Probably one of the best all around conferences for the lead gen space, regardless of if you are a buyer or seller is LeadsCon. It is not the first time you have heard that from me. In fact, you probably think I am being paid to promote it, but that is simply not the case. The range of topics and networking opportunities are unparalleled.

Did you make it to LeadsCon last month?

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Has this year flown by or what?!?!

Crazy to think the year is almost over! Nevertheless, I am excited for 2010. I think the year is going to be huge for the Lead Generation space. The evolution is in full force and my early prediction is that the consumer acquisition processes is going to look a lot different this time next year. I don’t think that is a huge prediction with the recent move by Google. My guess is that their introduction of Comparison Ads is going to light a fire under many of the lead gen companies out there. Who is in position to make the quickest adjustments? I think LendingTree has the best opportunity to provide an answer to Comparison Ads. Their goal of being the hub for all of life’s most important decisions could be achieved by combining many of their portals. I also think companies like Mint could, if they wanted to, enter into the lead gen space like no other company can. Regardless, it is going to be a very interesting 2010.

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August 17 – 18, 2009.

Full Conference Program Now Available

LeadsCon exists not just to bring people together but to provide a forum for leadership and actionable information.

Here are but a few of the sessions happening at LeadsCon East 2009:

• Achieving Breakthrough Results – Get more out of your efforts without spending more
• The Rise of Direct Response and Per Inquiry Advertising – Offline media offers more opportunites than ever before for performance minded advertisers
• Display 2.0 – Bridging The Performance Divide Between Display And Search – New advances in targeting and new ad units can help make display a main focus
• Stories from the Front Line – Learn has worked and more importantly what hasn’t.
• And Many More!

View the Full Conference Program and check back soon for the Speaker List.

Save $$$ – Early Bird Ends This Month

The Early Bird price of $395 ends June 30, 2009. Click Here to register.

Just came back from a very nice 10 day vacation and I hope you all are able to take a vacation! I hadn’t had a real vacation in years, aside from visits to the in-laws, which I hope we all can agree that is not a vacation. Even this vacation included visiting with family, but of course there is a bias when it is your side and it takes place in Costa Rica, rather then Baton Rouge. We didn’t do a ton of stuff. Obviously no long days at an amusement park. Typical days included hikes and hanging out on porch overlooking a beautiful Costa Rican valley. Its really great to disconnect and clear your head.

Now that I am recharged I have a number of excellent Carpool calls I will be making over the next week, so stay tuned. Also LeadsCon East was officially announced, if you didn’t know already. I am looking forward to heading to the big NYC and hopefully meet you guys who never make it over to the west side. Make sure to save a few extra bucks by signing up early!

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Carpool Confessions are conversations that take place with Lead Generation professionals on the way to and from work.

Take 2 with Jay Weintraub, founder of LeadsCon covered Fake Blogs, Spam marketing and the idea that there is a limit to how many “quality” leads can be generated by a campaign.

Again, it was a great conversation. Take a listen…

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jay Weintraub today on the way home from work. We unfortunately encountered a number technical difficulties so there will be a take 2 of this conversation. Aside from the technical difficulties Jay is simply a good conversation and I had a number of additional topics I wanted to cover with him.

Nonetheless, this was a great conversation that gave us a little insight into the making of LeadsCon, the announcement of LeadsCon East in August and also Jays thoughts about the overlooked lead generation industry.

Listen Here

Better late then never right?

Day two was a great day that was packed with great discussions and opinions. It started off with a number of different sessions. This year Jay had put together a number of different panels for the attendees to choose from and one included a lead management discussion that I happened to have moderated. So let start there.

Jay wanted to take the complete process into count with this panel. How should lead generation companies manage the the leads they generate? Who should the seller distribute the leads to? Should they be validated? Its my feeling that these questions are fairly simple to answer. You send the highest quality of leads to the buyers paying the most. This means validating leads, sending them in real time and distributing based on the highest price.  Simple enough, right? Well, it is, but we dug deeper into the discussion by getting a little more detailed. Topics included the validating leads, passing lead source data (landing page name, time stamp, etc) and the appropriate time it takes a lead to distribute. The last conversation went longer then I wanted and because of this I learned a valuable lesson that I will be sure to apply to the next session I moderate.

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Along with a great conference we also enjoyed the First Annual LeadsCon Poker Tournament. The event turned out great with a little over 70 attendees and a little more then $2,300 up for grabs. I personally had a great time meeting all of you and look forward to playing next year and possibly at other conferences. The next possible tournament maybe at Targus Lead Quality Summit in September, so keep an eye out.

LeadsCon Poker Results:

Chad Okuma $960   Champion

Damion Juarez   $576  2^nd

Harold Brauer     $408   3^rd

Frederick Goff    $288    4^th

Jason Spievak    $168    5^th

Thanks to everyone who played!

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Day One LeadCons Recap:

I am going to keep it short, because I’ve got beers to drink, rrrrrr. I mean people to see and clients to meet.

It was a great first day at LeadsCon that started with Dan Ariely‘s keynote speech that I think set the tone for conference. Being a Psychology major for 2 years and then transferring my major to Business Marketing I love to hear his thoughts and ideas, because the combine the two so perfectly. Dan’s Behavioral Economics session pointed out how predictable consumers can be when choosing to buy a product. The catch is that they are predictably irrational, hence the namesake of his book. A couple bullet points would include:

1. Do not overwhelm the consumer with choices.
2. Direct the consumer on what to buy with less attractive decoy options.
3. People buy out of habit.

Those are just a few that need elaborating on and I suggest you buy his book.

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First Annual LeadsCon Poker Tournament is here!

The tournament will be held in the world famous Mirage Poker Room and will start at 8pm sharp. The tournament is capped at 100 participants so sign up today before seats are no longer available!

The buy in is $60: $30 to the prize pool and $30 for the house fee. This will include complementary drinks, a chance to win up to $1,200, excellent network opportunities and bragging rights for the next year.

Reserve your seat today!

http://leadsconpoker.eventbrite.com/

Details:

* Location: Mirage Poker Room
* Time: March 4th, 8pm sharp
* Duration: 4 hours
* Entry Fee: $60.00

I couldn’t hold back any longer. I am putting together a Texas Hold’em poker tournament at this years LeadsCon and its sure to be blast.

The event will be held on the night of the 4th and it will start at 8pm. Seats are limited so has soon as I have the details rapped up you will want to sign up ASAP. There is no doubt that the seats will go fast! What a great way to network with industry peers or simply hang out with old friends then at a poker table.

Keep an eye out on the Linkedin Online Lead Generation group, here on LeadCritic and other industry blogs for more sign up information.

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Jay Weintraub, the founder of LeadsCon recently updated the LeadsCon website to announce the dates for next years conference.

The event last year received rave reviews from all the attendees, including me. It was a great meeting of the minds, as well as a great opportunity for networking and closing deals. I have a number of partnerships and current clients that I met specifically at LeadsCon.

Next years show will be held at the Mirage March 4th and 5th. I highly recommend attending this show whether you are a marketer or a lead buyer you will leave the show with ideas and relationships that will justify the minimal cost. If you can sign up prior to November 30th you will receive a significant discount.

Register HERE.

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The founder of LeadsCon, Jay Weintraub has teamed up with the originator of the Lead Generation group at Linkedin, David Rodnitzk to put together a lead generation mixer in San Fransisco June 12th at the Thirsty Bear.

I will be making the 1 hour flight from San Diego just for the night. I believe it will be a great opportunity to connect with other industry insiders to learn and share ideas. Those of you heading up to the mixer please reach out to me and let me know. I always enjoy meeting new people.

Thanks Jay and David for putting on the event and I look forward to seeing you both there.

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(Full disclosure…I am employed by Zipsearch! although did not participate in the writing or conception of the related press release, but because of my position was able to receive the news first. )

LeadCritic Exclusive:

Kaleidico takes action on the requests of a number of lead providers at the LeadsCon convention. This request can actually be traced back almost a year and probably further. One of the biggest requests from lead generators and publishers is the request for feedback and it again was a big topic on the LMS panel at LeadsCon this last week.

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I know I have gone out of order with my LeadsCon recaps posts, but I think by now you all know I do things my own way and a little out of order. Day two, I must admit was a little slow moving, but included some very good session.

I am not going to go through each session for this post and am only going to highlight a few them. The first session I want to discuss with you is the “Lead Buyer Perspective” session. The panel included Chris Meerschaert formally of Quicken Loans and now with Adchemy. Adam Graff of Career Education Corp, Jordan Drew of findalocalagent.com, Todd Davison of Bulldog Solutions. The session was moderated by Rick Natsch of Potreto Media Corporation.

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LeadCon is now over and what a great event it was. I want to recap the Lead Management session that I moderated on Friday. It turned out to be just what I expected and that was a highly energized discussion of features, analytics and transparency. The members of the panel included Raj Parekh of LeadROI, Jeff Solomon of Leads360, Rick Doyle of Lead Mailbox and Bill Rice of Kaliedico. It was bound to be exciting with these four highly competitive companies. They are all nice to each other in person, but behind closed doors its another story.

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How, it was only a have day that only included two sessions, but what a great way t start off a conference. First, I must say I was surprised by the turn out and the packed house!! Great Job Jay.

Let me give you all a brief run down on the the first day here in Las Vegas. I guess I should also premise this post by mention that the crowd here at LeadsCon is a nice mix of affiliate marketers, lead providers, lead sellers, ad networks and everything in between. It a very diverse crowd, which I think it going to continue to lead to great discussions and insight. Hopefully I can pass along some of the conversations to those of you who could not make it.

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Hey, just wanted to remind many of you that haven’t registered for LeadsCon to register asap. Hotel rooms are already sold out and I believe there is only limited availability for new registrants. I can’t wait, I think its going to be a great event. The conference will cover everything about lead generation from actually generating and buying leads to managing leads. If you are a lead buyer this is going to great opportunity to network and possibly make some really excellent contacts that could literally save you or make you thousands of dollars. How is that possible? There is no better place to negotiate lead prices and contracts with some of the biggest generators in the space then over a cocktail or dinner in Las Vegas. I have seen the list of companies and people that will be attending the conference and if you network properly with everyone attending you are bound to leave Las Vegas with contacts that will change your business. I know that may sound like a ton of fluff, but it simply not the case.

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