flat market. I wonder if investors have a clear understanding of Quinstreet and their business plan. That goes without saying that it’s all documented in their S1 and the now public company will be disclosing information on a regular basis to investors moving forward. Even with that said, I think the confusion will continue to prevail with possible investors. Their level of vertical and service diversification enables stable growth within the company, but it also makes it confusing for the fundamental investor.

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