A very interesting study was released by Noel-Levitz that shed light on what high school students are looking for when shopping online for a college or university. It is definitely a must EDU marketers to take a look at.

One thing to note is that 89% these high school students were looking for information on a state college or university and only 4.5% were looking for an online school. I am not sure if the expectations are much different when searching for these two types of schools, but it is notable. Another notable fact prior to reading the results of their survey is that many of the online schools these days simply don’t market to this demographic and typically are focused on prospects older then 25 years old. With that said however, I think there are some very valuable pieces of information in the study that will result, regardless of the users age.

The data from this report supports the assumptions that prospects want to see the list of programs at the school and want to know how much it costs. A steep drop off from those two facts are the program details and financial aid. It would seem that prospects first simply want to see if your school offers the programs they are interested in and if they can afford it. I would speculate that an older demographic would find financial aid information more important then soon-to-be high school graduates.

The one surprising tidbit, amongst a number of others, was that these high school students learned most popular way to learn about schools was via mail. 89% claimed to learn about schools via mail versus 65% who learned about a school via an online search. I am not sure if that is because their parents are handing over all the mail they receive or what, because I know I hardly looked through the mail for letters or advertisements from a school. Regardless, there is clearly some real value to a proper mail campaign.

As I just mentioned there are a number of great pieces of information in the study, so please take a look at here and let me know what you found interesting.

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A few weeks ago we discussed what I believed to be a valid lead. Take a reread of the rant at the link you just passed by to catch yourself up on the topic.

I want to revisit this topic because some lead sellers are taking advantage of very small loophole, the email address. Lets get something clear. Lead Buyers expect a valid lead to be one that can be contacted by phone. In most cases they expect a person to actually pick up the phone and not simply ring and ring and ring and ring, leading to no answer and no voicemail. I have been involved with working leads for about 6 years now and never once would expect to only rely on the email address to contact a prospect. Aside from how important email is to nurturing and following up with a lead it is hardly a sufficient means for an initial contact and in many cases a follow up. In fact, I would put money down that if a lead has an invalid phone number it has almost has no chance of being contacted, much less converted, through email.

So why is that some lead sellers think they can charge for leads with an invalid phone number but a “valid email”?

Yes, I believe a valid email is someone that filled out the form and was able to be spoken too, but no I don’t believe a valid lead is one the only includes a valid email address. Simply typing in a random email or making up an email like “john@hotmail.com” will result in a positive email address. Does this mean it is a valid lead? Hardly.

So to those vendors out their trying to force buyers to pay for leads that have a “valid” emails, your simply ripping off your buyers, plain and simple.

Please correct me if you are having success with leads that have an invalid phone number and a valid email address. Maybe my experience is only relegated to only me.

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I am still alive!

I wanted to let you all know that I was blessed to take a little vacation last week, hence not making a single post, which is obviously not typical. I gotta say though it was an excellent break from the norm. I rented an RV from Cruise America (I am sure you have all seen them driving through your local towns) and “cruised” up the California coast to San Fransisco and back. All along the way stopping and camping out for the night. We stopped in San Simeon to check out Hurst Castle and also the great town of Monterey to take the kids to the famous aquarium.

Crazy Family Trip

I am native Californian and have made the trip up to San Fransisco more then a few times taking both the coast and the inland route and each time it reminds me of how amazingly beautiful the state of California is. From the amazing cities to the vast farm lands and vineyards the state has to offer, it was all amazing and relaxing to take in via an RV. Granted the occasional breakdown from the kids kept the blood flowing, it was a great trip.

I will be back in action this week with a few posts and of course will be covering the up and coming LeadsCon East. To those who have emailed me, I will be getting back to you soon!

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Former IAB CEO Greg Stuart and Industry Analyst Emily Riley Headline Popular Digital Marketing Event

Vienna, VA– July 6, 2010 – Today, TARGUSinfo, the trusted leader in On-Demand Insight® linking billions of consumer and business attributes in real time, announced that Greg Stuart, former CEO, IAB, and Emily Riley, principal analyst and research director, Forrester Research Inc., will be this year’s keynote speakers at the annual Interactive Insights Summit, October 13-14 at the Wynn Las Vegas, NV.

Formerly known as the Online Lead Quality Summit, the Interactive Insights Summit will host a unique blend of leaders from national advertisers, lead generators, lead exchanges, interactive agencies, ad networks and ad exchanges from around the digital world.  The Interactive Insights Summit will foster networking and business opportunities between senior industry professionals and uncover emerging trends — all to help fuel business across the lead generation ecosystem.

“Last year, more than 350 senior marketing and advertising executives took part in our most successful summit yet,” said Joy Nemitz, senior vice president, market development, TARGUSinfo.  “The new name reflects the evolving conversation that is taking place in the digital world, as will agenda topics that range from best practices in analytics and scoring to the importance of lead quality, and will also include case studies involving third party data in online display advertising.”

The Interactive Insights Summit bridges the lead generation industry to preeminent digital marketing and advertising trends.  In addition to hearing from industry experts, strategically planned and executed networking events will offer valuable face time with potential partners to help drive your business.

“The industry is increasingly moving from buying mere impressions towards buying focused audiences,” said Eshwar Belani, vice president products and business development, Rocket Fuel Inc.  “Data is playing a very influential role in this transition and TARGUSinfo does an excellent job bringing together industry thought leaders to discuss the latest trends and identify opportunities for the future.”

Attendees can register now through September 17 and take advantage of the “Early Bird” pricing for
$100 off a regular full conference pass.

To register or receive more information about the Interactive Insights Summit, visit: www.TARGUSinfo.com/Summit, on Twitter at www.twitter.com/iisummit or LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3175803&trk=hb_side_g.

About TARGUSinfo

TARGUSinfo, the trusted provider of On-Demand Insight® to the most recognized brands, links and delivers more than 90 billion real-time attributes a year to drive smarter and more profitable customer interactions on the Web, over the phone and at the point of sale.  For more than a decade, Fortune 500 companies have turned to TARGUSinfo to enable improved audience targeting, better customer experiences, higher conversion rates and increased customer lifetime values by using TARGUSinfo identification, verification, scoring and location solutions. TARGUSinfo offers a complete range of solutions to help organizations make better real-time decisions leveraging patented processes built on a proprietary network of hundreds of data feeds and its unique predictive analytics capabilities.  A profitable and privately held company, TARGUSinfo is headquartered in Vienna, VA with offices in San Diego, Chicago, San Francisco and New York.  For more information, visit www.TARGUSinfo.com.

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It has been a busy July! And it is scheduled to continue to be busy throughout this month for LeadCritic.

A couple of notable items I need to mention though. LeadsCon is a few weeks away and if you have not signed up yet, you need too. The lead generation community needs to continue to come together to network, exchange ideas, and of course build new business opportunities. We have come a long way in the last 5 years, but the industry is still considered black magic to many and we need to erase that stigma. LeadsCon agenda can be viewed here. There are a number topics that are going to span all verticals, but what catches my attention most are the sessions that are going to cover video and interactive TV. Currently Lead Generation is being relegated to the online space, but is slowly moving to other mediums. TV seems to be the natural fit.

If you will be attending LeadsCon East I would love to meet up and introduce myself, so please reach out.

Hope to see you there!

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The face of lead generation is changing, in my opinion. Now, I guess at face value that is pretty obvious statement, but I think it is becoming a little clearer on how it is changing.

I hesitate to make a big deal out of this, but I think it is worth a post that simply notices that the change is happening. Years ago we discussed how the lead generation process needed to change and how the consumer needed to be better educated throughout the process. We also pondered how that would happen. The obvious statements were made that more content needed to be available to the consumer, but many of us could never precisely define how the process should change any further then that. The emergence of Mint.com, BillShrink, Comparison Ads, and many others gave more insight into how that content would be defined. These sites showed us that the content that we claimed the user needed did not specifically need to be paragraphs of written words, but rather personal financial content and recommendations. These sites created tools for the consumer to use and to interpret their own financial content and then recommend money saving products and services.

It was clear that these sites had amazing stickiness and consumers, regardless of security concerns, gave them enormous amounts of trust. This trust was being banked by the sites up until recently.

I frequently receive Mint.com emails and updates because of my activity on the site, however I believe this is the first time they have offered me anything other then credit card, checking or savings account offers. They recent sent out an update email with the following car insurance offer at the top of the email.

Nothing completely surprising about the messaging other then the fact that they are beginning to leverage the bankroll of consumer trust to further monetize their traffic. I actually think they could do a better job with the messaging and presentation to differentiate themselves from other related advertisements. The landing page is very similar to a typical lead gen form and I think they risk losing a bit a trust once they become even slightly similar to the rest of the pack. The link ultimately drives the consumer to an Insweb landing page. I am not convinced this is the best way to integrate these new verticals; By simply directing your users off your page to a 3rd party website.

Regardless of my opinion, this is the next step in the evolving lead gen space, albeit a small step. Last month I spoke with now ex-CEO of BillShrink and he mentioned their goal of entering a new vertical every 6 months. This is going to be interesting to watch how BillShrink takes the “referral model” and implements their data presentation and messaging into the mix. Will they simply refer the traffic out a third party or keep the users on their own sites. I think the ladder.

Like I said, however, this is the first step I have seen whereby sites like BillShrink and Mint are starting to cash in their trust for the sake of further monetization.

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When you’ve been in the lead generation business as long as BuyerZone has, you begin to notice that despite dramatic changes in the technologies and economy, certain issues come up again and again. They may not be groundbreaking, but they’re not going away, either. Here are 11 lessons for both lead buyers and lead generators.

For lead buyers

Getting the most out of online lead generation programs requires that you adapt your sales and marketing processes – here are some of the essentials.

Different lead sources demand different sales approaches

Prospects can come to you with a huge range of preconceptions. They may know little more than your business name, or they may have done extensive research through your web site and other channels. They also vary widely in purchasing tactics, needs, and expectations. Think you know the ‘typical’ buyer for your business? Think again.

When you choose a new lead source, you can expect that the overall makeup of those buyers is going to be different than that of prospects you get through your own web site, or through trade shows, or other traditional sources.

To get the most out of any lead channel, your sales team has to be willing to ditch their preconceived notions of the “best” way to sell your product – and adapt to the particular quirks of each group of buyers. That can include different communication tactics, sales collateral, followup methods, and more.

Unrealistic expectations on close rates can ruin great lead sources

One of the most common complaints we get from new customers is about leads not closing. “5 of the 10 people you sent me didn’t even call me back!” they’ll say. Yes –  that happens. Some leads don’t really know what they’re getting into, some decide you’re not the right supplier by doing their own research, others change their mind or flake out for who-knows-what reason.

Did you expect that every lead was going to turn into a major deal? Does that happen in any other channel – in-person, on the phone, at a trade show?

Yes, you’ll get better close rates on leads that come in through your own web site – but plenty of them will drop off, too. You’re not going to close 50% of your leads from any source – what matters is that you’re closing enough to make the program worthwhile. (See the next point about ROI for details.)

Be smart in your approach to new leads – try to know your sales waterfall metrics to see what percentage of leads you can expect to make it through each step of the sales process. But be realistic as you launch any new program and you’ll be setting yourself up for better results in the long term.

Tracking ROI is critical

This is the point I had in mind above when I said that not all of the lessons we’ve learned are ground breaking. After all, this point has been covered by dozens of bloggers, consultants, lead gen experts, and other sources over the past few years. And yet, we still get studies showing that 55% or 65% or 68% of companies aren’t or can’t track ROI of marketing activities.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: it’s time to start tracking marketing ROI. Small business or large, high tech or old school, B2B or B2C, it doesn’t matter. Gut feelings, impressions, and anecdotal evidence don’t cut it; technical challenges can be overcome; there is real value in knowing exactly how valuable your marketing activities are.

Time to call matters

When pursuing non-exclusive online leads, the single most important success factor is time to call. In a way, that’s disappointing to salespeople hoping to sell on needs, benefits, or price – but simply being the first to call makes more of difference than any other attribute. Drill this single fact into your sales people and make sure they can respond quickly as leads come in.

Purchase centrally, distribute quickly

In light of the speed to call issue, larger businesses can sometimes be at a disadvantage in lead generation programs because they have an extra step of distributing leads to dealer networks or local branches. That doesn’t have to be the case: you should set up your lead management software or CRMs to quickly and automatically distribute incoming leads based on adaptable business rules you control.

Having multiple dealers buying from the same lead source isn’t as effective. Central purchasing may let you take advantage of price breaks for buying large volumes of leads, and definitely lets you optimize the program by distributing leads to the dealers and/or salespeople who are performing the best.

It pays to compare – and sometimes keep – multiple lead sources

As a large lead generation company, we’d love to tell you that you should pick one online lead generation company and stick with it – but that’s just not the best approach. Every lead gen company has different strengths, different methods for generating leads, and different customers. There’s no reason to limit yourself to just one – try several sources and compare the results from each one. Since you’re tracking ROI (right?) you’ll be able to see exactly how what your investment in each pays off.

For lead generators

While we don’t want to give away all our secrets, there are some lessons we’ve learned that can help other businesses trying to generate and sell B2B or B2C leads.

Listening to customers – on both sides of the transaction – pays off

This is another lesson that could easily be filed under the heading “duh” – if everyone followed it. Some of the best changes we’ve made to our business have come from direct conversations with buyers and sellers who use the BuyerZone program. MacMcIntosh gave us a simple formula at B2B University last month: just talk to 2 customers per week. It doesn’t have to be a formal survey or detailed interview – just talk to them!

One example is offering SMS notification of leads. We didn’t come up with that idea – one of our customers who was on the road a lot did. As soon as he brought it up, it was clear to us that it’s a great idea and would be valuable to many of our small clients – and it didn’t take much to implement. And many of the changes we’ve made to our user interface and landing page designs have come straight from user interviews or comments.

Processing time matters

If time to call is so critical on the conversion side of the equation, it only makes sense that the faster a lead generator can process, qualify, and distribute leads, the better results their customers will see. We’ve been on a big push around improving turnaround time over the past year, and our customers are seeing the difference.

Multiple sources are key to long-term success

We’re lucky to have developed a wide range of sources for lead generation over the years: SEM, SEO, email marketing, and more. In the lead generation business, it’s easy for one channel to suddenly get much more competitive (SEM) or for the rules to change with little notice (SEO). To keep your customers’ pipelines flowing, look for alternative avenues to develop leads, such as partnerships, publisher/affiliate programs, webinars, sponsored white papers, and more.

The better your verification, the happier your customers will be

No matter how well a lead program is working, it only takes one lead from “Donald Duck” in a customer’s inbox to trigger an angry phone call. (Yes, that happened to us.) While it’s easy to apply basic filtering to make sure phone numbers and email addresses are valid, it’s equally easy for users to simply make up responses that pass through those filters.

Even at high volumes, a combination of automated and manual reviews is essential to making sure only “real”  leads pass through your system and get delivered to lead buyers. The real trick is balancing the importance of verification with the need for fast turnaround as described above. For example, is a 2% increase in incorrectly verified leads acceptable if it cuts hours off of lead delivery time? There’s no one answer – it’ll depend on your particular circumstances and will likely change over time.

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This week is going to be a busy one for me. I will be heading to the Career College Association (CCA) conference in Las Vegas, which is expected to keep me away from blogging on LeadCritic for this week, but I did want to make two shameless plugs before I go.

First, the LeadCritic Lead Generation Directory is filling up fast, so take a minute to get your company listed asap.

Second, a little over a year ago the Lead Buyer Network was launched and just the other day it surpassed 500 members. When I launched the network it was intended to be a place for “Lead Buyers” to network – as if the description was clear enough -  but as usual, and I knew this when I launched the site, the actual lead buyers did not join. Over time they lead buyers did join and they benefited from being able to see what types of wholesale offers exist in the marketplace. When I created the site it was my intention to turn it into a traditional lead generation industry forum and that is what I am planning on doing in the next few months. What does this mean for you? It means that if you are not a member, you should join now before it the transition takes place. The current members of the Lead Buyer Network will be given access to private forums, so sign up before I make the switch, otherwise don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Otherwise, have a great week and if I come across some worthwhile lead generation news and opinion at CCA, I will be sure to post here.

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As someone who is always looking for the next big entrepreneurial idea, I’ve developed a few ‘heuristics’ to spot where I think opportunity might exist.  One of my favorite heuristics is to look at something (a commercial transaction, process, etc) which hasn’t changed meaningfully in many years.  Compare, for example, how one buys airline tickets today versus how they did 20 years ago.  It’s almost entirely different.  People from the 90s wouldn’t recognize how we compare and buy airline travel online.  Think of this compared to how one buys a house; by and large, the process of buying a house hasn’t changed much in 20 years or even 40 years!  This example, specifically, baffles me.  How is it that travel agents literally no longer exist but real estate agents still get a 3% commission (on both sides!)  Clearly, there must be an opportunity in using technology and innovation to improve efficiency in the real estate agent business.  I continue to use this heuristic to evaluate and spot opportunities.

So, when we started working in the lead generation space, which moves light years faster than most industries, I was surprised to find that the user experience on lead generation websites hasn’t changed much in the last 5 years.  Yes, I can already hear the screams: “Multi-Variate Optimization! Landing page servers! The Taguchi method.”  And while those are great advances in the process of ‘optimization,’ they miss the point; or more clearly, they miss the users.  Regardless of the fanciest landing page servers and algorithms, most users are still treated and interact with lead generation the same way they did 5 years ago.  They click on an ad, see some kind of funnel which requires their information and then they are contacted by the appropriate representative.

Before we talk about what’s missing, let’s first review the amount of progress the space has made.  For purposes of this discussion, I will break this up into 3 parts of the lead generation funnel: before the click, after the click and after the submit.  In all 3 of these parts, we see a large variance in “quantitative” sophistication.  Some people are “old school” and hustle to buy media, try out a few funnels and then manually scrub the lead data.  Others have advanced monte-carlo simulations telling them the optimal keywords to buy and the appropriate price, then landing page servers running multi-variate analysis followed by lead scoring on quality, contact-ability and persistence.  Most of the advances we’ve seen (and we at Ampush have adopted) are centered around treating users as numbers in a game of ‘optimization’ and automation.  How many impressions? Clicks? Conversions?  What was the standard deviation? Elasticity of click-volume to price?

But where is the human in this process?  A human who has nuanced preferences, desires, cultural backgrounds, financial situations, etc?  Clicks and conversions don’t turn into humans until AFTER the submit.  Only after the submit will eBureau or Targus ‘score’ the lead and the human elements about it. Sales people will contact these humans and then try to understand their needs and whether or not their company is a fit.  After the submit, clearly the human matters.  And these days, before the click, the human is starting to matter.  Cookie based display advertising, Facebook demographic targeting and a host of other ‘human’ elements are starting to be considered more and more ‘before the click.’

The missing piece becomes obvious.  Most online lead generators think about humans before the click and then after they submit a lead.  But in between, they forget this person is a human.  The person simply becomes one more data point in a fancy statistical test.  Which brings me back to my original point, I’m surprised to find that USERS are treated and interact the same way with sites that they did 5 years ago.  While I’ve written a more detailed piece on the user experience, the point is simple: treat users on your site like humans and not JUST datapoints.

What are some tips on how to do this?

+ Think like a user.  Have you ever had an itch and used a search engine to scratch it?  Next time it happens, pay attention to every detail.  The ad copy, landing page and how your personal information is treated.   At Ampush Media, we have a “user specialist” whose sole job it is to champion the user experience.  They work with our quant media buying teams to ensure human consistency across all ads (both search and display), landing pages and funnels.  They are incentivized and compensated based on creating a consistent, clean and helpful user experience.

+ Use DATA!  Just because this is about humans, doesn’t mean you can’t use data.  If you run an ad to facebook users over 40, are you treating them differently than under 30?  If someone tells you how much their house is worth, are you matching them with lenders who have historically converted people in that home value band?  The power of using data and segmentation on your users, while their on your site, unlocks a whole new level of lead generation.  It leads to better conversions and a happier user, something our entire industry can benefit from.  At Ampush, this is extremely core to what we do.  I can’t say much publicly because we keep it under wraps, but let’s just say using user data in real time to improve leads is something we’re very excited about.

+ Try different things for different audiences.  Everyone saw the example of the mad libs style form and what it did for conversion rates.  But how many people actually tried it?  Higher ‘conversion’ rate is not just magic.  Users find things better, more relevant and more helpful and that leads to higher conversion.  Try out a ‘skinny page’ loaded with information.  Thinking, hypothesizing and testing is the true form of marketing and building better user relevance.  At Ampush, I’m disappointed to say we haven’t tried the mad libs form.  But we will, very soon.

At the end of the day, our role as ‘lead generators’ must evolve.  Arbitrage and optimization just aren’t enough.  The concept of arbitrage is to buy the same thing from one person and sell it to another and create a risk-free profit.  And in finance, Arbitrage rarely lasts.  As lead generators, we need to view ourselves more as manufacturers.  We take a raw good (internet traffic) and we shape it, chisel it and add to it until a final product is created: a lead.  The better we can build it by using data, thinking like a user and trying new things, the more value we have added and therefore we will earn more profit.  There is no scarcity of traffic (be it search, display, call centers or anything else.)  But there is a scarcity of high quality leads.  The more value-add that comes from our process, the more important and sustainable our industry will become.

And that is Lead Generation 2.0.

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Big news out of the largest lead generation scandal in history.

For back story on the case between LG Technologies and Edward Shin, Chris Smith and others please read the following articles, starting with this one.

It was released recently that Edward Shin, the main defendant of the charges made by LG Technologies switches his pleas to GUILTY. According to the minutes made available through Riverside Court house Shin has switched is plea, waives his right to a jury trial, waives his right to cross examine the witnesses and waives his right against self incrementation.

Here is an excerpt from the minutes:

Case SWF029673 Defendant 1418661 SHIN, EDWARD YOUNGHOON
Defendant 1 of 1
Action:
Case SWF029673 Defendant 1418661 SHIN, EDWARD YOUNGHOON
Action: Preliminary Hearing Date: 05/26/2010 Time: 8:30 AM
Division: S201 Hearing Status: DISPOSED
HONORABLE KELLY L HANSEN PRESIDING.
COURTROOM ASSISTANT: SLH-S. HOLDER
COURT REPORTER: TF-T. FRAZIER
PEOPLE REPRESENTED BY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: TOREY NASIF.
DEFENDANT REPRESENTED BY PVT STEVE HARMON.
DEFENDANT PRESENT.

AT 10:17, THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDINGS WERE HELD:
DEFENDANT’S COUNSEL WAIVES FORMAL ARRAIGNMENT.
DEFENDANT WITHDRAWS PLEA OF NOT GUILTY AS TO COUNT(S) 01 AND IS REARRAIGNED.
DEFENDANT PLEADS GUILTY TO COUNT(S) 01.
DEFENDANT ADMITS ENHANCEMENT(S) D8 IN COUNT 01.
FELONY PLEA FORM IS INCORPORATED HEREIN AND INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING ADVISEMENTS
AND WAIVERS:
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL BY JUDGE OR JURY.
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF RIGHT TO CONFRONT AND CROSS EXAMINE WITNESSES; RIGHT TO
PRESENT EVIDENCE ON OWN BEHALF.
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF RIGHT TO ASK COURT TO COMPEL WITNESSES TO ATTEND TRIAL AT NO
EXPENSE.
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF PRIVILEGE AGAINST SELF INCRIMINATION.
http://public-access.riverside.courts.ca.gov/Ope…actioncode=PH&actiondate=20100526&actiontime=8.3 (1 of 2) [5/27/2010 11:03:28 AM]

SWF029673 – Minutes – Riverside Criminal & Traffic
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF RIGHT TO COUNSEL; CONT. TO CONSULT COUNSEL; ASSIGNMENT OF
COUNSEL IF UNABLE TO EMPLOY PRIVATE COUNSEL.
DEFENDANT WAIVES RIGHT TO JURY TRIAL.
DEFENDANT WAIVES RIGHT TO CONFRONT AND CROSS EXAMINE WITNESSES.
DEFENDANT WAIVES RIGHT TO ASK COURT TO COMPEL WITNESSES TO ATTEND TRIAL AT NO
EXPENSE.
DEFENDANT WAIVES PRIVILEGE AGAINST SELF-INCRIMINATION.
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF CHARGES AND CONSEQUENCES OF HIS/HER PLEA AND STATUTORY
SENTENCING.
DEFENDANT ADVISED OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
DEFENSE COUNSEL CONCURS IN DEFENDANTS PLEA AND/OR ADMISSIONS.
COURT FINDS PLEA IS FREE AND VOLUNTARY. COURT FINDS DEFT. KNOWS AND UNDERSTANDS
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, NATURE OF CHARGES AND CONSEQUENCES OF PLEA.
COURT FINDS FACTUAL BASIS FOR THE PLEA IS BASED ON COM-COMPLAINT.

COURT ACCEPTS PLEA.

CASE CERTIFIED TO SUPERIOR COURT
COMMENCE CERTIFICATION
DEFENDANT WAIVES PROBATION REFERRAL.
SENTENCING IS SET FOR 12/09/2010 AT 8:30 IN DEPT. S201.
DEFENDANT WAIVES TIME FOR SENTENCING TO 12/9/10.
SPECIFICATION OF PLEA: PS 180 – IF RESTITUTION IS NOT PAID IN FULL BY
11/14/10 – LOW TERM 16 MONTHS.
CRUZ WAIVER TAKEN.
ORAL MOTION BY PEOPLE REGARDING DISMISS REMAINING COUNTS IS CALLED FOR HEARING.
MOTION GRANTED
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) NP IN COUNT 01 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 02 DISMISSED IN THE INTEREST OF JUSTICE. (1385 PC)
ORAL MOTION BY DEFENSE REGARDING EXONERATE BAIL BOND AND RELEASE O.R. IS CALLED
FOR HEARING.
MOTION GRANTED
CURRENT BAIL BOND EXONERATED.
DEFENDANT ORDERED TO RETURN ON ANY AND ALL FUTURE HEARING DATES.
RELEASED ON O.R.

This admission of Embezzlement now puts the spotlight on on the co-defendants on the case, I would think. As one of the biggest scams put on on lead gen space, one that involved redirecting lead volume, accepting checks on behalf of LG Technologies and possible joint conspiracy with other lead gen insiders. it would appear to be close to an end. We will now need to see how this reversal will affect the other parties involved in the case.

As usual, I will keep you posted.

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