Rice’s Riffs

I guess the market agreed with my positive outlook on the break-up of IAC/InterActiveCorp. IACI was rewarded with a $2.22 a share and 7.49% increase and one of the NASDAQ volume leaders for yesterday.

IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) reports early this morning that it will spin out LendingTree as a part of a reorganization that will split IAC into five public firms (WSJ subscription). Barry Diller makes a couple of interesting statements in this announcement. Like a concern over complexity and lack of clarity in their conglomerate of businesses:

In a statement [...]

ZipSearch! has been surging above the radar in the mortgage and insurance lead generation space. The neat part to watch is that their surge is not based on colossal partnerships or press release buzz. It is built on good old fashion performance.
Their founder and CEO talks a lot about the efficacy of advertising. Answering [...]

Jere Doyle of Prospectiv dissects what online lead generation best practices should truly be addressing:
What our industry needs is to come out with firm best practices that address HOW leads are collected and WHAT advertisers do with leads once they get them. Issues such as transparency, data sharing, and misleading promotions need to be [...]

Keith Burwell and I will be in California most of next week and we would love the opportunity to get everyone (lenders, lead providers, etc.) together for dinner.
Any suggestions for good places to gather?
Here is the tentative schedule:

San Diego: Wednesday, 10/24, 6:00 pm UPDATE: Morton’s Steakhouse
Los Angeles: Thursday, 10/25, 7:00 pm UPDATE: The Cannery

If you [...]

There has been a lot of discussion about Internet lead quality declining. Is it the marketing or the market? I believe it has a lot to do with consumers reacting to the media and the market.
read more | digg story

LeadPoint announces the launch of education leads within it’s unique lead exchange model. Not particularly interesting in and of itself, but there does seem to be the hint of something different:
…service that it says allows online and campus-based educational institutions to purchase leads submitted by students that have the highest likelihood of matching each school’s [...]

Local lead generation and social networks have begun attracting the eyes of prominent venture capital firms.  ReachLocal and Outside.in raise over $60 Million in separate efforts.
ReachLocal, who is addressing opportunities for online media to dip into a $97 billion offline local advertising market, attracts $55 million from Rho Ventures and Galleon Crossover Fund.
Outside.in, a Brooklyn, NY local social [...]

Experian drops more than 7% yesterday as the market discounts their slowing growth attributed to their connectivity and revenue reliance on credit troubled US, UK, and Ireland markets.
Interestingly, Experian quickly and specifically lays the slowing growth at the feet of LowerMyBills:

The group said that in the six months to the end of September, its revenues [...]

The Real Estate Tomato thinks it is a no-brainer to trade in your pay-per-click Google Adwords campaigns for the keyboard and a blog. Here are their 7 reasons:

Longevity
Long Tail
Clickability
Trust
Relevance
Cost
Internet Marketing Skills

I certainly agree. I would also add a couple of additional ones that are critical even if you continue pay-per-click:

Credibility
Quality

Even if you are focused on [...]